the Spirit or vivific Juice which is in the Blood it self To which he adds an Axiom Because says he the same quatenus the same always operates the same And hence he concludes That the Cause that made the first Blood in the first Conception the same or at least a Cause aequipollent to it ought afterwards also to be esteem'd the Fountain of Sanguification This Opinion he confirms with many specious Reasons which I omit for Brevity's sake IV. But we answer to the most Learned Glisson That the Vivific Spirit is the first Mover in the Seed and that when it begins to rise into Act and enliven the Seed so disposes by its Motion the vital Iuice to which it adheres as to its Subject that out of some of its Particles are made the Heart out of others the Liver out of others the Vessels Membranes c. And so by that Motion they erect to themselves a Habitation the several and particular parts of which according to the various Disposition of the least Principles perform various and distinct Operations over all which that Spirit presides as General President For enlivening all the Parts together it excites every one to the Function properly allotted to them Not that the Spirit performs the peculiar part of every one but whatever Aptitude to act it bequeath'd to the several Parts in the first Confirmation that Aptitude it preserves by its presence without which they could perform no Operations at all Therefore the Vivific Spirit according to the Axiom fore-cited always performs one and the same Action in the whole Body that is to say it enlivens But it does not produce the Matter to be enlivened without which nevertheless it cannot subsist when the Consumption of its Subject that is the vital Juice requires daily reparation Therefore the several Parts enliven'd generate that Matter by degrees and by vertue of many and various Concoctions and other preparatory Operations which the Vivific Spirit cannot perform without those Parts For it could not Chylifie without the Stomach nor Sanguifie without the Heart And hence tho' that Spirit be the general Life of the whole Body without which nothing can be done and which is presuppos'd to abide and be in all and singular the Parts specially operating nevertheless because it cannot perform those Operations without the said Parts it cannot be said that it absolutely performs those peculiar Operations but it is better and indeed necessary to say That they proceed from the Nature of the several living Parts And so the Ventricle in respect of its proper Nature Chylifies and the Heart only sanguifies and no other Parts of the Body can perform the same Actions because no others have the same Propriety of Nature False therefore it is what Glisson says That it is not the Heart but this vivific Spirit which he certainly presupposes to be in the Blood that generates other new Blood in the Blood it self and is the Cause of the Motion of the Blood That the first is untrue is apparent from hence for that if the Blood were generated out of the Blood existing in the Blood then the Blood being out of order and distemper'd there will be a stop to Sanguification But the contrary appears in Persons Scorbutic and labouring under Cachexies in whom Sanguification nevertheless goes forward nay the Corruptions of the Blood are mended and corrected by the benefit of the Heart which otherwise could never be corrected by reason of the distemper of the Blood On the other side if the Heart be out of order presently there is a stop to Sanguification and the Blood it self is deprav'd The latter is false as appears by the Dissections of Living Animals For if the beginning of the Aorta-Artery be ty'd with a string near the Heart presently all Motion of the Blood ceases in the Arteries which would still continue if it contain'd within it such a Spirit-mover of it self and had not its Motion from without but cut the string and presently the Motion of the Heart returns by virtue of the Pulse of the Heart The same is also manifest in faint-hearted persons who at the time of letting Blood fall into a Swoon upon the Surgeon 's pricking the Vein nor can you hardly perceive their Heart to beat so that there is little or no Blood mov'd through the Vessels nor will the Blood flow from the small Wound but when the Patient comes again to himself and that the Heart begins to beat presently the Blood moves again and spins out at the little hole made by the Lancet Whence it appears that the Blood is not mov'd or generated by the Vivific Spirit which is in the Blood but by the Heart and that the Vivific Spirit abiding in all the Parts of the Body does only revive the Parts and that those enliven'd Parts according to the variety of their several Dispositions act specially and after various manners upon the Matter to be enliven'd V. Moreover I think it requisite more accurately to examin Whether any Vivific Spirit as Glisson presupposes be in the Blood I know indeed That the Vital Spirit generally so call'd is generated in the Heart that is to say apt to be enliven'd and to promote Sanguification by its Heat yet I cannot believe that this Vivific Spirit that is already actually living and enlivening is mingl'd with the Blood when that Spirit is of a higher Order and only abides in the German and Blossom of the Seed and the necessary primogenial moisture of the Parts themselves of the Body and must be rouz'd into Action by the flowing in of the hot vital Spirit in regard the Blood it self is not yet a Part of the Body nor enliven'd but to be enliven'd when it shall be assimilated to the Parts VI Thus an Artist who has made a Clock does not move the Wheels nor shew the Hours but he makes the Clock which could never move the Wheels nor tell the Hours unless the Artist had made that Engine and bequeath'd such an Aptitude to it which afterwards he preserves to it also So the Vivific Spirit although at the first Creation of the Parts it made the Heart and endu'd it with a Sanguifying Aptness which afterward it also preserves therein by its presence yet is it not that Spirit but the Heart which must be said to Sanguifie As to the first Principles of the Blood which as Glisson says are observ'd at the first time of Conception before the Heart appears I say that those Rudiments are also produc'd by the Heart for these Rudiments are not to be seen till the leaping Bubble begins to move which is the first beginning of the Heart and although the whole Structure of a live Heart does not appear to the Eye yet that it is there and generates the first Principles of the Blood the Effect teaches us I wonder indeed that Harvey who asserts the Blood to be made before other things did not take notice of this especially
and Knowing Nevertheless it does not follow from hence what our Adversaries inferr that if there be any Understanding and Knowledg in Brutes therefore they must have a Soul and that no less immortal than the Soul of Man For that they have a feeling and perceiving Soul must be granted but that it is immortal like the Soul of Man we plainly deny For the Difference of those Souls and the Difference of the Original teach the contrary Scripture therefore Reason and Experience teach us that there is something to be allow'd to Beasts which is Analogous to Reason but mortal however Which is perspicuous from this one thing that some Creatures run Mad as Apes intoxicated Dogs and other Creatures distempered with a Hydropholie which Madness could not happen to Creatures that understood better in their natural Condition for natural Ability and Impotency must be referred to the same Subject And here that Inference is of no Value That a Mad-man is not mad according to his Rational Soul but according to the inner Sences which the Beasts have common with him which operate rightly or amiss as the Organs are well or ill disposed and so Brutes also run mad according to those Sences and not according to any Soul This Objection does no way destroy the Existence of some kind of mortal Soul in Brutes in some measure Analogous to the immortal Mind and as it were a kind of Shadow of it but rather it proves in Man besides the rational incorruptible Soul that there is yet within him another corruptible Soul common to Brutes perfecting the Operations of the internal Senses called the Vegetative and Sensitive which of necessity must be in Man as we have proved l. 1. c. 29. The learned Willis labours very much in discovering and explaining the Percipient and after he has largely unfolded it how the Images of Objects are form'd and imprinted in the Brain by the running backward and forward Motion Repercussion c. of the Spirits at length altogether Doubtful says he However we are yet to enquire what kind of Power that is which sees and knows such like Images delineated there and also according to those Impressions there received chooses desires and exercises the respective Acts of other Faculties But that he may disingage himself out of this Perplexity he says 1. That there is an Innate Knowledg in Brutes infused by the supreme Creator and implanted in their Principles or Natures from their first Formation for certain Uses necessary for the Propagation of Life which vulgarly uses to be call'd Natural Instinct 2. That there is within 'em a certain acquir'd Knowledg by the Impressions of sensible things by Imitation Experience human Teaching and by other means learnt by degrees and which arrives in some to a higher in some to a lesser degree of Perfection In the following Paragraphs he discourses at large concerning both these sorts of Knowledg and thus he believes he has sufficiently extricated himself out of his Labyrinth when in the mean time he never does nor can explain what or what sort of Being or what thing that natural Instinct is and whence that acquir'd Knowledg proceeds which cannot proceed but from something Knowing which something Knowing had he explain'd together with natural Instinct all this Cloud of Obscurity had been scattered But now relying only upon Names and Words he leaves his Readers as much in the Dark as they were before All which things when Galen had excellently well consider'd he writes That Brutes are not altogether void of Reason capable of Affections And believes that sâ—…me sort of Reason tho to some less to others more Liberally is to be allow'd to Brutes Wherein Galen agrees with Aristotle In Men says he there is Wisdom Prudence and Art so likewise in some Brutes there is a certain other Nature of this Sort And in another place There is in some Beasts Urbanity Savageness Clemency Cruelty Fortitude Sloth Confidence Anger Malice and an Image of Prudence Thus also by the Report of Bodin the most learned Philosophers Chrysippus Porphyrius Dion Solin Plutarch and others have confirm'd a sort of Reason allow'd by Nature to Beasts With whom Hugo Grotius assents l. 1. de veritat Relig. Even Beasts exercise some Actions so orderly and well directed that they seem to proceed from a kind of Reason which appears cheifly in Ants and Bees but is manifest also in other Creatures that fly things hurtful and seek those things that are profitable This sort of brutish Reason Aristotle calls Reason by Participation or Passive Understanding Neither is this Opinion contradicted by that other Text of Scripture Be not like the Horse and Mule that wanteth Understanding For there by Understanding is to be understood an acute and rational Understanding Thus we usually say of Men that are Blockish Fools or Mad-men that they want Understanding because their Intellects are not so acute whereas nevertheless they know and distinguish Objects after their manner as appears by their Actions Moreover seeing that both Men and Brutes do know these perfectly the other less perfectly of necessity we must distinguish between the rational Intellect which belongs only to Men and the Intellect of Brutes far inferior and more imperfect than the other and which never can be brought up to the perfection of Rationality XLVI But what that Something Analogous to the Rational Soul is no man could hitherto sufficiently unfold Iulius Caesar thinks he has discover'd a sufficient Explication by calling it Common Sence which is in the midst between all the external Senses and collects their Multiplicity into one Others think it to be nothing that subsists of it self but only an Accident and Modification of Substance that is to say such a disposition of the Brain and Spirits induc'd by Heat which causes Beasts to live and feel after their manner But after that manner the Mediums are only to be understood by which the Act of perceiving is perform'd nor does it teach us what that Medium is which perceives such Mediums in Brutes after their manner For example when a Man sees he wants Heat for a congeal'd Eye does not see and a convenient disposition both of the Brain and Eye but there is some other thing which causes him to see visible things through these Mediums that is the Soul But seeing Brutes also feel and perceive things visible audible and tangible of Necessity also in them besides heat and convenient Organs there must be something Percipient and Analogous to Reason by which the Act of perceiving is perform'd Now whatever that is it manifestly appears that it is something singular in Brutes which was created by the Supream God at the beginning together with the World and infus'd and mix'd with the Matter of the World which in Brutes is again extracted out of Matter and proceeds into manifest Act but in the mean time the most excellent of the Matter is produc'd exceeding the common Condition of the mixt Matter which
the least of any inward pain mov'd his Body of himself and when he was ty'd turn'd upon his side of his own accord and cough'd freely to promote the efflux of Blood out of his Wound that he eat and drank something every day till at last his Strength failing he dy'd having liv'd nine days and eight hours after he had receiv'd his Wound Having heard this Relation I went on to view the Body and shew'd the Wound that was given him between the fifth and sixth Rib of the Right Side about a Thumb's breadth before the Ribs run into Gristles Removing the Sternum-Bone I found the Cavity of the Breast upon the wounded Side to the Mediastinum fill'd with Blood which being dry'd up with a Spunge I perceiv'd where the Sword had gone in without touching the Lungs at the Heart under the Sternum through the Mediastinum and Pericardium and had penetrated directly into the upper part of the right Ventricle of the Heart between the treble pointed little Valves near the entrance of the hollow Vein and had gone no farther the Pericardium also was full and distended with coagulated Blood It will seem a wonder to many how this man after such a Wound could live so many days and hours however I believe the Reason was this because the Wound was very narrow and in the upper part between the little Valves so that in the contraction of the Heart all the Blood which flow'd out of the hollow Vein into the right Ventricle by reason of the obstruction of the Treble-pointed Valves could not be forc'd out of the Wound but that the greatest part of it was forc'd into the Lungs through the pulmonary Artery which was much wider than the Wound and from thence to the Left Ventricle and the Aorta-Artery so that but a very little at a time could be forc'd by the several Pulses out of the Wound into the Pericardium and Cavity of the Breast which was the Reason it was so long before his Strength fail'd him CHAP. VII Of the Motion of the Heart I Have said in the preceding Chapter that the Heart is the principal and perpetual Mobile of our Body from whence proceeds all the Natural Motion of the whole Boyd and perpetually lasts so long as the Motion of the Heart lasts But the Reason of its perpetual Motion is not so perspicuous which is the Reason that Opinions vary concerning it I. Some say That the Heart is mov'd by the Animal Spirits II. Others believe that the Heart is mov'd by the dilatation of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart III. Others are of Opinion That it is mov'd partly by the dilatation of the Blood and partly by the influx of Animal Spirits IV. Others say That it is mov'd by a Subtle or Ethereal Matter V. Others hold That it is mov'd by some certain Spirit in the Blood VI. Some assert That the Heart is mov'd by the Respiration of the Lungs I. The first Opinion produces Three very specious Reasons for its Support First Because that in our Bodies all apparent and violent Motions are made by the influx of the Animal Spirits and that therefore the Motion of the Heart must proceed from the same Influx Secondly Because the several little Nerves are not in vain inserted into the Basis of the Heart but rather to that end that they may convey the Animal Spirits to accomplish its Motion Thirdly For that it is manifest in the Passions of the Mind that the Heart is more or less mov'd by the greater or lesser Influx of those Spirits But though these Arguments are propounded with some appearance of Probability yet that this Opinion is far from Truth several Reasons make manifest 1. Because those Motions that proceed from the influx of Animal Spirits are arbitrary especially in the Muscles of which number they assert the Heart to be but the Motion of the Heart is not arbitrary seeing it is not perform'd nor can be perform'd or alter'd at our pleasure 2. Because the Heart beats in a Hen-Egg or other Conception before the Brain is perfected and begets Animal Spirits or before any Animal Faculty is produc'd into Acts of moving and feeling 3. Because the Nerves of the Heart are so small and slender that they cannot contribute a sufficient quantity of animal Spirits to perfect that same durable Motion For to all the moving Parts are allow'd Nerves according to the swiftness or diuturnity of the Motion The Eye that sees and is mov'd all the Day and rests all the Night besides the visual Nerve has another large moving Nerve So the Muscles of the Legs and Arms as they cause swifter or slower Motions have greater or lesser Nerves which happens also in all the other parts Seeing then that all the other moving parts which rest much longer than they are mov'd require large and conspicuous Nerves shall the Heart that moves with a continual motion day and night all a man's Life long and therefore requires a far larger quantity of Spirits than any other part that is mov'd is it possible I say that the Heart should be furnish'd with a sufficient quantity of Spirits to maintain that continual Motion by the means of such slender and almost invisible Nerves Besides that it is as yet uncertain whether those diminutive Nerves whose productions are seen to extend themselves to the Basis of the Heart the Pericardium the Orifices of the Ventricles and the external Tunicle enter any farther into the substance it self of Parenchyma many indeed assert it but no body demonstrates it Galen and Des Cartes very much scruple it and so does Thomas Willis an exact Searcher into the Brain and Nerves to whose Industry in that Particular we are very much beholding who dares not assert any such thing positively but says That more Branches of Nerves and Fibres are distributed into the little Ears of the Heart and Vessels appendent than into the Substance of it We say that very few Nerves enter the Substance it self of the Heart and that they are so small and few that cannot afford or convey sufficient Animal Spirits to perpetuate the Motion of the Heart but only contribute some few which assist to the Nutrition of the Heart 4. Because that to cause Motion there is required a great Quantity of Animal Spirits but that for the Sence of Feeling a very few suffice And therefore all the Parts that are apt to feel which receive many Spirits to perfect their Motion have also a most accurate Sence of Feeling But those which receive but few Spirits they are not mov'd at all and have but a dull sence of Feeling as is apparent in Palsies of the lesser Degree Nevertheless That the Heart has Membranes proper for the Sence of Feeling as the outward and inward enfolding Tunicle treble pointed and miterlike Valves and proper Fibres and yet is endu'd but with a dull Sence of Feeling is manifest from what has been said in the preceding Chapter and
to the Eyes in an Egg 2. Whence that Motion proceeds in Fish and other Creatures that have no Lungs and but one Ventricle of the Heart 3. By what is it occasion'd in the Hear of an Eel which after all the adjoyning parts are cut away sometimes beats after it is taken out of the Body That says Maurocordatus is a Trembling Motion Which we deny because that for some time it observes the true measure of Beating till the approach of Death and then it comes indeed to be a trembling Motion Among all the foresaid six Sentences the second approaches the nearest to Truth but only it is to be explain'd a little more at large and somewhat after another manner For here are two things wanting in the first place what dilates the Blood and secondly it does not sufficiently explain how the Heart is mov'd when the Blood does not flow into the Ventricles Which two things are to be more narrowly examin'd for the discovery of the Truth VII In the first Conception the Spirituous Blossom which is in the Seed is collected and concluded in a little Bubble wherein there is a delineation made of all the parts by the vivific Seed that lies in the Blossom which gives to all the Parts their Matter Form and Being and abides in all and singular the Parts being form'd and variously operates therein according to their diversity The most subtle and sharpest part of this is setl'd in the Heart which by its extraordinary acrimony obtains an extraordinary power of Fermentation by which the Humors pouring into the Heart are there dilated as Gunpowder is dilated and set afire by the heat of the Flame And as Gunpowder has no actual heat in it self but being kindled receives a burning heat so the Blood in the Heart being dilated by that same Spirit waxes very hot and fiery By reason of which heat Cartesius calls this Spirit a continual heat abiding in our Hearts as long as we live which is a kind of Fire which the Blood of the Veins nourishes and is the corporal beginning of all the Motions of our Members For that this Spirit by its continual agitation and dilatation supplies the heat with a continual fewel But in regard it is much dissipated by this continual agitation it has need of continual supply to the end the dissipated Particles may be continually restor'd This Supply is maintain'd by the most subtle Particles of the Blood attenuated in the Heart entring the Pores of the Heart and infus'd into it through the Coronal Arteries which Blood if it be good and sound then this Spirit is rightly supply'd and the Heart continues strong and vigorous if otherwise through bad Diet and deficiency of the Bowels then this Spirit is ill supply'd and the Heart becomes weak and infirm Now this Spirit abiding in the whole substance of the Heart forthwith dilates in the Heart both the Blood and all other proper humors whatever Which Action is sometimes swifter sometimes slower more vehement or weaker as the Matter to be dilated is fitted more or less for dilatation by the fermentaceous Particles mix'd with it and the Spirit it self is more or less vigorously stirr'd up into Act by the greater or lesser heat for these two things are the cause of all alterations of Pulses Thus in Fevers where there is more or less heat and the Matter to be dilated is thinner and more volatile there the Pulses beat thicker and swifter But if that Matter as is usual in putrid Fevers has many unequal Particles some more some less easie to be dilated then the Pulse becomes unequal if the Blood be colder and thicker the Pulse is slow and beats seldom When it is cool'd it diminishes at first then ceases altogether but being warm'd again with new Blood or warm Water it presently begins to beat again The said Spirit being stirr'd up by the heat by and by dilates and ferments the Humors and that two manner of ways First By fermenting those Humors that flow in great quantity through the hollow and Pulmonary Vein into the Ventricles of the Heart by the fermentation and dilatation of which and the rapid agitation of the least Particles between themselves a great heat is kindled in the Heart This heat presently whets and sharpens the same Spirit abiding in the innermost and thicker substance of the Heart and its Fibres which so excited presently somewhat dilates the subtle Blood infus'd into the Substance and Fibres for Nourishment and hence it is that the Fibres of the Heart are forthwith contracted which causes an expulsion of the Blood in the Cavity of the Ventricles Then again new Blood flowing into the Ventricles there happens a dilatation of the same with a sharp Heat and by that means a distension of the Ventricles at the same time which by reason of the kindled heat presently follows dilatation of the same into the Pores of the Substance about the Fibres and by that means there happens again a contraction of the whole Heart and Ventricles which things proceed in a certain order so long as Life lasts Now this Motion proves the more vehement because the Fibres being dilated beyond their poise presently when the Blood dilated in the Ventricles easily breaks forth through the broad Arteries they are as easily again contracted beyond their measure by the dilatation of the inner Blood so that same distension and contraction beyond the due Aequilibrium causes indeed the Pulses to be stronger but yet they are not the first cause of the Motion which is only an alternate dilatation of the Blood sometimes in the Ventricles sometimes in the Substance of the Heart VIII Hence it appears why Pulsation remains in the Hearts of Eels and other vivacious Creatures being taken out of the Body though no Blood be then pout'd out of the great Vessels into the Ventricles because the said Spirit abiding in their hearts is easily rais'd into Act by the small remaining heat and acts upon the Blood abiding in the Substance it self and by something dilating of it contracts the Fibres Afterwards that dilated Matter being somewhat dispell'd they are again relax'd Which not only appears in hearts that are whole but in the hearts of some after they are cut into pieces and in the several pieces themselves But because in such cases there is no new Blood dilated in the Ventricles and consequently no new heat nor any distension of the Fibres beyond their Position hence in hearts that are taken out and cut in pieces the motion is weak and quickly ceases This I perswade my self to be the true cause of the Motion of the heart till some body else shall shew me any other more probable CHAP. VIII Of the Pulse and Circulation of the Blood I. THE Motion of the Heart is by the Greeks call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latins Pulsus by which the Heart alternately rises and falls It is perform'd by Dilatation and Contraction between which two
Secondly Because action is competible to the whole operating Organ but use to every part of the Organ for instance The action of a Muscle is to contract but the use of the Musculous Membrane is to contain its fibres and to seperate it from other Muscles of the Artery to bring blood to it as of the nerves animal spirits to support the fibres of the flesh Yet oftentimes use action and function are promiscously used by Anatomists And the action of a part because it tends to some end or other is often called use And also use because it excludes not action is called action But use is of greater latitude then action Hippocrates divided things that make up the whole into things containing things contained and things that move or have in themselves the power of motion Galen calls these three things Solid parts Humors and Spirits In this division the threefold parts of the body are not comprehended but only three things without which a man cannot continue entire that is alive For only the containing or solid parts are true parts of the body Yet these parts cannot continue alive except they be continually nourished by the humors Not that humors are parts of the body but the proximate matter which by coction is changed into the substance of the parts into which till they are changed they cannot be called parts and when they are changed they cannot be called humors for a bone is not blood and blood is not bone though the one be bred of the other The same must be understood of spirits which being made of the subtilest and hottest part of the blood do very much contribute to the nutrition of the body Therefore though a man cannot continue alive without these three yet it does not follow that all these three must necessarily be parts of the body A Vine consists of solid woody parts and a Juyce whereby it is nourished and yet it is evident this Juice is no part of the Vine because if a Vine be unseasonably cut abundance of it runs out the Vine remaining entire wherefore a blind man may see that it is no part if the Vine but only liqour which by further coction would be turned into a Vine Thus also when there is a Flux of blood by the Haemorrhoids Menses or any other part or when one makes water or sweats no man in his wits will say that then the parts of a mans body are voided although a man cannot live without blood and serum But if pieces of the Lungs be brought up in coughing or if piecesâ—… of the Kidneys be voided in Urine as it sometimes happens in their exculceration then it is certain that the true parts of the body are voided Besides these are parts of the body whence actions immediately proceed and they proceed not from the humors and spirits but from solids For the humors and spirits move not the Heart Brain and other parts but they both breed and move the humors and spirits for when the Heart Brain and other parts are quiet humors and spirits are neither bred nor moved this appears in a deep swoon and though there is abundance of them in the body and those very hot and fit for motion as in such as dye of a burning Fever yet as soon as the Heart is quiet they neither move through the Arteries Veins and Nerves nor are able to move the Heart or any part else which is a certain Argument that they are Passive and that no Action can proceed from them And that the humors and spirits are moved by the Heart and bred in it and other parts will more plainly appear lib. 2. cap. 11. and lib. 3. cap. 10 11. and in several other places And now though solids cannot act without the humors and spirits and by them their Actions in as much as by their quantity or quality as their heat cold c. they are able to cause this or that mutation or temper in Solids are made quicker slower stronger weaker better or worse yet they are without air yet air is no part of the body neither does the Action of respiration proceed from it but from the muscles of the breast forcing it out though in the mean time air by giving way to the motion of the muscles and passing in and out through the Aspera Arteria affords such an aptitude for respiration as without it no respiration could be performed though also by its heat or cold it may make respiration quicker slower longer or rarer according as by these mutations the heat of the parts is augmented or diminished and thereupon necessity obliges one to breath quicker or slower So the Heart and other solid Parts are not mov'd by the humors and spirits but act upon the humors and spirits they move attenuate and concoct them till at length they turn their apt particles into a substance like themselves and so apply and unite them to themselves and make them parts of the body which they were not before they were applied and assimilated For one part of the body is not nourished with another part of its whole a bone is not nourished with flesh nor a vein with a nerve c. Neither can that which nourishes the parts by any means be called a part for otherwise there would be no difference between a part and its nutriment With which Nourishment unless the Parts be daily cherished and their consumed particles restored their strength and substance would quickly waste and fail and by that failure at length their Action would be lost So that Man of necessity must have both Blood and Spirits for the support of Life hence saith the Text in Levit. 17. 11. the Soul that is the Life of the Flesh is in its Blood as being the nearest Support of the Body without which neither the Parts of the Body can act nor the Man himself live Yet it does not follow from thence that the Blood and Spirits are part of the Body For the same might be said of the external Air without which no Man can live For take away from a Man the use of external Air either by suffocation or drowning or any other way you presently deprive him of Life as surely as if you took from him his Blood and Spirits Yet no man of Judgment will say that the external Air is a part of the Body Seeing that most certainly if that without which Life cannot subsist were to be accounted a Part the external Air must of necessity be said to be a Part of our Body as well as the Blood and Spirits Moreover it is to be considered that if the Humors and Spirits have contracted any Foulness or Distemper they are by the Physicians numbred among the Causes of Diseases not among the diseased Parts Besides that if they were Parts they ought to be similar yet never any Anatomist that I ever yet heard of recken'd 'em among similar Parts For most of the Organic Parts
quit the Stones and so thrust forth the Bud which is the first thing form'd in order to the new production And the same thing happens in Pease Beans Wheat Barley Melons Cucumbers whose Seeds are wrapt up in a little Membrane instead of a Stone In like manner Womens Eggs and the Eggs of all Creatures that bring forth living Conceptions as also of Birds in their Ovary by means of the Nourishment brought 'em through the small little Arteries and invisible Nerves acquire a just bigness and such an aptitude that they may be impregnated by the spiritous part of the Male-seed Which Fertility if they acquire by Copulation and so become seal'd with the Seal of Fertility the little Cells wherein they are included in the Ovary grow soft dilate and loosen themselves as the stones of Fruits willing to quit their Seeds for new Production open of their own accords and so when they can no longer be contain'd in those little Cells by reason of their growth and the loosning of the Cells they fall of themselves into the Egg-Chanels or Tubes which are relax'd to that degree by the increase of Heat and Spirits in the Act of Copulation that they afford the ripe Eggs an easie passage toward the Womb which afterwards by the gentle Compression of the Abdomen caus'd by Respiration are gently thrust forward through the Tubes into the Womb it self wherein by reason of the narrow Orifice of the Womb they are stop'd and detain'd there to be cherish'd by its moderate Heat and convenient Moisture and the vivific Spirit latent therein and infus'd with the Male-seed may be freed from its Fetters and proceeding from power to act may begin the delineation of the Infant Structure Of which more Cap. 28 29. XXXIV Here arises a very singular and considerable Question viz. When Birds without the Coition of the Male lay their perfect Eggs which they call Wind-eggs whether mature Virgins and Women depriv'd of Men and without the assistance of Copulation may not be able sometime to bring forth their Eggs 'T is very probable that in Women of cold Tempers and not prone to Venery such Accidents will hardly fall out seeing there is not in them such a copious afflux of hot Blood and Spirits which is much promoted by intent venereal thoughts to the generative Parts that the little Boxes of the Ovary and the Tubes should be sufficiently relax'd and dilated for the exclusion and passage of the Eggs But in hot Women itching with Lust prone to Copulation and continually intent upon venereal thoughts sometimes the Parts may be so relax'd by a copious afflux of Blood and Seed to the Parts that the Eggs when mature may drop of themselves into the Tubes out of the Ovary and through them be carried to the Womb yet not so as to be there long detain'd because of the Orifice of the Womb 's being open as not being exactly shut but when it contains the Man's Seed for Conception or else the Birth But why these same Womens Wind-eggs were never observ'd by any Person before happen'd I suppose from hence for that Women do not inspect what things slip out of their Wombs or know what they are nor will they suffer Men to view those things among which if there should be an Egg sometimes it would not be discern'd by them Besides that by reason of the tender Skin wherewith it is enwrapt it might fall out broken or else be broken among the Linen with which Women dry up their Uterine Excrements and so lose altogether its shape of an Egg which else would be visible to the Eye However in the mean time this has recall'd to my memory what many years since a Woman not of the meanest quality whose Daughter being about four and twenty years of Age wanton enough yet honest was troubled with vehement fits of the Mother related to me that is to say That my Prescriptions which were administred to her nothing availing her Midwife had many times deliver'd her from her present Distemper and imminent danger of Death by thrusting her finger into the sheath of the Womb with which she kept rubbing there so long till she brought down a certain viscous Liquor out of the Womb which was often accompanied with a certain clear transparent little Bubble and so the Person in a Swoon came to her self again This I laugh't at at that time when I never so much as dream't of Womens Eggs but afterwards it came into my mind that that same Bubble was a Wind-egg of which thing I could now give a better Judgment could I meet with such a Bubble that were again to be seen Moreover it is very probable that those Wind-eggs are frequently evacuated by those salacious Women who lying with Men through some distemper of the Seed never conceive For why should their Eggs be less carried out of the Ovary to the Womb than the Eggs of those of others that conceive especially when they themselves have Eggs which are proper for Fertility if they were but bedew'd with a fertile Male-seed which is apparent from this that some Women lying with their Husbands never Conceive but lying with other Men presently prove with Child XXXV This Conjecture of Wind-eggs is yet more confirm'd by that wonderful Story related by Bartholine of a Norway Woman who after eleven kindly Labours at length in the Year 1639. being in Labour with her twelfth Child brought forth two Eggs with extraordinary Pains like to Hen-eggs only that the Shell was not so white Such another sort of Egg it was that the Woman brought forth with the usual pains of Childbirth in the Territory of Vicenza in the Year 1621. by the Report of Iohn Rodias Cent. 3. Observ. 57. Without doubt the Female-seed contain'd in these Eggs was either unfruitful or which is more likely by reason of the unusual thickness of the Exterior Membrane the Male-seed could not penetrate through the over-straitned Pores to the inner parts of the Eggs and consequently not be mix'd with the Womans Seed latent within and by that means could not frame any Embryo out of it self for which reason those Eggs remain'd unfruitful like the Wind-eggs of Fowl living without their Males Now there are three very remarkable things to be observ'd in the Eggs of the said Women 1. That being little as they are and sliding out of the Tubes into the Womb they should stay there so long 2. That they should grow to the bigness of a Hens-egg in the Womb. 3. That the Exterior Membrane should grow so hard as to harden into a Shell which is a thing scarce ever heard of nor ever observ'd by any other Physicians that we read of XXXVI We told ye before that the Egg Chanels or Tubes were so relax'd by the abundani flowing in of the Animal Spirits and hot Blood that through them the spiritous part of the Male-seed might the more easily be able to penetrate to the Ovary and the Eggs
the Urethra in Men toward the Uterine Vagina in Women flows forth without being felt and unvoluntarily which causes the Simple Gonorrhea Which Seminal Matter if it be infected with any impure Venereal Malignity and sharp Corruption presently happens a Virulent Gonorrhea which is attended many times by Corrosion and Exulceration Now this Efflux of Seminal Matter or Simple Gonorrhea many times molests the Patient for a long time even whole years together with little debilitating the strength because that spiritous Liquor coming from the Nerves is mix'd in a small quantity with such Seed and very few or no Animal Spirits waste themselves in its Evacuation which at other times in libidinous Copulation flow to the obscene Parts in great quantity and are dissipated to the great wasting of a mans strength whereas there is no labour in the spontaneous and unfelt Emission of the Seed Thus Bartholine reports that he saw at Padua a Person that had been troubled with this Efflux of his Seed for above thirty years without any prejudice to his health and another at Bergamo infested with the same Distemper for ten years in other respects healthful but only that he was very much emaciated XVI If any Person wonder how such a spiritous Animal Vapour should flow so copiously through such narrow and hardly conspicuous little Nerves let him consider that the Arteries also by that time they come to the Stones are almost invisible and yet they carry a great deal of Blood Moreover let him know that those copious Vapours are not carried thither so copiously by reason of the extream thinness of the little Nerves only that they descend by degrees to the Stones And hence after a stout Copulation and much Emission of Seed there is requisite some space of time before a sufficient recruit can come for the generation of new Seed XVII But some will say Those little Nerves seem only to terminate in the Tunicle next wrapt about the Stones which for that reason is endu'd with a quick Sense but never reach to the innermost Substance of the Stones which for that reason is insensible as is apparent from several Distempers which is a sign that those Spirits cannot flow to the inner Substance I answer That as there are no Nerves so neither are any Blood-bearing Vessels to be seen in the Stones of healthy People however it does not follow from thence that there are no such Vessels in those Parts for that they are there and in whom and when conspicuous we have declared Cap. 22. So without doubt there are some slender Nerves in those Parts though not to be perceived by reason of their white Colour and extream Exility Which Exility and the small quanity of Spirits that pass through 'em may be the reason that the inner Substance of the Stones is so dull of feeling Besides that the inner Substance of the Stones is nothing membranous for there is also an acute Sense in Membranes and because the Stones and other Parenchyma's of the Bowels have their proper and peculiar Substance consisting of Vessels interwoven one among another the like to which there is not in the whole Body besides which by reason of its structure and feeling is of an obtuse Sense as the Substance of the Heart Lungs Liver Spleen c. All which Parts like the Stones have their exact Sense of feeling lying only in the Tunicle that enfolds ' em XVIII But here another Difficulty arises more weighty than the former that seeing the animal Spirits are every way disposed of by the Mind now here now there at pleasure why they are never copiously disposed of to flow into the Testicles and cause 'em to swell especially upon lustful Cogitations I answer those Spirits are not unequally disposed of to any Parts but first to those that require some short stretching forth to the end they may act or act more vigorously as the Eyes when any thing is to be view'd with more attention the Womb when the Birth is to be expell'd the Genitals in Copulation then and chiefly then they are disposed of to those parts that serve for voluntary Motion as the Muscles But they flow always equally with a continued Course to the Parts only sensitive as also to those Parts wherein they contribute any thing to Nourishment or Fermentation as being an Influx that has nothing common with the Will And that they flow sometimes in less sometimes in greater Quantity to those Parts which are sensitive and so occasion a quicker or a more obtuse Sense of Feeling that happens not through the determination of the Mind but by reason of their greater or lesser quantity or the largeness or narrowness of the Passages And thus the Animal Spirits flow to the Testicles not by any determined but meerly by a natural Motion XIX Now in the Seed thus made of the said Matter two parts are to be considered Some subtil and very spirituous which are very few but very effective Which we now call the Germen or Blossom Others thicker frothy and watery which constitute the chiefest part of the Seed and nourish and involve the spirituous Parts XX. Now these spirituous and thicker Parts being mix'd and clotted together compose the Mass of the Seed containing in themselves a double Principle an Efficient and a Material Which Material is double the one out of which the first Threads of the Birth are form'd which is the most spirituous Part containing the efficient or forming Principle the other Alimentary being the thicker part of the Seed melted and dissolved XXI If this efficient Principle be not in the Seed as it happens in unfruitful Seed then when nothing can be form'd out of it it flows away and is corrupted But if the efficient Principle ready to break forth into Act be destitute of the material Principle by which it ought to be fomented and sustain'd Then also nothing comes of it as when the Seed the second or third Day after Injection by reason of some suddain Fright or other Accident flows out of the womb and then nothing comes of the Blossom But these two Principles being united together act nothing upon one another but are Idle so long as the material thicker Principle be curdled together for this detains the spirituous efficient Principle as it were intangl'd and lull'd asleep and so restrains it that it cannot put it self forth into Action But when the thicker material Principle is dissolv'd and melted in some convenient Place by the external proper Heat of the womb then its inbred efficient Spirit by degrees gets rid of those Fetters is rous'd up and becomes free and its Power breaks forth into Act and proceeding through the Uterine Tubes to the Ovaries enfertilizes the Eggs which are therein ready prepared and matur'd and begins to act in them and in each of them out of it self to delineate and form that which is to be form'd while the thicker parts of the Seed
Body of the Embryo already delineated in the Bubble by which without the visible concoction of the Bowels it may be cherish'd and enlarg'd Now this Nourishment could neither be Blood nor Chylus as wanting a greater preparation and concoction before they can nourish and therefore for that purpose the provident Creator has included Female Seed in the Womans Egg like a certain white of a Hen Egg as being a most mild Humour most apt for the first cherishing and moistning Nourishment of the swimming Embryo nearest approaching to the nature of the tender parts already delineated nor having need of much concoction but only a slight preparation and a gentle colliquation and attenuation through the mild heat of the Womb. Thus also Galen writes That the Embryo is first nourish'd by the Female Seed as being that which is more familiar to its nature than the blood since every thing that is nourish'd must be nourish'd by its like As we find that Chickens are first nourish'd in the Eggs with the inner white which is the Seed of the Birds But in regard that in the little Egg which in women falls out of the Ovarie through the Tubes into the Womb there cannot be much female Seed contain'd therefore there is added to it a watery Juice being the remainder of the Mans Seed already melted and attenuated after the prolific Principle being separated from it and driven to the Ovaries which the Egg falling down into the Womb gentlely receives and embraces and penetrating the Pores of its little Stems and by that means entring the inner parts and mingling it self with the albumineous female Juice encreases in quantity the Colliquation where the Embryo swims and also strongly distends and amplifies the little Skins of the Egg that there may be a larger Seat for the Embryo and more Nourishment next approaching the Nature of its Principles But whether that seminal Liquor which flows from the Prostates of women in Copulation be mix'd with the residue of the mans Seed in the Womb or presently flow forth after the Act I cannot hitherto certainly find out Besides the prolific Principle before inclosed in the Egg goes to work much more strongly and vigorously when the thicker dissolv'd part of the mans Seed has entered thorough its Tunicles into the inner parts of it and by mixture of it self has conveniently dissolv'd the albumineous female Seed to make it more fit to rowle the Spirit of the prolific Principle into Act. The same appears also in Plants in whose Seed the prolifâ—…c Principle being included and intangled never proceeds into Act till they have suck'd in the Juice of the Earth through their Husks and Shells which dissolves the inner Substance that resembles the womans Seed and so sets the prolific Principle at Liberty to fall to work And so the first Cherishing and Nourishment of the Embryo is like that Substance out of which it is form'd or at least form'd out of the like Which is observ'd also by Aristotle who says The Matter is the same that constitutes and enlarges the Creature For whatever is added to the delineated Parts while they grow ought to be like that Substance out of which they were fram'd In which Particular Harvey also agrees XIII Nor let any body wonder that the remainder of the masculine Seed dissolved and attenuated should penetrate and enter the inner Parts of the Egg through the Pores of the little Skins of the womans Egg which Skins are very tender and porous at first but composing the Chorion and Amnion so close and firm that they will suffer the Penetration of no Humour For this Penetration may as well happen in a womans Egg as in the Seeds of Plants that through the Pâ—…res of their hard Shells easily imbibe the Moisture of the Earth by which the Rind is then very much dilated which causes the Seeds to swell and wâ—…th that imbib'd Moisture of the â—…arth mixed with the thicker dissolv'd Particles of the Seed the delineated Kernel so soon as shaped is nourished which being brought to that bigness as to want more Nourishment that cast forth Roots like Navils to draw out of the Earth a stronger Nourishment through them And thus it is a in human Embryo and the dissolv'd remainder of the mans Seed mix'd therewith But this Nourishment being almost spent the Womb begins to enlarge it self for the Passage thorough it of the Nourishment to the Embryo as through a Root XIV This foresaid Matter nourishes the Parts two ways First by a close Apposition as the tender delineated Parts are every way moisten'd and increased by it Secondly By the Assimilation of the Aliments concocted in their proper Bowels For that the newly form'd Bowels of the Embryo at first cannot undertake Concoctions nor prepare or make Nourishment which is the reason that the thin Nourishment is afforded by Apposition oâ—…t of the seminal Matter prepared before But soon after the Heart makes Blood of the same Matter for the more plentiful intrinsic Nourishment of the Parts and then to the Nourishment by Application is added another Nourishment by Reception Both these ways at the Beginning Harvey acknowledges Exercit. 9. For says he in all Nutrition and groâ—…ing there is equally necessary a near Application of the Parts and Concoctiâ—…n and Distribution of the apply'd Nourishment neither is the one to be accompted less true Nourishment than the other seeing that it happens by the Access Apposition Agglutination and Transmutation of new Nourishment Neither are Pease or Beans said less to be nourished with the Humor of the Earth which they suck in through their Tunicles like Spuâ—…ges then if they should admit the same Nourishment thoroâ—…gh the Orifices of little Veins c. But at length that seminal Liquor being spent and the Bowels being by this time well grown and corrobâ—…rated and the milkie Juice flowing copiously into the Amnion the Nourishment by Application ceases by degrees and Nourishment by inward Reception that is by the Blood takes place Because that milkie Liquor is not so agreeable to the parts of the Birth as the first seminal Liquor and therefore requires a more perfect Concoction and Alteration into Blood before it can nourish XV. But the Blood being bred in the Heart and imparted to the whole Body cleaves to the small Threads of the Parts first of the Heart then of the Liver Lungs Kidneys Stomach and Muscles c. For there are various thicker Particles in the Blood thin salt sulphury mix'd of which some cleave to and are more convenient for these and are united to them as they are more proper and agreeable to their Nature according to which variety of Nature they undergo several Alterations before they can be Assimilated And the more the Blood grows to these delineated Threads so much the more the fleshy Masses of the Bowels encrease and the rest of the Parts also by degrees are more and more compleated and grow stronger and stronger tho' some later
mov'd XLVI Here perhaps by way of a Corollary some one may ask me what is that same Architectonic Vertue latent in the prolific Seed which performs the Formation of the Parts In the foregoing Chapter we have discoursed at large concerning the enlivening Spirit implanted in the Prolific Seed as it is the Subject of the first forming Spirit but because no Spirit of it self and by its own Power seems able to perfect Generation unless it have in its self some effective Principle by virtue whereof it produces that Effect hence the Question arises what that is that affords that active Force to the Spirit and power to form a living body and endues the Matter with all manner of Perfection and produces Order Figure Growth Number Situation and those other things which are observed in living bodies Which is a thing hitherto unknown and has held the Minds of all Philosophers in deep Suspense Of whom the greatest part have rather chosen tacitly to admire the Supream Operator and his work than to unfold him and so affirm with Lactantius That Man contributes nothing to his Birth but the Matter which is the Seed but that all the rest is the handy work of God the Conception the forming of the Body the inspiration of the Soul and the conservation of the Parts In which sense says Harvey most truly and piously does he believe who deduces the Generations of all things from the same Eternal and Omnipotent Deity upon whose pleasure depends the Universality of the things themselves But others who believe that the Bounds of Nature are not so slightly to be skipped over nor think that in the Inquiries after the Principles of Generation there is such a necessity to have recourse to the first Architect and Governour of the whole Universe but that the first forming and efficient Cause created by God with the Things themselves and infus'd and planted within 'em is to be sought out of the Things themselves more arrogantly have presum'd to give us a clearer Explication of the Matter by Philosophical Reason yet differing in their Opinions which are various and manifold XLVII For Galen calls this Architectonic Power sometimes by the name of Nature sometimes Natural Heat sometimes the Inbred Temperament sometimes the Spirit which he affirms to be a Substance of it self moveable and always moveable Aristotle distinguishing between the Heat or Spirit of the Seed and Nature asserts the Artichectonic Power to be that Nature which is in the Spirit of the Seed and therefore distinct from the Spirit it self which is inherent in the Spirit as in its Subject and acts upon the Spirit as its Matter This Nature in the Spirit of the Seed was also acknowledged by Hippocrates saying That it is learned tho' it has not learnt rightly to act Not that it is Rational but because as Galen explains it it acts of it self all that is necessary to be acted without any direction Hence Deusingius defines it to be a certain immaterial Substance arising out of the Matter so determin'd to the Matter by the Supream God that it can neither be nor subsist nor operate without it This same Architectonic Vertue others with Avicen call the Intelligence others with Averrhoes and Scotus a Coelestial Force or a Divine Efficacy Iacob Scheggius calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 active or forming Reason and says that by the word Reason or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he understands a Substantial Form which is not to be apprehended by Sense but by the Understanding and Reason And so while he seems to speak something he says nothing at all XLVIII The Platonics call it a General Soul diffus'd through the whole World which according to the diversity of Materials and Seeds produces various Generations as a Plant from the Seed of a Plant a Man from the Seed of a Man a Horse from that of a Horse a Fish from that of a Fish c. But Plotin the great Platonist distinguishes this same Architectonic Vertue from the Platonic Soul of the World as produc'd from that by which it is produc'd and therefore he calls it Nature flowing from the Soul of the World which he says is the Essential Act of it and the Life depending upon it Themistius says that the forming Power is the Soul inclos'd in the Seed potentially enliven'd Deusingius in his Original of the Soul calls it Nature in the Seed that is as he explains himself a Soul potentially subsisting in the Seed being in it self the Beginning and Cause of Motion But in a Body already form'd he calls it the Soul actually subsisting And so without any necessity at all distinguishes one and the same thing into two and gives it two distinct names as it either rests or acts and according to the diversity of the Subject to be form'd or else already form'd Just as if a man distinguishing between a Painter lazily sleeping or painting awake should call the one Nature latent in his Spirit as one that could paint if he were awake and the other a real Painter as one actually painting as if the Painter that slept were not as much a Painter as he that actually painted Whereas as it appears by the Effects that which is able to form a Body at first out of the Seed and that which actually forms were not one and the same thing and so by a certain continuation the form of the thing formed remains This Opinion of his Deusingius seems to have drawn from the Institutes of the Platonists who distinguish between the Soul and Being a Soul that is between the Substance of the Soul which is said to be in the Seed and the Appellation of Nature and the Soul which acts at this prâ—…sent and is the form of the form'd Body Fernelius calls the Plastic Power a Spirit but he does not mean such a common Spirit which the Physicians say is rais'd by the preparations of the Bowels out of the Humours but some other Spirit of far sublimer Excellency For says he this Spirit is an Ethereal Body the Seat and Bond of Heat and the Faculties and the first Instrument of the Duty to be perform'd And Lib. 2. de Abdit c. 10. he believes it to be something that flows down from Heaven For says he the Heaven without any Seed produces many both Creatures and Plants but the Seed generates nothing without the Heaven The Seed only prepares aptly and conveniently Materials for the begetting of Things the Heaven sends into the Matter prepar'd Form and consummate Perfection and raises Life in all Things A little after he adds One Form of Heaven within its Power comprehends all the Forms that ever were or can be of all Creatures Plants Stones and Metals and impregnated with those innumerable Forms casts as in a Mold and generates all things out of it self XLIX Others believe the Plastic Vertue to be a certain Power flowing into the Seed from the Soul of
divine Operations But no Man unfolds that substantial Form that first Act that first Matter of Fermentation by which all animate Beings obtain Life and are thence said to live nor what that first Act that Form or Matter is but all Men acquiesce in the Name alone of a Vegetable Soul LXVIII This same Soul I call the vivific Spirit produced out of Corporeal Matter surpassing all other Spirits produced out of Matter Now altho' this Definition of mine be sufficient to denote the Substance it self of the Soul or rather the Subject wherein it abides nevertheless it will not satisfy many who desire a farther Explication of the Nature of this Spirit which however it is better to contemplate in Thought than to express in Words For how or with what Knowledg instructed it forms and joyns the Parts of the Body to be form'd so fitly and with so much decency of Order and Shape he only knows who alone and first of all created all things at the Beginning What it is that rowses it and frees it from the Incumbrances wherewith it is surrounded and brings it upon the Stage of Action has been already sufficiently explain'd that is to say the Heat acting in convenient place and time upon the Seed for that without such a Heat it cannot be dissolved or waken'd out of the thicker Matter LXIX Regius thinks he has found out a way to unfold this Gordian Riddle more clearly and after another manner promising to explain this obscure Mystery of Nature as do many others by manifest Reasons He writes that the Formation of the Birth is perfected by the heat as well of the Womb as of the Seeds by which their Particles are agitated in the Womb and being agitated by reason of their Shapes and Magnitudes which they have acquired in the seminary Passages tempered and shap'd after a certain manner of necessity become in the Womb a perfect prolific Principle of the Creature to be form'd furnished with Alimentary Iuice and cloathed with little Membranes in some Measure resembling the Seeds of Plants Then he adds that this Explication of the Formation of the Birth is so manifest that there is no farther Necessity of framing in the Womb or Seed any Idea Fantasie or Principle of a Soul or any other Faculty to be the Author of Formation But the most learn'd Gentleman who at first sight promises something of a Delphian Oracle in these words does but explain the lesser Obscurity by the greater Obscurity and swelling with an extraordinary Self-Conceit he is pleased with his own Invention as to believe that never any Man ever did or ever will invent any thing more subtilly and ingeniously when as there is nothing in it but Vanity and Ostentation For what others call the Soul of the Seed the vegetative Soul the Plastic Power the Architectonic Vertue c. that he calls certain Shapes and Magnitudes of the Particles of the Seeds more difficult to be apprehended than plastic Power or vegetative Soul And altho' perhaps some Persons may believe that the Artificial Formation of other things without Life may in some Measure be conceived by his mechanic Explication annexed yet does it not from thence appear how the Parts of our living Body are generated out of the diversity of the Shapes and Magnitudes of the Particles of the Seed what should occasion the Heart to be form'd in the middle of the Breast and not in the Abdomen or Head why there should be in that particularly eleven Valves and no more wherefore not two Hearts in one Birth how the Parts receive Life from the Principle of the Birth and what introduces Motion and Actions c. All which with an innumerable number of other things he that will refer to the Shapes and Magnitudes of the Particles of the Seed ought first to tell us what they are and how they are mixed Who does not this proposes his Shapes and Figures as meer Imaginary Chimeras and clears up no Obscurity but wraps us up in more Darkness and while he pretends to tell us something of Novelty and better says nothing at all but intangles an obscure thing in newer but obscurer Terms LXX Lately Tho. Willis has set forth the Substance and Nature of this Soul quite otherwise de an Brut. c. 2. Where after he has asserted the Soul of Brutes which we call Vegetative to be Corporeal and extended through the whole Body and divisible together with the Matter wherein it abides at length concludes that the Soul lying hid in the Blood or Vital Liquor is either a certain Fire or Flame But that we have affirm'd the Soul of a brute says he to be not only Corporeal and extended but that it is of a certain fiery Nature and its Act or Substance is either a Flame or a breath near to or a Kin to Flame besides the large Testimonies of Authors both Ancient and Modern Reasons and Arguments almost demonstrative have also induc'd me to it As to what appertains to the Suffrages of others that I may not seem to insist upon the Authority of a single Gassendus who has maintained this Hypothesis I shall here cite many both ancient Philosophers and Physicians For not to mention Democritus Epicurus Laâ—…rtius Lucretius and their Followers Hippocrates Plato Pythagoras Aristotle Galen with many others tho' disagreeing about other things Yet in this Opinion That the Soul was either a Fire or something Analogical to it they all shook Hands to whom among the Moderns Fernelius Heurnius Cartesius Hogeland and others also have joyn'd themselves and lately Honoratus Faber has delivered in express Words That the Soul of the brute is Corporeal and its Substance Fire LXXI But while the famous Thomas Willis with all those most ingenious Philosophers and Physicians asserts the Soul to be Fire he names indeed a Body of the greatest Activity but such a one as consumes and destroys all things in which and upon which it acts whereas the Soul by its Presence does not destroy those Bodies in which it is and acts but preserves 'em in their soundnss excites the Members to their Functions and defends 'em from Corruption till those Bodies wherein it abides are destroy'd by some other Cause together with the Soul it self Moreover among all those famous men not one could ever teach what it is that forces or instructs that Fire in the Generation of the Creature to adapt and joyn all and singular the parts in such an exact and admirable order together and in every one to perform such various and determin'd Operations as the making the Chylus in the Stomach Blood in the Heart Animal Spirits in the Brain Sight in the Eye Hearing in the Ear Taste in the Tongue why through its extraordinary activity and rapid Motion it does not hinder the Formation of the Organs and rather destroy 'em being form'd then form 'em it self and produce variety of Actions out of each LXXII Moreover the foresaid Thomas
recommend to the Readers what the learned Willis propounds upon this Subject in his Hist. de Anim. Brut. from Cap. 8. to Cap. 16. where he writes so elegantly and splendidly concerning the Passions that he does not only shew the sharpness of his Wit but carries away the Laurel from all others that have wrote before him LXXVIII We shall only add one Question more Seeing that the Vegetative Soul is Corporeal whether it be nourish'd by those Nourishments which are brought for the support of the Body wherein it abides It was an ancient saying of Hippocrates That the Soul always grows till death Hence some have concluded that the Soul wasts like all the other parts of the Body and is repair'd from time to time by the Nourishment together with those Parts wherein it resides But seeing the Nature of the Substance of that Soul is unknown to us and for that reason in the mean time reaches us that it abides in some Subject which is the nearest as in some subtile Spirit and by that means enlivens the Body we think that same saying of Hippocrates is rather to be understood of that same nearest subject of the Soul without which most certainly it cannot subsist than of the Soul it self concerning whose substance what and of what Nature it is and whether it want Nourishment we can determine nothing certainly When the flame of a Lamp is cherish'd and continued we do not nourish it with a flame like to it self but something that nourishes the Subject to which it adheres as Oyl with Oyl which Subject failing at length the flame fails which however is somewhat distinct from it subject for Oyl is not flame or fire neither is Fire Oyl But it is a diminutive Fire latent in the Oyl which being kindled by another flame issues forth out of it by degrees but cannot subsist without it and so there is a necessity of recruiting not the flame of the Lamp with another flame but the subject of it that is the Oyl to the end it may be continued In like manner 't is not the Soul but it s nearest Subject which is to be nourish'd and so by the nourishment of that the Soul is continu'd But that Dr. Willis believes the contrary is apparent from these words of his As the thicker Particles of the Nutritive Iuice repair the losses of the Corporeal Bulk so the more subtile Particles of it repair the waste of this same Soul And thus he believes that not only the near Subject but the Soul it self to be nourish'd which is left to every Man's liberty to think what he pleases LXXIX In the mean while there are such eager Contentions about the Original Seat Subject Essence Substance and the whole History of the Soul the most acute Philosophers could never yet find out and tell us what this same Life or Soul is concerning which so much has been discours'd and written and which is the prime Actress in the Generation of all Creatures and forms the whole that is to be form'd Here therefore it is that we are all at a loss here we find how ignorant we are here we perceive how vainly we waste our time in prying into those Mysteries which the most Sublime Creator would not have us understand Here we observe the Arrogancy of many who in the unfolding such Secrets of Nature with a haughty Ostentation endeavour to shew their Knowledge and their Learning when they utter nothing but meer empty words Certainly it behoves us in Mysteries of this Nature tacitly to acquiesce and patiently to be contented with our Ignorance and rather to admire the Power of the Almighty than to be too scrutinous into forbidden Mysteries mindful of those Verses of Lucretius Multa sacro tegit involucro Natura neque ullis Fas est scire quidem mortalibus omnia multa Admirare modò necnon venerare neque illa Inquires quae sunt arcanis proxima namque In manibus quae sunt vix nos ea scire putandum est Usque adeo procul à nobis praesentia veri The Sense of which is this Nature much under Vails seems to conceal Nor was it fit she all things should reveal It is not just proud foolish Man should know All things she does within the Orbs below Nor is it fit Man should be made so wise Lest knowing all he should her Skill despise Some of her Works as wonderful she made And some the worship of the Gods invade Things near if hid we may not search into The more remote less lawful are to know Those things with which we daily do converse Their very Names we scarcely may rehearse So far off still Truths presence seems to stand We scarce the Name much less the Thing command CHAP. XXX Containing the History of the Birth contained in the Womb. And first of the Placenta or Uterine Liver and the Cavities call'd Acetables HAving thus finish'd the History of the Seed and Conception together with that of the Formation of the Birth now let us proceed to the History of the Birth when form'd and contain'd in the Womb. I. Upon opening the Womb of a Big-bellied Woman there presently appears a fleshie Substance which Fallopius from some resemblance which it has to a Cheescake calls the Uterine Cheescake or Placenta others from its resemblance in use colour and substance call it the Uterine Liver II. This Liver is a Bowel after its own manner fleshie soft consisting of innumerable Fibres and small little Vessels and Blood between condens'd in dead People by means whereof the Birth adheres to the Womb but more especially to the bottom of it III. At first the Seed of the Man being injected into the Womb if Conception happen is every way enclos'd by the whole Circumference of the Womb and is found contiguous to it Then by the nourishing heat of the Womb it is melted and dissolv'd and so the prolific spirituous part being separated out of it it retires forthwith through the Uterine Tubes toward the Ovaries there to imprint upon the ripe Egg the Seal of Fertility This Egg in the Ovary is surrounded with two little Pellicles of which the one is thicker and stronger the other thinner and weaker as in Birds an outermost hard shell and an inner thin Membrane grows in the Egg out of the Seed of the Hen. To the outermost of these Membranes at the very first beginning certain downy Lineaments form'd out of the Female Seed are seen to adhere to which also at the very same first beginning a certain ruddy soft substance joyns it self which seems to arise from the substance it self of the womb in the same place where the Egg slips through the Tube into the Womb by means whereof it adheres by and by to the Womb and is furnish'd by the Womb with some Blood-conveighing Vessels which it imparts to the Chorion as being those Vessels which are discern'd in the Chorion before any Formation of the Birth
by several as an unusual Accident This liquor I always found to be less in Quantity and more ruddy in Men of a hot Temper in whom the Vapors exhaling from the Heart are more thin and but a small Quantity condens'd in the Pericardium and such as were condens'd were sooner attenuated by the violent Heat of the Heart and sooner exhale through the Pores of the Pericardium On the other side I observ'd it more watery more plentiful and pale in colder Complexions in whom through ill Diet a diseased Constitution or some other Causes their Heat was less strenuous For which reason thicker Vapors sent from the Substance of the Heart and collected and condens'd in greater Quantity in the Pericardium were not so soon dissipated for want of sufficient Heat Hence Vesalius affirms it to be more plentiful in Women than in Men And Riolanus observ'd it more plentiful in old Men than in young Men. X. Moreover we observ'd that a greater Quantity of this Liquor does not cause the Palpitation of the Heart which is generally asserted however by most Physicians from Galen's Opinion For in all those in whom after they were dead I found a greater quantity of this Liquor in the Pericardium during all the time of their Sickness I observ'd no Palpitation of the Heart at all not so much as in the Englishman before mentioned but on the other side a languid and weak Pulse Neither does the Plenty of that Liquor cause such a Narrowness of the Pericardium as is vulgarly believed that the Heart cannot move freely within it and therefore palpitates But on the other side we always found that the Pericardium was thereby rendered so broad and loose that the Heart might move more freely therein than in lesser Liquor So that the Plenty of this Liquor does not cause Palpitation which is rather excited by any Liquor tho but small which contrary to Custom suddenly and violently dilates or by its Acrimony Corruption or griping Quality molests the Heart and stirs it up to expel so troublesom an Enemy CHAP. VI. Of the Heart in General See Table 9. I. COR the Heart seems to take its Name from Currere to run for which reason the Belgians call it Hart or Hert that signifies also a Hart or Stag because as that Beast excels all others in Swiftness and Motion so does the Heart surpass all other parts of the Body in the same Qualities Which Belgic word nevertheless seems to be deriv'd from Harden which signifies Duration or from Hard which signifies Hardness either because its Motion lasts all a Mans Life-time or else because it exceeds the Muscles and other Parenchyma's in hardness of Substance Riolanus deduces the word Cor from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contracted of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burn because from thence the Fire of our Body proceeds And so the Belgic Hert may be deriv'd from Heert which signifies a Hearth Menetiâ—…s derives it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Shake or Brandish Chrysippus deduces it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying Strength or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be strong in Empire because it performs most strenuous Actions and governs all the other parts of the Body II. However it is the Principal of all the Bowels the Sun of the Microcosm the Principle of the Actions of Life the Fountain of Heat and Vital Spirit and the Primum mobile of our Body Which being vigorous and active all the natural Functions of the Body continue in a vigorous and flourishing Condition when that languishes they languish and when that fails they cease altogether For in this is contain'd the Fuel and Flame of natural Heat while all those parts of the Body grow stiff and numm'd with Cold to which the Blood is hindred from coming from the Heart and that Blood grows cold that is absent longest from this Fountain of Heat and the wast of natural Heat can be repair'd in no other part of the Body than in this All which things are confirm'd by the Testimony of the Sences for that if you put a Finger into the Heart of a dissected living Creature so extraordinary a Heat is felt therein as the like is not to be felt in any other part of the Body III. This Heat tho so excelling from the Principle of Heat it self as it is and tho it be implanted and fixed within it yet certain it is that it is maintained and augmented by the Humours infused into its Ventricles and there fermenting and is continually fed by that continual Fermentation or Effervescency of Humours discharged into it Lime-stone burns through the mixture of Water by reason of its Fermentation or Effervescency what wonder then if the Heat of the Heart be presently inflam'd by the Fermentation of Humours flowing into it and that Flame should be more or less according to the greater or lesser fermentaceous Effervescency which greatly depends upon the aptitude of the Matter to be fermented For the innate hot Spirits of the Heart act upon the Matter that flows in and ferment it with its Heat and cause it to boyl and so renew the Flame that would extinguish by degrees till it went quite out IV. It is seated in the middle of the Breast surrounded with the Pericardium and Mediastinum somewhat reflexed with the Point toward the left by reason of the Diaphragma and fasten'd to it in none of the adjoyning parts but hanging only from the Vessels going in and out at the bottom to which it is united But its Pulsation is felt most in the left side below the Pap because the Sinister Ventricle arises toward the fore-parts of the Thorax with the Aorta which both together strike the left side But the Right Ventricle lies deeply seated toward the right side and therefore its Pulsation is less felt without upon the right side It is very rare that the Heart changes this Situation and that the right Ventricle lies in the left side and the left Ventricle in the right Side and beats in this Yet Riolanus affirms he observ'd this Situation in a Man of forty Years of Age and in the Queen Mother of Lewis the XIII V. The Substance of it is firm thick compact some thinner and softer in the right side thicker and more compacted in the left side closer and harder at the Point Yet at the end of the point where the left Ventricle ends thinner as consisting of the Concourse of the inner and outer Membrane VI. This Substance Galen affirms to be interwoven with a threefold sort of Fibres whom most Anatomists follow But if the Fibres of the Heart be diligently considered and sunder'd by degrees which may be done as well in a boyl'd Heart as in one newly taken out there are no transverse Fibres to be found whatever Vesalius has imagin'd but they seem all to be wound about with a periwincle
Unions of the Vessels for want of humane Birth may be conveniently demonstrated in Calves newly Calv'd and Lambs newly yean'd CHAP. XI Of the Office or Action of the Heart I. PLato Galen and several of the Stoicks assert That the Heart is the Seat of the Irascible Soul But Chrysippus Possidonius and many of the Aristotelians not only of the Irascible but Concupiscible Soul From whom Hippocrates does not very much differ while he alledges That the Soul abides in the hottest and strongest Fire and plainly affirms moreover That the Mind is seated in the Heart of Man This was also the Sentiment of Diogenes as Plutarch witnesses and of Zeno according to Laertius To which Opinion Apollodorus also subscrib'd as Tertullian testifies and which Gassendus likewise among the modern Authors endeavors to prove Nor do the Sacred Scriptures a little contribute to the confirmation of this Doctrine Where we read That God is the Searcher of the Heart That out of the Heart issue evil Thoughts That Folly Wisdom Iudgment Counsel Repentance proceed from the Heart Whence the Prophet David thus prays Psal. 119. Give me Wisdom and I will keep thy Law and observe it with my whole Heart Incline my Heart to keep thy Testimonies The Lord hates the Heart which imagines evil Thoughts Besides this they produce several Reasons 1. Because the Heart first lives and moves and last dies and being wounded the whole Structure falls 2. Because it is seated in the middle and most worthy part of the whole Body 3. Because this Bowel only makes the Blood and vital Spirit and nourishes and enlivens every Part of the Body and that the Soul abides in the Blood is apparent from the Sacred Text The Soul of the Flesh is in the Blood 4. Because the Heart being out of order the whole Body suffers with it but when other Parts are vitiated it does not necessarily die with them 5. Because the Brain to which most ascribe the Seat of the Soul depends upon the Heart and the Motion of the Brain proceeds from the Heart 6. Because a Part of the Brain may be corrupted and taken away the Life and Soul remaining but no part of the Heart all whose Wounds are mortal 7. Because although Perception Thought Imagination Memory and other principal Actions are perform'd in the Brain it does not follow that the Seat of the Soul is in the Instrument by which those Actions are perform'd The Workman by the Clock and Dyal which he makes shews the whole City what time of the Day it is and numbers the Hours by the striking the Bell yet hence it does not follow that he himself abides or has his fix'd residence in the Clock 't is sufficient he affords the Clock what is requisite for the performance of the Action though he live in another place Thus the Soul may operate indeed in the Brain as in the Instrument but may have its Seat nevertheless in the Heart Hence Picolomini acutely alledges That the Soul is ty'd to us upon a double Accompt 1. By Nature and so abides absolutely in the Heart 2. By Operation as it sends Faculties to the Instruments by means of the Spirits discharg'd out of the Heart by the operation of which Faculties the Presence of the Soul is discern'd In the same manner Avicen will have the Soul with its Faculties abide in the Heart as in the first Root but that it gives its Light to all the Members That is to say that the Heart is the beginning of the Animal Faculties but makes use of the Brain as the Instrument of Feeling so that the Animal Faculty is radically in the Heart but by way of Manifestation in the Brain And these and some others like these are the Authorities and Reasons wherewith some going about to describe the Office of the Heart endeavour to defend their opinion which Cartesius nevertheless most strenuously opposes But they seem to be all out of the way who going about to describe the Office of the Heart presently fall a quarrelling about the Seat of the Rational Soul and prosecute it with that heat as if the whole Question depended upon that Hinge But we are going about to examine the Office of the Mortal Heart not the Seat of the Immortal Soul II. Now the Chief and Primary Action of the Heart in the whole Body is to make Blood and by Pulsation to distribute it through the Arteries to all the Parts that all may be nourished thereby This Office of Sanguification the most ancient Philosophers always ascrib'd to the Heart Thus Hippocrates calls the Heart the Fountain of Blood Plato in his Timaeus asserts the Heart to be the Fountain of Blood flowing with a kind of violence Aristotle asserts the Heart to be the beginning of the Veins and to have the chief power of procreating Blood But after them came Galen the Introducer of a new Opinion who excuses the Heart from the Function of Sanguification and ascribes it sometimes to the Liver sometimes to the Substance of the Veins and sometimes to both Vesalius Iacobus de Partibus Columbus Picolomini Carpus Bauhinus Ioubertus and several others imitate Galen with great Applause especially those who are meer Followers of the Flock that goes before going not where they are to go but where the Galenists go and had rather admire Galen's Authority than enquire any farther into the Truth But in this our Age the ancient Truth that lay long wrapt up in thick Clouds again broke forth out of Darkness into Light For ever since the Knowledge of Circulation has illustrated the whole Body of Physick it has been certainly found out That the Office of Circulation agrees with the Heart alone and that therein only this General Nutriment is made by which all the Parts of the whole Body are to be nourish'd and for that reason that there is a perpetual Pulse allow'd it on purpose to disperse that Nourishment and communicate it to all the Parts This Sanguifying Duty the most Famous Philosophers at this day allow the Heart so that there are very few left that uphold the Galenic Sentence of the Liver any longer Though Swammerdam has promis'd to restore the Liver to its former Dignity but upon what Grounds and with what Applause we longingly expect III. But Glisson revolts from both Opinions as well the Ancient one concerning the Heart as the Galenic Opinion concerning the Liver Who finding that the Seed being conceiv'd and alter'd by the Heat of the Womb the Vital Spirit that lay asleep is rais'd up from power to act and that then that Vital Spirit moves the Vital Juice in which it abides every where and also makes Channels and Passages for it self through the Seminal Matter moreover that Sanguineous Rudiments appear before the Heart Liver or other Bowels can be manifestly seen from all these things he concludes That the Blood is not generated and mov'd in the Heart but that the Heart and Blood are generated by
Fermentation is prevented if the oily Particles too much exceed the salt Here it may be octjected That in Agues the sulphury Heat predominates and yet the Animal Actions are not always dull and numm'd in such Persons Which comes to pass because that in such Persons the sulphury and oily Particles of the Blood do not exceed nor stupifie the Salt with their Oiliness and Quantity but by their Heat and Motion stirring up their Acrimony to more vehement Action produce an Effervescency either too strong or vicious and Aguish VI. But to return to the Business Out of the Sanguineous Mass by convenient Concoctions and Fermentations of the Bowels double Spirits are rais'd that is to say Sulphureous and Salt the one sweetish and the other sowr both very subtil and thin and confus'd together and yet one more volatile than the other like the Sulphury Spirits in Oils chymically extracted out of Vegetables and the Salt Spirits Chymically drawn from Salts and salt things But that the Sulphury Spirits are more thin and volatile is apparent in the Distillation of Vegetables for they are first of all and most easily separated and ascend the Alembick unless too much perplex'd among the Salt or being less attenuated by them by reason of their Oiliness but the salt Spirits ascend last and with more difficulty whose Acrimony the Taste distinguishes from the Sweetness of the Sulphur But the foresaid Spirits of the Sanguineous Mass out of which they are rais'd by Fermentations are mingled with it and carry'd forthwith to the Heart and there being often attenuated and dilated are so exactly united that they wax as it were one Spirit which we call Vital VII Now the Vital Spirit is the most subtil and efficacious Part of the Blood generated out of its Sulphury and Salt Particles dilated by the Fermentation of the Heart I say the most subtile and efficacious Part of the Blood that is to say that which is rais'd out of its Sulphury and Salt Particles for every thin and vaporous Substance as that which is raised out of the serous part of the Blood is not so be call'd a Spirit because it is no efficacious part of the Blood though sometimes less to be discern'd than the effectual Spirit it self but that which through the copious admixture of it self breaks the efficacy of its Spirits and withstands their Agility When the Blood slides into the Heart presently the frame and composure of the whole Liquor is dissolv'd and the Spirituous Particles the Bond of mixture being loosen'd are exactly united together and endeavour to expand themselves every way but being restrain'd by the Vessels on the inside they are mix'd with the other Liquor and so burst forth into the open Tubes or Channels of the Arteries through which together with the Blood they are poured forth over the whole Body with the Blood and Effluviums of Heat VIII Now some there are who with Argenterius stifly deny this Spirit different from the Blood to be in the Blood though others with no less heat assert it But this Contention seems easie to be compos'd if we allow it to be the most subtile part of the Blood free'd from the thicker Matter and exalted to an extraordinary Thinness mix'd indeed with the whole but easily separable from it for that the perfection of the Blood consists in its Mixture which without this Spirit would be only a crude and unprofitable Humor In like manner as in Wine the Spirit gives the Wine its perfection and is the subtilest part of it and by how much the Spirit is better by so much is the Wine better Yet this is separable by Chymistry from the Wine but then the remaining Substance of the Wine becomes a crude watery and unprofitable Liquor And therefore the foresaid Question may be thus decided If we mean good and perfect Blood then it may be well said that the Vital Spirit is in the Blood and that it is not different from it as being the most subtile part of it rais'd out of it self which by its presence constitutes the perfection of the Blood But if we mean Blood simply so call'd as being that which is dissipated from the Blood the Blood remaining such as is to be found in dead People which is not perfect because there is no volatile Spirit remaining therein then the Spirit may be said to be different from the Blood or to be generated in it the Blood still existing which moreover were it in it would predominate in it and agitate the thicker Particles of the Blood one with another But when as Aristotle witnesses nothing is agitated or mov'd by it self it may be well said that the other thicker particles of the Blood are not mov'd by themselves but by another Mover that is the Spirit which nevertheless is nothing else but a part of the Sanguineous Mass exalted to Spirituosity Here perhaps some will object If this Spirit agitates other Particles of the Blood one with another then the Blood contains in it self the Cause of its own Motion and is not mov'd by the Heart I answer That the Motion of the Blood is double one circulatory which without doubt proceeds from the Heart by which Motion being in good part spiritualiz'd it is carry'd through the Arteries to all the Parts of the Body The other Fermentaceous which is made by this Spirit by which the least Particles of it are agitated one among another while this Spirit passes through them like a Ferment and divides 'em one from another which vehement Fermentaceous Motion is observ'd in the Crisis's of Fevers and the Emotion of the Flowers But this Motion also proceeds from the Heart so far as it continually begets this Spirit by dilating the Blood mixes it with the Blood and quickens it by its Motion into Act so that the Motion of the Heart ceasing this also ceases IX This Vital Spirit while it always endeavors to fly away by reason of its extraordinary Volatility continually agitates the other thicker Particles of the Blood that retard it and re-assume its flight and by them shaken after a various manner and by reason of way deny'd it often beaten back again by which means it divides them one from another conquers subtilizes and detains them in a continual Fermentative Motion from which Motion and Agitation of the subtile Matter proceeds Heat which being moderate in a moderate Agitation small in a small one and violent in a violent Agitation hence it happens that the Blood according to the variety of this Agitation which may happen and alter upon divers Accidents becomes more or less hot By this Motion thus stirr'd up by the Spirit the Blood is not only preserv'd in its Heat and perfect Soundness that is by the bond of exact Mixture but is also render'd fluid thin and apt for Nourishment which depriv'd of that Motion and Spirit grows thick corrupts and grows unprofitable The same Spirit also contributes such a Thinness of
several Parts which Salt and Sulphur are likewise the Principles of the Blood Moreover Similitude does not lie in the Colour which may be easily alter'd by any new Concoction but in the Particles that constitute the Substance as well of the Parts as of the Blood To the Ninth I say That Charleton confounds Nutrition with Sangnification and that what he speaks here of Nutrition belongs to Sanguification between which there is a great Difference For Aliment is not sublim'd to a greater Spirituosity for the Benefit of Nutrition but for the making of good Blood which afterwards undergoes another Change for the procuring of Nutrition which Nutrition does not consist in a farther Sublimation of the Spirits but rather in a certain new Fixation To which I farther add That the Vital Spirits do not like Cormorants consume the Substance of the Solid Parts but preserve it in its Saneness neither do they render the Blood unfit for Nutrition but fit and that those Spirits infus'd into the Parts with the Blood excite them to their Functions and as it were force them to an Assimilation with the Nourishment brought which Assimilation could never be brought to pass without the Assistance of these Spirits Now how the Spirituous Nourishment is again fix'd see l. 3. c. 11. To the Tenth I say It is no fair Consequence The Blood is nourish'd by the Chylus therefore it cannot nourish other Parts For so it would follow Wheat is nourish'd by the Iuice of the Earth therefore being eaten ot cannot nourish the Chylus So also I say of Heat Wine Wheat and other Nourishments contain in themselves a hot Spirit therefore they cannot be chang'd into Chylus and Blood Why Because a hot Spirit uses to prâ—…y upon the fluid Parts What vain Conclusions these are By reason of the Spirituous Heat of the Blood without which the Blood is altogether unprofitable for Nutrition it is said that it cannot nourish the Parts shall therefore any cold Body or Humor void of all Heat be Nourishment or profitable for Nourishment To the Eleventh I say That here Charleton altogether forgot himself For before out of Harvey he had asserted That the Blood was allow'd to be before any other Part of the Body appear'd and that out of that proceeded the Matter of which the Birth was form'd and its Nourishment If this Position of his were true where 's the Difficulty but that the Parts which are made out of the Blood should be nourish'd with the Blood Moreover if the Colliquation of the Seed be like the Parts that are to be nourish'd and that again like to the Blood then shall the Blood be like the Parts that are to be nourish'd Nevertheless we that do not believe the Parts to be fram'd out of the Blood give this Answer to his Proposition That the Parts are at first form'd out of the Spirituous Liquor of the Bubble and nourish'd with the Colliquation of the Seed but that the whole Substance of this Seed is taken out of the Arterious Blood flowing through the Spermatic Arteries to the Stones to which also the Animal Spirits are also sent through several little Nerves therefore the whole Matter of the Seed Bubble and Colliquament is in the Blood and being concocted specially in the several Parts acquires no less an Aptiude to nourish the several Parts than being generally concocted in the Stones it obtains an Aptness generally to form at first all those Parts and so we must conclude That all the Parts have their first Conformation and their subsequent Growth and Nutrition from a Juice altogether similar which is prepar'd before the one in the Stones before the other in the several Parts and so the Ancient Axiom is true We are nourish'd with the same things of which we consist And that other Oracle of Aristotle The Matter is the same which augments the Growth of a Creature with that out of which it was first form'd Lastly I answer to the Conclusion That the Comparison was ill made between the Fermentation in the Heart and the Flame of a Lamp Which Comparison is easily endur'd among Poets and Orators who only mind Ornament and Elegancy of Words but not among Philosophers that are enquiring after the Mysteries of Nature For Flame does not only dissipate the Subject to which it adheres but also destroys it and dissolves the whole Mixture of it and renders it useless but the Fermentation of the Heart does not destroy the Blood nor utterly dissolve its Mixture but by means of the dilatation of the whole Mass renders it more exact and strong and so brings the Blood to a greater perfection and generates Spirits therein which as they are thin hot and pure entring the whole Mass of the Blood preserve it in its perfection and together with the Blood which is their own Subject of which they are a part being infus'd into the Parts of the Body by their extraordinary Heat raise into Act the drowsie Heat of all the Parts True it is that those Spirits by reason of their extraordinary Subtility and Mobility continually exhale in great Quantity and by dissolving them with their Heat cause a Dissolution of many fluid Particles of the Body but this is not because of any Destruction but by reason of their extraordinary Subtility I will give you a Similitude Wine when it is distill'd the Spirit of Wine arising out of it is not destroy'd by the Heat of the Fire that promotes the Distillation but is sublim'd to a greater Subtility and Perfection there remaining all the while in it the Sulphury and Salt particles in a strict Union the most part of whose Subtility therefore exhales and is dissipated in the Air. But the contrary happens in the Oil of a Lamp which is indeed attenuated but so far from being brought to a greater perfection that it is totally destroy'd For the Oil is not made the better or more Spirituous but the whole Composition of it is destroy'd neither does it remain any longer Oil nor is made Spirit of Oil Like Wood when it is burnt is thereby reduc'd to Smoke and Ashes Or if the Spirit of Wine should take Fire it would not thereby be made more perfect but wholly destroy'd And thus it is with our Bodies as in Distillation and not as in the Flame and therefore the Comparison of Fermentation with Flame is altogether absurd I confess Blood is the Matter and Subject of the Animal Spirits but thence it does not follow that it cannot nourish all the parts of the Body Rather we are thence to infer that it nourishes all the parts seeing it contains the Nutritive Matter and the Vital Spirit that promotes that Nourishment And thus falls this new Opinion so obstinately by some defended and by others as unwarily embrac'd XLIII N. Zas In his Dutch Treatise Of the Dew of Animals believes That the Lymphatic Liquor only nourishes the Spermatic Parts For this is that which he understands by his Dew Of which
about the upper Joynt the Hip the Space to the Buttocks between the two Thighs the Perinaeum III. At the top near the Bending is the Groin where lyes a remarkable Kernel composed of eight lesser Kernels which was firmly said to be the Emunctory of the Liver Of the use of which see Lib. 1. Chap. 17. IV. The Leg by the Greeks call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beginning at the Knee reaches down to the Heel of which the fore-part is called Tibia the Shin and the hinder part Sura the Calf but the two inferior latter Prominences are called Malleoli or the Ancles The Physiognomists observe that they who have large Heels are Envious they that have flat Heels are Slothful but I cannot believe there is any Credit to be given to these Indications V. The Foot Pes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which for distinction sake they call the small Foot is the Foundation upon which the Body stands and is divided into the Foot the Metapedium and the Toes The Foot of which the hinder part is called Calx or the Heel consists of seven Bones the Metapedium of five the Toes consist of three Bones except the great Toe which has but two to which are also added the Sesamina The upper part of the Foot which is ruddy is called the Top of the Foot and the lower part the Sole of the Foot which if it be so flat as to press the Ground without any Hollowness denotes the Person to be Cunning and Fraudulent VI. At the end of the Toes grow Nails of the same Substance and Nature with those of the Hands The whole Leg is composed of Membranes Bones Ligaments Muscles Arteries Veins and Nerves common to all the rest of the Body The Membranes are Periosteum's Membranes of the Muscles and their Tendons The Bones are many and various fastned together with Ligaments Of which Lib. 9. Of the Muscles some extend the Thigh some the Leg others the Foot and others the Toes Of which Lib. 5. The Arteries proceed from the Crural Artery and are dispersed through all the Parts of the Leg with several Ramifactions In like manner a great number of Veins are dispersed through all parts of the Leg following for the most part in their Assent the Colours of the descending Arteries Of which more Lib. 7. Four remarkable Nerves also for the Faculties of Feeling and Motion are distributed through the whole Leg. Of which three proceed from the lower Pairs of the Loyns and the fourth takes its Original from the four upper Pairs of the Os Sacrum Of which more Lib. 8. THE FIFTH BOOK OF ANATOMY Concerning the MUSCLES WITH AN APPENDIX Concerning the MEMBRANES and FIBRES CHAP. I. Of the MUSCLES in General A Muscle is called Musculus in Latin by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Contract or from its Resemblance for that some Muscles seem to resemble a flead Mouse slender at the Head and Tail and large in the Middle by the Latins also called Lacâ—…rtus from its Resemblance to a Lizard I. A Muscle is an Organic Part the Instrument of voluntary Motion II. A Muscle is composed of Dissimular Parts as Fibres Flesh Veins Nerves a Tendon a Covering Membrane and in fat People with some Fat to moisten it Through the Arteries the Vital Blood is conveighed for Nourishment and the Residue returns through the Veins to its Fountain Through the Nerves the Animal Spirits flow into it contributing Feeling and Motion and doing their Duty in the Act of Nutrition The fleshy Substance abounds with Fibres for Strength and Bulk and these Fibres are for the most part streight Sometimes where they proceed to their Tendon somewhat bow'd as in the Muscles of the Temples sometimes Orbicular as in the Sphincters seldom one Muscle has two Fibres It is enfolded with a Membrane to strengthen and cover it and to separate the Muscles one from another and from the adjoyning Parts It includes these Fibres and in the whole Circuit sticks to them Rolfinch Bauhinus and Stenonis believes it also admits the Prroductions and Fastnings to the inner Substance of the Muscle by which the Fibres are knit together III. Andreas Laurentius was in an Error to assert that there is a Power of acting in the Muscles which only proceeds from the Fibres and Tendony Strings as is apparent in Persons languishing with Hectic-Fevers and Consumptions who still retain their Faculty of Motion though the Fleshy Parts are consumed away IV. The Muscles are two-fold some which draw no Parts as the Orbicular Sphincters of the Fundament and Bladder which are orbicularly and equally contracted within themselves every way like a Ring without any manifest Beginning Middle or End To which the muscly Membranes are to be reckoned which only move the Skin upward and downward as are the Muscles of the Forehead and hinder part of the Head in which there is no manifest Distinction to be observed Others which more violently move the Bones and other Parts may be distinguished into Beginning Middle and End or else as others will have it into the Head Belly and Tail V. The Beginning or Head is that part of the Muscle toward which the Motion is made for this is a perpetual Rule every Muscle is moved toward its Beginning This Head is sometimes fleshy often membranous in others longer in others shorter sometimes thicker sometimes thinner VI. Every Muscle has a Nerve inserted into its Head or else about the Middle sometimes one sometimes more as the Diaphragma which has two that are remarkable and the Muscle of the Temples which receives three Nerves Whence Galen makes it a certain Rule where the Nerve is inserted there is the Head of the Muscle Which Rule however Bartholin following Walaeus seems to reject affirming that sometimes the Nerve is inserted into the End of the Muscle and that there is no necessity that the Nerve should be inserted rather into the Head than the Tail of the Muscle and that it happens only by accident that the Nerve is inserted into the Head of the Muscle for that the Nerves while the descend are more easily inserted into the Heads which are higher then into the Tails that lye lower But Experience overthrows the main Prop of this Opinion by which we find that never any Nerve was inserted into the Tail of any Muscle or if it may seem to enter it by chance 't is only through the Error of the Anatomist who mistakes the Head for the Tail Thus hitherto the middle Membranous Part of the Diaphragma into which the Nerves are inserted has been taken for the Tendon or Tail of that Muscle whereas really it is the Beginning of it The second Argument Reason evinces which teaches us that of necessity the Nerve ought to enter that Part from which the Swelling of it ought to begin from the Entrance of the Spirits which when it ought to begin from that part toward
distended but not contracted but the Muscles are both distended and contracted But all this signifies nothing to the Muscles which by their own ordinary voluntary Motion contract and relax but by some preternatural Cause are hindered from that Motion and many times distended when voluntarily they ought to be relaxed as in Convulsions and relax and flax when they ought to be contracted as in the Palsie XIX The Action of the Muscle is performed by its Fibres Tendons and Nerves The Fibres cause Contraction by which the Tendon is drawn to together with the Part which is fastned to it Through the Nerves the Animal Spirits flow in causing Feeling Swelling and Contraction But if one of these three be wanting or hindered the Action cannot be perform'd For if the Nerve be obstructed or cut then the Animal Spirits not flowing into it there can be no Swelling or Contraction of the Muscle If the Fibres are cut athwart their Contraction is made toward two several Parts upward and downward and so the Part to be moved is not brought to If the Tendon be wanting though the Muscles swell because it is not fastned to the Part that is to be moved it does not draw it As to the Flesh that is interlarded among the Fibers that contributes nothing to the Motion but only strengthens the Fibers and by its Heat cherishes and renders them nimble and defends them against the Injuries of Heat and Cold but is unfit for the Motion of Contraction by reason of its Softness and Loosness which renders it unable to contract it self or raise other Parts Which Vesalius Erastus and Laurentius not aware of erroneously affirming this Flesh to be the chief Instrument of Motion the Absurdities of which is apparent for that the Muscles of meager Men are stronger than the Muscles of those who are more fleshy If any one object that the Muscles of the Calves of the Legs and Arms draw with more force by reason of their Carnosity I answer that their Carnosity is not the reason but because they are furnished with stronger and more numerous Fibers than others XX. The Operations of the Muscles are various according to the Variety of the Muscles to which they are fastned In the Breast they dilate and contract in the Gullet they facilitate Swallowing in the Larinx they cause the Modulation of the Voice c. XXI But how the Animal Spirits causing the Operation of the Muscle flow and are determined in greater quantity at the pleasure of the Mind sometimes into these sometimes into those Muscles is a difficult Question some will have them conveighed through Imaginary Valves which they ascribe to the Nerves Others not satisfied with this Fiction have invented double Tubes so placed from one Muscle to the other that in the Contraction of the Muscle the Orifice guarded by a peculiar Valve opens and that through that same Passage the Spirits flow out of the relaxed Muscle into that which is to be contracted the Valve of the other Closing at the same moment so that they cannot flow forth again but of necessity must distend the Muscle until the Situation of the Parts being again altered that Valve opens and the other shuts by which means there is a Passage opened for the contracting the other Muscle This is indeed ingenious but little to the purpose 1. Because the Muscles that move the Part to the opposite Part are most commonly too far distant from the former so that those little Pipes must be very long as in those Muscles that move the Part forward and backward 2. These little Pipes if not every where yet would be some where visible seeing that the small little Nerves through which the Spirits flow are visible 3. For that in Wounds the Muscles are many times divided one from another and yet notwithstanding their Separation their Motion proceeds in good order every way Which could not be if there were any such intervening Pipes in those Places cut and then cicatrized For by reason of their smallness they must of necessity be quite closed up by the Scar. 4. The altered Situation of the Parts cannot cause an opening and shutting of the Valves For it is supposed that the Situation of the Parts alters as the Spirits flow into this or that Muscle and so the thing caused would precede the Cause and the Influx of the Spirits must be before the Cause of the Influx XXII Cartesius seems to favour this Opinion of the little Pipes For says he there are little gapings in every one of these Muscles through which those Spirits may slow out of one into the other and which are so disposed that when the Spirits come from the Brain toward one of those they have somewhat a greater force than those that go toward the other and together close up all those Passages through which the Spirits of this may pass into the other By which means all the Spirits before contained in these two Muscles immediately slow into one of them and so swell and contract it while the other relaxes This seems a fpecious Fiction and needs no other Refutation than the Story of the little Pipes Add to this that when a Body is bended forward and backward who can imagine such Gapings can be extended from the Muscles before to those behind Shall those Gapings and the Spirits pass in a streight Line through all the other Parts that lye between To this De la Forge answers that those Spirits do not pass through all the Parts that lye between but from the Tendon of the whole Muscle through the Pores and invisible Channels into the Tendon of the other for though the Muscles are remote one from another the Muscles lye close together This specious Fiction pretends that the Spirits flow rapidly from the Tendon of the acting Muscle through those supposed Channels in the Tendon and Belly of the Muscle which is to act but what if the opposite Muscle should not act but lye still wherefore then the action of the acting Muscle ceasing do not those spirits flow into the opposite that rests when the Passages are open and the Muscle is capable to receive them If it be impossible they should be so soon dissipated through the Pores of the Muscle or return into the Veins or Arteries where do they then remain Since they do not enter any other from the acting Muscle surceasing its action so suddainly Or if they cannot enter the Muscle that is to act by reason of the length of the distance What hinders their entrance into the next adjoyning Muscles or Tendon This the Valves occasion adjoyning to the Channels says de la Forge But wherefore are they not sufficiently open when the violent rushing of the Spirits into the acting Muscle and it's Tendon is sufficient to open the Valves of the Channels tending toward the other opposite and so to make a free passage for its self from that into this Besides that all Valves give
passage to one Part but still prevent the flowing back So that those Valves that open to transmit the Spirits from the right acting Muscle to the left which never permit the same spirits to pass back from the left to the right Besides if those spirits enter the Muscle which is to act through the Tendon then the Tayl of the Muscle will swell sooner then the Head and so the Tayl shall be drawn toward the Head and not the Head toward the Tayl. Then if the Muscles that are to act could not swell so soon as they ought unless they borrow'd spirits from the neighbouring Muscles ceasing to act nor fall again unless they discharg'd their spirits into the adjoyning Muscles what shall we think of the Sphincters that rise and fall act and surcease to act yet neither receive any spirits nor discharge any into any opposite Muscles as having no such Or else as if the spirits were endu'd with reason and knew when to open or when to shut the Valves or when to pass through and when not Certainly such Philosophers seek rather to wrest Nature to their conceits then to direct their conceits according to the Laws of Nature See more of this l. 8. c. 1. CHAP. II. Of the Muscles of the Head THE Muscles of the Head either move the whole Head or some parts belonging to the Head The whole Head is mov'd either Secundarily as it follows the Muscles of the Neck caus'd by the Muscles of the Neck or Primarily as it is turn'd by its proper Muscles above the First Verteber upon which it is immediately placed either forward backward or sideways also as it is turn'd above the Tooth-resembling Process of the Second Verteber as upon an Axle The First Motion is perform'd by Nine pair of Muscles I. The First Pair call'd Splenium oblong thick fleshy and spread over both Vertebers It rises from a Nervous beginning partly from the Spines of the five upper Vertebers of the Breast partly from the lower Spines of the Vertebers of the Neck and ascending upwards inserted with a broad end into the hinder part of the Head and draws the head directly to the hinder Parts or if one only act it draws the head backward toward the side II. The Second Pair call'd the Complex Pair because every Muscle seems to consist of three Muscles as having various beginnings and many Tendonous and Fleshy parts This Pair arises at the seventh Verteber of the Neck and the first second third fourth and fifth Vertebers of the Breast and is most firmly fasten'd to the hinder part of the Head sometimes with a single sometimes with a treble Tendon Whence Galen affirms these Muscles to be three fold Nevertheless that they are single is apparent because there is no separation of any Membrane but are included within their own Membrane only which could not be if they were divided into many Muscles For then they would have every one their proper Membrane by means whereof it might be separted from the other III. The Third Pair call'd the small and thick Pair â—…eated under the Second Pair rises with a Nervous beginning from the transverse Processes of the first Vertebers of the Neck rarely from the Five Pairs of the upper Vertebers of of the Breast and growing fleshy extends it self obliquely upward and inward and is inserted with a Nervous end into the hindermost root of the Mamillary Process and lighty draws the head backward but if one only act it bends it backward toward the side Riolanus believes this Pair to be nothing else but a production of the Spinatic Muscle reaching to the head near the Mamillary Process IV. The fourth Pair call'd the bigger streight Pair is small fleshy and slenâ—…er and rises from the top of the Spine of the Second Verteber of the Neck and ending in the middle of the hinder part of the Head assists the motion of the Third Pair V. The Fifth Pair call'd the lesser streight Pair lyes under the former and resembles it in substance shape and course It rises from the hinder part of the first Verteber and being inserted into the hinder part of the Head assists the motion of the Third and the preceding Muscle VI. The sixth Pair call'd the Upper Oblique Pair is seated under the right Pairs and resembles them in substance and shape It is small and rises from the Process of the first Verteber of the Neck and ends in the hinder part of the Head near the outward side of the right Pair Bauhinus says it rises in the hinder part of the Head and ends at the lateral Processes of the first Verteber of the Neck This acting we nod slightly streight forward if either act it inclines the Head backward to one side VII The Seventh is the Lower Oblique Pair oblong fleshly and round rising from the Spine of the Second Verteber of the Neck and inserted into the transverse Process of the first Verteber and turns it round with the Head annex'd to it to the sides VIII The eighth call'd Mastoides seated in the fore-part of the Neck strong long and round which by reason of its two beginings some assert to be two-fold It rises Nervous and broad from the upper part of the Sternon and Clavicle and with a fleshy Tayl is inserted into the Mamillary Process and the hinder part of the Head this Pair bends the Head forward and downward and if one act at a time turns it obliquely to the side IX The Ninth Pair discover'd by Fallopius which may be call'd the Inner Streight Pair seated under the Gullet in the fore-part of the Neck joyns to the First Pair of the Neck It rises with a Nervous beginning from the Ligaments of almost all the Vertebers of the Neck and with a Fleshy tayl is inserted into the Basis of the Head between both Processes where it is joynted with the first Verteber and bends the Head forward when we nod X. The Muscles which move the Parts contain'd in the Head are many and various two in the Forehead four belonging to the Eye-lids twelve to the Eyes eight to the Ears four to the Membranes of the Tympanum eight to the Nose fifteen to the Cheeks and Lips ten to the lower Jaw ten to the Tongue eight to the Hyoides bone the form beginning insertion situation and use of all which we have describ'd l. 3. So that the Muscles of the Head in all are Ninety and Nine CHAP. III. Of the Muscles of the Neck THE Muscles which primarily move the Neck and secondarily the Head are four on each side which move the Neck forward backward and sideways I. Two Long which lye hid under the Gullet These rise fleshy from the fifth and sixth Verteber of the Breast and ascending upward with a sharp Tendon are inserted together into the extuberant Processes of the first Verteber of the Neck sometimes they are fasten'd to the hinder part of the Head near