Arcana Microcosmi OR The hid Secrets of MAN's Body discovered In an Anatomical Duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the Parts thereof As also By a Discovery of the strange and marveilous Diseases Symptomes Accidents of MAN's BODY WITH A Refutation of Doctor Brown's VULGAR ERRORS The Lord BACON's NATURAL HISTORY And Doctor Harvy's Book DE GENERATIONE COMENIVS and Others Whereto is annexed a Letter from Doctor Pr. to the Author and his Answer thereto touching Doctor Harvy's Book de Genetatione By A. R. London Printed by Tho. Newcomb and are to bee sold by Iohn Clark entring into Mercers-Chappel at the lower end of Cheapside 1652. TO THE WORSHIPFUL and my much honored FRIEND EDWARD WATSON ESQUIRE Son and Heir to the Right Honorable the Lord ROCKINGHAME SIR WHen I consider your proficiency in the Schoole of Wisdome your daily exercises in the Temple of Vertue for which you may in time deserve a Shrine in the Temple of Honor your hearty affection to true and solid Philosophy not that which the Apostle calls Vain and deceiving and lastly your sincere love to me I thought good not in way of retaliation but of a thankfull recognition of your favours to present this piece to you wherein you may perceive how many strange wonders and secrets are couched up within the Microcosme of our body and with what admirable artifice the base and infirm materials of this our earthly Tabernacle are united and composed Likewise you may see how much the Dictates and Opinions of the ancient Champions of Learning are sleighted and misconstrued by some modern Innovators whereas we are but children in understanding and ought to be directed by those Fathers of Knowledge we are but Dwarfs and Pigmies compared to those Giants of Wisdom on whose shoulders we stand yet we cannot see so far as they without them I deny not but we may and ought to strive for further knowledge which we shall hardly reach without their supportation I disswade no man from inventing new but I â—ould not have him therefore to forget the old nor to lose the substance whilst he catches the shadow Women and Children love new wine because pleasant to the palat but wise men chuse the old because wholsomer for the stomach As I abridge no man of his liberty to invent new wayes so I hope they will not debar me of the like liberty to keep the old paths so long as I find â—hem more easie and compendious for attaining the end of my journey Sir I will not trouble you with any larger Discourse on this subject I wish an accumulation of all vertueâ— and happinesse on you and withall the continuation of your love to him who professeth himself Your humble servant Alexander Ross. The Contents of each Chapter in these foure Books CHAP. I. 1. The Hearts dignity scituation priority necessity and use 2. The Heart first formed not all the parts together 3. The Galenists Objections answered 4. How the heart is perfect before the other members and how nourished 5. All the temperaments united in the Heart 6. Three â—entricles in som Hearts 7. The Heart nervous 8. No parts more spermatical then others 9. The Liver not the first that is formed 10. The Heart the seat of Bloud and nourishment 11. The heat of the Matrix not generative 12. The right Ventricle nobler then the left 13. The vital and nutritive faculties are the same 14. Heat the cause of the Hearts motion 15. The Heart was first formed and informed 16. There is but one principal member in the body not many CHAP. II. Blood begot in the Heart not in the Liver why 2. The Heart is the original of the Veins and Nerves of nutrition and sense and motion 3. Why the nerves and veins do not beat and the cause of Hydropsies 4. All blood is not elaborated in the heart how it is the original of the veins 5. The arterial blood must waste or else it would infinitely increase 6. Why the blood thickneth not in â—the heart till death 7. The heart is the seat of passion 8. Why the heart a fitter seat for the soul then the liver 9. A double unity to wit of the matter and of the form CHAP. III. 1 Why the heart the originall of sensation and how it feeleth 2 The brains being cold cannot beget sensitive spirits Why the animal spirits most active where is most heat 3. There can be no generation of the animal spirits out of the vitall without the corruption of the vitall which is impossible The animal spirits are not begot of the aire 4. Neither are they concoâ—ted or generated in the ventricles of the brain nor are they wasted 5. The brain is not the originall of sense and motion although these fail upon the hurt of the brain 6. Why upon the distemper of the heart there is no failing of sense and motion 7. The nerves are not from the brain though they be like but indeed they are not like the brain 8. Why the nerve of the heart loseth sense and motion beneath the knot not above it 9. The brain is the coldest of all the parts how void of veins and blood how hot and the cause of hairs 10. The blood and spirits alter not the brains temper Why its coldness is not felâ— the pith in the back bone hor. 11. Why the brain and heart at such aâ—d stance by the spirits they work on each other 12. Why both the brain and lungs were made for refrigeration 13. The mans brain larger then the womans why man hotter then Lions 14. The testicles ignobler then the heart and brain 15. The heart not the testicles the cause of sensation and generation the testicles not chief because necessary or becausâ— they cause an alteration in the body from wheâ—ce is the distinctioâ— of sexes 16. The seed receiveth its specificall form from the heart 17. Why Eunuchs fatter weaker and colder Lib. II. CAP. I. 1. Mans Body fitted onely for mans Soul Tritons are not men 2. How Mans body is more excellent then all others 3. How the Soul is most in the Brain and Heart 4. A twofold heat in us 5. What Creatures nourish most 6. The Womans imagination cannot alter the form CAP. II. 1. The Stomach and Lungs not necessary for life 2 How the limbs are moved the spirits are bodies more required for motion then sensation the spirits are light how they are the souls instruments how the Muscles move 3. Seven properties of the brain 4. Twelve properties of the eye 5. It s substance warrish 6. Why but one sight 7. The eye how an agent and patient 8. It s two lights and its colours Light gives the second act CAP. III. 1. A twofold Heat in living things 2. The Primitive Heat where and how tempered 3. Our spirits are not celestial several Reasons 4. Our natural heat what it is no substance in six Reasons 5. Many excellencies of mans body 6. The Head why the noblest part and highest
minus CHAP. II. Blood begot in the Heart not in the Liver why 2. The Heart is the original of the Veins and Nerves of nutrition and sense and motion 3. Why the nerves and veins do not beat and the cause of Hydropsies 4. All blood is not elaborated in the heart how it is the original of the veins 5. The arterial blood must waste or else it would infinitely increase 6. Why the blood thickneth not in the heart till death 7. The heart is the seat of passion 8. Why the heart a fitter seat for the soul then the liver 9. A double unity to wit of the matter and of the form I. IF blood were begot in the liver there should be some Cavity in it that the blood there might be concocted and receive its form for in the stomack Heart Gall bladder c. there are sensible cavities for generation and reception of the Chylus vital blood choler urine c. but in the liver there is no such receptacle and to say that the blood is begot in the substance of the liver is to make penetration of bodies Therefore it is more likely according to Aristotle's Doctrin That blood is begot in the heart If it be objected that if blood were not begot in the liver to what end did Nature fasten the gall-bagg to the liver if it were not to purge the blood and receive its excrementitious ' choler as the spleen doth its melancholy I answer The gall and spleen do not purge the blood made by the liver but that matter which was to be prepared by the liver for the heart the heart then makes the blood which was prepared by the liver and purged by the gall and spleen that the matter might be the fitter to receive the form of blood in the heart being purged before from its gross humors II. Because the heart is the original of the nutritive and â—uctive faculties it must also be the original of the veins â—hrough which these faculties are conveyed through the whole body The liver then hath not so much heat as is requisite for â—utrition auction and generation Therefore the original of these must be in the heart which is the fountain of heat â— And because the heart is the seat of Passions it must be also the original of sense and motion without which there can be no passion and consequently it must be the first organ of the nerves 3. The heart and veins have the same essential form which is nutritive or vitall the same essential work and end also which is to nourish the body or to give it life and vegetation The like may be said of the nerves therefore it must follow that the matter of the heart veins and nerves is the same and that from the heart they have their beginning III. The Galenists will not have the heart the originall of the nerves and vâ—ins because they do not beat as the arteries do which they grant proceeded from thence but rather will have the liver to be the original of them as also of blood because when the liver is corrupted sanguification fails and so arises Hydropsies I answer though the nerves and veins arise from the heart yet they beat not as the arteries do because the blood in the veins is grosser less hot and spirituous then that in the arteries and the nerves beat not because they have not those â—umes which by the motion of the arteries must be expelled their heat also is tempered by the frigidity of the brain and if there were any motion in the nerves it could not be so easily discerned because of the thickness of the nerves and their lying deeper within the body as for Hydropsies they are caused not because the liver doth not sanguisie but because it doth not prepare fit matter for the heart to sanguifie And indeed if the liver did sanguisie the Hydropick would presently die upon the cessation of that action for life cannot subsist without nutrition nor this without sanguification Therefore doubtless in Hydropsies the heart being found converts some part of that inconcocted matter into blood which the corrupted liver could not prepare and by this means the hydropick lives a while IV. All the blood in the veins is not elaborated in the heart but only that portion which is by the arteries distributed into al parts of the body and hath a formative power over the veinal blood The heart blood then is not conveyed by the Vena cava into the body but by the arteries 2. When the heart is called the original of the veins we do not mean the efficient cause for that is the formative power joyned to the heart but the place in which they are formed And there is no place so fit for this generation both of blood veins and other parts as the heart because it is the fountain of heat whose action is the first and the most common of all actions in the body for without the action of heat there can be neither nutrition motion sensation nor understanding as it works by the phantasie V. If the arterial blood were not the nutriment of the body and so wasted being converted into the substance of the body what becomes of it all it must infinitely increase being it is continually generated and not wasted neither can the veinal blood nourish but as it is perfected and receives its form by and from the arterial blood VI. That the heart is the proper seat of the blood appears by this that the blood never thickneth in the heart as it doth in other places being out of the veins But whereas the blood is found curdled in the heart of dead bodies and thin in the veins of the liver it is plain that the blood had received its full concoction and perfection in the heart but not in the liver as being not so fibrous and therefore more thin and watrish VII Because the heart is the seat of passions and appetite it follows that it must be also the seat of sensation for without this there can be no appetite in the sensitive creature and if of sensation then also of nutriment for the sensitive includes the nutritive faculty and if it be the original of the nutritive it must be also of blood by which we are nourished and consequently of the veins which conveyeth the blood chiefly of Vena Cava which ariseth from the superficies of the heart and so fastned to it as to its principle that it cannot be parted from it VIII Because the heart is an organical body being distinct into divers dissimular parts it is a fitter place for the soul then the liver which is altogether simular seeing the soul is the act of an organicall body and therefore the nutritive faculty must be rather in the heart then the liver and though sensation be by the simular parts yet motion requires dissimular and organicall parts because divers bendings and turnings require divers organs IX All sensitive creatures have a
double unity to wit of the matter and of the form The unity of the matter consists in the unity of the parts and temperaments which is to â—e found in the heart onely the unity of the form consisteth â—n the sensitive soul containing in it the vegetive and the parâ—icular forms of each part CHAP. III. â—Why the heart the original of sensation and how it feeleth 2 The brains being cold cannot beget sensative spirits Why the animal spirits most active where is most heat 3. There can be no generation of the animal spirits out of the vitall without the corruption of the vitall which is impossible The animal spirits are not begot of the aire 4. Neither are they concocted or generated in the ventricles of the brain nor are they wasted 5. The brain is not the originall of sense and motion although these fail upon the hurt of the brain 6. Why upon the distemper of the heart there is no failing of sense and motion 7. The nerves are not from the brain though they be like but indeed they are not like the brain 8. Why the nerve of the heart loseth sense and motion beneath the knot not above it 9. The brain is the coldest of all the parts how void of veins and blood how hot and the cause of hairs 10. The blood and spirits alter not the brains temper Why its coldness is not felt the pith in the back bone hot 11. Why the brain and heart at such a distance by the spirits they work on each other 12. Why both the brain and lungs were made for refrigeration 13. The mans brain larger then the womans why man hotter then Lions 14. The testicles ignobler then the heart and brain 15. The heart not the testicles the cause of sensation and generation the testicles not chief because necessary or because they cause an alteration in the body from whence is the distinction of sexes 16. The seed receiveth its specificall form from the heart 17. Why Eunuchs fatter we aker and colder THough the organs offense be in the brain yet the originall of sensation is the heart because it is the originall of the spirits the chief causes of sensation and without which the organs were no organs But the frigidity of the brain is not the cause of sensation nor of the sensitive spirits it only tempers the heat of the heart and vital spirits that they may become animal Neither is softness and hardness any thing to sensation seeing this is no material but a spiritual and perfective quality Now the heart is sensitive not by the animal spirits derived thither from the brain for these spirits in the heart would quickly lose their temper by reason the heat of the heart is a more active quality then the coldness of the brain but it feeleth by its own spirits whether we call them vital or animal or both For the spirits being turned from vital to animall receive only an alteration but not a substantial change For that only is in the aliments which is transubstantiate into our bodies II. The brain being cold and moist useth to convert superfluous vapours into those humours which most resembleth it self in these qualities to wit into watrish Catharrs and cold distillations therefore it is likely that the brain can transform the vital spirits into other more excellent then themselves especially seeing coldness is a quality hurtful to nature which consisteth in heat and moisture and hath no other use in our bodies but to condensat and to temper the activity of our natural heat therefore we finde the animal spirits most active and copious in those creatures that abound most in heat as in Men Lions Birds c. and in young men more then in old men III. If there be a substantial mutation of the vital spirits into the animal the generation of the one must be the corruption of the other and so the vital spirits must die that the animal may receive the essential form But how can the animal spirits subsist without the vital Or how can that be called an animal or sensitive creature whose vital spirits are dead seeing there can be no sense where there is no life nor life where the vital spirits are dead 2. The animal spirits are not generated of the aire which we draw in by breathing for there can be no generation without mixtion nor mixtion but of divers bodies Now the aire is but one simple body which cannot make a perfect mixtion without the other elements If it be objected that the air is impure and not simple I answer Though the aire be not pure yet it is not a mixed body Physically and properly but only by apposition as Wheat and Barley may be said to be mixed when they are joyned together which is no Physical mixtion wherein the elements lose their forms IV. The animal spirits cannot be generated in the â—entricles of the brain because there the excrementitious flegme is concocted Nor can they be said to receive concoction there seeing what is concocted is thickned but the animal spirits are attenuated now the cold brain is not fit to attenuate Again â—eeing there is continual use of the animal spirits they must be continually generated but if they be continually generated and never wasted where will there be room enough for them And that they are not wasted is plain because they are not consumed by nutrition as not being fit to nourish nor by sensation seeing this is a spiritual and perfective not a material or destructive act Nor lastly by transpiration for nothing is exhaled but excrements Lastly how can the brain be without feeling seeing it is full of sensitive spirits by which all other parts of the body feel V. When the brain is hurt and distempered there followes a defect in sensation and motion which is not a sufficient reason to prove that the nerves sense and motion have their original from the brain no more then that the brain should have its beginning from the stomach or other nervous parts for we know that the mouth of the stomach being hurt the brain by consent is made ill affected by reason of the sympathy and union of the nervous parts so motion is hindred upon the ill affection of the brain because of the many nerves united to the brain and back-bone the brain then is not the principal agent of sense and motion but instrumental onely in that by its frigidity it tempers the vital spirits and so makes them apter for sense and motion so upon the defect in the pen followes the faults in writing and yet not the pen but the pen-man is the chief agent in writing VI. The reason why upon the distemper of the heart sensation and motion do not cease as they do upon the distemper of the brain because though the heart be distempered yet it makes spirits which spirits being refrigerate by the brain and conveyed through the nerves cause sensation and motion which could not be if
is inclinable to CAP. II. 1. The Stomach and Lungs not necessary for life 2 How the limbs are moved the spirits are bodies more required for motion then sensation the spirits are light how they are the souls instruments how the Muscles move 3. Seven properties of the brain 4. Twelve properties of the eye 5. It s substance warrish 6. Why but one sight 7. The eye how an agent and patient 8. It s two â—ights and its colours Light gives the second act THough the Stomach and Lights be two noble parts of the body for those that are to live long yet life can consist without them or their action For 1. Some have lived without chilification and respiration the meseraick veins can draw some portion of the clysters to the liver for sanguification by which life can be preserved 2. Divers creatures live all the Winter as Swallows Cuckows Dormise c. without any chilification or action of the stomach 3. Women that are hysterical can live only by transpiration without respiration at all 4. The arteries can draw air to the heart though there were no lungs at all yet not with that conveniency because the lungs temper and qualifie the frigidity of the air before it comes to the heart 5. Fishes breath not at all nor have they any lungs yet they live II. In the motion of our bodies the limbs are moved by the muscles these by the nerves the nerves by the animal spirits and these by the soul which produceth neither sense nor motion in the body without these spirits for if the nerve be cut or obstructed or bound motion ceaseth which sheweth that the soul worketh by these spirits and that in the nerve there is more then a bare faculty of sense and motion required to make it move and feel for in the obstructed nerve there is the faculty still but not the motion because the spirits are intercepted which have their original from the brain as well as the nerves but their action from the soul. 2. These spirits are bodies as appears by their generation fatigation dissipation for when these spirits fail motion ceaseth and we grow weary 3. In the nerve though one and the same animal spirit causeth both sense and motion yet a greater vigour is required for motion then for sensation because the perfection of this consists in reception only but of that in action chiefly Now more force is required for action then for passion 4. In the animal spirits there is a light or splendour because they are a very attenuated substance warmed by a celestial heat This light is perceived in the eye being shut in the other senses it is not seen because their organs are not transparent Now the spirit of the eye is the same with that of the ear c. 5. The spirits are not properly the instruments of the soul because the soul is the form which worketh immediatly upon its matter and the spirits are parts of this matter but they are called instruments becaus they convey to the members the faculties of the soul. 6. Though the will moves the muscles in men and the will moves according to knowledge and election yet in infants the muscles are moved by a natural instinct and so they are in beasts who have not election and reason III. Man hath a larger and more capacious brain then other creatures have because the soul of man being endowed with more faculties required a larger habitation 2. The brain is void of sense and feeling because it is the Judge of all the senses Thus the eye which seeth all colours hath no colour it self nor the tongue and palat any taste which judgeth of all tastes experience sheweth that the wounded brain being cut or pricked feeleth not 3. Though the brain feeleth not yet it hath a natural faculty to expel things hurtful so there are antipathies and sympathies in insensitive things 4. The brain hath no animal motion though it be the original of this motion yet it hath a natural motion of Systote and Diastole for the generation of the spirits and expulsion of noxious things 5. The brain is cold and moist cold naturally but hot accidentally by reason of the spirits and arteries in it cold otherwise the attenuated animal spirits in it would quickly wast and consume with heat and with often study and cogitation it would soon be inflamed and so into phrenzies wee should bee apt to fall 6. Though the brain be cold and the heart hot yet the animal spirits are more attenuated then the vital because these are generated immediatly of the grosse bloud whereas the animal are begot of the vital spirits and are refined by the arteries of the brain 7. The brain is moist 1. That it may the more easily receive impressions 2. That it may the better resist inflamation And 3. That the nerves may by its moisture bee the more pliable which otherwise would be stiffe IV. The Eye is the most noble of all the senses 1. Because its action is quickest apprehending its object in an instant 2. Though the object be never so far distant it is perceived by the eye as the stars are 3. Because light which is the object of the eye is of all accidents the most noble 4. The eye hath more objects then any other sense for besides light and colour of all sorts its particular objects it hath also number magnitude state motion and figure which are common objects 5. None of the senses hath such a curious fabrick for the eye hath six tunicles three humours six muscles two nerves the optick and motory many veins and arteries 6. It is the first and chief organ of knowledge for at first men got their knowledge by observation and the eye though now we have it by instruction and the ear 7. The eye hath the highest place of all the senses in the body 8. And it hath the perfectest figure for it is almost round that it may move the easier and swifter 9. It hath a liberty and command of it self which the other senses have not for it can inclose it self within its casements and open them when it pleaseth 10. It hath a peculiar light within it self besides that light which is in the air and it hath more spirits then any other of the senses and these spirits are more subtle nimble and quick then any other animal spirits are 11. Without the eye no living creature could finde out its food in which consisteth the life of the creature 12. Without the eye men could not have naturally attained to the knowledge of God and of Divinity for by the contemplation of the Heavens and their light and motions men came to have the knowledge of their Maker For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made Rom. 1.20 V. The eye is of a watrish not of a fiery substance as may bee seen 1. By the water that
upper place neither could the eyes be so secure any where as within these concavities of the skull 3. The skull being a bone feeleth not for bones have no other sense but what is in the membrans or Periostium neither can there be sense but where there be nerves but there be none in the bones except in the teeth which therefore feel because the nerves are incorporated in them and communicate the sensitive spirits to all parts of them and the sensitive faculty with them yet they are more sensible of the first then of the second qualities 4. The teeth are still growing because there is continual need of them and are harder then other bones because they were made to bruise hard meats 5. They are more sensible and sooner offended with cold then with heat and yet heat is the more active quality which sheweth that the constitution of the teeth is hot for if they were cold they should not bee so soon troubled with cold being a friendly quality CAP. VI. 1. Two sorts of bloud the heart first liveth and is nourished and the original of bloud not the liver 2. The hearts action on Vena cava the cause of sanguification 3. Bloud caused by the heart 4. How every part draws 5. Heart the first principle of the nerves 6. Nerves how instruments of sense and motion 7. The same nerves serve for sense and motion I. THERE are in our bodies two sorts of blood the one arterial begot in the heart for the exciting of our heat the other venal begot in the liver for nourishing of the body â—o according to Aristotle the heart and according to Galen the liver may be called the fountain of bloud 2. As the heart is the first thing that liveth in us so it must needs be first nourished for life cannot be without nutriment nutriment cannot be without blood therefore there must needs be blood in the heart before there was any in the liver 3. As the heart first liveth so it first operates for life consists in operation but the proper work of the heart is to beget arterial blood and vital spirits therefore the blood was first in the heart 4. Though blood resemble the liver in colour it will not therefore follow that blood hath its first original from the liver but only that it is the receptacle and cystern of blood so the bag in which the gall lieth hath the same colour with the gall and yet this is generated in the liver and onely contained in the bag and it s a question whether the liver coloureth the blood or the blood the liver 5. In fear and sadness the blood retires into the heart which is by means of the spirits recoiling thither with the blood as to their original 6. In the brain we finde four sensible concavities for the animall spirits in the heart two for the blood and vital spirits but in the liver none for the blood in the resticles none for the seed nor in the breast for the milk which makes me doubt whether the blood seed and milk have any concoction in these parts if they have it must be surely in a very small quantity 7. I finde pure blood no where but in the heart and veins by which I gather that there must be a greater commerce between the heart and veins then some doe conceive which appears also by the implantation of the vena cava in the heart which cannot be separated without tearing of the heart or vein and that either the blood is perfected in the heart and prepared in the liver or else prepared in the heart and perfected in the liver besides that the arteries doe all along accompany the veins II. I see no reason why we may not affirm that the heart is continually in its Diastole drawing blood out of the vena cava and in its Systole or contraction refunding blood into the same vein for this continual motion of the blood is no more impossible then the continual motion of the heart and arteries neither is it more absurd for perfect and imperfect blood to bee mingled in this motion then for cholerick melancholick and flegmatick blood to be mingled with pure blood in the veins 2. When the liver is vitiated sanguification faileth and so hydropsies follow which doth not prove that the liver is the sole cause of sanguification but that it is subordinate to the heart so when the Chrystalline humour is vitiated the sight faileth and yet this humour is not the sole cause of fight but is subordinate to the opâ—ick nerve and spirits The heart then by the liver distributes blood to the members 3. The veins have their radication in the liver their office and distribution from the liver and the heart their original from neither in respect of matter but in respect of efficiency from the heart for this first liveth and therefore the fittest place for the formative faculty to reside in III. The Chylus is turned into blood not by the substance of the Liver for the Chylus comes not neer it and there can be no alteration or concoction without contact nor by the veins for their office is to convey and distribute the bloud not to make it So the arteries doe not make the arterial blood which they convey besides thaâ— the form temperament and colour of the blood is far different from that of the veins therfore the blood is made by the power of that celestial heat by which we receive life growth and nutriment for the same heat produceth divers effects in the divers subjects it works upon in the stomach it turns our meat into a white Chylus in the veins into red blood in the â—eminal vessels into seed in the breasts into milk c. IV. The same Meseraick veins which draw the purest pare of the Chylus from the intestins that it might there receive sanguification contain also pure blood which the intestines draw for their nutriment for every part draws that food which it most delights in Thus from the same mass of blood the Spleen draws melancholy the gall choler the kidneys water V. The Peripateticks will have the heart to be the first original of the nerves and of the sensitive motion The Galenists will have the brain but this contention is needless For the heart is the first principle because it is the first that lives and moves whereas the brain moves not but by the heart In a Syncope or swowning fit of the heart all sense and motion suddenly fail which could not be if these had not their original from the heart the brain may be called the secondary or subordinate caus or principle for this by its cold tempers the vital spirits and so they become sensitive or animal Hence it is that in an Apoplexy there is a sudden failing of sense and motion If any say that the body can move after the heart is taken out and that therefore the heart cannot be the first principle of motion I
answer so can the body move after the head is off as wee see in Poultry This motion then excludes neither the head nor heart from being originals for it is caused by the remainder of the spirits which are left in the nerves and arteries As for the Apoplexy I take it to bee an affection not of the brains alone but of the nerves also VI. The common opinion is that the nerves are the instruments of sense and motion and yet we see sense and motion where there are no nerves for in every part of the body there are not nerves and yet every part feels and moves this sense and motion must needs proceed from the spirits in the blood which is in every part of the flesh and skin where there are no veins If it be replyed that upon the obstruction or binding of the nerve sense and motion fail I answer the like failing there is of sense and motion when the arteries called Carotides are bound up for as the animal spirits will not work without the vital neither will the spirits in the blood and flesh work if they fail which are in the nâ—rves such is the union amongst them that this failing all action ceaseth VII Seeing the sensitive and motive Spirits differ not specifically there is no need why wee should assign different nerves to sense and motion for the same neve serves to both it is true that there be some hard some soft nerves because some have their original from the soft brain and some from the harder pith of the baek bone and that the soft nerve is fittest fâ—r sense which consisteth in reception for soft things are aptest to receive impressions as the hard nerve is fittest for motion which consisteth in action therefore the same nerve conveyeth sense to all parts capable of sense and motion to the parts apt to be moved Hence the nerves inserted in the muscles move them but the nerves inserted into the mouth of the stomach moves it not bâ—cause the stomach hath no muscles yet it communicates to it an exquisite sense CHAP. VII 1. How the spirits pass through the nerves their swift and various motions even in sleep motion and sense not still together 2. Sense and motion in phrensies epilepsies leprosies caros 3. Muscles how when and where the causes of voluntary motion 4. How the fibres and tendons move the muscles 5. The muscles of the tongue abdomen diaphragma ribs bladder 6. The organs of tact its medium I. ALTHOUGH the nerves are not sensibly pervious as the Veines and Arteries are which were purposely made hollow for the passage of the venal and arterial blood yet the animall spirits being subtil and sublimated bodies can freely passe through the soft and spungy substance thereof as wel as sweat through the pores of the skin 2. Though in the Palsie the animal spirits cannot passe through the thick clammy and glassy flegme which by reson of its coldnesse deads the spirits which without the natural heat have no vigour or motion yet they can freely passe through the nerves by help of the native heat 3. Though the spirits by reason of their specifical form or aeriâ—l nature should only move upward yet as they are instruments of the soul they move which way the soul will have them move 4. Though no grosse body can move in an instant yet their spirits can being moved by the soul immediatly and being such sublimate and subtil bodies that they come neer to the nature of spirits 5. Though in sleep the senses are tied up yet there is ofteâ—times motion as we see in those that walk and talk in their sleep and yet feel not because the fore ventricles of the brain are affected in which is the common sense so is not the pith in the back from which the most of the motory nerves have their original 6. In one and the same nerve oft-times motion faileth and the sense remaineth because more spirits are required and greater force for motion being an action then for sense which consisteth in reception or passion 7. Sense doth sometimes fail the motion remaining sound when the nervous branches which are inserted into the skin are hurt or ill-affected at the same time the nerves inserted into the muscles may be sound II. In phrensies the motion is strong but the sense weak because the braines being inflamed the nerves are heated and dried therefore fitter for motion but the lesse apt for sense which requireth a soft nerve 2. In the falling sickness sense faileth but not motion because the fore ventricles of the brain being ill-affected the common sense is intercepted but the pith of the back bone from whence the most nerves are derived is not hurt therefore motion not hindred 3. In leprosies the sense is dulled but not the motion because the nerves and skin are dried by which sense is hindred but not motion 4. In a deep sleep or Caros there is respiration without sense because the fore-part of the brain is hurt but not the nerves and muscles of the breast 5. Oftentimes the eye loseth its sight but not its motion because the optick nerve by which we see is not the same with the nerves by which the eye is moved III. All spontaneous motions are caused by the spirits in the brains nerves and muscles in the creatures that have them but where these organs are not the animal spirits move the body without them as we see in worms 2. All muscles are not the organs of voluntary motion for the three little muscles within the ears move them not to hear when we please for many times wee hear what wee would not 3. In those parts where there be nerves without muscles there is no voluntary motion because the nerves convey only the spirits which the muscles receive and by them immediately move the body 4. Respiration in sleep is a natural not a voluntary motion caused notwithstanding by the muscles of the breast 5. Sleep-walkers are moved by the muscles which motion then cannot be voluntary for the walker hath not knowledge of his walking or of the end thereof 6. Beasts are moved by their muscles which motion in them cannot be called voluntary but spontaneous onely IV. All muscles have not tendones but such as are appointed for a strong and continual motion hence the muscles of the tongue bladder and anus have no tendones 2. The muscle is moved not onely by the nerves and tendones but also by the fibres within its own fleshy substance and indeed the fibrous flesh is the chief instrument of spontaneous motion and where they are wanting there is no such motion Hence it is that beasts can move their skins which men cannot because beasts skins adhere close to a fibrous substance whereas that of mans is nervous onely the skin of the face in us is movable because musculous and fibrous V. Though the substance of the tongue be not a musculous or fibrous flesh yet it receiveth its divers
as Galen thinks CAP. IV. 1. What the spirits are 2. They differ in seven things 3. The Woman is only passive in generation Her Testicles Arteries c. not spermatical parts the males seed evaporates why the child resembles the parents the bloud may be called seed 4. Adeps how generated Of the Lungs they are hot CAP. V. 1. The prerogative of the heart 2. The actions of our members 3. There are no spermatical parts 4. The bones nerves veins c. why not easily reunited 5. The spermatical parts hotter then the sanguineal 6. The brains and scull bones and teeth compared CAP. VI. 1. Two sorts of bloud the heart first liveth and is nourished and the original of bloud not the liver 2 The hearts action on Vena cava the cause of sanguification 3. Bloud caused by the heart 4. How every part draws 5. Heart the first principle of the nerves 6. Nerves how instruments of sense and motion 7. The same nerves serve for sense and motion CHAP. VII 1. How the spirits pass through the nerves their swift and various motions even in sleep motion and sense not still together 2. Sense and motion in phrensies epilepsies leprosies caros 3. Muscles how when and where the causes of voluntary motion 4. How the fibres and tendons move the muscles 5. The muscles of the tongue abdomen diaphragma ribs bladder 6. The organs of tact its medium CHAP. VIII 1. Bloud milk c. No integral parts 2. How the parts draw their aliment 3. And expel things hurtful 4. Of the intestines and faeces 5. The intestines retentive faculty 6. Of the stomach and its appetite or sense 7. Whether the stomach is nourished by Chylus or bloud CHAP. IX 1. The Livers heat inferiour to that of the Stomachs 2. Of the natural Spirits in the Liver and how it is cherished by air 3. Of the Gall and how it is nourished How the Choler is conveyed to it of its two passages and one membrane CHAP. X. 1. The use of the Gall and Spleen its obstructions its Veins and Arteries without concavity 2. Vas venosum 3. How the Spleen purgeth it self 4. The Veins and its humours 5. Why the stone causeth vomiting and numbness in the thigh 6. The bladder its attraction and expulsion CHAP. XI 1. The Heart and Testieles how the noblest parts Generation without Testicles they corroborate the Heart their sympathy with the breast 2. And with the brain 3. Different vessels in the Male and Female 4. The Matrix sympathizeth with the Head Heart Breasts c. 5. Affected with smells It s twofold motion CHAP. XII 1. Distinction of sexes the male hotter then the female 2. The seed no part nor aliment of the body derived from all parts how 3. The menstruous bloud no excrement how it is The cause of the small pox Its evacuaâ—ion 4. The uses of the matrix 5. It s vitiosity the cause of Monsters Mola what CHAP. XIII 1. The Heart liveth first not the Liver 2. The outward membranes first formed by the heat of the matrix 3. Vrachos what 4 The similitudeâ— of the parents on the children 5. Twins how bâ—got and why like each other 6. Infants how fed in the matrix 7. Supersetation 8. No respiration in the matrix 9. The Childs heart moveth in the matrix CHAP. XIV 1. Child-bearing how caused 2. Why the eight months birth not lively 3. The sensitive Soul how derived and the reasonable introduced when it exerciseth its functions it brings with it all its perfections The Embryo not capable of three specifical forms CHAP. XV. 1. Why about the fourth month milk is engendred and of what 2. The effects of the Diaphragma inflamed 3. Pericardium 4. The Hearts Flesh Fibres and Ventricles 5. The Heart why hot and dry 6. The vital faculty 7. The vital spirits how ingendred 8. Systole and Diastole 9. The Hearts motion 10. How caused CHAP. XVI 1. The Lungs how moved the air is not the spirits nutrimeâ—t 2. Respiration not absolutely necessary 3. The Lungs hot and moist 4. Respiration a mixed motion as that of the bladder and intestins 5. No portion of our drink passeth into the Lungs CHAP. XVII 1. All the senses in the brain 2. How made for refrigeration only how hot cold and moist and why its actions 3. How void of sense and motion 4. The animal spirits what and how begot 5. Why more vital then animal spirits where perfected and prepared the ventricles of the brain CHAP. XVIII 1. The eye both watrish and fiery imperfect vision 2. Why the eye is watrish its action spirits and species 3. Spirits of the eye proved two eyes but one motion why the object appears double sometimes no colours in the eye 4. The optick nerves soft where united and why 5. The Chrystalline and glassy humours and white of the eye CHAP. XIX 1. Five things required to hearing 2. Not the real but intentional sound is heard Hearing fails last in drowned men 3. The innate air no organ of hearing no spirit or part of the body 4. The caus of the sympathy between the ear and the mouth CHAP. XX. 1. How wee excell the beasts in smelling Wee smell realâ— odours 2. Smells nourish not 3. The nose not the brain is the organ of smelling CHAP. XXI 1. Wherein consists the organ of tast The tongue potentially moist no external medium of tast 2. How the skin is the medium of taste The prime qualities both objects and agents No creature without tact It is most exquisite in man Tact and taste different CHAP. XXII 1. The use of the common sense It is but one sense The different judgement of this sense and of the soul. How different from other senses It s in the brain and heart 2. Imagination or fantasie what disturbed compoundeth The Estimative It s work and seat 3. Memory how a sense It is twofold Reminiscence what Old men and childrens memories LIB III. A Refutation of Doctor BROÌ„WNS Vulgar Errors CHAP. I. 1. Of Eels voided by a maid and of other strange generations 2. A woman voided in three days six quarts of milk 3 Of women who have eat mens flesh 4. Of women that have lived some years without food 5 Of one that lived some years without a brainâ— another without a Spleen Of one that lived with a knife in her skull 6. Of some that have swallowed knives glasses c. 7. Of some shot in the forehead and the bullet found in the hinder part of the skull CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fought after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie while we are alive 6. Worms in the brain CHAP. III. 1. Epilepsie 2. Incubus 3 Vertigo 4. Of a stone in the tongue 5. One of nine years old brought to bed 6. Bodies turned to Stones 7. Sleep-walkers 8. Superfetation Ventriloques 9. A strange
under water and hardned by the air Viscum or Missletoe how it grows The shade of the Ash-tree pernicious to Serpents CHAP. XXI 1. The existence of the Phoenix proved by divers reasons and thcontrary objections refelled the strange generation of some birds 2. The Ancients cleared concerning the Phoenix and whether the Phoenix be mentioned in Scripture Divers sorts of generation in divers creatures The Conclusion with an Admonition not to sleight the Ancients opinion and Doctrine The fourth Book Containing a Refutation of the Lord BACON Doctor HARVEY and others CHAP. I. 1. Fishes breath not the Reasons thereof and the contrary objections answered 2. Fossil or earth-fishes 3. Fishes delight in the light 4. Fishes of Humane shapes 5. Fishes are cunning and dâ—cible creatures 6. Why some Fishes have Feet and Wings 7. Many monstrous fishes CHAP II. 1. Publick and privat calamities presaged by owles 2. By dogs 3. By ravens and other birds and divers other ways 4. Wishing well in sneezing when and why used 5. Divers strange things in thunderâ—struck people CHAP. III. 1. The Female hath no active seed of generation Doctor Harvies and Fernelius reasons refutaed 2. A Discourse of the Cholick 3. The same soul in a subventaneous and prolificall egge Doctor Harvies reasons to the contrary refuted 4. Blood not the immediate instrument of the Soul Doctor Harvies reasons answered 5. Doctor Harvies way of conception refuted CHAP. IV. 1. My Lord Bacon's opinion confuted concerning the French disease 2. Concerning the expulsion of pellets out of guns 3. Of the wax candle burning in spirit of wine 4. Of the parts most nutritive in animals 5. Of the spirits in cold bodies 6. Of air fire water oyl whiteness the hands and feet 7. Of souls and spirits 8. Of visible objects and hearing 9. Of sounds and musick 10. Of singing birds descending species light 11. Ingrate objects and deafness with other passages CHAP. V. The Lord Bacons opinions refuted Of holding the breath when wee bearken Of time Of long life Of making gold Of starres Of oyl Of indisposition to motion Of death diseases and putrifaction Of stuttering Of motion after the head is off Of sympathies and antipathies of the Vine and Colewort the Fig-tree and Rew. Of white colour Of the Oke bough in the earth Of transmutation of species Of Incubus Of grain in cold Countries Of determination and figures Of accretion and alimentation Of the period of life Of sugar leaves roots snow and putrifaction CHAP. VI. The Lord Bacons opinions confuted concerning Snow Ephemera gravitie the sperme of Drunkards putrifaction teeth bones and nails thick and thin mediums Nilus hot Iron broin sudden darkness drie and moist bodies fish cornes hunger liquifaction hardness moisture accidents light right side spungy bodies stone-walls imagination the cramp hedghog mummy salt Cominus and others refuted concerning motion qualities colours forms the Epilogue Arcana Microcosmi OR The hid Secrets of MAN's BODY discovered WITH A Refutation of Doctor BROVVNS VULGAR ERRORS My Lord BACON'S Naturall History AND Dr HARVEY's Book De Generatione CHAP. I. 1. The Hearts dignity scituation priority necessity and use 2. The Heart first formed not all the parts together 3. The Galenists Objections answered 4. How the heart is perfect before the other members and how nourished 5. All the temperaments united in the Heart 6. Three ventricles in som Hearts 7. The Heart nervous 8. No parts more spermatical then others 9. The Liver not the first that is formed 10. The Heart the seat of Bloud and nourishment 11. The heat of the Matrix not generative 12. The right Ventricle nobler then the left 13. The vital and nutritive faculties are the same 14. Heat the cause of the Hearts motion 15. The Heart was first formed and informed 16. There is but one principal member in the body not many AS in all States and Kingdomes there have ever been factions and sidings so have there been still oppositions in the Common-wealth of Learning amongst many others there are two great factions concerning the fabrick of Mans Body namely the Peripateticks and Galenists so that in Rome there was not greater emulation between the Pompeians and Caesarians then there is between the Philosophers and Physitians in the points of Anatomy I stood as neuter a long time but at last being evinced by the multitude and strength of Aristotelian reasons am forced to side with them against the Galenists but so that I do what I can to reconcile them in some things and to make peace for Nulla salus bello I. I will therefore briefly set down the reasons that have induced me to side with the Aristotelians And first concerning the Heart I finde that it is the first member that lives and is formed in our bodies and consequently the noblest and chiefest of all our members whatsoever the Galenists say to the contrary For 1. The Heart is placed in the midst of the breast as the Sun in the midst of the world that it might impart its vital heat and motion to all parts So the seed is in the midst of the fruit 2. Where there is a medium there must needs be extreams but we finde in mans body this medium to wit that there are some parts which both give and receive life and motion therefore there must be some that receive but give not and consequently some that give but receive not and this must be the heart or brain or liver for to make more originals then one is needless seeing Nature always tends to and aims at unity Now that the heart is this principal appears by these reasons 3. First that is most likely to be the originall of life sense and motion in other members which is most apt and capable of these and so that had first life and motion which had the greatest inclination and aptitude to receive them but the heart of all other parts is most apt to receive these from the formative faculty Therefore doubtless this faculty in the seed would first produce the heart as being a matter prepared to receive first the impressions of the formative 4. What the heart is in Animals that the root is in Vegitables but the root is the first thing the plant thrusts out therefore the heart is first formed 5. The heart dieth last therefore it lived first for this method Nature observes that the parts which are last made decay first as the eies and teeth and consequently that decayeth last which was framed first 6. They that have been curious by inspection into eggs to observe Natures progress in the generation of the chick have found a red spot the third day which had a motion like palpitation this could be nothing else but the heart 7. The other members cannot live without the heart but the heart can live without the other members as I have seen a Monkeys heart live a great while after it hath been taken out of the body If then the life of the other members depends from
and menstruous bloud as Galen thought For 1. In Trees and Herbs there is this naturall héat yet no menstruous bloud in insects begot of putrified matter there is this heat but neither seed nor the foresaid bloud 2. This heat must diffuse it self through all the least parts of the body without which they cannot live but if it be a body there must be penetration of bodies if there bee this diffusion if there be only an agglutination of this heat to the parts of the body then these parts have not life in themselves and consequently neither nutrition or attraction which are the effects of life and by which it is preserved and so the Fibres which are given for attraction are in these parts in vain 3. If this body of our natural heat did live before it was articulated and distinguished into membeâ—s then the heart is not the first thing that liveth besides it will follow that the soul may be the act of an inorganical body which is against the definition of the soul. 4. Nor can the bloud in the veins be this body because this bloud is the effect of concoction and nutrition and it is bloud only but that body of Galens is the effect of generation and the mixture of seed and bloud 5. If this natural heat hath no life in it then it will follow that the chief part of the living creature is without life 6. This heat then is a quality in children more vigorous and intense then in men because its work in these is only to concoct and nourish but in those to extend the body also which is a greater work and therefore requires more heat Besides children cannot endure hunger so well as men because their heat being greater wastes the bodie sooner where it hath not food to work upon children then are more hot intensively but men extensively because their bodies are larger according to the dimension of which their heat is diffused And although they can eat harder and more solid meats then children it argues not that their heat is greater then that of childrens but that their instruments of mastication which is the first concoction are better and stronger V. That mans body might be a fit habitation for the Soul it was made of all bodies the most 1 temperate and 2 proportionable 3 the most copious of organs so that it may well be called a Microcosm containing as in an epitome the parts of the great world 4. It was also made naked as needing no other arms or defence then what man was by his reason tongue and hands able to furnish himself with 5. It was made not of an heavenly but of an elementary substance because man was made for knowledge this is got by the senses these are grounded on the proportion of the 4 prime qualities of which the Heavens are not capable 7. It was made strait that 1 man may be put in minde of his original that he came from heaven in respect of his soul 2 That he might affect and seek after the things above not here below 3. He abounds more in spirits and heat then other creatures and the heat and spirits raise the body upwards towards their own proper place 4. If man had not been of a strait body his hands which were made for many excellent uses must have been hindred and employed with the feet for motion and supporting of his body 6. Hee was made with long feet that his body might be the more steddy and strongly supported with feet forward because all his actions and motions tend that way 7. He was not made with wings to fly because he had hands to make him fly on the water in ships and he had knowledg to make him fly to Heaven in contemplation with the wings of Faith we can fly swifter farther then David could have don with the wings of a Dove VI. Mans head is of all parts in the body the noblest therefore it is placed in the highest Region and nearest Heaven which it resembleth both in figure and use it is almost round 1. That it may be the more capacious of spirits and of brain of which is more in man then in any other creature because in him is more variety and perfection of animal spirits then in other creatures 2. That it may bee the fitter for motion 3. That it might be the stronger and more able to resist injuries Again for use It is like Heaven for this is the seat of the Angels or Intelligences and that is the seat of the Intellect so far forth as it is the seat of the phantasie by which the intellect worketh and of the senses by which the phantasie is informed And as all sublunary bodies receive life sense or motion from the Heavens so do all our members from the Head so that if our brain be wounded sense and motion in the body presently cease The head is that by which man is Lord over the beasts therefore deserved to have the highest place in the body it is the Citadel of this little world in the safety of which consisteth the safety of the body therefore hands feet arms and all are ready to protect the head when it is in danger Hence anciently the head and brains were honored above the other members they used to swear by the head per caput hoc juro per quod pater ante solebat When any sneezed they were wont to blesse them with a prayer because the brain is affected in sneezing Men use to uncover their heads to their superiours intimating that they discover and present to their service the noblest part of their bodies and for honours sake the Priest abstained from eating of the brains CAP. IV. 1. What the spirits are 2. They differ in seven things 3. The Woman is only passive in generation Her Testicles Arteries c. not spermatical parts the males seed evaporates why the child resembles the parents the bloud may be called seed 4. Adeps how generated Of the Lungs they are hot THE Animal and Vital Spirits are so called not only because we have sense and life by them but also because they first have life and animation in themselves for otherwise how could the soul give life and sense to the body by these which are not as some think capable of either 2. These spirits are parts of our bodies parts I say not solid and containing but fluxil and contained 3. They are one with the vessels members to which they do adhere one not specifically but quantitatively so the grisle is one with the bone that ends in the grisle 4. These spirits are not the same with the vapours that are in our bodies For the vapours are excrements and hurtful to us therefore nature strives to expel them but the spirits are parts helpful to us therfore nature labors to retain them 5. These spirits somtimes are extinguished by violence somtimes are wasted for defect of food and maintenance he that is
bladder and intestines are So is the motion of coughing for as it is performed by the muscles it is animall but as it is stirred by the expulsive faculty it is naturall and as it proceeds from some morbifick cause it is preternatural So deglutition or swallowing is an animal action as it is performed by the muscles and is some times hindred by imagination for we swallow with much adoe those things of which we have no good conceit It is also natural as it is performed by the attraction of the fibres which are in the external tunicle of Oesophagus Now attraction is subservient to the nutritive faculty which is naturall V. That no portion of our drink can pass into the lungs is plain because we cough if the least drop of rhume fall from the head upon the lungs besides our breath and voice should be presently stopped the light and spongie substance also of the lungs would be hurt and corroded when we drink any sharp or soure liquors or medicamenâ—s Therefore in swallowing the Epiglottis or little tongue of the wind-pipe covers the Laâ—iâ—â— or top of the Aspera arteria that nothing may fall into it yet the siâ—es of Aspera arteria are moistned by syrrups which somewhat ease our coughing CHAP. XVII 1. All the senses in the brain 2. How made for refrigeration only how hot cold and moist and why its actions 3. How void of sense and motion 4. The animal spirits what and how begot 5. Why more vital then animal spirits where perfected and prepared the ventricles of the brain AS the heart is the first remote and mediate originall of motion and sense because the spirits and heat are originally from thence so the brain is the secundarie proximate and immediate organ of the senses which have their particular seats there to wit the â— externall senses and the 4 internal namely the common sense the imagination the discursive and memorative qualities which have their distinct cels The common sense is placed in the substance of the brain the imagination in the fore cel the discursive in the middle the memorative in the back cell the fore cell is softer the back cell somewhat harder the middle is of a middle temper sometimes the one is hurt when the other is sound a good memorie may accompany a bad imagination and contrarily II. When Aristotle saith that the brain was made only for refrigeration of the heart his meaning is not as the Galenists think that the brain was made for no other use but that neither the brain nor heart could be any way useful if the heat of the one were not tempered by the cold of the other for all our frame is out of order when the brain is overheated or inflamed and though the brain be not actually cold yet by its moisture and weak heat it tempers the excessive heat of the heart and vital spirits by means of the arteries which are common to both these organs therefore it is that the brain hath not blood and veins 2. The innate temperament of the brain is cold the adventitious is hot that is iâ— is hot by means of the spirits from the heart but cold in its own substance 3. It was made cold and moist that being the seat of imagination and of the attenuated animal spirits the one might not be distempered with heat nor the others dissipated 4. It is moist that it might be the fitter for generation of the nerves for receiving the images and impressions of things with the more facility and the more apâ— for sensation which consisteth in passion 5. The actions and functions of the brain depend both upon its right fabrick and conformation as also upon its temper for if either of these be hurt the actions of the brain are vitiated III. The brain is void of sense in its own substance but senfitive in its membranes nor was it fit that the brain should feel seeing it is the common receptacle and judge of all the senses and seeing it is in the highest place and receives all exhalations from the inferior parts it should be continually molested if it were sensible of all these vapours 2. As it is void of sense so it is of motion in it self it is indeed moved by the arteries for the feeding purging and tempering of the animal spirits but the brain being the original of motion ought to be immovable in respect of self motion neither are there any fibres in the brain bâ— which it should be moved as there are in the heart neither could ever the motion of the brain be observed other then what is caused by the arteries IV. The animal spirits are so called because they are the chief organs of the soul for her chief actions of sense and motion without the brain of imagination discoursing and remembring within the brain therefore these spirits receive from the senses the images and species of things and convey them to the brain where they retain them for the soul by the phantasie to work upon 2. These animal spirts are begot of the vital but are cherished and refreshed by the external air drawn by the nostrils to the brain so that without air and vital spirits the animal canot long subsist and becaus blood is the remote matter of the animal spirits they grow feeble when much blood is evacuated V. Because there is more need of the vital then of the animal spirits therefore more plenty is required of them then of these for nothing is begot of the animal spirits therefore they waste not so fast as the vitall of which the animal are ingendred besides the vital spirits are perpâ—tually imployed even in sleep so are not the animal but they rest then nor is there any part of the body which hath notlife but divers parts have not sense which is an animal function as the bones and ligaments 2. The animal spirits are prâ—pared in the intricate labyrinth of arteries within thâ— brain but they receive their perfection in the cels therâ—of 3. Though the faculty of sense be an inseparable property of the soul yet it doth not always operate but where there is a fit organ in sleep the soul is in the eye but then seeth not 4. The ventricles of the braine serve not onely for generation of the spirits but for purging out also of superfluous excrements CHAP. XVIII 1. The eye boâ—h watrish and fiery imperfect vision 2. Why the eâ—e is watrish its action spirits and species 3. Spirits of the eâ—e proved two eyes but one motion why the object appears double sometimes no colours in the eye 4. The optick nerves soft where united and why 5. The Chrystalline and glassy humours and white of the eye THough the substance of the eye be watrish as we shewed before yet the visive spirits are fiery as may be seen by their light in the dark their mobility and their resistance to cold for they are not molested with it as other members are 2. When
the differences 2. Though the species of colours and sounds are received into the eyes and ears yet real odours are received into the nose for the head heart and spirits are diversly affected with smells some men have been cherished a long time with them some women are suffocated with smells some beasts are driven away some are alluâ—ed by them which could not be if these were not real smells and in that smells are carried to and fro with the windes And that we smell better in hot weather then in cold doe shew that these are not the species but real smells 3. Odours being accidents cannot be conveyed to the organ but in vapours or exhalation which are substances for bare accidents cannot be transported with windes to and fro nor can they affect the brain or comfort it or drive away beasts and vermin II. When Aristotle saith that smells cannot nourish he is in the right for nothing nourisheâ—h but compounded bodies now smels are hare accidents Nutriment have their excrements smels have none nutriment is converted into the substances of the body nourished and hath a peculiar place where it is concocted as the stomach is the place for the Chylus which cannot be said of smels Therefore Galen was in an error when he said that men can he nourished with smels except by smels he understand odoriferous exhalatioâ—s which yet nourish not properly but for a while only recreate the spirits because of the nearness of their substance which spirits being the immediate organs of the soul for a while can perform their functions in the body III. Galen is injurious to Aristotle in upbraiding him for making the nose the organ of smell whereas Galen will have the brain to be the organ which is ridiculous and against his own tenents in affirming that the brain is no ways sensitive neither indeed can it be seeing it is the original of the senses and how can the same member be both the original and organ of the senses Therefore not the brain nor that part thereof which they call processus mamillares reaching to the nose can be the organ of sense but the nose itself for they that want the nose smel not and a short nose smels not so well as a long and if any part of the brain were the organ of smel we should smel the meats in our mouth and the vapours of the stomach which are still mounting up to the brain Yet we never smell them till we belch them out and then we smell them as soon as they ascend into the nose which is indeed the true organ of smell in that nervous membrane thereof And how can the smell be an external sense if it have not as well as the other four an externall organ by which the externall senses are distinguished from the internall 2. Though the real smell is conveyed to the nose and not the species as the species of colours and sounds are to the eyes and ears yet not the real but the intentional smell or species is carried by the nerve into the common sense or fantasie CHAP. XXI 1. Wherein consists the organ of tast The tongue potentially moist no external medium of tast 2. How the skin is the medium of taste The prime qualities both objects and agents No creature without fact It is most exquisite in man Tact and taste different THe organ of taste consisteth partly in the nerves of the tongue palate and throat and partly in the skin thereof except we make the skin the medium for when the skin of the mouth or tongue peeleth the taste faileth and so it doth fail also when the tongue is drie without moisture or spittle therefore the spittle or saliva may be called the medium of taste 2. Because the organ must be potentially what the object is actually therefore the tongue must be potentially moist for moisture not driness is the object of taste I say the tongue must be potentially moist for if it were actually moist it could not judge of moistures for the sense should be void of that which it apprehendeth by sensation therefore there is no moisture nor relish in the tongue for when it abounds with moisture or hath in it any relish it loseth its taste 3. The taste hath no external medium as the other three senses and in this it agreeth with touching 4. Though sapors work materially upon the tongue yet the act of sensation is by reception of the species for real qualities cannot be received into the animal spirits and judged by the common sense and fantasie II. The sense of tact either hath no medium or else we must make the skin the medium and the flesh membranes and nerves the organ but indeed the skin is both the organ of tact as experience shewes and the medium in respect of the flesh and nerves 2. The four prime qualities chiefly heat and cold are not onely the objects of tact but agents upon them by warming and cooling the organs so are not the second qualities to wit hardness softness asperity c. For these are not active at all except levity in a spiritual or intentional way 3. Though there be many particular objects of tact as the first and second qualities yet there is but one general object to wit the tactile quality 4. Though this be true that the sensible object put upon the sense hindreth sensation in these senses that have the air for a medium yet it is not true in the sense of tact which hath no such medium 5. The sensitive creature can subsist without any of the five senses except the tact because this consisteth in the proportion and harmony of the prime qualities which if it fail sense also faileth and consequently animality 6. Of all creatures the sense of tact is most exquisit in man because his body is most temperate but tact consisteth in the temper of the prime qualities 7. Though taste be accompanied with tact yet they are distinct senses both in the organs media and faculties and tact is diffused through all the body whereas taste is only in the mouth CHAP. XXII 1. The use of the common sense It is but one sense The different judgement of this sense and of the soul. How different from other senses It s in the brain and heart 2. Imagination or fantasie what disturbed compoundeth The Estimative It s work and seat 3. Memory how a sense It is twofold Reminiscence what Old men and childrens memories AS there be three actions of the soul to wit dijudication composition and retention so there are three internal senses to wit the common sense the fantasie and the memory The common sense apprehends and judgeth the objects of the outward senses in which as in the Center all these objects do meet the eye cannot put difference between colours and smels but the common sense doth and though the eye see yet it doth not know it self to see that is the work of the common sense therefore mad
men in whom this sense is hurt see but perceive it not nor doe they difference the objects which they fee but either confound them or mistake the one for the other So when the sensitive spirits are imployed by the fantasie though we see oftentimes the object yet we perceive it not 2. Though the common sense apprehends diversity of objects yet it is but one sense because its actions in judging or differencing these objects is but one So the eye hath but one action though it seeth many objects 3. The act of judging in the common sense is not that of the soul which extendeth it self to things also spiritual and universal and belongs only to man not to the beasts as the judging of the common sense doth 4. The external senses apprehend their objects onely present but the internal senses apprehend them being absent 5. The common sense is in the brain subjectively for there are the animal spirits and nerves so saith Galen but in the heart originally and in its cause for from thence are the vital spirits which are the matter of the animal and so is Aristotle to be understood II. The second internal sense is the imagination so called from the images or species which it both receiveth from the common sense and frameth to it self If the brain be sound and undisturbed it receiveth species from the common sense only and judgeth more distinctly of them then the common sense doth it compoundeth also and uniteth and in beasts it serves in stead of reason to direct them to their operations in man it is subservient to the intellect in ministring species to it therfore it is called phantasie from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shine or shew For as the eye discerns its objects by the light so doth the intellect whilest it is in the body work and speculate by the phantasie 2. In disturbed brains by phrensies fevers or inordinate sleep the phantasie makes other objects to its self then were represented to it by the common sense 3. The phantasie compoundeth that which the common sense apprehendeth in a divided way as I see a horse and a man and the common sense apprehendeth the species of both apart but to conceive them united in a Centaure is the work of the phantasie 4. The estimative is not a sense distinct from the phantasie but the very same whose office is to esteem what is good or hurtful to the creature and so to follow or avoid it therefore this sense stirreth up the appetite 5. The common sense doth not work but when the outward senses are working but the fantasie worketh without them to wit in sleep 6. The fore part of the brain in which is the common sense is humid as being fittest for reception which is the common senses work the hinder part is dry as fitâ—est for retention which is the work of the memory but the middle part is temperately humid and dry as fittest for reception and retention both which are performed by the phantasie 7. For a right and orderly phantasie or imagination there are required clear spirits from vapors a temperate organ straight nerves and passages and a moderate heat from the heart if any of these bee deficient the phantasie is disordered III. The third internal sense is the memory not so much to be called a sense as it retaineth the species for in this the nature of sensation consisteth not but as it receiveth them for sensation is properly in reception 2. This sense is the treasury in which are laid up that species of things past which have been apprehended by the external senses For as these consider things present and hope things future so doth the memory things past it is the wax receiving and retaining the stamp of the seal and it is a faculty of the sensitive not of the intellective soul for beasts and birds have memories As for the intellective memory it is all one with the passive intellect which is the keeper of the intelligible species for it belongs to the same faculty to understand and to remember 3. Though in brutes there is memory yet recordaâ—ion or reminiscence is onely in man because it is joined with discourse and deliberation which are operations of the intellect for memory is the retention of the species but reminiscence is a recollecting by discourse and comparing of circumstances the species which he had forgot therefore a nimble wit and reminiscence which consisteth in discourse go together commonly but seldome a good wit and a good memory this requiring a dry organ the other that which is temperately moist 4. Children have bad retentive memories because their brains are moist and old men have had receptive memories because their brains are too dry therefore there is required for memory a brain temperately moist to receive and temperately dry to retain the species Finis Libri Secundi BOOK III. Of mans rare Infirmities or admirable Diseases CHAP. I. 1. Of Eels voided by a maid and of other strange generations 2. A woman voided in three days six quarts of milk 3 Of women who have eat mens flesh 4. Of women that have lived some years without food 5. Of one that lived some years without a brain another without a Spleen Of one that lived with a knife in her skull 6. Of some that have swallowed knives glasses c. 7. Of some shot in the forehead and the bullet found in the hinder part of the skull HAving briefly discoursed upon the fabrick parts and passages of mans body I will as briefly touch some rare and extraordinary infirmities with which the bodies of some men have been molested and will point at such causes as I conceive may stand with the grounds of Divinity and Philosophy As for ordinary diseases with their causes symptomes and cures I leave to Physitians I. I read in Cornelius Gemma in his Divine characterismes l. 2. c. 4. and in Marcel Donatus his admirable Histories l. 2. ca. 1. of a Maid that voided Eels by the stool which I conceive may proceed from a natural cause For if by the heat of the Sun divers forms are educed out of putrified matter as Eels out of mud why may not Eels also be generated in mans body by its heat there being a disposition and preparation in the matter for reception of such a form Thus Bees are begot of Calves flesh Waspes and Hornets of Horses and Asses and divers sorts of Worms in our bodies I have read of a Bird found in an Oyster which was presented to Francis the first of France I will not speak of the Barnecles in the Scottish Seas begot of old rotten planks of ships nor of him that had a golden â—ooth which if it were not perfect gold it might in some qualities resemble it as pins that have been voided in Impostâ—umes For stones begot in the bladder and kidneys and chalk in the joints of gouty bodies are not so rare II. I read in Martin Wienrich in his book
X. Both Aristotelians and Galenists affirm that the child at first lives the life of a plant but from hence the Aristotelian concluds that the heart is the first members begot in us because it is answerable to the root in plants which is first generated but the Galenist infers that the liver must be the first member because the child living the life of a plant hath no other faculty but nutritive which is the faculty of the plant the seat whereof is in the liver But here I side with Aristotle because the liver is no more the seat of nutriment then the heart And because the heart is as the root but it is by the root the plant lives and is nourished And if the liver be the seat of nutriment because of the blood thereof I should rather say the heart is this seat because we finde blood there out of the veins as in a cistern but in the liver there is no other Blood then what is in the veins Neither can the liver be the originall of the nutritive power because there is the sense of indigence or want for so the stomack should rather be this originall because there is the most exquisit sense of want XI The liver cannot be generated without heat and spirits But the seat of heat and spirits is the heart therefore this must be first If any will say that the heat of the matrix is sufficient I deny it for that heat is onely conservative not generative it hardeneth and consolidateth the outward parts but doth not produce the inward XII Aristotle will have the right ventricle of the Heart the nobler Galen the left but I subscribe to Aristotle because I finde that the right Ventricle liveth longer then the left 2. That the Pulse in the right side of him that is dying is more valid then in the left side 3. The right ventricle leans upon the lungs as upon a Cushion or supporter Nature shewing as it were a greater care of this then of the other 4. The right parts are nimbler and stronger then the left because they are hotter 5. Though the spirits receive their completion in the left ventricle yet they are prepared and fitted in the right and therefore there needs not so great a heat in the left ventricle as the Galenists speak of for a moderate heat will suffice to perfect that which is already begun 6. The left ventricle is but a servant to the right in finishing that work which was begun by the right and distributing it into the body being finished XIII The Aristotelians make the vital and nutritive faculty the same the Galenists make them distinct but the Peripateticks reason prevails with me which is this That where there are distinct faculties there must be distinct operations because the faculty is for the operation But there are no distinct operations of the vital faculty from that of the nutritve for accretion diminution and generation are actions of the vital or nutritive Sense and motion are actions of the animal faculties 2. Life is the presence of the soul in the body this presence consists in action this action is nutrition for when this action fails life fails because the chief and first action of the living creature is to preserve it self which cannot be without nutrition seeing nutrition is not without tact in the sensitive creature but when tact faileth animality must needs fail XIV The Aristotelians make heat the efficient cause of the hearts publick motion Others will have the soul Others the vegetive faculty but Aristotle is in the right for the soul works by its faculties and these by heat so that heat is the immediate cause of this motion and the souls instrument yet not such an instrument as worketh nothing but by the force of the principal agent for the heat worketh by its own natural force though it be directed and regulated by the soul the heat then of the heart rarifying the blood into vapors which require more room dilate the heart but by expelling some of these vapors into the arteries and receiving also some cold air by the lungs the heart is contracted this is called Systole the other Diastole And as heat is the efficient cause so it is also the end of this motion For therefore doth the heat move the heart that it by this motion might impart heat to the body But I understand not here by heat a bare quality but that which is called Calidum innatum If it be objected that there is in Plants a vegetive faculty and heat but not this pulsifick motion nor yet in effects I answer the reason is because there are not instruments fit for such a motion nor is there any use of it 2. This motion of the heart is local not totally but partially for not the whole heart but the parts thereof change their place or seat and so in this regard augmentation and diminution are local motions XV. That the heart is not only first formed but is also first informed and first exerciseth the action of life is plain by this reason drawn from the Peripateticks the heart was made at first an Organical member but that could not be if it was not first informed by the soul which is the first act of the organical body and if it was made organicall it had been made to no end and nature had been idle to have made an useless member which could no more deserve the name of heart then a blinde eye the name of eye But the soul that I speak of here is the vegetive or sensitive resulting out of the matter which is first prepared in the heart for reception of it and not the reasonable soul which with all its perfections is created and infused by God into the whole body after it is articulated and made capable of such a noble Guest XVI The Aristotelians are more rational in placing but one principall member in the body then they who place either three or four For it is nedless to make so many principals when as one will suffice Nature aimeth always at unity for all the five senses are united in one common sense all the members in one body all the different specificall parts of the world into one common nature so all the members into one heart which hath in it the natures of all or their temperaments Nor could the soul being but one work upon so many different temperaments if they were not united into one temperament Besides we should be forced to run in infinitum if we should hold more principles then one for avoiding of which inconvenience we must stay in one chief principle If it be objected that the nerves veins and arteries are of different temperaments therefore must proceed from different principles I Answer that from one principle in which divers temperaments are united may issue different temperatures 2. I denie that the temperature of the veins nerves and arteries are different otherwise then Secundum magis
the brain were hurt this being the immediate agent and instrument without which the heart doth not operate in sensation VII To conclude the nerves to have their originall from the brain becauseâ—of their similitude is a weak argument For 1. Many children are not like their parents from whom they have their originall but like strangers many times to whom they have no relation 2. There is no similitude between the brain and nerves for that is soft and moist these hard and dry 3. Nor is the nerve in its medullary part like the brain for this is cold the marrow is hot 4. If the nerves are from the brain because their inward parts are soft and marrowy then the bones should be derived also from the brain for they have much more marrow in them 5. If the nerves are from the brain because they have two tuniclesâ— as it hath by the same reason let the Arteries also have their beginning from thence for these also are double tunicled 6. All nerves have not this medâ—llary substance within them VIII Though the heart hath but one little nerve which being tied looseth its sense beneath the knot but above retains it though this I say be so yet from hence it cannot be proved that the brain is the originall of the nerves or of sensation but rather the heart for the upper part of the nerve is sensible because it is joyned with other nerves whereas the lower part is joyned to none 2. The spirits in the upper part are tempered by the frigidity of the brain whereas the lower part hath no refrigeration and though the faculty or power of sense is from the heart yet the act of sensation is not exercised without a temperate heat or refrigeration 3. I think this is rather a conjecture of the Galenists then an experiment for who did ever find this nerve in a living creature IX Aristotles reasons for the coldnesse of the brain are to me not improbable or easie to be answered for if the brain were hot we should never sleep seeing coldness causeth sleep 2. There are more moist humors and flegme ingendred in the brain then any where else 3. There is not blood in the brains as in other parts of the body for it is the blood that warms the body I say there are not veins incorporating themselves into the substance of the brain and terminating there as they do in the flesh and skin which is the cause that every part of the flesh or skin being pricked bleeds so doth not the brain whose substance is white and bloodless therefore though there be veins in the brain yet they are distinct from the substance of the brain and not ending in them neither is that heat which is in the brain it s own but adventitious and externall to wit of the arteries and veins as also of fumes and vapours so then the brain is the coldest of all the parts of mans body yea colder then the bones because the bones are dry the brain moist but cold with moisture is greater effectively then with siccity so the water is colder then the earth If it be objected that the brain is hot because the head is more hairy then any other part of the body and because the brain stands continually in need of ventilation by the nostrils and transpiration by the seams of the skul I answer That hairs are ingendred by the adventitious heat of the brain out of the excrementitious humors of the head and fumes which ascend thither and therefore the brain stands in need of ventilation â—ecause of the many hot fumes and vapours continually ascenâ—ing thither X. The blood and spirits which are in the brain alter not â—ts natural temperament which is cold especially seeing the â—lood is sent thither for nutrition but nourishment is to cheâ—â—sh the part nourished being converted into its substance â—nd not to alter its temperament Now the reason why we â—eel the moisture of the brain but not its frigidity is because â—here is nothing to hinder the tact from discerning its moisture â—eing in a soft substance for where the substance is hard there â—he tact is hindred from feeling the moisture though it be â—oist as when we touch ice but the tact is hindred from dicerning the frigidity of the brain because of the veins and â—rteries within it containing warm blood and spirits yet â—hough the brain be cold the pith in the back-bone which is â—oyned to the brain is hot because we finde no flegme aâ—out it as about the brain it is harder then the brain thereâ—ore more apt to receive and to retain heat it is begot of blood which is hot and it was fit that this warm pith should be joyned to the cold brain for moderating the brains frigidity XI The brain was made cold to temper and moderate the â—eat of the heart but not to diminish or destroy it and for the same cause the heart was made hot to temper but not to destroy the brains frigidity therefore nature hath placed them at a proportionable distance for had they been nearer their actions upon each other had been more violent 2. Though the organs of the sense be in the brain yet the original of senâ—ation is not there but in the heart for the brain with its organs are helps and instruments not the efficient causes of sensation 3. The mutuall action of the heart and brain upon each other is not done immediately but by the intercourse of the spirits XII Though nature doth not make two members specifically different in the same body for the same operation therefore fishes want Lungs because they have gills for refrigeration yet she hath made both the brain and lungs too in our bodies for the same end and work namely to refrigerate the heart and yet in this she is not superfluous because the heart stood in need of a double refrigeration as being subject to a double heat the one is natural for tempering of this the brain was made that so the animal spirits might be generated the other is adventitious caused by hot fumes for cleaâ—â— of these and of cooling the heart the lungs were made aâ—â— so were the arteries too As for the two eyes and two ears and other double organs in our bodies they are not specificallâ— different XIII As the male hath a hotter heart then the female 〈◊〉 he hath a larger brain for the most part that there may be the more refrigeration I say for the most part because the work of nature admit divers times exceptions so Lions though hoâ—ter then men yet have lesser brains then men but that heat iâ— the Lion is more terrestriall â— and therefore needs lesseâ— refrigeration then that which is more aerial yet it may be supposed that man abounds more in heat then Lions because he hath a strait body which is caused by the abundance of hot bloud and spirits in mans body more then in other creatures XIV That the testicles are not
motions from divers muscles 2. The muscles of the abdomen are chiefly made for pressing of the same when nature desires to expel the excrements and in the next place to move the breast with the other muscles appointed for respiration 3. The muscle of the bladder called Sphincter was made partly for opening a passage for the urine to passe away which it doth by dilating and extending it self and partly for shutting up of the bladder by contracting it self lest the urine should passe from us in sleep or against our wills whilest we are awaked 4. The muscle called diaphragma or the midriff was made for exspiration and inspiration in inspiration it dilateth it self but in expiration it is contracted upward as we see in dead bodies 6. The muscles of the ribs called Intercostals are some of them external which distend the breast for inspiration some internal which contract the breast for exspiration VI. Aristotelians will have the flesh Galenists the skin to be the organ of tact but I think both are for I take the skin to be nothing else but the outward superficies of the flesh a little dried and hardned and differing no other way from the flesh then the outward skin of the apple from the softer substance thereof so then the flesh both as it is a soft substance and as it is hardned in its outward superficies is the organ of tact by means of the nerves and fibres diffused into it and whereas vision hearing and smelling have the air for their medium tact and taste which are the two absolutely needfull senses without which we cannot live whereas without the other three we may have no medium at all CHAP. VIII 1. Bloud milk c. No integral parts 2. How the parts draw their aliment 3. And expel things hurtful 4. Of the intestines and faeces 5. The intestines retentive faculty 6. Of the stomach and its appetite or sense 7. Whether the stomach is nourished by Chylus or bloud I BLOOD Milk Fat Marrow are not properly integral parts of our bodies for the body is perfect in its limbs and members without these and these in time of hunger nourish the body whereas one part cannot be the aliment of another besides every part hath its figure and shape but these have none yet in a large sense they may bee called parts as they help to make up the whole II. As the Loadstone draweth Iron and Plants nutriment from the earth so doth every part of our bodies draw that aliment which is most proper for it some by the help of the fibres as the heart in its Diastole draws blood from Vena cava into its right ventricle by the help of the fibres some without their help as bones grissles and ligaments So the Intestines draw without fibers the Chylus from the Ventricle with which they are delighted and they draw blood from the Meseraick veins with which they are nourished and the same veines draw the purer part of the Chylus from the Intestines for sanguification III. The same part that draws things needful expels the same things when they grow superfluous or hurtful thus the ventricles expel the Chylus into the Intestines and these expel their grosâ—er and excrementitious parts out of the body so the heart expels by its transverse fibers blood and spirits and hurtful vapours too And indeed nature is more solicitous in expelling of things hurtful then in attracting of things needful Thus we see in dying people that expiration is stronger then inspiration nature being more willing to be rid of hurtful vapours then to receive fresh aire so when the intestines are affected with inflammations obstructions or ulcerations that they cannot send the excrement downward they force it upward into the stomach again and so expel it by the mouth as in the Iliaca passio IV. The expulsion of the Foeces is partly the natural or peristaltick motion of the intestines and partly the voluntary motion of the muscles of the Abdomen which muscles being contracted presse the intestine 2. There are straight Fibeâ—s in the intestine called Rectum not so much for attraction as for strengthning the circular Fiberâ— 3. The Colon is sâ—ated uppermost neer to the bottome of the stomach and hollownesse of the liver thaâ— by the touch of these parts the remainders of the meat which are in the cels of the Colon might be better concocted 4. The stink of the foeces proceed partly from the superfluous humidity which is the mother of putrefaction and partly from the heat of the intestin which though it be natural to the aliment which it concocts yet it is external to the excrement which it expels 5. The length of the intestins which are seven times as long as the body and â—he many windingâ— or folds of them besides the Valâ—ula or shutter in the end of the Coecum do shew that the injections by the fundament can ascend no higher then the blind intestine except there be any of those three distempers in the guts which I mentioned but now or else the stomach be distempered by Bulimia for in such a case it will draw the foeces to it 6. Clysters are sometimes carried to the liver by means of the meseraick veins which suck some part of it from the intestins V. The substance temper and colour of the intestines and ventricles is the same therefore the Chylus is not only concocted in the ventricle but in the intestins also and as the one of these members is affected so is the other 2. As in the intestines there is an attractive concoctive and expulsive faculty so there is also a retentive for all these affections are in the ventricle which is of the same substance with the intestines To what end are stiptick or restringent medicaments used in Fluxes but to corroborate the retentive faculty of the intestins in the lientery the meat passeth away without concoction because the reâ—â—ntive faculâ—y both of the ventricle and intestins is hurt VI. The mouth of the stomach being united to the Diaphragma and this to the breast-bone is the cause that we find much pain about this bone when the mouth of the stomach is ill-affected 2. In the mouth of the stomach is the â—eaâ— of appetite by reason of the two stomachical nerves thâ—re which when they are refrigerated or obstruâ—tâ—d the appetite is dissolved as in Bâ—limia where there is a continual attraction from the stomach but no sense or appetite but when the stomach is molested with cold and sâ—wre humours there is a continuall sense or appetite though there be no inanition of the part as in the disease called the Dogs appetite 3. By reason of the sympathy that is between the mouth of the stomach and the heart they had of old the same name and they have the same symptomes 4. The appetite being an animal faculty â—ath its seat in the braine originally in the stomach subjectively the faculty is in both but the action onely in the stomach VII
reparation by generation of spirits 5. It differs from the animal motive faculty because it is necessary and perpetual the animal is voluntary and sometimes ceaseth VII The vital spirits are ingendred in the left ventricle of the heart partly of aire prepared in the lungs and conveyed to the heart by the Arteria venosa and partly of the purest blood powred out of the mouth of Vena cava into the right ventricle where it is prepared and attenuated a part whereof is conveyed for nourishing of the lungs by the Vena arteriosa the other part sweats through the partition that divides the heart and in the left ventricle is mingled with the aire and turned into spirits by its excessive heat VIII The Diastole and Systole that is the dilatation and contraction of the heart and arteries is all one and at the same time for the heart and arteries are so united that they make but one body so there is but one pulsifick vertue in both and the end of their motion is the same to wit the vegitation and life of the body the suddenness of the motion in the remotest arteries from the heart and the strong beating of the pulse and heart in Feavers and anger do shew the identity of motion in both 2. The arteries are moved by the spirits of the heart conveyed by their tunicles rather then their cavity for upon the pressing of the tunicles the pulse ceaseth but not when the cavity is stuffed or stopped They are not then moved by their heat and blood but by the heart as may be seen by binding the arteries whose motion beneath the binding saileth the commerce between it and the heart being intercepted 3. The heart is first dilated by receiving the aire then it is contracted by expelling the fuliginous vapours 4. The heart strikes the breast in its dilatation not in its contraction or Systole because the left ventricle which is the originall of the Arteries is distended in the Diastole and so toucheth the breast about the left pap IX The motion of the heart is not voluntary because we cannot command it nor sensitive because it is not performed by the nerves and muscles nor simple because there are two motions nor compounded because they are contrary and of contrary motions can be no compositions nor is it violent because it is not repugnant to its nature nor is it caused by an externall agent as the trembling of the heart is by distempers vapours or humours but the hearts motion is natural yet not caused by the elementary form for so there should be more agents in our bodies then one and its motion should be â—itâ—eâ— upward or downward but it is natural in respect of the soul which is the chief nature that works in animal bodies and in respect of the fibers heat and spirits of the heart which are natural organs and in respect of the natural use or end of this motion for the heart dilates it self to receive aire and blood it contracts it self to be emptied of its fumes and to communicate its spirits to the nerves which ends are naturall X. When Aristotle saith that the motion of the heart is caused by heat and cold he contradicts not the Physitians in affirming the soul or its vital faculty to be the cause of this motion for heat and cold are subordinate instruments to the soul which by the heat of the blood and spirits dilates the heart and by the attraction of the cold air contracteth it as we see water by the heat of the fire swel and dilate it self but upon the breathing of cold air to contract and fall down again CHAP. XVI 1. The Lungs how moved the air is not the spirits nutriment 2. Respiration not absolutely necessary 3. The Lungs hot and moist 4. Respiration a mixed motion as that of the bladder and intestins 5. No portion of our drink passeth into the Lungs ARistotle differs from the Galenists about the motion of the Lungs he will have them moved by the heart whose heat listeth up the Lungs upon which motion the air enters for avoiding vacuity which being entred the Lungs fall The Galenists will have their motion to depend on the motion of the breast but both are in the right For the motion of the Lungs is partly voluntary and so it depends on the moving of the muscles of the breast and partly natural and so it is moved by the heart 2. When Aristotle denies that the air is the nutriment of the spirits which the Galenists affirm his meaning is that the air doth not properly nourish the spirits as meat doth our bodies for there is no assimilation or conversion of the substance of the air into our spirits which are properly nourished by blood but only a commixtion of the air and spirits for refrigeration And indeed if the spirits were properly fed by the air there would not come out the same air that went in For the spirits would not part from their food the air then nourisheth the spirits as it doth the fire by refrigeration and preserving it from suffocation II. Respiration is not so necessary for preservation of life as the motion of the heart for histerical women can live without that but they cannot live without this Neither is the motion of the arteries of absolute necessity for the member is not deprived of life though the arterie be stopped or tied and deprived of its motion 2. The motion of respiration is more noble then the motion of the heart because this is meerly natural that is also animal and voluntary yet as the motion of the Lungs is subservient to the motion of the heart that is more noble then this for the end excels the means III. The Lungs are hot and moist hot that they mighâ— temper and alter the cold air therefore the substance is fleshy light and spongy and fed with hot and spirituous blood from the right ventricle of the heart It is also moist as appears by its soft and loose substance It is also moist accidentally by receiving the flegme and rhumes that fall from the brain 2. The Lungs refrigerate the heart not because their substance is cold but because the air is cold which they attract IV. Respiration is a motion partly voluntary as it is performed by the muscles nerves and diaphragma which are the organs of voluntary motion and as it is in our power to breath or not to breath to hasten or retard it And it is partly natural as it is performed by the Lungs which are organs of natural motion as it is not subject to fatigation as it is performed in our sleep when we have no command over our selves and the sensitive faculties then cease as it is not performed by election or apprehension of the object as voluntary motions are And lastly as in Apoplexies when the senses fail the brains and nerves are hurt yet respiration continues it is then a mixt action as the expulsive actions of the
the imagination is vitiated or the spirits subservient to the same are disturbed or an opac vapour is interjected between the Cornea and chrystalline humor wee seem to see things and colours in the air which are not there but this is an imperfect vision because there is no reception of species from the air nor is the organ distinct from the medium and object nor is there that distance between the organ and the object as is required in perfect vision II. The eye should be of a watrish substance not fiery because water is dense and diaphonous fit to receive the species as it is diaphonous and to retain them as it is dense so is not the fâ—re for though it be diaphonous it is not dense therefore not fit to retain the species 2. The species being spiritual or immaterial do not affect or hurt the eye but the colours only hurt the eye more or lesse as they participate more or lesse of the light which dissipates the visive spirits these being lucid spend themselves on lucid objects by reason of their cognate quality 3. Sometimes the eye is wearied with seeing not as vision is a reception and so a passion but in respect of the visive spirits which are agents 4. The eye in an instant perceives its object though never so far distant because the visible species are in the air contiguous to the eye though the object be distant III. That there are spirits in the eye is apparent by the dilatation of the Ball of one eye when the other is shut which is caused by the spirit passing from one eye to the other and by reason of these spiriâ—s the eye is more cheerful at one time then at another 2. Though there be two eyes and divers mâ—scles yet they are moved but with one motion because otherwise one object would appear as two Thus by lifting up one of our eyes with our finger the object we look upon appears double because the two Balls of the eyes are not upon the same â—uperficies nor do the beams of both eyes equally reach the object Thus it is with dâ—uâ—karâ—s and goggle eyes and in conâ—ulsâ—ons of the muscles of the eye â— There are not properly any câ—louâ—s in the eye becauâ—e then the object would seem to be of the same colour that the eye is of yet the eyes seem to be coloured because they are visible IV. The optick nerves seem of all others the most soft and spongy that they â—ight bee the lesse offensive to the eye the most tender of all other members and that they might convey the gâ—eater quantity of optick spirits 2. They are united into one about the middle way between the brain where they have their beginnings and the eyes into which they are inseâ—ted that by this union they might be the stronger and that â—hey might be â—qually implanted into the same superficies of both eyes lest the visive spirits beiâ—g unequally communicate should occaâ—ion the object to appear double V. The Chrystallinâ— humour is a part of the eye because it hath its life nutriment and function as other parâ—s have it is also both a similar part in its temper and substance and it is organical in its sâ—tuation and figure 2. The glassâ—e humour is also a part for the saâ—e reâ—sons therefore the Chrystalline doth not feed upon it for no partâ—feeds upon another but it prepares the blood and alters it for the Chrystalline left it should be infecâ—ed with a red colour it affords then the same service to the Chrâ—stalline which the stomach doth to the liver 3. The white of the eye is a part thereof and no excrement for Nature exâ—ludes excrements but if this white should perish sight faileth for it is as a Bulwark to the Chrystalline and conveyeth the species to it CHAP. XIX 1. Five things required to hearing 2. Not the real but intentional sound is heard Hearing fails last in drowned men 3. The innate air no organ of hearing no spirit or part of the body 4. The caus â—f the sympathy between the ear and the mouth I. FOR the sense of hearing are required 1. A sound which is caused by the collision of two solid bodies or of the air and of another body 2. Air which is the medium that receiveth and carrieth the sound whereas the water in respect of its thickness carrieth the sound but imperfectly and dully 3. The ear containing in it the thin and dry membrane called the drum which if it be thick or too much moistned hindreth hearing 2. Three little bones called Incus malleus Stapes 3. An innate and immoveable air 4. A winding labyrinth that the external air and sound may not too suddenly rush in upon the nerve of hearing 5. This auditory nerve carrieth the sound to the brain that there the common sense and fantasie may judge thereof II. The sound which is carried into the ear is not real but intentional and spiritual or the species and image of the real sound for how can a real sound passe through a thick wall or multiply it self in a thousand ears in an instant or in so short a time reach twenty miles from any canon to the eare 2. The winding labyrinth in the ear is the cause why men that are drowned lose the sense of hearing last because the water cannot passe through that winding Meander III. The innate air of the ear is not the organ of hearing but a medium for it differs not from the external air nor can that be an organ which is no part of the body either spermatical or sanguiâ—eal as Physitians use to speak neither is it animated by the soul for the soul is the act of organical bodies onely Nor is it a spirit either animal or vital because it is not contained within the nerves or arteries and being it is not a mixed but a simple body it can be no part either similar or dissimilar IV. By reason the auditory nerves do impart some branches to the tongue hence it is that there is such a sympathy between the ear and mouth That this is a help or hindrance to our hearing and this to speaking so that if the auditory nervs be stopped or deficient not onely deafness but dumbness is caused and we finde that those who hear hardly speak little and such as are born deaf are born dumb too and if we hold a musical instrument with our teeth and stop our ears we shall hear the sound perfectly CHAP. XX. 1. How wee excell the beasts in smelling Wee smell reall odours 2. Smells nourish not 3. The nose not the brain is the organ of smelling I. THOUGH the beasts excel us in the sense of smelling in respect of celerity and way of reception yet in respect of dijudication and differencing the diversities of smells wee exceed them for our brains being bigger colder and moister then those of beasts cannot so quickly receive the smell But because of the reasonable soul we judge better of
the skin which heat is also perceived by its bitterness but cold is most predominant or else we may say that it exâ—ites venery accidentally by temperating the excessive heat of the body which is an enemy to Venus The like effect is wrought by Mandrakes which perhaps was the cause that Rachel so much desired them Nor must we think it strange that the Opium produceth contrary effects for we know that the same Rose in some part of it hath a stiptick in other parts a laxative quality IX The plague to which our bodies are subject is an occult poyson killing us by the breath or touch and not an Hectick Feaver becaâ—se this drieth and burneth up the heart by degrees the plague kils suddâ—nly 2. The Hectick is not infectious as this 3. In a confirmed Hectick there is no recovery in the Plague divers recover nor is the pestilence a putrid Feaver because 1. the pulse is more remiss the urine clearer the head ach thirst and agitation of the body less in the plague then in a putrid Feaver 2. Because a pestilential feaver followes upon a 〈…〉 this is â—on that begins X. Epidemical diseases whereof pestilential are the most perhitious are conveyed to us by the air which we are continually attracting to the heart and brains 1. either when the air is infected with the impression of malignant and occult qualities from the influence of the Stars or 2. when it is poysoned with putrified corrupt and pernitious vapours exhaled out of pits caves ditches putrified lakes c. Or 3. When the prime qualities of the air to wit heat cold c. are intensive beyond ordinary but we must not think that the substance of the air is at any time putrified for being a simple body it is not subject to putrifaction CHAP. VI. 1. Antipathies to some meats 2. The force of Fear 3. Blood voided by the Gums and Navil 4. Black hairs suddenly gray 5. Violence of passions 6. Defects in nature recoÌ„mpensed 7. A Fly voided by Vrine 8. Monethly bloud in men 9. The causes of Monsters 10. Horns on mens heads and heels AS there are divers temperaments of men so there are divers sympathies and antipathies to certain meats and drinks some cannot indure the sight or smel of Cheese others abhor eggs others flesh others bread some cannot abide wine others abhor piggs and all kinde of swines flesh many cannot endure the smel of apples others detest all kind of sweet meats and which is most strange thaâ— the smel of Roses so pleasing to most men is odious and deadly to others Cardinal Carafa during the time of Roses used to inclose himself in a Chamber not permitting any to come near him that had Roses as Wierus Valerian shews in his Hieroglyphicks the smell of a Rose would cause a certain Jacobin swoun and be like a dead man as Amatus Lusitanus recordeth in his second Centurie the like is written of divers others This must either proceed from an occult quality or from the distemper of the phantasie and prejudicate opinion that some have of such things that they are hurtful to them or else it is in some an hereditary infirmity proceeding from the parents for Forestus writes that in a certain family the sons could not ear Cheâ—se but the daughters could eat it with a good appetite becauâ—â— the mother did love Cheese but the father could not abide it See his Annotations on the fifth Observation lib. 4. II. Fear is more powerfull in curing of diseases then any Physitians in the world for Zacutus l. 2. Obs. 86. speaks of a woman whose matrix had fallen and hung out of its place two years together neither could any Physick or Art replace it again till a sudden fear attracted it she feeling the mice running up her thighes which she had purposely holding them by a thread let run towards the part the matrix suddenly slipt into its own place again III. Nature is more skilfull then any Physitian to cure her self and if she cannot finde a way for evacuation of her superfluities she will with Hannibal make a way though it be through Rocks for he shewes that the ordinary passage of the menstruous blood being stopped in a certain woman Nature made her a passage through the gums out of which monthly for two days together great store of blood was voided He speaks of another who on the like occasion had a vent for the blood through the navel lib. 2. Obs. 91 92. IV. That black hairs should become suddenly white may to some seem incredible yet we have stories of this sudden change Scaliger Exercit. 212. tells us of one Francis Gonzaga who being imprisoned upon suspition of treason in one night his black hair turned white Vives in his Preface on Scipio's Dream and Hadrian Iunius in Comment de Coma. c. 10. speaks of a young Spanish Gentleman who in a night became as white as one of 80 years old Caelius Rodiginus in his 13 Book Antiq. lect speaks of another who searched after young Hawkes upon a high steep Rock and fearing the rope would break with which he was held became instantly white Divers other examples I could alledg but these are sufficient to let us see that the change of our hairs which is perform'd by nature in space of time ordinarily is upon an extraordinary fear effected suddenly in some the roots of the hairs being deprived of that heat and radical moisture between the flesh and skin of the head by which they were fed the spirits and blood flying suddenly to the heart leave the other parts destitute This we see in trees when blasted with a piercing cold wind their leaves suddenly change colour and of green become yellow their naturall heat and moysture being extinguished and dried up V. There is no passion in our bodies more violent then fear which distempers the fantasie troubles the other senses causeth our hairs to stand an end makes us dumb all which the Prince of Poets expressed in one verse Obstupui steteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit and indeed the fear of death hath upon some brought sudden death the spirits heat and blood flying suddenly to the heart by which this is oppressed and the senses left destitute Others by sudden fear have lost their judgement and become distracted strange effects also are produced in us by excessive anger and joy â—o that some have suddenly died with immediate anger and excessive joy the spirits and heat flying suddenly from the heart into the exterior parts by which means syncopes swoundings and death follow As I could instance in many examples VI. I observe that where Nature is defective in one part there is a recompence made for they who are born blind exceed us in memory and they who are born deaf and dumb excell us in apprehension they who are born without hands or arms perform with their feet what we do by our hands Phil. Camerarius in his Historical meditations c. 37. speaks
vvhich there are seminal spirits is not prejudiced by the vvater vvhere it is shed but the male fishes cast their seed upon the spawâ— vvhich the females leave in the vvater as Aristotle Pliny AElian Albertus and others do shew Lastly vvee must not think all the stories false vvhich are written of the Incubi vvhich vvere evil spirits conveying the masculine seed to the place of generation of vvhich there have been conceptions For to deny this saith Augustine lib. 15. de Civit. Dei cap. 23. doth argue impudence considering the many testimonies and examples of the same yet I deny not but the imagination is sometimes deluded but not still as Wierus thinks and I know also that Incubus is the same disease with Ephialtes yet it will not follow that there are no evill spirits called Incubi and Succubi For to deny such vvere to accuse the ancient Doctors of the Church and the Ecclesiastick Histories of falshood vvhich affirm that the Catecbumeni vvere much troubled vvith these Incubi This vvere also to contradict the common consent of all Nations and experience There is then a double Incubus the one natural called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vvhich is caused in sleep by a frigid grosse vapour filling the ventricles of the brain and prohibiting the animall spirits to passe through the nerves vvhereby the imagination is hurt so that they think they are oppressed vvith a great vveight This disease is much like the Epilepsia but somwhat milde The other Incubus is Diabolical III. That some men can in their sleep perform those actions which they neither could nor durst do when awaked is known by Histories and experience Marianus cap. ad audientiam witnesseth that he had a Maid vvho in her sleep could rise and make bread as if she had been awaked Francis Mendoza l. 6. de Flor. knew one vvho vvould rise in his sleep and in the night time vvalked out vvith his naked sword vvith vvhich hee struck some of the City guard but at last being vvounded vvas awaked Tirannel in Mendoza speaks of an English man in Paris vvho rose in his sleep vvent down towards the river Sene vvhere having met vvith a Boy he killed him and so returned being all this vvhile asleep to his bed Horstius de noctambulis vvrites of one vvho in his sleep usually vvould arise go up and down the stairs lock and unlock his chests He speaks of another vvho dreamed he vvas to ride a Journy riseth puts on his cloaths boots and spurs gets up into the Window vvhere he sate stradling beating the vvals vvith his spurs till hee vvas awaked And he sheweth that at Helmstad one rose in his sleep vvent down the stairs into a Court from thence toward the Kitchin neer vvhich vvas a deep Wel into this he went down holding fast to the stones by his hands and feet but when hee touched the vvater with the cold thereof he vvas awaked and finding in what danger he was gave a pitiful out-cry which awaked those in the house who having found him got him out and brought him to his bed where he lay many days speechlesse and immoveable being extreamly weakned with fear cold and crying Another story he hath no lesse strange then this of a young Gentleman vvho in his sleep arose naked carrying his shirt in his hand and by the help of a rope clambers up to a high Turret in the Castle where he then was Here he findes a nest of Mag-pies which he robs and puts the young ones in his shirt and so by the same rope comes down again and returns to his bed The next morning being awaked tells his brother how he dreamed that he had robb'd a Pies nest and withal wondring what was become of his shirt riseth and findes it at his beds feet with the young birds wrapt up in it To these examples wee may add that of Lot who in his sleep begot his two daughters with childe This Dr. Brown Book 7. c. 6 will not admit though he hath a direct Text of Scripture against him For there it is said Gen. 19. That Lot neither knew when his daughters lay down nor when they rose up Which words are expounded by Irenaeus c. 51. cont Haeres That Lot had neither pleasure nor consent nor sense nor knowledge of this act Chrysostome affirms the same expounding these words Lot saith he Hom. 44. in Genes was so intoxicated with wine that he knew not at all what he did lest he should be guilty of so great a crime acting in this neither wittingly nor willingly S. Austin is of the same minde Cont. manic l. 22. and other Expositors Now if one ask how sleeping men can do such things I answer it is partly by the strength of Imagination which is more active in sleep then when we are awake 2. All sleepers are not apt for such actions but such whose natures are melancholy or cholerick whose spirits are more fervent subtil and agile then others moving the bmuscles and by them the body though the outward senses be ound up by sleep 3. They catch not that hurt in their sleep which they would do if awaked because their senses are not avocated by other objects they have no apprehension of fear their imagination is more intent in sleep and withal their Genius or good Angel is carefull of them IV. I read of divers both beasts and men which have lived a long time without meat or drink We know that Swallows Cuckows Dormice diuers other animals sast all the Winter The like is recorded of Lizards Serpents Water-Crocodiles Bears and other ravenous beasts whose bodies by reason of their humidity and rapacity are full of crudiâ—les by which they are fed in the Winter Mendosa dâ— Flor. Philos. Probl. 24. speaks of a Hen in his time which lived eighty dayes without food and vvater Cardan de subtil l. 10. writes that the Indian bird called Manucodiata lives only in the aire upon dew as Grashoppers do Rondâ—letius l. 1. de Piscib c. 12. shews that his wife kept a fish three years in a glasse without any other food but water and yet the fish grew so big that the glasse could not at last contain it And I have kept Spiders my self in a glasse which I dismissed after they had fasted nine months The Camelion also liveth upon the air Oscitans vescitur follicans ruminat de vento cibus saith Tertullian in Pallio I have seen a Camelion which was brought hither from Africa by sea and kept in a box which all the while was never seen to feed on any thing else but air Yet D. Brown Book 3 c. 21. will not have air to be his food for these reasons 1. Because Aristotle and AElian speak nothing of this Ans. Neither do they speak any thing against it which likely they would have done if they had thought their feeding on aire had been fabulous They do not speak of what food each animal is sustained and though they doe
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and afterward were palces in this 5. He will have the just magnitude of the Sun and Starres to depend upon our senses and to be no bigger then they seem to our eye so that the bignesse of the Sun cannot exceed a foot 6. He tels us that the Sun every night perisheth and every day is generated 7. He acknowledgeth no other happinesse then what consists in the pleasure of tasting smelling seeing hearing feeling or venery as may be seen in Laertius 8. He makes all things to have their existence not by providence but by hap-hazard of Atoms and not the bodies of things onely but the reasonable souls of men also which he makes subject to uncertainty 9. He makes all the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with humane shapes 10. He reacheth as Plutarch tels us that there is no qualities in things but what the senses apprehend so that the same wine may be both sweet and source according to the palat that tasts it and hot water is not hot but coole if a man conceit it to be so 11. He makes his doctrine fit for all mens humours he commends wealth to the covetous discommends it to the prodigall and riotous he praiseth gormondising to the Glutton dispraiseth it to the abstenious he tells the continent venery is hurtful but to the wanton that it is delightful and pleasant 12. He sheweth himself to be a prophane Atheist in despising Religion making it a tyrant to keep men in aw a pernitious device and a scar-crow to terrifie and enslave the vvorld And now lest any might think that Epicurus is wronged and that these damnable opinions are fathered upon him causlesly I will not alledge Cicero Plutarch Lactantius and others that have professedly written against him but his prime Scholar Lucretius who highly commends him as being the first that freed the World from the bondage and slavery of Religion His words are these Humana ante oculos faede quum vita jaceret In terris oppressa gravi sub relligione Quae caput ◠coeli regionibus ostendeba◠Horribili super adspectu mortalibus instans Primum Graius homo mortales tendere contra Est oculos ausus primusque obsistere contra Quem neque fama Deûm nec fulmina nec minitanti Murmure compressit coelum c. And so he goes on glorying in the conquest and victory that Epicurus had got over religion Quare relligio pedibus subjecta vicissim obteritur nos exaequat victoria coelo His other wicked and absurd opinions you may see mentioned and commended by the same Poet through all his Poem so that the Doctor hath no reason to complain that Epicurus is wronged and much lesse cause hath he to commend and pity so prophane and absurd a Writer to call him vertuous who was the greatest enemy that ever vertue had Neither are his many Writings or long life arguments sufficient to prove him an honest man I shall not need spend time and paper in refuting the senslesse and wicked Dictates of Epicurus being fully refuted already by divers eminent Writers both Christians and Gentiles CHAP. XVII Epicurus his Atomes rejected by nineteen reasons BEcause the Doctor speaks oftentimes in his Book of Epicurean Atomes which first were hatched in the brains of Leucippus then entertained by Democritus and by him recommended to his Scholar Epicurus and because some giddy heads of this age loathing wholsome doctrine desire to embrace any trash like women troubled with the Pica who preferre ashes chalk coals tarre and such like stuffe to nourishing meats I will propose to the Readers view the absurdities of this whimsical opinion concerning Atomes that they may see how little reason there is to fil young brains with such empty phantosms and to reject Aristotles wholsome and approved Doctrine of Principles The inventers of these Atomes at first out of a vain-glory that they might seem singular rejected the common received principles of naturall Bodies obtruding on the World their idle dreams which are greedily embraced by the vain-glorious wits of this age but upon what grounds let us see 1. Either many bodies are made up of one atome or one body of many atomes But neither are true not the first because an atome is indivisible not the second because they cannot unite together in respect of vacuity in which they are distant from each other 2. It is a maxime among them saith Aristotle That there is no passibility but by the means of vacuity Now atomes have no vacuity in them because they make them solid therefore they are not subject to passibility it will follow then that where there is no passion there can be no action for passion is the reception of action and therefore where no patient is there no agent can be because that is wanting on which the agent should act Hence it will follow that where there is no action and passion there can be no generation 3. There can be no action where there is no contrariety but contrary qualities are not in atomes for Leucippus as Aristotle saith placed heat in them but not cold hardnesse but not softnesse gravity but not levity 4. These Atomists contradict themselves for they hold their atomes impassible and yet place in them degrees of qualities making some heavier then others by which it will follow that some atomes are hotter then others and consequently they cannot act one upon another For the greater heat acts upon the lesser as the stronger upon the weaker 5. If compounded bodies are made up of atomes then the qualities which are in these bodies were first in the atomes or were not if not whence have compounded bodies their qualities being they are not in their principles If they are in atomes either they are singly so that in each atome there is but one quality as frigidity in one hardnesse in another or else there be divers qualities in one atome If the first be granted then it will follow that each atome hath a different nature from the other and so no possibility for reception of the quality of another and consequently no action if the second be granted then it will follow that atomes are divisible for there must be one part for reception of one quality and another part for the other quality There must be also besides integrall parts matter and form act and passibility which we call essentiall parts so will it follow that atomes are compounded bodies which cannot be principles 6. The uniting of these atomes must be either by themselves or by another if by another then they are passible which is repugnant to Democritus if by themselves then they are divisible into parts to wit into the parts moving and the parts moved For nothing can move itselfe because contrarieties cannot be in the same thing secundum idem 7. They make some of the atomes to be soft it will follow then that some of them are passive for soft things are apt to receive impressions
the pole nor in reciting the instruments of Navigation doth he speak a word of this In no ancient Writer do we find this vertue mentioned nor so much as a name for it in Hebrew Greek or Latin neither do they mention the touching of their sun-dials with it besides Pliny saith the Islanders of Taproâ—an or Sumatra because they cannot see the North carry with them in their ships certain small birds which being let loose by naturall instinct fly to the Land whether the Mariners direct their course after these guides this sheweth they were ignorant of the compaâ—s as Acosta Gomara Pancerol Salmuth and others do prove The Phoenicians and Sidonians were anciently the expertest Navigators of the world yet we find not that they had any knowledge of the compass the Carthagineans indeed by sea viewed all the coast of Mauritania yet they kept close by the shore and though ingenious men did live in old times and were inventors of many rarities yet some things they have left for posterity to finde whereof they were ignorant as Clocks Gunâ— Printing c. therefore the reasons of Lemnius are weak who thinks the Ancients knew the compass and no less infirm is â—he argument of Pineda taken from Solomons knowledge of all things for this word all in Scripture is taken for many and many is taken for all So Christ cured all diseases in S. Matthew that is many so all of those that sleep in the dust of the earth saith Daniel shall arise that is many Solomon then knew all things that is most things and more then other men but I do not think he knew the compasse or all the species of animals vegitables minerals people and places that are found at this day in America nor all the arts invented since nor all the supernaturall works of God His chief knowledge was politicall for government he knew not the future contingencies nor all the secrets in the earth and seas if he knew the polar verticity of the Loadstone then Adam also knew it for his knowledge far exceeded Solomons he gave names to all the creatures according to their natures he lived 930. years a fair time to get experience yet though Adam knew this it will not follow that the compass was used in his time or in Solâ—mons either who knew that Copper and Brass did sound well yet Bels of Copper were not used in his time and whereas Pineda saith that God would not have so useful a thing as the compass hid from man so long I answer that Printing is no less useful which was not known till of late What was more usefull then the Preaching of the Gospel and Incarnation of Christ and yet hid many thousand years from the world God hath his own times to bestow his gifts on men â—or that fable of ships built without irâ—n for fear they should be staied in the failing by the great store of Loadstones neer Calicut is ridiculous for our Europaean ships are continually tratficking that way and they perceive no such things To conclude then ships of old were guided being out of sight of Land not by the compasse but partly by the Tides partly by the Windes and partly by the Stars and Sea-birds and when all these failed they wandred up and down not knowing where they were as we see in AEnaeas his Navigation caecis erramus in undis nec meminisse viae media Palinurus in unda the like we may read in Saint Paules vojage II. The Ancients held that Goats bloud could soften the Adamant and yet resist the hardest hammers this is denied by the Doctor 2 Book c. 5 6 7. and his Lapidaries but their argument is not Logical our Diamonds are not softned by Goats bloud but are mastered by hammers therefore the Ancients Adamants were such All Adamants are not of the same kind for Pliny as we have already said reckoneth six sorts of them and I think it is no greater wonder for bloud to soften a stone then for water to harden a piece of Leather or a stick into a stone 2. He saith that though the substance of Gold be not sensibly immuted or its gravity at all decreased yet from thence vertue may proceed for a body may emit vertue without abatement of weight as is evident in the Loadstone Answ. An accident without a miracle if it be the same numerically cannot pass without the substance in which it is inherent nor can the substance be diminished but the gravity must also be abated Therefore if Gold in the Patients body loseth nothing of its substance and gravity it loseth no part of its vertue if the loss be insensible the vertue communicated to the patient iâ— insensible also and so he that swallows gold receives no good by it For where there is a cure there must be a sense and feeling of the cure As for the Loadstone if it imparts its vertue it parts also with its substance but in so small a quantity that its scarce perceptible but the gold ought to impart much vertue to cure the disease and consequently much of its substance which would be seen by the weight and the cure but neither is sensible and therefore no deperdition but imaginary 3. He cannot apprehend how an iron should grow red hot by motion since in swinging a red hot iron it wil grow cold Answ. That violent motions will excite heat and fire in hard bodies we have already shewed in divers examples Aristotle proves it by the example of Arrows whose Lead will melt with the heat and motion thereof in that part of the air which is near the fire de coelo l. 2. c. 7. Virgil confirms the same speaking of that Arrow which Acestes shot that it took fire in the motion Namque volans liquidis in nuâ—ibus arsit arundo signavitque viam flammis AEn 5. but when he saith that hot iron will grow cold by swinging I grant it because that heat in the iron is meerly accidental and from an external principle it wants pabulous aliment in the iron to maintain it therefore no wonder if encountring with the cold air it extinguish but take a bran or stick of fire and swing it about it will grow redder hotter and more fiery because there is not the bare accident of heat but thâ— substance of fire which is animaâ—ed and quickned by the motion of the air neither is it strange if the violent motion of an Arrow in hot weather and in that part of the aire which is neer the fiery element take fire where we see so many fiery Meteors ingendred But he saith that a bullet shot at paper or linen will not set them on fire it may be so because the bullet is not hot enough having moved but a little way and a smal time you cannot in a long time make paper or linen burn be the fiâ—e never so hot except they touch the flame 4. He will not believe that Coral is soft under water and hard
to it selfe He saith Sect. 91. That paper or wood oyled last long moist but wet with water dry or putrifie sooner the cause is for that air medleth little with the moisture of oyle Answ. He should have told us the cause of this cause for why doth not air medle with oyle as well as with water The reason is because oyle is a more tenacious and dense substance then water and therefore resisteth the heat of the air longer and cannot be so soon evaporated and indeed it is not the air but the heat in the air that works both on water and oile for the cold air drieth up neither it may well harden them Take then two papers the one moystned with water the other with oyle and hold them near the â—re we shall see the one dried up long before the other so that his saying is erroneous when he inferreth Sect. 91. That fire worketh upon oyle as air upon water For indeed the air doth not work upon water but heat in the air or fire nor doth the fire work so soon upon the oyle as on the water when they are at a distance Again he saith That white is a penurious colour and where moisture is scant Answ. There are many things which want moisture and yet are black as divers dry stones and coals many bodies are not scant of moisture and yet are white as Lilies Milk Snow There is as much moisture in a white Swan as in a black Raven But when he saith Sect. 93 That Birds and Horses by age turn white and the gray hairs of men come by the same reason he is mistaken for it is not want or scant of moisture but want of heat rather that is the cause of whitenesse for old men abound more in watrish moisture then young men and therefore we see that cold climats produce white complexions and skins whereas they are black and swarthy in hot Countries Snow is not bred in hot Summers but in cold Winters and hoar frost is ingendred in cold Scithia not in hot Ethiopia Again he is mistaken when he saith Sect. 96 97. That the soals of the feet have great affinity with the head and mouth of the stomach so the wrists and hands have a sympathy with the heart For there is no more affinity between these parts then any other the feet have as great a sympthy with the heart and the wrists with the head as these with the heart and the other with the head If there be any affinity between the head and the feet it is by reason of the nerves and so the same affinity may be to the hands If there be any sympathy between the heart and the wrists it is because of the arteries and so the sympathy may be to the feet It 's true that the heart is affected in Agues by things applied to the wrists not because there is any sympathy between the skin muscles nerves and bones of the wrists with the heart but because the arteries which have their originall from the heart lie more open and are more tangible there then in many other parts of the body and yet in the temples and divers other parts of the body you shall find the pulse as well as in the wrists and things applied to these parts will work as powerfully on the heart as if applied to the wrists His Lordship is angry Sect. 98. Because we call the spirits of Plants and living Creatures Soules such superficiall speculations saith he they have But he should for the same reason be angry with the Scriptures which ordinarily calls the spirits of beasts birds and fishes Souls He must also be angry with all wise Nomenclators which have called living and sensitive creatures Animals because they have animal soules For animal is from anima Again I would know if this word likes him not how he will call these spirits of animals If he call them nothing but spirits then he makes no difference between them and all other tangible bodies For according to his doctrine there are spirits in stocks and stones as well as in plants and animals but I hope the spirits of these deserve another name then of the others which indeed according to the old and true Philosophy are meer qualities which word also he rejects as Logicall as though forsooth Logick or Logicall terms were needlesse whereas no knowledge is more usefull and necessary as being the hand-maid to all Sciences the want of which hath occasioned multitudes of whimzicall conceits and Chimera's in mens brains Again if he will not have these chiefe acts agents or movers in animals to be called souls or spirits but air or vapour or wind he will find that all these three are called by the word Anima 1. Aire is Anima in the Prince of Poets Eclog. 6. Namque canebat uti magnum pir inaâ—e coacta Semina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent 2. Vapour is called anima too in the same Poet AEn 8. Quantum ignes animaeque valent 3. The wind is anima also in Horace Impellunt animae lintea Thracie and animus in the Poet AEn 1. Mollitque animos temperat iras So then call the Spirits of animals what you will air vapour wind or spirit you will still find anima or soul is the term most proper for them and that this is no superficiall speculation My Lord in his second Century sect 11. Makes pictures and shapes but secondary objects to the eye but colours and order the things that are pleasing to the sight If he had said That colours are the chief objects of the eye he had spoken more properly then to say they are pleasing to the eye for some colours are very displeasing to some eyes As for order that is not at all the object of the sight for it is a relation and relations incurre not into the senses Again he saith sect 114. That the sense of hearing striketh the spirits more immediatly then the other senses This is a very improper saying for the senses are patients in receiving the species of their objects not agents upon their objects If there be any action of dijudication that is the work of the phantasie rather then of the outward sense and though I should yeeld that there were some actions of the eye yet the sense of hearing is meerly passive and therefore it is not the sense of hearing that striketh the spirits but the species of the sound which is received by the spirit in the auditory nerve and so conveyed into the phantasie so it is not the smelling as he saith that worketh on the spirits but the object that worketh on the sense of smelling Again when he saith sect 117. That dores in fair weather give no sound he speakes by contraries for if by fair weather he means dry weather then dores give the greatest sound I know not what kind of dores his were but mine sound much in dry Summers and but little in moist weather And this stands
creature depends on it therefore Nature preserves it longest from diseases and as soon as the heart is ill-affected the body droopeth 6. Sensitive creatures can live some without Lungs some without a Spleen some without Kidneys some without a Gall some without a Bladder but none can live without the Heart or something answering to the Heart as bloudless animals 7. The Heart is admirable in its motions if either we consider the manner or perpetuity thereof or that it is of it self not depending upon our will or pleasure II. The actions of our members depend originally from the temperament of the â—imular parts but in respect of perfection and consummation from the conformity and right situation of the Organ so the temperament of the Chrystalline humor is the efficient cause of sight but the situation and conformity of the parts of the eye is the perfecting or consummating cause For if the Chrystalline or other parts of the eye were otherwise situated we should either not see â—o well or not at all III. That there are no spermatical parts as Nerves Bones Veins c. but sanguineal only is plain by these reasons â— To make more material causes then one is to multiply entities needlesly whereas the menstruous bloud is sufficient matter for all the parts which because it is the matter of our bodies it had an inclination disposition or potentiality to all parts and because the work to be produced was Heterogenious and the form heterogenious therefore the matter had an heterogenious potentiality as well to those parts which the Physitians call spermatical as to the sanguineal 2. I would know which be the spermatical parts of an Egge not the white for of that they grant the whole Chick is formed not the yelk for that is they say the food of the Chick and yet we see the Chick hath bones and other spermatical parts as they call them If then Bones and Nerves are no seminall parts in a Chick neither are they in a Childe the reason being alike in both 3. The spermatical parts are nourished by the blood then doubtless they were generated of blood for iisdem nutrimur ex quibus constamus and there can be no nourishment without transition and transinutation of the blood into the parts nourished Now to say that the blood which nourisheth these parts becomes seed or spermatical is to employ the testicles in continual working of seed for nutrition of the spermatical parts how can so much seed be generated and by what vessels shall they be carried to the upper parts of the body 4. The heart and liver are sanguineal parts then doubtless the nerves arteries and veins which are from them bee sanguineal IV. The Bones Nerves Arteries Veins and Grissles being cut or broke are not so easily re-united as the fleshy parts not because they are spermatical but because they are harder and drier then the fleshy for in children while they are soft and moist they are easily reunited and the Veins which are softer then the Arteries are sooner healed for the hardness thickness and perpetual motion of the Arteries hinder its coalition 2. Likewise where there is defect of natural heat as in old men these are hardly knit together For heat is the chief Artificer or Agent in the body 3. And where there is defect of matter or radicall moisture the cure is difficult as in old men 4. If there be not a sufficient time given the cure will never be effected Thus the heart being wounded is never united because life flieth before the cure can be performed V. The spermatical parts by most are counted colder then the sanguineal which cannot be for we find by experience that there is more heat in the stomach then in the liver for it is a greater heat that turns bones or such hard meats into a liquid substance then this which turns our liquid substance into another to wit the Chylus into blood If it be objected that those creatures whose stomachs are incompassed with flesh concoct best I answer it is true not because the flesh is hotter then the stomach but because it keeps in the heat thus though our cloaths keep in our heat no man will say that they are hotter then we for this cause our bones and nerves are wrapped about with flesh and yet these are hotter then the flesh in their opinion that call them spermatical for they conâ—efs that the seed is hotter then the bloud therefore that which is generated of seed must needs be hotter then that which is begot of blood If it be objected that the seed is hot in respect of its spirits but cold in respect of its matter I answer that if the matter of the seed were not hot it could not so much abound in spirits for by the heat the spirits are begot and not heat by the spirits therefore when the heat fails the spirits fail Hence it is that the animal spirits in the nerves move not the hand when it is benummed with cold but let the hand be warmed and then the spirits have life again 2. Those parts which they call spermatical are more sensible of the cold and sooner offended by it then the sanguineal parts and therefore must needs be hotter for one contrary is most sensible of another thus are we more sensible of a little cold in Summer when we are hot then of a great deal in Winter Southern people whose bloods are hot are sooner offended with cold then the Northern whose constitution is colder 3. The heat of the bladder which they call a spermatical part is so great that it can bake the slimy substance of the urine into a hard stone which argue s its heat above the sanguineal parts Some Physitians answer that this is done not because of the heat but by reason of the long stay and sliminess of the matter but they must know that the slimy matter is meerly passive and that it is the heat which is the agent and artificer of the stone as for the long stay that is but a help for time is no agent 4. That the bones are hot is manifest for they have much fat in them as we see in bones when they are burned and a greater heat was required to bring them to that hardness then the ordinary heat of the sanguineal parts VI. The brain was not made for the skul but the skul for the brain therefore it is like they were formed both together and that the skul was proportioned to the bigness of the brain and not this to the bigness of the skull 2. The brain and skull were placed uppermost for the eyes which were to be neer the brain because of the spirits and optick nervs which by reason of their softness were fittest to be implanted in the eye otherwise they had been too hard for the nerve is harder as it is farther from the brain and no place was so fit for the eyes which were to watch over the body as the