of thin Transparent Substance and of a sweetish taste inclining somewhat to Subacide and is endued with Fermentative disposition as it is a serous and saline part of the Blood impraegnated with volatil saline Particles derived from Nervous Liquor transmitted into the body of the Pancreas and mixed with serous Particles which are conveyed by a common Duct into the Intestines where it meeteth with the Chyle in which it raiseth an Effervescence in it by which it is exalted and refined by defaecating the pure parts from the impure Another Humour and that noble too The fourth Ferment is the nervous Liquor exalting the Intestine Motion of the Chyle and Blood may be stiled the Nervous Liquor impraegnated with Animal Spirits and Volatil Saline and Aereal Particles whose spirituous and elastic body doth much assist Fermentation in the production of Chyle and Blood by relaxing the Compage of Alimentary and Vital Liquor and in reducing the contrary Aliments in these Heterogeneous Bodies into action whence ariseth an Effervescence of these Liquors commonly stiled Fermentation This Animal Juice associateth with that limpid Liquor in the Salival Glands where it is very much enobled by its spirituous active Ingeny and giveth a farther improvement to the serous Liquor of the Blood which exuding the inward Coat of the Stomach giveth a farther digestion of the Aliment and entereth into society with the Juice of the Pancreas by rendring it more spirituous and active to impart a greater attenuation to the Chyle in the Intestines From whence it being transmitted Chyle is impregnated with nervous Liquor in the Glands of the Mesentery into the Mesenteric Glands doth there embody with the Animal Juice which giveth it a greater exaltation and maketh it more fit to enter into alliance with the Blood in the Subclavian Veins and Ventricles of the Heart and substance of the Lungs where it giveth impraegnation to the Blood as much contributing to its Intestine Motion The Succus Nervosus also communicates a power to the serous Liquor of the Blood to be exalted in the Cortical Glands of the Brain in reference to the formation of Animal Liquor and Spirits And in the Viscera The Viscera are colatories of the Blood the Spleen Liver and Kidneys these noble Colatories of the Blâ—â—d the Nervous Liquor is ministerial to the Purple Liquor and by enlarging its Pores giveth it a disposition of Secretion which is lastly accomplished by Percolation made by various Cavities of different kinds of Vessels which I shall endeavour more clearly to set forth in Treating of Secretion and Percolation of Liquors CHAP. IV. Of the Fermentative Power of Aethereal and Aereal Particles advancing the Chyle and Blood of Humane Bodies THe most exalted Ferments are Aethereal The highest Ferments are caelestial Emanations which are as quick in Motion as active in Qualities and is most wisely Contrived by that most Glorious Agent by an excellent Aeconomy in the first Constitution of Things that Inferiour Bodies should be acted by the Influences of Superiour whereupon Caelestial Bodies as common Parents in the production of Sublunary Entities do improve their Seminal Vertues by imparting new and more spirituous dispositions to their sluggish Matter So that Aethereal Particles being of a kind of Divine Extract as Emanations of Caelestial Bodies do penetrate into the Minute Pores of solid Substances and the more free passages of Fluid Bodies and their Compages enlarged by a sublimed heat and influences do cause great Expansions in the noble Liquors of Mans Body raising their Fermentation to a great Refinement Subtle Aethereal Particles do easily insinuate themselves into the less Active Bodies Aethereal Particles being of a subtle nature are easily conceived into the bodies of the Alimentary Vital and Nervous Liquors Nutricious Vital and Nervous Liquor And these fine Irradiations being of a Volatil Ingeny have inclination to mount upward toward their former Stations to associate with Similar Substances were they not detained below within the more fixed confinements of Earthy Bodies And seeing all Intestine Motion is celebrated between contrary Agents according to that great Philosopher in his Book De Generatione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agere pati sunt contrariorum Aethereal influences propagated from bright Luminaries being thin spirituous Substances do come from above to meet here below with dull Earthy Bodies where they raise disputes in Waters making great Intestine Motions to advance the gross dispositions of inferiour Beings and elevate them to a higher degree of Perfection by somewhat of Assimilation which these lower Bodies do gain by their Converse with the more sublime Aethereal Influences derived from Caelestial bodies Again Bodies suffering great comminutions have their particles dressed with different shapes and sizes else they will be despoiled of all intestine Motion with which they are acted because when many Bodies are endued with an equality of Figures and Magnitudes they cannot long if at all partake of Motion which consisteth in an open Compage of moveable substances by reason their distant parts will soon reduce themselves close to each other produced by an equality of sides which making their nearer applications to each other the intermedial spaces are filled up and the intestine Motion consequently ceaseth So that these minute spirituous Particles flowing from the beams of the Sun and other Planets and Starrs of greater or less Magnitudes are darted into the Pores of all sublunary Bodies whose nimble Motions could produce little or no impressions as Ferments in this lower Orbe if they should meet with liquid Subjects only perforated with streight Pores accommodated with regular Figures by reason they would find no resistance speedily running through these regular Passages and cause little or no Inte-Motion Whereupon these aethereal Particles not consisting of irregular Angles Aethereal Particles made up of regular Angles move with great swiftness in right Lines do naturally stream with the greatest swiftness imaginable in right Lines through all Pores of other Bodies adorned with uniform Figures which give aethereal Influences free passages readily to be transmitted without giving check to their direct course thereby making by reason of their smooth abode little alteration in Bodies penetrated with such inexpressible quickness But the Liquors of Mans Body composed of Heterogeneous Principles are brought by Motion into minute Parts Liquors of Mans Body broken into small particles are endued with divers shapes and Sizes furnished with variety of Magnitudes and Figures holding no exact fitness with each other must needs have empty spaces interceding their sides whereupon they cannot make so near accesses to each other by reason of their disproportioned sides and unequal Angles giving freedom to the minute agitated Parts to play up and down and continue their Motion Whereupon aethereal Influences acted with subtil Particles do insinuate themselves through the secret Passages of our Body in its fluid Parts adorned with numerous Angles and irregular sides which do hinder the over-hasty Motion of Celestial Influences
whence the Digestion of the Stomach is very much weakned The weakned Tone may be derived from a faint heat of the Blood it may also proceed from a cold and moist temper of the Ventricle and the Chyle rendred Crude which also may be deduced from the faint heat of the Ventricle derived from a dispirited Mass of Blood in Hectick Fevers and other Chronick Distempers of the Body as also when the heat of the Stomach becometh languid by reason the Blood the Subject and Principal if not the sole cause of the heat of the whole Body hath greater access then ordinary to the Brain in profound Thoughts in great Study Cares and Grief The Aliment also is rendred Indigested in a Bradupepsy or infirm Digestion flowing from a cold and moist Distemper of the Stomach in Dropsies wherein the Blood accompanied with too large a proportion of watry Recrements loseth much of its natural heat and briskness and addressing it self by motion to the Stomach much weakneth its Concoctive Faculty The vital heat of the Blood doth actuate exalt and enliven the Stomach and reduce its Ferments consisting of contrary Principles into action commonly called Concoction celebrated by Intestine Motion wherein the Particles of the Mixtum relating to Aliment are Agitated Warmed and Rarefied and the different parts being separated one from another the Homogeneous and Alimentary Particles grow more Spirituous embodying themselves as being near akin do Assimilate and Perfect each other and the Heterogeneous and grosser parts are separated from the Alimentary as being destructive of them all which are performed by a regular heat exciting the Ferments and bringing them into act But when the heat of the Stomach is diâ—ordered the Fermentation is unkindly when the Ferments are not enlivened by a laudable heat of the Stomach whereupon the contrary Elements of the Aliment do not enter into a brisk Contest one with another wherein the Spirituous parts are not duly exalted and the grosser not well separated from the pure whereupon the Alimentary extract is rendred Crude and Indigested An imperfect Concoction A weak digestion may proceed from too great a quantity of Meat or no good order in receiving it is not only derived from a disaffected natural heat and from the weakned Tone of the Stomach but from an external Error by reason of too great a quantity of Meat and Drink over-powering the heat and Ferments of the Stomach or by too great a Solidity so that they cannot enter into the more close Compage of the hard Aliment whereupon a well digested Liquor cannot be Extracted Or when a good order of Eating is not observed according to Time when new Nourishment is entertained into the Stomach before the former is Concocted or when Meats of different kinds some of hard and others of easie Digestion are received into the Ventricle and confound each other by their various Dispositions or when we eat such Meats which are averse to our Nature all which speak a great trouble to the Stomach and afford a Crude and imperfect Alimentary Liquor And one of the chief causes of an imperfect Concoction And one main cause of a weak digestion is the ill Air. is the ill disposition of the Ferments of the Stomach when the purity of the Air is defloured with gross and putrid Vapours exhaling the Earth and Water or when the Salival Liquor is incrassated and mixed with Phlegm or disaffected with fixed Saline Particles or when the Succus Nutricius is depauperated or despoiled of good Animal Spirits and Volatil Salt or when the Serous Liquor flowing from an ill or dispirited Mass of Blood is Transmitted into the Stomach whereupon it being destitute of laudable Ferments cannot perfect the elaboration of Alimentary Liquor which being gross and indigested and embodied with the Blood is productive of many Diseases in several parts of the Body which have been recounted in a more full Discourse The third kind of ill Concoction The depraved operation of the Concoctive Faculty relating to the Stomach is its Depraved Operation called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein the Alimentary Liquor extracted out of Meat is corrupted by sweet fat and oily Aliments easily degenerating in some Stomachs into Cholerick Humours which being severed from the Blood in the Glands of the Liver are thence Transmitted by the Hepatick Duct into the Duodenum and afterward by an inverted Peristaltick Motion thrown into the Stomach whereupon the Bilious Recrements being embodied with the Aliment do spoil the goodness of the Chyle and impart a nauseous trouble to the Stomach and an ill Taste to the Mouth resembling now and then stinking Fish fried Oyl and other times rotten Eggs and the like Thus having given some account of the several kinds of ill Concoction I will now endeavour to speak somewhat of the Curative part of these various Indispositions As to the first If an Apepsy or an Abolished Concoction The lost Concoctive Faculty proceeding from an ill Tone of Stomach coming from Blood intercepting the course of the Animal Liquor denoteth Blood-letting be caused by an ill Tone of the Stomach by the course of the Animal Liquor intercepted in its Motion toward the Par Vagum inserted into the Stomach proceeding in an Apoplexy and the other Soporiferous Diseases proceeding from an Exuberance of Blood compressing the Nervous Fibrils of the Brain it indicates a free evacuation of Blood by opening of the Jugular Vein and by the application of Cupping Glasses to the Shoulders and Neck and sometimes Vomitings Cephalick Pills and Alteratives which I shall propound more largely hereafter in the Cures of Diseases belonging to the Brain When the Stomacick Fibres do loose their Tone arising from Sleepy Distempers by want of Animal Liquor and Spirits which should move into the Stomacick Nerves derived from the grossness of the Nervous Liquor propagated from a crude Chrystalline part of the Blood the Materia Substrata of Animal Juice this may be corrected by Chalybeat Medicines and Testaceous Pouders The grossness of the Nervous Liquor is helped by Chalybeat Medicines and Testaceous Powders drinking upon them free Draughts of Cephalick and Antiscorbutick Apozems to refine the Blood and impraegnate it with volatil saline Particles If the ill Concoction of the Ventricle be produced by a loose Tone of the Stomacick Fibres caused by watry Recrements The loose tone of the Stomach is helped by Corroborating Medicines inducing a cold and moist Temper it indicates Hydragogues and hot and drying Medicines mixed with bitter Ingredients which do Corroborate the relaxed Fibres of the Stomach and repair its weakned Retentive and Concoctive Faculty If the narrowness of the Interstices Blood compressing the Fibres of the Stomach indicates the opening of a Vein belonging to the Fibres of the Stomach do proceed from Blood lodged between the Vessels and compressing the Filaments whereupon the propagation of Nervous Liquor is hindred into the Stomacick Nerves whence ariseth a
Relaxation of the Fibres rendring them unfit for action it indicates the opening of a Vein to sollicite the Motion of the Blood settled in the spaces of the Vessels and also Emollient and Cooling Apozems are to be advised to take off the Inflammation by softening the Tumour and attempering the Mass of Blood And in case an Inflammation do degenerate into an Abscess of the Stomach attended with gross and serous Recrements The Abscess and Ulcer of the Stomach is Cured by cleansing and drying and consolidating Diet Drinks it indicates cleansing and drying Medicines And as an Ulcer the consequent of an Abscess it supposeth a violated union of parts and requireth Consolidating Applications to reduce the broken Fibres to Union Tone and Vigor in order to their proper actions of Retention and Concoction of Aliment The Emaciation of the substance of the Stomach is Cured by cold and moist and Restorative Drinks In reference to an Emaciated indisposition of the Stomach as it ariseth from a hot and dry Temper in a Hectick Fever it is Obviated with Cold Moist and Restorative Drinks reducing the Blood and integrals of the Stomach to their natural Temper and Constitution The irregular distention of the Stomach The Inflation of the Stomach is Cured by Emollient and Discutient Medicines proceeding from an Inflation of Wind over-much streining and weakning the Carnous and Nervous Fibres doth denote Purging Emollient and Discutient Medicines to free the Stomach from its importunate Guests and to bring the Fibres to their former Temper and Strength to give them the advantage of Contracting themselves for the repose and due Fermentation of the Aliment A Cure also may be had The foulness of the Stomâ—ch is dischaâ—ged by Vomiting Purging and opâ—ning Medicines aâ—d Astringents at last to strengthen the Tone of the Stomach to take away the depraved Concoction of the Stomach depending upon the abundance of Cholerick Recrements floating in the Ventricles whereupon gentle Vomiting Purging and Aperient Medicines are to be advised to discharge the Stomach of its troublesome attendants and afterward bitter and astringent Apozems Testaceous Powders are to be given to strengthen the Tone of the Stomach to conserve its Contents till the Milky Tincture is extracted by a due Intestine Motion The Concoctive Faculty is not only disaffected by reason of the lost and weakned Tone of the Stomach but also by the distempered natural Heat by ill Ferments and by default of the Aliment As to the first The heaâ— of the Stomach doth denote cooling and tempâ—rate Julaps The Concoction is much discomposed sometimes by too intense and othertimes by too remiss Degrees of natural heat of the Stomach chiefly if not wholly derived from the Vital Spirits and heat of the Blood the cause of Life and Intestine Motion which if disordered in Fevers doth indicate cooling Medicines and temperate Cordial Julaps and Apozems which do attemper the Mass of Blood whose fiery Steams and Recrements are also very happily discharged by the Cutaneous Glands secerning the hot and impure parts of the Blood from the more temperate and pure through the Excretory Ducts and Pores of the Skin which may be safely promoted by gentle Diaphoreticks whereupon the disaffected heat of the Blood is reduced to its natural Temper and the Concoctive Faculty repaired As to the remiss Degrees of heat in the Stomach The cool and moist temper proceeding from serous Recrements is Cured by gentle Hydragogues and warm Diureticks they may spring from cold and moist Humors diluting the Blood in Hydropick Distempers whose Potulent Matter overchargeth and chilleth the Purple Liquor which may be discharged by gentle Hydragogues and warm Diureticks sometimes impraegnated with Acid and sometimes with Lixivial Salts and sometimes with fixed and saline Particles volatized by the Heat and Spirit and principally by the Volatil Salt of the Blood whence it being put into Fermentation caused by the active and pungent parts of different Salts hath recourse to the Kidneys in whose Glands a separation being made and the watry Liquor disserviceable to the Blood is discharged by the Urinary Vessels into the Pelvis and Ureters and the depurated Blood returned again by the Emulgent and hollow Vein into the Heart and so passeth by several Vessels of the Lungs and through the left Ventricle of the Heart into the descendent Trunk of the Aorta and Caeliack Artery into the Stomach whose heat is enlivened by the separation of the watry Recrements of the Blood in the Kidneys and by the temperate Drinking of moderate Astringent Wines which do chear up the remiss heat and strengthen the infirm Tone of the Stomach The ill Ferments of the Stomach the efficients of the bad Elaboration of Aliment is caused by gross Air affected by ill Steams by indisposed Salival Serous and Nervous Liquor First A good Air doth highly assist the Concoctive Faculty The Air is ill qualified when Stagnant in woody Countreys upon defect of Winds which purge it by Motion or when the Air is corrupted by gross Exhalations arising out of Fenny or Marish Ground or out of standing Waters as Lakes and great Ponds which grow putrid and stench the Air which is also spoiled by noisome Vapors exhaling out of dead and corrupted Bodies not interred or out of Grounds praegnant with ill and poisonous Minerals Wherefore my humble Advise is To make as good provision as may be by seating our selves upon the sides of Hills or dry Grounds in a free and serene Air or if our Houses be built by our Ancestors near Woods or rather in them to cut so much of them down to give an advantage of open Air which much attenuateth the Blood and assisteth Concoction as mixed with the masticated Aliment in the Mouth whereby it doth insinuate it self with it and open its Compage and fit it for a due Fermentation in the Stomach whereupon the alimentary Liquor is extracted by a separation of the faeculent parts from the more pure and beneficial to nature The Concoction also is very much frustrated The defect of salival Liquor is repaired by moist Medicines restorative Drinks and Broths and all kind of thin Suppings either by the defect of good quality in the salival Liquor or by its too sparing quantity when for want of its due proprtion solid Aliment remaineth hard so that it cannot be easily masticated in the Mouth wherein it is broken into small parts with great difficulty as being not diluted with salival Liquors a good Menstruum ordained by nature to assist the Teeth in the Comminution of nourishment which is found in Hectick Fevers and other Chronick hot Distempers of the Body exhausting the Serous Liquor of the Blood and salival Juyce flowing from it which is repaired by the assumption of restorative Drinks Broths Wine thin Apozems made with China and Sarsaparilla Emulsions made of cooling Seeds Barley Water and the like And the salival Liquor is an impediment to Concoction The ill
as having the same frame they may be traced from the upper to the lower inward Tunicle investing the Spleen Some Nervous Fibres do terminate into Glands of the Spleen so that they may import some select Juice into them and some of them into the Caul and others only into the Capsula or the common Integument of the Vessels and into the substance of the Glands relating to the Spleen whereupon it may be thought reasonable that some choice Liquor impraegnated with Animal Spirits and propagated from the Nerves may be transmitted between the Filaments of these Fibres into the Parenchyma of the Glands where as I most humbly conceive it may confederate with the Blood and enoble it with its Volatil Saline Particles The Spleen is not only furnished with great variety of Arteries The Lymphaeducts of the Spleen Veins and Nerves but Lymphaeducts too which Assertion is backed with the Authority of many Learned Authors Malpighius Diemerbroeck Fran. Sylvius Ruischius who hath given us a way how they may be discovered by the Ligature of all the Vessels The origen of the Lymphaeducts and the Amputation of the Spleen These fine Vessels having been seen by divers of the Colledg of Physicians do arise out of the numerous Conglobated Glands and pass not only between the Coats but through the substance of the Spleen and do accompany its Vessels and are beset in their inside with many Valves and do convey a reddish or yellowish Liquor according to Malpighius and according to others a thin Chrystalline Juice through the Spleen and Caul into the common Receptacle The Viscera being so many Masterpieces of Natures elegant Architecture The substance of the Spleen well contrived in the several Apartiments of the Body do speak the wondrous Wisdom and Power of the All-Glorious Creator and the admirable Workmanship of Nature set forth in the curious Frame of many Minute well-wrought Particles finely put together with great Artifice hued with the red affusion of Blood which passing between the Vessels and small Oval Glands of the Spleen do cover the excellent Mysteries of Nature as with a dark Veil Some make its substance to be an affusion of concreted Blood as they conceive in the other Viscera Whereupon divers Disputes have been broached about the Substance of the Spleen which as yet have not been Determined Many Learned Anatomists have thought it to be near akin to that of the Liver and be different only in its more soft and loose Compage and it hath been generally approved heretofore by many great Professors of our Faculty that the substance of the Spleen is a Body of Concreted Blood as a Foundation to support a multitude of tender Vessels which according to them hath much affinity with the other Viscera the Heart Liver and Kidneys Excellent Malpighius Malpighius hath discovered many Membranous Cells in the Spleen to whom the Learned Commonwealth is much indebted for many great discoveries of Natures secrets having made a great search into the inward Recesses of the Spleen hath found the Body of it to be a Systeme of many Membranes formed into divers Cells as so many Minute Apartiments And although the Dissected Spleen seemeth to be framed of Concreted Blood and may be in some part brought into a Fluor by Attrition yet in truth it is a fine aggregate Body of Membranes Vessels and Glands which are very much obscured with the covering of acreted Particles of Blood adhering to many fine parts An Experiment to find out the substance of the Spleen constituting the substance of the Spleen which may be made more evident by the injection of Air the Artery being tied into the Splenick Branch whereupon the body of the Spleen groweth very much Tumefied and somewhat Diaphanous so that the Sinus and small Membranous enclosures may be in some sort discerned as Learned Malpighius hath affirmed it And farther This Learned Author saith The Sinus of the Spleen resemble the Holes of Honey Combs That if the blown up Spleen be dried and an Incision be made into it you may discover its substance for the most part to be integrated of Membranous Sinus and Cells resembling the Holes of Honey Combs in Figure which are very hard to be discovered because while the outside of the Tumefied Spleen is dried the more inward parts do Putrefie and the Ambient grow so condensed that only some footsteps of the Membranous Cavities remain And the Air being forcibly injected by a Blow-pipe first into the Splenick Branch and afterward into the more inward Recesses of the Spleen whereupon the thin Tunicles as so many tender Walls of the Cells are broken and the Spaces become more enlarged So that the structure of a dried Spleen is somewhat obscure and seemeth to be formed after this manner The Venous Duct being large and oblong is enwrapped within a Capsula as a common Covering and runneth in length emitting many small Branches some of them passing crossways and making many Ramulets do seem somewhat to represent in likeness the Fibres besetting the Leaf of a Brake This Splenick Sinus is attended with fruitful Branches of Vessels divers of them determining into the Membranes immuring the ambient parts of the Spleen But the Spaces interceeding the Divarications of Vessels are filled up with Membranous Cells which are tied to Fibres running Transversely and to the Ramifications of Vessels whereby the Angular Walls of the Cells are very much secured from Laceration These Membranous Cavities are not endued with any Regular Figure The Membranous Cells of the Spleen differ in Magnitude and Figure but much differ in shape and size according to the spaces of the Vessels in which they are lodged and these Cells have a communion with each other in one open Orifice which perforate not only the Ramulets but the Trunk too of the Venous Trunk These Membranous Cavities of the Spleen The Holes of the Spleen resemble the Lungs of a Sea Tortoise seem much to resemble the Lungs of a Sea-Tortoise which are a Systeme of many Membranous Cells which appear very plain in the Spleen of a Lion which being despoiled of its Membranes the fragments of the Cavities do accoastion view adorned with various Angles The numerous Membranes of the Spleen are beset with Ramulets of Arteries implanted into them and sometimes make a Reticular work which I have seen in the Lungs of a Sea-Tortoise blown up and Mercury being injected into the Trunk of the Caeliack Artery the Ramulets sporting themselves through the Membranes of the Cells have a fair appearance And now I apprehend it may be worth our inquiry From what parts these Membranous Walls borrow their Origination which in probability is the inward Membrane enwrapping the Spleen by reason the Cells have a firm union with it and its numerous Fibres So that these Membranous Cavities seated in the spaces of the Divaricated Vessels may be well reputed the Propagation of them and do hold great
into the Spleen and doth accommodate it with fruitful Branches and Fibres of Nerves propagated in numerous plexes through the whole frame of the Spleen whose Extreamities are inserted into the substance of the Glands and do dispense Nervous Liquor into the Interstices of their Vessels where it confederates with the Blood impelled out of the termination of the Arteries much exalted with this select Liquor Whereupon it is evident that the Spleen is a Compage for the most part made up of Nerves and Fibres exceeding other Vessels in number carrying Liquor into the Parenchyma of the Glands The use of the Spieen may be to prepare a Ferment for the Liver in order to the secretion of the Bilious Humors from the Blood where it meeteth with the Blood which afterward acquireth an acidity in the Spleen whose taste is sourish upon Boiling so that it may be conjectured that one use of the Spleen may be to prepare a Ferment for the Liver to assist it in order to a Secretion of the Bilious from the more delicate and mild parts of the Blood And to this end the Nervous Liquor inspired with Animal Spirits and impraegnated with Volatil Saline Particles is embodied in the substance of the Glands with the Sub-acid and other Heterogeneous parts of the Blood which is transmitted first into the Extreamities of the Splenick Veins and thence by the Porta into the Glands of the Liver wherein the Splenick Blood mixed with that brought in by the other Branches of the Porta doth open the Compage of the Vital Liquor and dispose it for a secretion of the Bilious parts from the more sweet that they may be received into the Extreamities of the Vasa Fellea and Choledoch Ducts implanted into the substance of the Hepatick Glands CHAP. IV. The Spleen of Beasts THe Spleen of great Beasts as Oxen Deer Sheep Horses c. are adorned with an Oblong Figure somewhat resembling the Tongue of a Bullock and is seated in length downward in the Left Side but in a Lion it is lodged crossways from the Left toward the Right Hypoconder The Spleen of a Lion and hath its †T 17 F. 2. Origen confining on the Left Side which is larger in Dimensions then the other Extreamity and groweth less and less †b. toward its Termination and passeth almost in a straight course †d d d. The Spleen of a Lion hath two Surfaces the upper is convex †T. 17. F. 2. a a a. and is furnished in one part with an eminent Prominence †A. The concave and lower region of the Spleen is crooked as endued with a Semicircular Figure †f f f. It hath its connexion with the Stomach by reason of its Protuberance †g. and is joyned to the But-end of the Pancreas †h h. in its lower Region which is Semicircular The Spleen of a Castor is very small three Inches in length The Spleen of a Cassor not half a one in breadth and a quarter of one in thickness and is endued with a pale Red Colour and a soft substance and resembleth a Fillet or Hairlace fastned to the Stomach The Spleen of an African Goat is beautified with an Oval Figure The Spleen of of African Goat and is seated in the Left Hypocondre and affixed by Membranous interpositions in a great part to the lower region of the Stomach As to the shape of the Spleen of a Dog it is different from that of Mans The Spleen of a Dog and doth not resemble the Tongue of a Bullock as being sharp pointed where it faceth the Midriff The Spleen of an Ape is adorned with a kind of Triangular Figure The Spleen of an Ape of unequal Sides and somewhat resembleth a Scalenum but in truth according to my apprehension it seemeth to resemble the Heart of a Bird and its Base †T. 18. F. 1. F. is adjoyning to the greatest part of the Pancreas and its Cone is turned upward †T. 18. F. 1. k. In a subtle Beast called by the Latines Hyaena The Spleen of an Hyaena it is hued in some part with a Red Colour and in another with a Livid and is harder in substance then the Liver and less in bulk and in reference to situation it is lodged from the Left Hypocondre toward the fore part of the lowest Venter and resembleth in shape the compressed Legs of an Infant The Spleen of an Indian Bore The Spleen of an Indian Bore is not seated under the Ribs of the Left Side as in Man and in most perfect Animals but cross the lower Venter as in a Lion and is fastned by Ligaments to the fat Membranes of the Kidneys and is almost two handfuls in length and but a Finger in thickness The Spleen of a Tygre is less in Dimensions then that of a Lion The Spleen of a Tygre and is biggest above in its Origen and groweth less and less toward its Termination and is hued with a bright florid red Colour The Spleen of a Porcupine doth encircle in its embraces The Spleen of a Porcupine a great part of the Stomach to which it is not at all affixed by any Ligament or Membranous interposition The Spleen of a Hare is very small in Dimensions The Spleen of a Hare which are somewhat greater in its beginning and very Minute in its Termination which endeth in a kind of Point it is fastned to the Stomach by the mediation of Vessels In a Hedg-Hog The Spleen of a Hedg-Hog it is endued with a longish round Figure or rather with an obtuse Cone in one part and with a more acute in the other and is fastned to the Stomach by the help of a Membrane The Spleen of a Land Tortoise The Spleen of a Land Tortoise is seated about the Duodenum inclining toward the hinder region of the lower Apartiment it is very small and of a blackish Colour and fastned to the Duodenum by the interposition of many Blood Vessels CHAP. V. The Spleen of Birds THe Spleen of a Goose The Spleen of a Goose is graced with a Triangular Figure whose Base is tied to the Right Side of the Gulet near its Termination and the lower Extreamity of the Gizard and its Cone to the Guts It is tinged with a darker Colour then the Liver and is seated in the Lest Side somewhat under the lower region of the Gizard near its Origen to which it is conjoyned by a thin Membranous interposition The Spleen of a Duck The Spleen of a Duck. is endued with a brighter Red then the Liver and is adorned with a Triangular Figure and its Base is joyned to the Guts and its third Angle is affixed to the lower Region of the Gizard near its Origination and another part of the Spleen is fastned to the Termination of the Gulet The Spleen of a Partridg The Spleen of a Partridg is adorned
which being of an Aperient and Diuretick Ingeny do open the Obstructions seated in the Minute Vessels of the Viscera and the Compage of the Blood and give it a power of freely discharging its Recrements with a large proportion of Urine And last of all when the more thin and watry parts of Urine are evaporated in Destillation the Salt and Earthy Particles subside in the bottom of the Alembick and if the Salt be sublimated by a more intense Fire it will quit the company of the Caput Mortuum and leave it alone So that the Fire in Destillation will discover and separate the several Elements of Urine of which the least if any are the Vinous parts The next in small proportion are the Sulphureous and Earthy and the greatest in quantity are the Watry and Saline The Sulphureous parts are few by reason Urine cast upon Fire doth not bring it into a Flame by reducing its Atomes into a violent Motion and eruption as mixing with Air but rather subdues and quencheth it and that Urine hath some rancid oily parts may be proved by its Faetide smell arising chiefly from Putrefaction as long kept wherein the compage of the Urine being highly opened the Sulphureous steams do embody with the Air and give a great disturbance to the Nostrils in their noisome smell Saltness may be discerned in Urine as being somewhat akin to Nitre in taste which is derived from the salt particles of Aliment which are exalteid by Concoction in the Stomach and motion of the Blood in the Vessels and acquire greater degrees of volatility as they more and more associate with the Vital Spirit and heat and as the Blood is more or less laudable in point of temper the Urine participates more volatil or fixed Salt and is endued with colour and consistence Urine hath somewhat of Vinous Spirit though very little which may be evinced because it doth so soon evaporate and leave the Watry parts as affected with Sulphureous obnoxious to Putrefaction and the Vinous parts do appear by reason they render the Urine capable of Intestine Motion by which the thin parts admit a secretion from the more gross which fall down to the bottom after the Urine hath been some time made and setled And after the fixed saline Particles are exalted by the heat and ferments of the Stomach and Circulation of the Blood in the Vessels they are made Volatil and associate with the Spirituous parts of the Urine which as they are more or less abundant and active do produce divers kinds of Hypostasis The watry parts of Urine The watry parts of Urine are manifest in reference to their fluid and moistning quality and do far exceed the Spirituous Sulphureous Saline and Earthy in proportion and cannot be extracted so simple but that they are associated with Volatil Saline and Sulphureous parts And the consistence which Urine hath The consistence of Urine doth denote its gross and earthy parts which upon long Destillation when the moist Particles are totally exhausted and evaporated do fall and rest in the bottom of the Alembick The grossness and earthiness of the Urine is derived from the faeculency of the Chyme which hath divers Heterogeneous parts that cannot be Assimilated into Blood whereupon they embody with the Potulent Matter and are carried into the Kidneys in order to secretion in the Glands and expulsion by the Urinary Ducts The Urine is less in quantity The quantity of Urine then the Liquid substance we entertain into our Mouth and Stomach by reason somewhat of the Potulent Matter is evaporated by the heat of the Stomach and some of it often mixeth with the more solid Excrements and rendreth them moist and some part of the watry Liquor is afterward confaederated with the Purple Liquor to make it thin and fluid which moving through the greater and less Branches of Arteries till it arriveth the Capillaries inserted into the Glands of the Skin wherein it is secerned from the Blood and passeth the Excretory Ducts by Sweat and insensible Transpiration which much lesseneth the Potulent Matter the ground of Urine Drink Drink the Materia Substrata of Urine the Materia Substrata of Urine being received into the Mouth and carried through the Gulet into the Stomach embodies with Serous and Nervous Ferments whereby the Potulent Matter assisted with the heat of the Stomach becomes a fit Menstruum to Colliquate and dissolve the more solid Aliment and extract a Milky Tincture which is attenuated by this watry Liquor accompanying it through the Mesenterick and Thoracick Ducts into the Subclavian Veins where it espouseth the Blood in an intimate union to which it imparteth its more delicate and Alimentary Particles upon which account it looseth somewhat of its Liquor which being associated with the Crystalline part of the Blood and Succus Nutricius is entertained into the Pores of the Vessels and assimilated into their substance and afterward the reliques of the Potulent Matter growing effaete and useless as despoiled of its Alimentary Juice are embodied with the gross Sulphureous Saline and Earthy parts of the Blood as disserviceable to it which then is impelled out of the left Chamber of the Heart by the common and Descendent Trunk of the Aorta and Emulgent Artery into the Glands of the Kidneys wherein the Serous Recrements are secerned from the Vital Liquor by vertue of a Ferment making a kind of Precipitation or rather received by Percolation into the Excretory Vessels and thence carried through the Papillary Caruncles Pelvis and Ureters into the Bladder as a common receptacle of useless Potulent Liquor When the Chyme associated with the Blood in the Subclavian Veins is afterward broken into small Particles by motion in the Vessels and by the repeated Contractions of the Ventricles of the Heart and by the Intestine Motion of the Blood produced by its various Elements and by the different parts of the Chyme whereupon the Chyme is assimilated into Blood and the Heterogeneous Recrements of Sulphur and Salt The Amber colour of Urine not fit for Assimilation are united by Coction with the Potulent Matter giving it an Amber Colour which may be resembled to Salt of Tartar and Sulphur boiled together in Water which do render it of a Yellowish Colour or if Antimony full of Sulphur be boiled in a Menstruum impraegnated with Salt it will give a tincture of yellow to the Liquor not unlike that of Urine as Doctor Willis hath observed The Alimentary Liquor extracted out of Meat in the Stomach by vertue of its heat and Serous and Nervous Ferments hath different Elements of Salt and Sulphur some of which being so fixed and gross that they cannot be made constituent principles of the Blood are thereupon incorporated by heat and motion with the Vehicle of it to which they being united by Coction do give watry Recrements a Yellow hue If the Alimentary Liquor be not duly extracted out of the Contents of the Stomach caused by
the gentle parts of the Blood in the substance of the Testicles acted with volatil saline and fine spirituous elastick Atoms opening the Compage of the Serous and Chymous parts of the Blood preparing it for Seminal Liquor consisting of differing Liquors made up of fermentative Principles broken into small Particles in the Body of the Testicular Glands So that it may be inferred upon good reason The Seed is composed of Spirituous Watry and Earthy parts That the Seminal Juice is integrated of two parts the one subtil and spirituous as consisting of the more thin and active Atoms of the fine Particles of the Blood and nervous Juice impregnated with Animal Elastick Spirits enobling the Seed as made up of active fermentative Elements chiefly conducive to the Generation of Animals which are stiled Germinis Nomine consisting in the more refined active parts of the Seed The other parts of the Semen are more gross frothy watry and Earthy which constitute the greatest and most bulky Portion of it and as being less active do enclose the spirituous and volatil Atoms within its more thick and gross Confines not permitting them to evaporate These different Elements of Seed The formative Principle resideth in the Seed being incorporated do make a Mass containing a double an efficient and material Principle the first delineateth Prima Stamina the very Rudiments of the Foetus in which the Architeconick power resideth The second is the Alimentary Portion of the Seminal Matter giving Support and encrease to the formed Parts These two Seminal Principles being confoederated The gross parts of the Seed do depress it are rendred inefficacious by reason the Material is so gross that it so depresseth the more Spirituous Particles that they cannot exalt themselves into Act in a well disposed Uterus whereupon if the material Principle be too much debased by fixed and Saline Earthy Elements the Uterine Heat and Ferment cannot exert themselves and exalt the Spirituous and Volatil and colliquate the gross genital Matter in order to Generation of the Foetus Aristotle assigneth a Coelestial disposition to the Seed Great Aristotle attributeth a Coelestial temper to the spirituous part of the Seed holding some Analogy with the nature of the Stars in reference to its great Excellency Lib. 2. de Generat Animal Cap. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inest enim in Semine omnium quod facit ut foecunda sint Semina videlicet quod Calor vocatur idque non ignis non talis Facultas aliqua est sed Spiritus qui in Semine spumosoque Corpore continetur Natura quae in eo Spiritu est proportione respondens Elemento Stellarum The Spirituous parts of the Seminal Liquor are produced out of its thin and delicate substance assisted by the natural and ambient heat relaxing the Compage of the grosser parts and are nothing else but a most subtle fluid Matter rendred volatil by heat whereupon it would quit its station and embody with Air as near a-kin to it was it not confined within the Walls of more fixed matter In the Seed of all Animals and Plants is seated an inbred Spirit endued with an efficient Plastick Faculty consisting in the most subtl volatile saline The Volatil Saline Sulphureous parts of the Seed are exalted by the heat of the Womb. and sulphureous Particles exalted by the natural heat of the Womb in Animals and ambient Air in Vegetables whereupon these thin restless Parts of the Seed would soon evaporate were they not detained within the enclosure of more gross Matter So that the Spirituous and Gross parts of the Seed do act the parts of Friends in doing kind Offices to each other The Spirituous parts do exalte the more Fixed and the more Gross do conserve within their Embraces the more Fine and Volatil The most excellent Liquor constituting the Spirutuous parts of the Seed is transmitted through the terminations of the Nerves The Nervous Liquor associates with the serous parts of the Blood inserted into the Glands of the Testicles wherein it associateth with the Serous and Chymous parts of the Blood full of many Saline and some few Sulphureous parts which the Nervous Liquor doth render thin and volatile by exalting its more gross parts as Colliquated by heat of the Testicles which are thence transmitted into the Parastats to receive a farther Concoction and so to pass through the deferent Vessels into the Seminal Vesicles and Prostats as receptacles of Seed where it is reserved till the time of Coition The prime Elements of Seed are Saline The chief parts of the Seed are Saline in which the calstick Vertue doth very much consist which are endued with a Balsamick quality and render it fruitful and much exceed those of Sulphur and upon this account the Poets have feigned Venus to take her Birth from the Sea and give Lascivious Animals the appellative of Salacious and I humbly conceive that the several parts of the Body being more or less solid do owe their formation to greater or less Concretions made by different Seminal Salt mixed with some Earthy and Sulphureous Particles which being associated with a larger proportion of Saline do impart a greater or less consistence to the various parts of the Body of which I will give a fuller account hereafter in the Treatise of Generation CHAP. VII Of the Parts of Generation in the Males of Beasts THe Testicles of a Lyon The Testicles of a Lyon which I saw Dissected were covered with four Coats and seated near the Penis and adorned with an Oval Figure much resembling those of Man The Penis of a Lyon hath long and small Dimensions The Penis of a Lyon and hath its Glans seated near the Anus as in a Cat Hare Cunney c. and hath a straight Vrethra passing from the Bladder of Urine to the extremity of the Penis which hath its body composed chiefly of two Ligaments or rather Nervous Bodies and is for some space distant from the Prostats seated under the Neck of the Bladder and is not stretched out above three Thumbs breadth without the cavity near the Anus in the time of Coition which is celebrated backward The Testicles of a Castor The Testicles of a Castor according to learned Webster are not fastened to the Spine but to the inward Region of the Os Pubis or Share Bone where a superficial Cavity is Engraven confining on the Process of the Peritonaeum and on each side may be seen half the Testicle with the Parastat lodged in the said Sinus of the Share-Bone The Testicles of this Animal if a regard be had to the size of his Body are very small about the bigness of a Pidgeons Egg They are white and smooth in their outward Surface and endued with a flattish oval Figure having their Body cloathed with a thick Nervous Coat Their Glandulous Substance is white within beset with many Fibrils and have not the Oleagenous Substance nor Foetide Smell
Chyle not capable to be well attenuated by the heat and motion of the Blood so that Nature endeavoureth often to free her self from this indigested Liquor by making a secretion of it from the Blood in the Glands of the Kidneys where it mixeth with the serous Matter and is transmitted by the Ureters to the Bladder where it maketh the gross white Contexts falling to the bottom of the Urinal Under the surface of extravasated Blood which is affected with variety of Colours partly Florid or Red others more dark seated in a clammy Matter is lodged the body of the Red Crassament coated with a deep Purple or Blackish hue and is a considerable part of the mass of Blood The Blood consisteth of many White Filaments interspersed with numerous minute white Filaments which cannot be well discerned as being clouded with the opace body of the Red Crassament except when the Vein is opened and the Blood received into warm water which washing the serous Liquor from the Red fibrous parts causeth the round White Filaments to discover themselves by swimming on the surface of the Water And the fine threads of the Blood being embodied with the serous potulent Matter produceth the Hypostasis of Urine which is wanting in ill habits of Body by reason their Urine is commonly turbid as having no Hypostasis very frequent in crude watry masses of Blood destitute of well elaborated Fibres when in an adust mass of Blood too the Chyme is not concocted into proper Filaments with which the Red Crassament of well-tempered Blood is highly furnished And it may be expected that I shall give an account The cause how the gross part of the Blood becommeth Red. how this Crassament cometh to be tinged with a Red colour which as I humbly conceive is derived from subacid and sulphureous Particles often circulating with and dissolved by the heat of the Blood and blended with its Mass which may be rendred in some manner plain by the artificial operations of Chymistry whereby the saline and chiefly the acide Particles being mixed with sulphureous give a Red tincture as in the distillation of Nitre which aboundeth with sulphureous Atomes and the affusion of a few drops of Oil of Vitriol or Sulphur made upon Liquor or Conserves that have only a blush of Red giveth them immediately a more deep tincture of the same colour But some may object how cometh it The reason why the Chyle not well attenuated doth not put on its Red array that the Chyle is not arayed in Scarlet by reason its liquid substance is impregnated with Salt and sulphureous parts which do not impart a Red hue to the Chyle because its Elements are in a state of crudity as not being sufficiently attenuated till they have espoused a union with the mass of Blood wherein they grow more concocted and spirituous by a constant digestion of heat and repeated circulation with the mass of Blood through the Heart The Blood is very pale in Maids afflicted with the Green Sickness as it is vulgarly called springing from a crude and indigested mass of Blood The Blood is pale in obstructed Virgins wherein the fixed Salt and gross sulphureous Particles are not well attenuated and associated with the substance of the Blood And it is well known to most Artists well versed in Chymical Operations that the mass of Blood is not only compounded of the constituent part of Cristalline Liquor and Red Crassament embodied proper Vessel but doth also associate with other integral parts saline sulphureous airy watry and earthy Atomes as the different Elements which make up its Mass As to the Sulphureous The sulphureous parts of Blood they may be clearly proved by our nourishment because we frequently Treat our selves with sweet oily fat Aliment which being concocted in the Stomack and transmitted to the mass of Blood doth generate and support the fat parts of the Body And as to the salt Nutriment The saline parts of the Blood it imprinteth the same disposition on the Blood which may be extracted out of its Mass by Art clearly demonstrating the many Particles of Salt which may be evinced by the power of Nature too by reason the salt Atomes of the Blood are separated by the Glands of the Kidney and confaederated with its serous parts and afterward conveyed by the small Channels of the Ureters into the larger Cistern of the Bladder As to the Airy parts of the Blood The airy parts of Blood we need no better arguments to prove it then the florid froth mixed with Blood by inspiration and is sometimes coughed up in great quantity when the vessels of the Lungs are lacerated or corroded by the sharp particles of the Blood and it is very agreeable to Reason that the volatil saline and sulphureous parts of Blood should be governed as receiving a due allay from the more fixed and cool parts of Earth and Water In order to a further demonstration of the Elementary parts of Blood I will add the clearness of Sense to the authority of Reason plainly deducible from Chymistry in the distillation of Blood whose moist vapours being elevated by the force of an intense Heat the volatil Particles being deeply immersed in the more fixed and earthy do ascend the sides of the Alembick where they are condensed into drops The spirituous parts of Blood making a clear transparent Liquor somewhat resembling the Spirit of Wine impregnated with volatil sulphureous and saline Atomes the sulphureous betray themselves in a stinking Smell and the saline in a brackish pickant Taste seated in the Spirit of Blood which being drawn off next ascend the grosser sulphureous parts under the form of a blackish Oil which by reason of the Empyreuma hath a most faetide offensive Scent Lastly The saline parts of the Blood incorporated with its Flegme rise by the sides of the Alembick till all the other Elements are extracted out of the earthy parts leaving them debased into a dull insipid Matter commonly called Caput Mortuum and Salt too The Caput Moriuum of Blood which being frequently calcined doth degenerate into this sluggish Body And now the different Active and Passive Elements of the Blood being discoursed do fairly usher in a History of its Motion which is differenced by local and intestine of which the last is more intricate The more volatil parts of Blood are depressed by the more gross and sixed The Blood is hightned by intestine and local Motion as being compounded of subtle Heterogeneous Particles Actively and Passively concurring not as Essential but integral parts perfective of the Blood of which the more active and spirituous are always upon the wing ready to take their flight from the Blood were they not depressed by the more fixed and grosser which are attenuated and refined till they receiving greater and greater exaltation by the expansion of the more subtle parts do contribute their Mite to the completion of the Blood And the Blood
is not only exalted by gentle intestine Motion but more and more hightened by local too which is first of all performed in the seminal Liquor and as being a fluid Body cannot govern it self so that it is put under anothers dispose the covers of Membranes every way encircling it to confirm and secure it from extraneous Matter about these Membranes The Blood beginneth its first stage of Motion caused by the ambient heat of the neighbouring parts which colliquates the more spirituous portion of the seminal Liquor which becoming vital near the confines of it is afterward propagated in a gentle stream by channels cut through the viscide Matter uniting themselves in the Punctum Saliens as in a small Cistern so that the original of the Motion belonging to the vital Liquor is caused by extraneous heat without any impulse made from the Circumference to the Center from the outward part of the seminal Liquor adjoyning to the Amnion and Chorion passing through minute Ducts the first rudiments of Veins ending in the Vesicula Pulsans where by its tremulous Motion beginneth the first impulse of the Blood making Rivulets through different Channels of Arteries growing smaller and smaller toward the ambient parts of the seminal Matter whereupon this may be called the retrograde Motion of the Blood impelled by the Punctum Saliens from the Center to the Circumference But the first Motion springeth from the ambient parts of the colliquated Seed where the first rudiment of the Blood is discernible before the rough draught of the veins is made And when the Veins Heart Arteries Lungs of the Faetus are perfectly formed a greater current of Blood is transmitted out of the Vena Cava by the Foramen ovale in arteriam venosam and so conveyed into the Left Chamber of the Heart and thence impelled into the Trunk of the Aorta And after the Foetus is born it is receptive of greater proportion of Aliment which being concocted in the Stomach is afterward imparted to the mass of Blood which being highly increased inlargeth its territories and quitteth the Anastomosis with which the Vena Cava correspondeth with the venous Artery so that the Foramen Ovale being shut up after the Foetus is born the Blood hath a free access to the right Chamber of the Heart before uninhabited which being straightened by the contraction of fleshy Fibres throweth the stream of Blood into the pulmonary Artery which is thence conveyed by the Veins into the Left Ventricle and afterward by the mediation of the Ascendent and Descendent Trunks of the great Artery and their fruitful branches to all parts of the Body giving them Life and Heat which is primarily excited in the vital Liquor from the heat of the Vterus which reviving its faint innate Heat colliquates and more and more expandeth one part of the Infant Blood after another by raising its gentle flame by soft Motion The heat of the Blood is exalted by Motion toward the Vesicula Pulsans by whose repeated Motions the heat of the Blood groweth more and more exalted as the Heart becometh more perfect and abler to make more strong vibrations the chief instruments of vital heat to which I conceive the intestine Motion of the Blood may somewhat contribute as the sulphureous Particles have an inbred heat and constant volatil inclinations to their flight were they not inclosed within the confines of Channels and detained by groser parts of other Elements which are enobled by the warmth and subtilty of the Sulphureous spirits ever acting upon the passive Elements subduing and raising them to some greater degree of assimilation by intestine Motion which in some manner is productive of innate heat in the Blood which is hightened or depressed according to the greater or lesser intestine agitations of the volatil sulphureous Particles which would soon grow faint and extinguished were they not supported and advanced by the repeated Motions of the Heart Blood as well as other Liquors is constituted of sulphureous and saline Particles The various principles of the Blood as its integral parts whence it may be reasonably inferred that the Blood compounded of them must consist of several unequal parts some subtle others gross some volatil others fixed Whereupon the vital Liquor is more or less disposed to Fusion and Attenuation as the more Intense or Remiss heat acteth upon the various Elements of the Mass of Blood and colliquates and attenuates the more subtle and less fixed parts rendring them more and more spirituous by divers periods and progressions so that these highly attenuated and exalted Particles are Entituled Spirits by reason of their great subtilty and agility not as they were Bodies existing of themselves separate from the purer and volatil saline and sulphureous Particles with which the vital Spirits have great affinity and concur as integrals of the Blood as being its more noble subtle and active parts sustained and exalted by Motion and Heat which being deficient these spirituous parts of the Blood lose their vigor and activity as being condensed and coagulated with the other more gross and fixed parts which is most conspicuous in extravasated Blood as being soon destitute of Heat as well as Motion Having in some sort described the Motion of the Blood and Heat as an effect and consquent of it I conceive it proper now to render you some account of the composition of it as it may be diversly considered according to the several Liquors some being constituent or Elementary others Vehicles or Recrements of the Blood as to the first the Red Crassament is fraught with hot oily Particles and the albuminous Liquor is impregnated with more mild volatil Salt The disagreeing Airy Earthy Oily and Saline Principles are founded in the different Christalline and Purple Liquors which are associated with Lymphatick and Potulent Matter the divers Vehicles of the Blood and as they concur in fusion making up the mass of vital Liquor cannot incorporate with each other without Solution and Liquation and more particularly no Oily Matter can embody with a Saline except they receive a most exact comminution A Comminution is made of the various Elements of Blood by a brisk Motion against the sides of the Ventricles breaking them into small Particles in some liquid substance as a Menstruum or Vehicle which is very well accomplished in the Ventricles of the Heart by a brisk Motion of dashing the Blood against its walls caused by many impetuous vibrations made by the repeated Contractions of the strong Fibres of the Heart so that all the different Elements of the Blood when they are reduced to minute Particles consisting of divers Figures and sizes do meet with Pores in the different Liquor answering them in proportion and the Magnitudes and Figures of the Elementary Atomes and Pores of the Blood are so exactly modelled in a fit likeness so that the configured Particles are embodied with each other in a most strict and near union of mixtion And Lastly
The Chyle meeting with the Lympha in the common receptacle is transmitted by the Chyliferous Ducts to the Subclavian Vessels when it commenceth an association with the Blood and this White Liquor being in its own nature very crude hath its spirituous Particles highly engaged or immersed in gross Oily Earthy and Saline which confine the more refined operations of the Chyle from exerting themselves till it is farther exalted by the heat of the Blood colliquating the grosser Elements of the Chyme more and more hightened by an intimate converse and mixture with the Blood made by frequent Contractions of the Heart breaking the Chyme into most minute Particles which espouse a most near conjunction as blended with and at last assimilated into Blood which I conceive is not matured when the Chyle is first entertained into an association with Blood but is more and more colliquated and attenuated in the warm Chambers of the Heart and afterward hath its crude parts rendred more spirituous by associating with nitro-aereal Particles in the substance of the Lungs and often addresses to the Heart in repeated circulation productive of greater and greater exaltation of the Chyme And the several Elements mixed with the Purple parts of the Blood being ambulatory to its temperament do fairly lead us to it which according to the Antients is a result and harmony immediately flowing from and made up of the four first qualities which being endued with contrary dispositions do act and re-act in mixto till fitly subduing each other they obtain such a Mediocrity of temper the proper instrument ministerial to all the functions of the Soul so that according to this Hypothesis the temperament of the Blood is a union of the four qualities reduced to Mediocrity which may be considered in a double Notion First when one quality somewhat over-powereth another The temperament of Justice according to Geometrical proportion The Temperaments according to Arithmetical proportion yet so far as it is consistent with the bond of Mixtion and is commonly styled Temperamentum ad justiciam in reference to distributive Justice as observing a Geometrical proportion according to the dignity of the person But the other temperament being that ad pondus is when the four first qualities equally ballance each other to a great exactness in Arithmetical proportion This temperament as I humbly conceive is meerly imaginary as being only in conceit and never in act by reason it is very difficult to reduce the contrary disposition of Elements to a perfect aequilibrium which being supposed it could not continue in that temperament a moment when the various temper of the Air and the different qualities of Aliment would soon pervert this exact Crasis of the Blood and produce a different temper which would soon debase this absolute Eucrasy And I humbly conceive that the temperament of the Blood is not only seated in the Mediocrity of the first qualities relating to the Element of vital Liquor but may have a reference to the Second too whose due proportion does produce or at least assist the intestine and local Motion of the Blood the great Instruments and Conservators of Life The Blood consisteth of Airy Oily and Saline Elements The Active and Passive Elements of the Blood as Active Principles and Serous and Earthy as Passive which being broken into small Particles do incorporate with the mass of Blood And these different if not contrary Principles being mixed in most minute Bodies duly united do countermand each others disagreeing qualities The cool and moist disposition of Air gives an allay to the hot and oily its volatil and thin parts exalt the fixed Salt and gross Oil of the Blood rendring its solid consistence more liquid and fluid as it appeareth in the Chymical operations of Spirit of Sulphur and Vitriol which forced by heat arise in dry streams and ascend the sides of the Campana where they being embodied with Air do descend in Liquid forms and are commonly called Oils but are truly Spirits arising from fluid Salts of Sulphur and Vitriol And on the other side the gross Sulphur or Oil fixed Salt and earthy Particles do depress the over fierce and thin oily and do check the extravagant volatil aspirings of the Saline and spirituous parts of the Blood by confining them to their proper stations The Air Lympha and serous Particles do moisten and attenuate the Red Crassament and crude Chyme rendring them thin and fluid by putting them into a fit capacity of Motion to comply freely with the contraction of the Heart CHAP. XXII Of the Pathology of the Heart in relation to its Substance and Blood passing through it HAving discoursed the natural Structure of the Heart as a noble Engine of Motion consisting of great variety of parts set together in an excellent order I will now use my endeavour with your leave to shew how the choice Oeconomy of Nature is discomposed by various Diseases offering many violations to the regular temper and motion of this choice Machine by which the Blood maketh its circuit through all parts of the Body to impart Life and Heat the great preservatives of the stately Fabrick of Mans Body The Diseases that principally disorder the frame of this curious Organ of Life are variety of Fevers Inflammations Abscesses Ulcers obstructions of its Ventricles produced by Worms and different kinds of concreted Matters The prime subject of Fevers is the Heart The Heart is the subject of Fevers as the Blood is acted in it with an unkindly Heat and is thence communicated by Trunks and greater and less Arterial Branches into all parts of the Body This disorderly Fermentation of the Blood is much hightned by the violent Motions of the Heart dashing the vital Liquor against the inward Walls whereupon its inflammatory disposition is highly intended appearing in stronger Pulsations and the intolerable heat of the Praecordia and vehement Thirst very much afflicting Patients in this fiery Disease This unkindly fermentation and heat of the Blood The first cause of a Fever is the unnatural temperament of the Blood The Second Cause of it iss the Blood too much exalted by Ferments vehemently troubling the Heart seemeth chiefly to depend upon two Causes either its due Crasis or Temperament is disordered by the undue mixtion of its Elements or by the too much exalted Principles of Spirit Salt and Sulphur or Secondly by the innate ferments of the Heart as famous Dr. Willis and others will have it much rarefying the Blood in its passage through the Chamber of this choice Muscle whereupon its frothy effervescence is much increased and is impelled out of the Ventricles and through the channels of various Arteries with great violence into all parts of the Body Learned Borellus maintaineth an Hypothesis Borellus his Opinion that a Fever is not produced by an undue Fermentation of the Blood but from anâ— acrimoniou nervous Liquor and proveth his Hypothesis by reason the Pus of Pleurisy doth not disaffect
in the Renal Glands do vitiate the temper of the Blood and incline its hot mass to an effervescence The mass of Blood is not only composed of different Liquors The spirituous parts of the Blood not well regulated do produce a Fever but of various Elements too of Spirit Sulphur and Salt The Spirituous as the more subtil and volatil parts of the Blood are bounded and kept in due order by the more fixed whence ariseth a good Fermentation but if heterogeneous Particles of crude Chyme not easily to be subdued be mixed with the Blood the bond of Mixtion is relaxed then the spirituous parts are too predominant and the ebullition of the Blood is raised often ending in a Fever When the sulphureous part is too much exalted The sulphureous parts of the Blood too much exalted cause a Fever as being triumphant in the mass of Blood its temperament is perverted whereupon the Chyme being not well Concocted as being over bilious doth raise a great effervescence of the Blood inducing a Fever If the saline Atomes of the Blood be too much elevated The saline parts brought to a Fluor do generate into a Fever The cause of a Fever is seated in the Blood as compounded of divers Fermentative Liquors The Nervous Liquor being soft cannot be said to be a cause of a Fever Many critical evacuations of Blood determining a Fever do shew the cause to be placed in the Blood they are brought to a Fluor and the Blood turneth Acide which is found to be the cause of a Quartane Ague These being premised it is most probable that the Causes of various Fevers are seated in the Blood as it is made up of divers fermentative Liquors and Elements producing many Feverish Inflammatory Dispositions But the nervous Liquor cannot be so truly said the cause of Fevers as most acute Borellus will have it as being a mild Liquor not consisting of many several Liquors contrary Principles and Recrements with which the Blood is endued and therefore the animal Liquor is not subject to so many various Ebullitions and Feverish indispositions Farthermore the apertion of a Vein and the critical evacuations of Blood by the Nostrils Hemorrhoids and Menstrua in Women do determine a Fever which plainly evinceth that the Morbifick cause in a Fever is seated in the mass of Blood whose hot steams and watry saline Particles are severed from the Blood in the cutaneous Glands and discharged by the excretory Ducts of the Skin And in order to the more clear understanding of the nature of Fevers consisting in the various ill Crasis of the Blood disturbing the Motion of the Heart I will give you a short History of the various constitution of the Blood as productive of its Ebullition in the Heart Galen and his followers made four Temperaments The temperament of the Blood as composed of Four Humours supposing the mass of Blood to be compounded of four distinct Liquors Phlegme Bile Melancholy and laudable or pure Blood but I conceive it will be very difficult according to this Opinion to solve the Phaenomena that may occurr so that it seemeth more probable to determine the Blood as well qualified to be one Liquor consisting of Heterogeneous parts and not of those different humors which do not constitute the mass of Blood but are only accidental to it in a depraved habit of Body in which three of those humors may be called Recrements of the Blood and not constituent parts which Nature endeavoureth to secern from it and therefore it is more consonant to Reason and Sense not to believe the Blood to be made of many distinct Humors but one Liquor consisting of different parts pituitous framed of crude indigested Chyme The melancholy constitution of the Blood or bilious made of exalted Oily Particles or melancholick compounded of Tartareous or earthy Saline put into a Fluor as the chief Spirituous and Oily parts are breathed out Hence spring the four Constitutions of the Body derived from the several Temperaments of the Blood when it is integrated of different Elements reduced to a good harmony in due proportion The constitution of hot oily and saline Particles not too much exalted nor the gross and fixed too much depressed and the solid and liquid Atomes well mixed may be truly stiled the Sanguineous temper of the Blood The sanguineous constitution of the Blood and is the rule from which the others may be termed more or less ill as they have greater or less deflections from it as being ill tempers upon which the Pathalogy of the Blood dependeth The First I will Treat of The Pituitous constitution of the Blood is the Pituitous Constitution derived from cold moist or gross Aliment not well concocted for want of a fit Menstruum or good natural heat whence proceedeth an ill prepared Chyle conveyed through proper Channels to the Heart where it being not well attenuated and colliquated runneth confused with the Blood without being broken into small particles by reason of its over viscide substance generating a crude mass of Blood which being imparted by great and less arterial Branches to the whole Body maketh a cold and moist temperament commonly called Pituitous seated in a gross mass of Blood apt to be stagnant which produceth various inflammations in reference to several parts in which the crude Blood is lodged vid. a Perinumonia in the substance of the Lungs and Pleuritis in the Pleura An Angina in the Muscles of the Larynx A Polypus in the Ventricles of the Heart and the Trunk of the pulmonary Artery and Veins An Apoplexy in the substance of the Brain and an Anasaerca in the habit of the Body Some Physicians and those Learned too do conceive the Phlegmatick mass of Blood to be composed much of Chyle or nervous Liquor as being akin in colour and manner of consistence Whereupon it being thick and indigested when extravasated and Cold doth concrete into a white and discoloured Cruor or skinny substance facing the upper region of the Blood when it is let out of the Vein into a Porringer and coagulated But upon a more curious inspection The Cause of the tough surface of the Blood this white clammy tough surface of the Blood will be found to be a Fibrous contexture made up of many thin Membranes seated one within another in whose Interstices are formed a reticular Plexe composed as it were of nervous Fibrils interspersed with divers small Cells resembling little holes interceding Combs The Compage of the Blood when it is coagulated filled with Honey in which a serous Liquor is contained This Compage of the Blood may be made evident by ocular demonstration which I saw in concreted Blood covered with a white Surface almost halfe an inch thick which was integrated of many fine Membranes as so many thin Flakes constituting this coagulated Systeme framed of numerous Filaments curiously interwoven and closely set together which I discerned by my naked Eye without
Fever stiled by the Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is when the unnatural heat of the Blood groweth more intense every Fit The Second step or time is commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived from a great quantity of inflamed oily Particles which though they most eminently appear in the Praecordia as parts confining on the Heart in which the Effervescence of the Blood is chiefly seated yet these hot oily Particles of the vital Liquor are also diffused thence through the whole mass to all parts of the Body The increase of this hot Disease continueth for three or four days or thereabouts more or less according to the greater or less degrees of acuteness of the Fever when the first glimmerings of the Concoction begin to dawn in a small secretion of the impure adust Particles from the purer Blood which at this time of the Fever is discovered in the Urine growing more clear toward the Surface as the grosser parts begin to precipitate toward the bottom of the Urinal The third step of a Continued Fever named by that Great Master of our Faculty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the state of the Disease The 3d step of a Continued Fever is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the height of it wherein the Ebullition of the Blood in the Heart arriveth to the highest degree proceeding from a great confederacy of numerous Oyly Particles breaking forth as it were into a flame through all the apartiments of the Body and in the state of this Fever the two great Combatants Nature and the Disease do briskly enter the list making violent thrusts at each other upon the account of life and death whereupon they both highly endeavouring a conquest one of them loseth the day sitting down in a loss of victory while the other triumpheth in the pleasant success of Life happily changing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Disease into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the state into a declination The fourth step of a continued Fever called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The declination of the disease which is the fourth and last stage of this Fever succeeding the state wherein the Vital Spirits the more active and volatil parts of the Blood triumph as conquerors and the Febrile heat is receptive of an allay and the most eminent signs of Concoction appear as the Crisis of the disease is instituted by Nature whereupon the secretions of the recrements of the Blood are made whereof some are oily and others Volatil Saline embodying with the serous parts of the Blood being put into a Fluor which are conveyed from the greater Arterial Branches to the Extremities of the Capillaries terminating into the Skin which being very Porous receiveth the fierce Effluvia The first Crists of a continued Fever when the Matter of the Disease is evacuated by Sweat and ferous Recrements of the Blood freely besprinkling the ambient parts of the Body And this I humbly conceive is the best and most natural Crisis of a Fever when the Morbifick Matter is universally expelled through the habit of the Body But the Crisis I conceive is less perfect and beneficial The second Crisis of a continued Fever discharged by a Haemorrage of Blood through the Nostrils when more particular Evacuations of the peccant Matter are instituted by Nature as when the Pores of the Skin being shut up by ambient cold a Crisis is sometimes ordered by a Haemorrhage through the Nostrils when the inflamed oyly and the exalted saline Particles being in high commotion with the mass of Blood cannot be protruded by plentiful Sweats in a free transpiration are translated into distant parts from the Heart and being hurried by impetuous motions of the Blood through the internal Carotide Arteries into the Membranes and Cortex of the Brain are thence conveyed by the Internal Jugulars into the Nostrils Whence the danger of their Crisis is lest some part of the Morbifick Matter should be conveyed with the Blood into and so fixed in the substance of the Brain as to vitiate the Animal Liquor and thereby produce a Delirium Convulsive Motions as the Subsultus Tendinum and many other Cephalick distempers Again I conceive another Crisis may be made in a continued Fever by another particular Evacuation The third Crisis is made when the Matter of the Continued Fever is discharged by Urine when the gross Adust Particles are severed like a Caput Mortuum from the Blood after its Deflagration and are transmitted by the emulgent Arteries into the substance of the Glands relating to the Kidneys wherein a Secretion is made of the Morbifick Matter with the serous Particles from the more refined Blood and transmitted first through the Urinary Ducts into the Pelvis and thence by the Ureters as Aqueducts into the Cistern of the Bladder which appeareth in a reddish Urine when first made which a little while after groweth thick and turbid and is afterward precipitated So that the Adust Particles the more gross Contents having recourse to the bottom the substance of the Urine groweth clear and transparent CHAP. XXV Of Malignant Fevers THe third kind of Continued Fevers The nature of Malignant Fevers The Symptoms of Malignant Fevers commonly called Malignant differeth in substance from the rest and ariseth from the mass of Blood secretly envenomed with some noysome Miasmes whence immediately ensueth a suddain dejection of strength wherein the temper of the Blood being violently disordered its Compage is perverted and its Mixtion is in a great part dissolved as the Elements the integral parts of the Blood are in a manner separated one from another attended with horrid symptoms vid. Stupor Delirium Convulsive Motions the trembling of the Tendons and the like the same kind of accidents which accompany the drinking of Poyson or the biting of Vipers and other venemous Animals infecting the Blood with subtle venenate Atoms small in quantity but great in power destructive to the constituent principles relating to the mass of Blood which is discovered in the speedy perverting the Crasis of the Vital and Nervous Liquors whereupon the functions of Life Sense and Motion are ill celebrated So that the harmony of temper belonging to the Blood is disordered and the Oeconomy of Nature violated the dismal forerunners of death If a curious search be made for the better understanding of Malignant Fevers into the nature of Poysons what alterations they make in the consistence of the Blood they will be found very different by reason some Poysons making a fusion of the Blood do precipitate its serous parts others do produce Swellings by throwing the malignity of the Blood into the extreme parts and do impel the serous Recrements by the terminations of the Arteries inserted into the Cuticular Glands wherein a separation being instituted by Nature the serous parts do puff up the Cuticula and make Pustles which I saw in a Person of Honour a Patient of mine poysoned with Arsnick in whom the sulphureous and saline
also melancholick persons have objects represented to their fancy under deformed and uncouth large Images which strike greater fear and terror into the Minds of this kind of delirous persons These ill configured Phantasmes being offered to the Understanding confound its operations and render the discourses of melancholick persons insignificant and not agreeable to sound Reason And now it may be worth our inquiry how the natural disposition of the Animal Spirits is perverted which Learned Dr. Willis conceiveth to proceed from the fault of their peculiar Ingeny as he hath it in the Eleventh Chapter De Melancholia Pa. 323. Hic autem primo inquirendum occurrit de Spirituum Animalium diathesi seu constitutione praeternaturali Nam in quantum isti irregulari modo habentes in anomaliis suis aliquandiu aut semper persistunt cumque huic illorum affectioni non Paralysis Apoplexia vertigo aut convulsio adjunguntur quae Cerebri obstructiones arguunt inferre licebit quod Spiritus Animales neque ab alieno impetum faciente in tales inordinationes adiguntur neque potissimum ob Cerebri poros meatus obstructos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suas concipiunt sed potius in hoc casu propriae indolis vitio praedicta symptomata aegrotis accersunt The Opinion of the Antients concerning the disaffection of the Animal Spirits The Antients have conceived this disaffection of Animal Spirits to proceed from a Melancholick Humor derived from adust Blood or Choler rendring the refined and lucid Particles of the nervous Liquor cloudy whereupon the Images of things have a dark representation as if they were vailed with shades and the Animal Spirits taking their rise from inflamed Blood do somewhat resemble the Rays of Light coming from a Flame as Dr. Willis hath illustrated the different affections of Animal Spirits According to Dr. Willis the different affections of Animal Spirits may be illustrated by the various disposition of Light by the various disposition of Light in the Chapter De Melancholia Pa. 324. At qui satis constat lucem se diversimode se habere illustrare juxta quod ab incendio corporum vario ritu efflagrantium scilicet spiritus vini olei sevi sulphuris mineralis nitri aliorumque procedit pariter Spiritus Animales in quantum a sanguine crasim modo hanc modo illam aliamve nacto aut subtiles aut clari aut hebetes crassi quasi fuliginosi extillantur functionum animalium organa varie trajiciunt irradiant earumque proinde actus diversimode pervertunt And the Animal Spirits are not so free and loose in their Compage as the Rays of Light which are an innumerable company of lucid Atomes moving with great quickness and agility but the Animal Spirits are more confined as engaged in the nervous Juyce their proper vehicle and may be compared to some chymical Liquors drawn out of natural Bodies by distillation which may illustrate delirous disaffections Delirous dispositions may be illustrated by Chymical Liquor extracted by Distillation as holding great Analogy with them Liquors Spagyrically extracted are active Elements which after various manners in them are endued with a diverse Ingeny and the most excellent Liquor as it is agreed by a common consent is a Spirit espoused to Salt which is volatised by it and the Spirit again is fixed by Salt which opposite principles speak a mutual advantage Liquors impregnated with volatil Salt as being ministerial to each others improvements and the Spirits of Hartshorn Soot and Blood are impregnated with volatil Salts which are very subtile volatil and penetrating and yet are not inflammable and the Animal Spirits being regular in motion as endued with a laudable constitution somewhat resemble a Spirituous Liquor exalted with volatil Salt extracted out of Blood by distillation except the great Acrimony and Empyreuma of Spirituous distilled Liquor coming from the Fire The Animal Spirits have a different mild disposition as extracted out of the albuminous parts of the Blood by a more mild heat But other chymical Liquors Liquors endued with oily and spirituous Particles being endued with a sulphureous nature as Spirit of Wine and Turpentine consisting of oily and spirituous parts united are easily inflammable they are parted from each other by Fire of this disposition as Dr. Willis conceiveth are the Animal Spirits producing a Phrensy But other different Liquors Chymically extracted in which fixed Salt brought to a fluor is predominant and distilled by a gentle Fire out of Vinegar heavy Wood and some kind of Minerals have very restless Spirits whose Effluvia cannot extend themselves far And if they be distilled in B. M. nothing but Phlegme can be extracted The continent cause of a melancholick affection The antecedent cause of this Disease cometh from the serous parts of the Blood turning Acide And the Animal Spirits being tainted with an acide Affection proceeding from fixed Salt brought to a Fluor hath a great share in the production of Melancholick affections so that I humbly conceive that the antecedent and causes of this Disease do come from the serous parts of the Blood carried by the Carotide Arteries of the Cortical Glands and other Processes of the Brain degenerating from a mild into an acide and corroding disposition somewhat akin to Vinegar Alome Vitriol c. which doth vitiate the nervous Liquor and its more exalted Particles vulgarly called the Animal Spirits and disturb their regular motion rendring them restless and confused Whereupon followeth a depravation of the Superior and Inferior faculties of the Brain causing a Delirium attending Melancholy And it may be farther observed that steams flowing from acide Liquor are always in motion by reason the Spirit of Vinegar Vitriol Sea-Salt do perpetually evaporate as the Particles of fluid Salt have no coherence with heterogeneous Particles and are always restless in their nature and in perpetual motion Whereupon we may suppose with great probability The Acide Spirits of Vegetables do resemble the Acide serous parts of the Blood debasing the Animal Liquor and Spirits that the acide Spirits of Vegetables and Minerals put into a Glass Hermetically sealed have their steams carried about the sides of the Glass in a circular motion and do very much resemble the serous parts of the Blood depressed with fixed Salt and Vitriolick Atomes debasing the nervous Liquor the Vehicle and subject of Animal Spirits which are rendred unquiet in their passage by the sides of the Filaments constituting the Fibrils of the Brain Hence flow constant and troublesome Thoughts that discompose the Fancy and the rational and sensitive Faculties as the Animal Spirits are composed of acide unquiet Particles which do not duly actuate and irradiate the nervous Compage of the Brain Out of the acide Spirit Chymically prepared the Effluvia do not highly ascend beyond the surface of the Liquors and only accoast the adjacent Bodies and make no approach to those that are seated at a distance so
that the Spirit of Vitriol Salt or Vinegar cannot ascend out of the Still to the top of the Alembick unless it be forced up by an intense heat After this manner the phantasmes of Melancholick persons afflicted with adust Choler proceeding from Animal Spirits The cause and manner how Melancholy operates degenerating into an acide disposition do influence the whole Compage of the Brain and act in the Meditullium and are carried into the spaces of the neighbouring Filaments where the Animal Spirits exert their motions in a confused manner whence Thoughts perpetually arise which are much versed about one or but a few objects And when a great number of Spirits are confined within a narrow compass of the fibrous Compage of the Brain the phantasmes are very much enlarged beyond the true dimensions and small things rendred great and after the like manner when the visible images of things are represented by a Microscope they appeart much greater then they are in their own nature as the many Rays are united and concentred in a Convexe Glass so also the intentional species are configured in the Fibrous Compage of the Brain by the conflux of many Animal Spirits confined within a small circumference Of this we may have an Experiment in our Selves when we are fed with gross melancholly Diet or being clouded with the passion of sadness we become Thoughtful by reason the Animal Spirits do want a free Emanation we are made sollicitous of every small concern as if our whole happiness depended upon it Whereupon we are discomposed with great Fear and Anxiety conceiving our selves utterly lost in our vain apprehension when we are overcome with Melancholy And this melancholick Affection doth not only take its rise from an acide disposition spoiling the Crasis of the Animal Spirits Melancholy coming from an atrabilarian Humor but from an atrabilarian Humor carried with the Blood by the internal carotide Arteries into the substance of the Cortical Glands whereupon their nature is much debased and as losing their sweet temper and volatil saline disposition their Compage is rendred more gross and opaque so that it cannot be duly enlightened by the lucid Particles of the Animal Spirits And Melancholy is not only contracted by the fault of the Brain Melancholy flowing from the Praecordia and Blood and Animal Spirits but from the Praecordia and from the Blood endued with heterogeneous Particles highly fermenting in the noble parts of the middle Apartiment and thence transmitted by arterial Channels into the Brain where it maketh a great alteration in the nervous Compage as it is affected with gross atrabilarian Particles perverting the Crasis of the Brain and clouding the bright Ingeny of the Animal Spirits The Humors proceeding from adust Choler do much lessen the purity of the flame of Life in taking off much of its Activity and Spirit whereupon it moveth more slowly in its various Channels and contracteth gross Recrements associated with the Blood out of whose more mild parts debased by atrabilarian Humors producing grief and fear ill companions the purity of the Animal Liquor and Spirits is very much sullied often generating a sad Delirium The ill temper of the vital Liquor causing this timerous Disease The temper of the Blood producing a timerous disposition doth partly proceed from undue fermentation of the Blood in the Heart whereupon it groweth less oily and bountiful in its spirituous parts proceeding from too much exalted saline Atomes rendring the Blood gross and unactive whereupon the Blood transmitted out of the right Chamber of the Heart into the pulmonary Artery and substance of the Lungs as being too much burdened with fixed Salt cannot be duly attenuated and inspired with the elastick particles of Air so that we grow faint and sorrowful as our Blood wanteth a due intestine motion in the Heart and Lungs whereupon it groweth depressed in this Malady as overcharged with gross saline and sulphureous Particles whereupon arise variety of passions in the Heart as Fear Sorrow Faintness and panting in the most noble machine of motion which doth not only suffer by the ill crasis of the Blood clogged with ill effaete adust Choler and saline parts but the vital Liquor also is very much retarded as growing degenerate for want of a due circulation through all the apartiments of the body which is produced in this Disease by a slow and weak motion of the Heart coming from its disabled contractions of muscular Fibres caused by the defect of Animal Spirits not sufficiently acting the Nerves so that the Blood and Animal Spirits do disaffect and prejudice each other the atrabilarian Blood as affected with saline parts produceth gross Animal Liquor and Spirits and again the Animal Spirits being endued with an ill disposition do not duly influence the Cardiack Nerves whereupon the Blood and Animal Spirits do pervert each others Crasis in reference to purity vigor and activity The inordinate passions of the Mind as vehement love sadness Vehement Love discomposeth the fine temper of the Brain panick fear envy malice do very much disturb the oeconomy of the Brain and spoil the nervous Liquor and Animal Spirits in forcing them to run excentrick in reference to their common Sphaeres of the Interstices of nervous Filaments by making them depart into the Pores and Meatus of the substance of the Brain whence proceedeth the depravation of the various Faculties Trust and Reason residing in it Again The indisposition of the Blood proceeding from crude Chyme not well assimilated the Blood acquiring an undue Crasis as being mixed with a Chyme not broken into small Particles by the faint motion of the Heart as in Fear Sadness c. doth render the vital Liquor crude and full of fixed saline Particles as not well attenuated by the motion of Blood coming from the weak contractions of the fleshy Fibres of the Heart whereupon the ill-affected Blood doth make or spoil the production of laudable Animal Liquor and Spirits in the cortical Glands of the Brain The Blood also contracteth an ill temper by immoderate Exercise The Blood is distempered by violent exercise gross Diet of Salt Meats especially if they be dried in Smoke and the suppression of accustomed evacuations of Blood by the Haemorrhoids and Menstrua bleeding at Nose and of purging the serous Recrements by Vomiting and Stool all which do infect the Blood and render it Atrabilarian which afterward indisposeth the nervous Liquor and Animal Spirits The Antients did conceive the first rise of Melancholy to be seated in the Brain and other times in the Uterus and Spleen as to the Brain it may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Brain hath its substance habitually vitiated by an ill nervous Liquor primarily flowing from the ill serous Liquor of the Blood out of which it is formed Others do imagine the seat of Melancholy to be in the Womb Some conceive the seat of Melancholy to be in the
the nitro-sulphureous Particles of the Blood enraging the Animal Liquor and Spirits The Third Indication is Vital The Third is Vital as it supporteth Strength and Life and denoteth restorative and corroborating Medicines and wholsome Diet easy of digestion as not being of too high a nourishment which ever feedeth the Disease rather then the Patient The Curatory Indication The means advised in the Curatory Indication is much assisted by the prudent conduct of Friends and Servants giving good Council sometimes and othertimes threats blows and bonds which often awe the servile refractory temper of Mad Men who else will not be governed in the taking of Aliment and Medicines and will not submit themselves unless they be over-powred by force to which they are as passive as Brutes with whom they hold some Analogy as destitute of Reason And nothing more reduceth this kind of Patients to a perfect understanding Severity is very powerful in the cure of Madness and perfect enjoyment of themselves then by the severe Treatment of their Bodies whereupon a high restraint rendreth them humble and submissive whereby the arrogance and fierceness of Mad People being subdued they return to themselves in the regular exercise of their rational and sensitive Faculties As to a course in Physick Free Bleeding is very proper in Madness nothing is more beneficial then free Bleeding which giveth an allay to the fierceness of it by taking away its quantity and height and abateth the tumultuary motion of the Blood and Animal Spirits through the fibrous Compage of the Brain to this end an apertion of Veins may be frequently celebrated if it be consistent with strength in the Arm The opening of the Temporal Artery is very good in this Disease Neck Veins of the Forehead and above all I conceive the opening of the temporal Artery may speak an advantage to the Patient in this Malady as it letteth out some of the enraged mass of Blood whose motion and fury is most eminent in the Artery and by this operation I have seen very good success in this Malady as it evacuates some part of the hot furious Blood that the rest may be the more easily contemperated by the application of cooling Medicines Vomitories are very beneficial in this Disease Vomitortes are very advantageous in Madness as it dependeth upon Blood tainted with nitro-sulphureous Particles often proceeding from the obstruction of the Liver Pancreas and other Viscera which are opened in reference to their excretory Ducts by the violent motion of the Stomach drawing the Guts into consent whereupon they violently contracting themselves upward in an inverted peristaltick motion do throw up Bile and acide Recrements out of the Intestines into the Stomach whereby the Blood being depurated giveth less annoyance to the Head Take of an infusion of Crocus or Sulphure of Antimony prepared with some grains of Tartar or some grains of White Hellibore or Mercurius vitae given in some proper vehicle Mercurial Medicines Mercurial Medicines often prove successful in Madness given with Purgatives or without as of Calamelanos of it self or quickned with some few grains of Turpeth Minerale move a salivation and often discharge an habitual Madness by reason sometimes a great evacuation of salival Liquor coming of it self without the help of Art doth cure a Maniack disposition Strong Purgatives do also speak a great advantage in order to the cure of this stubborn Malady as they depress the height of the fierce Humors Strong Purgatives are good in this Disease and lessen the quantity of the saline serous and sulphureous parts of the Blood and nervous Liquor conjunct causes of this Disease as the infusion of Black Hellebore in White-wine and Water prepared with Tartar and Seeds of Caraway or Coriander as the Decoctum Sen. Gereonis prepared with Epithymum Mechoacan Turpeth c. As also a Bolus of Extract of Helebore with Calamelanos c. As also Pilulae Coch. Min. Faetid Major hightened with some grains of the Trochichs of Ashandal or Resin of Scammony or Jalap The preservatory Indication hath relation to the cause of this Disease The preservatory Indication consisteth much in sweetning the mass of Blood and doth much take off the nitrous and sulphureous parts of the Blood and correct the Acrimony of the nervous Liquor and irregular motion of the Animal Spirits A Mineral of Cristal or Nitre well prepared as also Spirit of Sulphure The Blood may be allayed by Minerals or Vitriol incrassating the thin and hot mass of Blood and attemperating the raging quality are very beneficial in appeasing the violent motion of the Blood and the nervous Liquor and Spirits Chalybeat Syrupes Tinctures Electuaries mixed with cooling Medicines Chalybeatâ— are very proper in a Maniack disposition Diet-drink do speak a great allay to the furious Blood and extravagant motion of the Animal Liquor and its more refined Particles by drinking now and then a draught of Diet-drink made with Sarza or China in which the Flowers of Water-Lilies Cowslips or Lily of the Valley may be boiled and it being strained may be sweetned with Syrupe of Water-Lilies or Lime-Flowers or Lily of the Valley Whey Clarified prepared with the Flowers of Water-Lilies Betony Clarified Whey prepared with Water-Lilies Cowslips c. may be given for an ordinary drink in this case As also Emulsions prepared with the cooling Seeds White Poppy blanched Almonds c. may be of great use Decoctions of the tops of Borage Bugloss fragrant Apples Decoctions of Borage c. the shavings of Ivory the Flowers of Borage Violets Cowslips Water-Lilies c. are very profitable As also Apozemes of Pimpernel having a Blew Flower St. Johns-wort c. Electuaries also prepared with Conserves of Flowers of Water-Lilies Electuaries Lily of the Valley Cowslips cooling Seeds powdered as Powder of Haley c. made up with Syrupe of Water-Lillies drinking immediately after it a draught of cooling or specifique Apozeme The vital Indication hath a regard to the preservation of Strength Cordiaâ—â— as the said Electuary As also an Electuary made with Sage Flowers Rosemary Paeony Cowslips Water-Lilies which contemperate the hot disposition of the Brain and corroborate it After which a draught may be taken immediately prepared with Flowers of Betony Rorismary Sage or Tey and the like sweetned with Syrupe of Cowslips or Water-Lilies In point of Diet all strong and full nourishment is to be avoided as keeping the Blood high and enraged wherefore it is more reasonable to advise a thin Diet of Water-gruel Barley-Cream thin broth of a Chicken Mutton Veal c. Hypnoticks may be proper in this Disease And by reason Sleep is very requisite to compose the unquiet Animal Spirits gentle Hypnoticks may be advised of Cowslips or Red Poppy-water or that of Lime-Flowers or Lily of the Valley with some Cinnamon-water distilled with Barley and Syrupe of Poppy In reference to Madness proceeding from the biting of
Texture of it is ill framed as being over-clouded by gross Fumes or Vapors or as being too dense and compact making it too opaque so that the lucid Particles of the Animal Spirits not able to diffuse themselves through the gross substance of the Brain do leave it unapt for the performance of its Functions whereupon this Disease is sometimes hereditary as propagated from Parents to their Children by gross seminal principles which are affected with the ill frame of the Brain and its gross nervous Liquor and Spirits which are ingredients in the genital Liquor producing an ill Compage and Substance in the Brain of Children In some Fenny Air may concur to the production of this Disease the dull gross fenny Air hath a great influence on the Blood and nervous Liquor of the Inhabitants so that Men were styled Fools in Baeotia as breathing in a thick Air wonderfully discomposing their Wit and rational Faculties rendring them senseless and stupid An ill Conformation of the â—rain may generate Mopishnes Beside these preternatural indispositions of the Brain another doth disaffect it which is an ill Conformation as the Interstices of the Filaments are so narrow and small that the nervous Liquor and Spirits want a free passage through the fibrous Compage of the Brain whereupon their Animal operations are not duely celebrated and these spaces of the Filaments are not only too close but sometimes over laxe as being clogged with serous Recrements spoiling the nervous frame of the Brain of its due tenseness much hindring the progress of the Succus Nervosus and its more noble Particles the immediate instruments of the sensitive The narrow Interestices of the nervous Filaments productive of this Disease and intellectual Powers Sometimes the close Interstices of the nervous Filaments do associate with gross unactive Animal Spirits which so dull the Brain that it cannot exert its operations whereupon the Succus Nervosus and its crass Particles cannot act the nervous Compage of the Brain as losing their free motion in the over-straight spaces of the nervous threads which do cause a want or dulness of Wit and Judgment There are many evident causes productive of this Disease The evident causes of Mopishness as an ill mass of Blood and nervous Liquor proceeding from an ill Air gross Diet deep Thoughts and Passions of the Mind which render the Animal Spirits unactive causing oftentimes a stupid indisposition and defect of Sense and Reason Sometimes the generous Particles of the Blood and nervous Liquor The vital and nervous Liquor sometime grow Effecte in this Disease do evaporate and grow effaete and vapide as generous Wine having lost its oily and volatil Particles turneth faint and paled whereupon young Men growing old lose the perfection of the vital and nervous Liquor and the Animal Spirits acquire a dull sluggish disposition not fit for motion The Blood and Animal Liquor is often enervated by Luxury Venery Luxury destroyeth the purity of the Animal Liquor and ill Diet whereupon the Body is rendred sick and decayed and the Compage of the Brain loseth its tenseness as growing flaccide in Hypocondriack Bodies and the nervous substance of the Brain suffereth a great weakness and resolution in frequent Convulsive motions in Apoplexies Convulsive motions often produce Mopishness Hysterick Fits Epilepsies and the like so that I have seen some become Mopes and Stupid after many fits of Cephalick Diseases Early Wit in Children often degenerates into dulness according to the vulgar proverb soon Ripe soon Rotten Early Wits degenerate into Dulness by reason the finer parts of the Succus Nervosus being over-active and thin do often quit their subject and leave it gross and spiritless making the Brain unfit to perform its operations Great strokes upon the Head making concussions of the Brain Great strokes upon the Head hinder the motion of the Animal Spirits do hinder the due and regular motion of the Animal Spirits in the spaces placed between the nervous Filaments and make Men dull and sottish and sometimes Mad. When Men frequently indulge themselves in the immoderate use of Wine Ale Brandy and Strong-waters their Stomach loseth its concoctive Faculty making an ill Chyle and mass of Blood consisting of Heterogeneous fermentative Elements which destroy the purity of the vital and nervous Liquor rendring the Animal Spirits unable to perform the functions of the Mind The frequent and too great Doses of Opiats do incrassate the mass of Blood and nervous Liquor and are endued with a malignant Temper Opiates too frequently administred do beget Mopishness very offensive to the Animal Spirits by rendring them Effaete and Vapide and unfit for motion so that the Brain loseth its Tone and cannot well accomplish the acts of Sense and Reason often making Men Mopes and Sots Violent passions of the Mind as a pannick Fear and deep Sorrow Violent passions do produce this Disease and the like do strike so great a terror that they unman the Patient and confound the regular motion of the Succus Nervosus and Animal Spirits rendring a Man stupid and sensless and not able to make provision for the preservation of his Life and Person as being betrayed by passion in time of Battle So that as the Wise man saith Fear betrayeth those succors that Reason offereth Melancholick and Hypocondriacal Persons sometimes acquire a Morosis Deep Thoughts sometimes cause Mopishness which happens to persons of deep Thoughts often addicted to the Study of Learning whereupon the Animal Spirits are depauperated and the acts of Sense and Reason diminished or wholly abolished in Fops So that Thoughtful and Studious persons often propagate Fools as they over-much indulge deep Meditations which do much employ the Succus Nervosus and its more noble Particles in the Brain hindring their progress down toward the Testicular Glands wherein the Seminal Liquor wanting a due proportion of nervous Liquor and Animal Spirits as their excellent Element cannot produce a well-disposed Brain whence ensueth a defect of right Reason and Sense These Diseases of Stupidity and Mopishness The distinction of Mopishness The First hath a defect of Memory c. if strictly inquired into may admit a distinction as the First hath a defect of Memory Imagination and Judgement so that the persons affected with stupidity are not well apprehensive of notions nor judicious in the right consideration of things and treat others with ridiculous Language and Gestures but that Mopish persons have somewhat more of the use of Reason is manfest as understanding simple notions and retaining them sometime in their Memory A defect of Judgement sometimes a cause of Mopishness but by reason of a defect in Judgment cannot compound and divide the notices of things and entertain their companions sometimes with frivilous impertinent discourses and other times with dull Silence and refractory Humors Our aim at this time is to give an account of both of them
and Spirit in Distillation but when the Saline associated with Spirituous Atomes are rendred Volatil they are somewhat freed from the strict combination of Sulphur and Earth As it is evident in the Distillation of Wine after it is made fine by parting with its gross and earthy Lees fallen to the bottom of the Cask whereupon out of Wine secerned from its Faeces the Spirituous and Volatil parts will easily ascend and a Spirit of Wine may be readily extracted The Liquors expatiating themselves in the body of Animals The Liquors in the Bodies of Animals hold some proportion with those of Vegetables and especially in a Humane Body may have some analogy in their Fermentation with those of Vegetables whereupon the Liquors of our Bodies are endued with a moderate Fixation when first the Chyle is duly elaborated in the Stomach by the help of good Air Meats of easie Concoction and proper Ferments of Serous and Nervous Liquor distilling out of the Arteries and Nerves inserted into the inward Tunicle of the Stomach into the Cavity of the Ventricle whereby the well digested Chyle being secerned by a kind of Precipitation from the gross Saline and Sulphureous and earthy Faeces is transmitted through the Intestines wherein it is farther Concocted by the Pancreatick Juice and Arterial and Nervous Liquor by which the Chyle being rendred more attenuated is carried through the Thorax by proper Lacteae into the Subclavian Veins where it espousing the Blood in a near union receiveth a farther Exaltation and is assimilated into Vital Liquor whose more mild parts associated with Nervous Juice Nutrition of the solid parts is made by Assimilation become a good Succus Nutricius which being conveyed by innumerable Pores into the solid parts is made one uniform substance with them by Accretion But if upon the reception of highly salted Meat dried in the Sun or Smoak and other Meat hard of Digestion by reason the Succulent parts are dried up by the Salt and Smoak a crude Milky Humour is extracted The crudity of Chyle is produced by the Compage of the Aliment not duly opened because the too solid Compage of the Aliment is not duly opened by a gross Air a faint heat and ill Ferments of the Stomach whereby the Chyle is not well separated from the gross Saline Sulphureous and earthy Elements of the Meat and Drink whereupon the Intestines by reason of an impure Pancreatick Liquor and other ill Ferments do not attenuate the Chyle which is imported through the Breast into the Vital Liquor wherein it is not exalted by a dispirited Blood affected with gross Sulphureous and fixed Saline Atomes which being transmitted into the Interstices of the Vessels do highly torture the Membranous and Nervous parts of the Muscles producing a Rheumatism This Disease doth not only proceed from the fixed Saline parts of the Blood but from a depraved Nervous Liquor A Rheumatism proceedeth from ill Blood and Nervous Liquor which may be backed by probable Reason because Persons liable to Rheumatisms are often afflicted with Nervous disaffections as gentle rigors dispersed through the Membranous and Muscular parts of the Body which are a kind of Convulsive Motions seated in the Nervous and Tendinous Fibres involuntarily contracted by some sharp Humours And again the unnatural Contractions of Nerves proceed from a disaffected Nervous Liquor of which this Conjecture may be made because these Convulsive Motions were attended with the excretion of Urine as salt as Vinegar an Argument that part of the Acid Particles affecting the Nerves were discharged by Urine which were first secerned in the Glands and afterward imparted by the Veins or Lymphaeducts to the Mass of Blood carried by the Descendent Trunk of the Aorta and Emulgent Artery into the Glands of the Kidney where it is severed from the Blood and transmitted by the Urinary Ducts and Papillary Caruncles terminating into the Pelvis the entrance into the Ureters by which it is conveyed into the Bladder and so out of the Body by the Urethra Furthermore it may be conjectured An ill Nervous Liquor the cause of a Rheumatism That this Disease may partly borrow its production from vitiated Nervous Liquor disaffecting the sensible parts Because in the beginning of Rheumatisms Patients are often troubled with Dulness and pains of their Heads attended with Sleepiness which may come from a depraved Animal Liquor disaffecting the Coats of the Brain whence upon good grounds we may be induced to believe that a Rheumatism is not wholly derived from a disordered Mass of Blood but also from a Nervous Juice impraegnated with Saline Particles brought to a Fluor thereby rendred Acid whereupon the fixed saline parts of the Vital entring into a confaederacy with the Animal Liquor do raise brisk Fermentations exasperating the Membranes Nervous and Tendinous Fibres of the Muscles whence ensueth a high discomposure and torture of the Sensible parts So that the igredients of a Rheumatism may be truly judged the Fermentative part of the Nervous and Vital Liquor As to the Prognosticks of this Disease it is rarely attended with fatal Symptoms and after the great storms of disquiet and pain are allayed A Rheumatism is not dangerous a Calm ensueth and therefore a Rheumatism is not in it self liable to great danger but is a kind of Preservative as by its mediation other Diseases are discharged and the most discomposed Patient afterward is restored to Health by reason the Matter of the Disease the saline and acid Recrements most offensive to the inward and noble parts are discharged into the outward and into the upper and lower Limbs to secure the principles of Life from the assaults of a troublesome and impetuous Enemy Sometimes in a Rheumatism A Rheumatism flowing from saline and earthy parts concreted into a Chalky substance these fixed Saline in combination with earthy Particles are concreted into a Chalky substance accompanied with Extravasated Blood sometime tending to Suppuration which being of a Caustick nature doth corrode the Fleshy parts and Skin through which the Chalky Matter is discharged A Person of Honesty keeping a Livery Stable in the Strand was highly afflicted with a Rheumatism productive of divers Swellings in the Muscular parts accompanied with violent pains These Tumours proceeded from Saline and Earthy parts Concreted which did vent themselves very freely with Ulcerous Matter in divers parts of the Body and upon Blood-letting and Purging and Diet Drinks of Sarsaparilla and China boiled in Water and streined and mixed with new Milk the Pains were taken away and the Ulcers Cured by gentle detersive and drying Topicks and the Patient perfectly recovered his Health which he hath enjoyed for some Years Sometimes a Rhematism long afflicting a weak Chachectick Body A Rheumatism associated with an Atrophy vitiateth the Ferments of the Stomach producing an ill Chyle and Mass of Blood causing an Atrophy of the whole Body A Knight a Person of great Worth and Integrity being of a weak Constitution
when they are impelled out of the terminations of the Arteries and are in some part accreted to the sides of the Vessels while they pass through the habit of the Body into the Extreamities of the Veins and in the interim the concreted and affixed parts of the red Crassament of the Blood to the Coats of the Vessels is commonly called the Parenchyma filling up some part of their empty Spaces which cannot be a proper Sensory of the Tongue as being void of all Sense Worthy Doctor Wharton was so much in love with the Glands that he consigned the Glands of the Tongue seated about the Root of it to an Office they are not capable of to be the Sensory of Tasting which is somewhat improbable as I conceive by reason these Glands do not invest the upper Area about the tip of the Tongue wherein our Taste is principally if not wholly seated But craving Pardon of this Learned Anatomist The Membrane of the Tongue beseâ— with Nervous Fibrils is the subject of Tasting I humbly conceive the Organ of Tasting to be founded in Gustatory Nerves sprouting of the fourth and seventh pair of Nerves perforating the inward and outward Coat of the Tongue into whose Blade all about the tip it transmitteth numerous Fibrils the immediate subject of Sensation of Tasting produced by the appulses of sapid Objects made upon the Extreamities of Nervous Fibrils implanted in the upper Coat not far from the tip of the Tongue Learned Malpighius The numerous Papillae are not the subject of Sensation by reason they do â—oâ— perforate the thick â—oat of the Tongue doth constitute numerous Papillae to be the Organ of Taste which do plainly appear in the red Expansion seated under the thick Coat of the Tongue of a Beast when some part of the upper Coat is parted by the Knife and the other torn off by violence and are inserted only into the inward surface of the Exterior Coat of the Tongue and do not perforate it by reason they appear short and very minute in their Extreamities which would be much longer if they did penetrate the outward Coat of the Tongue Whereupon I most humbly conceive those Papillary Protuberancies not to be the instruments of Taste as not receptive of sapid impressions which cannot well be imparted through the hard Exterior Membrane of the Tongue not perforated by the Papillary Prominencies Whereupon it may be farther replied by most ingenious Malpighius in his Favour that the numerous small pointed Prominencies springing out the red Expansion are elevated above it and do emit out of their Extreamities Nervous Fibrils which saith this Learned Author are insinuated into the Sinus appertaining to the Roots of the crooked Cartilaginous Processes which perforating the Exterior Coat of the Tongue are seated above it To which I make bold with the permission of this worthy and great Anatomist to return this Answer That if the Papillary Prominencies do creep into the Cavities of the Roots of the Horny Protuberancies yet they arrive not the utmost Extreamities of them above so that the Nervous Fibrils seated below are not in a readiness to entertain sapid impressions as being at a distance from the Masticated Aliment which therefore cannot affect the Nerves through the Cavities of the Horny Prominencies prepossessed with Salival Liquor flowing into the Mouth to impraegnate the chewed Nutriment in order to Concoction And furthermore The Roots of the Cartilaginous Processes in Coats of the Tongue are 〈…〉 〈◊〉 the Glanâ—â—ous Coat â—â—dged under 〈◊〉 of the Papillae I humbly conceive that this Hypothesis of most Learned Malpighius to be somewhat improbable who affirmeth the Extreamities of the Papillae to be inserted into the Roots of the Cartilaginous Processes which are implanted into the Glandulous Coat of the Tongue of Bruits lodged under the red Expansion the seat of the Papillae and according to the Supposition that their tops should enter the roots of the Horny Protuberancies their terminations of the Cartilaginous Processes should be planted toward the interior part of the upper Membrane of the Tongue Which seemeth to oppose Autopsy because I have often seen if my sight doth not deceive me the Papillae to be seated in the Red Coat where the Exterior Membrane is stripped of both in a Boiled and Raw Tongue wherein I have also viewed the Horny Prominencies pulled up by the Root out of the Glandulous Coat and have seen the Papillae seated between their Cavities the receptacles of the Horny Processes upon the Area of the red Expansion Whereupon begging the excuse of the truly Renowned and most Accomplished Malpighius I deem it more reasonable not to found the Organs of Tasting in the Papillae lodged under the Exterior Membrane which I conceive to be Minute Glands in the second Coat of the Tongue but in numerous Nervous Fibrils inserted into the surface of the upper Membrane which can readily perceive Appulses made by sapid objects upon the surface of the Exterior Coat of the Tongue That I may give you a clearer notion of the Tasting Faculty The faculties of the Soul are defined and determined to such parts of the Body disposed for their proper Operations and Determined by peculiar objects and its Objects they are most highly to be considered as Relatives And by Faculty I do not mean an empty Notion void of Reason as some will have it but thus far Significant as being the sole Definitively existent in such a part duly qualified to accomplish a peculiar Operation which is reduced into Act as being specified and determined by a proper Object which moveth upon the Organ of Sensation by gentle or brisk Appulses whence Tastes are rendred more or less Pleasant according to soft or strong Contacts upon the Sensory The Sapid Liquors or more solid Substances Objects of the Taste internally or externally considered as the various Objects of the Taste may be noticed either as they are Internally constituted of divers Elementary Principles or Externally framed of different Solematisms made up of several Figures and Magnitudes The various objects of Sapid Objects as they relate to Elementary Bodies are composed of different Saline and Sulphureous Particles Bitterness is made of bitter oily parts Internal Elementary principles are Saline and Sulphureous Particles the cause of bitter Tastes which is frequently demonstrated in the destillation of bitter Vegetables by a Serpentine whence it is easie to extract a very bitter Chymical Oyl which being drawn out the Magma of those Plants which before were highly bitter remaineth as it were insipid and void of all bitterness Which is a clear Argument to prove that Bitterness in Plants proceedeth from Oily Spirits which do not grow sweet by Digestion but thereby acquire greater and greater degrees of Bitterness by reason Oily Bodies have such a Consistence that it so confineth the Volatil Spirituous Particles that they cannot easily breath out Sweetness borroweth its birth from sweet Oily parts getting the dominion over
Recesses whereupon if the influx of Nervous Liquor be intercepted the Muscular and Membranous parts are dispoiled of their due Dimensions which doth not proceed from the suppressed Motion of the Blood keeping its Current into Paralytick Members which appeareth in the Pulsation of the Artery playing in the Emaciated parts and therefore there must be found out some Vessels which being obstructed do stop the course of the Nervous Liquor and defraud the Systeme of Vessels of which the decayed parts are integrated of their Alimentary Liquor whereupon the Nerves being destitute of their Juice Animal Spirits and Elastick Particles of Air loose their due Tenseness and Tone whence followeth the resolution of parts in Paralytick Distempers Another argument may be borrowed from Ocular Demonstration In Wounds of Tendons a gleete issueth out which is a Nervous Liquor which is a high Evidence and not to be Disputed an Instance may be given in the Wounds of Nerves and Tendons out of which a Limpide Liquor commonly called a Gleete freely extilleth which cannot probably flow from Veins and Arteries whose Liquors are tinged with a different Colour Again It may be further confirmed by the swelling of the Nerves The Nervous Liquor may be asserted by reason the Nerves swell in young Animals upon a Ligature made by a Ligature in young Animals above which an Intumescence groweth derived from Nervous Liquor tending toward the Ligature which being intercepted causeth the Swelling But how happeneth it that Ligatures of Nerves produce no Swellings in Animals of greater age My Conjecture is That the Nervous Juice is more free in Motion in Puppies then in more Mature Animals derived from the greater abundance and thinness of the Nervous Liquor A fourth argument to prove the Existence of the Nervous Juice Another argument to evince the existence of Nervous Liquor is the number of Nerves implanted into parts who do not need much Motion or Sensation as being a Member related to the family of Liquors the great Instruments to support the oeconomy of Nature in Animals is drawn from the uses assigned to the Nerves which are Sensation Motion and Nutrition and some parts which are not subject to Motion nor extraordinary Sensation as the Mesentery and Spleen are furnished with great plexes of Nerves and parts which have far greater Dimensions as the Liver and Caul have far less proportion of Nerves which argueth they are instituted for Nutrition only whereupon the Mesenterick and Splenick Plexes are consigned to some other use beside that of Sense Motion and Nutrition Which I humbly conceive is this That the numerous Nerves are ordained too by Nature to transmit Liquor into the Glands of the Mesentery and Spleen to refine the Chyle in the one and the Vital Juice in the other And I have great reason to believe that the fruitful Branches of Nerves inserted into the inward Tunicle of the Stomach are to convey Animal Liquor into the Cavity of the Stomach to impart a Fermentative Power to the Aliment in order to the production of Chyle so that the Nervous Liquor is a fluid Body endued with many Minute Particles big with active and subtle Principles which upon that account have the advantage of a more ready entrance into the pores of the Aliment And again The Nervous Liquor impraegnated with volatil saline parts doth insinuate it self into the compage of Meat and Drink The Animal Juice as inspired with fine Spirits and impraegnated with volatil saline Particles is more readily received by secret passages into the inward penetrals of the Meat and Drink lodged in the bosome of the Ventricle and doth impart Intestine Motion to it by stirring up the different Elements of the Nourishment Thirdly The Nervous Liquor is composed of many Minute parts adorned with various Figures and Magnitudes The Animal Juice as consisting of different parts in shape and siz flowing from Aliment doth reduce it into motion different from the fluid and solid atomes of the Aliment which being contrary agents do enter into a Conflict with each other and by opposite Manners and processes of Operation do bring their disagreeing Tempers by a middle allay to an amicable Reconciliation consistent with each others subdued Nature Ingenious Doctor Willis is pleased to say That the Nervous Liquor is a Masculine kind of Seminal Juice And this opinion as I conceive is grounded upon its Spirituous and Volatil Particles in which it hath some likeness with Genital Liquor in Quality as well as Colour And this Animal Juice being incorporated with the Serous Liquor exuding the Extreamities of the Caeliack Artery into the capacity of the Stomach with which it is advanced as with some active Ferment The Fermentative disposition of the Nervous Liquor may be farther confirmed out of the first principle of its Production wherein its Nature doth very much consist which is of Vital Juice The Nervous Liquor hath Fermentative dispositions in reference to the Blood from which it is propagated as having contrary Elements the Chrystalline and finer part The Nervous Liquor is extracted after this manner as I apprehend The Blood being impelled by the Carotide Arteries into the Cortical Glands of the Brain is there separated as in so many Colatories wherein the more soft and fine Juice of the Blood is secerned from the hot and gross red Crassament which is returned by the Jugular Veins while the more delicate Liquor is elaborated and impraegnated with Volatil Saline parts in the body of the Cortical Glands and afterward transmitted into the Extreamities of the Nerves whereupon we may be easily induced to believe that the Animal Liquor being generated out of the Blood a subject of many Fermentative Principles as composed of different Elements and as chiefly embodied with Air in the substance of the Lungs full of Elastick Particles which contribute much to the Fermentation of the Animal Liquor extracted out of Blood Furthermore The Nervous Liquor as embodied with Air in Cortical Glands obtaineth Elastick Particâ—s and is active in Fermentation The Animal Liquor is associated with Air when it is first produced in the Cortical Glands which ascending through the Cavities of the Nostrils in time of Inspiration some part of it as complying with its nature to move upward passeth through the Os Ethmoides into the Ventricles of the Brain whence it is elevated through the numerous Pores of the various Medullary Processes into the Cortical Glands wherein it enters into alliance and confederacy with the embrionate Nervous Liquor and exalteth it with subtle saline Particles and with an active Expansive Quality one main Ingredient constituting the Fermentative Disposition of the Animal Liquor Another argument may be brought to place the Nervous Juice in the Mass of Ferments is from its great activity and most subtle nature by which it produceth such wonderful Effects in Muscular Motion Nervous Liquor is of a subtle and active Nature in being the cause of Muscular Motion made upward and
into Acidity as separated from the sweet Alimentary Juyce the end of Concoction which is quickly transmitted out of the Stomach into the intestines while the more useless parts staying in the Ventricle do contract an Acidity Farthermore when the Stomach laboureth with some great indisposition Soure belchings the effect of an ill Concoction or when oppressed with too great a quantity or affected with an ill qualified Aliment the Stomach throweth up four Belchings the effects of an ill Concoction proceeding from fixed saline parts as too much exalted and brought to a fusion the cause of Acidity which is promoted to a great height as the Saline Particles obtain a more eminent Degree of volatility as crude vitriol in its prime Constitution hath some degrees of Acidity but when it is driven through a retort with a fierce Fire it is affected with such an Intenseness of Acidity that the Palate is impatient of it unless it be diluted with some insipid or soft Liquor and upon this account the reliques of the former Concoction do sometimes arrive to so great an Acidity that the Teeth are set on edge upon vomiting this troublesome Acide Matter And this is the third Cause how the Stomach produceth an Acidity in Digestion when the Aliment newly received The Chyle is often embodied in the Stomach with acide Recrements the reliques of a former Concoction is embodied with the Recrements of the former Concoction with an acide Phlegme destitute of Sweetness whereupon the Chyle cannot be conceived to be improved with this acide Mixture but groweth more impure and degenerate and the lacteal Vessels receive only the purer parts of the concocted Liquor as Secerned from all acide Atomes wherefore we may conceive that the Acidity in the Stomach to be no constituent part or ingredient of Chyle but an Instrument as some will have it by which the more solid parts of Aliment are Dissolved Acidity is a fusion of saline Eliments as in the fermentation of Vegetables The Fourth Cause of Acidity is found in Vegetables wherein a Fusion is made of Saline Elements which is not produced in Flesh which being exalted doth not degenerate into an Acidity after the rate of Vegetables because animal Salts being elaborated and reduced to Fusion do not contract a sourness but rather rankness and cannot arrogate to themselves the nature of a due Ferment in Concoction and Aliment composed of Vegetables have divers steps of Elaboration and first of all groweth Acide then acquireth another degree of Saltness and last of all arriveth at a greater perfection of Concoction and endeth in a pleasant Sweetness most evident in the production of Chyle But that we may speak more clearly to the Serous Ferment distilling out of the Extremities of the Arteries into the Cavity of the Stomach this Question may be fitly propounded Whether this Serous Ferment hath its Operation in the Production of Chyle as endued with Acide or with Saline Particles to which a Reply may be made with this distinction either of the sweetness of Chyle proceeding from Vegetable Aliment as Sugar Honey and the like and then the nourishing Liquor first groweth Acide and then Sweet but if the Sweetness of the Alimentary Juyce proceedeth from Concocted Flesh it is first brought by Fusion to a Saline and then to a sweet disposition which is derived from the disposition of a Serous Ferment in a good constitution of Body which is Saline and not Acide as may be plainly proved from the nature of this Crystaline Liquor which is highly impregnated with a great quantity of Volatil Salt which may be extracted by Chymical Operations a very active Instrument in Chylification by which the body of the Aliment is opened and the Alimentary Liquor extracted and exalted And to give a farther confirmation The serous Liquor conveyed to the cavity of the Stomach is not acted with Acide but Saline parts that the Serous Liquor distilling into the capacity of the Stomach is not acted with Acide but Saline parts I will endeavour divers experimental Instances in the production of Chyle in the Stomachs of divers Animals An acute Author giveth out that the Concoction in the Ventricles of Birds is managed by Acide Ferments which may be clearly determined by tasting Chyle in their Stomachs and to this effect I have opened the Crop of a Pullet and the extended Gulet of a Curlue which supplieth the place of a Crop in both which and many other Birds I have found a Liquor of a Whitish colour in good proportion affected not with an Acide but Saltish Taste and if the Aliment be Lodged too great a time in the Ventricle it rather resembleth a stinking than sourish Smell not unlike that of the grosser Excrements belonging to the Intestines Learned Moebius giveth an Account of a young Dormouse about a fortnight old whose Stomach he opened and found it empty of all Ingests except a white Milky Humour of which he receiving a little into his Mouth did affect his Tongue not with any Sourness but with a sharp Saline pungent Taste not unlike that of Crowfoot or Cuckooe-pintle which gave a disgust to his Palate for some time though he frequently gargarized it with Water I have frequently tasted of a Cineritious Liquor which I conceive to be Chyle in the Stomachs of Skaits The Stomachs of Fish in point of Concoction are endued not with Acide but Saline Particles Thornbacks Pikes and other Fish and have found it of a high Saline or Armoniack Taste without the least relish of sourness and in the Stomachs of Crabs Lobsters being opened you may plainly discern the inward Coats of their Ventricles to be highly tinged with a nitrous Saltness And in the Stomachs of Lambs newly killed being cut open plainly may be discovered a Saline and no sour Liquor adhaering to the inward Coat of the true Ventricle In a Dog opened alive Maebius maketh mention of Chyle contained in the Ventricle emitting a strong smell like that of the Intestines and having taken it into his Mouth did savour of a Saline Taste And I have made trial in the Stomachs of Brutes and Men The Stomach in Scorbutick and Hypocondriacal Distempers is affected with four Humors and have discovered the inward Coats of their Stomachs affected with a succulent Matter impregnated with Salt Particles and not with Sour except in Scorbutick and Hypocondriacal and other unhealthy persons The serous Ferment being severed from the Blood in the glandulous Coat of the Stomach participates of its nature and is impregnated with Saline Particles as may easily be discovered by Chymical Operations made upon Blood out of which by Art may be extracted a Spirit highly exalted with volatil Saline Atomes and also out of variety of Alimentary Liquor it self in divers sorts of Milk may be extracted by Chymistry great quantities of volatil Salt whereupon it may be easily evinced both by the Alimentary Liquor it self in divers sorts of Milk
hightned by these choice Dispositions it is transmitted from the Mouth through the Gulet into the Stomach where it is improved by various Ferments flowing out of the Terminations of the Nerves and Arteries into the Cavity of the Stomach which raise a Fermentation in the Meat and Drink by exciting their contrary Elements to Intestine Motion The Liquor dropping out of the Extreamities of the Nerves into the bosome of the Stomach is inspired with fine Animal Spirits and exalted with Volatil Saline Particles which being of a subtle Constitution enobled with Spirituous parts are easily received by secret passages into the body of the Aliment lodged in the Kitchin of the Stomach affected with Intestine Motion by stirring up the contrary principles of the Nourishment And the Nervous Juice is also made up of many Minute parts adorned with various Figures and Magnitudes different from the solid and fluid atomes of Meat and Drink which being endued with contrary Elements do enter into fight with each other and by opposite Manners and processes of Operation do bring their disagreeing Tempers by a middle allay to an amicable Reconciliation consistent with each others subdued Nature And the Nervous Liquor doth also associate with the Serous Juice flowing gently out of the Extreamities of the Arteries separated from the Red Crassament of the Blood in the Glandulous Coat of the Stomach and this Serous Liquor The Alimentary Liquor is extracted by Ferments and afterward the Faeces are separated by a kind of precipitation being acted with various saline and oily Principles received from the Blood is conveyed into the Ventricle wherein divers Ferments compounded of different Minute Heterogeneous parts of various shapes and sizes do reduce into act the several Elements of Meat and Drink whose parts are opened by Volatil Saline and elastick Atomes of divers Ferments whereupon the gross and fixed Saline and sulphureous parts of the Aliment are put into Fusion and being further attenuated and exalted are brought to maturity as being rendred more subtle and spirituous and the more solid Atomes of the Meat being diluted with the watry parts of a potulent Matter are prepared and colliquated by a moist Heat derived from warm Blood extracting a White creamy Liquor which is severed by a kind of precipitation from the more faeculent parts as disserviceable to the Body in order to give a due Repair to the decayed mass of Blood exhausted by a free and constant transpiration through the finest passages of the Skin CHAP. XXXII The Pathology of the Concoctive Faculty of the Stomach HAving Treated of the appetitive Faculty consisting of Hunger and Thirst and of the retentive Faculty and of their Objects Dispositions Causes parts Affected and Pathology as Handmaids to the Concoctive Faculty and of its different Ferments Matter and Manner of the production of Chyle my intendment at this time is to entertain the Courreous Reader with the Pathology of the Concoctive Faculty Pathology concerneth the disaffections as the misdemeanors of Nature and therefore I conceive it not unreasonable to shew her state of Health in integrity as a Rule before I Treat of her failings as deflections from that Rule relating to the digestive power of the alimentary Liquor which I conceive is produced after this mode and accomplished by divers steps and periods The Aliment being broken into small parts by mastication The method of Nature in the production of Chyle impraegnated with salival Liquor and nitrous particles of Air exalted with the more athereal influxes of the Planets receiveth its first rudiment of Concoction in the Mouth and is thence transmitted down the Gulet into the Stomach where it is farther advanced with serous Particles distilling out of the terminations of the Arteries and with a more choice Liquor dropping out of the extreamities of the Nerves implanted into the inward Coat of the Ventricle wherein it is inspired with Air filling the empty Cavity of it before it is accommodated with Meat and Drink Whereupon the Ventricle being endued with Heat and many different Ferments opening the body of Aliment doth extract a Milky Tincture out of it by colliquation and afterward by a kind of precipitation doth defaecate the alimentary Liquor from the grosser Faeces The great Health and preservation of our excellent frame of Body Health is maintained by the good Constitution of Ferment or order to the production of Chyle Blood and Animal Liquor is chiefly supported by the laudable Constitution of different Ferments as each of them contribute to the production of Chyle the Materia substrata of Blood Animal Liquor and Spirits which do give Life Sense Motion and Nourishment to the whole Body These Fermentative Ingredients are the main efficients of the production of the alimentary Juyce in the Ventricle which hath its first conception in the Mouth as actuated with salival Liquor derived from the parotides maxillary and oral Glands exalted with Air enobled with Caelestial influxes and afterward the Aliment being protruded down the Aesophagus into the Ventricle is brought to greater maturity by the new access of Air Confaederated with Nervous and Serous Liquors so that these various Ferments as endued with a good Disposition are instituted by Nature to conserve our Health by propagating a laudable Chyle extracted out of wholsom Meat and Drink If these fermenting Elements The salival Liquor is disaffected with fixed saline or over-acide parts and vitiated with ill Air. the Grounds and Causes of intestine Motion in Diet the support of vital Liquor do recede from their native Principles and Constitution the wheels of nature grow in disorder being hurried with irregular Motion The salival Liquor is vitiated with fixed Saline or over-Acid Particles sometimes associated with Air debased with noisome Exhalations streaming out of the Earth or thickned with gross and putride Vapors ascending out of stagnant waters which do act the first parts in this Tragick Scene of Concoction and give the prime ill Tincture to the Aliment broken into small pieces And afterward the Meat and Drink being conveyed from the Mouth The Ferments of the Stomach are vitiated with saline and acide Recrements of the Blood and animal Juyce making a crude Chyle the Caused of many diseases through the Gulet into the Stomach are there assaulted with more troublesome saline and acide Recrements of Serous and Nervous Liquor lodged in the small Vessels obstructed in the Viscera and Glands wherein they being stagnant do lose their good Qualities and Spirits and grow first Saline and then by a longer abode do degenerate into an acide Ferment and at last give so great a trouble to the Noble parts that they force these indisposed Humors to quit their Confinement by squeezing them out of the greater Branches into the extremities of the Caeliack Capillary Arteries and Stomacick Fibrils into the Cavity of the Ventricle where they first accost and then enter into Converse with the broken Aliment whereby the purity of the alimentary Liquor is
quality of salival Liquor flowing from fluid or fixed Salts denoteth sweet Medicines which dulcifie and volatil Salts which impregnate the salival Liquor not only as defective in quantity but also as ill and gross in quality it being in its own nature a clean thin Liquor or when it is affected with a fluid or fixed Salt which is destructive to its laudable Fermentative Disposition consisting in Volatil Saline parts As to Salts brought to a Fluor vitiating the purity of salival Juyce it denoteth sweet Spirits which take off its Acidity by dulcifying the Serous parts of the Blood the Materia Substrata of Salival Liquor percolated in the oral Glands and impraegnated with nervous Juyce As to the fixed Salt rendring the salival Liquor gross it is countermanded by Medicines prepared with testaceous Powders highly impraegnated with Animal and Volatil Salt And when the Salival Liquor being crude and Viscide is corrected by attenuating and inciding Decoctions The Serous Liquor which ought to assist the Stomach in order to Chylification is also rendred unactive and in a kind disserviceable The gross and acide Particles of the serous Ferment of the Stomach and by Spirit of Harts-Horn Salt Armoniack c. when it is debased with gross and Acide Particles doth denote in point of its grossness and fixation the volatil Spirit of Harts-Horne Spirit of Salt Armoniack taken in small quantity in gentle Vehicles And the Acide parts of the Serous Ferment of the Stomach is allayed by dulcifying Spirit of Salt and Powder of Pearl Crabs Eyes Coral and the like And the nervous Liquor which in its due temper is serviceable for Concoction is deficient in quantity when its motion is suppressed by extravasated Blood lodged in the ambient parts of the Brain compressing the extreamities of the nervous Fibrils whereupon the animal Liquor is checked in its motion into the Par Vagum implanted into the Stomach or when the animal Liquor is so gross that it cannot pass truly into the Stomacick Nerves and by their Extremities distil into the Cavity of the Ventricle to farther the extraction of Aliment in the Stomach The quantity of Blood lodged in the Brain and compressing its Fibrous parts doth indicate Blood-letting As to the great quantity of Blood Stagnant in the Brain and stopping the animal Liquor first into the Origen of the Fibres and afterwards into the Stomacick Nerves it indicates often Bleeding in large proportion to promote the circulation of Blood in the Cortex in order to its reception into the jugular Veins to free the nervous Fibres from compression and to give a freedom to the Animal Liquor to be admitted into the Origen of most minute nervous Fibres seated in the exterior parts of the Brain commonly called the Cortex And as to the grossness of the nervous Liquor The grossness of the nervous Ferments of the Stomach doth denote cephalick Medicines and Purgatives that refine the animal Juyce hindring its motion into extreamities of the Fibres placed in the Brain and afterwards into the eight pair of Nerves inserted into the Stomach it indicates cephalick purgative and alterative Medicines that refine and attenuate the grossness of the animal Liquor and open the Extreamities and Interstices of Stomacick Nerves to transmit nervous Juyce into the Cavity of the Stomack to open the Compage of the Meat in order to its Dissolution and the Extraction of Chyle But if the motion of the animal Liquor be not deficient either by reason of the stagnation of Blood inducing a compression of Fibres or by its grossness whereby it cannot be freely admitted into them Yet another indisposition may happen to the animal Liquor which maketh it an unfit Ferment in order to Concoction when it is dispirited caused by nercotick Steams in soporiferous Diseases Narcotick Steams of Medicines indisposing the Brain are countermanded by volatil Spirits of Salt Armoniack succinated c. whereupon cephalick brisk Medicines are to be given mixed with Spirit of Harts-Horn Salt Armoniack succinated to impraegnate the depauperated and incrassated nervous Liquor with the access of new Volatil Saline Particles the great ingredients constituting the animal Liquor and Spirits And the Stomach is often burdened by a quantity of bilious Humours and ill pancreatick Juyce transmitted from the Pancreas into the Intestines and from thence into the Stomach The pancreatick and bilious Recrements transmitted from the Guts into the Stomach are cured by Vomiting Purging and corroborating Medicines in which are also generated pitutious Humors and acide Reliques of the Concoction which corrupt the Ferments of Concoction the Serous and Nervous Liquors and the Aliment it self and by embodying with it do pervert the Aeconomy of the Stomach in order to accomplish a due Fermentation of Meat and Drink Whereupon the vitiated bilious Recrements and pancreatick Juyce and acide pituitious Humours do indicate purging and gentle vomiting Medicines which discharge the offensive Excrements without any violence offered to the Tone of the Stomach in overstreining its Fibres produced in extravagant motion of the Ventricle upon strong Vomitings which being performed and the Stomach cleared of ill Humours corroborating Medicines are to be prescribed Elixir proprietatis in Hocumer Wine and other specifick bitter preparations of Gentian Wormwood Chamomel Centaury the less Carduus Benedictus which do strengthen the Fibres and rectifie the ill Ferments of the Stomach The Concoction of the Stomach is lost by an external Error which is cured by temperance and care The Concoction of the Stomach is not only disturbed by reason of a lost or weakened Tone of the Ventricle and ill Ferments but also by the Aliment it self offending in quantity and quality As to the First We do indulge our fond Appetites in eating too freely of variety of Dishes or of Meats not easily Concocted as fat Beef and Pork Meats dried in the Smoak and long kept in Salt whence they grow hard and tough as being despoiled of their succulent parts which render them tender and easie to be Digested and our various Courses of Meat are attended with numerous Bottles of generous Liquors which make the Meat swim in our Stomach when it is over-charged with too much Drink confounding the natural Heat and Ferments of the Stomach spoiling it in order to the extraction of a proper alimentary Tincture Wherefore my humble Advice is that we would consult our Reason Treats are not made in order to eat of every Dish but one or two are most agreeable to us and not our Sense in gratifying our brutish Appetites in too great indulgence of our selves in pompous Treats in which we kill our Friends with kindness and not to eat too freely of variety of Dishes which are set before us to make an Election of One or Two as most agreeable to our Taste and Health which is supported by Temperance and not by Luxury in which we feed Death and Worms and in a fond compliance with our
into the Guts wherein these serous parts of the Blood being highly enobled with its Volatil Saline and Sulphureous Particles endued with a subtle and active Constitution do insinuate themselves into Porous parts of the Alimentary Liquor and act it with a new Effervescence whereby it is very much Meliorated and improved conspicuous in the white dress of Chyle accompanied with new and more inward noble Dispositions The last and most excellent Ferment The fourth Ferment of the Guts is a Nervous Liquor belonging to the Concoctive Faculty of the Intestines is the Nervous Liquor taking its first rise from the Cortical Glands of the Brain and being received into the Extreamities of the Nervous Fibrils is thence transmitted through the various Processes of the Brain into the Intercostal Nerves and Par Vagum and afterward into the numerous Mesenterick Branches implanted into the Glands of the Intestines out of whose Terminations the Animal Liquor doth destil into the interstices of the Vessels appertaining to the Glands of the Guts wherein the Succus Nutricius associated with the more Albuminous parts of the Blood is conveyed through the Minute Pores of the Intestines into their Cavity wherein this noble Liquor impraegnated with Volatil Saline Particles and Animal Spirits inspired with Elastick Particles of Air doth embody it self with the Liquid parts of Meat not digested in the Stomach and thence thrown into the Guts whereupon the Chyle is very much hightned by the Volatil and Spirituous Particles of Nervous Liquor and rendred more fluid and fit for Motion into the Lacteal Vessels A now I will endeavour to give a more clear Discription of the Elaboration of Chyle in the Intestines The Concoction of the Chyle in the Guts how it is accomplished where the Contents of the Stomach moistned with Salival Liquor inspired with intraereal Particles in the Mouth are acted with Vital Heat flowing from the Blood of the Stomach and parts adjacent and impraegnated with Serous and Nervous Liquor whereby some Alimentary parts are extracted in the Ventricle and others pass confused with the crude Nourishment into the Guts where they encounter many other Ferments of Pancreatick Bilious Serous and Nervous Liquor whereupon the subject matter of Concoction consisting in its own nature of various Elements of which all mixed Bodies are composed is also improved by many different Ferments which being constituted of opposite Principles do make great Conflicts with each other and produce an Effervescence and intestine Motion as both the Contents of the Intestines and the divers Ferments confaederated with them are made up of different Salts and Sulphurs Acids and Alkalys some fixed and gross and others Volatil and Spirituous which are so many Combatants entring the List and fighting for Victory and the subdued and conquered Parties do at last close with each other in an amicable Converse Whereupon the Compage of the Aliment being opened and concocted in the Stomach and then transmitted to the Guts and farther Extracted and Colliquated by reason the disagreeing Alimentary parts being rendred Homogeneous do enter into Association as being ambitious to perfect and conserve each other and do quit the company of grosser parts disserviceable to Nutricion by a kind of Precipitation which is chiefly effected by Nitrous Particles of Air mixed with the Contents entertained in the Intestines which do enlarge their Dimensions produced by the Expansive Motion of Elastick Particles of Air Whereupon the Similar parts of the extracted Aliment have a liberty to enter into the interstices of the opened Contents and do there unite and assimilate with each other and do abandon the converse of the Excrementitious and Earthy parts which are protruded from one part of the Guts to the other by their Peristaltick Motion which at the same time impelleth the Extracted Chyle into the Extreamities of the Lacteal Vessels CHAP. XL. Of the Expulsive Faculty of the Guts NAture The Expulsive Faculty of the Guts rendreth our Life comfortable out of its great Care and Providence to Complace Man doth use all means and methods of Ease to speak his Life comfortable in the fruition of a quiet Repose whereupon the great Architect hath most wisely contrived fit instruments of Expulsion to gratifie His Creatures in the discharge of any offensive Matter The Liver and Pancreas do empty the troublesome Recrements of Bilious and Pancreatick Liquor by proper Excretory Ducts inward into the Duodenum and the Lymphaeducts their Lympha into the common Receptacle The Kidneys do exonerate their watry saline Faeces by the Ureters into the Bladder The Guts do free themselves from their load of gross Excrements by the Anus The Expulsive Faculty and Operation The first condition of the Expulsive Faculty of the Guts is to be endued with manifest Cavities commonly stiled the Peristaltick Motion requireth many Conditions as qualifications to accomplish its due natural Constitution The first is to be endued with manifest Cavities as Receptacles of the gross Faeces which Nature out of its prudence hath made Orbicular for the larger reception and the more easie evacuation of the Excrements which I as humbly conceive will more readily move in round Perforations The second Requisite The second requisite of the Peristaltick Motion of the Guts is to be pliable as membraneous adapted to the Peristaltick Motion is the Membranous nature of the Intestines which rendreth them soft and pliable fit for extension in the reception of Excrements and afterward for Contraction in order to their Expulsion when they grow troublesome to the tender Compage of the Intestines The third qualification of the Guts The third requisite rendreth the Guts sensible destined to their Peristaltick Motion is that they should be affected with Sense whereupon the inward Coat is a fine Contexture made of numerous Nervous Filaments to resent the burden of Excrements and to be a Remembrancer to the Expulsive Faculty to do its duty in throwing the troublesome Geusts out of Doors The fourth and chief instrument of Peristaltick Motion The fourth condition of the Peristaltick Motion are the Carnous Fibres are the Carnous Fibres dressing the second Coat of the Guts which are drawn into consent by the appulses of the Contents lodged in the Intestines first made upon the Nervous Coat which is a Monitor to the fleshy Fibres to act their part in contracting themselves and the Coat and Cavity of the Guts in order to eject Excrements The Expulsive Faculty is endued with divers kinds of Motion The expulsive power of the Guts hath various motions The first is regular from the origen of the Guts to the Anus The first is Natural which is performed by the regular motion of the Guts from their Origen toward their Termination beginning near the Pylorus in the Duodenum and then is carried to the Jejunum and Ileon and afterward into the Colon in which the motion is first made upward in the right side to the Liver and afterward horizontally under the
the right side of this Fish A Thornback A Thornback hath no Bladder of Urine hath its Kidneys beginning †T. 44. F. 2. a. in small Dimensions and afterward grow larger they are compounded of many broad Lobules set edgewise all along the Spine which is very rare in the Kidneys of Fish and are much larger toward their Terminations †b. and end in short Ureters which are implanted into the Intestinum Rectum which serveth in stead of the Bladder of Urine A Crocodile A Crocodile is destitute of the Bladder of of Urine saith Learned Borichius hath oblong red Glandulous Kidneys which have Ureters inserted into the Intestinum Rectum His words are these Renes oblongi Glandulosi rubicundi ex quibus utrinque Ductus patutus amplus membranaceusque descendere progrediebatur ad ultima usque Intestini Recti ut Liquorem Excrementitium Urinosumque eo amandaret cum Vesicae nullum usquam vestigium repertum fuerit CHAP. XXXII Of the Pathologie of the Bladder of Vrine THe Bladder of Urine is obnoxious to divers Diseases Inflammations The Diseases of the Bladder Apostumes Ulcers Gangraens Scirrhus Cancers Obstructions overmuch Distention and Straightness and to the Stone the most afflictive Disease of all An Inflammation hath for its Diagnostick Tension Hardness An Inflammation of the Bladder great heat and pain in the region of the Bladder about the Share-Bone to which may be added a weakness of Excretion of Urine accompanied with a Tenesmus by consent of parts a Symptomatick Fever Thirst and a Chilness of the outward parts This dangerous Disease is derived sometimes from External Causes The causes of its Inflammation as violent Riding a Fall Stroke c. whereby the Hypogastrick Capillary Arteries being often broken do pour out a quantity of Blood into the substance of the Bladder where it is stagnant as not being admitted into the Roots of the Hypogastrick Veins whereupon the Blood having lost its motion doth lose its bounty too which is preserved by Circulation and acquireth a corruptive Indisposition by turning the Serous part and Indigested Chyle associating it into a putrid Matter the cause of an Aposteme which being of a sharp corrosive nature maketh its way through the Parenchyma of the Bladder to the outward Coat which it perforates and determines into an Ulcer An Inflammation and Ulcer of the Bladder Ulcers of the Bladder is also generated by Stones lodged in its Cavity and grating upon the tender inward Coat and bring a quantity of Blood into it and sometimes by opening the termination of the Vessels do produce a bloody Water An Inflammation of the Bladder The indication of an Inflammation doth indicate in the first place the opening of a Vein after or before which a Clyster may be Administred and Emulsions made of the Cooling Seeds and temperate Diet-Drinks of China Sarsa-parilla and Medicines contemperating the Blood and Urine composed of Barley-water Seeds of Poppy Syrup of Water-Lillies Poppies c. Outwardly may be applied Fomentations of Emollient Herbs without Discutients which do highten the Inflammation divers kinds of Injections are profitable as Milk and Water Barley-water mixed with Honey of Roses streined or Syrup of Red Roses or a Decoction of Barley-water to which may be added the white Trochisces of Rasis a Semicupium prepared with Milk and Water of themselves or Water boiled with Emollient Herbs to which Milk may be added after the boiling Ulcers of the Bladder in reference to gross and serous Recrements do indicate Drying and Detergent Medicines as Diet Drinks of China Sarsaparilla mixed with Sassafrass and Vulnerary Roots and Herbs and gentle Purgatives of Cassia Tamarindes Senna Syrup of Peach Flowers Roses Solutive c. may be added to the Diet Drinks the Injection before mentioned may be mixed with Mouse-Ear the great Fluellin Prunella Cumphrey c. Ratione solutae unitatis which is the last indication in Ulcers Astringent and Drying Powders may be taken made of dried Cumphrey Roots Gum Arabick Red Saunders c. mixed with Sugar Candy A Scirrhus of the Bladder may proceed from a quantity of Pituitous Humours stagnated in the Interstices of the Vessels whose moister parts being evaporated the more gross are Concreted and thereby do indurate the substance of the Bladder A Noble Man having had many signs of a Stone lodged in his Bladder was highly afflicted for many Years with the Strangury And his Body being opened after Death no Stone was found but a hard Swelling which was of so great Dimensions that it almost filled up the Cavity of the Bladder leaving little or no space for the reception of Urine The straightness of the Neck of the Bladder often proceedeth from Obstruction and sometimes from Compression As to the first It is often generated by sabulous Matter Stones Grumous Blood Pus Mucous and clammy Matter Caruncles and Warts stopping the Urinary passage and intercepting the free current of Urine The straightness of the Neck of the Bladder may also be derived from the swelling of the neighbouring parts compressing it as also from the repletion of the Intestinum Rectum with hard Excrements and from the Inflammation of the Penis and Neck of the Bladder straightning the Urinary Channel CHAP. XXXIII Of Vrine THe watry Liquors being the more moist and fluid part of Meat and Drink in its first Rudiment is afterward Concocted with the Oily and Salt parts of Aliments in the Stomach and other Viscera and then associates with the Blood in various Tubes of Arteries and Veins to give it a thin consistence and render it fluid in order to Motion and to put the Vital Liquor into a capacity to insinuate it self into the most straight Capillaries and to pass when extravasated in the narrow Interstices of Vessels from the terminations of Arteries into the Origens of the Veins to prevent the stagnancy of Blood and Inflammations of Fleshy and Membranous parts So that this Potulent Matter being a Vehicle of Blood doth in its converse and motion with it embody with Saline and Sulphureous parts not serviceable to Nature and dischargeth them as mixed with it by Salival Liquor Sweat and Urine Urine borroweth its first Origen from thin Potulent Liquor The origen of Urine as its Materia Substrata and is compounded of Vinous Spirituous Sulphureous Saline Watry and Earthy Particles which may be made clear in Destillation The discovery of the parts of Urine by Destillation First arise the vinous spirit then watry mixed with most saline and some sulphureous Particles The first that rise are some few Vinous Spirits impraegnating Phlegm Next follow the Watry parts in a greater source embodied with most Saline and some Sulphureous parts Thirdly Doth rise the Spirit of Urine impraegnated with Salt of a fixed quality which is rendred Volatil by great degrees of heat exalting its sharp and pungent disposition whereupon divers preparations of Salt and Spirit of Urine are made by Art
manner The Erection of the Penis and the manner how it is performed A quantity of Spirituous Blood is impelled by the Hypogastrick Arteries into the Nervous bodies of the Penis and spongy substance of the Urethra where it meeteth with the Liquor impraegnated with Spirituous and Elastick Particles destilling out of the Extreamity of the Nerves whereupon the body of the Penis is highly distended which is caused by the Muscles of the Yard which being rendred Tense do compress the Nervous bodies and spongy substance of the Urethra whereby the Blood confaederated with Nervous Liquor is detained in the loose Compage of the Penis which groweth great and rigid as distended with a large proportion of Nervous and Vital Liquor whence the Yard is hued with a high Red Colour in erection caused by intercepting the retrograde motion of the Blood into the Hypogastrick Veins which is produced by the Contraction of the Muscles relating to the Penis compressing the beginning of the Nervous bodies and spongy substance of the Urethra So that the course of the Blood receiving a check in its motion toward the Veins is carried toward the Glans and the whole body of the Penis Tumefied CHAP. VI. Of the Seminal Liquor of Man THe elegant frame of Mans Body is beautified with divers Apartiments consisting of variety of parts disposed in excellent order situation The parts of the Body are solid fluid fine Figure and due Magnitude and Proportion answering each other in rare Symmetry of which some are solid and others fluid the second are the Crown and Perfection of the other as they give them Being and Life The select fluid parts of the Body are chiefly four Chile Vital Nervous The fluid Parts of the Body and Seminal Liquor Chyle is the Materia substrata of Blood Blood of Nervous juice and both are the matter of Genital Liquor as the result and complement of them in order to the excellent design of Generation The Seed of Man is a white frothy Liquor The description of the Seed made up of spirituous and elastick Particles enobled with a fructifying Spirit generated of vital and nervous juice in the Testicles Parastats and Seminal Vesicles instituted by Nature for the univocal production of Animals whereupon the opinion of the Philosopher is not worthy a reception who held the genital matter to be an excrement of the third Concoction whereas in truth it is the most noble Liquor relating to the Body as it is made of blood and Animal juice The Liquors of which the Seed is made productive of living Creatures preserving the Universe in its various kinds of which it is constituted The opinion of the Antients was That Seed was Propagated from the Brain and in truth from all parts of the Body as I humbly conceive The Seed is derived from all parts of the Body which is honoured by the Suffrage of great Hypocrates in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At vero Viri genitura ex universo humido quod in Corpore continetur proficiscitur ubi id quod validissimum est excernitur cujus rei istud est Argumentum quod ubi rem Veneream exercemus tantillo emisso imbecilles evadimus This great Author backeth the assertion of Seed to be derived from all parts of the Body by reason a universal weakness is the consequent of an over-free excretion of Seminal Liquor flowing from repeated Acts of Coition Another Argument to prove this Hypothesis may be taken from the nature of Seminal Liquor vertually containing the formation of all parts of the Body which I apprehend may be deduced from the noble Liquors of Vital and Nervous Juice out of which the Seed is generated Quoniam ex iisdem principiis generamur e quibus nutrimur By reason we are Generated of the same Principles of which we are Nourished of Blood and Nervous Liquor Whereupon these select fluid Particles have recourse by Arteries and Nerves into all parts of the Body as carried into the Interstices of their Vessels so that these Nutricious Liquors in their Passage do insinuate themselves into their numerous Cavities The manner how the nutricious Liquors are Painted with the Figures of all parts of the Body and are assimilated into the substance of all the more or less solid parts and the Nutricious Liquors conversing with them and not turned into their nature do borrow a likeness of disposition and being received into the extremities of the Veins are returned by a retrograde motion to the Heart and from thence carried by the descendent Trunk of the Aorta through the Spermatick Arteries into the Testicular Glands wherein the soft parts of the Blood being separated from it and associated with a choice Liquor destilling out of the extremities of the Nerves receive the first rudiment of Seed which is entertained into the extremity of Seminal Vessels of the Testicles transmitting it into the Parastats where it receiveth a farther elaboration and greater Maturity The Seminal matter is a very considerable Portion endowed with the Idea's of various parts relating to the whole Body of Man The Seminal Liquor borroweth the likeness of all parts of the Body and it receiveth these Ideal Impressions made upon the Blood and nervous Juice in their perambulation through all apartiments of the Body wherein the Liquors are affected with the nature of the parts to which they have recourse in order to Nutrition and afterwards the relicks of those nutricious humours not requisite for the sustenance of every part are entertained into the Veins and mix with the Blood and are transmitted to the heart and afterwards conveyed by the preparing Arteries into the Testicles wherein they are framed into Seed These Ideal Configurations The resemblances of parts imprinted upon the Seed do somewhat represent the visible images of things made upon the soft nutricious parts hold some Analogy with the visible resemblances of things and are similitudes imprinted upon the Seed whose Spirituous Particles are modelled by the parts of the Body from whence they are derived and as from all visible objects are diffused an infinite number of Rays Coated with the colour and figure of those Bodies from which they emane so in like manner a great company of most subtle Atoms arise out of every Particle of the Body and Imprint their Dispositions and Configurations on the nutricious Liquors the Materia Substrata of Genital Matter which I will more fully Treat of in a Discourse of Generation The Materia Substrata of Genital Matter is composed of two parts The Materia-Substrata of Seed the one is the more mild substance of the Blood of its serous and Chymous Particles not assimilated into Vital Liquor separated from it in the Glands of the Testicles These soft Atoms of the Blood are endued with Vital Spirits and volatil Particles exalting the Seed The other more delicate parts less in quantity and more in Vertue are derived from the Nervous Juice confaederated with
white viscide and blewish Seed and the Tubes or Deferent Vessels were overcharged with it Sometimes the Ovaries the Preparing and Deferent Vessels are rendred Turgid with a highly Concreted Liquor in Gypseam duritiem Coagulato resembling Plaister by reason of its hard Consistence which is attended with violent Hysterick Fits and a great Delirium The Lady of a Person of Honour was highly afflicted with great Suffocations of the Womb and high Convulsive Motions much discomposing the Brain as accompanied with a Delirium and Death And afterward her Body being opened A case of Suffocations and Convulsive Motions caused by the Stoppage of the Vessels and Tubes of the Womb by a Concreted Seminal Liquor the Organs of Generation were highly disaffected so that the Testicles and the Spermatick Vessels and Tubes of the Womb were discovered to be overburdened with a Seminal Liquor in Gypseam soliditatem Concreto which I conceive proceeded from some Chymous and Serous parts of the Blood confederated with the Seed as consisting of saline and earthy Atomes cemented with viscide Matter CHAP. XXV Of the Principles and Manner of Generation THe Omnipotent Creator out of a generous diffusive Principle of doing Good in Communicating himself to another hath made Man originally like himself by imprinting on him a divine Character of his own Image and hath not only enobled Man in Creating him like himself Man is created after God's Image and hath a power to beget somewhat like himself but hath endued him with a Communicative Nature in giving him an Appetite and power to procreate his own Image in begetting somewhat like himself in imparting his Being to another wherein he becometh Aemulous of Eternity by Propagation in perpetuating his Essence to his Progeny in a continued Series of Generation which could not be accomplished by Man alone whereupon the All-wise Agent out of kindness to him made Woman as a fit help for him not only for Converse but Enjoyment too to Compensate the death of one by the propagation of another which is effected by choice Liquors proceeding from both Sex mutually associating and assisting with various Fermentative Elements exalting and serving each other as efficient and material Causes cooperating in mutual embraces ministerial to the conception and formation of a Foetus The chief Seminal Liquor is that of Man's which is white and frothy The Elements of Man's Seed which consisteth of the more milde parts of the Blood and Nervous Juice impregnated with Spirituous and Volatile Saline Particles proceeding from Blood impelled by the terminations of the Spermatick Arteries into the substance of the Testicles wherein the more milde serous Particles of the Vital being embodied with the Nervous Liquor and elaborated in the Parenchyma of the Testicles are afterward received into the Roots of Seminal Vessels and from thence carried through the Parastats and deferent Vessels into the Seminal Vesicles and Prostats as the receptacles of Genital Liquor This Seminal Liquor is compounded of two parts The Masculine Seed hath some parts Spirituous and Volatil and others gross and fixed the one thin and spirituous impregnated with Volatil Saline parts and inspired with Animal Spirits which are the efficient and Architectonick cause the other parts of this Liquor are the material cause the more gross saline sulphureous and earthy Particles which do confine the more Spirituous and Volatil Atomes from quitting the bounds of this choice Elixir The Seed of Woman is more cold watry and crude than Man's The Feminine Seed is more watry crude and cold than that of Man as derived from the crude Chymous and Serous parts of the Blood separated from the red Crassament in the Glandulous Substance of the Testicles wherein the Albugineous Particles of the Vital Liquor do associate with the Succus Nutricius and compleat the body of the Seminal Liquor which is highly exalted by the Animal Spirits giving it fermentative dispositions So that the Crystalline parts of the Blood being enobled by the association of the Nervous Juice ousing out of the termination of the Nerves in the Parenchyma of the Glands are received through the Pores of the Vesicles into their Cavities where they are preserved as in safe Repositories till they become impregnated after Coition by the more Spirituous parts of Man's Seminal Liquor rendring it more exalted and fruitful Having given a short description of the Seminal Masculine and Faeminine Liquor by themselves I will now shew how they confederate with each other upon Coition The manner how Masculine and Faeminine Seed espouse each other after Coition which is performed after this manner as I humbly conceive The Seed is rendred hot and spumous by the repeated agitations of the Penis whereupon it groweth thin and prurient giving brisk Appulses upon the Seminal Receptacles composed of Nervous Filaments full of acute Sense which draw the Carnous Fibres of the Seminal Vesicles into Consent causing them to contract the Cavities of their Cells with a kind of Convulsive Motions squeesing out the Seminal Liquor out of their Receptacles through small Meatus into the Vrethra and from thence into the Vagina Uteri in time of Coition which being irritated by the heat of the Semen doth contract its Bore caused by the fleshy Fibres and force the Seminal Liquor through the inward Orifice and Neck into the bosom of the Womb which being contracted through its fleshy Fibres protrudes the Semen into one of the Tubes which then ascendeth through the Fimbria and Pores of the Membranes relating to the Testicles and adjacent Vesicle of Seed which is impregnated with the Spirituous parts of the Masculine Liquor whereupon the Egg hath its Coat first rendred Opace and afterward encircled with a fleshy substance full of numerous Fibres which being aggrieved by the swelled impregnated Egg do contract themselves and propel it through the hole of the Testicles into the neighbouring Fimbria and Tube into the bosom of the Womb. Here some Curious Person may demand a reason how the Seminal Liquor can move upward contrary to its natural inclination to descend as a heavy Body from the Vagina Uteri into which it is first injected out of the Penis The manner how the Seed can move upward through the Cavity of the Womb and Tube into the Egg lodged in the Testicles To which this may be humbly offered That the Seed is carried upward not by its own instinct but by proper Organs of fleshy Fibres seated in the Vagina Uteri and Membrane of the Womb and Tubes which all contracting themselves one after another do protrude the Genital Liquor by narrowing their several greater and less Cavities into the Vesicle of Albuminous Liquor lodged in the Ovary Another question may be propounded why the Seminal Juice is first injected into the narrow confines of the Vagina Uteri The Seed is first immitted into the Vagina Vteri and not into the body of the Vterus and not into the more open Cavity relating to
primitive nature is Concreted by the Architectonick Spirit into soft and hard parts of a more or less solid substance making up the Viscera Trunk and Limbs of the Body The third kind of Plastick Vertue belonging to Seminal Liquor The third kind of Plastick Vertue is an Assimilating Power may be named an Assimilating Power whereby the Foetus becometh like its Parents in the outward form of different parts of which Great Hypocrates giveth an account in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as deriving the cause of it from the diverse quality and quantity of Seminal Liquor of both Sexes commixt the greater quantity and nobler quality of Masculine Seed maketh it resemble the Father and the same proportion and qualification of Faeminine Liquor causeth the Embryo to be adorned with the likeness of the Mother but I humbly conceive The Plastick Power is seated in the more Spirituous parts of the Seed as the prime efficient cause in the Formation of the Foetus with the leave of this Great Master of our Faculty this may proceed from other more probable reasons as the first and chief cause may be deduced from the Plastick Power seated in the more spirituous particles of the Seminal Liquor which is the first natural Agent and Principle of the Formation of the Foetus working upon the less active Particles of the mingled Seed in which the innate Spirit taking its rise and origen from their more thin and Volatil Saline and Sulphureous Particles elaborated by the ambient heat of the Womb is detained within the confines of more gross Particles exalted by the more Spirituous which are the primary efficient cause in the delineation of the parts as giving them their first Rudiments and External form both in the Formation of the Foetus in Man and other Animals This Architectonick Spirit containeth in a small quantity the Idaeas of all parts relating to the whole Body in order to their Formation So that these Spirituous Plastick Seminal Atomes assisted by the Uterine heat do influence the gross and more dull mass of Seed and thereby give it Fermentative dispositions flowing from Elastick Particles of Air and Animal Spirits impregnating the Seminal Matter whence it receiveth Intestine Motion productive of the likeness of external Forms and Distinction of parts in the Foetus resembling those of the Father and Mother The reason of this Plastick Assimilating Power The Seed containeth the Ideas of all parts of the Body resident in the Seminal Matter taketh its rise from the external forms and dispositions of all parts of the Body as it is a select Extract of them made of the Vital and Animal Liquor as its first principles The Blood taketh its Perambulation through the Membranes Ligaments The manner how the likeness of all parts of the Body is conveyed to the Seed Cartilages Bones c. and all other similar parts as also the Viscera Trunk and Limbs to give them Life Heat and Nourishment as the Albugineous Particles of the Blood are received into the innumerable Pores of the Similar and Dissimilar parts Compounded of them into which they are assimilated and become the same with them by Accretion The Serous parts not Assimilated having conversed with the parts of the whole Body in order to Nutrition do borrow their peculiar Disposition and Images Portraictures of the whole Body both in reference to the Face Head Trunk Viscera and Limbs so that these Nutricious parts not Assimilated having penetrated the inward Compage of the whole Body do receive the Signature of their External Form and are reconveyed back to the Heart and from thence impelled through the descendent Trunk of the Aorta and Hypogastrick and preparing Arteries into the substance of the Testicles where the Albugineous Particles of the Blood having received the Ideal impressions of all parts are severed from the red Crassament and become one principle of the Seminal Matter And the other is the finer part of the Nervous Liquor generated in the ambient parts of the Brain made up of Cortical and Medullary Processes and thence transmitted through all regions by the Fibres of it and afterward some part of the Succus Nutricius is conveyed by the Par Vagum and its Branches and other Animal Liquor is carried through the Fibrous parts of the Medulla Spinalis into the Vertebral Nerves implanted into the Testicles wherein the Nervous Liquor signed with the Images of the Brain Spinal Marrow and Nerves doth embody with the Albuminous Matter of the Blood signed with the Ideas of other parts through which it passes constitutes the Seminal Liquors of both Sexes which do mutually contribute to the formation and likeness of the Foetus The Seminal Ideas as I humbly conceive are Spirits modelled and configured by those parts from whence they derive their Emanation The Images of the Seed are modelled by the parts through which they pass after the manner of infinite subtile visible Rays expressing the Colours and Images of those Bodies from whence they are reflected In like manner some fine Atoms as so many Effluxes coming out of the small particles of the Body do affect the Spirituous part of the Vital and Nervous Liquor the principles of Seminal Juice by giving them the propriety and figures of the parts through which they pass These Ideal dispositions of Parts seated in the seed of Man and other Animals The Seminal Ideas do not exist Separate do not exist as separate but are coincident to every part of the Semen and again expand themselves in the formation of an Embryo not unlike many visible Rays of Light are coincident into one Looking-glass which are so unfolded afterward that the Eye can distinctly discern the figures and colours of several visibles Objects And from hence it is that every Particle of this Architectonick Spirit in the Seed hath a faculty of forming an Animal by reason the Images of all parts are imprinted upon every particle of the Seminal Liquor which is very conspicuous in Birds by reason the seed of the Cock which is very small in quantity but great in vertue being injected in Coition doth ascend into the Ovary and impregnates every Egg come to maturity with a few Spirituous Particles which being acted with Heat are the efficient cause Delineating every part of the Chicken Here a great doubt may arise how out of the Seed those parts can be formed of which the Parents are destitute before the generation of Foetus by reason no Architectonick Spirit can be derived from them as having no existence in the nature of things To which Learned Diemerbroeck giveth this answer That the imagination of the Parent Compensates the defect of parts by reason Women who have lost some Limb do by a strong imagination make such impressions of Figures upon the Spirituous parts of the Seed and thereupon have well formed Children in reference to all their parts as well Modelled as if the Seed had been imprinted with the Images of
with various irregular motions An Asthma also may come from the obstruction of the Origens of the Nerves seated in the Cortex of the Brain An Asthma may come from the Origens of the Nerves obstructed proceeding often from a quantity of Blood as in soporiferous Disaffections compressing the extremities of the Nerves whence the intercostal Muscles play with great difficulty making a deplorable Asthma Sometimes an Asthma may proceed from the narrowness of the Blood-vessels as not able to give a free reception to the mass of Blood An Asthma flowing from narrow Sanguiducts which happen in Convulsive Asthmas wherein the circular fleshy Fibres being unnaturally contracted do lessen the Cavity of the Vessels and hinder the motion of Blood whence ensueth a great difficulty of Respiration An Asthma may proceed from a great quantity of Blood other times an Asthma may be fetched from a great quantity of Blood distending the Blood-vessels which compress the neighbouring Bronchia and Sinus of the Lungs and highly discompose Respiration as the numerous receptacles of Air being straightened in their Cavities are not able to entertain a sufficient quantity of Air in one Inspiration whereupon the Lungs are acted with double and treble Diastoles and Systoles to make good Respiration Another Asthma may be produced by an ill conformation of the Breast An Asthma may come from an ill Conformation of the Breast as affected with narrowness hindring the free play of the Lungs in Respiration Sometimes it proceedeth from the Organs of motion consigned by nature to the inlargment of the hollow perimeter of the Thorax in order to celebrate Inspiration made by the help of the Diaphragme and intercostal Muscles The Coats are hindred in their Contractions The intercostal Muscles cannot play when the animal Spirits are intercepted The intercostal Muscles are hindred in their motion in their inflammation An Asthma coming from ill Air. either in the interception of the Animal Spirits not flowing into the Nerves of the said Muscles caused by the compression of the extremity of the Nerves in the ambient parts of the Brain as it hath been hinted above in a former Discourse The intercostal Muscles are also hindred in their motion in an Inflammation caused by a quantity of Blood lodged in the Interstices of Vessels compressing the carnous Fibres which doth hinder their free play and render Respiration difficult An Asthma also may be fetched from variety of Air either on the tops of high Mountains where we hardly breath in an Air not impregnated with store of nitrous Particles Or when it is gross and stagnant in Fenny places whose watry parts depress the nitrous where persons affected with ill masses of Blood labour with great difficulty of Breathing which is also celebrated in a close hot room and in a Church filled with a great croud of People spoiling the Air with fuliginous steams The Cure of this Disease is chiefly managed by three Indications The Three Indications in an Asthma the one in reference to the Blood and the other in relation to the motive Organs of Respiration and a Third in point of Convulsive motions belonging to the disaffections of the Brain and Nerves If the Blood offend in quantity Bleeding is proper in an Asthma a Vein is to be opened in the Arm with a free Hand and in case of an Effervescence of the Blood temperate Pectorals and cooling Emulsions are to be advised If the Blood be gross as confaederated with a crude Chyme productives of an Asthma by reason the Phlegme is thick lentous and clammy it indicates attenuating inciding and detergent Pectorals made of the Roots of Iris Enula-Campane Asparagus Dogs-grass Hysop Horehound of which some may be boiled in Water to which Four Ounces of White Wine may be added and being strained it may be sweetened with Syrup of the Five opening Roots of Hysop Maidenhair A Linctus may be made of Oxymel of Squills Saffron Gum Armoniack dissolved in Hysop water which is good in this disaffection as also Spirit of Harts-horn given in a pectoral Decoction Sometimes an Asthma may proceed from a gross Blood Bleeding is good when the Blood stagnates in the substance of the Lungs as being stagnant in the Interstices of the Vessels and afterward its motion is again procured upon Bleeding which taketh off an Inflammation and giveth freedom of Breathing by making good the circulation of Blood An instance may be given of this Case An Instance of this Case in Mr. Ainsworth a Dyer who being in the Sixty seventh year of his age was roughly treated by a rude fellow who had more of Drink then Wit tripping up his Heels and breaking his Ribs by a great fall as being a fat heavy Man whereupon he being let blood he seemed to be partly well for a day or two and then was highly oppressed with a great difficulty of Breathing and ratling in his Throat even almost to a Suffocation attended with an intermittent Pulse proceeding from the gross Blood In order to his relief I immediately ordered him to be let Blood Twelve Ounces out of the Arm and pectoral Apozemes and Lambitives made of Oil of Linseed and Sugar-Candy as also of several sorts of opening pectoral Syrups and various Oxymels and after letting him Blood the Third time his Asthma and intermittent Pulse were wholly quieted and the Patient God be praised hath enjoyed his Health these many years In case of great store of watry Humors afflicting the Bronchia Gentle Purgatives may be proper to discharge the watry Recrements of the Blood clogging the Lungs and Sinus of the Lungs gentle Hydragogues may be advised with Pectorals as also pectoral Apozemes mixed with Diureticks and Antiscorbuticks which speak a great advantage in an Asthma accompanied with a Dropsy with which may be mixed Spirits endued with volatil as also Millepedes added to the former Medicines As to the Organs of Respiration as the Diaphragme c. which being disaffected I refer you to their particular Cures The Third Indication of an Asthma Convulsive motions in Asthmas may be cured by proper cephalick Medicines relating to Convulsive motions proceeding from an ill Succus Nervosus denoteth Cephalick Medicines of distilled Waters made of Lime-Flowers Lilly of the Valley Peony the cephalick Water of Langius Compound Paeony and Briony-water dulcified with Syrup of Lime-Flowers Lilly of the Valley Paeony to which may be added some drops of Palsey-water Spirit of Salt Salt Ammoniack Harts-horn c. distilled with Gum Ammoniack Vesicatories are very beneficial in this and all other kinds of Asthmas which do much alleviate a difficulty of Breathing which is also effected by the application of Cupping-Glasses O Most Good and Glorious Agent Who shall Declare thy wondrous Works that hath made all things in elegant Order due Number Weight and Measure And hast framed the Midriffe as a moving Floor enlarging and contracting the Breast and the Mediastine as a Partition-Wall dividing the
autem coctio elaboratioque alioqui frustra esse ut conditi sinus quatuor quos partes esse cerebri nobilissimas omnes admittant quum ex eorum compressione vulnere praecipitem mortem quotidie observamus If these Animal Spirits consisting of volatil parts should be formed in these Sinus of the Brain they would be so unconfined in these larger rooms where embodying with Air they would soon exhale through the Os Spongiosum and the freer Cavities of the Nostrils Learned Diemerbroeck giveth this account of a Student in Law dead of a wound made in the Right Ventricle Saith he Aperto prius Cranio gladium ingressum fuisse orbitam unius oculi in oculo nempe majori ipsi oculo tamen illaeso per superiorem dextrum Ventriculum penetrasse hic tamen juvenis nullis actionibus animalibus privatus fuit quod certum indicium erat Spiritus e Ventriculo per latum vulnus effluxisse mente sanus bene videns audiens gustans omnesque partes bene movens ac cum sociis convenienter bono cum judicio quacunque de re disserens vixit per decem dies atque tum supervenienti febre vehementiore bidui spacio extinctus est Ingenious Descartes his Opinion is near akin to this saying in his First Book De Homine circa finem Spiritus Animales per arteriolarum plexus Choroeidis angustias e sanguine arterioso separari in glandula pineali atque ex ea infundi in Ventriculos nec alio modo differre a spiritibus vitalibus The Animal Spirits are not generated in the Glandula Pinealis quam sint tenuissimae partes aliis separatae alio duntaxat nomine donatae If it were granted which is very improbable That the Animal Spirits creeping through the small channels of the Plexus Choroeides should be separated in the Glandula Pinealis yet the acute Author would meet with a greater difficulty how this very minute Gland furnished only with a small Carotide branch could propagate such a large store of Animal Spirits to accommodate the large territory of the Brain and the greater outlets of the Nerves derived from it with which the Glandula Pinealis holdeth little or no correspondence having only two small Nerves peculiar to this Gland which do no where perforate the Skull as subservient to any other part And last of all The Animal Spirits do not differ from the Vital according to Descartes the Authors words do assert the Animal Spirits not to differ from the vital being only thin Particles separated from them and only called by another name which Opinion I humbly conceive doth labour under great difficulties because the Animal Spirits are of a different ingeny and disposition from the vital these being of a more hot and sulphureous Nature and the other consist of a more delicate gentle heat and mild temper founded in an Albuminous Matter composed of temperate qualities and soft saline Particles seated in the more refined parts of the Animal Liquor which is as much distinguishable from Blood as the Red Crassament is from the serous Juyce which is separated from the vital Liquor not in the Glandula Pinealis but in the Cortex of the Brain And the Animal Spirits are not to be considered in an abstracted notion as denuded from a Subject but to be taken concretely as they involve a matter with which they coexist The Animal Spirits are the most refined Particles of the nervous Liquor because the Animal Spirits are nothing but the most spirituous and active parts of the nervous Liquor to which they are most intimately united giving it vigor and perfection After the same manner as the Spirit giveth life and briskness to Wine without which it groweth faint and pawl losing its gust and usefulness and name being called no more truly Vinum but Vappa and as Blood being long extravasated is bereaved of its nimble spirituous Particles and degenerates into an earthy substance at once losing its nature and name and cannot be well called Sanguis but Cruor in like manner the Compage of the nervous Liquor being loosened and the bond of mixtion untied the tone of the Animal Liquor is wholly lost when its noble and generous vigorous parts the Animal Spirits quit their subject so that the nervous Juice is turned into a Recrement at the approaches of death at once giving a period to Sense and Motion the sad effects of a Spiritless Animal Liquor when it is not improved with store of milder volatil salt superabundant in the ambient parts of the Brain Again these serene lucid Particles cannot formally reside in the dense opaque parts of the Blood but in the more Transparent Cristalline body of the nervous Liquor highly exalted with most clear Particles of the Animal Spirits do illustrate the Two Hemisphaeres of the Brain and the Nerves streaming out of them with their brighter Rays Last of all Sylvius his Opinion that the Animal Spirits are generated in the Cortical Vessels of the Brain Sylvius in his Fourth Disputation and the 25th Thesis affirmeth the Animal Spirits to be elaborated in the vessels branched through the ambient parts of the Brain according to his own subsequent words Suspicamur sanguinem a corde per Arterias Carotides cervicales sursum appellentem partim transire in ipsam cerebri cerebellique substantiam Medullarem ad eorundem vivificationem nutritionem partim secundum ipsorum superficiem deduci per ramos ipsarum Capillares ad Spirituum Animalium elaborationem which he farther explaineth in the 29th Thesis Suspicamur praeterea per Capillarium Arteriolarum poros penetrare sanguinis partem spirituosam in Cerebri cerebellique corticem cinerum hinc in mediam substantiam albicantem atque in hoc transitu liberari parte sui aquea penitissime ipsi adhaerente non absimili modo illi quo per spongiam Oleo imbutam cerebri Medullae sub pingui hactenus Consimilem secernitur separatur uti loqui solent Chymici rectificatur a suo phlegmate Spiritus vini purissimus Spiritui Animali natura sua proxime accedens And here I cannot but admire Sylvius his excellent simile wherein he endeavoureth to illustrate the rare work of Nature in the production of Animal Spirits by the ingenious Art of Chymistry in drawing off the Spirit of Wine but in this the witty Author seemeth to fail in asserting the elaboration of the Animal Spirits to be performed when the most spirituous part of the Blood insinuateth it self through the Pores of the capillary Arteries into the Cortex and thence into the Medulla of the Brain where he saith it is separated from its watry parts by the unctuous substance of the Brain and after the manner of the spirituous Particles of Wine drawn off from its Phlegme in distillation by a Spunge besprinkled with Oil and may saith he nearly approach the nature of Animal Spirits which are not as I conceive with this Learned Authors leave the most
spirituous sulphureous parts of the Blood The Animal Spirits are the more mild parts of the nervous Liquor transmitted out of the capillary Arteries into the substance of the Cortex but the more mild and delicate Particles of the serous Liquor drawn off from the more fierce sulphureous Red fibrous parts of the Blood which are returned in circulation by the Jugulars and the more gentle spirituous parts are left behind being separated in the Interstices of the vessels of the cortical Glands and thence transmitted into the extremities of the tender Fibrils implanted into the Cortex The manner how the Animal Spirits are generated And this Discourse fairly bringeth me from the place wherein the Animal Spirits take their first rise to the manner how they are propagated by secretion and to the Matoria substrata out of which they are generated which is not the Purple Liquor as it is highly concocted by great heat and repeated circulations whence it groweth exalted with quantities of hot oily qualities or on the other side for want of regular motion and due heat is depressed with Crudities growing gross with Recrements or rendred acrimonious with fixed saline Parts or depauperated by serous Faeculencies Wherefore the vital Liquor impelled out of the greater Cisterns of the Heart into the lesser Chanels of the ascendent Trunk of the Aorta and thereby the more minute Rivulets of the carotide Arteries are not only implanted into the Coats investing the Brain but also into the substance of the cortical Glands as so many Compages made up of many distinct vessels of Arteries Veins and minute nervous Fibrils interspersed with very many small spaces interceding the Vessels into which the Blood being transmitted the more gentle Cristalline parts of the Succus nutricius impregnated with mild volatil saline Atomes are secerned from the more fiery sulphureous and fixed Salt of the Red Crassament in the cortical Glands which are so many Colatories of the Animal Liquor so that the more refined parts of this choice Succus are separated from the grosser and more adust parts of the Blood which is performed in the ambient parts of the Brain where this soft nervous Liquor meeteth with Air first transmitted through the Os Ethmoeides into the Ventricles and thence through the Pores of the Medulla into the secret passages of the Cortical Glands in which the pure and subtle Particles of Air do incorporate with the depurated Succus Nutricius and highly attenuate it rendring it more fluid and volatil till at last the Succus Nutricius is more and more inspired with new spirituous aethereal Particles of Air exalted with solar and other planetary influences and is more and more impregnated with mild volatil Salt imparted from the Cortical Glands so that the more subtle active Particles of this refined Succus are called the Animal Spirits But some may enquire in what Subject these Animal Spirits are lodged The subject of Animal Spirits is the nervous Liquor To which it may be replied in the Nervous Liquor which I conceive is not a subject of Inhaefion because the Animal Spirits do not exist in the nervous Liquor Tanquam accidens in subjecto sed tanquam substantiale in substantiali tanquam anima in corpore the Animal Spirits being the Form and the Nervous Liquor the Matter which receiveth its vigor and activity from them The Animal Spirits do not subsist of themselves Learned Diemerbroeck denieth the very existence of the Nervous Liquor and maketh the Animal Spirits to subsist of themselves separate from it And according to this notion of the Animal Spirits abstractly taken from any subject he giveth this definition of them Sunt autem Spiritus Animales halitus invisibiles tenuissimi ac volatiles potissimum ex salsis sanguinis particulis paucissimisque sulphureis maxime volatilibus in cerebro confecti Whereupon according to this Learned Author the Animal Spirits being most thin invisible and volatil steams and having no subject to confine their high volatility their spirituous subtle airy Particles will easily insinuate themselves through the Interstices of the Vessels seated in the Cortical Glands and thence pass through the Os Ethmoeides into the Nostrils wherefore to solve this and many other Phaenomena which may arise and peplex this improbable Opinion I humbly conceive with the Authors pardon that it is more reasonable to apprehend the Animal Spirits to be seated in the nervous Liquor as their proper subject in which they are confined when they move from part to part within the Interstices of the Filaments constituting the Nerves CHAP. XXXIX Of the Corpus Callosum HAving discoursed the Cortex of the Brain and the Animal Liquor and Spirits generated in it the next in order to be treated of is the Corpus Callosum The Corpus Callosum may be divided from the Cortex the more white and compact part which according to Bauhinus may be easily divided from the Cortex in a Brain newly dissected after death In the upper Surface of the Brain under the Sagittal Suture is formed a great Fissure in which is lodged the great Process of the Dura Mater made of its Duplicature and like a middle Wall it rendreth an equal partition of the right from the left side of the Brain The two Hemisphaeres of the Brain are united in the Corpus Callosum dividing it into two Hemisphaeres which unite themselves in the Corpus Callosum and giveth a reception to every distinct Particle of the several Anfractus of the Brain serving as it were for a Covering and Seeling for the Fornix the Medulla oblongata and its various Processes This large Medullary Process is thick and deep in the fore part of the Brain The Connexion of the Corpus Callosum The rise of this Process where it is affixed with two small Processes to the two Apices of the Medulla oblongata called the Lentiform Processes from which it is conceived to take its first rise and extending it self toward the hinder part of the Brain groweth thinner and thinner at last closing with the Caudex of the Medulla oblongata by the interposition of thin Membranes and Vessels The Figure of the Corpus Callosum The Figure of the Corpus callosum according to Learned Vesalius is long and narrow and hath in the upper part a very smooth Convex Surface somewhat resembling the prominence of the top or sides of the Brain but the lower Surface cannot be discovered except the left and right Ventricles be opened and then the lower Surface hath a flexure all the length of the Corpus Callosum and is not one and simple as the upper was because to the length two Surfaces are drawn hollowed like the fourth part of a Circle and in the middle of these two Surfaces appeareth a Tuberculum extended in the manner of a straight line having a Convex Surface downward by reason of its Prominence and more and more contracting it self into a less compass is called
Brachia of the Fornix embrace its Crura †T. 48. k k. The Medulla oblongata is of very great use by reason of the Olfactory and Ocular Nerves the Animastick Motory and Pathetick as also the Par Vagum take their rise immediately from it And the fifth sixth and seventh pair of Nerves from the Annular Process affixed to the Medulla oblongata which is derived from the Corpora Striata as its first Origen after which the Crura of this Medulla proceeding apart a little space do afterward coalesce into one Trunk composed of two Branches which being conjoyned do make the Caudex of the Medulla oblongata whose whole progress both before and after the union of its Crura is adorned with divers Appendages and Protuberancies and insertions of Vessels which come out of all Regions the top and bottom and sides of this noble Process Thalami Neivorum Opticorum whereupon its Surface is rendred uneven with variety of Processes and productions of Vessels Near the Corpora Striata are seated the Thalami nervorum Opticorum †T. 49. ae ae †T. 49. F. F. The rise of the Optick Nerves and are appendant to the Medulla oblongata where its Crura do make unequal Prominencies out of whose little Mounts do arise the Optick Nerves and from thence bending forward in their circumference and being carried somewhat downward are conjoyned about the lower Region of the Medulla oblongata and afterward parting again do make their progress toward the Orbite of the Eye as Dr. Willis hath well observed And hereabouts the Medulla oblongata hath its Crura divided in Man between which a kind of space or Fissure may be found which hath an Aperture bending downward toward the Infundibulum From the same Protuberancies from whence the Optick Nerves do derive their Origens certain Medullary Processes do arise and being carried on each side upon the brim of the second Hole do unite about the Root of the Glandula Pinealis these Processes Renowned Dr. Cartes conceived to be Nerves relating to the said Gland but it is more probable that by these productions the Optick Nerves hold a mutual correspondence near their Originations The Natiform †T. 49. d d. and Testiform Protuberancies †49. e e. are endued with a kind of Orbicular or Oval Figure and are so styled because they seem though in a lesser Model to resemble the shape of the Nates and Testes of a Man Some Anatomists make these continued parts of the Brain but I conceive them more truly Processes severed from the Brain by proper Membranes and appended to the Medulla oblongata The Natiform Processes do somewhat exceed the other in dimensions The Natiform are larger then the Testiform Processes but the difference is more conspicuous in other Animals then in Man because they appear larger in Hogs Sheep Calves c. And are not at all to be found in Birds and Fish These four Orbicular Prominencies are encircled with peculiar Membranes The coverings of the Natiform and Testiform Processes propagated from the Pia Mater by which they are divided from the other Processes of the Brain and are seated between the anterior region of the Cerebellum and the posterior part of the third Ventricle and do accresce to the upper region of the Caudex of the Medulla oblongata which these Processes do cover about an inch and are not contiguous to the Surface of it in the middle because there passeth a Cavity under them during their whole progress they have with the Medulla oblongata The substance of these Processes in a Man The Colours of the inward Protuberancies Dogs and Catts seem to be beautified with a whitish Colour like the Medulla oblongata but according to Vesalius it inclineth to Yellow But these Protuberancies in Calves Sheep and Horses are somewhat different from other parts of the Brain as affected with a kind of Flesh Colour which I conceive proceedeth from their thin Membranes overspred with numerous branches of Blood-vessels But if you divest these Prominencies of their fine Membranes their more inward substance seemeth to be hued with a Yellowish Colour much different from that of the Medulla oblongata Some Anatomists are of an opinion Some Physitians conceive the Natiform and Testiform Processes to be the Origens of the Cerebrum and Cerebellum that those round Protuberancies are the Origens of the Cerebrum and Cerebellum which being conjoyned to them as so many Crura to which on each side they are appended And these Processes leaning to and being afterward united they conceive they constitute the Medulla oblongata But this Conjecture as I humbly conceive hath more of Fancy then Truth by reason the Brain is conjoyned to the Medulla oblongata in other places before and without these round Processes by whose mediation the Brain and Cerebellum hold no great intercourse as being severed from each other by distinct Coats So that if we seriously consider their situation and position in reference to the neighbouring parts we may plainly perceive these minute Orbs do challenge to themselves peculiar Territories distinct from the Cerebrum Cerebellum and Medulla oblongata and these Processes are confined within proper Membranes as so many distinct boundaries and are parted from the Trunk of the Medulla oblongata by a Cavity running under the Natiform and Testiform Processes As to the use of these Prominencies The use of the Natiform and Testiform Processes Learned Bauhinus saith That they are designed as so many Pillars to support the loose Compage of the Brain lest the passages leading out of the third into the fourth Ventricle should be compressed and the motion of the Animal Spirits intercepted But with deference to this Learned Author I humbly conceive this opinion is grounded upon a double improbability First these small Processes are a more solid substance then the other parts of the Brain which may be easily refuted by Sense And the second improbability supposing the Animal Spirits to be generated in the Ventricles which cannot be granted in reason because the Animal Spirits being of a thin and volatil Ingeny if they had so large Chambers as the Ventricles to converse in would soon take their flight out of their Territories and associate with the ambient Air. Dr. Willis assigneth another use to these round Protuberancies The second use of the Natiform and Testiform Processes That the Animal Spirits by the mediation of divers Medullary Processes might have an entercourse with the Brain and Cerebellum And the Animal Spirits are associated and as it were embodied in this double pair of Processes before they are imparted to and converse with the neighbouring parts According to the Learned Author Ait ille via propria sive processus unus è Medulla oblongata in has prominentias ducere atque alias ab iisdem abducere illac in Cerebellum deferri videtur hinc suspicari licet quod Prominenciae illae presertim
with Arteries and Veins and made up of numerous Fibers beset in many places with minute Glands accompanying the the fruitful Vessels and Fibrils running long-ways cross-ways and obliquely and are so closely interwoven with each other that each of these thin vails consisting in innumerable finely wrought Filaments do seem to be one simple body encompassing the Two Provinces and Base of the Brain which in Brutes are much of a less size and different Figure from that of a Man this being orbicular and that of a more oblong depressed round form and is much lesser in circumference and Magnitude then the other And the Cortex of Brute-Animals is beautified with many Anfractus composed of a Cortical and Medullary substance The Cortex of the Brain of Brutes though less and shallower then those of Man yet run uneven in many Maeanders not unlike them in circumvolutions as aping the Intestines but Hares and Coneys and other imperfect Animals have various Processes of diverse sizes and are somewhat like the Anfractus of Humane Brain The Two Provinces of the Brain in Brutes being much depressed and less then those of Man The Falciform Process in Brutes is furnished with nervous Ligaments and Cells are parted in the middle with a falciform Process lodged all along in a Fissure less deep in Brutes then Men in which the Falciform Process is plain but in Bullocks rough being furnished with diverse strong nervous Ligaments passing athwart from one side of the Process to the other whence the Sinus running wheeling up and down with various little Processes is as it were divided into diverse small Cells which I conceive are in the nature of minute Damms causing the current of Blood to curle into diverse Maeanders to break its force and over-hasty motion against the winding sides of robust Chords which hinder the substance of the Brain from being over-charged with luxuriant Blood And these nervous Chords seated in the Falciform Process The nervous Chords of this Process have a power to contract and dilate themselves having a power as I apprehend to contract and dilate themselves produced by various sensitive passions do draw the Sinus into different postures and sometimes by lessening and other times by enlarging the cavity of the Sinus do in this hasten the gentle and then again check in the other the precipitate motion of the Blood The Corpus callosum in more perfect Animals The Corpus callosum in Beasts doth seel and support the lower Region of both Provinces of the Brain and differeth not in Figure but in Magnitude being narrower and thinner then that of Humane Brain The Fornix also in Brutes complieth in Form but differeth in size from that of Men. The Natiforme Processes are bigger in Brutes then Man and the Testiform are very small And the Natiform Processes exceed only those of Men in Magnitude and when they are very large in Brute-Animals as in Calves Sheep Hogs c. The Testiform-Processes are very small being narrow appendices of the Superior oval Prominencies It may be also observed that when the Natiform-Processes are great as in Brutes then the annular Process encircling the Base of the Medulla oblongata is small and when the Natiform-Processes are small as in Men the annular Process is large above the Glans pinealis which seemeth to be double in a Rabbet are seated Four oval Processes fastened to oblong narrow Processes and the Corpora striata and Medulla oblongata in more perfect Animals are akin in shape to a Humane Brain and are only somewhat less in greatness The Cerebellum of Brutes somewhat resembleth that of Man in the Vermiform-Process and is different from it in the Lamellae The Cerebellum in Brutes which are a kind of Semicircles or Segments of them and are largest in the termination of the Cerebellum and grow narrower as they approach the Origen and the Humane Cerebellum is distinguished also from that of Brutes in situation that of Men being seated under the hinder part of the Brain The situation of a Humane Cerebellum to which it is united above by a Process and by another below to the Medulla oblongata whereas the Cerebellum of Brutes is lodged beyond the hinder part of the Brain to which it is conjoyned only by its Origen So that upon a Survey being made of the Membranes and Processes of perfect Animals and compared with a Humane Brain they seem much to resemble it in Figure and Colour and to differ a little in Dimensions and Consistence The substance of a Humane Brain is more firm then that of Beasts the Brain of Man being greater and more firm and solid then those of Brutes which being opened in a very short space grow very flabby the Anfractus lose much of their Figure and the whole surface abateth of its roundness and plumpness whereas a Humane Brain long retaineth its orbicular Form and more solid Consistence And yet for all these differences The Coats and Processes of the Brain of Beasts much resemble that of Man the Coats and Processes of the Brain of perfect Animals do very much correspond in likeness with that of Man which may seem to be very wonderful that Brains so highly resembling each other should partake of such different principles and operations the one being acted with a rational and the other with a sensitive Soul in the one the Understanding dictates to the Will and the Will when regular commandeth by its imperate acts the Irascible and Concupiscible appetite And in the other the appetite is swaied wholly by the dictates of the phancy In a Humane Brain the Understanding in reflex acts perceiveth considereth judgeth approveth or condemneth its own acts as consonant to or dissonan from right Reason of which the meerly sensitive Soul residing in the Brain of Brutes The sensitive Soul of Beasts is not capable of a reflex act is no ways capable and the imagination and common Sense are not in the least manner perceptive of their own operations as being not able to make any reflection upon them which is the prerogative only of the Humane Soul which exerteth more noble acts in the Brain of Man and is of a more firm substance then those of Brutes The nervous Liquor and Animal Spirits of the Brain of Men are more spirituous and excellent then those of Beasts and improved with a more delicate nervous Liquor highly impregnated with volatil saline and spirituous Particles producing most excellent dispositions in a Humane Brain rendring it fitly qualified to entertain the rational Soul which being diffused through every particle of the Brain to which it is intimately united exerteth in a most mysterious manner by its bright irradiations the Divine Operations of the Understanding and Will giving Rules and Measures to the inward and outward Senses and communicate a kind of Eternity to Entities in universal Notions thereby making great variety of Sciences in many different abstractions T. 51. The
and Sinus in the Medulla of the Brain and by tearing in pieces the tender Fibrils do interrupt the due progress of the Nervous Liquor and Animal Spirits closing in a doleful Catastrophe of an Apoplectick Fit Renowned Webster giveth an instance of this case An instance of an Apoplexy happening in an old Woman of Seventy years which being quickly taken away by an acute Apoplexy and her Skull being taken off he discovered a large Cavity in the stance of the Brain reaching forward toward the Forehead and upward to the Processus Falciformis and much backward toward the Occiput and downward beyond the middle of the Brain The longitude of this unnatural Sinus was Four Inches in breadth Two and half in depth and Eight in length containing near a pound of extravasated Blood that had issued out of the lacerated carotide Arteries which did not proceed from any outward accident as this profound Author saith there having been no contusion or fracture discoverable in the Skull but I conceive from the greater source of Blood protruded out of the larger Carotides into the smaller Capillaries branched into the Medulla which had been more and more dilated by the Rivulets of Blood till the coats of the Arteries were over-much distended and thence growing thinner and thinner at last cracked in pieces and the streams of confined vital Liquor were forced through the breaches of the Arterial Coats into the substance of the Brain and made great Furroughs and Channels in it and by tearing up the Medullary Filaments did divert the natural course of the Animal Liquor and Spirits from the Nerves A Daughter of Mr. Lewis one of the Navy-Office Another case of an Apoplexus a Person of a Plethorick Constitution was highly afflicted with a great Head-ach which afterward degenerated into a Sopor and was much alleviated upon Blood-letting and then she fell into a Rheumatisme placed in the Muscular part of the Limbs And in order to ease her I designed to open a Vein a second time but was prevented by the importunate dislike of her Friends giving an advantage to her distemper to re-assault her Brain with a fresh pain of her Head accompanied afterward with a great Sopor whereupon I made a Prognostick That the distemper would determine as I apprehended in an Apoplectic Fit unless she was relieved by an immediate opening a Vein which I conceived the proper means to preserve her but her Friends highly interposed and hindred my intention of Bleeding her whereupon in a few days the Sopor grew more violent attended with a Stertor and then the Patient falling into a violent Apoplectick Fit died in Twelve hours And after a competent time her Head being opened the Coats of the Brain were swelled and a large quantity of serous Matter was found in the substance of the Brain As to the cause and progress of the Disease The cause and progress of this Disease I conceive it to be after this manner Free Rivulets of Blood overcharged with serous Particles being impelled out of the Carotides into the Membranes and substance of the Brain produced the Head-ach and Sopor which were much mitigated upon Bleeding whereupon the Blood freely retired from the Brain by the Jugulars into the Cava and Chambers of the Heart and thence was carried upward again by the ascendent Trunk of the Aorta and subclavian and axillary Branches into the Limbs causing great pains in the Shoulders and Arms and at the same time another portion of Blood was conveyed downward by the descendent Trunk of the Aorta and Iliack Arteries into the Thighs and Legs which being reconveyed by the Iliack Veins and ascendent Trunk of the Cava into the Ventricles of the Heart and from above by the axillary Veins and descendent Trunk of the Cava into the Sinus of the Heart and from thence again a quantity of Serous Blood was impelled by the Aorta and Carotides into the Coats and substance of the Brain highly compressing the Filaments and thereupon wholly suppressing the descent of the Animal Liquor into the roots and bodies of the Nerves Another cause may be assigned of an Apoplexy The immoderate use of Opiates may produce an Apoplexy seated in the Cortex of the Brain the immoderate use of Opiates as Learned Webster would have it by too great a dilatation of the pores of the Brain exposing it to a violent incursion of ill humors brought along with the Blood and giving a disturbance to the regular motion of the Animal Liquor But I humbly conceive with the leave of this Learned Author that Opiates do rather obstruct and shut up the Pores of the Brain then immoderately open them and make ill impressions upon the Animal Liquor and by incrassation and fixation of the Spirits in taking away their volatil airy elastick Particles do unbrace the natural Tenseness of the fibrous parts of the Cortex and by consequence do take away the vigor of the Nerves of the whole Body whence the motion of the Heart groweth weak from its distorted Fibres attended with a great difficulty of Breathing flowing from the flabby Fibres of the intercostal Muscles proceeding from the nervous Liquor dispirited by Narcoticks Mrs. Jane Reynolds a young Gentlewoman being passionately in love and not succeeding well in her Amours as she conceived took Twelve pills of Opium in so many Cherries An instance of an Apoplexy produced by Opium every Pill as I apprehend contained about Ten grains of Opium an hour after she had taken the Pills she began to be dozed and giddy and although an hour after she swallowed the Pills she took great quantities of Oil and Medicines to provoke Vomiting yet without success she being hard to vomit in time of her health and upon this sad occasion the Fibres of her Stomach were so stupified and relaxed by the Opium that they could not contract themselves to expel the Vomit Two hours and less after she had taken the Opium a great Stupor seized her Brain Opium stupified and relaxed the Nerves and rendred the Muscles of the Gula so Laxe that she wholly lost the use of it being not able to swallow and immediately after was afflicted with a great difficulty of breathing which grew higher and higher so that the Muscles of the Scapula were drawn in to the assistance of the intercostals and Diaphragme which being not able of themselves to perform their duty in respiration were attended with a high Stertor which was more and more aggravated from Twelve at Night till Five in the Morning about which time Nature being too much over-born quitted all farther contests Two hours after the Head being opened and the Brain being divested of its coverings the carotide Arteries did much exceed their natural Dimensions and their spaces of the Vessels swelled with undue proportions of Blood though a good quanty of it was discharged by the venous Ducts into the Third Sinus full of Blood which the Head lying low was
frequently returneth again at the change of the Moon which is vulgarly called a Lunacy Sometimes Madness proceeds from an ill Diet Madness may come from an ill Diet. or from the suppression of accustomed evacuations by the Haemorrhoides Nostrils or Uterus in Women whereupon the Blood depressed by saline and sulphureous Particles being transmitted to the fibrous frame of the Brain doth enrage the Animal Liquor and Spirits and produce a Mania The Blood also being infected with a Venenate disposition This Disease may be propagated from the Venenate nature of Blood as in a Licanthropia Hydrophobia upon the biting of a Mad Dog doth cause Madness as the poisonous Miasmes are conveyed to the Blood and raise a high Fermentation in it and afterward in the nervous Liquor and its choice Spirits which giveth them a turbulent motion through the Interstices of the nervous Filaments confounding the true use of Reason and Imagination This Venenate affection lieth long in the Blood before it exerteth it self This Disease liâ—th long in a poisoned mass of Blood Before it exerteth it self as I have seen in one Dyer a Barber of Willington in Sussex who being bit by a Mad-Dog was well Three Months and then fell sick of a violent Fever attended with a raging Delirium and a foaming Mouth endeavouring to bite all that came near him and afterward died about the Fourteenth day of his sickness This venome infecting the Blood caused by the biting of a Mad Dog is mixed with the salival Liquor The manner how the poison flowing from the biting of a Mad Dog is conveyed to the Heart and first carried into the Veins of the ambient parts of the Body and then by greater and greater Channels is communicated to the Heart and Lungs and afterward by the ascendent Trunk of the Aorta and Carotide Arteries into the Cortical Glands of the Brain where it infected the nervous Liquor and Spirits lodged in the fibrous parts of the Brain whereupon the Animal Faculties lost their due Oeconomy and a raging Delirium ensued destructive of Reason Sense and Life Having given an account of the Essence and continent cause of this Disease it may not seem altogether amiss to speak somewhat of its symptomes following it as so many attendants So that this Disease is not accompanied with the sneaking guards of Fear and Sorrow as in Melancholy but with Boldness and Courage The symptomes of Madness The aetiology of the symptomes of this Disease attempting any assault though never so desperate which proceedeth from the enraged Vital and Animal Spirits acted with nitro-sulphureous Particles which render the Blood highly fermentative and spirited and put the Animal Spirits into irregular motion whereupon the Soul is so highly disordered as if it would violently leap out of the confines of the Body in which it seemeth to be imprisoned The active and fierce particles of the Blood put it into an extraordinary motion and great effervescence which highly acting the carnous Fibres of the Muscles do render them vigorous and strong able to encounter the great opposition of others that endeavour to master Mad men and bring them to obedience when they are guilty of extravagant actions offering violent hands to themselves and others and give great disturbance to the Families where they live and converse It is also very remarkable that Mad Men endure Labour and Travail Mad Men are highly patient of Labour and great conflicts without any manifest weariness which is occasioned as I humbly conceive from the nature of Vital and Animal Spirits which though they are impregnated with many volatil Particles yet they are also debased too with nitro-saline fixed Atomes which do confine the more subtle and spirituous parts of the Vital and Animal Liquor not suffering them to evaporate and quit those noble Juyces whereupon Mad Men when exposed to long and laborious action which is frequent with them are not easily tired but will fight and struggle in high fury to the wonder of the beholders This Disease often followeth Melancholy The cause of rage in Madness from bilious Particles of Blood An Instance of this case and is produced by a great ebullition of Blood rendring the Cortex of the Brain very dry whence ariseth a great fierceness of the Vital Spirits causing high boldness and fury A Citizen being first addicted to Melancholy afterward fell into a violent Distraction and Madness attended with Rage which could not be appeased by the power of Art and proper Medicines And after death the Skull being taken off the Cortex of the Brain appeared very dry and of friable nature an Inch deep where it was hued with Yellow as tinged with bilious or sulphureous Particles of the Blood In this Malady the Brain is often tumefied The Brain is often swelled in Madness taking its rise from a great quantity of Black torrefied blood sometimes extravasated and other times lodged in the Vessels making them varicose and knotty A Child complaining first of a great pain of his Head An example of a tumefied Brain in a Mania afterward fell into a high distraction howling like a Dog and so continued till he died And his Skull being removed the Brain was very much swelled and the Dura and Pia mater had their Vessels very turgid with Black Blood which was also very much lodged in the Sinus and torcular of the Brain and in the more inward parts of it were discovered a great many Red specks coming from Particles of extravasated Blood and afterward the lower Region of the Brain being opened a quantity of serous Recrements gushed out Other times Madness issueth from putrefaction of the Coats and substance of the Brain out of which arise sharp and fierce Humors Madness coming from the putrefaction of the Coats and substance of the Brain The difference of Madness infesting the Animal Liquor and Spirits which hath been observed in Dissections This Disease admitteth many descriminations as being sometimes of a small continuance othertimes lasting and habitual sometimes continued and other times hath lucid intervals and is very various in reference to its several symptomes and distractions As to the Prognosticks of this Disease it is seldom mortal but very difficult to be cured by reason the Blood and nervous Liquor are highly disordered with nitro-sulphureous Particles which are hardly removed and the Patients affected with this Malady can scarcely be perswaded to take Medicines as being Enemies to themselves as well as Physicians The Cure of Madness importeth as great a difficulty as advantage oftentimes successive to Melancholy and Phrensy in which Three The Indications First is the Curative the primary Indications do offer themselves The First is Curative relating to the Disease and consisteth in the reducing the exorbitancies of the Animal Spirits to a due and regular motion The Second Indication is preservatory The Second is Preservatory and is referred to the causes of the Disease to correct
a Mad Dog Cupping-glasses proper presently af-the biting of a Mad Dog Wolfe Viper c. Cupping-glasses with Scarifications may be immediately applied to the wounded part or Pidgeons or any other Bird opened in the middle and administred to the part affected do draw out the venenate Humor mixed with the salival Liquor entring into the Extremities of the Veins Leeches may be applied to the wound seated near the surface of the Body Or Leeches may be applied to the wound to suck out the infected Blood And afterward attractive Medicines may be used Attractive Medicines may be well applied to the wounded part Cauterizing a potent means to draw poison out of the wounded part Potential Cauteries are very advantageous in this Disease A Vein cannot be properly opened in this kind of Madness made of Garlick Pidgeons dung Mustard-seed mixed with Walnut Leaves Salt and Honey As also Plaisters made of Pitch Opoponax c. And the most ready way to draw out poison in this case is to apply an actual Cautery and the burning being past care is to be taken that the crust be speedily taken off to discharge the venom by an Ulcer and if the Patient be so timerous as not to admit an actual Cautery a potential may be used as Escharoticks and the like made of sublimated Mercury and Praecipitate and the Ulcer may be long kept open lest some parts of the venom be retained in the Body In this case a Vein cannot safely be opened which weakeneth the Body and not dischargeth the poison And Purgatives cannot be advised as drawing the poison from the circumference to the Center from the ambient parts to the Heart CHAP. LXIX Of Stupidity and Mopishness THis dull disaffection of Stupidity or Mopishness Stupidity is sometimes a consequent of habitual Madness The description of this Disease by its symptome is often a sad consequent of an habitual Madness sometimes degenerating into it and speaketh a defect in the intellectual Faculty as not exerting its operation produced by the faults of the Imagination and Memory not duely presenting their Objects to the nobler Faculty of the Understanding the subject of our present discourse proceeding from the disaffection of the nervous Liquor and Animal Spirits The sensitive Soul is ministerial to the rational and hath the imagination The sensitive Soul is subservient to the rational as its principal representative of the images of things first imparted by the outward Organs of Sense and afterward to the Phancy sometimes apprehending Objects which being first lodged in the Memory as a repository are afterward offered to the imagination whose notions are speculated by the understanding viewing and considering them in order to exert its more excellent operations whereupon if the acts of the Memory and Phancy be impeded by some defect of the Brain in point of an ill Succus Nervosus and its more refined Particles the light of the Understanding receiveth an Eclipse as it is vailed by the clouds of the Memory and Imagination unduely offering phantasmes to the higher power of the Intellect So that our present Province being to give an account of the Pathalogy of Mopishness doth induce me to discourse of the causes whereby the operations of the Memory and Phancy are rendred defective in order to the more sublime Arts of the Understanding The seat of the inward corporeal Functions of the sensitive Soul The seat of the inward sensitive Functions of the Soul being seated in the Corpus callosum and the more inward Recesses of the Brain are exerted by the nervous Liquor and Animal Spirits the Ministers of the Soul which being hindred in their due temper and motion do discompose the Memory Phancy and Understanding and produce a stupidity or Mopishness sometimes derived from a Maniack disposition destructive of the tone of the fine Spirits of the Brain In stupidity the Animal Spirits are bereaved of their fine Ingeny One cause oâ— Mopishness as the Animal Spirits are rendred unactive as rendred destitute of their active Particles so that their fine volatil Atomes grow fixed and depressed as also mixed with watry Recrements in the Brain This Mopishness sometimes happens only by the defect of the more spirituous Particles of the Succus Nervosus and othertimes is caused by the fault of the Brain This Disease is also caused by the defect of the Brain as the subject and Organ of the Animal Faculty is constituted of many requisite conditions enabling it to perform its operations so that if any of them be deficient or depraved the acts of the understanding are more or less clouded according to the greater or less indisposition of corporeal Organs And it hath been commonly observed that the Ingeny of Man is sometimes lessened or abolished by the too greeat or little dimensions of the Brain and othertimes by the ill Figure or Texture of it A want of Understanding may proceed from an over-much largeness of the Brain The too great quantity of Brain may hinder the operations of Understanding as being sometimes furnished with few Animal Spirits or an ill fibrous Compage not duely constituted or a defect of Reason may come from a small proportion of Brain in which a paucity of nervous Liquor and Spirits are generated A Stupidity also may arise from an ill Conformation A Stupidity may proceed from an ill Conformation of the Brain or Figure of the Brain which ought to be of a Sphaerical shape and when it is either too much depressed or prominent it indisposeth the true situation of the nervous Fibrils chiefly constituting the frame of the Brain whereupon the nervous Liquor and its more agile Particles have not a free and regular motion in order to the exercise of the meaner and more excellent operations of the Brain So that the fibrous Compage the Brain being distorted the Fancy like a false Looking-glass maketh an ill representation of Phantasmes to the Understanding discomposing the due and proper notions of things The laudable Texture of the Brain may be much disordred by the excess The Texture of the Brain may be disordered by the excess of First qualities or defect of heat as over-powred by cold watry Recrements rendring the nervous Compage of the Brain weak and flabby and utterly unable to accomplish their due tension in order to promote the progress of the Succus Nervosus and its more volatil parts which being too thin and agile do transpire and evaporate as being not confined within their proper sphaere by the more solid parts of the nervous Liquor And not only the Brain is disaffected by excess of coldness and moisture as in old persons and Children rendring them very dull and stupid in their conceptions The gross and earthy Compage of the Brain may be the cause of Mopishness as also over-clouded by steams but the Brain is rendred highly uncapable of accomplishing its acts as its fibrous Compage is gross and earthy and the
Mopishness may be derived from other Diseases as they proceed from diverse Causes some being accidental as Mopishness flowing from other diseases of Madness Hypocondriacal distempers Hysterick Epileptick and Apoplectick Fits c. Whereupon the Succus Nervosus is often thickened and effaete as having lost its more volatil saline Particles whereupon the Animal Spirits are rendred few and pawled as having lost their more fine Particles whereby they become disabled to exert the Animal Faculties And I humbly conceive Mopishness may proceed from a natural defect of Sense and Reason that Stultitia or Stupidity ariseth out of a natural defect of Sense and Reason proceeding from the ill Figure and Conformation of the Brain and when the Succus Nervosus and its more select Particles are naturally indisposed as being hereditary imparted from vitiated seminal Liquor of Parents which is much more difficult to be cured A hereditary Mopishness then the acquisite diaffection of Mopishness which in time by due methods of Physick may be cured in some degree As to the Prognosticks of Stupidity The Prognosticks of Mopishness if it be in a high degree wholly or for the most part cancelling the acts of right Reason and Imagination especially if it be Connate and Hereditary doth shew it incurable yet Children that are somewhat stupid and dull in the acts of Wit and Judgment in riper years get their parts more elevated and obtain a better use of Reason and Sense as having the temper of the Succus Nervosus and Animal Sprits endred more refined and volatil If this Disease be accidental and acquisite as proceeding from some gentle Cephalick Diseases it may be cured and the Animal Faculties return to their regular operations But if Stupidity or rather Mopishness be derived from an inveterate Epilepsy or a Lethargy Coma Carus or Apoplexy the Malady proveth incurable as having the Crasis of the nervous Liquor and Animal Spirits wholly perverted If a Lethargy be not of any long continuance as also a Comatose indisposition it may admit a Cure and the Animal Powers and their acts may be reduced in some degree if not fully to their Original temper as having the Brain and its peculiar Juyce and Spirits repaired by a proper course of Physick which I have seen in many of my Patients Sometimes this Disease is it be not too deeply radicated having not long perverted the Oeconomy a supervening Fever in some sort may produce a Cure as refining the Blood and nervous Liquor and Spirits by Fermentation whereupon their impure Recrements are thrown off by Urine and a free transpiration through the excretory Ducts of the Skin so that the Vital and Animal Liquor being depurated the Spirits recover much of their former Crasis As to the Cure of this Disease This Disease in some case may admit a Cure if it do not arrive to a great degree of Stupidity but rather an extraordinary dulness in the exercise of the acts of Reason and Sense it may in some sort admit a recovery by the assistance of a good Tutor as well as a Physician which may contribute much by good Rules and Precepts of Art to the advancement of heavy parts affected with a mean apprehension and Judgment The advice of a Physitian may be proficuous as giving good prescriptions of proper Medicines to depurate the Vital and Animal Liquor and Spirits by rendring them active and volatil and by dispelling the dark Clouds and Vapours of the Brain to make way for the reception of lucid Particles perfective of the Animal Spirits the immediate instruments of the Animal Powers In plethorick Bodies labouring of Stupidity and Mopishness Bleeding may be used with good success in this Disease a Vein may be opened in the Neck Forehead Arm as also Leeches may be applied to the Haemorrhoidal Veins Fontanels may be made in the Arm Neck between the Shoulders Footanels proper in Mopishness or in the inside of the Thigh or Leg to divert gross Recrements from the Brain and relieve the Blood and nervous Liquor and its more spirituous Particles whereupon they become more fit instruments to celebrate the operations of the Brain Purging Medicines prepared with Cephalicks Purging Medicines prepared with Cephalicks may be very proper in these Diseases to refine the Blood and Succus Nervosus so that the Animal Spirits may be exalted and the Crasis of the Brain rendred laudable duely to exert the acts of Imagination Memory and Reason Apozemes are very advantageous made of Lime-Flowers Cephalick Apozemes Lily of the Valley Betony Sage Rorismary to which may be added Compound Paeony-water Syrupe of Paeony Lime-Flowers or Lily of the Valley Spirit of Hartshorn and Salt of Ammoniack succinated Spirits may be given in a draught of Black-Cherry Water Lime Water or Lily of the Valley Paeony and the like Morning and Evening A Magistral distilled Water may be good A Magistral distillâ—d Water prepared with the Flowers of Betony Sage Majoram the Flowers of Rorismary Sage Lime Lily of the Valley Paeony Nutmegs and besprinkle them with Canary for Twelve hours and afterward distill them in a large quantity of Milk in a Rose Still to this distilled Water may be added a small quantity of Compound Paeony or Compound Briony Water or a small proportion of Spirit of Lavender Or in a draught of this distilled Water may be given some drops of the tincture of Castor Amber or Elixir Proprietatis c. An Electuary prepared with the Conserves of the Flowers of Sage Cephalick Electuarie Rorismary Betony Lime Lily of the Valley mixed with Condite Eringo Roots or Citron-Pill or that of Auranges Limons Powder of Castor Amber Paeony-Roots made up with Syrupe of Lime-Flowers or Lily of the Valley drinking after it a good draught of the distilled Water above advised Ale Ale medicated with Cephalicks medicated with Flowers of Sage Betony Lime Lily of the Valley Rorismary Cubebs Nutmegs Mace c. may be very beneficial in these Diseases Balsamick Ointments Topicks may be safely administred and Emplaisters made of Cephalicks as also Fomentations of the same kind may be applied to the Head shaved as also Caps quilted with the Flowers of Lime Lily of the Valley Sage Betony Lavender Rorismary Spices of Mace Nutmegs Cloves Galangal c. Linements of Balsame of Tolu natural Balsame Capivium Oil of Nutmegs and Mace by expression may be administred to the Head when shaved with good success CHAP. LXX Of Convulsions and Convulsive Motions IN the Pathology of the Brain my intention is to Treat of a Convulsion The difference of Convulsions and Convulsive motions and how it differeth from Convulsive Motions as the one disagreeth from the other in several positions of the Muscles and duration of their involuntary motions In a Convulsion the Limbs and other parts of the Body have a constant rigid posture rendring them so stiff that they cannot at all bend or else without great difficulty be
the Disease and shaddow unto you the state of the Disease which being considered in its Paroxysm is more universal in Extent and severe in its Nature whence the subtle Particles of the Animal Latex commonly styled Spirits in reference to their Volatil Spirituous nature are the chief Guests of the Brain and are fiercely and inordinately moved drawing into consent their neighboring parts inhabiting both the Medullary and Nervous Appendages and thereby as it were conjure up stupendous storms and tempests made up of great impure Vaporous Matter darting it self into the Serous Liquor of the Brain which is thence violently forced into its Nervous outlets causing as it were a Hurricane making such a violent contusion of the Nerves and Fibres that it striketh down the Patient in the twinkling of an Eye with admirable violence to the ground where he laboreth under great vibrations of the Head and Neck grindings of the Teeth froth about the Mouth frequent motions of the Limbs against the ground and now and then the Precordia and Hypoconders are puffed up with great and frequent strokes upon the Breast So that the Precordia being Convulsed can make but disorderly Contractions and the Blood ready to quit its motion to the great oppression of the Heart threatneth the putting out of the gentle flame of Life whence the Patient not by any direction of the Will but a meer instinct of Nature giveth many repeated strokes upon the Thorax whence arise brisk concussions of the Precordia which prove as so many sollicitations to revive their drooping motions to redeem the Blood from Stagnation and the Heart from its load and perplexity so that sometimes all these sad Scenes are quickly changed and afterwards are represented more pleasant Interludes of ease and repose And now I will omit any farther discourse of this Disease designing to give a more full History in the next Chapter And in order to give you a more clear and general account of Convulsive motions which highly aggrieve the Brain and its rational and sensitive functions two considerables do chiefly offer themselves the Subject and the Causes of this Disease As to the first I humbly conceive it to be the tender fibrous Compage of the Brain which being endued with acute sense The subject of Convulsive motions is liable to many preternatural and irregular motions sometimes of the Fibrils other times of the middle and extremities of the Nerves besetting the Brain Viscera and other parts of the Body In Malignant Fevers and other Diseases of the Body The origen of the afflicted in Convulsive motions the Venenate nature as also other saline and sulphureous Particles of the Blood do infect the Nervous Liquor in the Cortex of the Brain which being entertained into the extremities do highly disorder the origens of the Nerves The body and middle of the Nerves concerned in Convulsions and as the Animal Liquor tainted with heterogeneous Particles is farther transmitted into the fibrous Compage of the Brain and other more remote parts of the middle and lowest Apartiment it violently annoyeth the middle and body of the Nerves as infesting their numerous Plexes And when the irritating Humors are carried into the Muscles and remote Coasts of the Body affecting the membranous and tendinous parts they may be properly said to be seated in the extremities and terminations of the Nerves The termination of the Nerves affected in Convulsive motions The causes of Convulsive motion The evident cause may be evident when the Succus Nervosus or Animal Spirits are discomposed and the fibrous Compage of the Brain being much debilitated is violently agitated by vehement Passions The Procatarctick cause of Convulsive motions supposeth a disposition of Humors in the Body The Procatarctick cause of this Disease which being endued with highly Fermentative Elements of the Blood do vitiate the Animal Liquor and Spirits by rendring them too Elastick highly expanding the Filaments of the Nervous Fibrils whereupon they briskly contract themselves to discharge the offensive Particles of the Nervous Juice The continent cause of Convulsive motions The continent cause of Convulsive motions cannot be derived from Inanition and Repletion the Antients have fetched from Inanition and Repletion which they illustrate by an instance of Lether or Musical Strings which contract themselves when moistned with much Air or shrunk up with much drought this Opinion seemeth very improbable by reason the abbreviation of the Nerves cannot produce variety of postures in the Muscles proceeding from irritated Humors putting the Nerves into various irregular motions and farthermore the being macerated in a great quantity of watry Recrements in an Anasarca are rendred weak and flaccid whereby they become unable to produce strong Convulsive motions The continent cause of Convulsive motions which are acted by the Elastick Particles of the Blood caused by nitro-sulphureous Particles depraving the Nervous Liquor puffing up the Filaments of the Nerves whereupon they make a great renitence or opposition by powerful contractions to squeeze out the offensive Matter disquieting the Animal Spirits and irritating the tender Filaments of Nerves The Convulsive motions are more or less universal as the Succus Nervosus infected with Nitro-saline or acid Ferments is carried out of the fibrous Compage of the Brain into a greater or less company of Nerves so that the Tendons of more or fewer Muscles are unnaturally contracted whence proceed great variety of horrid Symptoms attending several parts of the Body which may be reduced principally to Three Heads The first may proceed from a poysonous nature The second from Malignant Fevers not well determined whereupon the matter of the Disease being not duly discharged is carried into the fibrous Compage of the Brain and into the many pairs of Nerves sprouting out of the Brain The third Head of Convulsive motions may take its rise from the Succus Nervosus losing its native sweet bounty and degenerating into a sharpe acid Fermentative Liquor highly afflicting the Animal Spirits and productive of Convulsive motions CHAP. LXXI Of the Falling-Sickness HAving treated of Convulsion and Convulsive motions under a general Notice I will now discourse of them in particular of the Falling-Sickness attended with a dismal rout of Convulsive agitations of the Muscular Parts seated in the Limbs and Trunk of the Body This terrible Disease hath many appellatives fetched from the nature properties and symptoms of it And is styled by the Greeks The Names of the Falling-sickness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the sudden seisure of the functions of the rational and sensitive Faculties And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either because it is a great Disease or as a miraculous Disease coming from a Divine power And is called by Hipocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason it is familiar to Children and named by the Latines Caducus a Cadendo and Comitialis as persons labouring of this Disease are interdicted the Comitia And hath the denomination of Lunaticus
Learned Tylingius giveth an account in Miscellan An example of this case Curiosis ann 1674 1675 and 1676. p. 280. Ait ille Sereniss ac celsissimi Principis D. Ferdinandi Alberti Ducis Brunswicensis Lunenburgensis filiolus unius anni Convulsionibus Epilepticis admodum erat obnoxius cum his itaque graviter affligeretur ut tandem vitam cum morte commutaret Corpus ejus die 27 Jan. 1673. aperui lienem induratum scirrhosum fere lapidosum inveni A Falling-sickness may be also produced by a quantity of Genital Liquor An Epilepsy proceeding from a Virulent Seminal Liquor long lodged in the Seminal Vessels or Prostates wherein it acquireth a virulent nature communicated to the Blood carried by several Vessels to the Cortex of the Brain where it infecteth the Succus Nervosus giving a great annoyance first to the tender Fibrils of the Brain and then to the Nerves of the Body which are a continuation of them causing Epileptick Fits and Death A Person of Honor having frequently indulged Venereal Embraces An Instance â—f a Gentleman dying of an Epilopsy was sensible of the meanness of this natural act did addict himself to a chaste and abstemious life whereupon he grew Vertiginous and afflicted with Epileptick Distempers attended with a tremulous motion of his Tongue Convulsive agitations of his Head after the manner of a Rotation a paleness of his Face and dimness of his Sight so that after few days his more Noble and Divine Part quitted his Body And afterward the lowest middle and highest Apartiment being opened all the Viscera appeared to be sound only the Vesicular Cells were found full of virulent Seed the cause of his Epileptick Fits The Indications that relate to this Disease are Curatory The Indications of an Epilepsy which have regard to the Fit or Preservatory which have respect to the Cause of the Disease As to the first Purgatives Vomits and Bleeding have no place As to the Curatory Indication Purgatives and Vomitories are not proper in this Disease Cephalicks and Specificks are most laudable in a Falling-sickness as giving too great a trouble and overmuch debilitation to the sick Patient when very weak So that then the most proper Medicines in this condition are good Cephalicks and proper Specificks which compose the enraged and fortifie the weakned Animal Spirits and rectifie the Animal Liquor the subject of them Such are faetide Medicines which are highly efficacious in Epileptick Fits impregnated with Volatil or Armoniack Salt and with Vitriolick Sulphur as Oyl of Amber or with other Volatil Spirits of Harts Horn Spirit of Sal Armoniack either of it self or succinated Spirit of Blood or Soot or Tincture of Castor Compound Spirit of Lavender Compound Briony Water Comp. Paeony Water c. And as to the Preservatory Indication The Preservatory Indicatory is sounded in the rectifying an ill mass of Blood which regardeth the taking away the Cause of this Disease it is principally founded in the rectifying an ill mass of Blood and Nervous Liquor which depend much upon the laudable Constitution of the Viscera and chiefly upon that of the Brain and the good disposition of the Animal Spirits So that the ill Diathesis of the Blood and Viscera is taken away by Vomiting Purging and Bleeding which though they do not perform the Cure alone yet they prepare the Viscera and Blood and Nervous Liquor by taking away their noysom Recrements whereby the Specifick Medicines can more powerfully exert their vertue upon the Viscera being deobstructed and the Blood and Nervous Liquor being depurated whereupon the discomposed Animal Spirits and Convulsive motions are calmed and by degrees the Epileptick Fits are first alleviated and at last wholly conquered and Nature restored to a salutary condition which I have often seen by the Blessing of the Supream Physician upon methodical Prescription and Application of proper Medicines Specificks which highly speak an advantage in the Cure of this Disease are numerous viz. Amber Castor Coral Camphor Ung. Alcis Specificks in order to the Cure of this Disease a Humane Skull Misletowe of the Oak or Apple-tree Roots or Flowers of Paeony Roots of Valerian The Leaves of Rue Lavender the Flowers of Time Lily of the Valley Betony Preparations made of Swallows Daws c. These Medicines work by secret qualities Medicines in this Disease work by secret qualities and it is very difficult to determine the manner of their Operations in taking away the causes of this Disease which I humbly conceive do consist much in over-fermentative Elements in Nitro-sulphureous and sometimes Vitriolick sharp Particles of the Blood vitiating the Succus Nervosus causing the Falling-sickness as it is received into the fibrous Compage of the Brain and Plexes of Nerves whereupon they grow very unquiet and Convulsed and the Medicines adapted by Nature to the Cure of this Disease The Cure of this disaffection is performed by sweetening the Blood do sweeten the Acrimonious Particles of the Cristalline Liquor of the Blood the Materia substrata of Nervous Juice and give an allay to its Nitro-sulphureous parts by reducing it and the Succus Nervosus in some degree to a laudable Constitution whereupon the opposite Elements of these various Liquors are brought to such a Mediocrity as to produce a due Fermentation not offending the system of tender Nerves in the Brain and Plexes in other parts of the Body And Cephalick Medicines have not only a power to dulcifie the sharp parts of the Blood and exalt the gross saline Particles thereby giving a check to the over-fermentative principles of the Blood but have also an astrictive faculty to corroborate the loose Compage of the Nervous Fibrils of which the Brain is chiefly constituted And by reason its fibrous frame being rendred flaccid by serous Recrements is disposed for the reception of a Succus Nervosus depraved with acid and saline Particles highly agitating the system of tender Fibrils Corroborating Cephalicks very proper to strengthen the Brain therefore Astringent Cephalicks must be of great use after sweet Medicines have been advised to sweeten and appease the Vital and Nervous Liquor impregnated with saline and acid parts and over-acted with Nitro-sulphureous Recrements raising the said Liquors to a high Fermentation productive of Epileptick Fits To speak more closely to the Cure of this stubborn Disease Purgatives may be given if the Patient be strong I conceive it very proper to advise Purgatives to the Patient if strong of Senna Agarick Rubarb Mechoacan Jalape Hellebore mixed with Celaphicks as also the greater Faetide Pills or de Succino aut Pilulae Diambrae Hierae cum Agaric mixed with Castor Amber Camphor quickned with some Grains of Resine of Jalape Vomitories or Extract of Rud. or Hellebore Vomits may be also advised made of an Infusion of Crocus Metallorum Salt of Vitriol or Mynsicht's Emetick Tartar in a few Grains and in the working of the Vomits large quantities
former and let it be sweetened with the Flowers of Lime Paeony or Lily of the Valley If the Child Suck Cephalick Medicines may be given to the Nurse Cephalicks may be advised for the Nurse if the Child Suck made of the Roots of Paeony and the Seeds of Goats Rue and Caraway boiled in Posset-drink As also an Electuary made of Conserve of Lime-Flowers Lily of the Valley Sage Paeony to which may be added the Powder of Missetowe of the Oak Paeony roots Castor made into a due Consistence with the Syrupe of Lime-Flowers or Lily of the Valley drinking after it an Apozeme prepared with the Roots of Angelica Paeony Flowers of Betony Rorismary Lime Lily of the Valley and after its strained it may be sweetned with the Syrupe of Paeony or Cowslips Powders may be advised for the Nurse composed of the roots of Valerian Powder for the Nurse White Amber Misletowe of the Oak of the hoof of a Bufalo Castor c. mingled with White Sugar and given in a spoonful of the Apozeme prescribed drinking after it a good draught of the same And to an Infant may be given Black Cherry or Rue Water A Cephalick Julape for a Child mingled with Compound Paeony or Compound Briony-water or with some drops of Spirit of Lavender or Spirit of Hartshorn and the like sweetned with some Cephalick Syrupe Amulets of the roots of Paeony Castor Amulets of the shavings of the hoof of a Bufalo mixed with Oil of Nutmegs by expression may be hung about the Neck of the Child troubled with Convulsions Blistering Plaisters are very proper in Convulsive motions If the Infant be actually in a Fit a blistering Plaister may be applied to the Nucha or to both sides of the Neck The Cephalick Plaister without Euphorbium or of Galbanum may be applied to the Feet The Powder of Gutteta according to Rivier The Powder of Gutteta or one compounded of a Humane Skull of Pearl of the hoof of a Bufalo c. may be given in a few grains in the following Julape made of Black Cherry simple Paeony or Goats Rue-water mingled with a small quantity of Antiepileptick Water of Langius and sweetened with the Syrupe of Lime-Flowers The roots of Valerian Paeony Lime-Flowers c. Infusions of Cephlicks may be infused in Canary and being strained off may be given in a very small quantity with White Sugar-candy or a Distillation may be made in a Glass retort with the heat of Sand of the roots of Valerian Paeony Lime-Flowers vitriol of Hungary the Skull of a Man in Compound Paeony water and the distilled water may be given in a small quantity sweetened with Syrupe of Betony or Lime-Flowers or if it seem to be too strong it may be allayed with the simple water of Paeony or of Lime-Flowers or of Lily of the Valley Some of the Gall of a Sucking Puppy taken in a small quantity of simple Paeony-water or of Lily of the Valley may be very proper in Convulsive Fits Oil of Castor Bathing the Chine with Spirits or Oil is of great use Leeches applied behind the Ears are good in Dentition As also blistering Plaisters Anodynes and Narcoticks are good in violent pains of the Teeth Medicines good for to destroy Worms Amber mixed with the compound Spirit of Lavender may be very proper to anoint the Chine of a Child afflicted with Convulsive motions In Convulsive motions proceeding from breeding of Teeth Blood may be taken away by Leeches set behind the Ears and Blistering Plaisters may be applied to the Nucha or sides of the Neck and Anodynes and Narcoticks may be used in violent pains of the Teeth whereupon the Gums may be rubbed or cut with some sharp instrument to make way for the eruption of Teeth In reference to Convulsions coming from Worms Rubarb infused in Wine Beer or Ale may be proper or some grains of Calamelanus given in extract of Aloes or with Rubarb mixed with some very few grains of Jailape In a Child of a strong Constitution and of some years Wormseed or Salt of Prunel Tartar or any bitter or salt Medicine will destroy Worms A Plaister made of Colocynth A Plaister may be applied to the Navel in this case Aloes macerated in juyce of Wormwood the Gall of an Ox all mixed and embodied with Bees-wax may be applyed to the Navil of the Child CHAP. LXXIII Of the Palsey THE noble Compage of the Brain being a systeme of numerous fine Fibrils branched through the Cortex Corpus callosum Fornix Corpora striata Nates Testes Medulla oblongata Cerebellum and its Processes and through the Medulla Spinalis as an elongation of the Brain These innumerable minute Fibrils of the Brain Cerebellum The Fibrils of the Brain and Cerebellum are composed of many Filaments In the exercises of Sense and Motion the Fibres are rendred tense and Medulla Spinalis being the constituent parts are framed of many small Filaments whose Interstices are receptive of the Animal Liquor and Spirits by whose spirituous and elastick Particles the Fibrils are rendred plump tense and fit to exert the acts of Sense and Motion which are also imparted to the Nerves of the whole Body as so many outlets of the Brain and the continuation of its fibrous Compage the first Origen and rudiment of all nervous Divarications overspreading and invigorating all the Apartiments of the Body with their select Liquor and their more refined Particles giving Sensation motion and nourishment The Faculties relating to the said Operations are lessened depraved The lessened or abolished or depraved Functions come from errors of the Brain or abolished by the errors of the Brain as being a systeme of innumerable Fibrils containing the nervous Liquor and its Spirits giving vigor and tenseness to the fibrous frame of the Brain and its appendices which are chiefly hurt in reference to Sense and Motion in Two disaffections either as they are depraved by Convulsive motions or when pain ariseth in point of Sense The Function of Sense or Motion are lessened or abolished in the Palsey The descriptiâ—on of a Palsey or when the Functions of Sense and Motion are very much lessened or abolished in a Palsey causing an impotency in the Limbs when the fibrous parts of the Brain and Limbs lose their vigor and tenseness A Palsey may admit this description That it is a resolution or relaxation of the fibrous Compage of the Body proceeding from defect of a due tenseness of the nervous Filaments whereupon the Faculties of Sense and Motion cannot exert their due operations in some or all parts of the Body A resolution happens to the nervous parts when the Succus Nervosus The cause of the resolution of the Nerves and its spirituous Particles are denied an access to the fibrous parts of the Brain Cerebellum and Medulla Spinalis or when the Animal Spirits losing their due volatil or elastick parts do not influence the Nerves with
due Spirits and Tenseness especially when they are affected with high Narcotick steams which despoil them of their laudable temper and tone The motive Faculty is impeded or abolished The motive Faculty is hindred when the Origen of the Nerves is obstructed by reason the Origens of the Nerves are obstructed in the Cortex or their progress in other Processes of the Brain Cerebellum or Medulla Spinalis or in the Trunks of the Nerves and their diverse Plexes and divarications The origination of the Nerves The Origen of the Nerves may be stopped by a gross nervous Liquor may be obstructed by the grossness of the Succus Nervosus as not being capable to be received into the beginning of the Interstices relating to the nervous Filaments constituting the body of the Nerves The grossness of the nervous Liquor may arise from a thick faeculent albuminous part of the Blood the Materia substrata of the Succus Nervosus The cause of a gross nervous Liquor or when the cortical Glands being not well disposed as having too large extravagant Vessels or Pores are not able duely to percolate the more thin mild Particles of the Blood from its more gross parts whereupon the thick Animal Liquor is not capable to insinuate it self into the Origens of the fibrous parts of the Brain The Origens of the Nerves are straightned by the Tumors of the adjacent parts which are also rendred too close and straight by the swelling of the neighbouring parts coming from the cortical Glands by a quantity of extravasated Blood in Inflammations or of serous Recrements in a Hydrocephalus in a Hydropick constitution of the Brain compressing the Origens of the nervous Fibrils in the ambient parts of the Brain And not only the Origens of the minute nervous Fibrils in the Cortex The progress of the Fibrils may have their Filaments over-close but the progress of more large Fibrils in the Medulla oblongata and Medulla Spinalis may have the spaces of their Filaments so closely conjoyned to each other by a quantity of Blood or Pus or by the tumors of the adjacent parts that the current of the Animal Spirits is intercepted whereupon the adjoyning Nerves grow flaccid and unfit for Sense and Motion A Palsey also may arise from a Solution of the unity of parts The solution of the unity of parts may be a cause of a Palsey when the fibrous Compage of the Brain is wounded or affected with a great blow or by Concussion when the order of the fibrous parts of the Brain is perverted as it hath the Fibres too much separated or too closely united dashing one against another A greater or less obstruction or compression of the fibrous parts of the Brain often produceth an Apoplexy Carus Lethargy Hemiplegia and when the Paroxysmes of these Cephalick Diseases are gone A Palsey often succedeth an Apoplexy The cause of the Palsey how it is more or less universal a Palsey often succeedeth sometimes affecting one other times both sides of the Body so that sometimes one or more Limbs and other times the Limbs of the whole Body are disabled in point of Motion As the matter of the Disease is more or less imparted to the Nerves of the Brain Cerebellum and Medulla Spinalis so the parts affected are not only rendred destitute of Motion but of Sense too in some cases And if some curious persons be so inquisitive The cause why Sense remaineth when motion is taken away as to be informed of the reason why the Sense remaineth where motion is taken away this may be offered in point of their satisfactions that Physicians have assigned some Nerves to celebrate the act of Sensation and others to motion but if this Opinion be not satisfactory as being improbable because all Nerves are endued as well with Sense as Motion I will presume to give the courteous Reader another Reason which may seem more probable that the act of motion is more difficult and laborious as supposing an action whereas Sensation intimates only a Passion which is more easy then the other and may be performed by a sensible impression continued from the common Sensory by the continuation of the coats of nervous Filaments propagated from the Brain to the Medulla Spinalis and other parts of the Body But Motion is accomplished by a higher nixus of the Nerves requiring a greater quantity and more refined Animal Spirits expaâ—ding the nervous Filaments and rendring them plump and stiff in order to motion The Compression of the Corpora Striata The Compression of the Corpora Striata hinder the progress of the Animal Liquor may arise from some extravasated Blood or serous Recrements outwardly crouding the Interstices of the Filaments relating to the Corpora Striata whereupon the progress of the nervous Liquor and Spirits being checked the Nerves grow relaxed and their motion abolished The Medulla oblongata The seat of the Palsey and the elongation of it the Medulla Spinalis may be the seat of the Palsey when the Fibrils of the said parts are obstructed inwardly by some gross Matter or outwardly by the compression of some stagnated Blood or faeculent Humors or by the Tumors of some adjoyning parts sometimes this disaffection is placed in the Nerves Sometimes this Disease is seated in the Nerves without the Brain without the limits of the Brain Cerebellum and Medulla Spinalis either in the Trunks or smaller Branches of Nerves stopped by obstruction compression or by solution of their unity Whereupon the progress of the Animal Liquor and Spirits is interrupted and the Filaments of Nerves become loose and flabby as having lost their tenseness a requisite condition of the action of the Nerves Immoderate Cold being a great enemy to the nervous Cold as incrassating the nervous Liquor may be the cause of a Palsey as well as vital Liquor doth incrassate the Animal Spirits so that they loose their volatil and elastick Particles and are rendred unfit to invigorate the Nerves in reference to Motion The immoderate use of Opiates which being taken too frequently The immoderate use of Opiates may cause a Palsey and in too great a quantity doth vitiate the I one of the Animal Spirits an dits energetick disposition which is also produced by the venenate Fumes of Minerals So that Miners working in Mineral Earth are affected with the steams of Antimony Mercury and Auripigmentum or Arsnick which cause Tumors in the Limbs as also sometimes a relaxation of the Nerves whereupon ensueth a paralytick distemper taking away the use of the Muscular parts the proper Engines of Motion For the most part the Brain is not only affected but the Medulla Spinalis and sometimes the Cerebellum is concerned by serous Recrements diffused between the Skull and the Coats of the Brain which afterward fall down and compresse the Fistula Sacra or Silver Cord The Palsey may arise from the Compression of the Medulla Spinalis A quantity of