Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abate_v	salt_n	volatile_a	59	3	11.6670	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28982	A free enquiry into the vulgarly receiv'd notion of nature made in an essay address'd to a friend / by R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society.	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1686 (1686)	Wing B3979; ESTC R11778	140,528	442

kind of Bastard-flesh or some such other Body which that Juice in the Place and other Circumstances 't is in is fitted to constitute Thus we see that not only Wens and Scrophulous Tumors are nourish'd in the Body but mis-shapen Mola's do by Nutriment grow in the Womb as well as Embryo's feed there And to come closer to the present Argument we see that in Wounds Proud-Flesh and perhaps Fungus's are as well produc'd and entertain'd by the Aliment brought to the wounded Part as the true and genuine Flesh so that either Nature seems much mistaken if She designs the Production and Maintenance of such superfluous and inconvenient Bodies or the Chirurgeon is much to blame who is industrious to destroy them though oftentimes he cannot do it without using painful Corrosives But for ought appears Nature is not so shy and reserv'd in Her Bounty but that She sends Nourishment to repair as well Things that do not belong to the Body as genuine Parts of It as to restore Flesh to wounded Parts as may appear by Warts and Corns that grow again after they are skilfully cut And I remember I have seen a Woman in whose Forehead Nature was careful to nourish a Horn about an Inch and more in length which I fully examin'd whilst it was yet growing upon Her Head to avoid being impos'd upon But besides the Diseases hither to discours'd there are many Others as well Acute as Chronical wherein 't is confess'd that Nature alone does not work the Cure so that as to these which are more numerous than the former I may well pretend that the Aphorism that makes Nature the Curer of Diseases is not true otherwise than in a limited Sense But because I know 't is pretended that even in these Diseases Nature is the principal Agent by whose Direction the Physician acts in subserviency to her Designs and Physicians themselves whether out of Modesty or Inadvertence I now enquire not are wont to acknowledg that they are but Nature's Ministers I think it necessary to consider briefly what Sense is fit according to our Doctrine to be given to these Assertions to make them receivable by us But to make way for what we are to say on this Occasion it may be fit to observe that one great Cause of the common Mistakes about this Matter is as hath been partly intimated already That the Body of a Man is look'd upon rather as a System of Parts whereof Most are gross and consistent and not a Few hard and solid too than as what indeed it is a very compounded Engine that besides these Consistent Parts does consist of the Blood Chyle Gall and other Liquors also of more subtil Fluids as Spirits and Air all which Liquors and Fluids are almost incessantly and variously moving and thereby put divers of the Solid Parts as the Heart and Lungs the Diaphragma the Hands Feet c. into frequent and differing Motions So that as when the Constitution or the Motions that in a sound Body do regularly belong to the Fluid Parts happens the former to be Deprav'd or the later to grow Anomalous the Engine is immediately out of Order though the gross solid Parts were not primarily affected So when by proper Remedies whether Visible or not the vitiated Texture or Crasis of the Blood or other Juices is corrected and the inordinate Motions that They and the Spirits are put into or that they also put the consistent Parts into are calm'd and rectify'd the grosser and more solid Parts of the Body and so the whole Animal Oeconomy if I may so call It will be restored to a more convenient State Thus we see that in many Hysterical Women by the fragrant Effluvia of a Spanish Glove or some Other strong Perfume the Spirits and Genus Nervosum being affected several disorderly Symptoms are produc'd and oftentimes the Motion of the Blood is so stopt or abated that any Pulse at all is scarcely to be felt nor Respiration discern'd and the whole Engine unable to sustain itself falls to the Ground and lies moveless on It and yet we have often by barely holding to the Patient's Nostrils a Vial full of very strong Spirit or Volatile Salt or Sal-armoniack or of Harts-horn in less than a quarter of an Hour sometimes in a few Minutes restor'd Women in that Condition to their Senses Speech and Motion We are also here to consider what I have formerly inculcated that the Oeconomy of the human Body is so constituted by the Divine Author of It that it is usually fitted to last many Years if the more General Laws setled by the same Author of the Universe will permit it And therefore 't is not to be wonder'd at that in many Cases the Automaton should be in a Condition to concur though not with Knowledge and Design to its own Preservation when though it had been put somewhat out of Order 't is assisted by the Physicians Hands or Medicines to recover a convenient State And if it be objected that the Examples that have been in this past Discourse frequently drawn from Automata are not adequate and do not fully reach the Difficulties we have been speaking of I shall readily grant it provided it be consider'd that I avowedly and deservedly suppose the Bodies of living Animals to be Originally Engins of God's own framing and consequently Effects of an Omniscient and Almighty Artificer So that 't is not Rational to expect that in the incomparably inferior Productions of human Skill there should be found Engins fit to be compar'd with These which in their Protoplasts had God for their Author Not to mention what yet may be considerable in reference to the Lastingness of human Life that a Man is not a mere Mechanical Thing where nothing is perform'd for the Preservation of the Engine or its Recovery to a good State but by its own Parts or by other Agents acting according to Mechanical Laws without Counsel or Design since though the Body of a Man be indeed an Engine yet there is united to It an Intelligent Being the Rational Soul or Mind which is capable especially if instructed by the Physitians Art to discern in many Cases what may hurt It and what may conduce to the Welfare of It and is also able by the Power it has to govern the Muscles and other Instruments of voluntary Motion to do many of those Things it judges most conducive to the Safety and the Welfare of the Body 't is join'd with So that a Man is not like a Watch or an Empty Boat where there is nothing but what is purely Mechanical but like a Mann'd Boat where besides the Machinal Part if I may so speak there is an Intelligent Being that takes Care of It and both steers It or otherwise guides It and when need requires trimms It and in a word as Occasion serves does what he can to preserve It and keep It fit for the Purposes 't is design'd for These Things being premis'd I think