afore-prescribed Remedies Or the aforesaid Ingredients excepting the Liquoris and Raysons may be boyled in vi pints of Hydromel or water and hony or meath to the Consumption of the third part The dose â„¥ iiii to vi If that the aforesaid Method consisting in the use of Catharticks and Specificks being for some time tryed and altogether in vain you must come to Remedies of another kinde Great Remedies and chiefly to those called Great or Notable In this rank are placed Diaphoreticks Salivation Bathes and Spaws Alphonsus Ferrius affirms that he had cured many Epileptical people with a decoction of simple Guaicum being prescribed twice in a day and taken to vi or viii ounces and its second decoction drunk as in the cure of the Pox instead of ordinary drink If to such a decoction the roots of Paeony and other specificks should be added perhaps it would be more efficatious It seems probable that a Salivation strongly excited from Mercurie and afterwards a sudoriferous or Sweating-Diet following might certainly cure this Disease What Baths or Spaw-waters are able to do I have not observ'd either by my own or others experience Perhaps I have made tryall that our Artificial Spaws sometimes have been available in Curing the Epilepsie to wit both those impregnated with Iron and also with Antimony and taken in a great quantity for many days CHAPTER IV. Of other kinds of Convulsions and first of the Convulsive Motions of Children AFter the Epilepsie as it were the principal Spasm in the chief place excited to wit within the middle part of the brain the other Kindes of Convulsions come to be treated of in order The differences of those are best taken from a twofold kinde of cause and the various manners and accidents of either We have already shown that all Spasmodic distempers do flow either from the meer irritation of the spirits or from their explosion by reason of the cleaving of an Elastick Copula to them or jointly from both together wherefore the manifold Ideas of Spasms may be distinguished and distributed into certain Classes as it happens for this or that cause or either together to remain in the various places of the Encephalon or the nervous Appendix For indeed the Spasmodic matter or the explosive Copula of the Spirits finding a passage chiefly and most often thorow the Brain and sometimes in some measure thorow the extremities of the nerves subsists either about the origine of the nerves or their middle processes or their outmost ends or abounds in their whole passages as shall be by and by more particularly declared Further an irritation stiring up Convulsions by it self or with a previous remote cause although it be made every where in the nervous stock yet it chiefly and more frequently produces such an effect about the beginings middle processes and foldings or ends of the Nerves But the same Kinde of Cause and effects are after one manner in Infants and children and another in youths and those of riper age Since therefore we have determined particularly to consider all the kindes of Convulsions we will first discourse of the Convulsive motions of Infants and Children Infants and children happen so ordinarily and frequently to be tormented with Spasmodick Distempers that this is reconed the chief and almost the only Kinde of Convulsions for the Symptoms of this kinde in other more ripe people are wont to be called by other known Names and referred to the Epilepsie hysterick hypochondriac Collie passions or also to the Scurvie but in children they are called as it were by way of Excellency Convulsions As to this we must observe that children are found to be greatly obnoxious to Convulsions chiefly about two seasons to wit within the first month after they are born or about their breeding of Teeth Although it often happens that the assaults of this Disease may come also at other times and from certain other Causes In the first place therefore it very often happens that children newly born or at least er'e they are two months old are afflicted at every turn with Spasms excited in divers parts for that inversions of the eyes distortions of the cheeks and Lipps or tremblings yea Contractions of the Tendons and frequent jerkings or leapings forth of the members and sudden shakings of the whole Body infest them and that the same effect likewise sometimes afflicts the praecordia appears plain enough because whilst the Spasms busie the Limbs and outward members also the face becomes now pale now of a livid or dead Colour from the blood stagnating in the heart and the Lungs being at that time contracted As therefore Spasms are wont to infest three Regions of the Body in children to wit the parts of the head and face the outward members and Limbs and the Praecordia and viscera we observe now these regions now those now two or all together to be possessed by the morbific Cause to wit as it is fixed either about the beginings or ends of the nerves and when the former of these happens as the superior part of the oblong pith the middle or the lowest part of the spinal marrow is touch'd one or more parts together are assaulted by the morbifick Cause As to the other Causes of this Distemper to wit the procataric and evident those of the former Kinde do chiefly consist in two things first that all the parts of the Head in infants are very weak and abound with a viscous humidity to wit the Brain less firm and the tone of the nerves very loose so that they are not able to bear the more light force of every matter but the Spirits inhabiting them are easily incited into irregular motions or Spasms by the proper liquour wherewith those parts are watered if it flows never so little immoderately or at least more plentifully than for the measure of so little strength But in the second place because it appears by observation that children not only nor all who are of a more tender Constitution are found to be prone to this Disease therefore this ought to be rather accounted for a reason of the more remote morbid Cause that the Blood and nervous Juce are originally vicious in some Infants by reason of evills contracted from the womb For that the sanguineous mass wanting eventilation for many months past becomes impure in children newly born wherefore broad and Red puttings forth like the small pocks shew themselves through the whole skin in most children soon after they are born to which sort of wealks or efflorescences if they are hindred or repressed oftentimes dangerous exulcerations about the parts of the mouth follow Hence we may deservedly suspect such impurities of the blood sometimes to be poured forth into the brain and nervous stock considering their debility and for that reason Spasmodic Distempers to arise to wit whilst the blood being vitious from the womb endeavours to purifie it self it transfers its faeculencies into the head which were wont to be
loosned even into a Vapour and then kneaded with an Earthy Matter or the moistning of Waters they cause Eruptions of Fountains and Acidulous or Spaw Waters which resemble the disposition of Vitriol Alum Nitre somtimes of Iron or Copper Also the Sulphureous little Bodies being loosned and gathered together inkindle an Heat and somtimes Subterraneous Fires by whose Breaths the Dens and Caverns being made Hot like an Hot-House whilst the Watery humors pass through them they from thence conceive their Heat and supply the Springs of Hot Fountains for Bathes In like manner in this visible and Etherial world Vapours both Sulphureous and Saline and of a diverse Kind and Nature perpetually breath forth and are diffused through the whole Region of Air. From hence the diversity of winds the vicissitudes of Cold and Heat Rain Snow Hail Dew and Hoar Frost and what are of this Nature have their Origine Concerning the particular instances of these the famous Gassendus may be consulted who in his Epicurean Philosophy most aptly deduces the Phaenomena almost of all Meteors and the reasons of them from the Exhalations of Sulphur and Salts either Nitrous Vitriolick Aluminous or Armoniack CHAP. IV. Of Fermentation for as much as is observed in Vegetables IN Vegetables Fermentation is yet more plainly discerned for whilst they Bud forth Grow Flower bear Fruit Ripen Decline and Dye we may observe the divers motions of Particles or Principles their various Habits and Tempers I intend not here to describe the several ways and proceedings of these It will be sufficient for the unfolding the Doctrine of Fermentation to take notice of some chief instances concerning this Subject If is manifest by dayly Experience that all Plants whatsoever exposed to a Spagyrical or Chymical Operation may with little labour be resolved into the aforesaid five-fold Elements But in some there is found a greater plenty of Salt in others of Sulphur in some Spirits abound Water and Earth are in most proportionated according to the Bulk and magnitude of the thing Plants in which Salt abounds with a mean of Sulphur and a little quantity of Spirits are for the most part of long Age somwhat big or flourish all the Winter or tho their Leaves fall they keep a Nutricious Juice under the Bark Of which sort are the Oak Ash Elm Box-Tree and all ponderous Woods and Shrubs In some Sulphur abounds with a little Salt and Spirit as are the Pine the Firr-Tree Cyprus Tree Juniper Ivy Olive Cedar and Myrtle Trees and all resinous Plants which for the most part have a sweet smell and are perpetually Green by reason the juice wherewith they are nourished is viscous and not easily to be dissipated In others besides plenty of Salt and Sulphur Spirits also are found in a greater proportion as are Fruit-bearing Trees and especially the Vine from whose Fruit the Juice being wrung out and purified by Fermentation grows very big with Spirit Of this rank are Plants for the most part Medicinal also such as produce Curious and Odoriferous Flowers But in some Water and Earth luxuriat in too great a quantity above the other Elements as in cold Plants and such as grow in too rank a Soil The Germination of Plants happens after this manner either it is made out of the Seed Root Trunk or of its own Nature from the naked matrix of the Earth First the Spirit being shut up within by the Ambient Heat and Moisture loosening the frame of the mixture being loosned it presently endeavours to fly away But being held back in its flight by the more thick Particles of the rest stretches forth more largely its Den and together with the other Principles with which it is bound thrusts forth on every side into length and breadth even as a little bundle of Silk being contracted into wrincles and folds is opened here and there In the mean time the little Spaces left by the enlargement of the Spirit and as it were made hollow are filled up by the next Matter driven even into the Vacuities And after this manner the Architect Spirit with his Ministers Salt and Sulphur still stretching forth it self like a Snail frames for it self an House whose Inhabitant it is and by dilating it self stretches forth that until at last it hath wrought the Plant into the due Bulk and Figure designed by Nature You may take notice that the times of the year for the Budding Flowring Ripening and decaying of Vegetables are of great Efficacy and Virtue All the Winter the Womb of the Earth as it were shut up is almost barren for the Spirituous Particles which are wont to actuate the rest and as it were to lead the dance of Natural Motions are either chased away by the Winters Cold or being Congealed in their Subjects are fixed Wherefore at this time Germination and Vegetation are very rare unless that some irregular Plants which are composed of plenty of Spirit Salt and Sulphur dare to break forth But in the Spring when the bowels of the Earth begin to be a little warm by the Vicinity of the Sun presently they are impregnated with a wonderful Fecundity and produce the effects of their Seminality Not only the Superficies of the Earth but also the Water and Air every where grow big with Spirituous Particles which as it were raise up from the Dead the little Bodies of Salt and Sulphur and bring them into Motion Therefore besides that the Plants Bud the Juice and Blood of living Creatures is quicker and more apt to abound At this time the Birds and Fishes build their Nests and bring forth Eggs also we may perceive in our selves the Blood to flow high in the Vessels and usually to Ferment too much For all things are then full of this Aetherial Substance and the whole Bulk of Nature as it were inspired by a lively Fermentation is abundantly fruitful of Motions and Generations Yea these our Principles at first separated and dispersed one from another led as it were by an Appetite of Copulation enter into mutual Marriages and being Married together almost with infinit Embraces cause a most ample Seeding and Germination of the Herby State At the beginning of the Summer and perhaps in some sooner in some later when sufficient time hath been granted for the Stature and Magnitude of every Plant and that it is now come to the highth of increase it behoves Nature to perfect her Work and to cook and ripen the Substance as yet rude and undigested Wherefore the active Principles leisurely extricate themselves from the more thick and creep forward towards the top there being placed with a mutual increase they are formed into Flowers and Blossoms from which at length for that they are of a soft and light texture Spirit and Sulphur easily evaporate and the frame of the mixture quickly decays But Nature careful of the perpetuating every thing when it cannot keep for ever the individuum is so provident that the Species may not wholly
as they consist of very active Principles stir up a new Ferment in the Subject the dead Carcase and the implanted Elements of this joyn into the society of their motion and retain many of their Particles flying away yet longer in the Body As Salt and Spices are made use of for the preserving long flesh and Sulphureous things which also preserve all other things from Putrefaction so Vegetables and their Flowers and Fruits are better conserved with Sugar for this by cherishing the active Particles of the Subject restrains them within and besides renders the Confections of a very grateful tast Minerals chiefly the solid and hard because they are indued with plenty of Salt and Earth with little of Sulphur and with a less quantity of Spirits therefore they rarely or not at all conceive Putrefaction there is the same reason for resinous things which tho they abound in Sulphur with Salt and Earth yet because there is but a small portion of Water and Spirits therefore their frame is not easily loosened neither are they obnoxious to Putrefaction Among Minerals Common-water only falls under this rank for this if it stand still or is kept long in a Vessel its Salt and Sulphur though but in a little quantity having gotten a Flux begin to evaporate and together to induce Putrefaction but so long as water is in motion these Particles are still involved with others and so by their mutual embrace are detained from evaporation Artificial things and preparations are no less subject to Putrefaction than Natural things for Bread and all manner of Eatable things or Food Wine Beer and other Drinkable Liquors also Medicinal Confections being long kept first lose their strength and vigor and then afterwards are Corrupted concerning which we may observe these following things The more the things are Compounded and have all the Principles conjoyned together the sooner and the easier do they enter into Putrefaction wherefore Eatable things prepared of Flesh Broths Decoctions of Herbs also many Medicines made after the Galenical way are wont unless preserved with very much Salt or Sugar to be Corrupted in a short time In the mean time Distillations and Chymical Preparations which consist of Homogeneous or not much different Particles are kept sound a long while In Compounded things if there be too great quantity of water things sooner putrefie for so the frame of the mixture is too loose so that the fixed Principles cannot take hold of the Volatile or keep them back from flight but those in which Spirits abound with moderate Salt and Sulphur if they are kept in a close Vessel that they may evaporate but little continue a long time as may be perceived by strong or generous Wine The next to these are those things which are preserved with Hony or Sugar or in which the Saline Particles are in great plenty by Nature Many of these whilst they are corrupted are either made Moldy or Rank or they grow sowr or degenerate into a vapidness or without tast things are made Moldy when the subtil Particles in the exhaling are deteined by the more thick and cleaving together by their mutual embrace on the Superficies of the Body grow into a soft Down or Hoariness even as Moss is brought forth by Stones or Wood exposed to moisture Rankness or unsavory Tast happens chiefly in Sulphureous things for Oyly and Fat things by Heat or Age become Musty or Unsavory to wit when the Spirit being very much exhaled the Sulphureous Particles are two much exalted and begin to evaporate Sharpness or Acidity is induced from the Salt being too much carried forth and loosened for when the Spirit is depressed or exhaled the Salt being fused conceives a Flux and so brings in a Sowrness hence Wine Beer Cydar also Milk very many Eatable things and the Juices of Herbs when they are long kept or if they are moved by too immoderate heat of the Air or shaking do easily grow Sowr Liquid things degenerate into a vapidness or tastlesness when the active Principles are for the most part gon forth and nothing eminent besides Water and Earth or of the subtile parts is left in the Subject That I may contract what is aforesaid the corruption of every thing is only the separation and departure of themselves from one another into parts of the Principles before combined the bond of the mixture being loosened which motion by reason of the diverse disposition of their breaking forth either with or without a stink ends in Putrefaction or Rottenness Where Spirits abound and that there is also plenty of Sulphur and Salt and the Particles being loosened from their bonds break forth in heaps the mixture putrefies with a stink also if it consist of a thick substance so that all the parts are not rightly ventilated it conceives a heat from the Putrefaction in such a Corruption the stink proceeds from the exhalation of the sharp pointed Sulphur or made pricking with the Salt Putrefaction follows for that the external humidity enters into the place of the Particles flying away But the heat is produced by the Sulphureous Particles being moved together in heaps and being shut up within the Subject that they gather together and being united act more strongly But if there be in the Subject a lesser proportion of Salt and Sulphur so that when the mixture is loosened the Particles are moved more slowly and evaporate leisurely the Body grows dry and is reduced to a wasting without any ill smell Putrefaction or Heat It will not be from the purpose to inquire in this place from whence some empty Vessels and more moist bodies by lying long conceive a certain stink without Putrefaction also other things being put into them or lying near them are wont to partake of their Evil for which affection a proper Latin word is not easily to be met with in our Idiom it is called Mustiness and in some sort seems to be designed by the word Mucor unless that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mucor points at Bodies infected with a certain Down or Hoariness which we call Moldiness which here never happens The consideration of this matter is not improperly referred to the Doctrine of Fermentation for this Tincture or Impression of a stink unfolds it self far abroad as if it were a certain Ferment that the Vessel but lightly imbued with it infects whatever Liquors are put into it and infusions of them even new and often iterated we may observe a twofold effect of this thing For somtimes the Vessels being almost empty at first vitiated afterwards infect most Liquors which they by chance receive with a musty odor somtimes more moist compacted and solid things being kept long somwhat close in a Cellar contract this vice of their own accord when in the mean time the contagion is not perceived to be in the place where they were kept which things either may become musty not because they are corrupted for in most Spirit Salt and Sulphur being
ways are thought of whereby the Menstruum of water is made sharper and is rendred fit for the dissolving of any Bodies whatsoever For by means of the Bodies which it ought to dissolve and of the parts which it ought to receive in it self it is armed as it were with some Weapons with which it is able to unlock any Subject and to possess now these now those Particles The Menstruum of water is sharpned with Spirit Salt or Sulphur to wit either with each of these or with more of them joyned together we will first speak of the watery Menstruum with the various sharpning of it and afterwards of the fiery dissolvent Common water most easily dissolves the more simple Bodies except Sulphur and hides their Particles in its pores and passages it readily receives Salts of every kind and easily imbibes Spirits it loosens the frame of Earth and cherishes its more tender little bodies in its embrace but it is hardly mixed with Fat and Oyly things and receives not their Particles but by the coming between of others but drives them forth to its Superficies as not miscible or thrusts them down to the bottom Water in some measure enters the more compounded Bodies whose frame is somwhat loose and then receives into its bosom some not simple Particles but resembling the nature of the whole mixture hence most Vegetables also parts of living creatures and some Minerals being put into common water do impregnate it with a certain virtue and from most Metals by a long maceration it takes away some strength though but small Some Bodies are dissolved by water which yet a Sulphureous or Spirituous Menstrua leave almost untouch'd as the Gums Tragacanth Arabic c. also Salts and Sugar The first and most common way of sharpning whereby simple water may more easily enter the Bodies to be dissolved is that it be furnished with fiery Particles or darts of adventitious heat for so it is driven more deeply with a certain force into Bodies and destroys some thrids as it were the smallest mites in their most inward recesses Wherefore we are wont to boyl for a long while the matter to be dissolved in water or at least to infuse it in warm water by which means the more tenuious and certain subtil Particles which resemble the nature of the Subject are easily drawn forth and impregnate the water with the virtue of the whole mixture So much for the simple or natural Menstruum of water to wit for as much as its activity is wont somtimes to be promoted by fire or ascititious heat But this cannot be so simple but that it contains in it self some Particles of another kind as may be gathered from its easie Putrefaction for oftentimes it is impregnated with Spirituous Sulphureous or Saline breathings contracted from the Air or Earth that for the drawing forth the tinctures of very many things somtimes it excels an Artificial Menstruum for that Acidulous or Spawish waters Mineral waters Rain water and May Dew are of frequent use among Chymicks for the remarkable faculty of dissolving with which they are strong Besides 't is a vulgar observation that some waters most easily dissolve Sope and being throughly mixed with the same causes in the liquor a great spume or froth such if they be rubbed between the fingers feel soft and gentle but other waters which being handled with the hands are more harsh refuse the mixture both of Sope and Oyl and so are accounted unprofitable for the washing of Cloaths these sort of waters if they should be evaporated in a Glass oftentimes affix a Crust to its bottom and sides because they are impregnated more than they ought with Saline Particles with which when the Saline parts residing in the Sope combine the Sulphureous are carried away and they being excluded the pores are thrust forth as not miscible to the top of the Liquor When Flesh is boyled in these waters it grows very red which tincture indeed being thence contracted is a sign that those waters are somwhat imbued with Vitriol or some other kind of Salt But we will pass to Artificial Menstruas in which the watry Liquor is furnished with Spirit Salt or Sulphur being gathered apart or many of them together The Spirituous Menstruum of water is made when from a Body swelling with Spirits a clear and limpid water is distilled as from Wine or strong Beer or other Bodies truly Fermented and brought to exaltation The kind of dissolvent is hardly to be had so sincere but it is mixed with the Particles of more pure Sulphur and somtimes of a volatile Salt The former kind of Liquor is called Spirit of Wine which being subtil and very penetrating easily enters the Bodies and parts of Vegetables and also of living Creatures but hardly Minerals or not at all it extracts from many things not any Particles or resembling the Nature of the whole mixture as common water but chiefly Spirituous and Sulphureous the rest being almost untouched wherefore it is wont to be used for the resinous magisteria of Vegetables which it draws forth almost sincere or without mixture under the form of Gum or Refine in the mean time it is not so fit as common water for the extracts of Plants which are not so indued with Sulphur from Sulphureous things as Benzoin Sulphur Olibanum Styrax Amber and the like it draws forth excellent Tinctures It dissolves the fixed Salts of Herbs also of Pearls and Coral before prepared with Vinegar by a long digestion and receives their Tinctures into it self it leaves Sugar and Gums being dissolvable in water almost untouch'd But there is another Spirituous Menstruum that is sharpned with a volatile Salt such is the Liquor which is distilled out of blood Harts-horn or Soot it is far stronger than the former and cuts most Bodies except Metals into parts and oftimes destroys the forms of the whole mixture yea it most excellently dissolves secondarily the most fixed Metal to wit Gold being first reduced into a Calx by its proper Menstruum and reduces it into a Tincture or potable Liquor They are accounted Sulphureous Menstrua which are brought forth of Sulphureous Bodies under the form of an Oyl these are prepared either by distillation such as are chiefly the Oyl of Turpentine Juniper and the like or by expression such as are wrung forth of Olives Almonds and other Fruits or Seeds of Vegetables Things distilled are of more efficacy than preparations by expression either of them draw forth some Particles from Vegetables or Animals by the vertues of which these Oyls being impregnated they are made fit for Medicinal use Yea they are conveniently enough made use of for the extracting of the Sulphureous Particles of Minerals which somtimes they draw forth sincere or unmixt But if Oyl of Turpentine or Lin-seed Oyl draws forth by dissolving the combustible part of common Sulphur in the mean time the remaining Saline parts and untouched by the Menstruum grow into Crystals
it was not known whether Nature had begot greater Evils or Remedies As there is great varieties of Poysons so as to their Subjects and ways of hurting there is no less diversity of them for the most Poysons in their whole substance are said to be contrary to us that whatsoever they come to with a burning force and like fierce fire they reduce into ashes yet out of these some being noted for a peculiar raising of hurt do more endammage one part or substance than another The subjects on which the taint of Poyson is next and more immediatly inflicted are twofold to wit the animal Spirits or the spirituous subtil Liquor flowing in the Brain and nervous stock and the Blood flowing in the Vessels and heart when the object is carried only to one or being improportionate at one to either that from thence the disposition of the Liquors or of the containing parts is overthrown whereby the necessary functions for the performing of life and sense are restrained and this done latently and as it were unforeseen these kind of distempers we ascribe to Poyson The nervous bodies with the animal Spirit are not invaded wholly after the same manner by every sort of Poysons for they are tormented now with a Stupor now with Convulsions and those of divers kinds and manners The bile of a Tarantula causes dancing A power sent from the Torpedo by the Angle or lines of the Net stupifies the hand of the Fisher The roots of the wild Parsnip or the seeds of Lolium or Darnel being eaten make men mad Opium Mandrakes Henbane and the like cause deep and somtimes deadly sleep These and many others chiefly impress their Poyson on the spirituous or animal faculty without any great perturbation of the Blood or hurt brought to the heart There are also some Poysons which most of all insinuate their malignity to the mass of Blood wherefore from some Medicines there have been produced a yellow or black Jaundice somtimes a Leprosie or leprous distempers and swellings of the whole body vapours breaking forth from secret hollows of the Earth also from Coals newly inkindled often suffocating the vital Spirits at once congeal the Blood and stop it in its motion whereby the flame of life in the heart could not be continued How much corruption of the mass of Blood is imparted from the pestilent Infection is perspicuous to every one from the spots and Whelks which are as it were the marks of the blasted Blood If the hurt being first inflicted to either viz. The regiment of the Heart or Brain be more lightly made it is for the most part cured without any great offence to either wherefore Convulsive motions Stupifaction Lethargie Melancholy Paralytick distempers do not seldom begin with a laudable Pulse and without an immoderate effervescency of the Blood and then if the distemper does not get strength leisurely end and cease There are other Poysons which often deprave the Blood and by dissolving its mixture corrupt it in the mean time the animal functions remain whole enough But if the ferment of the Poyson be stronger and hath more deeply fixed its roots presently the Poyson is dispersed from one Province to the other for when the nervous parts swell up with a virulent juice a portion of the Poyson is carried with the nervous Latex returning through the Lymphatick Vessels into the veins easily into the bosom of the Blood and infects its mass with the evil with which it was big also from the Blood being grievously impoysoned the juice by which the nerves are watered quickly contract the infection hence mad men are in a Feaver and those taken with a pestilent Feaver are most often tormented with a Delirium or Phrensie Concerning these things we must consider what the alteration is or the impression of hurt which is inflicted from the Poyson to the animal Spirit with the brain and nervous appendex and what also to the Blood with the Heart and the annexed Vessels tho here it is not in the power of humane skill or wit plainly to shew or as it were point out with the finger the manner of its being done yet we may be able to attain to some little knowledge of this thing by reasoning and by comparing it with other distempers Concerning the former we shall observe that the subtil Liquor or animal Spirits wherewith the Nervous Bodies are blown up and by whose expansion sense and motion perform their reciprocal actions are easily perverted from their tensity and equal expansion for as the Nerves are of a soft texture and the Spirits which abound in them of a very subtil substance they cannot endure any strong or vehement objects wherefore when any violent or improportionate thing falls on them they are often compelled from their expansion and excursion into flight and a running backward and not seldom into irregularities of motions wherefore sudden passions of the mind distract them and drive them into Spasms and Convulsions when the Alible Juice by which they are repaired is supplyed too sharp sour or austere they suffer now Palsies and now contractures If that some object more incongruous such as we have affirmed Poyson to be should be offered whose Particles are indued with such fierceness or are of such a kind of configuration that when they grow impetuously hot with the Nervous Liquor they shake or lose here and there its more subtil or spirituous part or wholly drive it away and fix the remaining Liquor either with a styptic force or by ebullition force it into inordinate motions hence of necessity evil distempers of the Brain and Nervous parts arise viz. somtimes a Convulsion Trembling Shivering somtimes loosnings or a stupefaction and other symptoms of more grievous note What things after this manner infect the Nervous Juice with Poyson are now more thick and only when they are applyed in a very Corporeal substance do inflict their hurt now they are thin and being resolved even into a vapour or breath pour forth from a certain little prick the ferment of Poyson through the whole Nervous stock Somtimes the Poyson of some hurtful thing being eaten first begins its Tragedy in the Ventricle more often by a naked touch leaves on the superficies of the Body a virulent taint which easily and quickly with its ferment contaminates the Spirits dispersed through the whole The Infection wherever inflicted either within or without is more largely dispersed from the extremities of the Nerves by their easie passage being from thence brought into consent of the evil by the very many little shoots of the same branch Often a more light touch of an invenomed thing by the finger or extremity of any other member presently communicates to the Brain the received infection and from thence it is retorted into the whole Body and the farthest members the reason of this is that both the Particles of the Nervous Juice and of the same invenomed infection are so light and ready for motion that they
pass through most swiftly as the Rays of light through a Diaphanous medium the whole mass of one another 2. As often as the Blood contracts hurt from some Poysonous thing the Poyson is fixed within either slow and of lesser activity which does not presently betray it self nor break forth into cruel symptoms till of a long time after it is ripened by a silent fermentation and hath first infected the whole mass of Blood as may be observed in some Poysons which are said to kill at a distance and not till after some months or years Or the Poysons inspired into the Blood are imbued with a much more acute sting that from their Contagion the Infection contracted presently breaks forth into cruel symptoms and thereupon follows now a Feaverish effervency with Vomiting Thirst and burning of the Precordia now a swelling up of the whole Body a discoloration of the skin oftentimes a breaking forth of whelks and buboes and frequently also a sudden loss of all strength so that sudden death without tumult and almost insensibly steals upon one where by the way it is to be noted If the Spirits of the Blood provoked by the enemy are able to encounter him and to strive for the victory this Feaverish ebullition of the Blood is stirred up from the conflict but if the Particles of the Poyson being far stronger suddenly profligate the Spirits of the Blood and extinguish life presently the Bloody mass is corrupted neither can it be circulated in the Vessels nor rightly inkindled in the heart If it be yet demanded what mutations the Blood infected with Poyson undergoes either in its substance or consistency that for that reason it is rendered unfit for the sustaining of Life I answer after this manner some Poysons fuse the Blood and too much precipitate its serosity such are Medicines which by a strong killing Purging or by a Profluvium of Urine or a discoloration or swelling up of the whole Body or with an eruption of Pustules cause a very great secretion of the serous Latex in the mean time a great ebullition of the mass of Blood is induced whereby the Vital Spirits are greatly destroyed the Particles of Salt and Sulphur too much exalted by the Concoction and are often so roasted that a Yellow or Black Jaundies is caused There are Poysons of another kind far more dangerous which congeal the Blood and by destroying its mixture corrupt it viz. the first induce a congelation to the Bloody mass and then a Putrefaction for when the Spirits of the Blood being overthrown by the contagion of the Poyson are dissipated the equal mixture of the Liquor is loosned wherefore the more thick Particles mutually infold one another and like Milk when Rennet is put to it or growing sowr of it self are coagulated apart hence the Blood curdles in the Vessels that it is less readily circulated in them coagulated portions of this being inwardly diluted into the bosom of the Heart are apt to stagnate there and so to bring forth frequent syncopes and swounings being carried outwardly and in the circulating fixed in the skin somtimes being more plentifully heaped together they induce a suffusion of blackness through the whole somtimes being more sparingly dispersed they cause only spots or Purple marks like black and blew stroaks and other appearances of malignity But the coagulation of the Blood quickly disposes it to putrefaction or corruption as is seen in extravasated Blood which is wont to grow soon black and putrid For the Spirit being exhaled the Particles of Sulphur and Salt remaining in the Blood begin to go apart one from another and to break the bond of the mixture from whence follows Putrefaction These things being thus premised of Poyson in general the reason of the method requires that we enter upon the handling of Feavers which draw their Original altogether from a malignant and invenomed infection and as under this title the Pest or Plague easily obtains the chief place I will begin with its consideration and afterwards I will speak of malignant Feavers Small-pox and Measels in order But yet before I shall propose its definition I will briefly inquire of the pestiferous Poyson what its disposition and Nature may be also from whence it may be born and lastly by what means it is propagated into others by contagion For the expressing the Nature of the Plague Authors are wont to choose some invenomed Bodies and from their names to frame an Elogy of this most wicked Disease wherefore in the definition of the pest are commonly recounted the Nepelline Aconital and Arsenical Poyson the Lethiferous force of which however as it consists in a very thick matter and does not exert or put forth itself but by a Corporal contact doth not truly imitate the essence of the Pestilential Disease for this is founded in a Spiritual and Vaporous infection by which its Effluvia being every way diffused so potently unfold themselves that out of the best seminary or seed plot they quickly propagate a fruitful Crop of death and destruction By reason of its notable activity this infection may deserve to be called as it were a certain quintessence of Poyson the very agil and subtil Particles of this do penetrate all Bodies and inspire them with its ferment for either being dispersed through the Air or hid in a certain tender or cherishing nest tho they strike against the human Body but lightly and as it were through a Casement they easily subdue it for both the Animal Spirits and those of the blood they quickly infect and by that means shortly pour forth the Venomous taint into all the members When a Pestilential Breath or Vapour hath invaded any one and that Poyson hath first laid hold on the Animal Spirits or those of the Blood or both of them at once as hath been already said of Poysons the taint is quickly derived from the subtil and more thin substance of these into a more thick matter because it quickly ferments the whole mass of Blood or of the Nervous Juice and the excrementitious humors every where abounding and from thence is deduced into the solid parts and fixes the evil in them If this Disease first possesses the Animal Spirits presently the hurt is communicated to the Brain and the Nervous stock and especially to the Ventricle forthwith it impoysons the humour growing in these loosens its mixture perverts the regular motion and renderr it wholly incongruous and infestous to the more tender substance of the containing parts by and by from thence Cramps and Convulsive motions cruel Vomitings pains of the Heart also Phrensies deliriums or pertinacious watchings are stirred up about the first assault of the Disease when in the mean time the infection not being yet dispersed through the Blood the sick are not Feaverish nor are troubled with inordinate Pulse or Syncope or appearances of marks which symptoms however arise afterwards as soon as the Blood is infected If when the Spirits of the
Because after the Summer solstice the North wind still blowing a cold season remained for a long while so that the Fruit and Corn this year was feared by the Husbandmen would scarce be throughly ripened but after this a little before the beginning of July a most fierce heat followed for several days and when the Dog days were begun the Air grew most cruelly hot that one could scarce indure the open Air. By reason of this heat and cold in excess the temperature of this year was very unequal wherefore there was a necessity for our Blood to be now fixed and as it were congealed now too much roasted and so perverted from its natural disposition to a scorched and melancholly temper also it came to pass that the Pores of the skin were much altered from their right constitution that by that means an insensible transpiration could not be performed after the wonted manner From the time that the former Feaver ceased almost to the end of the Dog days there was a state of health and free from all popular Diseases but then a few here and there among the Villages and in lesser places first fell sick but afterwards about the end of August a new Feaver suddenly arising began to spread through whole Regions every-where round about us also this as the other which spread the last Autumn raged chiefly in Country Houses and Villages but in the mean time few of the Inhabitants of the greater Towns and Cities fell sick At the same time in other Regions situate at a distance from us yea almost throughout England the Epidemical Feaver was said to rage and in some other places to be far more deadly than it was about our Country Perhaps the Idea of this Feaver now reigning had not the provision of its symptoms alike in all places or was noted wholly with the same appearances and accidents yet whatever it shewed in our parts as to its nature I shall briefly and succinctly add from our own proper observation or what I had learnt being communicated from others About the beginning of this Disease its figure was wandring and very uncertain because in some there was a continual fervor in others it was intermitting being renewed by set fits but at this time it hapned to very many as a pathognomic symptom that they were ill in their brain and nervous stock that presently from the very beginning of this Feaver almost all complained of their head being grievously distempered For a cruel headach infested some and hardness of hearing with a noise in the ears troubled others but to most was wont to happen either a stupidness and heavy sleepiness with a vertiginous Distemper or pertinacious wakings with a delirium and distractions of the animal spirits I have observed in some that on the first or second day of their sickness that little broad and red spots like to the measles have leisurely broke forth in the whole body which being shortly vanished the Feaver presently became stronger and especially the Distempers of the head far more grievous From thence a benumedness of the senses and a sleepiness fell upon some for many days that they lay a long while as if dying without speaking or knowledg of their friends I knew others to have fallen from hence into a Lethargy and others cast into an Apoplexie and some into a Phrensie and Delirium Of these the younger and strong men yet not without a long languishment and doubtful recovery most of them escaped in the mean time old men or other ways weak and sickly generally died Those who fell sick with the Feaver as it were continual with those notes of malignity were more rare and the distempered were only sporadically in some houses only But the sickness which most commonly spread about us fell upon most and tho it cruelly raged it seemed to imitate an intermitting Feaver to wit either a Tertian or a Quotidian for that the sick had fits either every day or which I more often observed every other day which infested them grievously and a long while with cold heat and sweat succeeding in order but these kind of fits as also the course of the whole Disease were wont to be noted with diversity according to the age and temper of the sick and with various concourse of symptoms and accidents Yet this was common to most of I had like to have said all the sick that together with the Feaver they were troubled with Cephalic Distempers When therefore any one was troubled with this Disease whether the sickness was excited from an evident cause or Contagion or without any manifest occasion its coming betrayed it self by a pain in the head and often in the loyns with thirst want of appetite spontaneous weariness and heat tho not strong if it hapned in a young Body of a florid Blood and more hot temper the fits wanted the cold and shivering about its beginning but they were very troublesome and sharp with long heat The sick were often troubled with vomiting and their head aked cruelly for the most part sweat difficulty succeeded which being often partial and quickly broke off rarely cured the fit but when the sweat failed they grew hot again that scarce in 18 or 24 hours the fit was finished in some In the mean time from the Blood being very fervent the phantasie was disturbed that oftentimes a Delirium absurd or idle talking wakings and high inquietudes were stirred up during the fit but the same being finished in the time between still a troublesome thirst a slow heat languor of spirits and great debility of strength with an headach and a vertiginous Distemper for the most part molested them It was rarely found for any to find themselves indifferently well as in a common Tertian between the fits About the beginning of the Disease the feaverish fiercenesses were somewhat more mild which afterwards at every turn leisurely grew worse and then began with cold and shaking to which nevertheless after a long and very troublesome heat sweat very hardly succeeded in most so that the fit rarely ended in its due temper Within six or seven periods the strength of the sick was much cast down that being made languid and weak they had an hard task to struggle with the Disease because unless Nature were succoured by Art the Feaver still prevailed and rarely or never in a short time was it cured by a Crisis or leisurely remitted but it brought the sick into great streights by its long siege and still persisting till the Blood being by its frequent deflagration made very liveless and watery was unable to grow too hot in the Vessels of its own accord or to be inkindled more plentifully in the heart and then oftentimes became so dead and wanting of spirits that being insufficient for the continuing of the Vital Lamp it brought in Death But sometimes the mass of Blood being depraved and made poor by this Disease was able tho hardly to continue the half extinct Vital
necessary first to publish the Disquisitions of the nature of this Soul and its manner of subsisting and also of its Parts and Powers that from these things rightly known its preternatural Passions may at length be the better discovered But concerning these very hard matters and difficult to be unfolded when I had begun to frame as I think probable and rational Arguments I saw well that they would be looked upon and laughed at by some as unusual things and Paradoxes which indeed it becomes me not to take ill but to let every one freely to enjoy his own sense and to use in all things his own opinion and judgment Among the many things conjecturally proposed by me which I could not avoid two chief Arguments are opposed to wit that I had affirmed that the blood for the continuing of life was inkindled and that the animal Spirits for the motive act were exploded which terms though perhaps they may sound rough and strange to be applied to the animal oeconomy yet if any one shall weigh the Reasons and Arguments which do perswade to the truth of either opinion I doubt not but that there will be none who will not give their assent or easily pardon me for mine In the first place therefore because there are so many opinions concerning the growing hot of the Blood for that some attribute it to an innate heat others to a flame in the Heart some also to a fermentation of the bloody mass and others to its inkindling therefore I shall endeavour more narrowly to introspect the matter and as much as I am able to build upon a more certain Ratiocination its genuine Cause though very abstruse We have formerly discoursed concerning that Soul which is common to the more perfect Beasts with that subordinate or more inferiour of Man and have shewed it to be indeed Corporeal and to consist of two parts the one of these rooted in the blood we called a Flame and the other dwelling in the Brain and nervous stock Light As we shall here only treat of the former I think it will be no difficult matter to make use of the same Reasons and Instances which truly conclude or at least very like truth that in the first place the blood is animate or hath life secondly that this Animation is in its accension or inkindling or consists in an affection most analogical to this 1. Not only the opinions of Philosophers but the undoubted testimony of the Sacred Scripture plainly asserts the animation of the blood to wit the use of blood was forbidden in the Mosaical Law for this reason because the Blood is the Life or Soul which is also apparent by the observation of the most famous Harvey for that its motion is to be observed by the eye shews that it first lives and last dyes For the greater proof of this it is commonly known that Animals only live so long as the blood remains in its due plenty and motion and that they presently dye if either too great a quantity of this be taken away or its motion suppressed But as to the second Proposition to wit that the life or soul of the fervent blood depends upon its inkindling this will appear probable if I shall shew First that the liquor of the blood ought to be very hot in the more perfect living Creatures Secondly that this growing hot can be produced or conserved in the blood by no other means besides accension or inkindling Thirdly that some chief affections as it were proper passions of fire and flame are agreeable to the life only of the blood growing hot Fourthly and lastly these being clearly shewn some other less signal accidents and properties in which common flame and life agree are added and also we will unfold how and in what respect they differ among themselves As to the first we affirm that the blood is perpetually moved in all living Creatures besides in the more perfect it doth estuate or grow hot in act Indeed its undiscontinued motion is required both for the conservation of the disposition of the blood it self whose liquor would otherwise be subject to stagnation and putrefaction as also that being carried about in the whole body it might be able to give a due tribute to all parts For that the offices of the blood at least in the more perfect living Creatures are divers and manifold viz. to instil matter in the Brain and nervous stock for the animal Spirits to dispense the nutritious Juyce into all the solid parts to suggest to the motive parts an elastic Copula and besides to separate all recrements and worn out Particles and to put them aside into convenient Emunctories But although the mere motion of the Blood in less perfect Animals or at least its moderate swelling up such as may be perceived in Wine and other Liquors agitated into Fermentation is able to sustain and perform the oeconomy of Nature to wit for as much as both a crude nutriment is every where received from the river of the blood though cool continually flowing into all parts of the whole Body and that fewer spirits and more thick as it were separated by percolation or straining enter the Brain and nervous stock with that plenty that may suffice for local motion and the Organs of the few senses to be rudely actuated yet the blood watering the bodies of more perfect Animals require offices of a far more excellent kind for it ought not only to be carried about with a continual and more rapid motion but very much to swell up yea actually to grow hot or effervent to wit for that end that its frame or substance being very much loosned it may more copiously send forth the respective Particles of various kinds every where falling off from it and may dispose them here and there for the use and wants of Nature But first for that the animal Spirits are continually to be supplied in great plenty from the mass of blood and that there is need for the elastic Particles requisite for the locomotive function to be thence perpetually poured into all the Muscles it seems very necessary that the liquor from whence these generous and manifold supplements are drawn should be actually hot or rather should burn forth to wit that the aforesaid Particles not sufficiently to be unlocked but by heat or burning should freely run out from the substance or frame of the liquor which truly is manifest because from Wine and also from the same bloody Liquor and all other spirituous things a subtil and spirituous humour is copiously drawn but not to be performed by distillation without heat or fire Yea the sulphureous Particles although they are less apt to be exhaled from any Liquor yet they most readily fly out by inkindling the subject By these there is an apparent necessity of the blood 's growing hot for the perfection of the animal as well as vital function but that it may appear by what means this is done
to be carried towards the middle as it were by the Spirits entred here and there at once Further which I mentioned before each fibre being tyed about the middle being as it were as yet free and compacted with the others was contracted or drawn together but a Ligature being put to both ends it remained flaggy constantly above or beyond the bound place But that I might no longer doubt concerning this I applied two Ligatures at equal distances from the middle and the ends about the same bundle of fleshy fibres which being done a contraction and swelling up arising presently from either fleshy extreme to the places bound went no farther the middle part between in the mean time being unmoved remained flaccid whence it may be well concluded that in every musculary contraction the animal Spirits or elastick Particles do leap out from the tendinous fibres into the fleshy and vicissively in the relaxation recede or run back from these into those However this being proved and granted there yet remain very many difficulties concerning Musculary Motion for first it may be asked how the animal Spirits which enter silently or without any incitation or Tumor the tendinous fibres do so blow up the fleshy fibres that they are able to force them altogether into shorter spaces For the producing this effect plenty of Spirits leaping from the tendinous fibres do not seem alone sufficient but besides we may suppose some other kind of Particles implanted in the fleshy fibres meeting with the others flowing from the Tendons do forthwith strive whence a mutual rarefaction and turgescency or swelling up of them or an inflation or sudden blowing up of the containing bodies together with an abbreviation or shortning of them doth arise not much unlike as when the Corpuscles or little bodies of fire entring into a piece of leather or any thing and forcing variously here and there it s implanted Particles whereby they are presently insnared make it so to be stuffed and wrinkled in like manner also the animal Spirits although they pass through the Tendons where they are solitary or by themselves without moving them as the Effluvia's of heat in Metals or more dry bodies yet being dilated in the flesh for that there joyning with elastick Particles of another kind they are expanded or stretched out they cause the sudden inflations and corrugations of the containing fibres But we have elsewhere shewn that such Particles divers and wholly heterogene to the nature of the Spirits may be copiously and easily carried to the Muscles For indeed it is plain by ocular demonstration that the blood doth every where wash and water outwardly all the fleshy fibres which besides it is thought not only to nourish but also to be busied about the offices of the animal Function and what can be less suspected than that it doth instil into their Pipes a certain subtil liquor whose Particles being agitated and also rarified by the Spirits flowing therein stuff up the fibres as we but now hinted and compel them intumified by reason of the assault on either side made into shorter spaces But that the fleshy belly of the Muscle whilst it is contracted doth swell up is not at all to be doubted because this is evidently beheld by the sight and touch in the diffection of living Creatures to wit all the fleshy fibres being wrinkled together are made more tumid and sharper and so shorten the Muscle and make it also thicker and broader For the more certain belief of this when I had bound some of the fleshy fibres separated from the knitting of the rest and had left others near them loose there appeared a notable difference between those flaccid or not swelled and these intumified or swelled up in every contraction of the Muscle But if it be demanded of what nature to wit whether spirituous saline as may be believed or of any other disposition the animal Spirits derived from the Brain into the Muscles may be and then whether the other Latex immediately carried to them from the blood is sulphureous or nitrous Concerning these because it appears not to the sense we shall pronounce nothing rashly or positively But even as in other natural things the active Particles of a various kind which being unlike among themselves are found apt mutually to grow hot or to be struck off from one another or otherwise to be rarified or expanded and as the intestine motions of Bodies and especially the elastick such as are the contractions of the Muscles can only proceed from the congressions of such like certainly it may be lawful to presume that these do wholly depend upon such a cause Therefore as to the Musculary Motion in general we shall conclude after this manner with a sufficiently probable conjecture viz. that the animal Spirits being brought from the Head by the passage of the Nerves to every Muscle and as it is very likely received from the membranaceous fibrils are carried by their passage into the tendinous fibres and there they are plentifully laid up as in fit Store-houses which Spirits as they are naturally nimble and elastick where ever they may and are permitted expanding themselves leap into the fleshy fibers then the force being finished presently sinking down they slide back into the Tendons and so vicissively But whilst the same animal Spirits at the instinct given for the performing of motion do leap out of the tendinous fibers into the fleshy they meet there with active Particles of another nature supplied from the blood and presently they grow mutually hot so that by the strife and agitation of both the fleshy fibres for that they are lax and porous are stuffed up and driven into wrinklings from all which being at once wrinkled or shrivell'd up the contraction of the whole Muscle proceeds the contraction being finished the sincere or clear Spirits which reside or are asswaged go back for the most part into the tendinous fibres the other Particles being left within the flesh the loss or wasting of these the blood supplies as the Nerves do those By what instinct the musculary contraction begins and ends shall be inquired into presently That the animal Spirits flowing from the tendinous Fibres may enter equally all the fleshy there are two Tendons in every simple Muscle which are so constituted according to opposite Angles that the Spirits running to them from a twofold starting place or bound might presently fill the whole belly of the Muscle and that motion being finished might immediately swiftly retire If the contraction ought to be performed indifferently towards the middle of the flesh the Tendons for the most part are equal but if the motion inclines more towards one region of the flesh one Tendon to wit which may supply a greater company of Spirits exceeds the other in magnitude If the Muscle whereby it may be the stronger is big and endued with an ample bulk or substance it is divided as it were into many Lobes or Bellies and
animal Spirits whose companies or throngs constitute the Hypostasis of the bodily Soul have these two properties as it were implanted in their nature to wit that whilst they are lively numerous and free they exert or expand themselves then that force being finished they being a little diminished retire themselves and grow quiet but afterwards being refreshed they leap out again and so vicissively Waking and sleep and the alterations of work and idleness or rest inbred in all living Creatures sufficiently declare this Wherefore to the impulse or instincts of some Muscles which are wont to be perpetually contracted and released scarce any thing more is required but that their Tendons may be supplied by the Nerves with a constant influx of animal Spirits but the Spirits themselves because they are numerous and expeditious of their own nature do willingly leap out into the moving Fibres then the charge being performed after a small loss or expence they immediately withdraw and being again presently recruited they are again expanded and so vicissively Further their actions which chiefly are Pulse and Breathing are variously changed according to the degrees of heat or of the affections for as much as the Spirits being brought by the Nerves are sent from the Cerebel sometimes more remisly sometimes more plentifully or more nimbly Further in some other Muscles subject to the Empire of the Appetite as the animal Spirits naturally affect turns of expansion and recess there is only need of a sign to be given either for the performing or stopping of the commanded motion either of which the inflowing Spirits by their various knocking against the Muscle easily perform in ordering the implanted Spirits into various aspects or tendencies When the Muscle is contracted the implanted Spirits whilst they are loosned from either end towards the middle look and tend with a changed front from the middle towards either end And so whilst the inflowing Spirits carry the Symbol of performing Contraction they being incited by heaps within the Nerve more fully blow up its end inserted to the Muscle where they are more thickly crowded together and so cause it there to be contracted and abbreviated whereby it comes to pass that the same inflowing Spirits about to enter into the Muscle are at that time stopped by a mere heap or rather are called back towards the intumified Nerve wherefore by and by the whole series of the implanted Spirits hence their inclination being changed also looks that way and so the inhabitants of the Tendons leaping out from their little Cells into the fleshy Fibres cause motive contraction then the motion is broken off or ceases assoon as the Spirits being before called back towards the Nerve do tend again into the Muscle and so the front of the Army being again changed bands of the implanted Spirits are presently compelled into the Tendons That the thing is in a manner thus I am perswaded not out of a mere agreeableness or concinnity of our Hypothesis but from Anatomical observation Because once dissecting a Whelp alive when by chance I beheld some Muscles of the hinder part of the Head and Neck divided and separated at the same instant wherein the fleshy Fibres as also the Nerves inserted into them were seen at once to be contracted and being intumified to be abbreviated For the promoting the recess of the Spirits out of the fleshy Fibres into the Tendons whilst the Muscle is contracted the membranaceous Fibrils which every where cut cross-wise the fleshy and thickly stick between seem to help The texture of these never to be enough admired is better perceived in a Muscle endued with large Fibres viz. an Oxes being boiled to a tenderness For in such a one if gently opening the fleshy Fibres you shall draw them one from another through the whole series you shall see little Fibrils like hairs most thickly extended upon every one of those Tubes which little Fibrils not only close and knit together the fleshy Fibres but also lying upon every one of their series and cutting them in oblique Angles they also are all carried parallel from Tendon to Tendon in an opposite site to the fleshy therefore whilst the Muscle being contracted the fleshy Fibres do swell up the Fibrils embracing them that they may give place are somewhat distended then as soon as the swelling up remits these returning to their wonted straitness press together every where the flesh and the Spirits being expulsed on either side they reduce them to their pristine length It makes for this that whilst the Muscle is contracted the Spirits inflowing through the Nerves depart from their membranaceous Fibrils wherefore these being empty and lax are able more easily to be distended but whilst the Muscle is relaxed the Spirits again entring the Fibrils fill them and that they may the better bind the fleshy Fibres they make them shorter The Instincts of Motions to be obeyed by the Muscles so delivered by the Nerves are being sent either from the Brain performed at the command and with the knowledge of the Appetite or from the Cerebel according to the Laws of Nature for the most part unknown to us But besides sometimes the Muscles are carried beyond or contrary to the pleasure of the Appetite or Nature into irregular motions viz. violent and convulsive and that happens after various manners and for divers causes Concerning these some time since discoursing more largely we have shewn that from thence do arise many kinds and differences of convulsive motions as the Spasmodick matter being somewhere fixed doth subsist either about the beginnings middle or ends of the Nerves or because the same thing being wandring and loose runs about here and there through the whole passages of the Nerves and so variously transfers from place to place convulsive distempers But besides these divers kinds of Convulsions which are excited by reason of some evil or vice sticking somewhere to the Nerves themselves this our Myology or Doctrine of the Muscles hath discovered some Convulsions of another kind arising from the Muscles being chiefly affected For indeed we must advertise you that the animal Spirits disposed among the Muscles themselves by reason of a taint or evil derived from the Brain or from the Blood or perhaps oftentimes from both together are infected with certain heterogene Particles by reason of which they cannot rest or lye quiet in their Cells but being always unquiet and restless leap out of their own accord from the tendinous Fibres into the fleshy and so oftentimes produce frequent and cruel Convulsions But this we have observed to be done after a twofold manner viz. first for that the Spirits being burdened with an elastick Copula remain not long within the Tendons but leaping out from thence into the fleshy Fibres induce frequent Convulsions of a Muscle but short and as it were by leaps or secondly because the animal Spirits although they sometimes lye quietly within the Tendons yet being inordinately snatched into the
these manifold convolutions and infoldings of the brain are required for these divers manners of ordinations of the animal Spirits to wit that in these Cells or Store-houses severally placed might be kept the species of sensible things and as occasion serves may be taken from thence Hence these folds or rollings about are far more and greater in a man than in any other living Creature to wit for the various and manifold actings of the superior Faculties but they are garnished with an uncertain and as it were fortuitous series that the exercises of the animal Function might be free and changeable and not determined to one Those Gyrations or Turnings about in four-footed beasts are fewer and in some as in a Cat they are found to be in a certain figure and order wherefore this Brute thinks on or remembers scarce any thing but what the instincts and needs of Nature suggest In the lesser four-footed beasts also in Fowls and Fishes the superficies of the brain being plain and even wants all cranklings and turnings about wherefore these sort of Animals comprehend or learn by imitation fewer things and those almost only of one kind for that in such distinct Cells and parted one from another are wanting in which the divers Species and Ideas of things are kept apart But that in more perfect Animals all the turnings about are made of a twofold substance viz. Cortical and Medullary the reason seems to be that one part may serve for the production of the animal Spirits and the other for their exercise and dispensation For we may well think that the animal Spirits are wholly or for the most part procreated in the Cortical substance of the brain for this severs and receives immediately from the blood the subtil liquor and imbuing it with a volatile Salt exalts it into very pure Spirits It is obvious to every one that the Arteries enter the Cortex of the brain with a more frequent insertion of shoots and instil to it a spirituous liquor the leavings of which or what is superfluous the Veins in like manner entring it do sup up and carry away in the mean time the more subtil portion being here set free goes into Spirits In truth the blood waters the medullary substance of the brain in a very small quantity which seems truly to be rather for the sake of exciting of heat than that the animal Spirits should there be generated by the flowing in of that blood For indeed the volatile Salt which like Ferment spiritualizes the subtil liquor stilled forth from the blood is had more copiously in the Cortex of the brain rather than in its middle or marrowy part because that part being endued with an Ashy colour shews by its aspect the spermatick Particles and Humor contained in them in which Spirit and a volatile Salt very much abounds yea and plainly resembles an Armeniack smell such as either part alike breathe forth In the mean time the medullary part of the brain seems very like the oblong marrow and the spinal But it is well enough known that these medullary parts serve for the exercise and dispensation of the animal Spirits and not for their generation The sign of which is that where-ever an obstruction happens in them whatever is below being destitute of the influx of the Spirits suffers an Eclipse whence it follows that the animal Spirits irradiating the medullary Rope are not produced in it but flow in from elsewhere and why should not we think the same of the middle marrow of the brain Truly that this part is rather the Mart or Exchange of the Spirits than its Shop or Work-house appears from hence because the Animals which excel in Memory Imagination and Appetite are furnished with a more ample marrow of the brain as is observed in man and the more perfect four footed beasts and they who seem to have little need of those Faculties as the lesser four-footed beasts also Fowls and Fishes have the Cortex of the brain greater but the medullary part very small It is a familiar Experiment among Boys to thrust a needle through the head of a Hen and that she in the mean time whose brain is so pierced through shall live and be well a long time The reason of which is because the whole substance of the brain in these sort of Animals is almost merely Cortical wherefore from the suffering such a hurt as long as the marrow remains unhurt the Spirits are generated in a lesser quantity but their commerce to the necessaries of life are not therefore presently interrupted Indeed the brains of Birds consist almost wholly of a Cortical and Ashy part and the medullary part is exceeding small and is only like a smaller Nerve descending on either side from the substance of the brain it self After the animal Spirits are begot by a constant afflux of the blood within the Cortex of the Brain being there begotten having obtained a watry Vehicle they flow presently more inwardly and soon enter into the marrows filling the furrows and baulks of all the turning and winding Crevices from whence being carried farther through all the particular tracts of each marrow into the marrowy substance which lyes under all the winding Crevices as their common Basis they are brought at last into the Callous Body as into a spacious field where as in a free and open place these Spirits being newly produced are expatiated or issue forth 5. Indeed this medullary substance called the Callous Body which chambering the more inward superficies of the brain receives into it self the marrow of all the turning Crevices seems to be made for that end and disposed there for the same purpose to wit that the Spirits flowing into it on every side might be stretched out as in their proper Sphere and begin to exercise the acts of the animal Faculties In this place they which come out of the several winding Crevices do meet together and remain as in a publick Emporium or Mart from whence as occasion serves they are raised up and drawn forth for the uses of every Faculty But whilst they here remain at leisure and not busied they become purified or refined more and more by a continual circulation because these Spirits new-born do gently and perpetually flow on every side from the outmost bounds of this body to wit where this common marrow besmears the hinder productions of the brain or the border of either of its Hemispheres towards the fore-part of this callous Body where it is thickest and there if there be need they are employed on the act of the Imagination or entring the shanks of the oblong Marrow they actuate and inspire the nervous Appendix but what Spirits are remaining there after these offices are served run forthwith into the Fornix and passing through its passage they are remanded back again to the hinder region of the brain by a certain circulation and lastly after this manner penetrating through the narrow passages of the Fornix those
through as yet the nervous System and very many Creeks or Bosoms Meanders and highly intricate Recesses or private places in it remain to be viewed therefore although we know it is difficult to proceed with full Sail we have resolved to undertake the task of the Doctrine of the Nerves and the rather because without the perfect knowledge of the Nerves the Doctrine of the Brain and its Appendix would be left wholly lame and imperfect for neither what hath already been delivered concerning them can be sufficiently understood or illustrated nor which I chiefly desire and is the end of the former Disquisitions without those things before known can the Pathology of the Brain and nervous stock be rightly instituted And indeed there are many things which might easily deter any one from such an undertaking to wit the hardness of the work and full of hazard which promises at first sight more difficulty and thorny labour than pleasure or profit Then some will object that this Province is already so perfectly cultivated and adorned by former Anatomists that by a repetition of the same I may seem to have medled with a thing done to my hand But I may readily answer to these first That the Anatomy of the Nerves yields more pleasant and profitable Speculations than the Theory of any parts besides in the animated Body for from hence the true and genuine Reasons are drawn of very many Actions and Passions that are wont to happen in our Body which otherwise seem most difficult and unexplicable and no less from this Fountain the hidden Causes of Diseases and their Symptoms which commonly are ascribed to the Incantations of Witches may be found out and clearly laid open But as to our Observations about the Nerves from our following Discourse it will plainly appear that I have not trod the paths or footsteps of others nor repeated what hath been before told Therefore that according to our determination we may enter upon the explanation of the nervous System we shall comprehend under this name all parts upon which gifted with the animal Spirit Motion and Sense necessarily and immediately depend to wit for the performing either one only or both together in the whole Body But these kind of parts in respect of the Head and marrowy Appendix are like a branching stock or imps growing out of the trunk of a Tree for supposing that the cortical substances of the Brain and Cerebel are in the place of roots and that the substances every where medullar are taken for the stock or pith the nervous germination or budding forth expanded into divarications of Nerves and Fibres will appear like so many little branches twigs and leaves Or if the Head containing in it self the chief part and power of the sensitive Soul be taken for the body of some Luminary as of the Sun or a Star the nervous System shall be that radiant or beamy concretion compassing it about Because the animal Spirits flowing from the Brain and Cerebel with the medullar Appendix of either as it were from a double Luminary irradiate the nervous System and so constitute its several parts the Organs of Motion or Sense or of both together as hath been said The parts of the nervous System as a radiant or beamy texture are either primary viz. the bodies themselves of the Nerves into which the animal Spirits immediately flow from the Head and its medullar Appendix or secondarily which are Fibres planted or interwoven in the Membranes musculous Flesh Tendons and some of the Parenchyma which also contain in themselves animal Spirits but they receive them not but mediately and secondarily derived from the Head through the bodies of the Nerves We have already shewed that the animal Spirits are procreated only in the Brain and Cerebel from which they continually springing forth inspire and fill full the medullar Trunk like the Chest of a musical Organ which receives the wind to be blown into all the Pipes but those Spirits being carried from thence into the Nerves as into so many Pipes hanging to the same blow them up and actuate them with a full influence then what flow over or abound from the Nerves enter the Fibres dispersed every where in the Membranes Muscles and other parts and so impart to those bodies in which the nervous Fibres are interwoven a motive and sensitive or feeling force And these Spirits of every part are called Implanted forasmuch as they flow not within the Nerves as the former with a perpetual flood but being something more stable and constant stay longer in the subject bodies and only as occasion serves viz. according to the impressions inwardly received from the Nerves or impressed outwardly by the objects are ordained into divers stretchings or carryings out for the effecting of motion or sense either of this or that manner or kind Indeed the animal Spirits flowing within the Nerves with a living Spring like Rivers from a perpetual Fountain do not stagnate or stand still but sliding forth with a continual course are ever supplied and kept full with a new influence from the Fountain In the mean time the Spirits in the rest of the nervous kind especially those abounding in the Membranes and musculous stock are like Ponds and Lakes of Waters lately diffused from the chanels of Rivers whose waters standing still are not much moved of their own accord but being agitated by things cast into them or by the blasts of winds conceive divers sorts of fluctuations But because there is no light difference between the motions and consistency of the Spirits and of Waters perhaps it will better illustrate the matter if the Spirits of either kind to wit the inflowing and implanted are compared to the beaming forth of divers rays of light And so when light is let into a dark chamber and presently inlightens the whole we may conceive the particles of the light so swiftly diffused to be of a twofold kind to wit some are bodies sent from the light it self which diffuse themselves every way into an Orb and other luminous particles are as it were Etherial little bodies existing before in the pores of the Air which being agitated by the former and as it were inkindled cause as it were a flamy though most thin contexture stretched out in the whole clearness After the like manner the animal Spirits flowing from the medullar substance into the Nerves are as it were rays diffused from the light it self and the other Spirits every where abounding in the Fibres are as so many lucid particles included and implanted in the Air which are actuated by the former and being stirred up by them into motion perform the acts both of the sensitive and locomotive Faculty That it may the better appear by what means the animal Spirits do irradiate and swiftly pass through the parts of the nervous System both primary and secondary so that light is scarcely carried swifter through a diaphanous Medium than the communication of the Spirits is
matter apt for explosion is joyned to them For it is not possible that the immense loss of Spirits which happens in hard labours if they were wholly destroyed in so short a time should be able to be restored by supplements coming only through the Nerves We shall discourse more largely of these things if at any time hereafter we shall treat of the Motions of the Muscles The animal Spirits being disposed within the several Muscles according to the series of Fibres seem as it were so many distinct Troops or Companies of Souldiers all which being set as it were in a Watch-tower are ordained as a new impression is carried to them by the Nerves either from the objects outwardly or more inwardly from the Head forthwith into various forms and peculiar orders for the performing of motion or sense of this or that kind The carriage or behaviour of these is worth the seeing in an animal newly killed and its skin taken off For when life perishes and all the force of the Spirits flowing in through the Nerves hath quite ceased yet the Spirits implanted into the whole Body breaking forth from the Muscles still move and shake them and force them into several Convulsions and trembling motions From what hath been said we may gather what the disposition or order of the animal Spirits may be in the whole animal Body to wit those procreated in the cortical substance both of the Brain and Cerebel are congregated into the middles of either as it were into distinct Empories or Marts and an expansion being made in either they cause certain interior powers of the sensitive Soul to be exercised yet the same Spirits affecting more room enter the oblong Marrow as it were the Chest as hath been said of a musical Organ and fill it full within which flowing they carry to and fro the impressions of sensible Things and the Instincts of Motions From the oblong and spinal Marrow the same Spirits unless when they are otherwise busied tending outwardly flow towards the several parts of the whole Body which notwithstanding wandring so out of doors because they pass through very strait ways in their passage to wit the slender bodies of the Nerves they break not forth in heaps or in a thick troop but only contracted orderly and as it were by bands or divisions but they being carried beyond the extremities of the Nerves and there possessing the Membranes Muscles and other sensible parts dilate themselves as it were into a most ample field and with a very diffuse Army they dwell in the Pores and passages of the Fibres planted every where about where also being endowed from the blood with new food they become more lively and more expeditious or ready for the designed offices Here perhaps it may be demanded how the animal Spirits diffused in such numerous troops through the habit of the Body are able to be supplied by so strait chanels of the Nerves To which we reply That those which reside more outwardly do not quickly evaporate nor are remanded back by Circulation wherefore when all the Fibres are filled by an influx of the Spirits made by little and little from the beginning very small supplements suffice to repair their expence For neither are those dwelling more outwardly for that they are repaired by the bloody food much consumed though in frequent action Hence may be noted the difference between the distributions of the blood and animal Spirits That Latex because it is reduced in a circle its Vessels are in the whole passage proportionated as to the bulk of the Trunk and the branchings sent from it to wit so that the branches of the great Artery being carried from the Heart contain at the least so much of the blood as the shoots reaching forth from them into all the parts But because the animal Spirits being once begotten and carried more outwardly subsist longer there and evaporate very slowly and by little and little therefore the Vessels carrying them viz. the Nerves in respect of the Fibres receiving them are made much lesser in proportion lest perhaps by too great a supplement of the animal Spirits and the too thick gathering of the fresh ones still into the nervous parts the Army of the Veterans before instructed should be confounded and so the orders of all being disturbed the exercises of the animal Function should be performed any how For indeed when at any time the Spirits are made too sharp so that being therefore struck as it were with madness they rush upon the nervous System with tumult and impetuosity from thence a great unquietness and continual throwing about of the Members are wont to be excited to which sometimes madness and fury succeed In the order and ordination of the animal Spirits such as was but now described the Hypostasis or the Essence of the sensitive Soul consists to wit which is only a certain Systasis or shadowy subsistence of those Spirits which like Atoms or subtil Particles being chained and adhering mutually one to another are figured together in a certain Species Moreover the faculties of the same Soul depend upon the various Metathesis and gesticulation of those Spirits within the aforesaid Organs of the Head and nervous System But the consideration of this Soul and its powers requires a peculiar Tract which hereafter God willing we intend in the mean time our Method demands of us that according to our weak skill by the cense or numbering of the Nerves being particularly made we should deliver an exact Neurology or Doctrine of the Nerves But for that in the premised general consideration of the Nerves and Fibres there was mention made of the nervous and nutritious Juyce notwithstanding what belongs to their powers and natures hath been neither fully nor clearly enough delivered therefore we will a little divert here and make it our business to inquire what sort of Juyces and Humors are carried into the parts of the animated body for their nourishment and by what ways or passages then this difficulty being removed a plain and easie way leads into the Doctrine of the Nerves CHAP. XX. Of the Nervous Liquor and whether that or the bloody Humor be Nutritious SInce the Circulation of the Blood was made known and it hath been plainly made appear that it did no where stagnate and stand still long but was carried in a reciprocal motion always as in a circle it began to grow doubtful whether its Latex is nutritious or not For besides that the more rapid course of the blood as of a torrent might seem to wear the banks which it flowed between and to carry away some Particles from them rather than to be able to affix any thing to them the substance it self also of the blood for that it is more torrid and uneven is thought to be altogether unfit for nutrition Wherefore that a Juyce may be found more convenient or fit for this office the passages and hidden recesses of the Nerves are to be
viewed and as a certain Latex is found to flow within their Pores and passages presently the blood being rejected that nervous humor is gifted with the title of nutritious but yet by what right and after what manner nutrition is performed shall be our present purpose to inquire And here first of all that we may take the part of the blood it will be easie to shew that there is matter contained in it fit enough for the nourishment of the body and a sufficient store of it For besides the sulphureous substance of the blood which within the fire-place of the Heart with a continual inkindling and by that means deflagration in the Vessels produces life and in the more perfect Animals heat there is found also a certain other humor soft and alible which in the Circulation being distributed through several parts of the Body by increasing them adds nourishment and bulk yea the deflagration it self of the blood plainly as a Kitchin-fire in dressing meat as it were boils and prepares this humor whereby it more easily is assimilated into the substance of every part to be nourished Hence it comes to pass that by reason of a defect of heat in the blood no less than of excess nutrition is often hindered But that this kind of alible Juyce is contained in the bloody mass the Anatomy or spontaneous Analysis of its Latex sufficiently declares for the extravasated blood when it goes into parts of its own accord this liquor being disjoyned from the purple thick part and swimming a top of it appears clear or limpid but by reason of its more thick contents to wit the nutritious Particles like the white of an Egg it is easily made thick and grows white by a gentle heat which thing appears by this familiar Experiment to wit if you shall evaporate a little of it only in a Skillet over the fire the whole liquor will presently grow together into a white Gelly By this liquor as the blood is more or less imbued with it living Creatures grow and become more fleshy or lean for both the blood of younger Animals being loosned from cold is wont to shew much more of this kind of white than more ancient or older Creatures and we may take notice daily at our Tables that very much of this kind of Gelly comes out of the flesh of a Lamb or Calf being boiled or roasted and nothing almost from Mutton or Beef especially if old Therefore we may lawfully suppose that the blood is truly nourishable and that the whole or at least the greatest part of the matter for the adding bulk or substance to every part is dispensed from it but if at any time it be defective in this its office that happens not out of the natural unfitness of it but because its disposition is sometimes depraved and as the Stomach labouring with some vice rejects or perverts the Chyle to be cooked by it But the blood as it is not the only and alone humor which is distributed in the animated Body so neither seems it able to perform alone and of it self the whole office of nutrition For besides that being diffused through the Arteries and Veins another Latex is every where dispensed from the Head through the Nerves which shall be shewn to afford something at least to nourishment As to the first there are many reasons which declare that kind of humor to be in the Brain and nervous stock and to abound in their whole passages For unless the animal Spirits continually flowing out should be founded in such a Latex which is their Vehicle they would not be contiguous or joyned nor able to continue and knit together the Systasis of the sensitive Soul For if Hippocrates did observe long since that Cramps and Convulsive motions were produced from driness and emptiness that perhaps might happen by this means to wit because the humor in the Nerves or Fibres being deficient the Spirits distracted one from another were separated which notwithstanding that they might still retain their mutual embraces and as it were folding of hands bend the containing bodies and very much contract and so force them into Convulsions Besides Wounds and Impostumes of the Tendons and nervous parts seem to witness the diffusion of the nervous Juyce either of which drop forth a thin Ichor and wholly unlike to the mere bloody Excretion no less may be argued from the Ganglia and Evil running Sores In time of sleeping the aforesaid humor is wont to flow more plentifully into the Brain and Nerves and to obstruct their passages and therefore yawnings and stretchings come frequently upon those awaking that its reliques might be shook off Lastly we might readily shew that from the depravation of the nervous humor Melancholy Madness and some wonderful Convulsive distempers proceed But it may be objected that there is no such kind of humor because the Nerves being cut asunder it is not perceived to flow out and that the Nerves being also bound they do not swell above the Ligature as Arteries and Veins But it may be answered That the liquor flowing in the nervous stock is very subtil and spirituous and which by any striving or wrinkling up of those parts when they are roughly handled may easily evaporate and be blown away or dispersed unperceivably Then further 't is observed in the Whelps of some Animals newly litter'd who have as yet that juyce viscous and not easily to be dispersed and that have their Nerves greater if they be bound hard together with cords they will swell above the Ligature Therefore seeing it appears that a certain Humor doth creep through the blind Pipes and passages of the Head and of the Appendix both medullar and nervous it behoves us next of all to inquire from whence that comes thither and whither it tends and lastly of what kind of nature and use it is Concerning these first it appears from what hath been said that the aforesaid Latex serving for a Vehicle of the animal Spirits is perpetually instilled together with them from the blood watering the exterior confines of the Brain and Cerebel which from thence passing through the medullar Trunk is afterwards with a gentle spring poured through the whole frame of the nervous System so that the first fountains of the nervous humor are in the Brain and Cerebel But further to this Juyce conveying the forces of the animal Spirits and supplied only from the Head there joyns a certain other humor as it were auxiliar in the whole passage and restores and refreshes it otherwise about to grow deficient We think that these kind of supplements and subsidies which happen to come from elsewhere to the nervous Juyce flowing from the Head are received and admitted inwardly from the sides and extremities of the medullar and nervous System We have already shewed that an humor as it were secondary is instilled from the blood watering these parts in its whole passage because the Arteries follow not only the medullar Trunk
called Hysterical as shall be presently declared Therefore if at any time such distempers proceed from the Womb the cause is manifest wherefore the aforesaid infoldings are drawn into consent But we have elsewhere shewn That those Passions are merely convulsive and not seldom excited without any fault in the Womb. Further that Symptom very frequent in those kind of Fits to wit in which as it were a Globe is perceived to be carried from the bottom of the Belly and about the Navel to leap out impetuously which therefore is thought to be an ascent of the Womb I say that it is nothing else than most cruel Convulsions of these infoldings Indeed oftentimes in Women and sometimes also in Men I have known when the convulsive Affection hath invaded that a bulk in the Hypogastrium hath been seen to arise then about the midst of the Abdomen so great a swelling to follow that it could not be hindred or prest down though strongly attempted by the hands of a strong man Without doubt the cause of this admirable distemper is that within the nerves of the intercostal pair the inflowing animal Spirits as often as they begin disorders or convulsive motions first as it is wont to be begin to grow hot or to be exploded about the extremities of the nerve to wit in the lowest infolding of the Abdomen which affection of theirs when creeping upwards it is carried to the greatest infolding of the Mesentery so that the Spirits inhabiting it are taken with the like inordination it is no wonder if that swelling up of the middle of the Abdomen and as it were an explosion of a certain nitrosulphureous matter should be stirred up For truly it is not probable that that Symptom should be excited from the Womb ascending and being removed from its place because besides this part being fixed in its place and firmly established with Ligaments the bulk of it also in Virgins is so small scarce exceeding the bigness of a Walnut that although it should be carried up into the Belly it could not produce such a swelling Nor is it more likely that this sort of distemper is stirred up from the Muscles of the Abdomen taken with a Convulsion for they however convulsive draw together themselves and subjected parts upwards or downwards or of one side but they are not able by any means to bear themselves aloft and to lift up on high with a force the region of the Navel But as we suppose the animal Spirits in the greatest infolding of the Mesentery growing fierce and becoming apt to be exploded as such indeed they are whenever they enter into convulsive motions they being there gathered round thickly into a Globe do mainly blow up and lift on high with their effervescency and notable rarefaction that infolding with its whole neighbourhood and at once drive upward the Viscera lying upon it with a certain vibration or shaking A more full explication of this Symptom belongs to the Pathology of the Brain and Nerves In the mean time we shall take notice that another certain Distemper viz. the Colical grief doth belong to the infoldings of the Abdomen and especially to this greatest of the Mesentery For it may be thought that the most cruel torments that are wont to be excited in this disease do come not from an excrementitious matter shut up in the cavities of the Intestines nor always from a sharp humor impacted in their Coats but oftner from the nervous Juyce imbued with a certain acrimony and stagnating within this infolding from whence by reason of a consent of this with the infoldings both Hepatick and Splenetick a frequent and cruel Vomiting comes upon these pains But these Pathologick Speculations being referred to their places we will follow what we first of all instituted the further passage of the intercostal Nerve by which we are led to the two lesser and lowest Infoldings of the Abdomen Below the Mesenterick Nerves out of which the superior Infoldings are made either descending intercostal Trunk sends forth three or four singular shoots which are carried into the Ureters Fig. 11. υ. υ. The use of these seems to be to pull together and to jog or shake those urinary Chanels that the Serum separated in the Reins may be the more readily drawn out towards the Bladder Moreover if at any time a viscous or muddy matter doth stick to the passages of the Ureters or a more fixed stone doth obstruct their Cavities they by the help of the Nerves inserted here and there in their whole tract being pulled together and wrinkled may press down and always move forward any bulk or substance staying in the passage Nigh the Vertebrae out of which the Crural Nerves begin to go forward three distinct branches brought to either intercostal Nerve are carried from thence into the lowest hollowness of the Belly where they make the infolding which is the lowest of the Abdomen Fig. 11. ☽ π. π. π. That here so many nerves to wit six large ones joyning together do make but a small infolding viz. a lesser than is raised higher in a single branch of the nerve the reason is because this infolding is like an Inn where the inflowing Spirits dwell no long time but it receiving them only in their passage presently commits them to other infoldings placed here and there above below and of one side and made for divers offices for from hence the chief passage and as it were a broad way leads to the greatest infolding of the Mesentery moreover from hence nerves diversly going out make three other infoldings which respect the parts and ways by which the several Excretions to wit of the Dung Urine and Seed are made in the lower Belly The first Nerve therefore sent out of this lowest Infolding into the greatest of the Mesentery a little before it reaches to it imparts two noted shoots to the Glandula's of the Womb but in its ascent it admits four other branches as it were subsidiary viz. two on either side from the intercostal pair Fig. 11. χ. so that the nerve here seems to be the chief means of passage of the animal Spirits destinated to the greatest infolding of the Mesentery and to the uterine Glandula's which passage however is carried into the designed parts not immediately but a compass being made it first goes forward beyond its bound and at length with a certain going back The reason of which is that the motions of all the Intestines viz. the Vermiculations should be directed downwards towards the straight Intestine and also that the actions of the Womb should tend thither therefore 't was fit that the animal Spirits should be supplied from below whither the motion inclined For by the like means this Mesenterick nerve and the two returning nerves being first carried lower ascend into their Provinces to wit that they may pull together the respective parts toward that bound placed below as it were to a Pully Further for this end to
fear or Anger or of Sadness of spirit affecting the inhabitants of the Encephalon the passion called Hysteric and Hypochondriac doth so often arise Further that in the evill Crises of Feavours when the adust recrements of the blood are transfer'd into the head Convulsions do generally succeed Moreover and this is the reason why the Vertigo the inflation of the head torpor of the minde and other accidents of the Supreme Region are wont to be the proamium of Spasmes presently following in the Inwards and not seldom in the whole Body Wherefore it is not to be doubted but that the heterogeneous and explosive particles are instilled from the Blood together with the nervous juice into the Brain which afterwards being thrust forth into the nervous stock do there grow to the Spirits and with them bring on a Convulsive disposition In truth the Spasmodick distempers which are either universal or at least occupie many parts of the body at once arise for the most part by this only means But in the mean time we will not deny but that particular Spasms which contain themselves within Certain places the Head being no ways affected are induced sometimes by other means For if the nerves imbibe their humour from either end to wit the root and the extream fragments which both the learned Glisson maintains to be most likely and by us is shewed in our Neurologie not without great probabillity it may be from hence inferr'd that the Spasmodick particles are broght inwardly not only from the beginning of the Nerves but somewhat also by their extremities Therefore that perhaps appears clear and plain enough Sometimes received from the ends of the Nerves that from the spleen being evilly affected Spasms arising about its region do not seldom affect the Hypochondria and Praecordia I have known some from a tumour or ulcer existing in the Mesenterie womb and other inwards were wont to have Convulsions both in the grieved part and also all about it the reason of which seems to be no other than that the heterogeneous particles being more plentifully heaped up in the affected place Creeping also into the nervous fibres planted nigh thereunto supply them with matter for Convulsive motions like to fired gunpowder But indeed Spasms arising from such a cause are not wont to diffuse themselves far about nor always to ascend to the Head These things being thus premised concerning the inward and next Cause of the Spasmodic Distemper which we affirm to arise chiefly and most often from the head it self and in some respect also from the extremities of the Nerves it now remains that we more particularly declare the Various remoter Causes in either Kinde The more remote Causes of Spasms and the manifold provision of this disease The Convulsive Disease therefore for the most part takes its original from the head to wit as often as the heterogeneous and explosive particles being diffused from the blood into the Brain or its medullarie Appendix are afterwards derived to the nervous stock and there grow together with the Spirits But this happens to come to pass from various causes for there are very many ways and means whereby the morbifick matter is admitted into the head and very many also whereby it is deduced into this or that region of the nervous System and according to the various translations of this kind of morbifick matter the divers kinds of Convulsive motions are constituted 1 The mortifick matter is heaped up within the Head by the default both of the blood send-it Therefore that the Heterogeneous and Spasmodick particles are admitted into the Encephalon it is to be imputed to the fault both of the blood sending and of the Brain receiving it 1. When the Blood powrs upon the Head the morbifick matter either all its whole mass is depraved as it frequently happens in malignant feavours also in the Scorbutick cacochymick and chiefly in an originally corrupt Distemper or the Blood of it self innocent and incorrupt receives elsewhere malignant little bodys and afterwards fixes them on the brain so in great impurities of the Inwards and chiefly when any parts are affected with an Inflamation or virulent ulcer or hurtfull ferment for from such mines the taint of the disease the noxious particles bubble up into the blood and afterwards in its passage are laid up in the Brain So by reason that the spleen womb and other inwards being evilly affected Convulsive Diseases are excited which notwithstanding depend more immediatly upon the Brain receiving the corruption of those parts through the commerce of the Blood And also of the brain receiving it 2. But in the second place the Blood however vitious it should be and impregnated with the morbid seed it could not easily leave its Infection on the head unless there were some fault in the Constitution of the brain and its Appendix as long as these parts are well made and are full of vigour they defend themselves and what belongs to them and the doors being shut they admit nothing but an unmixt spirituous Liquour destinated for their use but if either the passages and pores of the Brain are too lax or the door-keeping Spirits leave or are called off from their watches an heterogeneous and morsific matter creeps in together with the nervous juice and unfolds its malignity in the animal government As to the evil disposition of the Brain it self The evil disposition of the brain is either hereditary it is sometimes hereditary So those sprung from parents obnoxious to the Epilepsie or Convulsions are themselves for the most part prone to the same Distempers and indeed the Constitution of the brain may several ways become vitious from the birth for either its temperature is more moist or more dry than it should be or it may be faulty by the excess or defect of either Quallity Sometimes the pores are more lax or its consistency is too soft or too hard and also the Conformation of the parts of the Brain Or acquired and its Appendix may be after an undue manner But sometimes the disposition of the Brain and Nerves originally whole and firm is vitiated by accident and acquires a morbid inclination long Intemperance may enervate these parts as also malignant feavours and chronical Diseases very much debillitate them besides outward accidents as the excess of heat or cold an ulcer or a blow oftentimes perverts their Crases and renders them more incident to the impressions of Diseases But as to the Constitution or irregularities of the animal Spirits by reason of which the heterogeneous and Spasmodick particles enter the brain without any repulse and more easily cleave to it it is to be observed that the animal Spirits are in some more tender and easily dissipable from their very birth so that indeed they are not able to suffer any thing very strong or vehement to be brought to the sense or Imagination but strait they fly into confusions For this Reason women
another place did they tumultuously break forth there for during the fit the sick person was still in his senses or had the use of his memory But the morbific matter being more plentifully laid up in the head when from thence it was slid more deeply into the pipes both of the Interior und Exterior Nerves it had placed mines of explosive seeds very diffusive in the viscera both of the lower and middle belly and also in the exterior members so that when the animal spirits began to be exploded near the beginnings of the nerves presently from thence others inhabiting the mesenteric enfoldings and then others in the other nervous enfoldings interjected from the outmost bound even to the head being explosed in order did even continue the Convulsions from one part to another untill they came to the head it self but presently the explosion being translated from thence to the spirits dwelling in the spinal marrow and Appending Nerves the most strong Convulsions of the muscles and members of the whole body follow'd But that that ascent as it were of a bulk or substance which very often was perceived in the lower belly about the beginning of the Convulsions proceeding from the spirits within the mesenterick enfoldings being brought into explosions shall be more largely declared anon when we come to treat of hysterick passions In the mean time if it be ask'd for what reason that the convulsive paroxysm beginning in the part of the head near the beginnings of the Nerves presently the spirits dwelling in the outmost parts as many as are pre-disposed for that Symptom enter into explosions and so transfer the convulsive Distemper being there fully raised upwards for it is for the most part so whether the entrance of the disease begins in the bottom of the belly or about the middle of the abdomen the Hypochondria or praecordia for that the Convulsion is wont to creep by degrees Wherefore the Convulsions begin from the extremities of the Nerves from those places towards the head I say for the solution of this these two considerations are offer'd to wit in the first place we consider that when some whole series of spirits is disturbed those who reside in the extreamest bounds are first destituted of their originall Influence wherefore they before others grow tumultuous and begin to grow irregular hence it is when the Nerve of the arm or thigh is strained hard by leaning on it that the wonted Influence is hindred that a numness with a sense of pricking or tingling is first felt in the fingers or toes from whence by degrees it creeps upwards towards the places affected Secondly the other is and rather the reason of this distemper to wit that the spirits being ready for explosions when they are contained within the nervous pipes one or more as so many distinct little Tubes they require a sufficient ample space in which they may be able very much and indeed successively to be rarefied and expanded which thing because it cannot be easily performed within the Trunks of the Nerves from the beginning towards the end therefore while the Spirits about the nervous origine being first struck off leap back towards the Encephaleon for that cause they stir up the Vertigo the more open explosion of the spirits for the most part begins about the inferior passages of the nerves or at their extremities where the Trunk of the nerve is either dilated into more ample foldings or terminated in more fibres largely dispersed abroad then those Spirits being explosed there is room made presently for others succeeding in order whereby in like manner they may be exploded Hence we may observe whilst the exterior Spirits are exploded if a Ligature or hard Compression being made the succession of others into the same space or their progress toward the exterior parts be intercepted the Convulsion is wont to be hindred that it cannot ascend upwards wherefore when a numbness as medical Histories testifie being arisen from the farthest end of the finger or toe creeps to the superior parts with a tingling or like a cold air and at length reaching the brain causes most horrid Convulsions if by and by after the motion is begun the Arm or thigh be strongly tyed the Spasm or Convulsion not being able to get over the bound place is hindred from coming to the head yea it is usuall for histerical women as soon as the swelling of the belly or the ascent of the bulk in the abdomen is first perceived to gird strongly their waists with Swathing-bands and so oftentimes they prevent the Praecordia and the region of the brain from being disturbed by that same Convulsive Fit But that the Blood being let out in the midest of the fit was so soon congealed indeed it very ordinarily happens to be so in Convulsive and Apoplectical Distempers as the most learned Heighmore hath first noted out of Hendochius Wherefore the blood is soon congealed in convulsive distempers But that some from hence contend that Convulsions rely altogether upon the thickness of the Blood and stagnation its motion being hindred cannot be granted Because the blood taken from those who are subject to convulsions a little before the fit is dilated with serum and fluid enough wherefore we may lawfully think that that Congelation is caused by the paroxysm it self because in Convulsive motions and immoderate Contractions of the Nerves and Viscera the interflowing Blood by the exhalations of its spirit and serum is somewhat loosened in its mixtion and therefore in some sort coagulated like as when milk by reason of too much agitation and separation of the parts one from another grows into butter wherefore this kinde of Coagulation of the Blood seems rather to be the effect than the Cause of the Convulsions The Curatorie Method AS to the Cure of these kinde of Convulsive Distempers which in women or men proceed from the morbific cause lying upon the beginnings of the Nerves The first Indication will be to draw away the tinder or inkindling of the disease viz. to hinder that the blood may not affix on the head the heterogeneous particles either begot in it self or received elsewhere from the Viscera For this purpose an evacuation both by catharticks and blood-letting unless something contradict is wont to be benificially prescribed Vomiting most often brings help wherefore Emeticks of the Infusion of Crocus metallorum or of the Salt of Vitriol or wine of Squills Emeticks is to be taken at the beginning Then almost the next day the taking away of Blood either by phlebotomy in the Arm or by Leeches in the Sedal veins is to be performed then afterwards a gentle purge of pills or solutive Apozems is to be ordained and timely repeated Take of the pills of the Amber of Crato or of the Tartar of Bontiusʒ ii Purges of the Resine of Jalap gr xvi of Caster ℈ i. of the oyle of Rosmary or Amber ℈ ss of gumm-Ammoniac disolv'd in
so that indeed they being drawn one from another and here and there inordinately moved induce convulsive distempers which are accompanied now with the contractures now with the languishing and resolutions or loosning of the containing parts But why the painfull Convulsions which are raised by the bite of the Tarantula In what the reason of the Musicks allaying the symptoms consists being presently allayed by musick are wont to turn into dancing does not so plainly appear That some affirm this little animal for that by the testimony of Aristotle it should be most wise to be delighted with musick and for that reason its venom being impress'd on man by fermenting the humours to induce the like love of musick I say this conjecture will not satisfie a minde desirous of Truth because that supposes a musick-loving nature in the spider and the same to be communicated to man by a matastasis or as it were a certain metempsychosis or transmigration of soul both which are taken upon trust and little satisfactory but it may be rather said that the venome inflicted on the nervous liquor by the bite of the Tarantula is too gentle to be able to extinguish wholly the Animal spirits or to dissipate them very much asunder and to compell them into more cruell explosions but only to put them to flight and to incite those flying here and there into lighter and somewhat painfull Convulsions and that the Musick with its flattering sweetnesse doth congregate together and mutually associate with ease the spirits so dissipated wherefore when as the same spirits by reason of the Infection sticking to them are apt to involuntary and Convulsive motions the melody disposes them delighted together and directs them to such Convulsions that entring the bodies of the nerves by a certain Course and Order they are carried as it were in certain prescribed limits and compasses until at length the particles of the venome being quite evaporated and the fury and rage of the spirits being worn out they wholly shake off that madnesse For truly musick doth easily carry men sound and sober whether they will or no or thinking of another thing into actions answerable to the sound of the harmony that presently the standers by at the first striking up of the Fiddle begin to move their hands and feet and can scarce nay are not able to contain themselves from dancing Let none therefore wonder that in men bitten by the Tarantula when the animal spirits being moved as it were with goads they are compelled to leap forth and wander about hither and thither willingly if they are excited to dancing and composed measures at the stroke of an harp so that as in these distempers the spirit of the musick as it were inchanting the outragious spirits and in some measure governing and changing their convulsive motions serves instead of an Antidote for that the animal spirits being very much and for a long while exercised after this manner wholly shake off the Elastic Copula contracted by the poyson or otherwise and they being very much wearied at length rest from that madness or its incitation A description of the dance of St. Vitus That which is called the Dance of Saint Vitus is an evill akin to this concerning which George Horstius relates that he had spoken with some women who for some years visiting the shrine of St. Vitus which is in the borders of Vlme did there exercise themselves even night and day with dancing and discomposure of minde till they fell down like people intranc'd by which means they seemed to be restored to themselves that they felt little or nothing for a whole year till about the time of May following when by the inquietude of their members they fay'd they were so far tormented that they were forced to go for their health sake yearly to the aforesaid place about the feast of St. Vitus Horst Epis Med. sect 7. de admirandis Convulsionibus The reason of it Indeed it is a usuall thing as I have observed both for men and women to be sometimes tormented with this inquietude of their members and as it were with a fury or madness that they have been forc'd to walk till they were tyred as also to dance leap and run about here and there that by this means they might shun the grievous trouble and sometimes faintings away which were about to invade them The reason of which seems to be that the animal spirits forasmuch as they being incited by an heterogenious Copula in the whole nervous kinde become fierce and altogether unbridled which so to exercise and tire out there is need both that they themselves may be tamed and that the explosive Copula may be shaken off Vniversall Convulsions from Witchcraft That Convulsive distempers are sometimes excited by witch-craft is both commonly believed and usually affirmed by many Authors worthy of credit and indeed as we do grant that very oftentimes most admirable passions are produced in the humane body by the delusions of the Devill forasmuch as he to cause wonders by which he might rule by the subtletie of working insinuates to the sensitive soul or the constitution of the animal spirits heterogeneous Atoms or little Bodies and so adds now spurs or pricking forward and now casts chains on its functions and now carries them to mischief also by some means he enters himself into the humane body and as it were another more mighty soul is stretched thorow it actuates all the parts and members inspires them with an unwonted force and governs them at his pleasure and incites to the perpetrating of most cruel Which are commonly but falsly so thought and supernatural wickednesses yet all kinde of Convulsions which besides the common manner of this disease appear prodigious ought not presently to be attributed to the inchantments of Witches nor is the Devill presently or allways to be brought upon the stage For indeed as often as a childe or relation of some man of the richer sort is by chance taken with most cruell and unusuall Convulsions for the most part it falls out that by and by the next old woman is accused of witchcraft she is made guilty and very hardly or not at all the wretch escapes the flames or an halter when in the mean time the disease proceeding from causes meerly natural may be easily Cured by no other Exorcism The reason of them than Remedies usually prescribed against convulsive diseases In truth the animal spirits being indued with a more cruell explosive Copula and being strucken by it all of a heap together obtain so much strength and vigour beyond their proper and wonted power as the flame of gunpowder has above the burning of the common flame so that those who obnoxious to this disease out of the sit may be govern'd lifted up and moved at pleasure with the light help of one man when the same is upon them make nothing of the utmost endeavours and force of at
the formal Reason or the means of generation The reason of the aforesaid case whereby the Convulsive matter falling down into the nervous stock did produce these admirable Symptomes we may lawfully suppose that the same being thrust forth from the Confines of the head being yet more firm into the spinal marrow and its Appendix and being like a malignant firment it first infected with heterogeneous and highly explosive particles these parts of the juce watering the whole mass which cleaving to the spirits every where disposed thorow their whole series and agitating them as it were with a certain fury did stir them up into continuall explosions When in truth the nervous juice as is said was so fermented by the inflowing of the Convulsive matter that which did other ways water the containing parts with a gentle falling on them and through the same did pass over the animal spirits with an equal Expansion now the same did torment the nervous fibres with various contractions and Corrugations or shrinkings up and did hinder both the spirits flowing in being too much burthened with an heterogeneous Copula from their due irradiation and also variously moving those implanted in every part did incite them as it were with a diabolical Inspiration so that no more obeying the Empire of the will they ran into inordinate motions and did renew them translated rapidly here ahd there with a perpetuall reciprocation But altho the heterogeneous particles being poured forth with the blood into the brain and thence thrust forth into the nervous stock did not enter rightly the beginnings of all the nerves but chiefly and almost only the spinal marrow and its nervous shoots so that the internal Viscera also the parts of the eyes mouth and face remained free from any Convulsion yet that same explosive force being hindred by some violence whereby it entred less in the outward members presently like wild-fire a way being found it was wont to run into the praecordia and bowells of the lower belly viz. because the inflowing spirits being struck with a certain fury and requiring a larger space in which they might exercise their madness being excluded from one place presently enter another somewhere open wherefore if that fury had been repulsed both from the members and the viscera no doubt but it would have flown back on the brain and brought thither madness or as it were an Epileptical Insensibleness which Symptoms indeed hapned to be wanting for that the brain of this most ingenious Gentlewoman being indued with a more firm Constitution did take from the nervous Liquor freshly instilled whatsoever was congruous and spiritous for its proper food and enjoy'd it In the mean time it did depress all the morbific particles into the spinal marrow by which the involuntary motions of the members were excited after that manner as we said but now Being requested to undertake the Cure of this worthy Virgin first The Curatory Method Observed in this case a light preparation of her body being made I gave her a solutive potion of the Infusion of Senna and Rhubarb with yellow Sanders and salt of Wormwood added to it by which she was purged 12 times with great ease the next day I took viii ounces of blood from her left Arm every evening I gave her an opiate of the water and Syrrop of the flowers of Lungwort with the powder of pearls besides once within vi hours I prescrib'd her to take a dose of the spirits of Harts-horn in a draught of the following Julap Take of the waters of black Cherries Walnuts and the flowers of Paeony each ℥ iii. of the Antipeleptic of Langius ℥ ii of the Syrrop of the flowers of the male-paeony ℥ ii of the powder of pearls ℈ i. mix it and make a Julap because she could not endure much purging Clysters with Sugar'd-milk were made use of frequently besides antispasmodic oyntments being applyed to the hinder part of her neck and the back-bone we order'd often rubbing of the distemper'd members with warm woollen Cloaths wetted in proper oyl By the use of these the sick person within 6 days seem'd to be very much helped for the Convulsive motions allmost wholly ceased and she could contain her members quietly in their due position only her head sometimes by a lighter Contraction was compelled to bend gently this way and that way further she was able to stand a little and rise out of her chair but when she went to step forward she went not rightly but obliquely on one side At this time going away I left her much better and in a manifest state of growing well But after another week when the North-winde being high and arisen in Night time the window not being fast shut blew very much upon the sick person being in Bed she presently taking cold relapsed into that kinde of Condition that she became obnoxious not only to Convulsive passions but to an universal periodical palsie for after that she was forced to move about turn and winde variously all her limbs successively with her head and members by turns bent and thrown about here and there as before from morning to night till at night these kinde of motions wholly ceasing a resolution of her members or palsie succeeded so that she was not able to stir either hand or foot or any other part of her body besides or to exereise any motive bending of the body lying in her bed allmost immovable like a stone but being a little refresh'd with sleep about morning as she recovered some little strength or virtue of the regular motive faculty by bending tho but weakly here and there her arms and legs so also the involuntary and Convulsive motions did constantly return enduring from that time all the day which again at the Evening were changed into these resolutions of the Limbs By these it appears clearly that the sick Gentlewoman laboured with a two-fold disease viz. a Palsie and Convulsion and that the materiall Cause of either was somewhat distinct For it seems that the animal spirits every where abounding being burdened with narcotick particles were almost continually bound besides that in the time of sleeping together with the nervous juiee the Convulsive particles plentifully flowing in clove also to the spirits for the explosions of which the spirits being incited produced the involuntary motions but also at that time the narcotic Copula being somewhat shaken off they were then able in some sort to perform the voluntary or regular also Besides the Remedies but now recited they did carefully administer very many others allmost of every kinde viz. Antiscorbuticks antiparaleticks Decoctions sudorificks or sweating medicines distilled waters spirits Elixirs Tincture Baths Liniments with many others by the use of which the Symptoms were something remitted but yet the disease was not wholly cured the universal palsie soon ceased that she was able at any time to move her Limbs and to bend them here and there and also the involuntary motions did trouble
frequently salling upon her rogether with it great swellings arose behinde her ears and in her neck of the same side to which she was never before obnoxious in all her life It is not to be doubted in this case but that from those Glandulas which are the Emunctuaries or sinks of the nervous Liquor being too much pressed together the superfluities of that humour wont to be sent away from thence by the Lymphatic vessells restagnating in the head brought forth those evills because the arising of the aforesaid symptoms so suddenly and manifestly followed upon the wearing of that Truss upon the Groin that even her Mother laid the cause of the Disease upon that occasion Besides also I have observed in others the recrements of the nervous humour being somewhere stopp'd in their Course restagnating towards the head have not only brought in convulsive symptoms but from thence the Kings Evill Objections against the aforesaid hypothesis answered So much for the formal Reason of the different original of the distemper called hysterical as also of the genuine Causes of its symptoms Out of which it seems to appear plainly that those passions do not depend always on the womb but much more often on the fault of the brain and of other parts of the nervous stock But many things are objected against these which according to the old opinion cast all the blame on the womb To wit it seems so to be done because the assault of this disease invades almost only women yea and women that are not well about their womb viz. Child-bearing women or such who have their courses stopt are chiefly obnoxious to it Besides it may be argued from things helpfull for it because a plaister worn upon the lower part of the belly also a strict girding of the belly and hypochondria by which the ascent of the womb may be hindred do not seldom drive away the fit just falling on them this also shews it that sweet things held to the nose brings on the fit and stinking things drive the same away it is said to happen quite contrary if the same things be laid to the belly or privy member That we may wipe off these objections we say first that the symptoms which seem hysterical do not only happen to women for we have shown already by the history brought by us that a certain man has been obnoxious to those kinde of fits with the ascention of a bulk in the bottom of the belly but that women are much more often troubled with those convulsive diseases than men two reasons may be shown viz. First for that their animal constitution is much weaker to wit they have the brain and nerves softer and of a less firm texture that they are not able to suffer any thing strongly or to resist every injury also the animal spirits in them being more prone to flight and distraction more easily admit an heterogeneous and explosive Copula from hence Women from any sudden terror or great sadness fall into mighty disorder of spirits when men from the same occasion are scarcely disturb'd at all Secondly women more readily receive the convulsive disposition because they gather a more plentifull heap of the morbific matter for that whilst they lead for the most part a sedentary Life the blood for want of ventilation becomes more impure besides in this sex it originally abounds with heterogeneous and fermentative particles wherefore it is convenient for it to be more often purged by the flux of their Courses by which notwithstanding not always what is extraneous and incongruous is wholly cast forth from the bloody Mass but that there remains that which being poured on the brain and its appendix as occasion is given becomes the cause of the convulsive distemper Moreover when the menstrual flux being stop'd a convulsive disposition is occasioned it is not therefore to be thought that such a distemper is rais'd up from the womb but that the bloody mass being more than usually imbued with heterogeneous particles carries them together with the nervous juice to the head yea chiefly for this reason also child-bearing women are found obnoxious to the passions as it were hysterical for besides that the membranes of the womb being hurt a convulsion there begun by reason of the felt trouble creeps upwards and is at last communicated to the head it most often happens that the blood being infected by the termes being retained grows hot with a feavourish burning and then instead of a crisis the malignant infection is carried to the brain from whence convulsive and not seldom soporiferous or sleepy distempers are excited But that it is argued that this disease seems to be hysterical because Remedies applyed about the abdomen often bring help it will be easy to shew that the morbific cause planted in the mesentery oftner than in the womb is sometimes either taken away by that means or restrained from its Influence besides the same kinde of applications about the hypogastrium are no less profitable altho the original of the distemper be derived from the head it self for we have shewn before that when the heterogeneous and explosive matter descending from the head brings a convulsive disposition to the spirits disposed within the whole processes of the interior nerves the convulsive motions therefore excited begin from the extremities of the nerves and so creep upwards towards their beginnings so that first of all the viscera of the lower belly then the praecordia and lastly the brain it self are affected but if the outmost spirits viz. those dwelling in the enfoldings of the mesentery be restrained from entring into explosions all the rest in the remaining nervous passage continue in their orders and this plaisters worn upon the navel do often effect for they repress and compel into order with their odour the spirits from leaping forth yea also not seldom they shake off and drive away the Copula cleaving to them wherefore when the explosions there about to be made are restrained the convulsive fit is wholly prevented which yet is more apparent for that if the Convulsion begun in the lower belly and from thence ascending like a Globe be presently suppressed and by a strong binding together of those parts it be hindred that it creep not upwards oftentimes the convulsive passion is broken off the praecordia and the brain being untouch'd wherefore it is a common custome for sick women to binde strictly the Epigastrium with swaths or rolers and so to stop the progress of the symptoms towards the upper parts For when the animal spirits enter into Convulsions successively as it were a fiery enkindling where-ever the tinder or cherishing matter is cut off or intercepted the distemper is there restrained As to the various effects of odors to wit that sweet things bring on the fit but stinking things drive the same away it may be said that the former do loosen the animal spirits by pleasing them and too much release them from their
by the blood carried to it by the arteries which being exalted there as it were by digestion and into the nature of a ferment is lastly committed to the blood flowing from it by the veins which inspires or quickens it with a certain leven or fermentation and performs the same thing about its Spirit or making it Spirituous as our ferment commonly called Leven doth being put into a batch of bread or dough for as a certain portion of the unbak'd bread or dough being kept to a sourness preserves the same nature that it doth ferment or leaven other bread or dough and stirs up in it the otherwise sluggish particles into motion so it seems that the blood being laid up in the milt or Spleen and there getting a sourness as it were by stagnation puts on the nature of a ferment whereby indeed the rest of the mass of blood and perhaps the other humours are actuated and as it were Spiritualised into a more lively motion What hath been ingeniously wrote by a late author viz. the most learned Velthusius concerning the use of the Spleen may have relation to this for he hath determined as highly probable a ferment to be contained in this Inward whereby the sluggish particles of the blood are brought into a state of activity Because taking notice that in children and others indued with a sanguine temperament and more fat or dull habit of body even as their manners and disposition of minde were inclined to idleness softness and dulness so their Spleen was ever of a reddish colour and full of florid blood like the Liver from hence he concludes that the spleen doth but little perform its office in these as the gential parts before ripe age or in those of weak loyns but on the contrary forasmuch as men of a middle age and chiefly in those who are of a severe Countenance and of a lean body as in them appear marks of cunning Sagacity fortitude and constancy so their spleen is found to be of a livid or blewish colour and imbued with blood as it were muddy further he argues from hence that the blood being kept long in the spleen as in a Conduit or receptacle turns plainly into ferment by which its remaining mass being from thence inspired is made more subtil and begets more acute Spirits both in the vital and in the Animal Kingdom or Government For he supposes our bodies naturally to abound with too much humidity by which indeed the function of the parts and many of the viscera are very much dull'd but that the spleen doth communicate to the mass of blood solid firm and constant parts and not easily to be dissipated and that those do wipe away that moistness and with it carry away in some measure that softness from the blood and Spirits which is predominate in tender age almost after the same manner as the north-winde or the eastern gales fanning and intimately penetrating the air with the dryness and strength of their parts breathe health or strength to the air and to our Bodies But since I have in another place declared what I have formerly thought concerning the Spleen there will be no need to repeat it in this yet I shall further note that in bodies of living creatures compacted out of a quinarie of elements as the spirits ought to be more strong then the rest so indeed they being intangled with a viscous humidity of Sulphur and water are so hindred that oftentimes they are not able to exercise their strength or powers lively enough hence saline particles for that they are very much fermenting are required for this that the spirituous little bodies almost overwhelmed by the embrace of the others and stupifyed might lie awakened and set at liberty and into motion Wherefore we experience in our selves when the spirits are dull'd by the blood being too much exhal'd that notable help is brought by sharp liquors as chiefly small wines and Cider for these kinde of Remedies sharpen the Spirits and shake off all heaviness Such a kinde of fermenting virtue we easily believe to be continually exercised by the Spleen being in right order towards the blood and nervous Liquor For as this Inward is formed with a threefold sort of vessells viz. with arteries and veins and besides with great enfoldings of the nerves and a most thick Contexture of nervous fibres we think the use of each of them to be set apart for this end to wit by the Arteries the blood is carried to the Spleen hence it lays up its dreggs composed of a fixed Salt and an earthly matter in its passages and porosities and these there layd up as it were by a certain digestion are brought into a juice very fermentive A portion also of which being carried back to the blood by the veins is continually mixed with it and so its whole mass is inspired with those kinde of fermentive particles from the Spleen by which a certain austerity and sharpness with vigour of motion is given unto it so that for that reason the blood it self is carried more lively in the vessells also from thence the nervous juice procreated from the blood being more active supplies the animal regiment But truly the Spleen doth not only by this means mediatly and by the intervention of the blood inspire the brain and nervous stock with a fermentive virtue but it may be lawfully believed that this is done somewhat more immediately by the passage of the nerves dispersed in the spleen for because in this part anatomie discovers a great company of Nerves and nervous enfoldings and of fibres springing from them it may well be doubted for what use they should serve Concerning this it is first to be observ'd that the ventricle and the Spleen have a most intimate Commerce with the brain insomuch that Helmont did place the seat of the Soul in those Inwards but this is possible to be done by no more commodious way than by the aforesaid nerves Wherefore we may here disservedly suspect that not only the animal Spirits are the messengers between the one part and the other but also that the nervous Liquour which is both the food and the ventricle of these spirits doth descend now from the brain towards these Inwards and now being received from these Viscera's by the nerves doth creep thorow towards the head which kinde of spleeny Juice being dilated to the brain sharpens the animal Spirits and raises them up being slothfull and irritates them into quick motions from whence it is commonly said the sharpness and sagacity of the minde doth proceed from the Spleen and Splenetick people are accounted Ingenious But it is probable that the rage and force of the passions being begun by the Spirits inhabiting the brain are carried to the spleen by the passage of the nerves and so the spirits there dwelling are pathetically troubled and the blood flowing thither is moved into a multitude of perturbations for from hence it in some measure falls
Waters hot Spirits Oyls fixed Salts of Herbs and very many other more simple preparations of the Chymists remain a long while without any alteration or Fermentation Perhaps some of the Particles do evaporate but the rest do not tumultuate In the mean time the juice and blood of Vegetables or Animals as also all Liquors Concreted and compounded of many things quickly Ferment and from thence enter into divers turns of changes The Spirit of Wine being closely shut up in a Phial shews no sign of growing hot but if but a little Oyl of Turpentine be added to this Spirit the Particles of the Liquor will so leap forth that I have seen it break a Glass Hermetically Sealed All Distilled Waters of Herbs so they be kept simply in a Glass will remain incorrupt a long time but if you add to the same Sugar or Syrrup it presently grows soure and is corrupted Wherefore that the Fermentation of Bodies may be rightly unfolded we must inquire what those Particles or Substances are and of what Nature of which mixt things are Compounded and from whose being put together and mutual strivings motions for the most part naturally proceed Altho there be many and divers Opinions of Philosophers concerning the beginnings of Natural things yet there are three chiefly deserve our Assent and Faith before the rest That famous fourfold Chariot of the Peripateticks obtains the chief place which emulous of the four wheel'd Coach of the Sun is hurried by a quick passage through the fictitious Heaven of the first Matter and measures that vast and empty thing with a perpetual reciprocation For they say all things are Constituted out of Water Air Fire and Earth and that out of the divers transposition of these Generation and Corruption as also the changes of all alterations whatsoever do arise In the second place and next stands the Opinion of Democritus and Epicurus which lately also hath been revived in our Age this affirms all Natural effects to depend upon the Conflux of Atoms diversly figured so that in all Bodies there be Particles Round Sharp Foursquare Cylindrical Chequer'd or Streaked or of some other Figure and from the divers changes of these the Subject is of this or that Figure Work or Efficacy The third Opinion of the Origination of Natural Things is introduced by Chymistry which when by an Analysis made by Fire it resolves all Bodies into Particles of Spirit Sulphur Salt Water and Earth affirms by the best right that the same do consist of these Because this Hypothesis determinates Bodies into sensible parts and cutts open things as it were to the life it pleases us before the rest As to the four Elements and first Qualities from thence deduced I must confess that this Opinion doth somthing help for the unfolding the Phaenomena of Nature but after so dark a manner and without any peculiar respect to the more secret recesses of Nature it salves the appearances of things that 't is almost the same thing to say an House consists of Wood and Stone as a Body of four Elements The other Opinion which is only a piece of the Epicurean Philosophy forasmuch as it undertakes Mechanically the unfolding of things and accommodates Nature with Working Tools as it were in the hand of an Artificer and without running to Occult Qualities Sympathy and other refuges of ignorance doth happily and very ingeniously disintangle some difficult Knots of the Sciences and dark Riddles certainly it deserves no light praise but because it rather supposes than demonstrates its Principles and teaches of what Figure those Elements of Bodies may be not what they have been and also induces Notions extremly subtil and remote from the sense and which do not sufficiently Quadrate with the Phaenomena of Nature when we descend to particulars it pleases me to give my sentence for the third Opinion before-mentioned which is of the Chymists and chiefly to insist upon this in the following Tract to wit affirming all Bodies to consist of Spirit Sulphur Salt Water and Earth and from the diverse motion and proportion of these in mixt things the beginnings and endings of things and chiefly the reasons and varieties of Fermentation are to be sought If any one shall object That the Atomical and our Spagyric Principles are altogether subordinate to wit that these tho at the last sensible are resolved into those only to be signified by Conception I shall not much gainsay him so it shews that those Conceptions are real I being dul and purblind leave the more accurate to quick sights being content to be so wise as to perform the business of the outward Sense with Reason for I profess it pleases not me to devise or dream Philosophy But that our Work may more rightly proceed it will be necessary to speak first a few things of these kind of Principles in general and of their Affections I mean by the name of Principles not simple and wholly uncompounded Entities but such kind of Substances only into which Physical things are resolved as it were into parts lastly sensible By the intestine motion and combination of these Bodies are begot and increase by the mutual departure and dissolution of these one from another they are altered and perish In the mean time what Particles are gathered together in the subjects or depart away from them will appear under the form of Spirit Sulphur Salt or of one of the rest CHAP. II. A description of the Principles of Chymists and the Properties and Affections of them 1. SPirits are Substances highly subtil and Aetherial Particles of a more Divine Breathing which our Parent Nature hath hid in this Sublunary World as it were the Instruments of Life and Soul of Motion and Sense of every thing whilst they of their own Nature are always enlarged and endeavouring to fly away lest they should too soon leave their subjects they are bound somtimes with more thick Particles that by entring into them and by subtilizing them and variously unfolding them they dispose the substance to maturity as is to be observed in the Vegetation and Fermentation of Bodies somtimes being restrained within some spaces to wit the Vessels or Bowel of living Creatures they are compelled more often to repeat the same measures of their motions for the performing the works of Life Sense and Motion From the motion of these proceed the animation of Bodies the growth of Plants and the ripening of Fruits Liquors and other preparations they determinate the Form and Figure of every thing prefixed as it were by Divine designation they conserve the bonds of the mixture by their presence and open them by their departure at their pleasure they bridle the irregularities of Sulphur and Salt The perfection and state of every thing consists in the plenty and exaltation of Spirits and the fall and declination in their want and defect As to the Subjects in which the Spirits are Minerals because they are of a more fixed nature wanting Motion and Vegetation
are almost without Spirits or at least are contented with a few For the birth and growth of Vegetables they are required in a more moderate quantity In the Constitution of a living Creature where there is greater Use of Spirits for Sense and Motion a far more plentiful quantity is found In the works of Art and chiefly in those which ascend to perfection by Digestion and Fermentation there are found to be a sufficiently great proportion of Spirits but in all subjects whatsoever whilst the immersed Spirits are mingled with the other Principles their condition or state comes under a threefold consideration for they are either depressed and scattered and so involved with more thick Particles that they are very little seen or shew forth their powers as in things undigested crude and unripe may be perceived in which the Spirits can hardly extricate themselves into motion and from which they can hardly be drawn by Distillation Or secondly the Spirits flying forth from the thick substance of the rest are full of vigor shake and rightly dispose the more gross Particles subtilize the thick digest the crude and bring things to the steme or height of maturity and perfection or lastly Spirits having obtained the height of things do luxuriate and make excursions out of the Body hence those that remain are by degrees lessened of their plenty and strength until being less in power than the Particles of the Salts and Sulphur they are put under their yoak and by little and little are destroyed and driven away out of the Subject on this threefold state depends the beginnings or rudiments the maturity and exaltation and the defect and end of things It is observed when the Spiritous Latex is drawn forth of any Liquor by Distillation that the vapor or steam is not elevated into dew that is comes together in little drops or dew every where poured forth as it is wont to do in watery things but it is divided into streaks and many little rivulets and renders the Alembic mark'd in every part with straight lines only not meridional leading from the Centre of the top to the brim of the Circumference The cause of which seems to be this to wit since that the spirituous substance is very subtil it is not easily Collected into Liquor neither is it fixed every where about the sides of the Vessel in its ascent as watery Liquors but always stretches 〈◊〉 and unless when it comes to the top it self of the liâ—… head doth in no wise 〈◊〉 but there the spirituous breath being restrained as it were in a punct and being brought backward it begins to gather into dew wherefore from that top as it were the Fountain the Spirits flowing forth on every side by streams descend in streaks towards the mouth or brim of the Alembic And when those lines wholly disappear it is a sign that the spirituous substance is quite still'd forth and that the watery breath only ascends 2 Sulphur is a Principle of a little thicker consistency than Spirit after that the most active for when the Spirits first break forth from the loosned subâ—â—â—nce of the mixture presently the Sulphureous Particles endeavour to â—…low The Temperament of every thing as to Heat Consistency and amiable frame or contexture depends chiefly on Sulphur from hence also for the most part arise variety of Colours and Odors the fairness and deformity of the Body also the divâ—â—sâ—â—y of tastes In the Bosom of this the Spirits immediately in which as in a Copula they are united by the more hard embraces of the rest The substance of Sulphur though less subtil is yet of more firceness and unruliness than the Spirits are for this unless it be restrained by the embrace of the others as it were in bonds and its Particles be detained one from another by the interjection or coming between of the rest not only leaves the subject but destroys it self with too impetuous an eruption Indeed the little bodies of this being gently moved do cause digestion and maturation sweetness and many perfective qualities in things being a little more strongly moved they induce heat and an excess of qualities inordinations and chiefly a stinking favour but being more impetuously moved or stirred up they bring in the dissolution of Bodies yea a flame and Burning The substance of Sulphur is never seen sincere yea it consists not of it self from others but vanishes away into Air its Particles being concreted and chained together with Salt and Earth are fixed as it were immoveable as is seen in Metals and some Stones or being Diluted with Spirit and Water and temper'd together with the rest exist in motion by which means as was before said of Spirit they are in a threefold state within the substance of the mixture for either first of all its little bodies being involved with Salt and Earth or too much drenched with a watery humidity are obscured so that they exercise but little of virtue from whence the humid and cold temper of things exists their qualities are Obtuse Dull and of small virtue or force and the Bodies less apt to be inflamed as is discerned in unripe Fruit raw Juices and green Wood. Or secondly The Particles of Sulphur begin to shine forth with Spirit to be more thickly heaped or rolled together and to appear eminent above the rest of the Principles And so by its motion they evaporate the superfluous moisture digest Crudities and induce a warm temper in things active qualities a lively force and maturation or ripeness which kind of exaltation of Sulphur may be observed in Wine and Liquors long Fermented in ripe Fruits in the Youth and florid Constitution of living Creatures Or thirdly The Sulphureous Particles being gathered into vigor grow too hot loose the bonds of mixture and desire to fly away and from their diverse manner of departure and separation the dissolution of Bodies variously happens For either they evaporate with Water and Spirit by degrees and without tumult and leave their subjects lean and dry which when the Sulphur is wholy gon fall into Ashes Or secondly in Bodis which abound with Sulphur when the mixture is loosned and the Spirits begin to fly away the remaining Particles of Sulphur are wont to be very much moved and to grow exceeding hot and being shut up in a thick substance are gathered together more nearly as in Dung and Hay growing hot and conceive heat and somtimes Burning breaking forth after this manner by heaps and impetuously they breath out a stinking smell and bring on a rottenness to the subject There is a third manner of eruption whereby the Sulphureous Particles go forth of Bodies when they withdraw themselves as it were with violence and being gathered together break forth into fire and flame whereby indeed becoming unbridled and untamed they break all bars or lets and wholly destroy the substance or frame of the Subject By this means by their own and proper effervescency they procure a Burning as
when they being layed up wet or the wheels of Carts or Axeltree made hot by motion doe fire or because Sulphur is inkindled by Sulphur for its Particles being impetuously moved shake or move all that 's near them and carry them into the like motion of Conflagration as shall be more fully shown hereafter when we shall discourse concerning the nature of fire 3. Salt is of a little more fixed nature than either Spirit or Sulphur nor so apt to fly away but bestows a Compaction and Solidity on things and also weight and duration It retards the dissolution of Bodies and promotes Congelations and Coagulations and very much resists Putrefaction Corruption and Inflammation to wit forasmuch as it fixes the too volatile Sulphur and Spirit and detains them in a Body wherefore ponderous Woods Stones Metals and what abound in Salt are hardly enkindled and remain a long while free from Corruption Not only the duration of the individual but also the propagation of the Species depends very much upon the Principle of Salt because the fertility of the Earth the growth of Plants and especially the frequent faetation and bringing forth of young in living Creatures takes their Original from the Saltish Seed hence it is that Venus is said to arise from the Sea and Lust is called Salacity For Salt having obtained a flux gathers together and stirs up into motion the idle or too much disjoyned little Bodies of Spirit or Sulphur and excellently keeps them together with itself for the producing the first ground-work of things Salt within the frame of the mixture is either altogether fixed when its Particles being almost destitute of Spirit and Water but bound together with Earth or Sulphur or both of them grow into Stones Metals or Minerals of another kind which fixity in Nature is imitated in making Glass and Earthen Ware or Salt is loosned from its fixedness to wit when its Particles being mixed with the other Principles and chiefly with Spirit and Sulphur and Diluted with Water do unfold themselves and being diffused through the mixture do Ferment with the rest whilst the little Bodies of the Salt are after this manner put into motion there is observed of them a threefold State or Condition to wit of Fusion Volatilisation and Fluxation I call the State of Fusion when the little Bodies of the Salt being Commixed with the rest begin as to their smallest parts to be dissolved and diffused and explicated here and there through the whole substance of the mixture as may be observed in the Germination of Plants in the first Conceptions of living Creatures and in the beginnings of Fermentations hence Spring only a rude and indigested formation of things an ingrateful savour and for the most part bitter or biting From these first Rudiments of Motions the Saline Particles ascend by little and little to Vigor and Volatilisation together with Spirit and Sulphur to wit whereby they run through the whole substance of the Body and variously move its matter and dispose it towards maturity Some little Bodies sharpen and stir up into Motion others Fix Establish and Congeal into a stony hardness If there be plenty of Spirits and Sulphur the Particles of Salt as their handmaids go about to unite and associate themselves intimately with them that they are not only snatched together with them through all the recesses of the mixture but the subject being exposed to Distillation Salt also ascends in the Alembic even as the Spirit From the Volatilisation of Salt Beauty and Fairness and savour chiefly sweet happen in things as in the florid blood of living Creatures in ripe Fruits as also in Sugar Milk and Hony we know by experience I mean the Fluxation of Salt when the saline Particles which being first gathered together with Earth or Sulphur or associated with Spirit and so remain separated one from another afterwards the bond of the mixtion being loosened they become wholy free and unloosened from the yoak of the rest for so they flow together explicate themselves through the whole frame of the subject and whilst Spirit and Sulphur for the most part fly away these exercise a dominion over the remainder and induce a soureness into the whole mixture by reason of this Fluxation of Salt Wine Milk Blood and Eateable Things at first grateful and sweet grow ingratefully soure when they begin to Corrupt and for this Reason all Salts whatsoever having gotten a Flux by a violent Distillation by Fire that is being driven from the Combination of Earth grow sour than if the same sour Liquor be put upon the insipid dead Head the Whole lastly becomes salted Salt being deprived of the Company of the rest except the Earth becomes at last fixed as is observed in Sea-Salt or the incineration made of Herbs whose Particles so cleave together that they cannot be pulled asunder by the strongest Fire When Vegetables are Distilled some Saline Particles though but few made fit for Fusion ascend with the rest and from thence some Distilled Waters retain a genuine savour of the mixture The parts of living Creatures being exposed to Distillation yield a Volatile Salt when Minerals or ponderous Woods full of Salt are brought under by Chymistry the Distilled Liquor is like to Salt that hath gotten a Flux and is very sour Spirit and Sulphur easily unlock the substance of the mixture and make way for themselves but Salt cannot unless it be snatched forth of doors together with the Spirit it self As Spirit and Sulphur being outwardly applyed in dissolving or burning a Body open as it were the doors for their Companions shut within so also Salt Liquors Distilled do the same thing For Stygian Waters strongly Corrode Metals and are seen like a flame put to them to burn and consume the same Salt resists Inflammation for that it detains the Sulphureous Particles in its Bosom and hinders them from breaking forth But excepting that Sal Nitre encreases the burning of Sulphur which indeed happens by accident because that Salt as it were an Hermaphrodite grows very turgid with Sulphureous Particles also combined in the mixture wherefore when the Salt is melted by other fired Sulphur the shut up Sulphur breaks forth with violence and like a blast from a Bellows shakes the inkindled fire round about and drives more impetuously the subject into a Body In the mean time if yout put the flame to Nitre it will not be inkindled at all but being put to a Sulphureous Body it promotes its enkindling but the other Salts less turgid with Sulphureous Particles or rather destitute of them being mixed with Sulphur hinder its inkindling and somtimes put it out So much for the Active Principles which effect as it were the first ground-work of Bodies those which follow chiefly bestow on them Consistency and Substance For from hence exist either Liquids or Solids Small things or Great For Water and Earth fill the little spaces that are empty through the Combination of the rest
sharpned with Salt pricks more strongly the sensory and strikes it with its sharpness in the mean time Sulphur exhaling with Spirit both pleases the sense and excites a very pleasant Smell Sulphur is as it were distracted between Spirit and Salt and adheres at once to both parties In the Distillation of Amber Turpentine Harts-Horn and the like a certain lesser part of Sulphur being united to Spirit first ascends and causes a Yellow Oyl or clear Liquor of a grateful smell the other part of Sulphur being joyned to the Salt is driven forth in the second place and is Distilled with a most stinking smell in the form of a red or black Oyl In like manner in the Circulation of the blood a pure and delicate portion of Sulphur being mixed with the Spirit supplies both the Animal and Vital Spirit with matter the other more thick part being Boyled and Rosted with Salt is layd up in the Choledock Vessels or belonging to Choler as it were a certain excrement separated from the blood As Spirit does not easily Cohere with Salt so Sulphur does not with Water wherefore Fat and Oyly things as also Gumms and Sulphureous Refines either swim upon the Water or sink down to its bottom But Sulphureous things Salt coming between are commixed with a Watery Liquor as we see Oyls imbued with Sugar or Salt to be dissolved in common Water which otherwise would flow separate Sulphur is not so tractable in Distillation as Spirit Water or Salt for the Particles of this being very Viscous stick together among themselves and also to others that they cannot easily be pulled from their embrace Hence among Sulphureous things there are some which are not forced but by a strong and burning heat into a stinking Oyl and very empyreumatick or smelling of Fire but others more pertinaciously cleaving together are not to be loosened by Distillation but are only broken into integral parts and so ascend under the form of a dry Breath as common Sulphur Benzoin Camphor and the like Salt besides its affinity with Sulphur is also most strictly united with Earth wherefore Stones and the more hard Minerals consist chiefly of Salt and Earth The Acid Spirits of Minerals which are only Salts resolved into Liquor by Distillation if at last they be poured on the Caput Mortuum Cohere with a strict embrace to it that there will be need of a most strong Fire to drive them forth again Also in Glass the union of Salt and Earth is so strictly made that it will not suffer a Divorce by any means Salt also is most easily dissolved in Water and it melts of its own accord in a moist Air and these are as easily separated one from another By reason of these Combinations these Principles have got various Appellations and not Congruous in their own Nature to themselves For Sulphur for as much as it is Associated with Spirit is called pure and sweet when with Salt impure and stinking for as much as with Salt and Earth it is called thick and Earthly when the Spirit assumes to it self Sulphureous Particles in a moderate quantity it is seen to be sweet when saline sharp when both bitter Salt has a diverse disposition and is known by many names by reason of its various mixture with the other Elements and chiefly with Earth for besides the Titles of Fluid Fixed Volatile for this reason it is termed Marine Aluminous Nitrous Vitriolick Armoniack or of some other kind By some these kind of Conjugations are esteemed but wrongfully as so many divers Principles when they are but more simple mixtures by the coming together of the first Elements and being loosened by Distillation they openly shew their Race from whence they are For all Salts whatsoever being driven into a Flux by the Fire shew Liquors very near of Kin one to another to wit Acetous by the like means Spirit and Sulphur are compelled to put off their Masks and to resume the Native Species common to each And so much for the Principles of Natural Things and of their Affections and Conjunctions It is abundantly manifest that these kind of Substances are in every Body besides the Analyses of Bodies Chymically instituted also from the Mutations and effects of Things which happen of their own Nature When Must is Ripened into Wine is not Spirit a Sulphureous part also Salt and Earth Conspicuous to our Tast and Eyes besides the watery Liquor Also the Juice of every Plant being exalted by Digestion exhibits the same sincere and as it were distinct what is greater things subject to the Flame when they seem to be burnt and reduced almost to nothing they go into these kind of Particles besides the Salt remaining in the Ashes the Smoke and Flame grow together into Soot as it were a Meteor in which are comprehended together Spirit Sulphur Salt Water and Earth as it were in a certain compendium of the mixture For the active Principles abound in Soot more than in any other inanimate Body But because with some there hath spread a certain suspicion that those our Princiciples chiefly the Saline and Sulphureous are to be produced for the most part by Fire and are no ways to be found in mixt things unless after the coming between of that I will witness to you in some instances that the thing is plainly otherwise Concerning the first It is commonly known that the Ashes of every Plant being once Elixivated or made into a Lye if it be afterwards Calcined will not yield any thing of Salt besides if Concretes being Distilled Exhale or Breath forth a very sharp or acid Liquor their Calx is not saltish and on the contrary when the Salt being Volatilized or brought to a Flux ascends the Alembic you shall seek for it in vain in the dead head To prove the existency of the Sulphureous Principle in Vegetables take Guaiacum or a piece of any other ponderous Wood and being put into a Glass Retort draw it forth by degrees it shall exhibit together with an Acid Liquor which water is saltish in great quantity a blackish Oyl which part of it is Sulphureous It appears from hence that this was in the Body before the Distilling and in no wise produced by its Operation because if you proceed after another manner that the Sulphur may be taken out of the Concrete before Distillation the Liquor that comes forth will be almost wholy deprived of its Oyliness Wherefore if you pour Spirit of Wine to those Chips of Wood it will Extract in a great quantity by this Menstruum a pure Refine which is the Sulphureous part it self then if you Distil as before in a Retort the remaining Chips being washed in common Water and dryed you will have a very little Oyl only What is more to be admired and confirms also more fully the truth of this kind of Origination some Bodies which being almost destitute of Spirit and Sulphur because chiefly Volatile consist chiefly of Salt Earth and Water are separated
into these Elements by Distillation the same mixture in number and wholy known by the same accidents is restored to them being mingled together again for example if you Distil Vitriol in a Reverberating Furnace you shall have a Phlegm almost insipid or a Watery part then a Liquor very sour or a Salt having gotten a Flux and in the bottom a Red Earth and finely Purpled this being rightly performed if the two Distilled Liquors be poured to the dead head you shall have the same Vitriol as you had before and again revived in the same Colour tast yea and almost in weight In like manner you may proceed with the same success with Nitre Sea-Salt Salt of Tartar and perhaps with Alum and other Minerals So that those Concretes which consist of fixed and stable Elements may like a Mechanick Engine be pulled into pieces and presently without hurting the Machine be restored or made whole But there is enough spoken concerning the Principles of Natural Bodies These being thus premised we will proceed to the thing proposed in the beginning to wit the Doctrine of Fermentation CHAP. III. What Fermentation is Its Division as to the Subjects and first of Minerals FErmentation is an intestine motion of Particles or the principles of every Body either tending to the perfection of the same Body or because of its change into another For the Elementary Particles being stirred up into motion either of their own accord or Nature or occasionally do wonderful more themselves and are moved do lay hold of and obvolve one another the subtil and more active unfold themselves on every side and endeavour to fly away which notwithstanding being intangled by others more thick are deteined in their flying away Again the more thick themselves are very much brought under by the endeavour and Expansion of the more Subtil and are attenuated until each of them being brought to their height and exaltations they either frame the due perfection in the subject or compleat the alterations and mutations designed by Nature Fermentation is an action or motion meerly Natural and what doth perform it are only Particles Naturally implanted in the Concrete yet as to the subjects in which they are found it is wont to be variously distinguished And either things of Nature are said to Ferment in a threefold Family of Minerals Vegetables and Animals or the Works of Art to wit when Actives are applied to Passives by an outward Agent Though the Term and consideration of Fermentation are chiefly due to Artificial things and things made by Hand yet it will not be from the purpose to speak first somthing of Natural Things that a Comparison being made of either the Truth of our Hypothesis and the certainty of the Principles may be confirmed But this only lightly and by the way in this place I shall pass over because their more full handling belongs to Physiology or the Discourse of Natural or Physical Things In the first place as to Minerals altho in the Bowels of the Earth the Fermentation is less conspicuous than in the Superficies yet it easily appears that the Elementary Particles or the Fermentative Principles are included in the depth of the Earth as in a certain pregnant Womb which there constitute Concretes and things gathered together by strict Embraces the Productions of Minerals but being loosned and moved in the Bosom of the Earth or exhaled upwards cause the appearances of Meteors First The Generation of the more hard Minerals induces rather Congelation than Fermentation because indeed these Principles growing together in every Subject are so fixed and as it were bound together in Bonds that they are not able any ways to move themselves or to depart one from another This kind of Fixation chiefly depends on the plenty and greater proportion of Salt and Earth somtimes with an addition of Sulphur than there is of Spirit or Water To wit Salt and Earth being most smally broken and resolved even into a Vapour lay hold of one another and stiffen into a hard matter and at last not to be loosned almost after the same manner as making of Glass and the burning of Bricks and Earthen Ware are performed For Glass consists of Salt and Earth which when being broken into most small bits by a very intense Fire they suffer a Flux they mutually lay hold of one another and so strictly and intimately come together that they are never to be parted Glass is more fragil or easie to be broken than Earthen Pots or Minerals because it has a greater plenty of Salt than of Earth which is more plentiful in Earthen Ware and in Minerals To some of which also happens a modicum of Sulphur and for that reason they are more tenacious and ductil as is to be observed in Metals when in the mean time stones and what contain little of Sulphur are fragil and apt by every stroke to fly to pieces In Vitrification there is need of a violent Fire for the fusion of the Salt and the Earth whose Particles as is commonly said are the Pestles of the Chymists but within the Bowels of the Earth there is not required such a fusion by Fire for the Concretion of Minerals because Salt and Sulphur exist being naturally resolved into most simple Particles which when they lay hold on the Earth easily stiffen into Metal or into a stony hardness There are some Fountains found out which for that they flow with a Primitive Salt and resolved into small Particles what ever Bodies are immersed therein they cause them presently to become stony We have read also of Men changed into Stones yea a whole City to have been stiffned into a stony substance by the Air or by some Vapour brought forth of the Earth The Faith of which thing is left to the Authors Meteors are made out of the same Principles by which Minerals are made and conceived almost in the same Womb but loosned from Concretion wandring here and there and diversly fluctuating or which being included in Subterraneous Vaults and there moved produce divers Springings up of Fountains or ebullitions of hot Vapours or exhaling from the Dens of the Earth and being mixed with Airy little Bodies they cause within the Region of the Atmo-Sphear as it were a diverse fashioned Landskip of Clouds Winds and the appearances of other things in the Superficies of the Earth or on high in either there are highly active Principles chiefly Salt and Sulphur Spirits are either deficient in Meteors even as in Minerals or are found only in a very small quantity or proportion to wit they are almost wholly excluded from these by reason of the strict frame of the Subject which doth not easily yield space and passage for their motion also they abstain from those viz. Meteors by reason of the lax and wholly loose structure of Matter from whence they who are mighty in swiftness easily break forth and desire to fly away Within the Bosome of the Earth the Saline Particles being
perish Wherefore she institutes new and more firm and lasting Combinations of Spirit Salt and Sulphur For she selects from the whole Substance of the Plant the more noble and highly active Particles and these being gathered together with a little Earth and Water she forms in the Seed as it were the quintessences of every Plant in the mean time the Trunk Leaves Stalks and the other Members of the Plant being almost quite deprived of the active Principles are much depauperated and are of less Efficacy and Virtue About Autumn after the Seeds are framed as it were pledges left in memory of the Plant the Particles of Spirits Salt and Sulphur which remain being now placed in their Strength or Exaltation endeavour a Dissolution and Departing one from another And first of all the Spirits evaporate by degrees with the Watery humour through the Doors set open by the Summer Sun with which the more pure parts of the Sulphur make also their Journey in the mean time the Salt being fixed with the Earth and more thick Sulphur is left behind Wherefore in most the Leaves fall at this time and in those of a tender and light Constitution the Principles are wholly dissipated and the Trunk and Stalk together with the Root wholly die In some after the falling of the Seed with the Leaves the Stalks wither in the mean time the Principles which may renew the Plant in the next Spring are preserved in the Root Also Winter coming on the face of things is wholly changed and the Elements which in the Spring did affect to be Joyned and to Marry one with another seek nothing more than Divorces The Spirits fly away from very many things and wander in the Air in the mean time the Particles of Salt and Sulphur lie as it were benummed and asleep Not only the Bodies of Vegetables but of very many Animals are left as it were dead all the Winter till they are raised again to life by the Spirit returning with the Vernal Sun and as it were animated anew But this little Branch being made concerning the Vegetation of Plants it is now fit that we proceed on our Journey to Fermentation by the Rule of our before established Method to what is to be observed concerning the parts and humours of Living Creatures CHAP. V. Of things to be Observed of Fermentation about Animals IT is so certain that the Bodies of Animals consist of the aforesaid Principles that it wants no proof For they so plentifully swell up with Spirit Salt and Sulphur that their Particles are obvious to the sense Wherefore they are moved with a more swift motion and more excellent senses of Life and Functions of Heat in the Subjects in which they are implanted are inlarged It would be too much labour and tedious here to describe the several manners and processes of Fermentations The first beginnings of Life proceed from the Spirit Fermenting in the Heart as it were in a certain little punct The motion of this is not as in Vegetables slow and insensible and only to be known by their increasing but presently becoming rapid is conspicuous to the Eyes because the Spirit leaping from the Punct as from a Prison being stirred and having obtained the Vehicle of Blood swiftly runs forth and leaping forth it cannot wholy fly away it makes hollow spaces for it self in the thick substance in which it is included for its excursion being compelled some other way backward Lastly being returned to the Heart it Ferments the more wherefore it stretches forth further the spaces of its Excursion and so easily makes an hollow way for its return back and after this manner for the carrying about the Blood Arteries and Veins as Channels and Rivulets are framed through all the parts of the Body and on such a Vicissitude of Motion or Reciprocation depends the life of living Creatures which that Nature might preserve a long while she placed the Ferment in the Heart by whose instinct or endeavour the Blood grows impetuously Hot and as it were inkindled into a Flame by its Deflagration diffuses the effluvia of its Heat round about on every side for by the Fermentation or Accension which the Blood suffers in the Bosome of the Heart very many Particles of Spirit Salt and Sulphur endeavour to break forth from its loosened frame by which being much rarified and like Water boyling over a Fire the moved and boyling Blood is carried through the Vessels not without great Tumult and Turgescency We would speak more in this place both of the Natural Fermentation of the Blood and the Feaverish but that we reserve this Consideration for a peculiar Tract where we Treat of Feavers Besides this Ferment constituted in the Chimny of the Heart upon which the motion and heat of the Blood very much depends there are others laid up every where in the Bowels of a diverse disposition by the help of which both the Chyle which is the Rudiment or Beginning of the Blood and the Animal Spirits its Quintessence are truly framed There are others also which serve for the perfecting the Blood transmuting it into other Liquors and freeing it from Excrementitious Matter It will be too far from our proposed method to wander to insist upon each of these and to reap anothers Harvest Wherefore I will only add in this place some select instances which may illustrate the Doctrine of Fermentation It is commonly received that the Concoction of the Chyle in the Ventricle is made by the means of a certain Acid Ferment That such a thing is the Acid belching in a full Stomach and the want of it in the loss of Stomach in Feaverish and Dysenterical people do testifie c. and its restitution a sign of Health to which may be added this Observation Chalybeat Medicines being taken at the Mouth a little after excite a Sulfureous savour in the Throat as if hard rosted Eggs had been eaten which seems wholly to be made by the Acid Ferment of the Ventricle gnawing the Iron even as Spirit of Vitriol being sprinkled upon the fileings of Steel excites such a stinking and Sulphureous Odor Some say this Ferment is breathed into the Stomach from the Spleen but by what means that may be done doth not yet appear by Anatomical Observation It seems not improbable that this Ferment is implanted in the Ventricle that it is only made by some remains of the perfected Chyle which fixed in the folds of the Ventricle and there growing sowr puts on the Nature of Ferment even as a portion of Dough being fermented or levened and and kept to a sowrness becomes a convenient Ferment or Leven for the making of Bread In like manner this kind of Acid humour being prepared from the Aliments and long carried in the Ventricle promotes the Concoction and subaction or subduing of the Food For Acid things which are full of Salt carried out to a Flux excellently conduce both to the Fermenting and Dissolving of Bodies Wherefore by
the action of this Salt and Sulphur with which eatable things very much abound are broken in the Ventricle and are reduced into very small parts The Chyle being after this manner Fermented acquires a Milky colour by reason that the Sulphureous Particles are dissolved together with the Saline and mixed with the Acid Ferment For if you pour an Acetous humour to any Liquor impregnated with Sulphur and volatile Salt it presently grows white like Milk as may be discerned in the preparing the Milk of Sulphur or the Resinous extracts of Vegetables Yea the Spirits of Harts Horn or Soot being very full of Volatile Salt if they be poured to any Acid Liquor or simple Water acquire a Milky colour Concerning this Ferment hid in the folds of the Ventricle it is observed that it is after various manners and changes the Aliments by a diverse means for tho in a sound Constitution it is indifferently Acid and chiefly owes its force and energie to the Salt being brought to a Flux yet it often declines from this laudable condition and conteins in it self either too much of sowrness or less than it ought to have In the former Case where the Salt hath got too sowr a Dominion all things taken in the Saline Particles being carried forth to a Flux and the rest unduly brought under presently grow sour as most often happens in Hypochondriack Distempers on the other side where the Volatile Principles obtain the first place Fermentation being too hastily made the Sulphureous parts of the Chyle are suddenly and as it were forceably exalted and the unconcocted of the Saline pass into Choler which ordinarily happens to those abounding with bitter Choler They therefore who have the Ventricle affected after this latter manner Sweet and Fat meats being eaten they are troubled with a bitter and bilious Taste Again they who suffer the contrary disposition altho they eat the most simple Food send forth plentifully Acid and Stinking belchings and indeed this seems to come to pass even after the same manner as when a little too much Yest is put to the Batch of Dough it becomes bitter or when too great a Portion of sour Ferment or Leven is put to the same Dough the Bread from thence contracts a mighty sowrness As the Blood in the Heart and appending Vessels the Chyle in the Ventricle so the Animal Spirit is wrought in the Brain whose Original and Motions are very much in the dark Neither doth it plainly appear as to the Animal Spirit by what workman it is prepared nor by what Channels it is carried at a distance quicker than the twinkling of an Eye But it seems to me that the Brain with Scull over it and the appending Nerves represent the little Head or Glassie Alembic with a Spunge laid upon it as we use to do for the highly rectifying of the Spirit of Wine for truly the Blood when Rarified by Heat is carried from the Chimny of the Heart to the Head even as the Spirit of Wine boyling in the Cucurbit and being resolved into Vapour is elevated into the Alembick where the Spunge covering all the opening of the Hole only transmits or suffers to pass through the more penetrating and very subtil Spirits and carries them to the snout of the Alembick in the mean time the more thick Particles are stayed and hindred from passing Not unlike this manner the blood being delated into the Head its spirituous volatil and subtil Particles being restrained within by the Skull and its menynges as by an Alembick are drunk up by the spungy substance of the Brain and there being made more noble or excellent are derived into the Nerves as so many snouts hanging to it In the mean time the more crass or thick Particles of the blood being hindred from entring are carried back by Circulation But the highly agil and subtil Spirits enter the smallest and scarcely at all open pores of the Brain and Nerves and run through them with a wonderful swiftness For there is need only of such Receptacles and Channels for the Animal Spirit in which there are none or at least very small cavities or holes otherwise the blood or excrementitious humours their Followers and Companions would not be excluded Also besides if these Spirits should run about through too open and loose spaces being easily dissipated they would fly away wherefore when there is need of a Pipe for the transmitting of blood or serous water the Spirit of Wine runs rapidly through the secret passages of the Instrument or Leather Neither doth the more strict frame of the Brain and Nerves serve only for the straining of the subtil from the thick and the pure from the impure but also that spirituous and most subtil Liquor being as it were distilled from the blood gets yet a farther perfection in the Brain for there being inspired by a certain Ferment whereby it is yet more volatilised it is made more fit for the performing the offices of motion and sense Because the substance of the Brain is exceeding full of a Volatile Salt which is of great Virtue for the sharpning and subtilising the Spirits therefore the Spirits of Harts Horn or of Soot are far more penetrating than Spirits of Wine The Seminal Vessels and Genital Parts do so swell up with Fermentative Particles that there is nothing more here Spirit Salt and Sulphur being together compacted and highly exalted seem in the Seed to be reduced as it were into a most noble Elixir These kind of active Principles do not only Ferment in the Womb for the forming of the Child or Young ones but also as it were with a living Ferment they inspire through all the Body the whole Mass of blood that it may be more Volatile and more sharply Hot wherefore in women who have the Ferment of the Womb in good order their Face is furnished with a curious and flourishing colour their heat is more lively and copious moreover the Mass of Blood growing too rank there is need of emptying it every Month by the Flux of their Courses but when this Fermentation from the Womb is wanting both Virgins and Women become Pale and as it were without blood short winded and unfit for any motion Also in men from the Seminal Ferment happen abundance of heat great strength a sounding Voice and a manly eruption of Beard and Hair by reason of the defect of this men grow womanish to wit a small Voice weak Heat and want of Beard are caused Since we Treat of Ferments which are found in the Animal Body we may here opportunely inquire what is the use of the Spleen concerning which all good things are said by some that it is as it were another Liver and serves for the making of blood for the Viscera of the lower Belly It is by others reputed to be of a most vile use that it is only the Sink or Jakes into which the Feculencies of the blood are cast By reason of its structure we
Bodies are that are most fit for Fermentation and which are less convenient for it Secondly What things are requisite about Fermentation to wit what are wont to promote or also to hinder its motion in every Subject Thirdly How manifold the motion of Fermentation is and the end of it also what are the effects and alterations which follow it As to the first That all Bodies when tending to perfection may truely Ferment they are required In the first place That there be some parts loose and disjoyned otherwise the Fermentative Particles will not be stretched forth or move from place to place Wherefore in the more hard compacted things or in viscous things or too much boyled or evaporated to a spissitude or dryness Fermentation does not succeed What are Liquid as Wine Beer the Juices of Fruits and Herbs easily and quickly swell up next to these what are soft tho they are of a thicker Consistency as Bread and most Eatable things and Medicinal Compositions Secondly It is required that there be an Heterogeneity of parts or a confusion of all the Principles together to wit that some Particles do oppose others and stir them into motion For the more simple Bodies in which one or at most two Elements only are strong with a very small proportion of the rest are unapt to Ferment because like Particles or Symbolical Elements lie benumed and quiet But between the unlike there arises presently a strife for domination and some provoke others into motion Thirdly There is a third condition that there be neither too much Crudity nor Maturity of parts in the body Fermenting In the former the active and subtil Particles are not easily extricated from the more thick nor are brought into motion as it appears in Juices which are pressed forth from unripe Fruit also in Beer which is made of Barly or Mault not come forth or germinated In the latter the Particles being made too volatile are not contained in the bond of the mixture but presently evaporate and dispose their Subjects to Putrefaction Wherefore Juice expressed from Summer Fruits or others too ripe will not easily pass into Wine but it will quickly corrupt And for this reason extravasated blood milk and urine do not Ferment but quickly putrifie As to the second thing proposed there are many ways by which Fermentation is either promoted or hindred The first and chiefest is the adding of a certain Ferment to the body Fermenting the Particles of which when being first placed in vigor and motion may raise up the others idle and sluggish in the to-be-fermented Mass and may drive them into motion But there is a two-fold Ferment either absolute which is the same kind of Body in which the active Particles being altogether placed in their vigor are notably in motion and so whilst they are committed to the Subject in Fermenting snatch with them into motion other Particles there of the every kind before sluggish by this means Barm or Yest beaten Eggs and such like stir up a Fermentation almost in every thing Or the Ferment is respective to wit which consists of Particles very much of one kind which meeting other of another kind in the Mass to be Fermented grow hot with them and so produce in the mixture a turgency or rising up of all the parts together After this manner Saline Particles having gotten a Flux grow very hot with other Salines either fixed or alchalisate as appears when acetous Liquors are poured on Corrals Harts Horn shells of Fishes also when the Spirit of Vitriol and the Salt of Tartar are put together a great ebullition is excited There are some accidents and external circumstances which variously conduce either to the provoking or hindring the motion of Fermentation of which sort are chiefly the condition of the Ambient Air the placing or laying up of the body Fermenting and the means of conserving it The Southern Air in which hot and humid Particles every where abound which also entring easily any Bodies obtain the force and place of a Ferment impresses a notable motion of Fermentation in very many things Wherefore in drinkable Liquors it doth not only raise up at first the force of effervescency or growing hot but also for a long while after induces new swellings up in them being Fermented On the contrary the Cold and Northern Air binds up and very much fastens Bodies and in very many things hinders the fusions and flowings of the Elements and oftentimes either hinders Fermentation from being stirred up or restrains it being begun Also the hot Summer Air because it too much moves the active Principles drives away the Spirits and subtile parts exalts the Saline and Sulphureous into a Flux and so perverts their equal motion and either the Sulphur or Salt being too much carried forth it easily brings to Bodies a rancidness or putrefaction or a mouldiness which nothing favours the business of Fermentation It is a vulgar opinion that some select times of the year to wit those in which the Vegetables of every Kind flower cause anew the motion of Fermentation in the Juices and other things prepared of them after they had Fermented a long time before so that Beer when the Barly and Wines in the time that the Vine flowers conceive risings up or new Fermentations they say also that Bread and Flour when the Wheat is in Flower is want to become sooner musty and moldy also that spots or stains of the Juices of Fruits as the Mulberry Blackberry Rasberry and such like being in Cloaths are wont to be gotten forth again at that time when those Fruits are Ripe Concerning these things I ingenuously confess that I have not made tryal of them by my own proper observation so as to dare to affirm it for truth in every part I will therefore lightly pass them over for it would both grieve and shame me lest I should relate false things to Philosophize concerning doubtful things Concerning the laying up of the Fermenting Body these things are chiefly to be observed When things first being to Ferment that they are not to be shut up in too close Vessels neither while the Liquors are hot are they to be put into Bottles or Casks For the Particles at first boyling up and as it were rarified desire a very large space wherefore the Fermentation of Wine or Beer is begun in open large Vessels but when they grow less hot those kind of Liquors lest the Particles being set and moved into motion too much should fly away from the Subject they are kept best either in a cold Cellar or close Vessels In the preparation of Vinegar we observe the contrary to wit it is wont to be placed in a hot place near the Chimney or Oven or exposed to the Suns beams to the end that the vinous Spirit being depressed the Saline part might be exalted into a Flux and so might give a sharpness to the Liquor There is another observation that Liquors do Ferment better in
wooden Vessels than in Glass or Stone For by long infusion some Saline little Bodies are got forth of the Wood especially the Oaken which promote Fermentation As to the third thing proposed concerning this thing although to speak properly the motion of Fermentation is only a carrying forth of the Principles confused together from a state of Crudity towards maturity and the end of it is a tendency to the perfection of every thing yet use or custom hath obtained that this word is attributed to very many other motions of Natural things and includes other ends and effects far different Therefore when the Fermentative Particles in any Body are greatly in motion the alterations which follow thereupon may be in some respect referred to these three Classes First it either respects the exaltation and perfection of the parts of the same Body or the resolution and corruption of them Secondly Or the dissolution of the parts of another Body is intended or the praecipitation of those loosened Thirdly By the motion and action of these kind of Principles a coagulation and also a congelation now of the same Parts now of different Bodies are induced It remains that we briefly run through every one of these Species of Natural Motions and ways or manners of Fermentation CHAP. VII Of Fermentation as it is seen in the exaltation of Bodies and tendency to Perfection THE Exaltation of the parts is perceived best in Works or in all things appointed for human use forasmuch as they get a greater perfection and vigor by Fermentation as chiefly Aliments and Medicines do in many of these we endeavour to carry forth the Spirituous Particles above the rest and so to procure in the mixture a grateful sweet tast and other agreeable qualities as we may observe in Bread Beer Wine Cider and many others But in some we strive to exalt the Saline part the Spirit being somwhat depressed as in Vinegar Meath Broths also in Sauce Pickle or in Preserved things which are made of Salt and sharp Liquors We rarely on purpose carry forth the Sulphureous part above the rest for from thence a stinking smell and ingrateful rammishness are wont to happen to eatable things Among foods set apart for mans use Bread Beer Wine and Cider have the first place which owe mostly whatever they have of virtue or strength to Fermentation Concerning the making of Bread these things are chiefly to be observed the Meal of Wheat or Barly or of any other Grain being kneaded with common-water is reduced to a mass to be afterwards baked in an Oven If there be nothing else added to this it becomes forthwith heavy and ponderous like Clay clammy and of an ingrateful tast and of difficult digestion but if in the kneading it there be added a Ferment the Mass presently grows hot the bulk swells and afterward being baked it is made light spongy of good digestion and grateful to the tast If you desire to know the reason of the difference it is this The meat of the Grain is imbued with a moderate proportion of Spirits also of Salt and Sulphur but the Particles of these are overwhelmed in the Mass with a viscous humidity being kneaded with water so that they move not themselves mutually nor are in motion wherefore in the baking some superfluous humidity evaporates what remains is cleaving viscous and becomes pressed close like Clay and ponderous But when a Ferment is mingled with the Mealy Mass the active Particles of the Ferment being first stir'd up into motion take hold of their Companions in the Mealy Mass and carry them with them into motion By this means whilst some move others they shortly are all stirred up into Fermentation tumultuating here and there they compass and run through the whole Past or Dough they subtilise and attenuate the clammy and terrene parts and they lift up the mass with the motion and make it hollow with little holes which yet in the mean time lest it become too spungy and whereby the parts made hollow and attenuated might more exactly be mixed it is wrought with long kneading then afterwards before the Fermentation ceases and before the hollowed parts sink close down it is baked in the Oven In the baking the superfluous moisture evaporates and moreover very many Particles of Spirit Salt and Sulphur fly away wherefore the mass becomes lighter and less ponderous in the mean time those which remain in the Bread being much exalted and brought to maturity cause in it a laudable consistency with a grateful smell and tast The Ferment commonly used is a portion of the Mealy Mass and unbaked which is kept being imbued with Salt to a sowrness it is called in French Levain because it lifts up the Mass or the flowring of Beer or Ale called Yest or Barm or for want of these the lees or dregs of Beer or beaten Eggs are made use of In the mealy Ferment the Saline Particles having gotten a Flux do chiefly predominate as also in the faeces of Beer wherefore the Bread Fermented by these is made harsh and somwhat sowr In the mean time Yest being very big with Spirit Ferments the Bread more potently and brings to the Mass lightness and a very grateful sweetness Beaten Eggs abound with Spirit and a Volatile Salt and do yet more cause the Bread to Ferment and render it more Spongy without doubt there may be other kinds of Ferments used for whatever are big and turgid with Spirit or abound with Salt carried out to a Flux seem to be fit enough for this use Somtimes the mealy Mass is kneaded with Sulphureous matter as Butter Sewet Fat or such like which being baked in an Oven while it is hot it is seen to be light and spongy to wit while the Sulphureous Particles are kept in motion by the heat contracted in the Oven afterwards when this Mass grows cold it becomes heavy weighty and very close to wit the ascititious heat being exhaled the Sulphureous Particles before carried forth at length sink down and when the Particles of the rest not being excited into motion the Mass therefore becomes as it were Infermentated For in these kind of Subjects the Sulphureous Particles because they are very viscous hinder the motion of the rest nor can they themselves persist in motion longer than they are forced by the actual heat Bread is somtimes made of the flower of Wheat or Barly that is Germinated or Maulted which without any Ferment added to it becomes so exceeding hot that it cannot be contained in a compacted mass but that in the baking it spreads abroad the reason of which is in such Flower by the Maulting it the active Principles are before placed in their vigor and exaltation wherefore in the kneaded Mass when they are urged by the heat of the Oven they run forth inordinately and force the more thick parts hindring them and as it were fling them down head-long We have said enough of making Bread we will now
pass to Beer Beer is made of Mault or Barly germinated and dryed which is performed after this manner First the Barly is put into common water for three days that it may intumifie or swell then the water being let out from it it is flung in a heap upon a dry floor moving it twice or thrice a day lest it grow too hot until it begins to germinate or bud forth or put out little shoots of Roots Afterwards by frequent casting it about it is hindred from germinating or springing forth any farther and lastly being lay'd upon a Kiln it is made dry by rosting it by this means it yields a meat wonderfully sweet The reason of this kind of process is this the Barly is permitted to spring forth that its active Principles might be brought or set into their strength or exaltation for when it germinates the Spirit Salt and Sulphur at first asleep and sluggish do swell up or grow big together and their sluggishness being cast off they are prepared to exercise their powers The other preparations hinder the Barly from germinating further lest that its Principles being very much loosned should exhale too much and fly away from the Subject The Meal of the Barly thus prepared grows sweet because the active Principles are set in exaltation like Fruit brought to a maturity wherefore also the Liquor impregnated with this Meal grows very turgid or big with Spirituous and Fermentative Particles when the simple decoction of Barly scarce Ferments at all nor is kept long but that it becomes musty and insipid But Beer is made after this manner upon the Meal of the Barly prepared as above said boyled water is poured and is suffered to be macerated or mashed for some hours that it may be sufficiently impregnated with the active Particles of the germinating Barly now placed in their vigour This Liquor being satisfied or filled is drawn off clear from its setling and is lastly boyled that it might get a somthing more thick consistency and be able to be kept the longer Then when it is somwhat cold it is Fermented a Ferment or the flowring of Beer or Yest being put thereto and so tun'd up in a Barrel Concerning its Fermentation these things are especial worthy of observation If it macerate with or stand too long on the Maulted Meal the Liquor becomes thick and clammy and afterwards will hardly Ferment or Work at all the reason of this is because the active Principles in this work are of a prompt motion and move together with them the earthy Particles with which if by a long stay the passages and pores of the Liquor are filled being too full they are wholly obstructed and as the contents in the Stomach stuffed to a surfeit scarcely Ferment at all If too hot or too cold the Liquor be put into the Barrel as in the great heat of the Summer or the cold in the Winter Fermentation doth not rightly succeed for by too much heat the Particles are dissipated one from another that they cannot mutually take hold of one another and so work by too much cold they are bound up and fixed that they scarce enter into motion neither perform it strongly When the Liquor of the Beer Ferments in the Vat the active Principles do on every side explicate themselves they precipitate in the bottom the more thick and Earthy being partly driven as it were into flight and partly sticking to them they lead them as it were Captive to the top and there make hollow bubbles continually growing up and bring them as it were to servitude After a due Fermentation the whole space of the Liquor is rendered clear and without dregs in which the Spirits with a little Salt and Sulphur do abound in the mean time in the settlement or dregs a little of Spirit and Sulphur with a greater plenty of Salt and Earth remains So long as these shall be in their places the Liquor will be clear sweet and Spirituous but if long kept or not shut up closely in a Barrel great part of the Spirits will fly away in the mean time by the defect of these the Saline Particles being exalted and having gotten a Flux impregnate the whole Liquor and make it sowr for when Beer as also Wine goes into Vineger it doth not happen because they are wholly deprived of Spirits for so they would degenerate into a tastless thing but because the Tartareous or Saline parts are carried forth to a Flux and infect the Liquor with their sharpness in the mean time the Spirits being less in power are depressed that they cannot resist them Very hot weather Thunder the noise of great Guns or the tunning it in the open Air suddenly makes Beer grow sowr for by these means the Spirits being disturbed in their equal motion are dissipated and in the mean time the Saline or Tartarous parts being before separated and depressed are moved and carried forth into a Flux Indeed it plainly appears that the Spirituous parts in Vinegar are not wholly destroyed but suppressed only whilst the Saline are placed in a Flux because from Vinegar may be Distilled a Liquor exceeding hot and burning like the Spirit of Wine after this manner With the Distilled Vinegar a Salt is extracted from Minium or Lead Calcined of which you have plenty and shall distil it in a Retort the Vinous and burning Spirit is driven into the Receiver the reason of which is because when the Saline Particles of the Vinegar are united with the Salt of the Lead the Vinous Spirits yet remaining are then freed and having obtained their own right they are urged from their lurking places by the heat of the Fire but those Spirits are not produced from the Lead because if you give thereto a more vehement Fire the Salt of the Lead will be melted into a Metal But we will return to Beer from whence we have digressed to which how great a perfection happens by Fermentation appears by this experiment If you take Beer new made not yet purged by Fermentation and place it to be Distilled in a Bladder or Cucurbit only a vapid or tastless water ascends without any Spirits and strength at all but if you proceed after the same manner with Beer truly Fermented you will have a hot water and highly Spirituous And this takes away the objection of some who say that water being even impregnated with the Meal of Mault should not be any more boyled lest the Spirits should exhale because the Spirits before Fermentation are so obvolved with the more thick Particles of the rest that they cannot break forth from the Concrete The more the Beer is impregnated by the Mault the stronger it is keeps the longer without sowring which is helpt if Hops be boyled therein from which at first it grows bitter but afterwards recovers a grateful sweetness the reason of this is because the pores of Liquor which are empty of the Particles of the Meal when they are possessed by
Faeces or Lees settling in the bottom enjoys it as it were its food and is kept by its inspiration in strength from which if it chance to be drawn forth it quickly grows sowr for indeed this kind of Drink is in great danger to be destroyed by the Flux or sowrness of the Salt against this ill to preserve it some are wont to cast into the Cask Mustard Seed bruised or Mustard Balls for that the Volatile Salt of this hinders the Flux of the acetous Salt so that the Liquor thereby presently grows clear and keeps the longer another kind of remedy against the sowrness of Cider is that as soon as it begins to grow sowr it be drawn off from its Lees and kept in close stopped Bottles with a little Sugar for by this means it ferments anew and because together with the Flux of the Salt the Spirits being carried forth are deteined from flight a very grateful sharpness is caused to the whole Liquor Also almost by the same preparation and the like process of Fermentation a potable Liquor is made out of Pears which is however above measure sweet and if plentifully drunk renders the Belly loose as if they had taken Physick So much for Fermenting Liquors whose virtue consists in the Spirit being carried forth and obtaining the height of perfection there remains other preparations whose vigor is placed in the Saline part being exalted and having gotten a Flux among these Vinegar is of chiefest note the way of making of which being wholly unlike the aforementioned requires a method of Fermentation very different from those before described for example small Wines or more generous or strong Beer being put up into the Cask are exposed in the Summer time for a long while to the Suns Beams or else in the Winter they are kept near a Stove in some hot place after this manner whilst some Spirits evaporate the rest being put under the yoak the Saline parts are exalted and infect the whole Mass of the Liquor with their sharpness but not only Wines long kept or Stale Beer out of which the Spirits of their own accord begin to go away but fresh Must or new Beer pass after this manner into Vinegar for the Country-women are wont to place without doors all the Summer strong Ale and highly impregnated with Mault in a Cask by which means they make an exceeding biting and most penetrating Vinegar Yea after the same manner almost our kind of Hydromels Honnied Drink or Meath are wont to be prepared to wit they boyl sixteen parts of Water with one part of Hony to the consumption of a third part adding then some Spices togegether with a sharp Ferment they place the Cask and Liquor for many days in the Sun and afterwards in a Wine-Cellar It seems the Sunning of it is used that thereby the Saline parts being brought towards a Flux might somwhat restrain the nauseous sweetness of the Hony and by that means the sweet being tempered with sharpness a most pleasing tast is afforded to this Drink By reason of the sharpness arising from the Flux of the Salt also very many eatable things are wont to be prepared after various manners hence the flesh of living Creatures and especially of Fishes when they swell with too much Sulphur are pickled with Salt Brine or sharp Liquors that the Salt being brought forth they may become more grateful to the Stomach It would be a tedious business to insist here on particulars but I will in this place describe a certain noted kind of Oaten Broth Grewel or Flumery which profitably nourishes Feverish also Consumptive and Hectick people This kind of Drink that it may become gratefully sowrish the Meal of Oats is put into common water for about three days till it acquire a somwhat sowr tast then this infusion is placed upon the fire and with a Ladle is stirred about until it boyls and when it rises up ready to flow over the Vessel it must then be poured forth into a platter and presently cooled it will appear like Gelly and may be cut into bits which if heated soon melts In this preparation may be observed that by a long infusion of the Grain the Saline parts being brought forth do get a Flux then these so impregnate the Liquor that the more thick Particles being by the heat brought into its pores and passages they are so strictly shut up that they cannot easily sink down but that the whole mixture becomes like Gelly It would also be too great labour to heap together here the various Condites and kinds of Pickles for it would be to describe under that rank the whole Art of Cooking and Diet. For in both the only aim is that for healths sake and for pleasure the active Particles in our food may be placed in their vigor and exaltation for so they greatly please the Palate and by a more easie digestion go into nourishment for this reason not only Drinks and Confections of Corn and Herbs of a diverse nature and kind are thought on but also we variously prepare flesh both boyled and rosted and add to them sauces that the Particles now the Spiritous now the Saline being carried forth to a Flux might please the tast with a certain sharpness Those which are of a more fixed nature are brought to exaltation by Sauces made of Sugar Salt or Pepper They are wont to keep some flesh almost to putrefaction that by that means the active Particles being placed in their strength and motion may become of a more grateful tast Here might be interwoven a long discourse concerning Medicinal Compositions but because this subject deserves a peculiar consideration I will say nothing more of it here Let us next see by what motion of Fermentation and Habitude of Principles Natural Bodies tend towards dissolution or what is the progress of every thing to Putrefaction and Corruption CHAP. VIII Of the motion of Fermentation which is observed in the Death also in the Putrefaction and Corruption of Bodies NAtural Bodies in which Spirit Salt and Sulphur are found in but a mean quantity do not stay long in the same state for these active Principles are employed perpetually in motion As soon as they come together they tend from Crudity and Confusion towards Perfection for the sake of which when they have reach'd the height they are able to come to they are not quiet in this point but from thence they make hast towards the dissolution of that thing Those which are more volatile do first of all break forth from the loosened bond of the mixture then the rest separate into parts until the form of the mixture wholly perishes The Spirit being carried forth to the top flies away first with the water and the more pure Sulphur and by its expiration diffuses a very grateful odor afterwards the more thick Sulphur with the Salt being loosened from the band wherewith they were tyed and having gotten a Flux by degrees evaporate and
together disperse a very stinking smell together with these the watery parts flow forth and the frame of the subject breaks or falls down into Earth or a Caput Mortuum This kind of process may be observed both in natural things and also in Subjects prepared by Art Concerning Natural things the disjunction of the Elements and their separation into parts may be seen both in the death of living Bodies or the extinction of life and vegetation and also in the corruption of them being dead and in their reduction to a rottenness As in Vegetables the growth and maturity depend on the combination and mutual cleaving together of the Principles so the decay and death depend on their going asunder and separation in Plants and Fruits being by degrees exalted from a crude and sowr Juice by Spirit and Sulphur they come to maturity to which a sweet tast and smell and a pleasant colour happen then presently the same matter the Spirit and Sulphur and the rest of the Elements leisurely flying away from the subject is soon reduced to a filthiness and rottenness If after the subtil and more pure Particles of Spirits and Sulphur are flown away there still remain plenty of Earth and Salt with some Sulphur the matter does not putrifie but grows dry with an hoariness but if the thick Salt and Sulphur having gotten a Flux break forth from the Subject together with the rest the bond of the mixture being loosened presently the external humidity possesses the spaces left by these and the Body is resolved into rottenness Also all Animals whatsoever have set bounds of their growth and duration For they ascend from their beginning by slow increase to motion and sensation then to the strength and exaltation of Nature in which point they stay not but from thence by equal steps make hast towards their fall If the cause of this kind of limitation be required we say that Mother Nature hath placed in the primigenious seed of every thing such a stock of Spirit Salt and Sulphur which might suffice for the producing the utmost thrids or lineaments of Bodies so that the growth and ascent of the thing to its height or acme is only an evolution or unrowling of that radical matter and protension or stretching it self forth into a greater dimension in the mean time the little spaces and vacuities which are made by the protraction of this matter are filled up by the active Particles supplyed by Nutrition which also by a continual series of motion are ripened exhaled and give place to others succeeding As soon as this seminal matter is unfolded and exalted to the height that it cannot be moved or expanded further the matter is then brought to the state of its perfection from thence some Particles of this Radical substance together with the secondary supplyed from the Nourishment begin to evaporate and others dayly and then others being after this manner consumed both the solid parts by degrees decrease in their substance as also the Nutritious Juice and Blood even decline for the worse till by a long wasting the props of the Body are made dry or withered and the blood so depauperated that it will not suffice for sustenance to the vital fire just as it may be perceived in a Lamp if the Oyl being continually consumed in its place be put water the Liquor is rendered poor and diluted that it is not able any longer to cherish at all the flame of the wick When the Life of Animals perishes either it expires after the aforesaid manner leisurely and like a Candle or Lamp is extinguished the Oyl or Tallow being consumed or it is choaked by a hasty death being snatched away by Fate or the violence of a Disease presently the Spirits with Salt and Sulphur flowing together in the blood and also planted in every part cease from their regular motion and are moved into confusion then they partly exhale from the pores with the vanishing heat and partly being shut up within in the Cavities inordinately Ferment with the remaining Particles and make a swelling up of the inwards and of the whole Body But afterwards the frame of the solid parts being by degrees loosened and the Sulphureous Particles together with the Saline having gotten a Flux begin to evaporate from thence a strong stink and corruption arise The active Principles breaking forth by heaps do often mutually take hold of one another and being combined in the superficies of the Carcase produce Worms at length when they are wholly exhaled from the Subject what remains falls into dust It is a usual thing for Worms to be generated in Vineger when it is corrupted and lost its strength which being exceeding small and somwhat long and smooth like Eels swim in the Liquor and may by the help of Glass be exposed to our Eyes these beeing seen it is commonly said that the sharpness and pricking of the Vineger proceeds from these little Creatures which is a vain thought that deserves not a refutation for they are only to be found in dead Vineger and I pray from whence have they their teeth sufficient for the gnawing of Iron But the whole corrosive force of Vineger is more truly referred to the Salt having gotten a Flux in the mean time those little Creatures seem to be begotten by this means it is sufficiently known that when very many Subjects are brought to putrefaction the active Principles being thrust out of doors yet still affecting their old dwelling remain somwhere about the neighbourhood and being joyned together do often produce living Bodies wherefore when moist things putrifie most often little Worms grow on their Superficies but in Vineger the business is a little different to wit because the Elementary Particles are more fixed therefore when the mixture of the Liquor is wholly dissolved the active Principles although loosened yet breaking very hardly and difficultly from the substance meet together in the bowels of the Subject and there mutually cherishing one another cause those little Creatures in the midst of the waters Also the Bodies of living Creatures being prepared for our Food are disposed towards putrefaction if they are put up for some days till the active Particles are loosened and begin to be in motion tending to exhalation wherefore both the Flesh becomes more flaccid and in eating more tender and soft and if they are kept longer till the Saline and Sulphureous parts being carried forth into a Flux do break out presently a stinking smell and putrefaction is induced There are many ways whereby flesh is wont to be kept from putrefaction the chief of which are that it be pickled with Salt or Spices Things are kept a long time incorrupt and very grateful to the tast with Salt Dead Carkases are imbued with Spices that they may remain a long while in their Sepulchers As to the first Brine or salt Pickle hinders the eruption of the Sulphur and fixes it in the Subject by its embracement and retains it Spices
common manner of this sort are among Simples common Sulphur and Sal Nitre among Compounds Gun-Powder and Aurum Fulminans Concerning common Sulphur we may observe that it quickly catches fire heat it immediatly breaks forth into flame such as nothing besides that by its deflagration it puts out the Kitchen fire that it sends forth a blueish flame and whitens all objects with its Smoke or Soot If you behold the matter of this Subject or the parts of which the mixture is composed its Spagyrical Analysis will exhibit great plenty of pure Sulphur a moderate quantity of Vitriolic Salt a little of Spirit Water and Earth For when common Sulphur is dissolved by the Spirit of Turpentine the Sulphureous part impregnates the Menstruum with a very deep Tincture and the Saline grows into Crystals or when it is fired under a Bell the Sulphur wholly burns in the mean time the Salt being resolved and having taken a Flux is fixed about the sides of the Vessel and so exhibits a Liquor most like the Spirit of Vitriol or rather the very same To which add if you mingle the Oyl of Vitriol and Antimony together and distill it in a Retort a Yellow Sulphur just like the common will be Sublimed in the neck of the Retort I say therefore because there are very many Particles of Sulphur in this Concrete and that they lie loose and unbound in the mixture to wit neither divided and separated by the coming between of Earth or Water nor much bound together by Salt therefore they are of a most prompt motion wherefore by the least spark of fire they break forth from the loose frame and because very many run forth adoors together therefore not a naked fire as in every Combustible thing besides but first of all and immediatly a flame is inkindled It s flame becomes blueish because 't is almost pure Sulphur that burns not mixed with the Particles of Water and Earth as it is in Wood or Straw The very same thing happens to Spirit of Wine being inflamed It extinguishes the Kitchen fire by reason of the little Bodies of Vitriolic Salt left behind and the same being eventilated with the flame and fume of Sulphur gives a white colour to things the like to which the Effluvia's exhaled from the Spirit of Vitriol or Stygian Waters do effect Concerning Sal Nitre we will take notice that it is not to be inkindled at all by it self but to be melted by an intense fire but being mixed with any Sulphureous things it breaks forth into a flame with a certain force and explosion For being added to common Sulphur Antimony or Tartar it burns with a thundering noise also if you put into melted Nitre a burning Cole or Wood the flame is exploded round about with a wind so that the matter put in is flung up and down here and there and often times flung clear out of the Vessel by this kind of deflagration what is Nitrous is consumed the fixed Salt which is Tartar remains When Nitre is distilled Sand or Brick dust is mixt with it in a double quantity at least otherwise the Nitre melting is not at all loosened into a vapor In the distilling the vapor sent forth is very red so that the Receptacle shines with a splendor as if a flame were shut up within it a sharp corrosive Liquor is stilled forth which dissolves most Metals also Gold These things being truly weighed it seems that this mixture consists chiefly of aboundance of Salt and a little Sulphur but these not fixed and idle but either exalted and ready for motion and not without a certain resistance bound together to wit the Sulphureous little Bodies being rouled about by the Saline and as it were strictly pressed still endeavour to get forth but being strictly bound within they are not able to rise forth by their own strength or endeavour but as soon as by the mixture and inkindling of another Sulphureous Body the Particles of the Salt are disjoyned and their Prisons unlocked presently the included little Bodies of Sulphur as it were breaking Prison fling themselves forth with violence remove every Obstacle and strike the Air violently with a sudden eruption The reason why fire doth not inkindle Nitre being inclosed in a Vessel but only melts it when in the mean time any Sulphureous matter being fired makes it to flame forth with a noise is because the little Bodies which fall away from the fire enter the Nitre make it a little loose and dissociate the concretion of the Salt but not so loosen it that a way may be made for the included Sulphur but by the addition of Sulphureous things the Saline compaction is more dissolved and is so far unlocked that the Particles of the inclosed Sulphur fly away all together and being freed from their straightness do hugely stretch themselves abroad and seek greedily an immense space That there is plenty of Sulphur in Nitre besides its deflagration the Genesis of it sufficiently testifies for it is begot chiefly in places where the Sulphureous Excrements of Animals abound The use of it in agriculture argues the same thing because the fertility of the Earth depends very much upon it And to this also the flaming colour shining in the distilling may persuade From these premises it will not be difficult to unfold the nature of Gun-Powder used in Warlike Instruments For the sudden firing and vehement explosion of it arise for that those very many and almost infinite Particles of Sulphur which constitute that fire-dilating Body being fired fly away together in a moment all which breaking forth at once a force being made and desiring a most free and ample space for their expansion violently move the Air and all obstacles and so are exploded or thrust forth with a noise There is in this mixture common Sulphur put because its Particles are loose and ready for motion and therefore apt to move a quick inkindling there is added Charcoal dust because in that also the little Sulphureous Bodies as is seen in Tinder that is made of half burnt Linnen are brought to the very top of eruption and therefore these presently conceive an inkindling and both these being fired and opposed to the Nitre they quickly loosen its frame and send forth the Sulphureous Particles inclosed in it which indeed break forth from their impediments with a force and as the blast of a Bellows encrease the strength of the whole in firing The Charcoal dust is added in a moderate quantity though it abounds with Terrestrial matter yet by reason of the Sulphur being carried forth in it it accelerates the deflagration of this mixture For the Coal and Nitre being beaten together is sooner fired and with a greater explosion than Nitre and Sulphur But if the Coals be added to this Composition as they are wont to make it for Cannon and great Guns in a greater quantity than it ought and improportionate to the Nitre the immediat firing is somwhat
smalness of it in others the Coction of the Aliment is now quicker now slower performed in the Bowels and in the Vessels therefore the temper of the Blood tho but one and always the same Liquor becomes diverse and according to the various disposition of this it may be said that men are Choleric Melancholic or of another temperament Besides because whilst the Blood is made in its Circulation in the Vessels some parts continually grow Old and others are supplied anew hence from Crudity or too much Coction there is a necessity that what is excrementitious should be heaped together which notwithstanding by its effervescency as by the working or depuration of Wines it comes to pass it is separated from its Mass viz. the watry humor fixed in the Bowels or solid parts is it which is called Phlegm some Reliques of adust Salt and Sulphur being separated in the Liver and received by the Choleduct Vessels are called Choler the Earthy feculences being laid up in the Spleen are termed Melancholy In the mean time the Blood if rightly purified ought to want Choler Phlegm and Melancholy even as when some Wines or Beer are purified the more light Particles are carried upwards which constitute its Flowers or Head and the dregs are prest down to the bottom which grow together into Feces or Tartar yet none can truly say it Wine or Beer is composed of Froth Tartar and a Vinous Liquor But as these humors commonly so called are made out of the other Principles viz. Choler out of Salt and Sulphur with an admixtion of Spirit and Water and Melancholy out of the same with an addition of Earth and as the blood is immediately forged out of these kind of Principles and is wont to be resolved sensibly into the same I thought best the common acception of humors being laid aside to bring into use these celebrated Principles of the Chymists for the unfolding the Nature of the Blood and its affections There are therefore in the blood as in all Liquors apt to be Fermented very much of Water and Spirit a mean of Salt and Sulphur and a little of Earth The blood being loosned by putrefaction exhibits the same separated and distinct Also in the blood contained in the Vessels or being fresh let out from them we may discover their energies and effects besides when in the Food whereby we are fed by the juice of which the Liquor of the blood is made these same are implanted no man will go about to deny that the blood also is made from them wherefore I will briefly run through these and endeavour to shew by what means the Consistency the Properties and the Affections of the Blood are made by them 1. Spirits which readily obtain the chief place are a subtil and greatly volatile portion of the blood Their Particles always expansed and endeavouring to fly away do move about the more thick little Bodies of the rest wherewith they are involved and continually detein them in the motion of Fermentation The Liquor of the blood continually boils up with their effervescency or growing hot and equal expansion in the Vessels and the rest of the Principles are contained in an orderly motion and within the bond of the exact mixture if any Heterogeneous thing or unagreable to the mixture be poured into the bloody Mass presently the Spirits being disturbed in their motion rage shake the blood and force it to grow hugely hot until what is extraneous and not missible is either subdued and reduced or cast out of doors By the irradiation or rather the irrigation or watering of these the Bodies of the Nerves are inflated the Functions of the Viscera and also the Offices of motion and sensation are performed from the want of Spirits also from their motion being depraved or hindred arise great vices of the Natural oeconomy or Government The more quick motion and effervescency of these in the blood above what is in Wine chiefly depends upon the Ferment of the Heart because whilst the blood passes through the Bosom of the Heart its mixture is very much loosned so that the Spirits together with the Sulphureous Particles being somwhat loosned and as it were inkindled into a flame leap forth and are much expanded and from thence they impart by their deflagration a heat to the whole By reason of this kind of expansion and suffusion of heat there is made a continual expence of Spirits which being rarified as it were inkindled continually fly away and are evaporated forth a doors and as long as we live there is made a continual reparation of these by aliments chiefly the most delicate which contain in themselves very much of Spirit and swelling matter from which juice being drawn by digestion and collated to the blood is assimilated to it and fills up its defects When the Blood of Animals is distilled the Spirits like Aqua Vitae ascend of a limpid colour they are made very sharp and pricking by the adhesion of the Salt yet they are not so easily drawn off as the Spirits of Wine but that there is need of a more intense fire to force them because they are hardly driven from the fellowship of the thicker parts with which they are involved 2. That there is plenty of Sulphur in the blood it is plainly seen because we are chiefly fed with Fat and Sulphureous Aliments also the Nutriment from the blood carried to the solid parts goes into Sulphur and Fatness It is most likely from the dissolution of this that the red Tincture of the Blood doth arise for Sulphureous Bodies before any others impart to the solvent Menstruum a colour highly full of redness and when by reason of too great Crudity the Sulphur is less dissolved the blood becomes watery and pale that it will scarce dye a Linnen ragg red The Mass of blood being impregnated with Sulphur and together with Spirits it becomes very Fermentable which however whilst it enters the Ventricles of the Heart there suffers a greater effervescency or rather accension and on the Particles chiefly Sulphureous being inflamed and thence diffused through the whole the lively and vital heat in us depends When the Sulphureous part is carried forth and doth too much luxuriate in the blood it perverts its disposition from its due state that therefore the blood being either depraved or made more bilous or Cholerick doth not rightly Cook the nourishing juice or being inkindled throughout it conceives heats and ardours such as arise in a continual Feaver For the Sulphur being too much exalted and swelling more than it ought stirs up great heats in the blood and they whose blood is more plentifully impregnated with Sulphur are most obnoxious to Feavers By reason of the Particles of this being incocted with the Nutritious juice and from thence carried to the solid parts fatness softness and tenderness come to our Body From the Flesh or Blood putrefying by reason of the abundance of evaporated Sulphur a most evil stink
breaths forth In the distillation of Blood Sulphur ascends under the form of a blackish Oyl which also by reason of the Empyreuma stinks most wickedly 3. That Salt is in the blood is evinced by the Salt which tho fixed is drawn forth by being eaten from Vegetables and from other eatable things at first less volatile afterwards by the most excellent digestion of Nature and Circulation is highly volatilised that it passes through not only without a remaining Caput Mortuum all the members and parts of our Body but also the blood being exposed to distillation ascends the Alembic and leaves the dead Head as insipid earth If at any time the Saline Particles are not rightly exalted in the Blood by reason of ill digestion but remain crude and for the most part fixed from thence the blood becomes thick and unfit for Circulation so that obstructions are begot in the bowels and solid parts and serous Crudities are every where heaped together But if the Salt be too much carried forth and suffers a Flux the Spirit being depressed or deficient a sour and bitter disposition is given to the blood such as is observed in Scorbutical people and those sick of a Quartan Feaver Also from the Salt for this reason being variously coagulated the Stone Kings-Evil Gout Leprosie and very many other Chronical Diseases arise But when Coction being rightly performed in the bowels and Vessels the Salt is duly exalted and being associated with the Spirit is volatilised then by reason of its mixture the Liquor of the blood more equally ferments also is defended from Putrefaction Stagnation and Coagulation Also the Saline Particles bridle the fiercenesses of the Spirits and especially of Sulphur wherefore those who have their blood well filled with a Volatile Salt are less obnoxious to Feavers also hence those who often are let blood are more apt to Feavers 4. Besides There are in the blood as it is a thick humour and hath a gross consistence many Earthy Particles from hence also it s too great Volatilisation is as it were supported and it s too hasty accension hindered even as Charcoal-dust is added oftentimes to Gun-Powder in a greater proportion that all its parts may not take fire at once and too soon Further from the Terrestrial Particles of the blood and Nutritious Juice the bulk and increase of the Body proceeds Lastly from the distillation of the Blood a light and friable Caput Mortuum is left in great plenty 5. Upon the watery part of the blood depends its fluidness for from hence its stagnation is hindered and the blood is circulated in the Vessels without growing thick or stiff also it s too great conflagration and adustion is restrained and its heat attempered When blood is distilled a clear and insipid water is drawn off at least in a double proportion to the rest for from hence the matter of Urine Sweat and every humid Excrement for the most part proceeds What things were but now asserted concerning the Principles of the blood and the affections to be deduced thence will better appear if we consider consider a little the blood according to its sensible parts and shall compare it with other Liquors which are in dayly use among us Those sort of Liquors which have a very great Analogy with the blood are vâ—z Rich Wine and Milk As to the reasons of Fermentation and growing Hot it is most fitly compared to Wine as to its consistency coagulation and departure of the parts one from another it is likened to Milk In the first place therefore it is observed of Wine that so long as it is shut up in the Vessel or Pipe its subtil and spirituous Particles do perpetually agitate or very much shake others more thick break them and render them fit for an exact mixtion what is heterogeneous and unfit for subaction or mingling is separated by its growing hot In the mean time the purified Liquor greatly fermenting is in perpetual motion whereby all the parts as Atoms variously moved up and down in a beam or streak of light do stretch themselves forth on every side and contend with a constant rowling about from top to bottom and from thence to the top again By the attrition and refraction of the Particles very many Effluvia of Atoms go away from the Liquor which if the Vessel being closely shut they are kept within the Liquor grows too excessively hot and oftentimes causes the containing Vessel to burst in pieces Blood much after the same manner being shut up within the Veins and the Arteries is urged with a constant Circulation The Vital Spirit makes subtil breaks and exactly molds the more thick Particles what is heterogeneous and not mixable it expels forth of doors in the mean time by the refraction and kneading of the parts Effluvia of heat do constantly stream forth and evaporate through the pores which being shut in if transpiration be hindred presently by reason of the too great boyling of the blood a Feaver is inkindled Secondly we will observe concerning Wines that they grow turgid or swell up if any extraneous thing and of a Fermentative Nature be poured to them yea somtimes that they are moved more than ordinary of their own accord For when by a long digestion the Sulphureous part of the Wine is too much exalted it conceives a greater heat than it ought and unless presently appeased perverts the disposition of the whole Liquor with its swelling up It seems to be for the very like reason that the Feaverish heat which is wont to be introduced by reason of the same Causes is stirred up in the blood as shall be shown in the next Chapter where we treat of the Motion and Heat of the blood The third Observation or comparing of the Blood with Wine shall be of this sort Wines as also many other Liquors as for example Beer or Sider have their times of crudity maturation and defection For when they are first made the Spirituous parts are so obvolved by the others more thick that they shew themselves but little and put forth almost nothing of strength or virtue and as the other Particles are not yet subtilised nor truly concocted the whole Liquor remains crude and of an ungrateful tast and if put to distillation not any Spirit ascends From this state it comes by degrees to perfection and when the Spirits being extricated from their intanglements obtain their own right and have subtilized and exalted the more thick Particles of the rest the whole mass of the Liquor becomes Clear Spirituous Sweet and Balsamick Lastly when by a long Fermentation the Spirits are consumed and begin at length to fail the state of defection is induced whereby Wines and other Liquors either pass into a tastlesness or at last the Salt and the Sulphur being too much exalted are made sowr or unsavory In like manner the blood also while it is Circulated in the Vessels may be considered according to this kind of threefold disposition
First in the making or crudity which has relation to the Chyme new made in the Viscera and freshly poured to the blood the Particles of which like to unripe Fruit are crude and undigested Secondly In the perfect state or maturation which belongs to the blood being sufficiently wrought and made Volatile according to all its Particles after it is inspired by Ferments and its inkindling in the heart exalted Thirdly in its defection which respects the blood after it hath burned forth and its Spirituous parts are very much flown away and the rest growing old and poor have need to be removed and so they are either the Reliques of Salt which are with the Serum strained forth continually by the Urine or they are Particles of Salt and Sulphur boyled and baked together which are strained forth by the virtue of the Liver into the choleduct Vessels or lastly they are dregs and earthy recrements of the blood it self which are carried into the Spleen and there as it were a Caput Mortuum exalted by a new digestion go into a Ferment at length to be transmitted to the blood Whilst after this manner the generation of the blood and its due maturation are truly dispatched it is pleasingly circulated within the Vessels neither wanting in motion or heat nor inordinately troubled with them But if either the supplement of the nourishing Juice be not made agreeable with the rest of the blood nor assimilated with it but that either by reason of the defect of Concoction it is washed into a very crude humor or because of its excess it is rosted into a burnt matter or if the blood growing old does not lay aside what it casts off and give way to a new Nutritious humor I say by reason of these kind of Vices concerning Sanguification or the making of blood the blood is variously perverted from its due temper and equal motion and now becomes Watery and Cold now Sharp or Salt now Acid Austere or by some other way degenerate and somtimes obnoxious to stagnations and somimes also to immoderate heats We may observe these kind of degrees of crudity coction and defection in the blood both of the sound and of the sick in healthful persons after a more plentiful repast Surfeit or hard drinking when too much of Serum or of Juice is poured to the blood its whole mass being too much diluted with a crude humor becomes more watery and less spirituous wherefore men are rendered sluggish and unfit for motion or exercise In sick persons the Phlegmatic Constitution of the Body induces such a crudity of the bloody mass as is discerned in the White Dropsie the Dropsie Pica or longing Disease and the Chlorosis or Green-sickness Also the state of this kind of crudity comes in an intermitting Feaver and in truth is the cause of the Feaverish accession viz. by reason of the dyscrasie of the blood the nourishing Juice being heaped up is not assimilated to it but for the most part goes into a crude or otherwise degenerate matter with which when the mass of the blood is filled to a plenitude swelling up it brings on the fit The state of Maturation Concoction being finished happens in healthful persons some hours after Eating especially in the morning to wit when the supplement of the Chyme is spiritualised and as it were enkindled in the whole by reiterated Circulations for then men are made more nimble and lively and more ready for studies or any business The state of Defection is in the blood of sound men after fasting long hard labor and want of Food for then the Vital Spirit being very much evaporated the mass of the blood begins to become as it were lifeless wherefore they presently languish and are made weak Moreover the blood by a too long Coction is burned and grows bilous from whence those accustomed to want Food or fasting for the most part become sad and melancholic Some Diseases habitually induce such a disposition of the blood such are the Scurvy the Yellow Jaundies the Cachexia or evil state of the Body when the nourishing Juice turns to ill humours long Feavers and most Chronical Diseases in which the whole mass of blood passes from from a Spirituous into either a sowr sharp or austere Nature So much for the comparing of Blood with rich Wine what follows being a similitude of it with Milk consists in the diversity of the parts and their setling apart which is chiefly seen in its being let forth from the Veins and grown cold in the dish For when the heat and vital Spirit which conserve all things in the mixture are flown away the remaining parts depart from one another of themselves and a separation of the thin from the thick and of the Serum from the Fibrous blood is made This sort of separation of the parts succeeds almost after the same manner as in the coagulation of Milk There are in Milk Buttery Cheesie parts and Whey The like is in Blood so long as it doth not much recede from its Natural temper for it is good when being let forth of the Veins it grows cold in the Porringer its parts do settle after the same manner to wit the more pure portion and Sulphureous like Cream comes together on the Superficies which in healthful people looks brightly red and this answers to the flowring or head of the Milk under this lies a Purple thick substance which cosists of little Thrids and Fibres joined together and as it were concreted into a clotty substance or parenchyma such as the Liver For the heat being consumed and the bond of the mixture losened the Fibrous parts lay hold on one another and by their weight settle into a more thick Coagulum which answers to the Cheesie part of the Milk In the mean time the Serous or Wheyey parts being thrust forth from the rest get their own Nature and constitute a clear Liquor like water which as it is thinner ascends to the top and swims upon the rest Further as the Whey of Milk is wont to be further coagulated and doth yet contain in it self some parts both Buttery and Cheesie so this Liquor swiming on the blood if it be exposed either to the fire grows thick like the White of an Egg a little rosted or if an Acid Liquor be poured to it will be precipitated into a white Coagulum This being seen some have thought this watery Latex to be the nourishing juice which imparts nourishment to the whole Body from the mass of the blood in the time of its Circulation and that the rest of the blood is only the Vehicle of Heat and Spirits and serves for no other use But to me it seems more likely that in this watery Liquor is contained the nourishing juice which is imployed on the Nerves and the commonly termed Spermatic parts for nourishment is supplyed to the Musculous stock from the Fibrous blood of the Parenchyma or the Liver Lights and Milt After this manner blood being
not much vitiated goes into parts like Milk but if it be exceedingly depraved when it settles it shews a far different disposition and as to its single Contents is allotted into various appearances for the Cream growing together on the top is seen to be somtimes white somtimes green now yellow or of livid or lead colour also it becomes not tender but very viscous or clammy that like a Membrane it can scarce be pulled in pieces When the blood long growing hot with a Feaverish distemper is let forth from the cut Vein in its Superficies instead of a Scarlet Cream there grows together often a white skin or of some other colour the reason of which is because the blood is throughly rosted by too great Ebullition and its more pure portion as it were by a certain elixation is boiled forth from a red and tender substance to a white and tough but if in the mean time the bloody mass be not sufficiently purged from the adust recrements of Salt and Sulphur the colour of this little skin becomes yellow or livid and therefore the water swimming over it is often tinged by the same means Further the Purple Crassament or thick substance is also various viz. somtimes it is of a blackish colour when the blood is scorched too much by a long effervesency When the Fibres are vitiated as in the Liver they grow not together but the Liquor like Beasting Milk remains somwhat thick and yet fluid which indeed argues a great corruption of the blood as uses to happen in a putrid Feaver a very great Cachexy somtimes the watery Latex is wanting as in Hectical people and in too great a Diaphoresis Somtimes it superabounds as in Dropical people neither will the whole go into a white Coagulum by heat In some Cachectical people the blood being made more watery appears like watered flesh I knew one indued with a vicious habit of body that was wont to have blood of a whitish colour and like to Milk when it was let forth and afterwards when he grew better by Chalybiat Medicines his blood was moderately red but concerning the setling of the blood and its appearances there is enough But as blood being emitted from the Vessels by its coagulation and departure of the parts one from another imitates the various substances of congealed Milk so somtimes being shut within the Veins and Arteries like same fused by a Coagulum enters altogether into the like mutation from Morbific causes by reason of which change being hindred in its Circulation or somwhere congealed and fixed according to its portions it produces many distempers for it seems that from hence the Pleurisie the Squinancy the Inflammation of the Lungs the Dysentery take their Original and to this Cause the Pestilent diseases ow chiefly their deadliness as shall be said hereafter in its place It is sufficient that we have hitherto drawn a parallel of the blood from which comparison with Wine and Milk may be gathered what sort of Particles and Substances it comprehends in it self viz. Spirituous and very agil or nimble such as generous or rich Wine has for the heat and motion and besides soft and tender such as are in Milk for the nourishment of the Body Yea also this Analogy of it with Wine and Milk is yet further confirmed by the use of them in our diet out of which the blood is generated forasmuch as Milk is the best and most simple Aliment and with it Infants and Children who have need of a plentiful provision of blood are nourished chiefly But Wine copiously begets vital Spirits before all other things and being weak and fallen excellently restores them wherefore it is wont to be esteemed instead of Nectar for old men or those of ripe years The Nature and Analysis of the blood flowing within the Vessels being opened after this manner the Nutritious Juice deserves yet our consideration being supplyed from the blood and separated out of the mass of blood for the nourishment of the solid parts and cleaving to them whereby it may be the better assimilated like Dew For the Nerves Tendons and the rest of the solid parts of the whole Body are washed with a certain alible juice The Vital Spirits having obtained the Nervous Bodies for a Vehicle of this blow them forth at length and expeditiously execute the actions of Sense also that humor coming upon the solid parts and assimulated with them inlarges their bulk and growth This is not a place to inquire after the Origine Birth and manner of the dispensation of this It shall suffice only that we have noted that it is supplyed from the mass of blood and as it is rendered highly probable by the most Learned Doctor Glisson and Doctor Wharton after it hath past through the Nervous part by a certain Circulation what remains being now made as it were poor and lifeless is sent back by the Lymphatic Vessels to the blood Whilst this Juice being little cocted or purged from dregs is sent from the depraved blood to the Nervous parts t is wont variously to irritate them into Cramps and Convulsive Motions also no few Symptoms in Feavers arise by reason of the depravation and irregular Motion of this Juice as shall be more largely laid open in another place CHAP. II. Of the Motion and Heats of the Blood SO much for the Anatomy of the Blood as to its primary Elements and Constitutive parts into which it is sensibly wont to be resolved also as to its Affections which appear clearly by the comparing it with Wine and Milk it remains for us next to enquire concerning the motion of the Blood both Natural viz. by the help of what Ferment and by what swelling up of parts it is Circulated in a perpetual motion through the Vessels and preternatural viz. for what Causes and what fury of parts when it boils up above measure in the Vessels and conceives Feaverish Effervescences These being rightly unfolded and premised we will enter upon the Doctrine of Feavers Concerning the Natural Motion of the Blood we shall not here enquire of its Circulation viz by what Structure of the Heart and Vessels it is wheeled about after a constant manner as it were in a water Engine but of its Fermentation viz. by what mixtion of parts and mutual action of them together among themselves like Wine fermenting in the Ton it continually boils up And this kind of motion as it were truly an intestine war of the blood depends both on the Heterogeneity of the parts of the blood it self and on the various Ferments which are breathed into the mass of the blood from the Bowels As to the first those things which have altogether like Particles do not ferment wherefore neither distilled waters Chymical Oils Spirits of Wine or other simple Liquors are moved as hath been already observed but I have said that Blood according to the Nature things quickly irritable doth consist of a proportionate mixture of the Elements
Liquor of the blood to boil up and to grow hot with heat and a plentiful emission of Soot just like Spirit of Nitre when it is poured on the Butter of Antimony so that the blood flowing in gently through the Veins being forthwith Rarified into spume and vapour by the ferment of the Heart runs very impetuously through the passages of the Arteries T is almost the same thing whether it be said to be done either by this or by that way for the alteration which the blood receives in the Heart may be equally deduced from a flame or a Nitrous Sulphureous ferment there supposed to be placed Because whilst the blood slides into the Ventricles of the Heart presently the frame of the Liquor is loosned and the active Particles especially the Spirituous and Sulphureous the bond of the mixture being broke do leap forth from the rest and strive to expand themselves on every side but being kept in by the Vessels and being forced together with the remaining Liquor through the open passages of the Arteries they rush with violence and swelling up by the way they can find and by that means diffuse Effluvia of heat through the whole body there is little difference whether this expansion of the Particles of the blood and exertion into the liberty of motion be said to be done by Accension or by Fermentation forasmuch as by either way the frame of the blood may be so unlocked that from thence the Particles of Spirit Salt and especially of Sulphur being incited into motion as it were by an inkindled fire may impart heat to the whole Body But this Rarefaction or Accension of the blood in the Heart very much depends upon the disposition and constitution of the blood it self for if its Liquor be rightly cocted being made volatile and like rich Wine brought to maturity it then Ferments there after its due manner whereby the soluted Particles of the Spirits and Sulphur diffuse an equal and moderate heat to all parts But if the blood by reason of an ill manner of feeding and want of Concoction be crude and watry then it is less inkindled in the Heart and from thence follow a frigid intemperance of the whole difficult breathing and wheesing with a weak pulse and languishing as in Cachectical people those distempered with the Green Sickness and such as are about to die may be perceived but if the blood becomes too luxuriant and apt to grow turgid by reason of plenty of Sulphur being carried forth or of its Effluvia being restrained or of eating hot things either its Accension or Fermentation in the Heart is very much increased so that from thence a Feaverish heat and greater effervescencies than usual are stirred up in the whole This various Fermentation of the blood in the Heart according to the various temper of the same may be illustrated by the example of Wine fresh Must that is yet crude though it be boiled or put on the fire will not burn but this being purified and brought to maturity is easily inkindled but sends forth a small flame and quickly out The same at first growing hot or otherwise warmed if inkindled is greatly inflamed and for the most part is consumed by its burning Whilst the Blood after this manner being rarified or inkindled in the Heart and from thence growing hot through the passages of the Vessels is resolved into minute parts some little bodies depart from its loosned frame which refuse at last to be united and fitted with the rest of the Liquor but these are of a twofold Nature either thin which like smoke from the burning fire or Effluvia from a Fermenting Liquor do evaporate from the Liquor of the Blood by a constant Diaphoresis through the breathing holes of the Body or more thick which like ashes left after burning or the settling dregs after Fermentation ought to be soon strained from the mass of Blood and to be carried forth of doors for otherwise by their confusion they produce notable perturbations in the Blood Whereby the Blood growing more hot is dissolved in the Heart therefore these recrements both Fuliginous and Earthy are more plentifully heaped together and when by reason of too great congestion they cannot be presently subdued and secluded from the mass of Blood they bring forth a swelling up of the Blood and Feaverish Heats Concerning the Motion Heat and Natural Fermentation of the Blood in the equal tenor of which the means of our Health consists what hath hitherto been spoken shall suffice We will treat a little more largely of the preternatural or too great effervescency on which the types and Paroxysms of Feavers depend I call that too much or Preternatural Fermentation when the Blood like a Pot boiling over the fire grows hot above measure and being rarified with a swelling spume distends the Vessels excites a more quick pulse and like a Sulphureous Liquor having taken fire diffuses a burning heat on every side This kind of motion or Fermentation of the Blood will be best of all illustrated by an example of Wines growing hot For Wines besides the gentle and equal Fermentation by which they are at first purified at some times do so remarkably grow hot and boil up that they fly out of the mouth of the Vessel and if they are closely stopped up cause it to burst in pieces After this manner as if struck with fury unless they are immediately drawn away from the Tartar or their Lees into another Vessel they will not cease from growing hot until the Spirit being very much loosned and the Sulphur or Salt too much exalted they are either made unsavory or degenerate into a sowrness Such an Effervescency in wont to be stirred up for two causes chiefly First When any extraneous thing and not miscible is poured into the Ton so some drops of Tallow or Fat being dropped into the Cask will produce this motion or secondly when Wines being enriched with too rich a Lee or Tartar by reason of the Sulphureous parts being above measure exalted conceive heats of their own accord and exceedingly boil up For in whatsoever substance Sulphur abounds and its Particles being loosned from the mixture consociate together and are bound close in one there such immoderate heats are procured After a like tho not wholly the same manner whereby Wines grow hot the boiling up of the Blood is induced to wit either what is forein and not akin to the Blood is mixed with it that when it is not assimilated is wont to cause a Perturbation and growing hot until that Heterogeneous thing is either subdued or cast forth of doors and the Particles of the Blood being confused and troubled are at last shaken forth and that they get again their former place and position in the mixture Or Secondly the Blood grows hot above measure because some Principle or its constitutive Element viz. Spirit or Sulphur is carried forth beyond its Natural temper and becomes enraged whereby indeed the
Particles of this or that being not agreeable to the rest are loosned from the mixture being loosned they become more violent than they ought shake much the Liquor of the Blood and bring forth a heat which is not allayed till the Blood being as it were inflamed burns forth with the long fire of a Feaver By either way whether the Blood grows hot in the Vessels by reason of the pouring in of a thing not miscible or by reason of the rage of the Spirit or Sulphur being carried forth because from thence its frame is more loosned therefore it is more inkindled in the Heart and the active Particles first loosned from the Ferment there implanted do grow exceeding hot leap forth from the mixture and disperse on every side by their motion a strong heat and as it were fiery but yet with this difference that the Effervency which depends upon the mingling of some extraneous thing with the Blood is for the most part short or renewed which when what was Heterogeneous is separated or subdued is quieted of its own accord and the shaken parts of the Blood and put out of order easily return to their Natural site and disposition But the Ebullition which arises from the inordination of the Spirit or Sulphur being enraged is continual to wit here the whole mass of the Blood is so loosned and dissolved from the strict bond of the mixture that as an Oily Liquor having taken fire it ceases not to grow hot or to be inflamed till the Particles of Spirit or Sulphur or the Combustible matter be for the most part burnt out There remains yet a third manner of Preternatural Fervency whereby the Blood is subject to alteration which happens not to Wine but most often to Milk viz. when at any time from a Morbific cause a coagulation of its Liquor is induced so that its substance is poured forth and goes into parts and there is a separation made of the thick and earthy from the thin by which means the Blood is not fitly circulated in the Vessels but that its congealed portions being apt to be fixed in the extream parts or to stand still in the Heart do interrupt the equal motion or grievously hinder it For the sake of the restoring of which Effervency greater are wont to be stirred up in the Blood to wit such as happen ordinarily in a Plurisie the Plague Small-pox or the Venereal Disease CHAP. III. Of Intermitting or Agues Feavers BY the Premises which we have spoken of already concerning the Anatomy Motion and Heats of the Blood there now lies open an easie passage to the handling of Feavers The Notions which are commonly set forth concerning a Feaver out of the force and Etymology of the word I here purposely omit It may be described after this manner that it is An inordinate motion of the Blood and a too great Heat of it with burning and thirst and other Symptoms besides whereby the Natural oeconomy or Government is variously disturbed As we have remarked already concerning the growing hot of the Blood so now we do of a Feaver that indeed its accession is either short and by fits which is therefore termed Intermitting or else great and long protracted which is called a continual Feaver We will first speak of the Intermitting Feaver Tho an Intermitting Feaver in our Popular Idiom is known by a proper Name and is distinguished contrary to a Feaver commonly taken yet because it hath too great Effervency of the Blood joyned to it it is to be called a Feaver It is peculiar to this from a continual Feaver that it hath certain remissions or times of intermission that every fit begins with cold or shaking for the most part and ends in Sweat that the accessions or coming of the fits return at set Periods and certain intervals of times that a Clock is not more exact Wherefore we will first discourse concerning this Feaver in general what sort of heat of the Blood it is which continues its fit and from whence it is raised up Secondly Wherefore the fit appears equally with cold and shaking as with sweat following Thirdly What may be the cause of the Inmission as also of its certain set Periods Fourthly and Lastly Are added some irregularities of Intermitting Feavers as when now cold now heat or sweat is wanting or when the Periods are wandring and uncertain when the Remission or space of Intermission is not equal but now comes sooner now later and somtimes redoubled and I will endeavor to show the reasons of these and of other Phenomena or appearances which variously happen in this Distemper These being laid open we will go on to unfold in the next Chapter the division of an Intermitting Feaver and the kinds of it As to the first The Effervency of the Blood in an Intermitting Feaver or Ague for the time of the fit is as violent and strong as in a continual Feaver wherefore it is concluded that the parts of the Blood among themselves or some Heterogeneous thing being mixed with it do strive together and Ferment above measure But there is required that they may Ferment or too greatly boil up among themselves that some Principle as chiefly Spirit or Sulphur being too much exalted and enraged do appear above the rest which when it cannot be yoaked with them brings in a continual strife and heat but from this cause a continual Feaver draws its rise because such an Ebullition of the Blood being once begun is not suddenly allayed and when it is appeased it does not afterwards presently return Wherefore for an Intermitting Feaver 't is to be supposed that some Heterogeneous thing is mingled with the Blood whose Particles when they are not assimilated make so long an Ebullition of the same till either being kneaded they are rendered miscible or being subtilised are shut forth of doors Wherefore such a matter being brought under or shut forth of doors the fit ceases and when this matter springs again it stirs up a new Ebullition and so a new fit is brought on Concerning this Matter which being mixed with the Blood induces the periodical Heats and the other Symptoms of an Intermitting Feaver 't is very ambiguously and diversly disputed among Physicians where it is generated in what seat or place it lodges and by what means it so exactly observes the times of its Motion and Ebullition But it would be a work of too much labour and tediousness to recount here all the Arguments of the Ancients and Moderns to reduce them into order and to weigh their reasons Wherefore doubting I propose what has come into my mind when I thought deeply of the matter and submit to the judgment of others Of necessity there is somthing which brings in the Heat of the Blood exactly periodical that is generated in our Body at the several periods or accessions of the Feaver always in a set measure and equal proportion and is communicated to the mass of Blood with which when
or to a swelling up and when they being more thickly heaped together begin to enter into a Flux they first of all strike down the Vital Spirits with their sharpness and somwhat overthrow their heat wherefore the Blood becomes colder and is more slowly circulated yea and by reason of the defect of heat the sense of cold is perceived in the whole Body and a pulse very rare exists Moreover when the nervous and solid parts are watered with this sort of acetous Juice for their last nourishment by the Flux of this which happens together with the turgescency of the Blood these sensible parts are pulled and irritated into Tremblings and Convulsions And this without doubt is the true and genuine cause of the cold and shaking which are excited in a fit of the intermitting Feauer to wit the Flux and swelling up of the nourishing Juice degenerated into a Nitrous matter with which the Spirits and Heat being suffused are blunted and the Nervous Bodies being provoked are moved into tremblings But afterwards when these Nitrous Particles being thrust forth from some part into the Superficies of the Body the Blood is somwhat freed from their weight and oppression the Vital Spirits recollect themselves and begin to shine forth but from thence a most intense heat succeeds because both the mass of Blood by reason of the growing hot with the Feaverish matter being loosened and also its mixture being laxed the Sulphureour Particles are more plentifully inkindled in the Heart and because the pores of the skin being possessed by the same matter thrust forth towards the circumference of the Body the vaporous Effluvia are restrained within which do more shake and make hot the Blood that heat persists still in the Blood until that Fermentative matter being wholly burnt out and together with the adust recrements remaining after the burning being fully brought under and subtilised and involved with the Serum insensibly evaporates by sweat or transpiration Thirdly These things being premised it will not be hard to shew the reasons and causes of the intermission as also of the set periods viz. the intermission follows because all the Morbific matter is dispersed in one fit and so till new be substituted there is a necessity that a remission follow But new matter begins to be begot of which the last fit failed to wit the mass of Blood being but now emptied receives the nourishing Juice and perverts it as before by reason of its defect of due making of Blood and of Concoction into a Fermentative matter but its little plenty stirs up little or no trouble or Fermentation but when the Blood is filled to a swelling up it presently ferments and is in Flux even as when new Beer or new Wine shut up a long while in a Vessel at length at a certain time boils up and leapes forth at the mouth of the Vessel But that the Fits or Accessions do for the most part come again at set intervals of times and that so certainly that a Clock is not more exact the reason is because the nourishable Juice is for the most part supplyed from the Viscera to the Blood flowing in the Vessels in an equal measure and manner for tho we do not dayly take exactly so much meat and drink in weight and dimension yet because we for the most part eat at set hours for the satisfying the Appetite from the things eaten and the mass of the Chyme heaped up in the Bowels an equal portion of the nutritious Juice is conveyed to the Blood through the Milky Vessels wherefore if at such hours so much of the nutritious humor is poured into the Blood which increasing to a fulness and swelling up it brings on the fit that day certainly this being finished in the space of the same time sufficient matter is laid up for the following fit But if errors in feeding be committed and that the sick indulging their Appetite eat more plentifully or inordinately the approach of the fit anticipates the wonted hour by reason of the Bloods being filled sooner with the Feaverish matter if that the sick are abstemious and more sparingly take their Food the intermission is drawn out longer If it be yet asked wherefore the periods of intermitting Feavers be not of one kind and of the same distance but that some repeat or come again dayly others on the third or fourth day The cause is the diverse constitution of the Blood to wit whereby it is perverted from its due temper now into a sourish now into an acid or sharp or into an austere or harsh disposition By reason of the diverse evil constitution of this the alible Juice being fresh carried departs more or less from maturation and is perverted into matter apt sooner or later to ferment When the Blood has acquired a sour hot and bilous disposition I suppose that some part of the nourishing Juice is ripened into perfect humor and is assimilated with the Blood and so goes into Food to be carried to the solid parts and is affixed to them but the other part of it from the Blood being too much cocted and depraved is changed into a Feaverish matter and supposing that half of the nutritious Juice is after this manner perverted in double the time in which it is said to have a full Concoction in our Body that is after eight and forty hours this kind of Fermentative matter rises to a plenitude and turgescency and then induces the fit of a Tertian Feaver If that by reason of the austere and pontic nature of the degenerated Blood in which a fixed Salt with an Earthy Faeces is exalted too much and therefore apt to ferment more slowly only a third part of the nutritious Juice is corrupted then in three times the space of the aforesaid time the fit is induced that is after seventy two hours in which the period of a Quartan is wont to be concluded But if by reason of a greater infection of the Blood almost the whole supplement of the nutritious Juice is perverted into a Feaverish matter then in the space of that time in which the plenary coction ought to be absolved in the Vessels and habit of the Body that is after twenty four hours this matter arises up to the motion of turgescency and brings on the Quotidian fit And hence it comes to pass that in a Quartan Feaver strength and courage do not presently fail whilst in a Tertian the sick are wont to become more weak but in a Quotidian Feaver they are sooner brought into languishing and greatest weakness to wit in each as more or less of the nutritious Juice goes into the Food of the Disease so much also is drawn away from the strength and firmness of the Body But more fully of these when we treat of the several kinds of Intermitting Feavers and the Causes of them Against the equal Circuits of these Feavers it is argued that for the most part the fits do anticipate the set time of the
another not exactly twenty four hours but either sixteen or thirty hours in a Quotidian and in a Tertian not forty eight but forty or fifty six more or less or thereabouts it comes to pass that every other fits happen before and the others after Noon To which also may be added that the different manner of eating which the sick use very often produces great inequalities of figures that somtimes the fit is redoubled twice in a day as I have often observed in Cachectical men or full of ill humors and living disorderly but it doth not seldom happen that Intermitting Feavers repeat fits which do neither observe the same distance nor bear altogether the figure of the same mode I have many times observed in a Quartan Feaver that besides the set comings or Accessions returning on the fourth day about the same hour some wandring and uncertain fits did infest the sick that somtimes on the day preceeding the wonted fit somtimes on that following it another fit tho lighter was excited anew with shivering Heat and Sweat exactly like the figure of an Intermitting Feaver and nevertheless the primary Accession returned at its accustomed time This for the most part is wont to happen either from diet evilly instituted chiefly from surfeit and drinking of Wine or else from Medicines wrongfully administred The reason of which unless I am deceived consists in this The mass of Blood being wont to be filled to a swelling up with the Fermentative matter at a set time often by reason of some errors in eating and drinking heaps up more matter than can be easily dissipated in one fit and when it unequally Cooks the same Fermentative matter it often happens that it first shakes off its superfluous or more thin part as it were by a certain skirmish in a more light fit but dispels the more thick after the primary Accession as yet remaining in the Blood by a Feaverish Fermentation arising anew And when the fits in an Intermitting Feaver redouble after this manner either become more remiss for that the same matter in either is only divided and eventilated by two accessions Besides when this Fermentative matter or Nutritious Juice depraved in its circulation is continued partly in the Arteries and Veins with the Blood and partly in the Nervous stock and solid parts it may happen that both humors do not ferment at once but a great part of one may be dispersed in one fit and then a great part of the other in another fit CHAP. IV. Of the kinds of Intermitting Feavers and first of a Tertian WE shall easily accommodate to our Hypothesis delivered in the former Chapter concerning the nature and beginning of Intermitting Feavers all the Phaenomena which belong to it and the reasons of them But as those which are of this sort do not observe the same space of Intermission or of return and their figures as to the appearances of their signs and symptoms do not altogether happen after the same manner therefore according to the diversities of these and especially from the distance of the fits the various species and differences of Intermitting Feavers are assigned The chiefest division of them is into Tertian Quotidian and Quartan We shall here remark the chief things worthy of note concerning each of them It is called a Tertian Feaver not which is accomplished at the distance of three days but inclusively from the day in which one Fit begins from thence the other returns on the third In the mean time if the Fits be sometimes longer viz. protracted almost to twenty four hours and the Remissions anticipated also by their accessions or comings of the Fits the space is oftentimes less by a night and a day This Disease is commonly distinguished into exquisite and spurious The exquisite or exact Tertian Feaver is which begins with a vehement shaking to which succeeds a sharp and biting heat which goes off in sweat and its Fit is finished in twelve hours and that the perfect intermission follows In the spurious or bastard Tertian the cold and heat are more remiss but the Fit is often extended beyond twelve hours yea often to eighteen or twenty These differ as to the various disposition of the Blood which is in the former more torrid and sharp therefore perverts the alible Juice from Crudity towards an adustion wherefore a more vehement Effervescency is stirred up but as the matter more equally burns forth it is sooner finished In the latter besides the adustion the Blood abounds with too much serous humidity wherefore the nourishing Juice degenerates into a Crude matter and therefore less apt to be overcome and to burn forth wherefore its Fit is gentler and more unequal but is not finished but in a longer space The Essence therefore of a Tertian Feaver consists in this That the Blood like Beer brew'd with too high dry'd Mault being too sharp and torrid does not rightly subdue and ripen the alible Juice which is taken in from crude things eaten but very much perverts it into a nitrous-sulphurous matter with which when the mass of Blood is filled to a swelling up like new Beer stop'd up in Bottles it conceives an heat From the flux of this nitrous matter which blunts the heat and vital spirits and pulls the nervous parts first the cold with shaking is excited then the vital spirit geting strength again this matter growing hot in the Blood begins to be subdued and inkindled in the heart from whose deflagration an intense heat is diffused thorough the whole body then its reliques being separated and involved with serum are sent away by sweat This torrid Constitution of the Blood consists in this That 't is impregnated more than it ought with particles of Sulphur and Salt wherefore the Procatartick causes which dispose to this Disease are an hot and bilous temperament a youthful age hot dyet as an immoderate use of Wine and spiced Meats but especially in the Spring and autumnal feafons of the year when the Blood as all vegetables is apt to flower and to ferment of its own accord By reason of these occasions the liquor of the Blood is want to be thorowly roasted and to be changed into a cholerick temper and when it departs from its natural Disposition so much that it perverts the nutritious Juice into a matter plainly Fermentative the beginning of this Feaver is induced which sometimes happens from this intemperance being leasurely increased and brought to the height but more frequently an evident cause raises up this disposition into act and we ascribe the origine of this Disease to some notable Accident Wherefore lying on the Ground or taking cold after sweating or transpiration being any ways hindred also a Surfit or a perturbation of the Stomach from any thing inordinately eaten and lastly What things soever stir up an immoderate heat in the Blood bring the lurking disposition of this Disease into act for that from every such occasion the nutritious Juice being heaped in the
distemper and involves men in an unhealthful condition The causes which dispose to this Disease are first the constitution of the Soil and Air because this Distemper is proper to the fall of the Leaf or Autumn that you rarely find this Feaver to begin but about that time also in some places especially about the Sea-coasts this uses to be general or common to the Region and to come upon those living there or Strangers coming thither from elsewhere A declining age which is past its acme or height also a melancholick Temper and which by reason of an ill manner of living is obnoxious to the Hypochondriac Distemper cause this besides long Feavers of another kind and Chronical Diseases often pass into a Quartan Feaver According to these positions and rightly weighed it may be said that a Quartan Feaver even as the other intermitting Feavers depends upon a vitious disposition of the Blood to wit because the nutritious Juice being by degrees delated into the Vessels is perverted into a Fermentative matter and the effervescency of this heaped up even to a fulness of swelling over constitutes the Fit of the Quartan Feaver But as in this Feaver there are some things which are peculiar from the rest we will inquire what kind of Dyscrasie of the Blood it is in this Disease distinct from the others and by what means it excites the very remarkable Symptoms The opinion which is commonly had concerning this thing is very far from truth almost by the consent of all the Essence and beginning of a Quartan Feaver is ascribed to a melancholick humour heaped up somwhere in the first passages and there periodically Putrifying Instead of this we affirm that in this Disease the Liquor of the Blood doth pass from a sweet spirituous and balsamick into an acid and somwhat austere Nature like Wine growing sowre to wit there is too great a want of Spirits and the Terrestrial or Tartareous part of the Blood which consists chiefly of Salt and Earth is too much exalted and being carried forth into a Flux induces the sourness of the mass of Blood Even as Beer being disturbed by Thunder and infected with a troubled lee or dregs grows sour The Blood after this manner degenerated from its native disposition doth not rightly dress the alible Juice and assimilate it to it self but perverts it into an extraneous matter with which when it is satisfied to a fulness in the vessels and the nervous parts are watered by the Juice from thence arising a Flux of this matter and as it were a spontaneous effervency follows by which indeed the Feaverish Fit is induced with shivering and heat as is wont to be in a Tertian In a Quartan Feaver the periods have longer intervals because when the Dyscrasie of the Blood is become sourish and therefore less violent and hot it perverts the alible Juice without strife or tumult wherefore it assimilates some of it and the depravation of the rest does not so far recede from its natural state as in a Tertian and from hence its congestion to a plenitude is made longer and almost in another half of that time in which a Tertian rises up to a Turgescency And therefore those taken with this Feaver are indifferently well and are strong which is a sign that the nutritious Juice is less depraved also the Fits are made without cruel burning because the nutritious humor is perverted into a fermentative matter without great adustion But why this Disease is so hard to be cured and so pertinaciously infests the sick the cause is the melancholic constitution of the Blood which is not easily to be taken away and yields almost to no Remedies The cholerick disposition of the Blood is mended by the frequent Deflagration and ceases often of its own accord even as too rich Wines are depressed by their own growing hot and are wont to be reduced into their due state but this melancholick Dyscrasie of the Blood in which with a want and defect of Spirits Salt and Earth are too much exalted as when Wines grow sour is most hard to be restored and is almost of the same labour and difficulty as to put again life and a vinous Spirit into Vinegar For that the Blood depraved after this manner may be restored it will be needful that its whole mass should be volatilised and as it were made Spiritual anew wherefore in this case evacuations profit not a jot yea by more depauperating the Blood oftentimes the strength is cast down beyond help but they had need to exalt and make volatile what is fixed and to promote a Transpiration or Spiritualisation in the whole mass of Blood From hence it is that in this Disease the change of the Air and Region most often brings help before all other Remedies For the Spring following oftentimes takes away those Quartan Feavers that had arisen the Autumn before which without doubt happens because the changed condition of the Air is wont to alter for the better the evil disposition of the Blood also for the same reason the change of the place most often cures this Distemper inexpugnable to all Physick If it be demanded wherefore this Disease chiefly begins in the Autumn and rarely in the Spring or Summer time I say the Autumnal time doth most fitly produce this kind of Feaverish disposition of the Blood for when very much of the Spirit and Sulphur hath flown away by the Summers heat and that what is left begins to be bound up by the cold the Liquor of the Blood as Wine growing sour by too much heat easily degenerates into a saltish and acidulous or sharp Nature This also the Sea air by infecting the Blood and Spirits with saline Vapours falling on them easily procures yea also the affinity of this Disease with the Scurvy and Hypochondriac distemper plainly shews the evil disposition of the Blood to be in fault whereby it becomes salt and earthy with the want of Spirit Concerning Quartan Feavers the last year was so abundantly fruitful of observations that many might collect by ocular Inspection whatever belong to this Disease for when the most hot Summer was past about the end of it an Epidemical Feaver of which in another place you shall have a description followed then the Autumn coming on when that Disease had ceased a Quartan Feaver began very much to rage that in very many places the fourth part of the people was taken with it neither did it only infest old men splenitick and melancholick men but of every age and temper also Infants Children and young men ordinarily which was clearly a sign that this Distemper had drawn its rise not from a melancholick humour heaped up by the default of the Spleen but from the Dyscrasie of the Blood brought in through the intemperance of the year for the mass of the Blood after too great heats even as Wines after immoderate effervescencies was made fit to grow somwhat sour or to get an austere disposition and
given be first consumed forthwith the Venom repullulates and the old Poyson thought to have been exploded is at length brought into act by the same way when the Blood having gotten a vitious disposition perverts the Alible Juice and whereby it might more rightly expel it heaped together to a fulness conceives Feaverish swellings up this Peruvian Bark being beaten and administred by the Commerce of its Particles so agitates the Blood tho distempered with an evil disposition with a new excited Fermentation and alters it that it in some measure concocts the nourishable Juice and continually evaporates its Recrements that they are not heaped together as before into the matter of a fit But when the Particles of this Remedy are wholly flown away from the company of the Blood and the whole virtue consumed the evil disposition of the Blood before contrancted at length rises up and so the Feaverish fits return after their wonted manner Somtimes perhaps it happens that whilst the Feaverish fits are suppressed by the use of this powder by reason of the season of the year being changed or by the help of another Remedy or by the endeavour of Nature it self that Dyscrasie of the Blood may be mended by degrees and so the Feaver may at length vanish of its own accord This I have known to happen but very rarely because almost with the same certainty by which you expect the Feaverish fits to be suppressed by that powder you may afterwards look for their return As to what appertains to the sensible qualities with which this Bark is noted it appears to abound with bitterness and a certain stipticity that it seems to the tast to have the likeness of Savor which is in most Conterpoysons as the Root of Gentian Serpentary Contrayerva c. for what are bitter in act are strong in excellent virtue for the suppressing the force of preternatural Ferments yea the Root of Gentian which is likest to this Bark was in times past of famous use for the Curing of Quartan Feavers But now altho this Peruvian powder be the only Alexiterion or Counter-poyson as yet found out against a Quartan Feaver to wit that inhibits tho only for a time its fits and of other Intermitting Feavers yet it is not to be doubted but that there are in the world other Medicines extant which are as good Ague-resisters and it is hoped that led by the example of this new invention we may be excited to the finding out the virtues of Herbs almost as yet unknown so whilst we shall insist on the trial of several and the Empirical be joyned to the Rational Medicine without doubt the Cures of the Quartan Ague and of other invincible Diseases may more happily be accomplished which therefore I promise more willingly to this Age or at least to the next when being led by the Analogy of this Book I have found out a Medicine for the profligating of Feavers of use not contemptible it not being long since variously tryed which also I am wont to give to the poorer sort instead of somthing else with good success CHAP. VII Of continual Feavers A Continual Feaver is that whose fit is continued for many days without intermission It hath its times of remission and of more fierceness but never of intermission the burning is now more remiss now more intense but still the sick are in a Feaver until by the temperament or insensible growing well the Disease is wholly Cured Concerning this it behoves us to inquire what Effervescency of the Blood it is which causes a continual Feaver then by what ways and from what causes it is wont to be excited also how it differs from that which is in Intermitting Feavers And these being performed we will descend to the Species of Continual Feavers There are many ways by which the Blood growing hot induces a continual Feavear the chief of which may be reduced to these Heads The first way is when the more spirituous and subtil Portion of the Blood becomes too hot and is distempered with a certain burning which therefore agitates the other parts of the Blood and incites it into a certain rage so that the Sulphur or the Oily part of the Blood is more dissolved and more inkindled in the Heart also for that cause there is among all the Particles of the Blood a certain syncrisis contrariety or perturbation by which in truth being confused and put out of order they are not able quickly to be extricated and reduced into their former posture wherefore a heat and burning more than is wont to be is stirred up in the whole Body but when the Spirits are only in fault their heat and disorder are wont within a short space to be allaied of their own accord therefore this Feaver is often terminated within a day and is rarely continued beyond three and therefore is called an Ephemera or a Feaver of a day or Synochus of more dayr 2. The second manner or degree of growing hot is when the Sulphureous or Oily part of the Blood being too much heated conceives a Fervor for then it both grows immoderately hot in the Vessels and being very much inkindled in the Heart produces by its deflagration a very strong heat in the whole Body Indeed the Blood as to its temper mostly depends on the condition of the Sulphur when by reason of crudity the Sulphur is less dissolved the Blood is made watery and cold and is moved slowly in the Vessels but if the Sulphureous or Oily part of the Blood grows hot beyond its Natural disposition presently it becomes fierce and improportionate with the rest so that almost the whole being acted as it were into a flame by the Ferment of the Heart compels the mass of Blood to grow immoderately hot and to boil up For as when Wines indued with a rich Lee are stirred up into an heat by the too rancid Sulphur or as Hay laid up too wet by reason of the want of Ventilation conceives of its own accord a burning the Particles of the Sulphur being loosned from the mixture in like manner when the Blood is not rightly ventilated but being restrained from Evacuation by reason of the admixtion of some hot thing or a more plentiful sanguification or for some other cause the Particles of the Sulphur begin to be thickly gathered together presently all its Liquor immoderately boils up by the Sulphurs being loosned and inflamed in the Heart and this kind of Feaver is induced which is called a putrid Synochus notwithstanding which appellation tho of many rejected for that the Blood so long as it is in motion doth not putrifie yet forasmuch as in this Feaver the mixture of the Blood is somwhat loosned by the Sulphur being too much exalted and the mass of its Liquor being changed from its Natural disposition tends toward putrefaction therefore the term of a putrid Feaver as hath been anciently used may be still with good reason retained 3. The third degree of
growing hot and which constitutes a distinct kind of continual Feaver is excited from a certain malignant and invenomed Ferment by which when the mass of the Blood is imbued and the Spirits and the Sulphureous part together conceive an heat and their burning is not sooner appeased than that either that malignant matter be consumed and cast forth of doors or else a certain coagulation and as it were putrefaction of the Blood from its corruptive venom is induced by which both circulation is hindered and the Vital Spirit extinguished This malignity is wont to arise either from a certain contagion received from without or from some infection begotten within us according to these ways the malignant Feaver Small-pox Measels and also the Plague draw their beginnings and by their contagion far and near set upon many There are therefore three degrees or manners of growing hot by which the kinds of continual Feavers are determined From the subtil portion of the Blood made hot or the Ebullition of the Spirits the Ephemera arises as also the Synochus of one or more days by the Sulphureous or Oily part of the Blood being too hot and inkindled the putrid Feaver is stirred up then thirdly upon an invenomed taint infecting the Blood and congealing its Liquor malignant Feavers depend In every one of these by the depravation or rather corruption of the Alible Juice fresh carried into the Blood the various fits inequalities and critical motions arise But before I enter upon the several kinds of a continued Feaver it is requisite for me to consider how the growing hot of the Blood in a continual Feaver differs from that other which constitutes Intermitting Feavers I say therefore that the growing hot of the Blood in an Intermitting Feaver depends only upon the commixtion of a certain Fermentative matter and not rightly miscible with the Blood and on its growing up to a fulness of boiling over Because of this heat with the Blood in the Vessels and of the deflagration in the Heart the fit is induced because of its growing cool the intermission follows that in the coming between of the fits neither the Spirits nor Sulphur become outragious but the bond of the mixture being kept whole the Liquor is circulated in the Vessels equally and without trouble on the contrary in a continual Feaver the disorders of the Spirits and of Sulphur of either or both together by their proper Ebullition also without the mixture of any other stir up the Ebullition of the Blood wherefore there are required for an intermission besides the difflation or cooling of the Excrementitious matter a deflagration of the inkindled Blood and a reduction of it to its due Temper The Constitution of the Blood in a continual Feaver is of the same sort as of Wines when they grow hot upon too rich a Lee to wit are mighty in Spirit and grow turgid with exalted Sulphur and therefore they conceive a Fervor and greatly boil up of their own accord without the mixture of any other thing In an Intermitting Feaver the Blood is moved after that manner as Wines when they conceive an heat because of somthing poured to them that is not miscible with them Moreover in this Feaver the disposition of the Blood is of that sort as of Wines when in their decay and declination they become ropy unsavory or acid to wit in which the Spirit is depressed that in the mean time either Salt or Sulphur or both together appear above the rest and infect the whole Liquor with their disorder An Intermitting Feaver for the most part is free from danger because the constitutive parts of the Blood altho they should somwhat change their disposition however keep the bond of mixture and whilst they are in power are circulated equally in the Vessels yea they pervert the nutritious Juice into a matter not altogether besides Nature but rather infesting with its fulness and turgescency In a continual Feaver besides the intemperance the mixture of the Blood and constitution of the Liquor are somwhat loosned and its corruption easily follows wherefore this Disease often ends in death further the nourishing Juice is depraved into a matter wholly vitious and altogether infestous to Nature CHAP. VIII Of the Ephemera or Feaver for a Day I Have said the least degree of heat which induces a continual Feaver is placed in the subtil and Spirituous part of the Blood being too much agitated and heated for this like the Spirit of Wine boils up on every light occasion and conceives a fervor by a too great motion of the Body or perturbation of mind by the ambient heat as of the Sun or vapours by hot things taken inwardly as the drinking of Wine and the eating of peppered meats and being irritated by such like For the Spirits of the Blood easily take fire and being impetuously moved are not presently appeased but they move throughly other Particles of the Blood variously confound and snatch them into a rapid and disorderly motion also from this motion of the Spirits the Sulphur or Oily part of the Blood is more boiled forth somwhat more dissolved and somthing more fully inkindled in the Heart by which means an intense heat is raised up in the whole Body But forasmuch as Sulphur is inkindled and inflamed only by small parts and not in the whole that fervor of the Spirits is quickly appeased and ceases wherefore the Feaver which is excited by this means for the most part is terminated within twenty four hours and therefore is called an Ephemera or a Feaver of a day If that by reason of a greater heat of the Spirituous Blood it is prolonged further it rarely exceeds three days and is called an Ephemera of more days or a Synochus not putrid but if it should happen to be lengthned beyond this time this Feaver easily passes into a putrid viz. from the dayly Ebullition of the Spirituous Blood the more thick Particles of the Sulphur at length begin to take fire and involve the whole mass of Blood in its Effervescency even as the Spirit of Turpentine being shut up in a Cucurbit and being put into a Sand Furnace if it be forced with a moderate heat boils up gently as the Blood in a Feaver of a day but if the heat be made more strong the Liquor grows impetuously hot till it breaks forth into a flame to which the inflamation of the Blood in a putrid Feaver may be very aptly compared The Days Feaver and Synochus simple rarely begin without an evident cause Besides what hath been but now said immoderate Labour Watchings a sudden passion of the mind a constriction of the pores a Surfeit also a Bubo or inflamed Sore a Wound the coming down of the Milk in Child-bearing Women are wont to induce them The procatartic Causes which dispose to this are an hot temper of Body an active habit a sedentary life and difuse of exercise The chief beginnings of this Disease depend upon the
presence of the evident cause for either little Bodies of extraneous heat being confused with the Blood like water boiling over the fire make it to boil up or this Feaver is induced by motion or by reason of transpiration being stopped even as Wines made hot by motion or when too closely stopped in the Ton are put into a Fervor but what way soever an inflamation is first excited presently the Spirits become enraged and being moved hither and thither compel the Blood to boil up and to be inlarged into a greater space with a spumous rarefaction wherefore the Vessels are distended and the membranous parts hauled hence follow pain chiefly in the Head and Loins a spontaneous weariness and as it were an inflation of the whole Body If that with the Spirit of the Blood a certain Sulphureous part be also in some measure inkindled a sharp heat is diffused through the whole the Pulse is vehement and quick the Urine red also thirst watchings and many other symptoms infest the reasons of which are added hereafter Concerning the Solution or Crisis of the Ephemeran Feaver and of the not putrid Synochus three things are chiefly requisite viz. a removing of the evident cause secondly a separation and a scattering of the depraved or excrementitious matter from the mass of Blood Thirdly a quieting of the parts of the Blood and a restitution of them to their natural and equal motion and site According as these succeed now more suddenly now more slowly and difficully this Disease is finished in a shorter or longer time 1. The evident cause which for the most part is extrinsick is easily removed and the sick are wont presently to avoid the presence or assiduity of that thing and do perceive a sense of any thing that is hurtful none taking a Feaver from Wine will still indulge the drinking of it as soon as any one grows more than usually hot in a Bath or the heat of the Sun 't is a trouble to them to stay longer 2. As to the Excrementitious matter which ought to be scattered and separated from the Blood this is either brought from without as when the Blood is infected by surfeit drinking of Wine sitting in the Sun or from a too hot Bath with Effluvia or little dry and Fermentative Bodies or this matter is begotten within as when its Liquor is stuffed with recrements or adust Particles from the deflagration of the Blood Either of these matters ought to be separated from the Blood to be dispersed and either by sweat or insensible breathing forth to be thrust out of doors before the Feaver be appeased wherefore when as the pores are bound up and transpiration hindred the Ephemeran Feaver is longer protracted and somtimes passes from a simple Synochus into a putrid 3. The evident cause being removed and this degenerate matter dispersed there is required for the remission a quieting and reducing into order the parts of the Blood for diverse Particles of the Blood being after this manner confused and by reason of the Feaverish heat carried up and down they do not presently get again the former order of situation and position but it is needful that they be by degrees extricated and by little and little restored to a just mixture Although this Disease after the removing of the evident cause for the most part ceases of its own accord within a while yet some Medicinal Remedies may be administred with good success especially when there is danger lest the Ephemeran Feaver should pass into a putrid The chief intentions should be to suppress the fervor of the Blood and to procure a more free transpiration to the which conduce first a breathing of a Vein a slender diet or rather abstinency cooling drinks and a bringing away the filth of the Belly by Clysters Sleep and Rest greatly help above all the rest which if wanting should be procured in time by Opiats and Anodynes Verily altho the Histories and Observations of those distempered with an Ephemeran Feaver contain in themselves nothing very rare yet I shall subjoin an example or two in this place whereby the delineation or type of this Disease may be illustrated A certain young Gentleman about twenty years of Age endued with a strong habit of Body by the immoderate drinking of strong Wine fell into a Feaverish distemper with thirst heat and with a great burning of his Precordia being let Blood he drank a great quantity of fair water and upon it presently a plentiful sweat following he grew shortly well In this case the more thin portion of the Blood being heated by the Spirits of the Wine fell into a rage caused the whole mass of Blood to be shaken and its frame to be loosned more than t was wont and for that reason that hapned to be more dissolved by the Ferment of the Heart and to be as it were inkindled by the active Particles loosned from the mixture until the Vessels being emptied by Phlebotomy the raging Blood was cooled and by the drinking of the water its fervor was attempered then the hot Effluvia being involved together with the adust matter with a copious Serum and sent away by Sweat the Blood at length recovered its due temper Moreover an ingenious young man of a sedentary life and also very much addicted to the Study of Learning when he had for somtime exercised himself beyond his strength in the hot Sunshine he began to complain of the pain of his head a want of Appetite a heat of his Precordia and of a Feaverish distemper all over to whom for that he was wholly averse to Physick I ordered an abstinence from all things whatsoever unless from Small-Beer and Grewel on the second day and so more on the third the symptoms remitted by little and little on the fourth he went home freed from the Feaver without any Medicine CHAP. IX Of a Putrid Feaver SO much for a Continual Feaver which is raised from the most simple heating of the Blood or its lowest degree of inordinate heat that which depends on a greater degree of heat follows viz. when the Oily or Sulphureous part of the Blood being too much heated swells up above measure and as it were forced into a flame and therefore from the similitude by which humid things putrifying conceive an heat this kind of Ebullition of the Blood because it induces an immoderate heat is called a putrid Feaver which name ought to be retained without injury because that in this Feaver the Synthesis of the Blood as is wont to happen in putrifying Liquors is very much unlocked When the Spirits only grow inraged as in an Ephemera the frame of the Blood is somwhat set open and loosened that it is more dissolved by the Ferment of the Heart than is wont and more Particles than naturally use to do leap forth and diffuse a more intense heat but yet the mixture of the Liquor as to its chief parts is conserved But when the Sulphureous matter taking
fire grows hot above measure the bond of the mixture for the greatest part is loosed that its Principles are almost wholly drawn away by the Ferment of the Heart and the active Particles being loosned from the mixture break forth as it were into a flame Wherefore the Liquor of the Blood being after this manner rarified in the Heart and as it were inkindled is from thence carried through the Vessels with a most rapid motion and disperses very many Effluvia of heat from its deflagration Hence the whole mass of Blood like water put over the fire continually boiling distends the Vessels pulls the Brain and Nervous parts raises up Convulsions and pains in them very much destroys the Vital Spirits with its heat wasts the Ferments of the Bowels hinders the Offices of concoction and dispensation often depraves the nourishing Juice destinated for the Nervous stock that from thence exceeding great disorders of the Animal Spirits follow yea almost perverts the whole oeconomy of Nature The course of this Disease shews it self after this manner It rarely begins without a procatartic cause or previous disposition to wit the Sulphureous or oily part of the Blood is first too much carried forth and exalted beyond its due tenor which afterwards either of its own accord like Hay not eventilated begins to grow hot or by the coming of an evident cause it is forced into a preternatural heat But when it grows turgid in the first place by reason of the admixtion of a crude Juice with the Blood now a shivering now heat infests which shew themselves unequally like fire which is covered with green wood sends forth now smoak now flame But at length the fire glowing more largely as here the victor fire spreads it self abroad so there sooner than said the whole mass of Blood is inflamed and is urged at once with heat and a most swift motion Nor is this immoderate heat of the Blood appeased before its active particles being loosned from the mixture and then successively inkindled in the Heart are wholly burned out which doth not happen but in the space of many days And then at length this Feaver ceases when the remaining Liquor of the Blood the Spirit and Sulphur being very much consumed being made lifeless and poor is fit only for a weak and small fermentation From this kind of deflagration of the Blood and also of the alible Juice by the same fire burnt out the recrements or little Bodies of torrified matter are heaped up in the Blood which yet do more promote its fervor and ebullition and for a time increase the Feaverish distemper After the Blood hath very much burned forth and these kind of little Bodies are gathered together to a fulness of swelling up the vital Spirit endeavors a separation and tries to concoct and to overcome what it may these adust recrements and then having put a great many of them into a swelling up a Flux being risen strives to shut them wholly out And indeed in the subaction and seclusion of this matter chiefly consists the event of this Disease for if the vital Spirit being strong the Bloody humor when it hath sufficiently burned forth and shall be freed from these adust particles should recover its pristine tenor whereby it is made fit for motion and a due fermentation in the Heart the sick tends towards health but if by a long deflagration and an inextricable confusion of the morbific matter the liquor of the Blood being wanting of Spirits and more pure Sulphur or those same by the impure mixture growing ill being as it were put under the yoak is rendred so lifeless that it is not any longer rarified by the ferment of the Heart or inkindled by degrees its heat and motion together with Life it self decays The procatartick causes which dispose to this Disease are an hot and humid Temper an active habit of Body a youthful Age the Spring time or Summer season a high and rich Dyet besides the often drinking of rich Wines a sedentâ—ry and idle life a Body full of gross humors and stuffed with vitious Juices but above all the rest it appears by observation that the frequent letting of Blood renders men more apt to Feavers wherefore it is commonly said from whom Blood is once drawn that unless they do the same every year they are prone to a Feaver The reason of this is unless I am deceiv'd by the frequent letting of Blood the Sulphur is more copiously gathered together in the mass of Blood in the mean time the Salt which should bridle it and hinder it from raging by this means is drawn away for the Blood the older it grows becomes so much the more Salt the Salt of all the Elements not evaporating But by how much the more the Blood abounds in Salt by so much the less it abounds in Sulphur for Salt eats and consumes the Sulphur and makes it evaporate wherefore they who are lean and abound with a Salt Blood are less prone to Feavers But when by the letting of Blood the ancient Blood is drawn forth in its stead another more rich and more impregnated with Sulphur is substituted so that it becomes less Salt and more Sulphurous Hence it is that those who often let Blood are not only prone to Feavers but also are wont to grow fat because of the Bloods being more impregnated with Sulphureous Juice The evident causes which deduce the latent disposition of this Feaver into act are of the same sort which procure an Ephemeran Feaver and simple Synochus in this rank chiefly come Transpiration being hindred and Surfeiting By reason of the effluvia being restrained the mass of the Blood being increased in bulk grows turgid and conceives a Fervor as it were from a certain ferment inspired anew and cruelly boyls up from thence presently the pores are more obstructed by the infartion of the effluvia and the frame of the Liquor being loosned the particles of the Sulphur exuberating in the Blood leap forth from the mixture and are inflamed by the ferment of the heart as it were by fire put to them and so they enkindle a very intense Feaver But from a Surfeit both an immoderate fermentation is induced in the Blood and also a nitrous Sulphureous matter apt for adustion and an inkindling is conveyed as it were food to the burning Blood In this Feaver four times or seasons are to be observed in which as it were so many posts or spaces its course is performed These are then The Beginning the Augmentation the Height and Declination These are wont to be finished in some sooner in others more slowly or in a longer time The beginning ought to be computed from the time the Blood begins to be made hot and its Sulphur to conceive a burning untill the ardors and burnings are diffused thorow the whole mass of Blood The Increase or Augmentation is from the time that the Blood being made hot and inkindled thorow the whole burns forth
at length and recover their health The vice or depauperation which the Blood hath contracted from the Feaverish heat consists in this The Spirit very much evaporates and is lost the Sulphureous part is too much scorched and is much wasted by the deflagration and from its burning the adust matter as it were the Caput Mortuum is left with the Particles of which the mass of Blood is aggravated and debilitated in the mean time the Saline and earthy parts are too much exalted even as is wont to come to pass in Wine or Beer by the use of too much Ferment The Blood by these ways being spoiled evilly assimilates the provision of the Nutritious Juice yea also by reason of the roasting of the Sulphur in the Heart or defect of it not rightly Fermenting or inflamed it untowardly dispenses the Vital Spirit in the mean time from the adust matter and Salt too much exalted it grows more fervent than it should and more wasts it self 1. From a good Crisis the Spirit tho made weaker yet gets the upper hand wherefore what is left of the Feaverish matter it by degrees overcomes and expels and concocts and assimilates so what is brought be thin or slender the Nutritious Juice from thence the mass of Blood is amended anew with Spirit and Sulphur and the Blood which now being Salt and sharp did continually grow hot acquires at length a Sweet and Balsamic Nature and being quickned with a lively motion and heat rightly performs the offices of life and sense 2. From a bad Crisis the business is otherways the Liquor of the Blood like Wine too much Fermented degenerates almost into a vappidness or lifelessness its Spirit is greatly deminished the Reliques which remain are intricated and as it were overwhelmed with the Particles of adust matter from whence there is yet a continual growing hot remaining in the Blood yet without concoction or assimilation of the Alible Juice or separation of the profitable from the unprofitable The benign Sulphur and the Food of the Vital flame is much consumed so that the Blood is less inkindled in the Heart than it ought to be in the mean time from the adust recrements and also the Salt and Earth being too much carried forth it perpetually burns in the Vessels with thirst and heat And because it is dayly depauperated the Spirit and benign Sulphur being wasted and more infected with the Salt and Earthy dregs being too much exalted its Liquor in a short time becomes tastless and is made unfit for circulation and for the inkindling in the Heart for the sustaining the Vital fire wherefore there is a necessity that life be lost even as the flame of a Lamp is extinguished when instead of the wasted Oil a Salt and Muddy Liquor only supplies it 3. From an imperfect and doubtful Crisis when the sick being weakned by a long imbecillity become not well but of a long time the business is after this manner The Spirituous and Sulphureous parts of the Blood are very much consumed by the slow deflagration the remaining Liquor being not Purged from the adust recrements and feculencies is rendred very impure but when there is yet remaining somthing of Oil for the Vital Lamp nor Spirits are altogether wanting for the subduing the Feaverish matter the Blood is still circulated and tho but smally is inkindled in the Heart yea and by little and little the Spirits recollect themselves set upon the matter remaining of the Feaver and what they are able begin to overcome it then by a pertinacious assiduity of coction like a flame wavering and half extinct among green wood at length rise up victorious and restore anew both with heat and motion leisurely renewed a quick and lively Fermentation in the Heart So much in general of the Feaver called Putrid it remains before we descend to the kinds and particular Cases of it that I recount the symptoms and signs chiefly notable in the course of this Feaver and subjoyn the reasons and causes of them and their manner of being done CHAP. X. Of the Symptoms and Signs chiefly to be noted in a Putrid Feaver THE Symptoms coming upon a Putrid Feaver altho they argue the oeconomy of the whole Body to be for the most part depraved and the disposition and functions of some part or Member hurt yet the accidents which a Physician ought chiefly to consider about the Diagnosis of this Disease and its Prognosis to be rightly instituted may be referred to three casses or common places to wit they have respect to the Viscera of Concoction viz. the Ventricle and Intestines with their Appendixes Or secondly to the humours flowing in the Vessels viz. the Blood in the Arteries and Veins and the thin Liquor in the Nervous parts together with the chief springs of either viz. the Heart and Brain or lastly these symptoms respect the habit of the Body with the various constitution of the pores and the extension or emarceration of the solid parts They who would exactly observe the course of this Disease and would fitly draw out Curatory intentions may take notice of these three heads of symptoms and carefully consider what alterations may happen in these as it were distinct Regions according to the different times of the Feaver 1. Troubles and disorders such as nauseousness vomiting want of Appetite indigestion a looseness a scurfiness of the Mouth and Tongue a bitter favour are wont to infest about the Ventricle and first passages in the whole course of this Feaver These for the most part are attributed to the humors first heaped together in the Stomach and there putrifying But besides that the recrements of the Chyle being throughly roasted by too much heat degenerate into an hurtful matter very often these kind of accidents happen for that the Purgings and the filth of the Blood and Nervous Juice whilst they grow hot are carried inward and being deposited in the membranes of the Viscera provoke Convulsions and also make a filthy heap of vitious and very infestous humor I have often observed that about the beginning of the Feaver the Blood growing hot laid aside its recrements even inwardly with a benefit to the sick where altho great molestations did arise about the first passages yet the burning was therefore more mild the Pulse moderate and the Urine laudable and these being after this manner in a Feaver quickly grew well with a slender diet and the use of gentle evacuations But if in this case I should administer a vehement Cathartic for the extirpating the humours that Natural Purging of the Blood being hindred presently the Feaver became strong with a red Urine and troubled a deep Pulse Watchings and other horrid symptoms also oftentimes after the state of the Disease by this kind of interior Lustration or Purging the adust matter and excrementitious is separated from the Blood Hence somtimes a Lask somtimes a scurfie covering of the Mouth and Throat follow Wherefore there is need of caution
c. arise somtimes from the Blood being in a rage and so stirring up inordinate motions in the Brain and somtimes also from the nervous Juice being depraved and therefore made improportionate to the regiment of the Animal Spirits But most often these kind of symptoms are frequent in Feavers by reason of the translation of the Feaverish matter from the bosom of the Blood into these parts For the Blood being full of the adust recrements remaining after the deflagration endeavors like the flowring of new Wine to subdue and exclude them from its Company by every manner of way which a Flux being arisen when it cannot expel by Sweat Urine or bleeding it oftentimes transfers to the substance of the Brain and there fixes them and from hence chiefly the aforsaid distempers when they are fixed and firmly rooted draw their original when as the lighter and that are easily moved often proceed from the afore-recited causes 9. Convulsive motions happen in Feavers for divers causes somtimes because of the matter being heaped together in the first passages which there haules the membranous parts with its notable pravity and then by the consent of the nervous stock the Convulsion is presently Communicated to the beginning of the Nerves in the Brain and by that means draws aside now these and now those parts by which means Worms abounding in the Viscera sharp humors being stirred and strong Medicines induce Convulsions or secondly when the Feaver is a partaker of some malignity so in the small Pox Measels or the Plague frequently Convulsions happen to wit because the Blood is altered from its benign and natural temper into a destroying and venomous by which the Nerves and their beginnings are pierced and forced into Convulsions Also oftentimes without the suspition of malignity in a putrid Feaver Convulsive motions are induced by reason of the translation of the Feaverish matter to the Brain as was but now intimated so I have often observed when the Disease is not presently cured with the Crisis the sick ly by it with a tedious sickness and are made obnoxious to tremblings and Convulsive motions Thirdly and lastly for the most part in every Feaver which terminates in Death Convulsive motions are the sad forerunners of it which I think to happen not only from the malignity of the matter with which the nervous stock is pulled and pierced but because the Spirits very much exhausted and debilitated do not sufficiently blow up and distend the Bodies of the Nerves wherefore being released from their wonted extension and tonick motion they are however by a more weak indeavor of the Spirits agitated into a disordered motion 10. A syncope or swooning is wont to be raised up several ways in Feavers but chiefly for these three causes to wit either from the mouth of the Ventricle being distempered which part as it is interwoven with a manifold texture of Nerves is very sensible and because from the same branch of the sixth pare little shoots of Nerves are equally derived to the heart and to the Ventricle of the Orifice of the Ventricle so implanted with Nerves be distempered with any great trouble it is also Communicated to the heart and either the motion is stopped in it or at least an inordinate one is excited whereby the equal Flux of the Spirits and the Blood is interrupted for a time I knew one in an acute Feaver taken with a frequent swooning which distemper wholly ceased after he had cast forth by Vomit a long and smooth Worm Secondly a syncope also is somtimes induced because the invenomed matter is circulated with the Blood which suddenly fixes and extinguishes the vital Spirits and congeals the Blood it self that it is apt to stagnate in the heart as usually happens in the Pest small Pox c. of which we shall speak particularly hereafter Thirdly a syncope is wont to happen by reason of the more rare texture of the Spirits which as they are very tender and subtil are easily unbent by any immoderate motion or pain so I have known some who being quiet in bed have found themselves well enough but being removed from one place to another presently have swooned away 11. The pain of the Heart happens in Feavers when the Ventricle and especially its Orifices by reason of the manifold insertions of Nerves being very sensible are beset with a sharp and bitterish humor or else with an acid and corrosive for hence a pain and trouble arises from the acrimony of the humor after the same manner as when the sphincter of the fundament is afflicted in Cholloric dejections with pain and molestation 12. By reason of the same cause Vomiting and nauseousness are wont to be excited to wit by the Ventricles being beset and irritated to a Convulsion from an extraneous matter and not akin to it self Such an excrementitious matter may be gathered together in the Ventricle by three ways for either the aliments partly by reason of a want of an acid ferment by which they should be rightly Cooked and partly by reason of the burning heat of the Ventricle are roasted into such a Corruption or Secondly this kind of matter is laid up in the Ventricle from the Arteries terminating in its Cavity as uses to happen in the small Pox the Plague and malignant Feavers or Thirdly meer Choler being pressed forth from the Choleduct Vessels into the empty intestine by reason of an inverse motion and as it were Convulsive of that intestine it is poured into the Ventricle want of Appetite also happens by reason of the Ventricles abounding with vitious Juices and because the acid ferment is wholly perverted by the scorching heat These kind of distempers of the Ventricle and Viscera somtimes arise from an excrementitious matter to wit alimentous degenerated in the concoction heaped together a long while before the Feaver in the first passages which not seldom becomes the occasional cause of the Feaver it self but somtimes nauseousness want of Appetite Vomiting pain of the Heart c. are the immediate products of the Feaver for when the day before the sickness those distempered have been well enough in their Stomack as soon as the immoderate heat of the Blood was induced whilst it boiled up above measure both the Effluvia and the recrements being wonted to be evaporated outwardly also the bilous humor flowing out of the Choleduct Vessels are poured into the Ventricle by which its Crasis is overthrown also the Reliques of the Chyle and other contents in the Viscera are egregiously depraved from whence the aforesaid Distempers draw their Original 14. No less frequent a symptom in Feavers is a Diarrhea or Flux of the Belly which somtime happens about the begining of the Disease and arises for the most part either from the Bile flowing forth of the Coleduct Vessels into the Duodenum or from the recrements of the Blood and Nervous Juice poured forth from the Arteries and the passage of the Pancreas into the intestines All the
symptom coming upon that other Disease of which sort is accounted what depends upon the squinancy plurisie the inflamation or imposthume of the Lungs or any imposthume from a wound or ulcer in a principle part or its neighbourhood of which we think a little otherways viz. That truly no Putrid Feaver is merely Symptomatical perhaps it may arise occasionally from some other Distemper but it is founded immediatly in the Sulphureous part of the Blood being made too hot and as it were inkindled for without a Procatarsis or preceeding indisposition of the Blood the aforesaid Distempers rarely or not at all cause a Putrid Feaver As to what respects the squinancy plurisie the inflamation or imposthume of the Lungs and the like I say that these are the products of the Feaver or Distempers following it but by no means the cause of it for most often the evident cause went before which produced the Feaverish effervescency of the Blood as a taking of cold evacuation being hindered c. then altho the sick do not openly grow presently into a Feaver yet a greater ebullition of the Blood than was wont is stirred up as may be easily conjectured from the Urine Pulse and inquietude of the whole Body After some days â—nhw sooner now later an Inflamation is brought forth in one part or other the reason of which may probable enough be said to be of this sort The Blood by reason of the effluvia being retained which are like ferment is increased in its bulk and grows more turgid than its wont in the Vessels and when for want of Ventilation it is streightned in the space of its circulation it easily springs forth where it can find a passage through the Arteries and being extravasated from the broken thred of Circulation it gathers together into a Tumor and because from this kind of tumor an heat and pain are increased in the part the Blood is more disturbed in its motion and so the Feaver at first inkindled is more aggravated Further in these kind of Distempers we may take notice of a certain aptitude of the Blood to be coagulated whereby it is made less fluid so that it is apt to be congealed in the lesser Vessels even as it is to be perceived in Milk when it begins to sour for then it will not be boiled nor heated over the fire without coagulation and in like manner there is to be suspected in the Blood a certain disposition to growing sour by reason of which it is made more obnoxious to coagulation for it easily appears that in a plurisie a peripneumonia the squinancy and the like Diseases the inflamation or extravasation of the Blood does not always depend on the exuberancy of the Blood and plenitude of the Vessels for oftentimes the Blood is stopped in its motion with a weak pulse and a sinking down of the Vessels and being extravasated in the side or elsewhere causes a most acute pain yea being driven from one part by and by it is fixed in another and somtimes it begins to stagnate in the heart it self and there oftentimes induces a deadly oppression wherefore some pluritical people are wont when the pains are gone to complain of a great burthen and as it were weight fixed about the region of the Heart And when we have opened the dead Bodies of such as have dyed of these kind of Diseases we have seen the Blood to be gathered together in little bits or oblong gobblets in the secret parts of the Heart and round about the cavities of the Vessels But for that these Diseases are wont to be handled apart from the Feaver therefore we shall say no more of them here It only remains that we inquire whether the Feaver which accompanies these Distempers is to be esteemed in the rank of those that are called Putrid or not To which we reply that most often they are simple Feavers in which only a subtil and spirituous part of the Blood is inflamed and therefore it the extravasated Blood may be restored to circulation by a plentiful detraction of the Blood or an emptying the Vessels by sweat presently the growing hot of the Blood is appeased and the Feaver shortly allayed But somtimes when a predisposition as in a Plethora or fulness of good humor or in a great Cacochymie or fulness of evil Juices brings it on together with the same kind of distempers a Putrid Feaver is inkindled wholly from the same cause Among the symptomatick Feavers is reckoned that which is commonly called the slow Feaver they who are sick of this are more than usually hot especially after eating any motion or exercise the Urine for the most part is red the Spirits are feeble and strength cast down as to their appetite and rest they are indifferently well they have neither Cough nor much spitting but they daily like those in Consumptions grow lean without any evident cause The fault for the most part is ascribed to obstructions in some inward as the liver spleen or mesentery by whose default the aliment is not well Cooked nor rightly dispensed But it seems to me that this sort of distemper is immediatly founded in the evil disposition of the Blood by which it is inclined into a too salt and sour temper and therefore is rendred less apt for nutrition and an equal circulation For the Blood in the Heart just like oil in a Lamp if it redounds too much with saline Particles is inkindled not pleasantly and equally but with a noise and great evaporation of the parts whereby indeed it is sooner wasted and exhibits but a languishing and weak flame I opened one somtime since dead of this Disease in whom the Viscera destinated to concoction were well enough but the Lungs were without moisture and dry and beset throughout with a sandy matter like Chaulk Also oftentimes in this Disease the Mesentery is beset the glandules being filled with such a Chaulky matter But whether the Blood being made more saltish doth first bring in these kind of distempers of the Viscera or whether the Dyscrasie or evil disposition of the Viscera first brings it upon the Blood is uncertain it seems probable that either distemper depends upon the other and that the causes of either evil are reciprocal But the Feaver which chiefly deserves to be called Symptomatic is that which is excited in Phthisical persons from an Ulcer or Consumption of the Lungs For the whole Blood whilst it passes thorow the Lungs in its circulation often impresses on this Inward the ideas of very many Diseases and on the other side receives the same from it being evilly affected whatsoever impure thing is conteined in the mass of the Blood as the flowring of New Wine is cast forth by extremities of the Arteries wherefore when Nature being made more weak it cannot transfer its recrements into the superficies of the Body it deposes them by a more near Purgation into the Lungs From hence a Cacochymia or fulness of ill
time his Pulse was small and weak that when it was consulted upon for the letting him blood again 't was thought dangerous lest his dejected strength would not admit of such a remedy wherefore Phlebotomie was performed only in a very small quantity and a fomentation and a Cataplasme was prescribed to be diligently applyed to his side besides twenty drops of the spirit of Harts-horn to be taken in a spoonful of Cordial Julep and the same to be repeated continually within the space of six hours He sweat that night very much and the pain much remitted his spitting was but little interspersed with Blood which within a day wholly ceased and the pain also leisurely vanished The sick man took twice a day a scruple of the same spirit of Harts-horn and within a few days he grew perfectly well without relapsing This Feaver was a simple Synochus stir'd up from the evident cause viz. a Constriction of the pores as soon as the Blood began to be somwhat filled with adust recrements and so to swell up more the matter which should have been separated by reason of its peculiar evil was transferred into the Pleura and being there fixed compelled the Blood coming to it to be coagulated and therefore to be stopped in its circulation and when it could not be received by the veins presently to be extravasated from hence hapned the acute pain in the side and bloody spittle by and by after the beginning of this Disease then afterwards the same matter being thrust out of that nest which it had got and being supped up again into the mass of Blood was fixed in the head and there inducing the like stagnation of the Blood and as it is probable coagulation caused the vertigo and cruel pain which nevertheless was quickly cured by the hemorrhage being arisen by reason of the extravasated Blood A part of the morbific matter being after this manner drawn away the other part resumed by the Blood was again conveyed to its usual nest to wit the side before distempered where depositing its latex to wit a portion of the Blood it did coagulate it again and compelled it to be extravasated or to flow out of the vessels For that pain being renewed on the fourth day with the bloody spittle from the ebullition of the Blood too extreamly and therefore flowing out of the vessels would not be brought away because at that time the Pulse was small and weak with a falling down of the vessels that indeed the Blood was thought to have been run all out of the vessels for that being coagulated by the morbific matter and therefore tho expulsed the Arteries yet not being able to be carried back by the veins it was stopped in its circulation Upon this an acute pain followed because the Blood being heaped together by its frequent approach and elevated into a Tumor made a dissolution of the union also by and by from the beginning a bloody spittle came upon it because the Blood being restrained within in the Body somwhere in its motion by reason of the most tender and easily opening little mouths of the vessels ran forth into the Cavities when to the same outwardly extravasated by reason of a more thick skin and the mouths of the little vessels being locked up no way lay open unless by its being made and ripened into an Imposthume The opening of a vein profited in the beginning of the Pleurisie because it restrained the Blood somwhere hindred in its circuit from too great effervency but especially for that when the vessels were by that means greatly emptied they did again receive and render fluent whatsoever humors were before exterminated and also the Blood beginning to stagnate in the distempered part Also the remedies helping most about the beginning of this Disease were of that sort which hinder the coagulation of the Blood or dissolve it in the coagulating such they are which abound very much with a volatile or an alchalisate Salt to wit spirit of Soot of Blood Harts-horn also spirit and salt of Urine the pouder of the claws and eyes of Crabs of a Boars tooth or the Jaw of a Pike are of known use Among the common people it is a custom to drink an infusion of Horse dung which medicine indeed I have known often to have brought help in deplorable cases In the mean time all acid things whatsoever because they more coagulate the Blood and hinder expectoration are highly hurtful in this Disease CHAP. XII Of a malignant or pestilential Feaver in general BEsides the continual Feaver which is already-described and which arises from some principle of the Blood being too much carried forth there is another species of this which is stirred up by reason of the Blood being touched with some invenomed Infection and therefore liable to enter into various coagulations and corruptions In which not only the Spirit and the Sulphur as in a Putrid Feaver rage and compel the Blood to grow immoderately hot but besides the mixture of the Blood is presently dissolved and its liquor goes into parts and so most horrid Symptoms with manifest danger of life are induced in this sort of distemper Under this rank we comprehend malignant and pestilential Feavers the Plague small-Pox and Measles of which we shall speak presently Pestilential Diseases wander so in the dark and have an unknown original that their causes and beings are seldom explicated without having a recourse to occult qualities By the unanimous consent of all the strength and power of these are placed in an invenomed matter because we perceive from a pestilent distemper strength suddenly to be overthrown and life quickly destroyed no otherwise than from the driâ—king of Poyson And therefore for the explicating the nature of the pestilence it will not be besides the matter first to inquire concerning Poyson in general and by what means it distempers our Bodies then to shew what sort of Poyson is sprinkled in the Plague and contagious Diseases which being performed we will treat particularly of the Diseases but now recited Every thing deserves the name of Poyson which striking into our Body after an occult manner vehemently hurts the temper and actions of any part or of the whole profligates the Spirits or perverts their motions solves the mixtures of the Liquors and induces Coagulations and Corruptions destroys the functions and ferments of the Viscera and so suddenly and hiddenly brings life into danger of these which after this manner lie in wait for us there is a mighty plenty and very rich provision in the nature of things oftentimes they are inly begotten within our body outwardly they are abundantly supplyed from every Coast and out of every tract of Earth water and air these daily arise out of the distinct families of minerals vegetables and Animals and so mingle themselves with our food yea with our medicine that we may complain with Plinie quod non sit fateri an rerum natura largius mala an remedia genuerit That
reason of ill feeding are full of evil humors and who by reason of fulness have their Blood stuffed with firable Sulphur receive the Pestilential Poyson by the lest blast of the invenomed Air especially if fear or sadness happen which convey inwardly and lead to the Heart as it were by a certain attraction the most light darts of the contagion On the contrary those who have their Viscera clean and the mass of Blood well tempered and are indued with a strong and fearless mind do not so easily receive this infection and somtimes exterminate it soon being received Thus much for the beginning and divulgation of the Pestilence according to its first Fountains and from thence the stream of the infected Air being deduced it remains for us to speak concerning its propagation by contagion forasmuch as it is derived as it were extraduce from some and so to others We understand by Contagion that force or action by which any distemper residing in one Body excites its like in another But as this may happen either immediately by contact as when any one lying in the same bed with another taken with the Plague or mediately and at a distance as when it happens that the infection is transferred from one house to others remote or also if the Plague come upon any one after many days or months perhaps years handling a Garment or house-hold stuff brought from an infected house therefore that the Nature of the Contagion and its diverse modes may be plainly made known we will first weigh what that is which streams from an infected Body Secondly how it bears it self through the Medium of its passage Thirdly by what means it begets a distemper like it self in another Body 1. That from every Body altho of a more fixt Nature Effluvia of Atoms constantly fly away and run forth which round about constitute as it were a Cloud or Halos and as it were cloath it like the down of a Peach is so much received among the more sound Philosophers that nothing can be more But by how much the more any thing consists of active Particles by so much the more it sends from it self little Bodies of more remarkable virtue and energy Hence the Effluvia which fall from Ambers are able to move other Bodies from their place emanations proceed from Sulphureous things which fill the whole neighbourhood with odors And so when the Pestilential venom as hath been already said is from hence any where fixed and tho in the smallest bulk is of great efficacy and operation there is a necessity that some emanations proceed from the Bodies imbued with it which refer the nature or disposition of the same Poyson and malignity and diffuse them on every side according to its sphear of activity But when these little Bodies which retain the contagion of the Pestilence as they stream from one Body are not presently received by another we shall inquire how they carry themselves in respect of their passage through the medium Where we shall presently meet with a difference in those from many others for that the Effluvia which ordinarily evaporate do not long retain the Nature or Disposition of the Body from which they flow but either vanish into Air or being impacted to other Bodies are assimilated to them but those Particles which fall from a Pestilential Infection are not easily supped up by the Air or any other Body so as they may be wholly destroyed but among the various confusions of Atoms and the dashings of other Bodies they keep themselves untouched For this untamed Poyson remains still the same almost and not to be overcome by others and tho it consists of never so little heap of Atoms will not presently vanish but with its ferment imbues the next little Bodies and so acquires new forces and gains strength by going from whence it lurks a long while in some nest and after a long time when it assaults a convenient subject puts forth it self and imparting the taint of its Poyson to another raises up again the Disease of the Pestilence anew which seemed before to be exploded and tho from the smallest seminary sprinkles far and near its deadly Poyson For the Pest brings forth such most sure signs of its contagion that some Authors contend that for this reason it only continues among Mortals and doth never spring up anew but is only conserved from its nest and carried from thence from one Region to another Histories relate that the seeds of this have lain asleep for several years in some Garment or Bedcloaths and that afterwards they being stirred it hath appeared and hath stirred up anew the Disease of the Pestilence increasing with a mighty slaughter of men When by reason of the tinder or cherishing nest the Plague is propagated after this manner at a distance the invenomed little Bodies which remain in the infection being moved presently leap out and unfold its Poyson every way as it were by a certain irradiation if that they strike against an human body presently they lay hold on the Spirits and are by their Vehicle conveyed inwardly and then by an easie labour they infect the Blood and Humors wheresoever flowing in the Vessels with their ferment and quickly bring to them coagulations and putrefaction And after this manner through the most subtil Effluvia is made as it were a certain transmigration of the Pestilential Disease even as when a shoot being cut off from some Tree and laid up for a time and afterwards ingrafted to another Trunk tho from the smallest bud it is able to produce a Tree of the same Kind and Nature CHAP. XIII Of the Plague THus far we have discoursed of Poyson in general also of the Pestilence its beginning and propagation by contagion it now remains that we explicate the description of the Plague its Nature according to its accidents and symptoms most worthy of note then some things shall be added which belong to its Cure The Plague may be described after this manner that it is an Epidemical Disease Contagious highly infestous to human kind taking its beginning from an invenomed Infection received first by the Air and then propagated by Contagion which having hiddenly and largely set upon men causes extinctious of the Spirits coagulations of the Blood blastings mortifications or deadnesses of the solid parts and with the appearances of whelks buboes or carbuncles as also with the horrid provision of other symptoms brings the sick in danger of life Altho the Plague be one kind of Disease and its specifical differences or essential are not found yet by reason of the divers kinds of accidents which come upon it some diversities and irregularities of it are observed which somthing vary the type of the Disease tho they change not the species For first this distemper somtimes is more universal that it rages every where through many Vilages and Cities at once but somtimes it is circumscribed in narrower bounds and only threatens one
interdicted that poor people who have not plenty or choice of food should be provided for at the publique charge If still the Pestilence begins to spread the empoysoned force of the Air should be corrected as much as may be which may be best done by the frequent burning of Sulphureous things the infected should be separated from the sound and the dead Carcases and houshold-stuff should be avoided and lastly that able and fit Physicians and Ministers be provided for the use of the sound and the necessities of the sick The preventive means of a private person is wont to be concluded in these three things viz. Diet Physick and Chirurgery Diet respects the six nonnatural things among which of the greatest moment are the Air and passions of the mind as to the rest Hippocrates his precept may suffice viz. Labour Meat Drink Sleep Venus should be taken moderately The Pestilent Air should be avoided by going into some other place or corrected by the well burning of Sulphureous things or whilst we breath it should be cured by fumigations and sweet smells often carried near the nostrils As to the passions of the minds fear and sadness whilst the Pestilence rages are as it were another Plague for in these the seeds of the envenomed Contagion which are placed in the superficies of the Body as it were on the edge of a whirlpool are snatched inwardly by a certain force and carried to the Heart wherefore t is a most excellent Antidote to be of a chearful and confident mind I have known many who as Helmont was wont to say by fortifying the Archeus with Wine and confidence never used any other Poyson-resisting Medicines and remained without any hurt of the Contagion among the infected and on the contrary some struck with fear when they have dwelt far from all Contagion have drank in the seeds of the Pestilence as if they were derived from the Stars Among the Chirurgical things to be administred for preservation sake are wont to be commended the opening of a Vein Cauteries and Amulets Where there is a fulness with a great swelling up of the Blood or in those who constantly by long cuâ—â—om are wont to be let Blood it is convenient to open a Vein For the less the Blood grows hot and is circulated without Tumult in the Vessels it will be so much the longer ere it be contaminated by the pestiferous Disease Issues made by Cauteries are so much used almost by the suffrage of all for preservation sake against the Plague that t is become the most common receipt For these by a constant transmission pour forth the assiduous coming of the superfluous and excrementitious matter and if that the infections of the Pestilence be admitted inwardly they are cast forth of doors at these open ports Amulets hung about the neck or born on the wrists are believed to have a wonderful force against the Pestilence of these among some of the greatest esteem are such as are made out of Arsnick quick-silver the pouder of Toads and other Poysons That the same in this case may be profitable besides the observations of Physicians this reason may seem to persuade somthing The Effluvia or atomical little bodies emerging now from these bodies now residing upon these are before affirmed to fly about through the whole Region of the Air these as they are diversly figured some of them easily cohere with others but if they strike against some of another form they oppose and overturn them hence the particles of the pestilent Infection which are adverse to our Spirits excellently agree with those little bodies of Poyson placed near and are readily fixed to them wherefore the Amulets made of Poyson do this viz. They receive the seeds of the Pestilence meeting us into themselves by reason of the likeness of parts also by alluring the same from our bodies into their embraces they in some measure free the infected from the infection The Medicinal prevention hath a twofold scope First that the assiduous coming of the excrementitious matter or humors be taken away by a gentle purging as often as there is need Secondly that by the daily taking Poyson-resisting Medicines our Spirits and Body may be fortified against the assault of the Poyson By the former the Food and cherishers of which encrease putrefaction brought in by the Poyson are drawn away by the latter the first inkindling of the pestiferous Infection as it were a deadly fire is inhibited Alexipharmies or Medicines contrary to Poysons seem to be helpful against the contagion of the Plague for this twofold Reason Both because the mass of Blood and Viscera being filled with the particles of these and also the Spirits before possessed with the same they do not easily admit of the company of the impoysoned Infection also because the Blood being incited by the gentle fury of these is kept from coagulation Thus much for preservation it follows now that we speak of the cure of the Plague The doctrine of which is either general and comprehends remedies which for this end are taken from Diet Chirurgery and Medicine or special which delivers the use and Cautions to be exhibited about those Remedies and by what means we are to oppose the Symptoms variously arising Diet comprehends the use of the six non-naturals but the chief care and medical cautions are to be given about eating the primary Indications of this consist not at one and the same time together but ought to be supplyed by turns according to the nature of the thing and the exigency of nature In respect of the malignity and of the loss of strength Aliments are to be desired which greatly cherish the Spirits and bring a more plentiful nourishment in respect of the Feaverish distemper a more slender refrigerating Diet and temperating the Blood seems to be required The Physician must regard either but he may rather intend his Remedies against the malignity than the Feaver The helps that belong to Chirurgery are the opening a Vein which seldom and very cautiously ought to be used in this Disease because the Blood being too much exhausted and the Vessels falling down sweat is not so easily procured instead of this it is better to use Cupping with scarification For this and Blistering are rightly applyed for the drawing forth of the Venom moreover against Buboes Inflamations or malignant Ulcers produced by them Cataplasms Fomentations Plasters Oyntments and many other things to be outwardly applyed are to be sought for from Chirurgery in which some Poysons as the Electric of Poyson are prescribed by some to be admixed wherefore preparations of Arsnick to wit the oil and balsom of it are commended by many in this case too of most excellent use and efficacy Medicines for the cure of the Plague are either Evacuators or Poyson-resisters The intention of the former is that the serous Latex in the Blood and the excrementitious humors which abound in the Viscera be thrust forth of doors and together with
Spirits it very rarely can be blotted out or dissipated by Medicines or blood letting but that its hidden disposition will break forth into act wherefore at first it diffuses it self by little and little and inspires the mass of Blood as it were with a ferment hence an ebullition and growing hot are produced in the whole Body the Vessels are distended the Viscera provoked the membranes pulled until the seeds of the contagion by fusing and coagulating the Blood being at length involved with its congealed portions are thrust forth of doors The essence of this Disease will be better laid open if that I shall recount the signs and symptoms which are to be observed in its whole course and shall add in order the reasons and causes of them on which they depend but they are those which either indicate the Disease being present or that foretel its state and event As to the Diagnosis of this Disease by which it may be known whether any one at first falling sick will have the Small-pox or not at that time are to be considered the force of the contagion and the concourse of the symptoms first appearing for if by reason of the evil constitution of the Air this Disease doth spread abroad every where none then is taken with a Feaver without the suspition of the Small-pox especially if they never had them before in their lives but if this Disease be more rare and without fear of contagion yet its unlooked for assault quickly betrays it self by these sort of signs and symptoms 1. There is a wandring and uncertain Feaver somtimes strong somtimes more remiss observing no reason of increase or growing continually hot so that the sick are now highly hot by and by without any evident cause they are without a Feaver the cause of which is for that the fermentative seeds are not agitated by an equal motion but like fire half choaked now increases more and now are almost quelled and ready to expire until the burning spreading more largly the flame every where breaks forth 2. A pain in the Head and Loins is so peculiar a sign in this Disease that it almost alone in a continual Feaver signifies the approach of the small-pox the reason of which is commonly imputed to the greater Vessels being very much distended by the effervency of the Blood but indeed it appears not wherefore the same trouble is not caused equally in other parts by reason of the like distention of the Vessels and wherefore in the small-pox more than in a burning Feaver or in other Feavers where the Blood grows more hot these kind of pains should increase yea it may be observed that great pains now in the Head now in the Loins do urge when the Blood but little swelling up the Vessels are not amplified viz in the beginning of the Disease when the Feaverish distemper is not yet conspicuous whilst the sick as yet goe abroad and are well in their stomach upon the first coming on of the small-pox they betray themselves by these kind of pains Wherefore the cause of these kind of dolorific pains seems rather to subsist in the nervous stock viz. in the Brain and spinal marrow and that by reason of the membranes and nervous parts being pulled or hauled by the particles of the Poyson these pains do arise For it is most likely that the innate seeds of the small-pox are chiefly hidden in the Spermatick parts and that first of all the Contagion lays hold on for the most part the animal Spirits hence the first effervency is stirred up in the juice wherewith the Brain and nervous parts but especially the Spinal marrow are watered and from thence the evil is Communicated to the mass of Blood wherefore this Disease beginning the Head and Loins are tormented with cruel pain afterwards the venom being translated into the Blood the Feaverish effervescency is stirred up in the whole 3. Great anxiety and unquietness and somtimes a swooning infest the sick viz. by reason of the perturbed motion of the Blood as also its equal mixture beginning to be solved by the Poysonous ferment the Blood from thence being apt to stagnate in the Heart and to be hindred in its Circuit causes these affections to be thus excited 4. Cruel Vomiting also when the Ventricle is free from an impure ballast of humors very often accompanies this Disease the reason of which is because the fermentative seeds being stirred up into motion by the little Arteries gaping into the Coates of the Ventricle are deposed by every appulse of the Blood and raise up Vomiting as if the particles of stibium had been swallowed but afterwards assoon as sweating being procured the Poyson is driven forth outwardly this Symptom ceases and the sick are well in their stomach without any purging forth of the noxious matter 5. With these may be ranked the Symptoms which shew themselves according to the various habitudes of the Body after a diverse manner as heavy sleepiness terrors in sleep deliriums tremblings and convulsions sneezing heat redness a sense of pricking over the whole Body involuntary tears a sparkling and itching of the eyes a tumor or swelling up of the face a vehemency of Symptoms from the beginning that the Disease seems presently to have attained its strength the reason of all which may easily be elucidated if what hath been already said concerning the Symptoms of Feavers be observed with respect to the diverse tempers of the sick their habit and age as also the condition of the year 2. As to the Prognosis of this Disease by the Symtomatick signs it is indicated to be either salutary or mortal or of a doubtful Event 1. The business promises well when this Disease has benign circumstances to wit when it happens in a good constitution of the Air and Year at what time the small-pox are less malignant and pestilential as in the year 1654 at Oxford about Autumn the small-pox spread abundantly yet very many escaped with them but before in the year 1649. this Disease was more rare yet most dyed of it Also there is less danger if it should happen in the age of Childhood or Infancy or in a sanguine temper and good habit of Body or in a Family to whose Ancestors the small-pox have not proved mortal Besides if in the whole course of the Disease the Symptoms prove laudable if in the first assault there be a gentle Feaver without cruel Vomiting Swooning Delirium or other horrid Distempers if the Feaver about the fourth day be allayed with the Symptoms chiefly urging and then some little red spots begin to appear if on the second day of the coming forth of those little red spot they become more conspicuous which afterwards grow together by degrees into little Pimples and are ripened into matter if about the tenth day or thereabouts after the eruption the white tumors begin to scab and by little and little from thence to fall off if after their first coming forth the small-pox
as often as he took going to sleep Diascordium or any other more temperate Cordial for the continuing his sweat tho in a very little quantity the night following he was without sleep and in great disquiet and then in the beginning of the morning a bleeding followed by which means indeed the Small Pox being full come forth the Life of the sick was in great danger by reason of this occasion happening once or twice wherefore when I had found by observation his blood apt to grow immoderately hot by so light a provocation I instituted this method as occasion served All Medicines being let alone he took for the quenching his thirst small beer and simple Almond Drink at his pleasure for his food because he vomited back all Oatmeal Grewel or Barly Broth he eat only apples roasted tender and drest with suggar and rose water often in a day Nature being contented with this slender ordering and being seen to be disturbed with any other thing performed happily its work that the sick person grew well without any grievous symptom afterwards the Small Pox from thence ripening and then of their own accord falling off In the middle of the Autumn of the former Year a Gentile Young Man being indued with a sharp Blood and obnoxious to a frequent bleeding at Nose fell sick of the Small Pox his Blood of its own accord grew immoderately hot that the whealks very quickly broke forth over all his Body Posset Drink with Marigold Flowers and other usual things boyled in it also Juleps or any Cordials tho temperate and gently provoking sweat most certainly stirr'd up a Flux of Blood in this Person wherefore I ordered the like manner of Dyet as in the sick Person before cited by which he found himself better however in the very state or standing of the Disease when the Small Pox being fully come forth by reason of a more difficult transpiration the Feaver is wont to be somewhat renewed in all this sick Man fell into a most plentiful bleeding that after a large profusion of Blood the Small Pox began to flagg or fall After that Remedies very many were tryed in vain for the staying of the Blood at length a little Bag being hung about his Neck in which was a Toad dryed in the Sun and bruised he first and immediately perceived ease tho the bleeding was by this means stayed and not any more returning whilst he constantly wore this peculiar Medicine in his Bosom our sick Man still using a most thin and cooling Dyet grew quite well that indeed from hence it may appear that altho the Blood in this Distemper is apt to be greatly coagulated yet so long as the Vital Spirits being strong and robust are able sufficiently to execute their government they indeavouring by their proper strength or forces do best of all separate and thrust forth the congealed portions of the Blood as it were by a certain skilful separation and this work is most of all hindred when the same spirits are too much irritated by Cordials or more hot food and agitated into confusion But in the Plague it happens otherwise because in this if any delay be granted the Spirits themselves are presently profligated by the venom wherefore here they must fight close and quick when in the Small Pox the Physician does his business better by delay Concerning letting of Blood at the instant breaking out of the Small Pox it is very dubious formerly among our Countrimen this was esteemed a wicked business neither were they wont to admit of Phlebotomy under any pretext of necessity but of late experience having taught us in some cases it is found that to let Blood hath been wholly profitable and necessary which evacuation however if it should be administred indifferently in every constitution or when this need should be it should be performed in too large a quantity by that means oftentimes very great damage arises Some years before I visited a young Gentlewoman of a storid countenance and more hot temperature growing into a Feaver after the fourth month of her being with Child she was troubled with a cruel vomiting a most cruel pain of the Loyns besides with most strong heat and thirst her pulse was swift with a strong and vehement vibration or beating altho the Small Pox had never been in that place yet these symptoms gave no light suspicion of this Disease however its great effervescency indicated that Blood should be taken away wherefore I took away about six ounces presently upon which the heat remitted somwhat yet the vomiting with a cruel pain in the Loyns remained still At the hour of sleep I gave her a Cordial Bolus with half a grain of our Laudanum by which means quiet sleep followed with a pleasant sweat and an allaying of all the symptoms the next morning the Small Pox came forth with which altho the sick Gentlewoman was greatly distempered yet she grew well without any dangerous sickness or fear of miscarrying and went out her full time The last Autumn a strong Man of an active and robust constitution of body yet of a pale countenance and more cold temper fell into a Feaver on the second day he was tormented with heat and thirst and a most cruel pain in his Loyns when I had prescribed Blood to be taken in a small quantity the unskilful Chirurgion who was sent for took from him almost half a pound a little after the sick man began to be all over in a cold sweat on a sudden to loose all strength to be troubled with a shivering a weak Pulse and unequal and frequent swooning At this time being sent for I gave him a temperate Cordial to be taken frequently His Spirits and Pulse being thereby restored the Feaver was renewed which afterwards for some days yea weeks exercised the sick man after a very irregular manner for he was wont for three or four days to grow very hot also to be infested with thirst watchings headach and other symptoms then to be troubled all over with a copious and critical sweat by which indeed for half a days space he found himself better But from thence the Feaver still growing worse heaped together again new matter till it was dispersed by another Crisis and then another After that he had been thus feaverish for at least twenty days irregularly at length the Small Pox began to come forth in several parts of his Body here and there and then the Feaver wholly remitted yet within few days by reason of some errors committed in his Dyet very many of the whealks began to fall down again few of them only being brought to maturity However instead of the subsiding Small Pocks a mighty Bubo grew up behind his right Ear from which being soon ripened and broke a great plenty of matter flowed forth for many days and so at length the corruptions of the Blood unable otherways to be dissipated were carried forth by degrees and the sick Person recovered perfect Health
the mass of Blood it is there first of all heaped up more plentifully than that the whole may go into nourishment or be received into the Breasts wherefore the Milk not only in its passage to the Breasts but also in its return towards the Womb brings forth the Feaver to wit by reason of either passage thorow the Blood But however the cause of this Disease is ordained it matters little or nothing towards the Cure for this is wholly committed to Nature and so long as the Lochia are in good order it proceeds for the most part happily without any Physical help because after the growing hot of the Blood for three or four days either a plentiful sweat or a more free transpiration cures this Distemper to wit either the Particles of the Milky humor degenerate in the assimulating or the adust recrements remaining after the deflagration of the Blood or both of them at once supplying the food or tinder of the Feaver are by little and little subdued and evaporated out of doors which being excluded the Blood becoming free from the extraneous mixture quickly recovers its pristine condition yet in the mean time certain vulgar Rules are wont to be observed about the admission of the Milk into or the driving away of the same out of the Breasts If the Milk too plentifully springs into the Breasts that their inflamation as also the immoderate growing hot of the Blood may be prevented at that time a more thin and sparing dyet to wit no flesh broths and also in a less quantity is to be ordered also the Breasts are to be frequently drawn If it be not commodious for the Mother to suckle her Child it is usual after the first or third day of her being Delivered to cover all the Breasts over with Sear-Cloaths moderately binding as the Plaister of Red-lead e. for so the spongious substance of the Glandulas is somewhat constrained or closed together whereby they less readily receive the milky humor flowing thither yet this kind of Remedy ought to be cautiously administred lest if the Milk be wholly excluded or driven out of the Breast too abruptly restagnating suddenly in the Blood it induces its disorder the prodromus or forerunner of the Putrid or Malignant Feaver of which it remains that we speak next The Putrid Feaver of Women in Child-bed WOmen Lying in from the fault of an evil affected Body as by the Contagion of a received Pestilential Air are found to be too obnoxious to the Putrid or rather Malignant Feaver but all do not a like receive the Infection of this sort of Disease for poor people Labouring Women Country Women and others accustomed to hard Labour as also Viragoes and Whores which are brought to Bed clandestinely bring forth without any great difficulty and then after a little time leaving their Beds return to their wonted Labours But more rich Women tender and fair and most living a sedentary life as if participating after a more grievous manner of the Divine Malediction bring forth in pain and then presently after the Birth they are subject to difficult and dangerous chances the reason of which seems to lie in this that those who are used to much exercise continually agitate and eventilate the Blood and therefore fewer infectious taints from the monthly Flowers being suppressed do gather together for the matter of a Disease moreover laborious and nimble Women as they have their nervous parts more firm therefore they are less subjected to convulsive motions and to the passions commonly called hysterical on the contrary in delicate and idle Women the mass of Blood in the time of their going with Child becomes very impure and fermentisible besides because they have the system of the Nerves and the Brain soft and weak upon every light occasion they suffer distractions of the animal Spirits and inordinate motions of the nervous parts And here by the way it is to be noted that Women more than men and that some of the same Sex before others are sensible of the affections called hystorical not so much by the default of their Womb as for that they are of more weak constitution of Brain and nervous stock for in those so affected the passions of anger sadness fear as also all troublesome and more strong objects easily pervert the dispositions and functions of those parts which when they are once hurt for the most part afterwards are accustomed to those irregularities But we will return from whence we have digressed The Feaver but now proposed is wont to infest Women Lying in indeed at various times and by reason of divers occasions now presently after the Birth especially if it be difficult and laborious now it arises in the first now the second third or fourth week yet the sooner it begins the more safely it is wont to be cured The Type or Figure of this Disease is performed almost after this manner After a previous indisposition an open feaverishness for the most part with a shivering or horror constitutes the first assault which is followed with heat and afterwards succeeds a sweat perhaps for a day or two they have various reciprocal fits of heat and cold then the Blood being wholly inkindled the Lochia if not before suppressed either flow smally or are wholly stopt If the Disease be acute and of a swift motion it comes to its height on the third or fourth day then an intense heat with a very troublesome thirst a vehement pulse and quick pertinacious wakings a great inquietude of the whole Body that they are continually tossing themselves in their Beds hither and thither a thick Urine and high coloured and other most grievous symptoms are wont to trouble them whilst the Feaver is after this manner at its height no Crisis is to be expected for I never saw this Disease cured by a critical sweat but that the business was still very precipitously acted as after the Blood was grown hot for a little time presently the adust matter being translated to the Brain most dangerous and heavy inordinations of it and the whole nervous stock forthwith come upon them for most often are stirred up convulsive motions of the Tendons wonderful distentions and inflations about the Viscera like to the hysterical passions then sometimes also follow a phrensie or dilerium not seldom a stupefaction and speechlessness the strength is suddenly cast down almost in all without any manifest cause the Pulse becomes weak and unequal and the sick are suddenly precipitated to death If that any perhaps escape either by the return of the Flux of the Lochia or a Lask coming upon it they hardly recover but of a long time I have known in some purple spots to have appeared and certainly in many symptoms that respect either the Blood or nervous juice which argue no light Malignity We will distinguish the causes of this Feaver after the ordinary manner into Procatartic Evident and Conjunct Those of the first sort upon which the
feaverish matter or exclude the whole but that by its impure mixture it is still more and in every feaverish fit more infected and the Spirits being continually consumed it becomes poorer we may pronounce the life of the patient to be in much danger Besides these if the vices of the nervous juice happen that being altered from its due temper or being too dull and as it were liveless little actuates the Brain and nervous stock or being above measure sharp continually provokes the same into Convulsions and Distractions and if besides the vaporous effluvias continually falling away from the Blood or the adust recrements being wont to be sifted forth by a critical sweat should be transferred into the head and there induce Lethargic or Phrensical Distempers the hopes of health will be little and we may fear a very deadly event Concerning the Cure of this Disease the intentions will come under three considerations chiefly First a quick reduction as much as may be of the Blood and nervous Liquor to their natural tempers or at least a prevention of their too great depravation Secondly Concerning the right handling the fits of the fick it ought to be procured First that less of the degenerate juice may be gathered together for matter of the fit Secondly that what is gathered together may be wholly dispersed by every fit that thereby the sick may be better in the intervals Thirdly that the Body being altered for the better the fits may be inhibited by anti-feaverish Remedies The third intention respects the symptoms chiefly urging which should be timely opposed whereby Nature being not hindred may reduce whatsoever intemperance may be conteined in the Viscera or Vessels may subdue and sift forth the extraneous matter and at length may recover a lively force and pristine vigor First therefore for the reduction and emendation of the Blood and nervous juice diverse manners of evacuations are wont to be exhibited in this Disease about the beginning of the Sickness with good success It appears plainly from Modern practice that vomitories are of more noted use in this Distemper than in a common Tertian wherefore in a robust Body and prone to Vomit about the beginning of the second or third fit it is convenient to give an Emetic Medicine The operation of this seems to be very helpful in this Feaver forasmuch as it more plentifully evacuates the filth from the ventricle and the yellow bile from the choler-bearing Vessels and because it copiously presses forth the serous juice from the emunctories of the nervous stock planted about the Pancreas and Intestines and by provoking them draws it out Wherefore we observe that from a Vomit being taken the sick do find themselves better about the Distempers of the Head A Purge to whom a Vomit is not convenient may be ordered instead of it the day following the fit also tho an Emetic have been taken it may be well permitted after a fit or two But yet only with gentle and benign Physic let it be performed which will not disturb or too much move the Blood We were wont in these Feavers letting alone Diagridium or any Aloetic Medicine only to give an infusion or Powder of Senna Rhabarb and yellow Sanders with Tartar and Salt of Wormwood and to celebrate this kind of Purgation not very long after the beginning of the Disease But at other times to keep the Belly soluble with the frequent use of Clysters Frequent experience has sufficiently taught that Letting of Blood is highly profitable in this Disease for when by reason of the Pores in every one being more strictly closed than usual the Blood growing hot by the Feaver wanted Ventilation the Letting of Blood supplies the place of a more free breathing forth and prevents the restrained effluvia from so readily suffusing themselves on the Brain and nervous stock But this Remedy is chiefly indicated from the very fervent Blood and more hot temperament nor ought to be indifferently used to old men Phlegmatic and other very weak persons unless perhaps in a small quantity that the mass of Blood may be somewhat eventilated and that the removal of the feaverish matter into the Brain may be hindred If it be convenient to open a Vein let it be done about the beginning of the Feaver or at least before the fourth or fifth fit viz. before the Blood is made very lifeless by the frequent deflagration and rendred too impure by the confusion of the adust matter because if Phlebotomy be made use of whilst the Blood is highly corrupted the Vital Spirits and by that means the strength of the sick are more debilitated nor yet is there any thing taken away from the power of the Disease or from its cause There remains another famous way of evacuation in this Feaver to wit Vesicatory Plaisters applied to various parts of the Body these are commonly observed to be so helpful that those that abhor and dislike very much such a Remedy by the example of others being the better for them have admitted them By what means they separate the Cuticula from the skin and lift it up like a Bladder filled with Water or whether they press forth this watery and limpid humor out of the Arteries or out of the nerves is not in this place to be inquired into yet that they are profitably administred in this Disease besides experience Reason seems something to persuade because it in some manner compensates the want of transpiration by the large profusion of this kind of serous Latex Moreover this kind of Remedy as it were opens the ways and doors by which both the Blood and nervous juice may forthwith send forth by a proper purging the extraneous matter confused with them wherefore in the Plague and Malignant Distempers Vesicatories are esteemed very profitable Also it appears by common observation that in this and other Feavers frequent at the same time they did prevent the more grievous Distempers of the Head and were wont to help them if they were brought in before wherefore epispatic Plaisters may be applied about the beginning of the Disease for preservation sake to Phlegmatic persons elderly people and men of a more cold temper and they are wont profitably to be administred to several others labouring with a Vertigo Stupefaction or cruel Head-ach for the Cure of the same Distempers But in constitutions very hot where with the defect of the serum the Blood is too much burnt and if those sick of the Feaver are obnoxious to wakings or a Phrensie with intolerable heat blisterings seem then to be of little use For the mending of the temper of the Blood and also the tenor of the Viscera at vacant times when there is leisure from purging attemperating Remedies have place and digestives which fuse the Liquor of the Blood and separate its faeculencies and as it were by precipitating them thrust them towards the emunctuaries For these sort of intentions are wont to be given Juleps and refrigerating Decoctions sharpned
pertinaciously will be deceived whilst they imagine the knowledg of every Disease and the prognostication of it cannot be found out but by inspecting the Vrine and esteem a Physician of little worth unless he undertakes to divine from the Vrinal as from a Magical Glass But indeed as to what belongs to the precepts and rules whereon the reason of Judgment by Vrine doth depend there are many collected by diligent observation that are extant and from thence establish'd with good reason and judgment yet for as much as the signification of Vrines is by some too largely extended to particular Cases very many uncertain things interwoven and some obnoxious to deceit and others plainly false therefore who shall confidently pronounce concerning the business of the Sick by the judgment only of the Water deserves rather the name of a jugling Quack than of a Physician But this Doctrine concerning Vrines abounds so ordinarily with errors that the observations which belong to its practice are either wrongfully made or not well reduced into method We may lawfully suspect that the observations are not rightly made because perhaps from one or two particular cases oftentimes a general Rule is established For Example sake because some Hydropical people render a thin and watry Vrine therefore it is affirmed such sort of Vrines necessarily denote a Dropsie when also in some other diseases such like Vrines are made and sometimes in the Dropsie the Vrine are thick and full of redness Also as it is most commonly received that Vrines on which a cream doth swim as on water that hath Tartar boyled in it doth denote a Consumption which is most uncertain because this sign is more proper and familiar to Hypochondriacks than to Consumptive people And how many dye of Consumptions without this Besides what is generally asserted to wit that in all diseases whatsoever Nature doth make known the Disease by the Vrine is altogether false because sometimes sick people make their Vrine like healthful people and sometimes those who are very well in health by reason of some accident perhaps from the meats eaten have suspected Vrine varying from the natural state or condition As to what belongs to the method or doctrine delivered by most concerning Vrines they seem to be altogether Empirical and nothing rational for the naked differences of Vrines are rehearsed and are wont to be distinguished according to their colour consistency and contents thence are opposed to the several species of these pathologick significations collected only from more rare observations when in the mean time the causes of the appearances nor of the preternatural alterations in the Vrines are not assigned as they ought to be nor is the signification of the Vrines applyed to the Causes of diseases but only to the Disease or Symptom and therefore it is most often deceitful and uncertain because the same morbifick Cause and signification of the same Vrine may in like manner mediately respect at once divers Diseases and Symptoms As for Example a thin and watry Vrine most often immediately denotes Indigestion or a defect of Concoction in the Viscera nevertheless by reason of that condition of Crudity the Green-sickness in Virgins sometimes the Dropsie or the white watery phlegmacy sometimes Head-aches and many other diseases arise But the task which you have required of me Worthy Sir to wit That the notions which in times past we have discoursed together and conceived concerning Vrines as it were collected notes and what have since fallen under my own knowledg by my proper study and observation concerning this thing should be fram'd into a little Treatise and that I should write a plain and new method of Vrinoscopie I confess the work greater than can well be performed by our own proper strength however I have resolved as much as I am able to obey you therein But that a doctrine or method concerning Vrines may be instituted beyond the vulgar and plainly Empirical manner of Philosophising there shall be these two heads of our Discourse To wit First that the Anatomy of Vrine may be delivered of what elements and parts it consists and also its genesis in our Body to wit by what Concoction this kind of Liquor is made and then by what secretion of some Particles from others Secondly That the inspection of urines in the Vrinal may be truly unfolded and what may be the Rules and the Certitude of Vromancie or divination of the Vrine OF URINES CHAP. I. Of the Elements and chief Accidents of Vrine WHEN the Liquor of the Urine being either fresh rendred from the body or putrified by a long digestion is exposed to a spagirick Analysis it is wont to be resolved into these parts or principles In the Distilling first ascends whatever of a vinous spirit is in it diluted with water but yet in fo very small quantity that it is not easily to be perceived by the taste it self To this follows a watry liquor large enough in proportion with which are mixed some more loose particles of Salt and Sulphur especially Thirdly There is stilled forth a very penetrative water which is commonly called the spirit of Urine but in truth almost without any vinous spirit and is chiefly phlegm highly sharpned with Salt and therefore it ascends last as in the distillation of Vinegar but forasmuch as the salt of Urine is volatile but that of Vinegar only in the Flux therefore the liquor stilled forth which is greatly impregnated with its particles is very acid That which is imbued with the saline Particles of the other is exceeding sharp and pricking It is a sign that this kind of Spirit of Urine as it is commonly known ows its sharpness chiefly to the Salt because though it be most subtil it will not take fire but being put to it extinguishes it After the humidity is wholly exhal'd another portion of Salt remains with the earth in the bottom of the cucurbit to which if a more hot fire be made that Salt will be sublimed into the Alembick and the earthy feces only remain This kind of Anatomy of Urine plainly shows that the Elements of which its liquor is composed are a great deal of Water and Salt and a little of Sulphur and Earth and a very little of Spirit The saltness in Urines is perceived by the taste and touch it comes nearest to a Nitrous salt in savour It is drawn indeed from saline particles of things eaten which being more plentifully exalted by the concoction in the Bowels and the circulation in the Vessels for the most part go into a volatile Salt That is truly Salt and Spirit by reason of the long accompanying of either together are gathered into a most strict bond and therefore it happens that the Salt it self otherways fixed is carryed up on high and rendred able for motion as it were by the wings of the other Urines contain in them more or less of Salt according to the disposition of our body and have it either more
volatile or fixed which are therefore of a divers colour and consistency That there is Sulphur contained in Urines their quickly putrifying and stink sufficiently testifie it arises from the fat and sulphureous particles of Meats in the concoction being most minutely broken and boyl'd with the serum and salt so as also there is less plenty of Spirit in it than is in Blood Soot or the Horns of Animals wherefore in the distillation of Urine there ascends nothing almost of an oylie form or fat But indeed whilst the blood is circulated in the Vessels the spirituous and sulphureous little bodies which fall away from it do for the most part evaporate out of dores in the mean time the saline recrements and the watery chiefly constitute the Piss nevertheless Urines do always participate a little of sulphur but its quantity and proportion is diversly altered according to the various degrees of Concoction and Crudity and thence also the colour and consistence receive many mutations in Urines That there is but a very little of vinous spirit in Urines the defect of it in the liquor first distilled forth also the soon putrifying of the Stale do testifie but that there is some the intestine motion of the particles in the Urine doth argue to wit the departure of the thin from the thick and the spontaneous separation of some parts from others and a collection of them into a settlement besides the saline particles for that they are made volatile are married to spirituals and so they are of a more ready motion and energy yet according to the divers plenty of spirits in Urines and their power there arise divers manners of hypostases and settlements also the Urines themselves sooner or slower putrifie The watry part of the Urine far exceeds the rest in quantity and is greater than they by almost a sixth part it is not so simply drawn forth by distillation but that some particles of Salt and Sulphur for as much as they are volatile ascend with it and impart to the water an ingrateful stink the potulent matter copiously taken with aliments affords an original to this which of what kind soever it be before it is changed into Urine lays aside its proper qualities and acquires others for truly from the assumed liquor there is nothing sincere almost left in the Piss besides meer humidity That there is earth and muddy feces to be had in Urines its distillation or evaporation sufficiently declares for when the rest of the parts are exhaled the earth as it were a caput mortuum will remain in a moderate quantity in the bottom Forasmuch as in the nourishing juice there is required something solid besides the active principles of salt sulphur and spirit whence the bulk and magnitude of the body grows the recrements of this viz. the earthy feculencies are plentifully dissolved in the serum and contribute to it a thick consistence and contents but these shew themselves after a divers manner according to the state of Concoction and Crudity These are the principles which constitute the body of the Urine also into which it is easily resolved by a Chymical Analysis Out of the divers changes and various contemperation of these the other accidents of Urine arise viz. Quantity Colour Consistency and Contents which are as to the sense the most notable concerning it and the chief objects of the rendred Urine For when there is nothing almost beheld besides in the Piss they constitute these first Phaenomena in which rightly solved consists the whole Hypothesis of this Science Wherefore we shall speak in the next place concerning these and first of the Urine of healthful people what its quantity may be how coloured with what consistence and contents indued and together shall be unfolded out of what mixture of Elements and by what Concoction in the Viscera and Vessels each of these depend Secondly shall be shown how many ways the Urines of Sick people vary from the square or Rule of this of the Sound and I shall endeavour to assign for the several differences of them proper Causes of their alterations and these shall conclude our first proposition in this Discourse viz. the Anatomy of Urine CHAP. II. Of the Quantity and Colour of the Urines of Sound People THE Quantity of the Urine in sound people ought to be a little less than the humor or liquid substance daily taken for moist and drinkable things dayly taken are the matter it self of which Urines are first made But these hunger and thirst urging are more plentifully required both that they may sufficiently wash the mass of the Chyme by which means it may rightly ferment in the Viscera and that they may serve for a Vehicle both to the Chyme whereby it may be conveyed to the bloody Mass and to the Blood it self that it might be circulated in the Vessels without thickening and to the Nervous Juice whereby it might actuate and water the Organs of sense and motion when the serous Latex by this means hath bestowed whatever it hath almost of Spirit and Sulphur for nourishment Heat and Motion it gives way to a new nutritious humour and it self as unprofitable being secluded from the Blood by the help of the Reins is sent away The nourishing liquor which will at last be changed into Urine of its own nature is divers viz. now watry now impregnated with Spirit now with Salt and Sulphur and according to the various forces of this or that Element in it Urines are wont to be somewhat altered However all liquors taken in at the mouth do not pass thorow our body whole and untouched but that they undergo mutations in various parts and lose a little portion of their quantity before they are made into Urine For the Latex or Humour to be converted into Urine is first of all received into the Ventricle for I assent not to Reusner who affirms the same falling for the most part on the Lungs to cause the more quick making water after drinking whilst that it stays in the Ventricle it is there boyled also impregnated with Salt and Sulphur of its own or from more solid Aliments dissolved then very much of it is confused in the blood with the nourishable juice which when it is a long time Circulated from thence receives a farther tincture of Salt and Sulphur according to the various temper of the Blood and its inkindling in the Heart Hence some portion of it is derived with the Animal Spirit to the Brain and nervous stock and afterwards from thence being made lifeless and weak is lastly reduced into the bosom of the Blood after that it hath bestowed on the Blood and Nervous Juice whatever of generous or noble is conteined in the Serum also no small quantity is consumed by sweat and the other emunctories what remains whilst that the Blood continually washes the Reins a precipitation being made either by a straining or force of a certain ferment it is there separated from the Blood
into the Mass of Blood and as the milkie passages carry it about by a long compass whereby it may be instilled into the descending Trunk of the Vena cava so that it may be carried in a more near way viz. into the ascending Trunk of the same by these Vessels forasmuch as the Blood being made poorer in its Circulation returning from either part before it had entred the Heart it ought to be refreshed with a new juice whereby it might more lively ferment in the bosom of the Heart but forasmuch as the much greater part of the Blood is carryed upwards surely it may seem agreeable to truth that at least some portion of the nourishing Juice may be added to this as it were a sustenance it being before burnt forth and almost lifeless for its new inkindling in the Heart The Arguments that seem to perswade to this not of light moment I could here heap together but I should so divert far from our proposition wherefore that we so suddenly make a waterish Urine after Drinking I esteem to be done after a manner as was but now said therefore the Liquor that is carryed so hastily from the Aliments to the Mass of Blood passing thorow the so narrow windings as are the Membranes of the Viscera being drawn as it were by distillation the more thick matter being rejected consists almost only of Water and Spirit with which indeed it refreshes the vital Spirits and dilutes the Blood about which task when the spirituous part is consumed the watry Latex because of its plenty being heavy and troublesome is continually sent away by the Reins and when it comes from the Ventricle not yet imbued with Salt and Sulphur nor is long circulated with the Blood that it might by that means acquire a lixivial tincture it is rendred thin and clear CHAP. III. Of the Consistence and Contents of the Urine of Sound People SO much for the Quantity and colour of Urines which proceed from a sound Body but as to what belongs to the Contents we must know that there ought to be nothing besides the Hypostasis in a sound Urine but what this is and by what means it sinks down remains to be unfolded in the next place So long as the Mass of Blood being fused with the serous and nourishable humour is continually Circulated in the Vessels from it a certain nutritious juice is made by a perpetual digestion which being put continually to the solid parts goes into nourishment This first of all is digested into a glutinous humour like the white of an Egg afterwards into thin Filaments or Rags which being interwoven in the Pores and little spaces of the solid parts still afford to them an increase of new substance but whilst the Serum being mixed with the Blood washes all the Regions of the Body it sucks up into it self a certain superfluous portion of this last Aliment to be lay'd on the solid parts and carries it forth of dores with it self and this it is that constitutes the Hypostasis or settlement in Urines wherefore so long as this is present it indicates how far Concoction and Nutrition in some measure is performed and is accounted a laudable sign its absence shews Crudity and Cachectical people or a Dyscrasie in Feavours it consisting of small Threads or Filaments is dispersed at first thorow the whole body of the Urine and then is collected into a little Cloud by this means These Filaments or Threads are long and smooth also indued with some sharpnesses like Brier-pricks that from thence being shaken about they easily lay hold of one another and are fastned together even as if into an Urinal full of water you should cast many Hairs and then by shaking about the Vessel the hairs at first swimming dispersedly in a little time would lay hold on one another and be collected into a little bundle after the same manner as it seems the little threads which constitute the Hypostasis or settlement being variously here and there agitated by the colour and spirits implanted in the Urine intangle and thrust upon one another untill they gather into one little Cloud by the mutual knitting of all together and because these Filaments are compacted and more solid than the other Contents of the Urine they sink towards the bottom with their weight It is very likely that these kind of Filaments make the Hypostasis in the Urines of Sound people for that the Blood being well constituted and disposed to nourishment is very much stuffed with Fibres or white Filaments because when a Vein is opened if the Blood let out be received into warm water it will be conspicuous to any one for the red thick substance being diluted with the liquor these smooth and white threads swim in the water wherefore it seems that some of these thin or slender rags being snatch'd away with the serous juce are the matter of this cloud subsiding in the Urine wherefore in Cachectical people by reason of Crudity the Blood being very waterish and unfit for nourishment is destitute of these well labour'd Fibrils also in Dyscrasies when the nutritious humour the Blood being too much scorched is not rightly concocted into these kind of Filaments the Hypostasis in Urines is either wholly wanting or is very confused and disturbed It is said to be a good and laudable Hypostasis which is of a whitish colour of a round and equal figure and sinks towards the bottom to which are required First that that last Aliment be rightly labour'd whereby the Filaments may become white smooth and solid like to slender Fibres Secondly that the Urine be sufficiently strong in spirits which as is beheld in the growing hot of Must or new Wine may agitate and compel here and there all parts Thirdly that the liquor be not too thick nor that its Pores be first possessed by strange bodies whereby the motion of the contents may be hindred but that a sufficient space may be left for the free agitating and tossing about these kind of Particles If the substance be red it is a sign that that last Aliment is scorched and burnt with too much heat wherefore such a sediment for the most part is in the beginning of a Feavour so long as the Coction in the Viscera and Vessels is not wholly perverted if the Hypostasis be broken and unequal it is a sign that the nutriment destinated for the solid parts is not rightly and equally concocted and that its Particles are not homogene and alike in every part wherefore the Filaments do not cohere together but these with those and they with others are entangled apart hence some more thick descend towards the bottom and others more light swim upon the top When the Hypostasis does not wholly sink down but hangs all of it either in the middle or upper Region that happens because that those Filaments are not perfectly laboured nor solid and compact but more rare and spungy or because the liquor is thicker
and more impregnate with Salt and Sulphur and therefore like Lie it sustains some weights which otherwise would sink to the bottom Sometimes the Hypostasis is wholly wanting in sound people after long fasting immoderate labours or copious sweating the matter being wholly consumed into nutriment or evaporated by sweat in Feavours by reason of the very depraved condition of the Blood also in the Pica Cachexie and other Distempers of that kind by reason of the great Crudity Concerning the consistency of the Urine in sound people there is not much worthy consideration to be met with It is wont to be of that sort as midling Beer is being purified by a long Fermentation or Lye a little boyled viz. the watry liquor of the Urine ought to include in its Pores and passages a great many Particles of Salt and Sulphur most smally broken and dissolved and besides a little of earth divided very exceeding small and dispersed thorow the whole body of the Piss if the consistence be thinner than it ought as it is in clear or limpid Urines and watry it is a sign of indigestion and crudity that the Aliments are not fully overcome and Concocted but if the Urine be thicker and closer than it ought it is a sign that the body of the liquor is filled with preternatural Contents But of these elsewhere when we shall speak of the Urines of the Sick Thus far of Urine forasmuch as it is an Excrement and sign of Concoction in a sound body truly performed in the Viscera and in the Vessels the quantity or bulk of which is to be determined by the potulent matter the colour Citron from the dissolved Salt and Sulphur and boyled in the Serum the Hypostasis or Contents depend upon the Filaments elaboured in the Blood for the nourishment of the solid parts the consistency on the Salt and Sulphur together with the Particles of Earth filling the Pores and passages of the serous liquor It next remains that we treat of the Urines of sick people in which also the Quantity Colour Contents Consistence and some accidents besides offer themselves to consideration CHAP. IV. Of the Quantity and Colour in Urines of sick People IN a Morbous provision of Bodies or Sickly estate the quantity of the Urine does not exactly quadrate with the proportion of the liquid things taken for sometimes it wants of its due measure and sometimes exceeds it When the Urine is much less than the drinkable things taken the reason is because the watry Latex either stays somewhere in the Body or is diverted by some other way of Excretion than by Urine if it remains within First it is either heaped up about the Viscera and their Cavities and so is stay'd now in the Ventricle more than it ought to do and induces by the distention of it troubles with spitting but more often it is laid up in the hollowness of the Abdomen and sometimes of the Thorax and head and there is wont to cause Hydropic Diseases Or Secondly the Serum stagnates in the Vessels and so increases the bulk of the Blood and Nervous Liquor and notably perverts its motion whence Catarrhs Rheumatick distempers and often Palsies and Convulsions are caused Or thirdly this watry humour is fixed in the habit of the body and so creates a swelling up of the whole body or of some parts Or fourthly and lastly it is obstructed in the urinary passages by the Stone or thick matter as it were a dam opposing it and causes in those parts pains and Convulsions and a fulness of the Serum in the whole body When the serous water is other ways bestowed the Patients are for the most part prone to frequent and troublesom Sweats or almost to a continual Loosness The distempers therefore which the small quantity of the Urine is wont to indicate are sometimes the swelling up of some of the Viscera and a heaping up of water in them sometimes Catarrhal distempers sometimes evil dispositions of the nervous stock sometimes an Anasarca and watry Tumors and sometimes the stony disposition of the Reins and Bladder And sometimes also the diminution of the Vrine is the effect and sign of some other preternatural evacution viz. an immoderate excretion of Sweat Lask or some other thing To describe here exactly all the subsistences of the serous Latex either in the body or the causes of it other ways excreted and the manner of doing it were to transfer hither almost the whole matter of Pathology for many and divers are the occasions and circumstances whereupon this Serum is heaped up in this or that part and subsisting in the body diminishes the quantity of the Urine but for the most part the principal and most frequent cause of this consists not so much in the fault of the Liver Spleen or Reins as of the blood it self to wit a copious and free making of Urine as also its stay in the body and only made in little quantity depend chiefly on the temper of the blood and either on its kindling or fermentation in the heart for if the blood be strong in rightly exalted principles viz. Spirit Sulphur and Salt it grows very hot in the Vessels and so the frame of the liquor being loose enough it is duly kindled by the ferment of the heart and almost spiritualizes the whole passes through all parts with heat and a rapid motion without stopping and whatsoever is superfluous and volatile evaporates out of doors and whilst the blood is ratified and boiling with heat passes through the Reins what is serous is easily separated either by the strainer of the Reins only or which is most likely by a coagulation and is as it were precipitated from the remaining mass of the blood The same thing almost happens after this manner to the blood as we may observe in Milk viz. whilst it is warmed and grows hot it most easily goes into parts and its Serum is most easily separated by the least drop of Runnet or Coagulum put into it but if you pour much more strong and sour ferment into it when it is cold a precipitation will hardly follow so if the blood becomes through an evil constitution or ill manner of living more cool and watry that being less endued with active Elements it grows but dully hot and is but little kindled in the heart it is circulated very slowly and difficultly in the Vessels passing through the Pores and passages of the Viscera it cleaves a little to them and leaves something behind it whence are begotten every where Obstructions and Tumors also the blood by this means becoming viscous and cool and so unfit for precipitation or percolation lays aside less readily its excrements in the Reins but leaves them every where in the body because it hardly and not without the residence of a certain humor is circulated Wherefore in this state those things that move the blood very much as exercise and a more quick motion or also such as may
fuse it as it were with a Coagulum or Runnet as are sharp things and preparations of Salts will more freely provoke Urine It sometimes happens that the Urines of the sick are made in a large quantity and very profuse that in a day and a nights space they make perhaps twice or thrice as much water as the Liquids they have taken the causes of which distemper are also various and the significations very divers if after the suppression of Urine or its quantity formerly lessened if in Hydropick distempers Rheumatisms or passions of the nervous stock or in the Crises of Feavers a flowing down of the Urine follows either of its own accord or by the use of Diureticks it denotes a Cure of the disease or preternatural disposition or at least a declining of it But if as I have often observed in a lean and weak constitution without any of the previous distempers but now recited the Urine exceeds much the Liquids taken and from thence a great debility of the whole follows this indeed signifies an evil disposition with a tendency to a wasting or Consumption I have known some women of a tender and most fine make who sometimes being ill for many days were wont daily to make water in a great abundance exceeding twice the Liquids taken and that watry and thin without contents or settlement at which time they have complained of a languishing of strength difficult respiration and an impotency to motion I suppose in this case that the blood and nervous juyce grow too sour from the salt carried forth and suffering a Flux and therefore that they are somewhat loosned in their mixture and fused so much into serosity as to be made fit for it For it is to be observed that all Liquids though more thick and mucilaginous if they be kept to a sourness presently become for the most part watry and limpid also the flowing down of the Urine is sometimes seen to arise from such a disposition of the blood and humors for that the Urine so copiously excreted is like Vinegar in taste and these kind of distempers are usually cured chiefly by Chalybeates and not by binding and thickning things But as to what respects the Colour the Urine of sound people may be the square or rule to which all the rest of the sick may be referred for as the colour of sound peoples is Citron the Urine of the sick is paler than Citron and so either watry or white or higher coloured than it whose chief kinds are flame-colour yellow red green and black I shall run through every one of these briefly and endeavour to weigh them together by what causes all the alterations may be made and what distempers or provisions of diseases they are wont to make known The Urine is watry or limpid when by reason of the indigestion of the Ventricle the saline and sulphureous particles of things eaten are not rightly subjugated nor being smally broken are made so volatile that being dissolved in the Serum they may impart to it a tincture which it may carry with it through the several turnings and windings of its passage For the Latex or juyce to be changed into Urine because it is forced through very secret passages and narrow as it were by a certain distillation therefore it is wholly deprived of the colour and consistency which it had from the taken Liquids and imbibes almost nothing but the volatile part from the Chyme whose Vehicle it is Wherefore if by reason of the great crudity the Salt Sulphur and other contents are not first made volatile in the Viscera nor afterwards dissolved in the Vessels that they may make their passage together with the serous juyce it being at last stripped almost of all is sent out like clear water That such Urines do want the active principles it is a sign because they are kept a long time from putrefaction This sort of Urine denotes in Virgins for the most part the Green-sickness in most the Cachexy or Dropsie in all it is a note of indigestion and crudity Sometimes in those obnoxious to the Stone it foretels the approach of the fit viz. whilst the Serum is coagulated by the stony juyce in the Reins its dissolutions and contents are congealed into a tartareous matter only a watry juyce or Latex staying behind Those who for some time make a thin and watry Urine whatever sickness they are obnoxious to have often adjoyned to it a difficulty of breathing and shortness thereof after motion and a distention about the region of the Ventricle and as it were a swelling up after eating The reason of the former wholly depends on the defect of spirits in the blood because its liquor is not fully imbued with active principles of Spirit Sulphur and Salt rightly exalted therefore it is not sufficiently kindled by the ferment of the heart whereby the whole may presently leap forth and break as it were into a flame but that hardly fermenting and being apt to stagnate in the heart and for the most part to reside there burdens it grievously wherefore if the blood so disposed is urged more than it is wont by a more quick motion into the bosom of the Heart because not being rarified of its own accord it may presently go wholly forth therefore there is need of great endeavour of the Lungs and a more quick or frequent agitation whereby it may be carried forth Therefore watry Urines signifie this kind of Crudity in the blood because for as much as they receive no tincture almost from the Salt and Sulphur it is a sign that the Particles are little dissolved in the mass of blood or are rendred volatile As to what appertains to the inflation of the Ventricle of which also limpid or clear Urines are the effect and sign I say because of a defect of due Fermentation the Chyle goes not into a volatile Cream but like bread not fermented into a sad and heavy mass which indeed is slowly and not without a residence of viscous Phlegm carried out of the stomach its reliques being impacted in the folds and Membranes of the Ventricle obstruct all the Pores and passages that nothing may vapour forth nor that the thin and spirituous part may be conveyed as it ought to be by the secret passages to the blood hence flatulencies are begotten which continually distend the Ventricle and blow it up beyond its due bulk also when those Feculencies are left a long time in the stomach they abound in a fixed Salt and degenerate now into an acid now into a vitriolick matter or of some other nature from whence Heart-aches desire of absurd things oftentimes Heat with cruel thirst and sometimes Vomiting arise some of which though they argue a very sharp heat to lye hid within yet by reason of the want of concoction such distempers often render the Urine crude and watry We have treated thus largely of a limpid or clear Urine because from hence the reasons of the
they had a urine highly red with a plentiful red sediment In the mean time it did not appear either by the Pulse languishing of the Spirits or Head-aches that the blood grew excessively hot or that they had a Feaver Wherefore I suppose that this kind of distemper doth chiefly consist in the nervous stock and depends on the exorbitances of the saline Principle rather than the sulphureous 4. Also in the confirmed Phthisis or Consumption especially if an Hectick Feaver be joyned with it there is a red Urine the reason of which is if at any time an Ulcer is excited in the Lungs the putrid filth from thence being mingled with the blood sliding by causes in it almost a continual effervescency whereby the sulphureous and saline particles being more plentifully dissolved and boiled in the Serum affect its liquor with redness besides by reason of the blood being defiled after this manner the nourishing Juyce degenerates almost wholly into putrefaction by whose recrements the urine being filled grows more red and is very much stuffed with contents The sign or note of this is that the sick for the most part grow hot after eating and that they are troubled with an heat through their whole body followed with a nightly sweat besides their urines yield a thick and copious sediment to wit when the nourishing Juyce being mixed with the blood is not assimilated it stirs up in it a fervour and being degenerate into an extraneous matter exhales partly by sweat through the Pores of the skin and partly being transmitted to the urine very much heightens its colour and consistency Thus far of a red Urine whose several species but now related have more degrees of intention and remission accordingly as the causes altering the colour and consistence in them are either weaker or stronger 4. As to what belongs to a green and black Urine I confess I have never seen those kind of deep colours exactly like those of Leeks and Ink in any urine but I imagine I may have seen the appearance of a greenish colour from a more deep yellow and of a blackish urine from the same with a cloudy and somewhat a dark mixture and from thence called by Authors a green and black Urine But those urines coloured after that manner are esteemed either signs of the Jaundice or of being distempered with some virulency of the blood if they continue so constantly for some time or such urines as occasion offers are variously changed and are now of this or that and presently of another colour So I have known Hypochondriacks wont to make such urines as it were critically for some time and then afterwards to render them like sound men As to the first when the Jaundice is very great upon them that the adust portions of Sulphur and Salt remain a long time in the mass of blood they acquire by a long incoction a fulness of the yellow colour at first green and afterwards black and impart the same to the Serum For if the yellow Bile being taken out of the bag of the Gall and put into a Cucurbit be exposed to the gentle heat of a Bath the same in a short time will grow green and afterwards appear like the blackest Ink wherefore in the black Jaundice which is only the yellow carried forth into a worse state by its long stay or continuance there is nothing more usual than to make black urines Besides these kind of urines sometimes appear in a malignant Feaver and in the Plague also often from drinking of poyson and in this case it is for the most part a sign of death because it argues the blood greatly corrupted and the spirits profligated and the bond of the mixture loosned as it were the deadly or mortified distemper even as where some part of our body being distempered with an Ulcer is afterward taken with a Gangrene or mortification forthwith the flowing corrupt matter which was at first white waterish or yellow becomes black Wherefore in the forementioned distempers when the urine grows black the Serum and the blood being wholly vitiated the skin also is dyed outwardly with such a colour As to what belongs to urines periodically tinctured with a greenish colour and especially with black which happen often to Hypochondriacks it is most likely that such arise from the melancholick Feculencies laid up in the Spleen and from thence by reason of its congestion too much flowing forth sometimes and confused with the blood for such a matter being often poured into the Ventricle in some men stirs up black Vomitings also in others the same being supp'd up from the blood passing through may impart suffusions of the same colours to the serous Juyce So much for the Colours of Urines of which the more pale arise from too much Crudity almost all the high-coloured either from the Salt and Sulphur plentifully dissolved and sometimes from the adust recrements throughly boiled in the Serum or from the more thick contents of the urine whether they be the Calx and remaining part of the aliment degenerated in the concoction or the wasting or melting of the pining body or some part of it evilly distempered what hath been said may be better understood if the means whereby these kind of dissolved things or contents are able variously to change the colour of the urine be unfolded The causes of the diversity of appearances of colours and their variously changing as also of the cloudiness and clearness in Urines as in all other Liquors depend only on the various incidency and emersion of the beams of light as is hinted in another place in the Tract of Fermentation For if the substance of the liquor be rare and thin with open Pores and passages that the beams of light may easily pass through it is shining and clear like fountain-water but if the Pores of the liquor be filled with contents or little bodies swimming in it so that the luminous beams are broken in their passage but so that at length they may shew themselves according to those various manners of refraction and emission there will appear a Citron a Saffron or red colour in a yet clear liquor If that in the little spaces of the Pores yet more obstructed the light cannot pass through there is a darkness induced but then if the immersed beams be a little or nothing reflected the liquor will appear of a brown or dark colour but if they are beaten back according to the diverse manner of reflection a white ashy or some other kind of appearance is induced From this being supposed according as the liquor of the urine sometimes almost wholly deprived of Salt and Sulphur and other things dissolved easily admits of light sometimes either very much stuffed or else moderately with these kind of contents either distorts the beams falling on them in their passage or wholly imbibes them or lastly beats them back it were easie to explicate all the Phenomena or appearances of colours and their
consistence It often happens that the colour of the same Urine is variously changed for what is made red being exposed to the air becomes white or of a dark colour and then after a long time of a Citron colour the reason of which is this if I am not deceived this kind of urine when it is made is red because the Pores of the Liquor are very full of contents yet so long as they are dilated with heat they transmit the rays of light although variously distorted that they may at length shew themselves or appear but this urine is no sooner exposed to the cold but that the Pores being straitned the site and position of the parts is changed in the contents and by that means the passage of the beams of light is hindred wherefore the liquor presently becomes cloudy and according as those beams are reflected after this or that manner a white or brown or some other kind of colour is induced but at length the contents falling down towards the bottom with their weight the Pores being freed transmit again the rays of light and do not distort them wherefore a clear or a Citron colour appears From these things which have been spoken concerning the Colours of Urines may appear what is the cause of the various consistence of urines For as the particles of Salt and Sulphur of the adust matter or nutritious Juyce depraved in the assimilating are more or less boiled in the Serum urines also get their more thin or thick consistency It remains next that we speak more clearly of the Contents in preternatural Urines whereof we have often made mention CHAP. V. Of the Contents in the Urines of sick People WE suppose the Contents in the Urines of sick people to be twofold viz. either universal which proceed from the mass of Blood and of the nervous Liquor and respect the habit of the whole Body or particular which are the layings aside or excrements of one bowel or part ill affected of which we shall speak anon Those of the former kind which come away from the whole are either natural viz. Filaments or small threads constituting the Hypostasis or settlement as in sound Urines or preternatural which chiefly are particles of the nutritious humour degenerate from assimilation and constitute the more thick bodies of the sediment in Urines and lastly to these if there be a feaverish intemperance the adust matter of the blood after deflagration and diluted in the serous Juyce is added and increases the bulk of the Contents But these Contents both natural and preternatural of Urines represent themselves after a various manner as the blood more or less unduly grows hot also as the aliments in the bowels and vessels are variously concocted and either the superfluities or corruptions of the Chyme from thence made are washed away with the Serum for if the nourishable humour transmitted to the blood is not all perverted but a great portion of it laid upon the solid parts is changed into nourishment some parts of this also rightly made being mixed with the Serum impress yet some marks of an Hypostasis in urines Also from the adust or degenerate matter a preternatural sediment is framed yet little and thin neither doth it wholly blot out the appearances of this natural Wherefore in the beginning and declination of a Feaver sometimes also in a Consumption or a Cachexy an Hypostasis though not so perfect is perceived If that the greater portion of the same Chyme growing hot with the blood by reason of the immoderate heat is perverted into an heterogene matter which afterward is sent away with the Serum as hurtful and unprofitable presently an obscure and imperfect Hypostasis appears and besides it very many contents are seen in the urines which heighten their colour and consistency Such an urine which contains an Hypostasis though imperfect together with other things of the same kind dissolved in it if it be kept in a warm place the Hypostasis will be perceived alone but the rest of the contents comprehended in the pores of the urine dilated by the heat are made wholly inconspicuous or not to be seen yet afterwards the little spaces of the Pores being straitned by cold the same contents are precipitated and by that means they render the site and position changed and the urine troubled and cloudy and blot out the appearance of the Hypostasis These kind of urines in the better state of Feavers in a Catarrh Cough difficulty of perspiration fulness of humours and in the more light Dyscrasies are wont to be made But if in the more grievous state of sickness the Concoction be wholly vitiated and the whole nutritious Juyce changed into a putrefaction these kind of contents also may be perceived in the urine without an Hypostasis and signifies variously in diseases after their various ways of being precipitated and sinking down and constituting a diverse kind of sediment to wit as the separation of the parts succeed soon or late or not at all and as the matter falling down shall be little or much or also of a white red or dark colour I will briefly run through what is most notable and worthy observation concerning this thing 1. This kind of Urine being full of contents is not sometimes at all precipitated unless the substance of the liquor be dissolved by putrefaction a long time after but remains a long while troubled and somewhat cloudy with little bodies swimming through the whole The reason of this is either because these contents are too much incocted in the Serum so that the spirits implanted therein cannot separate the pure from the impure the thick from the thin as may be perceived in brewing Beer if that the Mault be too much boiled the liquor shall never grow clear or else the urine remains troubled because it is wholly destitute of spirits which may compel the parts of the liquor into the motion of Fermentation as it usually comes to pass in Beer growing sour by reason of Thunder or of immoderate heat and being infected with a troubled Feces or Lee will scarce ever be rightly made clear again This kind of urine is perceived for the most part in very dangerous Feavers and sometimes in a desperate Cachexy and always portends evil 2. Sometimes it happens that the Urine is so full of contents that it begins to be troubled whilst it is yet warm I have often observed it after this manner in a slow Feaver whose heat was gentle and more remiss to wit in which the particles of the nutritious crassament or substance are depraved but being a little subdued by heat or boiled in the Serum they easily fall out of its pores as when common Sulphur is boiled in Lye if that before it be perfectly dissolved it be taken from the fire the liquor at first clear and red by reason of the quick precipitation of the dissolved matter becomes presently troubled dark and of a somewhat whitish colour 3.
Serum are not contained in the bond of the mixture wherefore the urine being made these alone leap out and not accompanied with others of the stinking urine and so diffuse a grateful odour which although it proceeds from divers kind of things eaten yet remains still after the same manner like Violets for that in all those sulphureous Particles are set free by digestion from the others joyned with them in the same concrete nor are infected by different ones from the urine But as to what respects the stinking urine that sometimes proceeds from an Ulcer about the Reins Bladder or urinary passages sometimes also it is raised from a too hot intemperance of the Reins or of the whole Body for when the Sulphur is deeply boiled in the Serum its particles being sharpned by the Salines for that they are less closely shut up do presently evaporate and grievously affect the sense of smelling but besides sometimes urines contract a stink from things eaten For the Balsam of Sulphur Garlick Asparagus Cider Rhenish Wine and many other things taken at the mouth do cause a strong smell in the urine If the reason of this be demanded we say that such things which impart a stink to the urine also provoke it in a more plentiful quantity wherefore it seems that these sort of things being taken fuse the blood and greatly hasten the precipitation of the Serum and when by this means the serous Juyce is pulled away as it were abruptly from the blood the frame of the liquor is made lax nor are its parts exactly mixed nor contained in an equal bond of disposition wherefore when this urine is made from the body its frame or substance being before loosned the particles of the more gross Sulphur that is combined with Salt presently breathe out and so diffuse a stinking smell For urine thus altered by things taken seems very like to Lye wherein Antimony or common Sulphur is boiled and is afterwards instilled into some acid thing because in this Decoction as also in such urine the frame of the liquor being unlocked the little sulphureous bodies leap out and affect the sensory with a stinking smell If that any one more curious in the search of Urines shall seek further than the examination of the sight and smell he may easily by a divers manual operation resolve them into parts and as it were dissect them to the life and thence draw Medicinal directions of no small moment for that in many Chronical diseases where the Dyscrasies of the blood are more exactly to be sought into that the proportion and temperature of Salt and Sulphur may be truly found in it it is sometimes convenient to evaporate urines or to distil them something also is to be learned from them being precipitated or loosned by putrefaction I knew an honest Woman greatly afflicted with a scaly filthiness of the skin which she was daily wont to scratch off in great plenty as it were a branny matter Her urine being evaporated in a little Skillet lest sticking to the sides of the Vessel a crusty and salt sediment like the excrement of her skin Not long since I evaporated the urine of a Gentleman grievously subject to convulsive motions and painful stretchings out of the Muscles in the bottom of which there remained a quantity of salt and tartarous matter exceeding the weight of half the liquor By this means it will be an easie thing to find the proportion of the saline Principle in the blood and humours but whether this Salt be volatile or becomes fixed beyond measure the distillation of the urine will presently shew For if the Spirit so called be copiously drawn out of the urine and that besides the Salt ascends into the Alembeck it is a sign of volatilization but the contrary to this argues the fixity of the Salt As the evaporation and distillation of the Urine shew the power of the saline Principle so the precipitation putrefaction and Sulphur lay open the thicker contents of the Urine as it were in weight and measure As to the former although the liquor of the urine be salt and often big with contents yet for as much as its saline Particles are not as it is wont to be in most Menstruums either wholly in a state of fixity or of flux but for the most part volatile therefore it is not easily nor presently by any salt infusion subject to putrefaction the Spirit of Vitriol and other acetous things effect nothing the Salt of Tartar stirs up a little perturbation But the solution of Alum for that it greatly constrains into a little space presently disturbs the whole liquor extremely and delivers all the contents of the urines as they were thrust out of their dens to be seen openly by the eyes Wherefore by this means without any long stay for settlement you may presently know how much of sulphureous and earthy matter is deposed from the mass of blood for recrements in the bottom The putrefaction of Urines is wont to exhibit the several particles of every kind yet more distinct and disposed as it were by themselves for if the urine be left to stand unmoved for many days in the Glass the colour odour and consistency will be very much altered for the colour will be deeper the smell ungrateful and highly stinking the consistency thicker and will have on the superficies a downiness or hoariness sometimes whitish sometimes bluish there will be also fixed in the bottom of the Vessel a thick and copious sediment and often on the sides a sandy or tartareous crust of a whitish or Ash-colour From these kind of appearances and as the urines sooner or later putrifie and so are more or less altered from their former state it may be conjectured what the proportion of Salt or Sulphur may be whether of them exceeds the other also no unfaithful Judgment of the quality and plenty of the earthy matter or the contents may be taken from hence And thus Sir at length you have the Doctrine or Method of Separation of Urine such as our unskilfulness hath rendred it I desire you would be pleased not only to pardon the errours and barrenness of this Discourse but also to excuse it in other things because at first writ by your perswasion and then by your command and request made publick Wherefore pray take care of this child hardly brought forth and almost an abortive and as it were exposed and deservedly laid at your door without portion Farewel Two Physical and Medical EXERCITATIONS VIZ. I. Of the Accension of the Blood II. Of Musculary Motion The first Medical and Physical DISCOURSE Of the growing hot or inkindling of the Blood IT is long since I designed to print my Meditations concerning the remaining Pathology of the Brain and Nervous stock But when many Diseases of that kind affect the animal Spirits and not rarely the whole Hypostasis of the corporeal Soul more immediately than the Humors or solid Parts I therefore thought it
Lungs in every distemper or affection as of Grief Joy Fear and the like also in the fits of Diseases the Heart is disposed after a various manner and hence it comes to pass that the blood flowing in fluctuates and is inkindled with a diverse rage of which there will be a more opportune place of discoursing when we shall treat of the Passions Whilst we consider that the burning of the Blood and for that reason the vital or flamy part of the Corporeal Soul doth not appear lively or vigorous in all nor ever after the same manner or measure yet it exists according to the various constitutions of the blood to wit as it is more or less sulphureous spirituous saltish or watry yea and according to the divers constitutions and conformations both of the food with which this flame is nourished as also of the little spiracles or breathing holes by which it is eventilated and further of the Heart it self whereby it is agitated and driven about here and there the accension of blood varies also in every one by means of several other accidents to wit as its flame is sometimes great clear and expanded sometimes small contracted or cloudy sometimes equal and in order sometimes unequal and often interrupted yea and it becomes subject to many other mutations also because the Soul it self having gotten a various nature or disposition it conceives divers affections and manners whereof we shall speak hereafter for as much as it is not a little thing that the disposition of the whole Soul depends upon the temperament of the bloody mass and the degree and manner of its accension or inkindling It clearly appears from what hath been said that Fire and Life do dye or are extinguished alike many ways to wit there is an end of either if the access of nitrous food or the departure of Effluvia's be hindred or if the oily or sulphureous aliment requisite to either be consumed too much withdrawn or perverted from its inflammable disposition of each whereof it is so clearly apparent that there needs no farther explication Thus far we have shewn that the Life of the Blood or that part of the Soul growing therein is a certain kind of Flame let us now see by what means it is disposed to burning and how near it comes to the similitude of a burning Candle or Lamp A common Lamp whether designed to give heat or light for the most part is wont to be made after this manner to wit the Oyl flowing perpetually to the wick gives continual food to the flame wherefore as there is but one fire-place or hearth only of light and heat the action of either is limited only to one place and so as often as there is need of more places at once or divers parts of the same space or body to be illuminated or made warm we place here and there divers lighted Candles or Lamps But if an Instrument made with great artifice such as is truly an animated Body with one liquor only contained in it should be made hot throughout the whole and to be kept always warm it ought not only to be lightly inkindled in the wick but in the whole superficies and derived by fit Tubes or Pipes to all the parts of the Machine then the burning liquor ought to enjoy proportionably to all its parts an access of nitrous Air and to lay aside Effluvia's and other recrements and ought also to have a supply of that constant expence these kind of offices are not to be performed any where up and down but only in some set places therefore the burning liquor ought to be carried about through the whole with a perpetual turn that all its portions might enjoy successively all those priviledges and at once heat the whole capacity of the containing Machine to wit both the inward and outward recesses Indeed such a Bannian or Bathing Engine artificially made might aptly represent the real Divine handy-work of the Circulation of Blood and what burns in it the Life-lamp But it may be objected that the Blood seems not to be inflammable of its own nature further since there is no flame of this heat or effervency to be beheld with the eyes it may well be doubted whether there be such a thing or no. I say first That the Chymical Analysis of the blood shews very many particles of Sulphur and of Spirit yea a plentiful stock of inflammable Oyl which are however mixed with other more thick Elements in a just proportion to bridle their too great inkindling to wit that this liquor might flame out by little and little and only through fewer parts for the constituting of a benign and gentle Lamp of life wherefore the blood being let out of a Vein upon a burning fire doth in some measure burn though it is not like the Spirits of Wine or Oyl of Turpentine turning all into a flame besides the whole mass of blood as the Oyl of a Lamp ought not to be fired yea its burning is instituted for that end that whilst all the Particles of the Mixture being freed some sulphureous and spirituous are consumed by burning others more subtil being sent in Troops might serve for the necessary uses of the animal Regiment and also others more thick or crass and nourishing as it were boiled or roasted might be dispensed for the cherishing all parts besides that all the dead or worn out and excrementitious may be sent away by fit or convenient sinks and others constantly substituted in their places by nourishment But in the interim that the vital Flame which destinated to so many offices we suppose to be inkindled in the Blood otherwise than the common flame which is plainly conspicuous appears not at all a probable reason thereof may be given as it is most thin and burns in the Heart and its depending Vessels as it were shut up in Receptacles it doth not clearly flame out but perhaps remains in the form of smoke or a vapour or breath yea although the blood should openly flame out yet it might be so done that its shining being most thin may not be perceived by our sight as in the clear light of the day we cannot behold a glowing red hot Iron nor shining sparks nor false fires nor rotten wood nor many other things shining by night why then may not the vital fire even thinner than they quite escape our sight Although sometimes hot living Creatures use to send forth a certain fire or flame only conspicuous by night For we have known in some endued with a hot and vaporous blood when they have put off their inner garments at night going to bed near a fire or Candle a very thin and shining flame to have shewn it self which hath possessed the whole inferiour region of the Body The reason of which affection seems wholly the same as when the evaporating fume of a Torch just put out is again inflamed by a light inkindling and manifestly argues that another flame
the root of this extrinsick one lyes hid within the Body For this very cause it is that from the Mains of Horses and the Skins of Cats or other hot Animals being shaken little sparks as it were of fire leap out and often flames only conspicuous in the dark arise Besides we here take notice in a burning Feaver caused by immoderate drinking of Wine or strong Waters that the blood as the flame of it is very much increased doth grow excessively hot and such are wont to emit dry breaths and sharp Effluvia's of heat not like those that proceed from fermenting or boiling Liquor but only inflamed That which some in Feavers have imagined to have seen or observed even burning fires and flame in the eyes argues indeed that the flame of the blood is very strong and also that it penetrates the inclosure of the Brain I knew a certain ingenious Man of a very hot brain who affirmed that after a very plentiful drinking of Wine he was able in the darkest night to read clearly from hence also may be collected how the accension of the blood like that of burning Liquors is to be increased or made stronger viz. by an agitation of the parts and a more plentiful affusion of sulphureous food But that in the hot blood of living Creatures the Properties Affections and many other accidents of Fire or Flame are found without the manifest form or species of it what if we should say the cause to be for that the vital flame of the blood is subjugated or made subordinate to another form viz. to the corporeal Soul Wherefore although it retains the chief qualities and affections of common flame yet it loses the species of flame or fire for in every natural mixture the superiour form exercises a Right and Dominion over all included Particles whatsoever however fierce and untameable they may be in themselves and stripping them of their species ordains and disposes them to peculiar actions in that proper Concrete when the form of fire excels that bright burning that it might propagate largely its ends destroys and consumes all inflammable objects But if the form of the corporeal Soul be induced upon the fire kindled within the blood it burns forth without fulgor or shining or destruction of the subject and is invisible and as it were subjugated flame is ordained for the sustaining of life and its offices but truly the Divine Providence from the very Creation of the World hath seemed to have predestinated Forms to natural Bodies to wit that they might remain as so many Figures or Types according to which every portion of matter framing the Concrete whether animate or inanimate might be modificated so that the Mass according to the virtues of the hidden Seeds being disposed after this or that manner happens to have the form of a Stone a Plant or Brute or of any other kind then the acts and affections appropriate to such a Species follow the form it self When therefore Life or Soul is destinated to these kind of Functions of the more perfect Animals for the performing of which the blood after the manner of burning Liquors ought to be perpetually hot and as it were inkindled what should hinder but that the act of Life or of that corporeal Soul consisting in the motion and agglomeration or heaping together of most subtil and agil Particles may be called a certain Burning or perpetual Fire of the bloody Mass Wherein although the accidents and chief qualities of common fire are implanted yet the form of fire is obscured as being subjugated to a more noble form viz. of the corporeal Soul not much unlike water which being congealed into Ice or Snow lays aside the species of water for a time and may be applied to other uses far distant from fluidity But truly though we affirm that the corporeal Soul doth stick in the Blood yet we do not that it is adequated or limited to it because whilst the more thick portion of it as the Roots of some Tree fixed in the Earth are sowed in the bloody Mass the more noble part of the same Soul as the higher branches are expanded in the Brain and nervous System or as we before hinted when the vital or flamy part of the Soul is contained in the blood the animal or lucid portion of it is contained in the Head and its Appendix by which just limit the Sphere of either may be defined neither may the vital flame impetuously break through the animal Region the substance of the Brain being more cold and also shining or bright is opposed to it as it were an icy or glassie Bar whose interiour frame or substance the small and slender as it were rivers of the blood for the sake of cherishing heat can enter but truly spirituous Particles plentifully flow from its juyce or liquor every where heaped up near the confines of the Brain and there disposed as it were to be stilled forth which being immersed in the Brain and more exalted affords matter out of which the animal Spirits are procreated to be derived through the Nerves into the various Regions of the Body The second Medical and Physical DISCOURSE Of Musculary Motion AS there are two chief or primary Faculties of the Corporeal Soul to wit the Sensitive and Motive we have assigned certain exteriour Powers of either of them which are chiefly acted in the Nervous stock and others interiour the Exercises of which lye within the Brain to wit such as the Imagination Memory Appetite c. What we have publickly discoursed of some time since both concerning internal and external Senses may perhaps hereafter be brought to light and made publick in the mean time because I am opposed concerning both the natural and convulsive Motion I think it fit at present to publish what I had meditated touching the Motive power and what Hypothesis I had conceived of so hard and highly intricate a thing The motive Faculty of the bodily Soul is wont to be exercised with another kind of Action than the sensitive viz. with a diverse aspect and tendency of animal Spirits For that every Sense is a certain passion wherein the Soul or some portion of it being outwardly struck is forced to nod or shake and a wavering of the Spirits being inwardly made to look back towards the Head but on the contrary every Motion is a certain Action wherein the Soul seems to exert it self whole or part of it self and by a declination or fluctuation of Spirits being made to bring forth a Systasis and to extend something as it were its member Further whilst the Soul so exerts it self or some part of it self that the works then designed might be performed an heap of animal Spirits being every where disposed in the motive parts sometimes one sometimes more are raised up by the Soul which by that means being expanded with a certain force and as it were exploded they blow up the containing bodies and so the same being
increased as to their thickness and made short as to their length are made to attract the adjoyning member and stir up local motion 1. In every motion these three things ought to be considered viz. First the original of the Action or the first designation of the Motion to be performed which is always in the Brain or Cerebel Secondly its instinct or transmission of the thing begun to the motive parts which is performed by the commerce of the Spirits lying within the Nerves Thirdly the motive force it self or exertion of the Spirits implanted in the moving parts either into a contractive or elastick force From this threefold Fountain viz. as the business is performed in every one of these in a various manner very many kinds and differences of Motions are deduced 1. As to the original or beginning of Motion we shall take notice that that which proceeds from the Brain with a knowing and auspicious appetite may be called Spontaneous or Voluntary but that which is wont to be excited from the Cerebel where the Law of Nature presides such as are Respiration the Pulse with many others may be called merely Natural or Involuntary either of these is either direct which is stirred up of it self or primarily from this or that beginning as often as the appetite requires this or that thing out of a certain proper and as I may say intestine deliberation and chuses out respective motions so in like manner when the ordinary offices of the natural and vital Function are performed according to the solemn Rite of Nature or the motion of either kind is reflected to wit which depending on a previous sense more immediately as an evident cause or occasion is presently retorted so a gentle titillation of the Skin causes a rubbing of it and the more intense heats of the Praecordia stir up the Pulse and Respiration 2. As to the Vehicle of the Instinct which we suppose to be wholly done by the Nerves for as much as it is performed by a single Nerve or by more at once it is called either a Simple or Complicate Motion then for that some Nerves help motion more or less than others by sooner or later moving this or that member is said to be moved first or by it self and another by consent yea and that consent is wont to be acted or done with neighbouring or more remote parts and that with a diverse respect But we have in another place largely shewn instances of these kind of sympathetick motions as also the causes of each of them and their manner of being made 3. There is another and that a remarkable distinction of Motions taken from the various constitution of the moving parts to wit parts endued with nervous Fibres and in which the motive Spirits dwell either they are Muscles which perform local motions or membranaceous bodies the motions of which are terminated in themselves which therefore we call Intestine As to what belongs to local motion of which only we treat at present although it be confessed by all that the Brain or Cerebel and the Nerves and Muscles together one or more as it were with joynt forces do contribute to this motion also though it may be sufficiently understood that the beginning of the motion to be performed is designed in the Brain or Cerebel and that its instinct is conveyed wholly by the Nerves yet by what means the Muscles perform that work far exceeding any mechanick virtue or operation seems most hard to be made plain That local Motion is performed by traction and doth depend upon the contraction of a Muscle is not only a vulgar Opinion but is also plain by ocular demonstration yet it is very much disputed and variously controverted among Authors concerning the manner of Contraction and efficient Cause some think it enough to say that the Soul it self by its presence doth actuate the Muscle or contract or draw out here and there its Fibres as it were a net spread forth But indeed this is to attribute to the sensitive Soul a supernatural and as it were Divine virtue To wit that the same by its mere Spirit was able to bend and force heavy and very great bodies whither it pleases Further for what end are the motive Organs framed with wonderful artifice and manifold difference unless that after the manner of Machines they might perform their operations by an orderly structure and as it were mechanical provision of parts Truly it will be no hard thing to apply the exercises of a Muscle and of the whole nervous Function and to explicate them according to the Rules Canons and Laws of a Mechanick Before I enter upon this I think it not amiss first to speak something of the make conformation and use of a Muscle in general The ancient Anatomists almost all with one consent did divide the body of a Muscle into Head Belly and Tail taking for the Head the extremity of the Muscle connexed to the part to which contraction is made for the Tail the end or portion of the Muscle inserted to the part to be moved for the Belly the part of the Muscle coming between which is beheld more tumid with a bulk of flesh then for the performing of motion they did suppose the Muscle to swell up about the Head and Belly and so to grow short as to its length and to attract nearer to it self the hanging part yet by what means and for what cause the belly of the Muscle swells up none yet hath clearly unfolded Moreover although the Doctrine of the Nerves hath been much described by the most skilful Anatomists of every Age so that the Muscles of the whole Body as it is thought have been exactly recounted and offices assigned them and monstrous names fitted for the expressing them yet the true frame of a Muscle not yet shewed by others first began to be delivered lately by the most ingenious Doctor Steno He hath found out in every Muscle two opposite Tendons into which both the Fibres go yea and hath taught that the same Fibres wholly which compose strictly on one side the Tendon of the knitting being more loosly joyned do constitute the flesh yet so that some being laid upon others compose the thickness or profundity of the Muscle and some laid nigh to others its breadth or latitude he calls the former Fibres Ordines or Orders but the other Versus or Turnings then the parts and composition of a Muscle being after this manner laid open he aptly reduces its Figure to Mathematical Rules and according to Canons thence taken shews the action to be unfolded because he advertising that in a Muscle with a simple right line all the fleshy Fibres parallel within themselves and for the most part equal are carried from one Tendon obliquely into another and that those Tendons are sowed in the opposite ends or angles of the flesh whereby he most ingeniously describes a Muscle to be a Collection of moving Fibres so framed together that
two Tendons are ordained to each of them to wit to the end that the animal Spirits might be carried through short passages from the Tendons into the fleshy fibres and might leap back again because the compounded Muscle doth not always contain more series of moving fibres that it might perform many and divers motions but that it might make the same motion often with the greater strength For as we hinted before as a simple Muscle was as a single leaver or bar the compound seems as if it were many leavers or bars serving for the removing the same body conjunctly Further hence we may observe in some Muscles which are simple and regular that all the fleshy fibres are equal and so all the tendinous of one extreme being put together are equal to all of the other end being put together yet they single where they are shorter in one Tendon are longer in the other and so disposed that the tendinous fibres on either part the top and bottom have their excesses inverse and at once equal to wit that here a long is laid upon a short or the longest upon the shortest and there quite contrary the shortest upon the longest to the end that the motion might be so made every where in this or that side of the Muscle or at the end more strong more plentiful Spirits flow together into those parts from the longer tendinous fibres and on the contrary wherefore in some Muscles less necessary where the part of the flesh growing to the bone either becomes immoveable or only serves for the filling up of empty spaces one Tendon is shorter or lesser and oftentimes degenerates into a bony or cartilaginous hardness Further it is observed as to other strong and greatly moving Muscles that their Tendons are not so disposed as if they were only stays props handles or hanging crooks of the fleshy fibres for so they are only constituted in their extreme ends yet the tendinous fibres that they may be made more apt promptuaries of the animal Spirits being stretched out almost into all parts of the Muscle receive every where both ends of the fleshy which indeed yet more manifestly appears in the compound Muscles for that one Tendon being compounded embraces the extreme flesh and the other enters into the middle of the flesh as hath been already shewn But truly the animal Spirits whilst they leap out of the tendinous into the fleshy fibres are not sufficient of themselves for the wrinkling of them but require another elastick Copula from the blood this may be argued from many reasons First it seems to appear from this that the same Spirits being solitary or by themselves though most thickly planted within the Tendons stir up no Tumor or Contraction whilst they are moved in them wherefore being dilated within the fleshy fibres in a lesser quantity and having got a larger space they would be stretched out unless they met or strove with other Particles much less would they obtain a contractive force Besides when any wound or grievous trouble happens to a Tendon the belly of the Muscle or fleshy part is chiefly troubled with a Tumor or Spasm for the Spirits being irritated not so much within themselves but where they are violently driven among heterogene Particles stir up the greatest tumults and inordinations But further when the fleshy fibres are watered with the sanguineous humor beyond other parts and more than may suffice for their nourishment for what other use should it be assigned unless that it may contribute to the motive function Especially we take notice in lean Bodies which are more sparingly nourished that the Muscles being fused or drenched with more plentiful blood do perform the strongest endeavours of motions moreover it doth not appear by what way besides the expence of the Spirits in a Muscle consumed with continual hard motions or labours should be made up or renewed unless besides the small supplements by the Nerves others sufficiently plentiful should be supplied from the bloody mass Add to these that members destitute of the wonted afflux of blood easily fall into weakness or a Palsie and that from the observation of Doctor Steno in a live Dog the trunk of the descending Artery being tyed all the lower or posterior members were suddenly deprived of motion And though it doth not yet appear plainly to me whether the exclusion of the blood from the spinal Marrow or from the Muscles themselves or from both together be the cause yet however it comes almost to the same thing for as much as the animal Spirits being procreated within the Head and stretched out by the medullary and nervous Appendices into every member without the concourse of the blood they should not be able to perform the loco-motive power Having thus far explained by what means a Muscle being contracted in the fleshy part as to all the fibres at once performs the motive function we shall next inquire what is the reason of the Instinct whereby every motion both regular and irregular is wont to be obeyed or is performed Concerning this in general it first appears that the motions of every regular motion yea and the impulses of some irregular motions being conceived within the Brain or Cerebel are transmitted from thence by the Nerves to every Muscle This as we have elsewhere shewn is most evidently declared by the effects and consequences yet here great difficulties remain to wit how by the same passages fresh forces of animal Spirits are conveyed from the Head to every Muscle and at the same time the old ones exercising the Empire of the Soul besides with what difference and divers carriage of the inflowing Spirits the Nerves perform either of these tasks or both these offices Of these as I conjecture it seems that the animal Spirits which flowing continually from the Head to refresh the forces of the implanted Spirits are carried to the Muscle by the Nerves do move to it quietly and easily and being there presently received by the membranaceous Fibres they go apart into the Tendons which kind of relief although it should be but little in bulk yet because it is carried night and day by a constant course it easily arises to a sufficient provision for the continual filling up of the Tendons But that we suppose the Spirits so brought perpetually to the Muscle to be transferred by the membranaceous Fibres and not by the fleshy to the Tendons the reason is because if they should first enter into these straight running into an elastick Copula they would stir up the Muscle into continual motions more over for that in the Heart and Muscles of Respiration the fleshy Fibres are exercised with a perpetual motion they wait not for the passage of fresh Spirits to the Tendons But as to what respects the Instincts delivered through the Nerves from the Head for the performing or staying or any ways altering of the musculary motion of these we ought first to consider that the moving
head being convulsed or pulled by turns from the right to the left and contracted before and behind yea and all her Limbs being bent inwardly here and there or distended outwardly in the Course of one Fit she exhibited all sorts of Convulsive gestures When at any time the Spasms of one sort continued longer in the Head or Limbs than usual it was the custom of the Servants about her to blow up strongly into her Nostrils the Fume of Tabaco which being done as the Spirits recovered within the present Spasms immediately remitted but upon them others of a new kind succeeded Of late the Legs of this Lady were so debilitated by being loosned that she could neither go nor stand yea her Tendons under either Ham being made tumid and shorter were so contracted that she could not stretch out her Legs straight Concerning the case of this sick Noble Lady it may be demanded wherefore upon the first coming of the Fit no throwing about of the Body or Limbs as is wont in most Convulsive or Epileptical people but only continued Spasms or Convulsions variously translated from one part to another and so others did arise For the solution of this we say that the Spasmodick matter is not only heaped up in the Brain and Nerves but also in the Muscles themselves and grows to the Spirits inhabiting the Tendons And as that matter is tenacious and the Spirits weak and unable for the striking off quickly or easily such a Copula therefore as often as these being irritated do leap out of the Tendons into the flesh the Muscles being first possest they cause strong and long Contractions in the mean time other Muscles especially their Antagonists or opposites being hindred and bound up from motion until the Convulsions of the former are remitted hence the Members however convulsed are not moved out of their place because the moving or carrying of the Body or any Members is not performed but by the help or duty of many Muscles whilst some of them either rightly cooperate with others or at least obey them to wit so that some respective Muscles observing due cooperation are contracted at once then those being loosned the contraction of others immediately succeeds But if they which are unequal and unlike are at once contracted and strongly convulsed and so continue long so that other Muscles in the mean time cannot be contracted there will be a necessity for the members bent or extended here and there to remain as they are wholly stiff But that the present Convulsions were always remitted by the blowing the smoke of Tabaco up her Nose the reason is because the region or some part of the bodily Soul being vehemently affected if by chance a new passion equally violent be brought upon another part the first is presently abolished or ceases For in truth it appears by constant observation where-ever the greater or fresher trouble is that thither greater plenty of Spirits presently flock and make a tumult wherefore any new irritation being excited in the Brain or its Meninges whatsoever others were begun outwardly among the Muscles immediately vanish or are obscured then as soon as this fresh trouble is passed over Convulsions outwardly arise forthwith again but in other parts where more heaps of Spasmodick matter lye not yet consumed But that long continued Spasms do arise either by reason of the Spirits being burdened with a more tenacious Copula or by reason of the Tendons being obstructed with a viscous or tartareous matter from either or both it appears from hence because this disease increasing as in the case of this Noble Lady the Tendons are at length so shortned by the more plentiful heaping up of the morbifick matter that they become stiff and shorter and for that reason they hardly or not at all grant any place to the Spirits for the constant performing of the motive function Thus much for the Musculary Motion both natural and convulsive and the reasons of both which we have proved with what diligence we were able and by Anatomical Experiments But if any one shall object that they are not very firm because we have noted in the cutting up of live Creatures that the Heart and Muscles of Respiration and the fleshy Pannicle after that the Nerves and Arteries are cut away do continue for some time their turns of Contraction and Relaxation whence it is argued against our Hypothesis that their motions do not depend upon the constant influx of the blood and animal Spirits it will be plain to return this Answer That in those about to dye it sometimes happens so because the Soul being then distracted and drawing near to dissolution all the implanted Spirits at once being cut off from the commerce of those influencing or flowing in do of their own accord exert themselves and perform as long as they are able their wonted motions which being continued for a little space only need not the subsidy or assistance of fresh forces because the veterane till they are quite worn out perform their wonted tasks yea also the old sanguineous Copula till it be wholly consumed receives and lets go their embraces with a constant change But this more rarely succeeds in other Muscles subject to the Empire of the Appetite and wont only to be exercised as occasion served Moreover as we have affirmed that the Instinct for the performing of Motions is brought altogether through the Nerves from the Head to the Muscle and as every Trunk of the same Nerve being oftentimes broken into many shoots variously distributing them sends it to many destinated Muscles it may very well be doubted how the animal Spirits conveying the Symbol of the motion to be performed with a certain choice do actuate only these or those branches apart from other branches of the same and do not indifferently enter all the branches or shoots of the same to wit as the blood passes through the Trunk of the Artery and all its ramifications equally The most Learned Regius that he might solve this knot supposes in the Nerves some little doors like to those which are found in musical Organs the apertures whereof admit the Spirits to these or those parts especially the rest being shut up But he ought to have shewn if not the little doors themselves yet at least by what instinct and by whose direction sometimes these sometimes those are locked up and others opened But in truth this may rather be said that all the shoots of the Nerves and lesser branches remain distinct and singular among themselves from the parts to which they are inserted even to their beginnings so that a peculiar tract of the Spirits or way of passage lyes open from the Brain and its medullary Appendix to every Muscle and nervous part for in truth although the Nerves according to their beginnings may seem to arise from the greater Trunks yet it will easily appear if you shall open the trunk and those branches that in them many little Nerves only like
WHat hitherto we have shewn concerning the description of the Brain and its Appendix we chiefly owe to the observations made of the dissection of the Heads of a Man and of four-footed Beasts We shall now proceed to the commenting upon these Observations to wit that we may endeavour from the fabrick rightly considered of the parts of the Brain so described to erect their offices and uses and so to design the government of the animal Function But because a compared Anatomy may yield us a more full and exact Physiology of the Use of Parts therefore before I enter upon this task it will seem worth our labour to inquire into the Heads of some other Animals to wit of Fowls and Fishes We have already hinted that the Brains of Men and of four-footed Beasts were alike in most things and also that the contents in the Heads of Fowls and Fishes being far different from both the former yet as to the chief parts of the Head are found to have between themselves an agreement The kinds of either Animals being coetaneous and as it were Twins from the Creation of the World do testifie their affinity in nothing more than in the fabrick of the Brain That it is so in Man and four-footed Beasts plainly appears already we shall now see if that the Anatomy of Fowls and Fishes will shew us any thing worthy of note Fig VI a This superior Membrane or hard Meninx being cut off and separated round about the Pia Mater appears very thin which is not as in man or other perfect Creatures marked with such frequent infoldings of the Vessels but this most subtil Meninx being made of a texture of Fibres only clothes and every where intimately binds about the even and plain superficies of the brain contained within and wholly destitute of turnings and windings about The fabrick of the brain in Fowls is otherwise than in man or four-footed beasts for besides that in its compass the inequalities and the turnings and windings are wholly wanting also more inwardly the callous body and the Fornix as also the chamfered bodies which we described before are all lacking and besides the substance of the brain it self is figured after another manner That these may the better be beheld make the dissection of the brain of a Goose or a Turky-Cock and the Membranes being cut off by pressing lightly the fissure or cleft of the brain you may divide the middle of it one from another and go forward to separate it till you come to its bosom in which place are two marrowy bodies which being stretched out like Nerves connect the Hemispheres one to another Either side of the Interstitium or the space between is clothed with a whitish Membrane which is marked with streaks or beams lying or running from the whole compass or circumference to the lower corner and these streaks concenter about the insertions of the medullary bodies Then if this Membrane be cut in either Hemisphere of the brain there will appear underneath a cavity which goes under the whole space from the side of the Interstitium and for a great part the hinder region of the brain and is arched or chambered with that streaked Membrane Either cavity or hollowness about the bottom is opened into an intermediate or common passage which lies open to the Tunnel and from either side of this passage the shanks of the oblong marrow are stretched out to which on either side the Hemisphere of the brain is hung by two medullary bodies to wit one marrowy or medullary body goes out from the mole or substance of the brain lying under the Ventricle the other from the streaked Membrane covering the Ventricle From these two placed on either side the medullary bodies being stretched out cross-wise like Nerves joyn the two Hemispheres of the brain to one another Besides these two growing together on either side fix either Hemisphere of the brain to the shanks of the oblong marrow So the figure of the Brain in Fowl if you compare it with the brain in men and of the more perfect four-footed beasts seems to be as it were inversed For as in these the Cortical part is outward and the medullary laid under it so in Fowls the lower frame of the brain which consists of a thick and closer substance is instead of the Cortex or shell but the outmost and upper Membrane chambering the Ventricle appears medullar or marrowy above any other part Moreover the Ventricles in the brains of a man and four-footed beasts are placed beneath and near the bottom in Fowls above and nigh the outward border The reason of this difference seems to be because in a more perfect brain such as is in man and four-footed beasts the animal Spirits have both their birth and exercise viz. they are procreated in its Cortical or shelly part and in its medullary which being large enough lyes under this they are circulated and variously expanded for the acting of their faculties But truly in the brain of Fowls there is space enough for the generation of Spirits but for their circulation there is scarce any left to wit the brains of Birds seem not to be much possessed with the gifts of phantasie or memory yea it is thought that the Spirits begotten in the brain are exercised chiefly in the oblong marrow for the preserving the animal function for there as we shall shew anon the medullary substance which is instead of the callous body consists and like the streaked bodies in others in these are streaked Membranes through which the Spirits procreated in the brain are carried without any order there forthwith into the oblong marrow but because the Spirits begot in the brain ought to lay aside a serous excrement therefore the Ventricles from the complicature of the streaked Membrane upon the keel or lower part of the brain and on the shanks of the oblong marrow it self do serve conveniently enough for this business Notwithstanding because in the brains of Fowls the Fornix is wholly wanting there are only two anterior Ventricles between which the Choroeides infolding is stretched out the veinous portion whereof as was but now said arises a little lower from the fourth bosom but the Arteries ascending come from either side of the oblong marrow Nor is there a greater heterogeneity or difference of conformation in the Brain it self of Fowls than in the oblong marrow from the same in men and four-footed beasts For in the first Section from whence the Optick Nerves arise two noted protuberances grow to either side These are much greater in proportion than the orbicular prominences in the more perfect Creatures so that they seem another additional brain either of them of a white colour and purely marrowy is hollow within so that in these kind of Animals are found two bellies or Ventricles in the brain and as many in the oblong marrow And seeing in these as in all other Animals a cavity is put under the Cerebel the Ventricles
in the whole Head differ as well in number as in figure and position In the middle of the medullary Trunk to wit where those prominences grow to its sides the Chink leading to the Tunnel is cut but into it the aperture of either Ventricle gapes or opens that it is not to be doubted but that the serosities heaped up there are sent out by that way Moreover it is likely that these hollow and medullary prominences in Fowls supply the course of the callous body to wit in which the animal Spirits are circulated for the exercising their faculties because in the brain the space is so narrow that the Spirits cannot be produced and circulated together within its confines Further as in Fowls the use of the animal Spirits is required for the act of the sensitive and loco-motive faculty more than for phantasie or memory certainly the chief place where they may meet and be exercised ought to be placed rather in the oblong marrow than in the brain The Carotidick Arteries which carry the blood to the brains of the greater Birds are so small that there is no proportion of these to the same in man and four-footed beasts Their Trunks being carried within the Skull ascend without any branchings into net-like infoldings after the same manner as in other Animals nigh to the pituitary Glandula and pass right into the brain and distribute some small shoots of the Vessels both to its exterior compass and through its inward recesses But in truth the brains of Birds are watered with a very small portion of blood in respect of other living Creatures because where the fancy or imagination is little exercised there is not much blood required for the refreshing the animal Spirits Fowl otherwise than some affirm have both the mammillary processes and the Cribrous or Sieve-like bone For the anterior productions of the brain being highly extenuated and involved with the dura Mater stretching out almost to the middle part of the bill are inserted into the triangular bone which hath a double bosom distinguished between with a thin mound or pale But these processes being dilated within the bosom of the aforesaid bone and in Bladders full of clear water which are very like the mammillary processes in a Calf full of clear water Besides as out of the fifth pair of Nerves a noted branch on either side passing through the ball of the Eye enters into the cavern of the Nostril a shoot of it being sent out of the Trunk is bestowed to the very orifice of the Nostrils in the mean time both the greater Trunks compassing about the Cribrous bone meet together and presently going one from the other and being carried to the end of the bill are distributed into the palate After this manner Fowls even as men and four-footed beasts are furnished with a peculiar organ of smelling to wit with a double mammillary process and besides they have within the Nostrils additional Nerves out of the fifth pair by whose action and communication of branches into other parts and among themselves so strict an affinity is contracted between the smell and the taste The other pairs of Nerves are almost after the same manner as in men and four-footed beasts In like manner we also observe that there is no great difference as to the Cerebel and the other portion of the oblong marrow between Birds and the other Animals we have already considered on unless that the orbicular prominences before the Cerebel and the other annulary under it meeting within them are both wanting in Fowls indeed these latter seem not at all to be required but instead of the former they are easily supplied from the hollow medullary prominences such as we have shewn to be in Fowls And these are what are chiefly worth noting to be found in the brains of Fowls We have already mentioned that there is a certain likeness between these and Fishes as to the most parts of the head wherefore it will seem to be to the purpose that here for a conclusion we should say something of the brain of Fishes First we shall observe that as the heads of Fishes in respect of the whole body are greater than of any other living Creatures yet they contain in them less brain than others For two little moles or substances placed before sustain the whole place of the brain properly so called out of these two signal smelling Nerves proceed which are carried by a long and straight journey to the holes made hollow out of either side of the mouth and which are instead of nostrils and this is singular to Fishes Moreover we advertise concerning the Optick Nerves that they as in other living Creatures inclining mutually one to the other are not however united unless perhaps towards the superficies but they are crossed and a Nerve arising from the right side of the oblong marrow is carried into the left Eye and so on the contrary so indeed that the visory rays have their refraction not only in the Eye but within the very bodies of the Nerves The oblong marrow in Fishes wholly after the like manner as in Birds hath two signal protuberances hollowed within and in truth as to local motions the Spirits in either seem to the exercised after the like mode For as Fishes swim in the water so the flying of Fowls or Birds seems a certain kind of swimming in the Air. Further in these 't is observable there are the pituitary Kernel the Tunnel and the Carotidick Arteries as in other Animals also many pairs of the Nerves have the same origines and distributions excepting that the hearing Nerves are here wanting although Casserus Placentinus attributes this gift to the smelling Nerves The figure of the Cerebel is the same as in more perfect Animals Besides what we have remarked concerning the wandring pair of Nerves in man and four-footed beasts to wit many fibres of it arising together the trunk of the Nerve from the spinal marrow comes to them in like manner the same is in Fishes But to describe them all further is needless for the rest as those which are proper to them only and Birds as also those which they have common with Fowls and the more perfect Animals may be easily known partly out of the peculiar similitude with birds and partly out of the universal Analogy of all Therefore we will now philosophise upon the Use and Action of the Brain and its Parts and of its Appendix together with the whole oeconomy of the animal Function where in the first place we will inquire into the offices of a more perfect Brain such as of man and four-footed beasts and also secondarily and collaterally we shall explain the Offices and Actions of a less perfect Brain and of its Parts such as that of Fowls and Fishes CHAP. VI. Of the Offices of the Brain and its Parts where first of all the Uses of the Skull and the hard Meninx or Dura Mater is treated of THE Poets feigned
or shoots mutually ingrafted as is wont to be done in other parts of the Body but being variously complicated and interwoven do constitute every where admirable infoldings into which for the most part very small and very numerous Glandula's or Kernels are inserted Which thing is seen not only in the infoldings which are called Choroeides by which name besides those which are found within the plicature or folding up of the Brain we also intend others planted together behind the Cerebel but these kind of infoldings of the Vessels with Glandula's sowed between are seen every where to be sprinkled through the whole compass and interior recesses of the Brain and Cerebel and especially between the gapings of their turnings and windings and interstices This is clearly manifest in a moister Brain or in an Hydropical where the very small Glandula's which otherwise are scarce to be seen being intumified by the moisture are easily beheld Moreover from the aforesaid infoldings on every side implanted little slender Vessels being every where sent forth enter the Cortical and in some measure the medullary substance of the Brain and its Appendix for if you squirt into the Carotides a black liquor besides the shoots of the Vessels which it dyes every where with the same colour little blackish pricks will appear sprinkled in the substance of the Brain Further if the brain of a living Animal be cut up the live blood will spring forth both from its Cortex and medullary part The reason and end of all which if they be inquired into it seems that these foldings of the Vessels being variously complicated with repeated windings about as if they were little serpentine chanels hanging to an Alembick through whose narrow straits the blood passing with a long circuit becomes still more subtil and elaborated to wit it s thicker part being by degrees put off in its passage or sent away by the little branches of the Veins and so at length the only pure and most spirituous blood and it self now ready to go into animal Spirits is admitted within the Pores and passages of the brain But as the blood or sanguinolent part is supped up by the Veins so it 's very likely the Serum or watry part is received by the Glandula's or Kernels interwoven in them For it appears not for what other end these Arteries are every where beset with so many Kernels unless they should lay up in them the superfluous serosities Between these infoldings there appear not any Nerves to be found which may require any juyce or serous humor from these Kernels and 't is not yet found whether these Lymphaeducts or Water-carriers be accompanied with any Vessel wherefore it may be lawful to suppose that whilst the purer and spirituous part of the blood being separated from the rest of its mass is stilled forth into the brain the serous humidities are received by the Glandula's which are numerous and that they are for some time retained by them till they may be sent away into the Veins growing empty again Thus far we have beheld only the superior branchings forth of the blood-carrying Vessels which are every where interwoven in the Pia Mater and their infoldings which like the leaves of a Wood or creeping Ivy cover the exterior compass of the whole Head But by what means and as it were Chymical Artifice these Vessels do instil the animal Spirits into the Brain and Cerebel and serve for the use of one another besides shall be told anon after we have considered of the inferior Aspect and next the ground of this most thick Wood viz. the greater Trunks of all the Arteries which are destinated for the Brain where they pass through the Skull and shew themselves beyond it CHAP. VIII Shews with what difference the Arteries in various Animals pass through the Skull also for what use the wonderful Net is made and the reason of it THE Arteries destinated to the Brain are four in number viz. two Carotides and as many Vertebrals Concerning the former we have already observed that their Trunks pass through the Wedge-like Bone as it were with a mechanical provision to wit either Artery is so bowed and intorted in its ascent that the blood before it can reach to the Brain by a repeated stopping of shores or hindred by a certain lett or impediment might flow to it less rapidly and more slowly But this is not effected after one and the same manner in all Animals for although the ascent of the Artery be oblique and intorted in all yet in some viz. in a Man and a Horse it being bowed about with a greater compass still enters even to the Brain with a single and undivided Trunk when in most other beasts the same passes the Skull with a lesser circuit and sliding presently under the Dura Mater diversifies it self there into Retiform infoldings commonly called the wonderful Net Therefore it seems to be to the purpose that we inquire into the various reasons of this difference In the first place therefore we shall advertise you that the Carotidick Artery in a man enters a little more backward the Skull than in any other Animal viz. nigh that hole through which the lateral bosom slides out of the Skull about to be implanted into the Jugular Vein for in the rest this Artery arises within the Skull under the end or acute process of the stony Bone But in an humane Head the same being carried about by a longer compass that the Torrent of the blood before it comes to the border of the Brain might flow slowly and pleasantly with a broken force attains to the Basis of the Skull nigh the den made by the ingress of the lateral bosom where being presently intorted it enters the proper Chanel insculped in the Wedg-like Bone and for the greater assurance it is clothed besides with a thicker additional Coat This double defence seems to be given it lest the blood boiling up too much and whilst it is carried violently towards the head should make a Whirlpool about the ingress of the Skull to wit where it begins to be wreathed about from its direct ascent and should break by its stood the banks of the Belly unless they were more firm The Artery being slid out of the bony chanel lays aside also its ascititious or additional Coat and now being well enough defended within the Skull goes forward clothed only with its proper Coat and creeps under the Dura Mater and being as it were depressed in the midst of its passage into a valley being immediately carried out again it goes on till it comes to the head of the Turky Chair where again being bent in and intorted with a certain compass it ascends straight and boring through the Dura Mater is carried towards the Brain The Trunk of this Carotis like a Meander passing through the Skull with a very much bending way or passage is aptly represented in the first Figure of the following Table If the reason of this
the wonderful Net but the Arteries again on either side do the same thing as soon as they being knit to the Pia Mater reach the superficies of the Brain as hath been already shewn By these sort of ingraftings of the Vessels in the wonderful Net it comes to pass that an inky liquor being injected into one of the Carotides and forced upwards descends by the Trunk of the Artery on the opposite side as we have elsewhere observed Some rude draught of the wonderful Net is expressed in the third Figure of the following Table The First Figure Shews the ascent of the Carotidick Artery and its situation within an humane Skull before it is carried towards the Brain A. The Trunk of the Artery ascending towards the Skull B. The same whilst it is included in the bony Chanel being clothed with an additional Coat BC. The incurvature or bending of the Artery reaching within the bosom of the Skull representing the bending of a double S. D. The Trunk of the same being carried towards the Brain The Second Figure Shews the ascent of the Carotidick Arteries and their situation in a Horses Skull AA Either Carotidick Artery ascending towards the Skull BB. The Trunk of either having past the Skull pressed down as it were into a valley CC. The communications of either by cross Branches DD. A Branch from either Trunk destinated for the Dura Mater dddd Little shoots on either side sent into the pituitary Glandula or Kernel EE FF Either Carotidick Artery being divided before it reaches the Brain and ascending with a double Trunk The Third Figure Shews the wonderful Net with the pituitary Kernel in a Calfs Skull A. a. The direct Chanel of the Artery B. The Net-like Infoldings of the Vessels stretched out by that Chanel towards the pituitary Kernel C. The pituitary Glandula or Kernel The Fourth Figure Shews after what manner the lateral Bosom goes into the Jugular Vein with a diverting place hanging to it A. The lateral Bosom descending B. That Bosom sliding into the Skull and dilating it self into a large and round Cavity for the receiving of which there is a peculiar Den formed in the outward part of the Skull Fig I Fig II Fig III Fig IIII C. The aforesaid Cavity or diverting place in which the blood about to descend may go aside lest it should else rush too strongly upon the Jugular Vein by which also care is taken that the blood may not flow back or regurgitate out of the Jugular Vein into the Bosom D. The beginning of the Jugular Vein But as the Carotides of whose office and ascent we have hitherto spoken carry the destinated Tribute of the blood to the Brain so the Vertebrals serve chiefly for the watering the Cerebel and the hinder part of the oblong Marrow Hence we observe because the conformation of the Cerebel is alike in all Creatures therefore also the Vertebral Arteries different from the Carotides are found alike in all without any great difference Nor does there seem to be need of any great provision for the admission or entrance of the Vertebral Arteries within the Skull because as they carry a lesser portion of the blood and for that the blood it self that is to be bestowed on the Cerebel is wont there to be agitated or moved with no perturbations of passions or conceptions therefore there is not that necessity that there should be placed any remora or any incitement for its Torrent The Vertebral Artery arising from the branch in the fifth Rib in its whole ascent through the hinder part of the Head passes through the little holes cut in the extuberances of the Vertebrae till it comes near the Basis of the hinder part of the Head where the same being bent down on either side and admitted into the Skull by the last hole excepting where the spinal Marrow goes forth is carried by the side of the oblong marrow but as soon as it is brought to the region of the Cerebel it sends forth branches on either side which cover its superficies and besides on its back side make infoldings no less signal than those commonly called the Choroeides and with larger Kernels more thickly interwoven As those shoots convey the Juyce requisite for the stilling forth the animal Spirits so these convey the heated blood and the purified from the serous Colluvies Further beneath the Cerebel both the Vertebral branches inclining mutually one to another are united as it were for that end that if the flowing of the blood should be stopped on either side it might be supplied from the other to the whole compass of the Cerebel and its neighbouring parts These sanguiferous Vessels covering the Cerebel even as the others do the Brain make signal infoldings both in its outward superficies and in that of the oblong marrow and also within its lappets and folds from which small shoots are sent forth every where into its under-lying substance so that from these a subtil liquor as it were stilled forth and imbibed by the Cortical substance of the Cerebel seems to go into animal Spirits By what means and in what parts of the Head the production of the animal Spirits is performed remains next to be inquired into CHAP. IX Shews by what provision and in what places of the Head the Animal Spirits are begotten Also other Uses and Accidents of the Pia Mater are added FRom the description of the Sanguiducts or Blood-carrying Vessels which cover and weave about on every side the Pia Mater hitherto handled we are led by a certain thread to consider by what provision and in what places of the Brain and its Appendix the production of the animal Spirits is performed 1. As to the first it appears from what hath been already said that the blood is it self the matter out of which the animal Spirits are drawn and that the Vessels containing and carrying it every where through the whole compass of the Head are like distillatory Organs which by circulating more exactly and as it were subliming the blood separate it s purer and more active particles from the rest and subtilize them and at length insinuate those spiritualized into the Brain and its Appendix Concerning this matter to be distilled there is care taken and indeed by the best means that its stock or provision may be still supplied in fit quality and due quantity In respect of the quality from the whole bloody mass a portion highly volatile spirituous and endued with active Elements ought constantly to arise towards the Head which thing succeeds partly of its own accord and partly that it might be more commodiously done care is taken with a certain artificialness to wit the Vertebral Arteries in all Creatures ascending straight and almost perpendicularly do in a manner cause that only the more subtil and light blood is carried upwards the remaining more thick as it were sinking down for the baser offices of the Limbs and of some of the Bowels Yea also the
Carotides in a man having an erected head higher than the rest of the parts and in a Horse in some sort lifting up his face have also the same priviledge to wit that by their more steep ascent only the more pure and volatile blood may ascend to the region of the Brain But in other four-footed beasts who go with a prone or hanging head and who have a more frigid and watry blood which may easily slide into and too much wash the Brain this evil is in some part prevented by the wonderful Net and pituitary Glandula joyned to the Carotides which indeed receive the superfluous humidities of the blood and so make it more pure and free from dregs before it comes to the brain But that the blood may be supplied still in due quantity to wit as it were in weight and measure from the distillatory Vessels stretched about the compass of the Head there is a notable provision made in all the Carotides about the Basis of the Skull because their crooked imbowings and branching into infoldings hinders the too great or too rapid approach of the blood then lest the passage of it should at any time be shut up the mutual ingraftings of all the Vessels on either side do help or provide for After this manner the business of extracting the animal Spirits is performed even as a Chymical Elixir to wit great care is taken in the beginning of that Operation both that choice of matter may be had and that only a due proportion of it be exposed to distillation The blood by this means as it were a Chymical work prepared is carried by the fourfold Chariot of the Arteries to four distinct regions of the Head and as the sanguiferous Vessels being distributed with separate ramifications or branches through the whole compass of the Brain and its Appendix cover all the heights of its compassings about or gyrations and also all its crevices and their gapings and recesses they bring to their doors the matter to be distilled into the Head every where through the whole circumference of the Brain and Cerebel nigh the Cortical substance of either out of which as the Spirits are distilled by this means it is brought about that they are insinuated into the subjected substance of either The blood being carried through the narrow infoldings and divarications of the Vessels as it were as was said through the serpentine chanels of an Alembick is made extremely subtle as much as may be in its liquor in the mean time what is bloody is received by the little shoots of the Veins associates or meeting one another every where and what is serous by the Kernels every where dispersed yet it s more purified and spirituous part being carried on further through the very small shoots sent forth on all sides are instilled more deeply into the very Pores and passages of the Brain and Cerebel which presently flowing from the Cortical substance into the medullary there exercise the gifts of the animal Function What peculiar body and constitutive particles of the Brain it self and Cerebel conduce to the generation and perfection of the animal Spirits within the substance of either shall be shewn hereafter when we treat of the Use of those Parts now shall be taken notice of what we before mentioned to wit that the fluid extillation of the spirituous liquor from the blood about the Pia Mater is performed after a signal manner both from the ambient heat which is stirred up from the blood contained within the bosoms as it were from a Balneo Mariae inriched by the continual flowing of it anew and also from the obduction of the Meninges like an Alembick by which the spirituous Particles apt to fly away are constrained and forced into the parts beneath But indeed though the animal Spirits are procreated wholly from the blood yet the blood watering the Brain and its Appendix is not only bestowed on this work for as to the sanguiferous Vessels which arising out of the Trunks both of the Carotides and the Vertebrals cover over the whole Head and all its parts and processes though many of them yet not all are little distillatory chanels of the animal Spirits For the animal Spirits are not produced in all places to which these Vessels reach for we affirm that these Spirits are only procreated in the Brain and Cerebel which it were easie to prove by the Symptoms which happen in the Apoplexy and Palsie and shall be afterwards clearly shewn and from this double fountain of the animal Spirits they flow out into all the rest of the parts and irradiate by a constant influence the whole nervous stock In the mean time the oblong marrow and its various processes and protuberances are either retreating places or high roads for the animal Spirits procreated in the Brain and Cerebel and flowing from thence But for as much as the Arteries and Veins clothe these parts also with a thick series of shoots and that within the infolding of the Brain the folds called Choroeides are hung slack and loosly these seem to be so made for other reasons viz. both that these parts might be actuated by heat supplied as it were from a continual fire and also that the nourishing Juyce might be bestowed on the Spirits which flow there As to the first that the animal Spirits now perfected may be freely expanded and irradiate the nervous System there seems to be required that the ambient heat being excited by the blood flowing thither might open all the little spaces for their passage and notably dilate or lay open for them ways or roads wherefore we intimated before because the little shoots of the Vessels ought not to be deeply inserted into the callous body for that lest the commerce of the Spirits diverting in this Mart or meeting place should be disturbed by the perpetual influence of the blood therefore the infolding of the Choroeides is hung under its chamber that at least by this nigh situation as by a Stove or Hot-house the heat there might be preserved Besides we intimated another use of this infolding to wit that the blood passing through the very narrow Meanders and convolutions or rollings about of the Vessels might lay aside its serous recrements into the Glandula's or passages of the Veins 2. But secondly That many branches and lesser shoots of the same Vessels which water the Brain and Cerebel cover also the oblong marrow and in some measure enter into its Pores and deeper substance within which the animal Spirits are not begotten but only exercised and expanded I say that this is so made for this other respect to wit that the substance of the oblong marrow might imbibe a constant provision of nourishment from the pouring in of the blood whereof it hath need For whilst the animal Spirits flowing into the nervous stock from the Brain and Cerebel pass through this passage as it were the high road some food he e ought to be administred to
them as it were in their journey from the watering blood For indeed we suppose which also will afterwards clearly appear that the oblong marrow together with the nervous parts is moistned with a double humor viz. one spirituous and highly active which flows altogether from the Brain and Cerebel and being from thence derived into the whole nervous stock bestows upon them the sensitive and moving Faculties and the other humor softer and more oily and sulphureous which being supplied from the blood and affused immediately on every part is the Author of their Heat and Vegetation Both these Juyces agree among themselves and being every where joyned together and married they are as it were a masculine and feminine seed mixed together and so they impart to all parts both sense and motion and all the powers of life and growth Wherefore it is observed that all the parts of the whole body by which motion and sense are performed do not only swell up with the animal Spirit of whose influence being deprived they presently suffer a resolution or loosning but also they admit the sanguiferous Vessels of whose Tribute if they be defrauded presently they wither away or are distempered with a mortification or Gangrene Wherefore that the flesh membranes and all the bones may be watered with the blood as may be perceived by the help of a Microscope the very little or minute bodies of some of the Nerves are surrounded with Capillaments or little hairs of Arteries and Veins together with their proper Fibrils that we need not doubt to assert that the Vessels penetrating the superficies of the Brain and Cerebel do distil into them a subtil matter for the generation of the animal Spirits but that some other shoots of the same Vessels covering the oblong marrow do only impart to it heat and nourishing Juyce Lastly that the infoldings of the Choroeides were built under the chamber of the oblong marrow chiefly for the dispensing of heat and in some measure for the sake of separation of the serous Latex But concerning these we shall have occasion to speak more largely afterwards when we shall treat of the nutritious and nervous Juyce and when we shall consider of that famous Controversie viz. whether nourishment is made by the blood or Nerves further we shall elsewhere speak more fully of the Nature Hypostasis and diverse Disposition of the animal Spirits also what the substance of the Brain and the conformation of the parts may contribute to their production Thus far concerning the Pia Mater and the blood-carrying Vessels which are woven in it and following its protension water the whole Head we have treated largely But before we quite leave the consideration of this Membrane we will inquire what sense and motion it may have Certainly it is not undeservedly that we ascribe the most cruel Head-aches to the more acute sense of this in which however by what means this Meninx is affected does not so easily appear It is the common opinion that sharp and tormenting Vapours being raised from the Viscera of the lower Belly especially from the Ventricle Hypochondria or Womb strike against this Membrane and so pierce it with pain But we say though this be impossible that Vapours passing so many interstices and bars of the Viscera and bones without any trouble should ever come to the Head and hurt it yet we do not deny but that sometimes vaporous Effluvia's do proceed from the blood boiling or estuating within the confines of the Brain which being shut up together under the Pia Mater and as it were gathered into a Cloud do greatly blow up and distend it and so distemper it with pain I have often seen in a Head newly opened after death the Pia Mater distended and shining like a Bladder that the same seemed to be intumified with much water included under it which notwithstanding was found to be so done by wind distending the Membrane for that being dissected that Tumor fell down without the effusion of water But we think the Head-aches which happen by reason of the evil of this Membrane are chiefly excited by another means to wit for as much as this Meninx suffers a breach of the unity by the blood boiling up above measure and rushing into its Pores and so it is contracted into lighter Convulsions I have sometimes opened the Heads of the defunct which when living were obnoxious to most miserable Head-aches in which near the longitudinal bosom where the seat of the pains was the Pia Mater or interior grew to the Dura Mater or exterior for some space oft-times for two fingers breadth and by their growing together had excited a sharp and unequal Tumor in which the mouths of the Vessels were so wholly stopped up that there was left for the blood though very much boiling up no passage into the adjoyning bosom As to the motion of this Membrane we wholly deny that it hath in it self a perpetual Systole and Diastole however the Pulses in some Arteries have seemed something like it which have given occasion perchance to this vulgar Opinion Yet in the mean time it may be lawful to believe that this Meninx for that it is very sensible is rendred obnoxious to Cramps and convulsive motions and that from its greater contraction the fits of the Falling-sickness do arise and from its lesser and more partial corrugation or wrinkling together Head-aches as hath been said and also sometimes Scotomies Vertigoes and often Convulsions of the Members and Viscera planted at a great distance from the origine of the Nerves being drawn into consent CHAP. X. A Description of the Brain properly so called and the Explication and Use of its Parts WE have thus far beheld the Coverings of the Brain both the bony and the membranous also the Arteries and Veins growing and knit to them like Ivy and distributed through the whole compass of the Head There now remains these coverings being removed that we next consider the Fabrick and true Hypotype or Character of the Brain and its Appendix together with the action and use of all the parts And here at first sight we meet with three things to wit the Brain the oblong Marrow and the Cerebel of which the oblong marrow seems to be a common Trunk to which the Brain and Cerebel grow like branches wherefore some contend the medullary Rope to be the principal part and the Brain and Cerebel its dependences But that it is otherwise appears by this because these bodies both in the generation and dispensation of the animal Spirits are of more noble use than the oblong marrow so that if the out-flowings of the Spirits from the Brain or Cerebel be shut up or hindred the nervous System presently suffers an Eclipse in the mean time if this be primarily distempered the Brain and Cerebel suffer not for its fault That we may begin with the Brain it may be considered in a double respect to wit both as to its convex or exterior
Spirits are made more subtil and also as it seems most likely they perform in this circulary motion those more subtil acts of the Phantasie 6. Truly that we may here speak something of the Fornix it seems that this part serves for a twofold use viz. first lest the more inward sides of the Brain hanging slack and loosly might fall together among themselves or might be removed beyond the limits of a just protension or out-stretching for they not only by the coming between of the Pia Mater and by little cords drawn from it cohere to the oblong marrow and the Cerebel but besides the Fornix like a Ligament or string brought from one end of the brain to the other constrains and keeps its whole frame in its due figure and situation For this part purely medullar and of the same substance with the callous Body seems to be a certain process of this which arising more forward between the streaked bodies and falling upon the two shanks of the oblong marrow first of all distinguishes them afterwards being separated from them is carried through the midst of the cavity and about the hinder part of the brain is divided as it were into two Arms which being bent on both sides and again cleaving to the border of the callous Body strictly embrace the oblong marrow and knit and firmly tye the hinder bulk of the brain to its Trunk lest it should flow or slide forth But the other and that the more noted use of the Fornix seems to be what we but now mentioned to wit that the animal Spirits may immediately pass through its passage from one end of the brain to the other and so as it were through the bill of a Pelican they might be circulated into their own intorted belly That those things which were but now declared concerning the Penetralia and inward recesses of the Brain may be the better understood we will here add a Scheme of its Sphere turned inside out and stretched out as it were upon a plain so that the concave and inmost superficies of the callous Body together with the Fornix may be sufficiently seen The Seventh Figure SHews the Brain of a Sheep bent back and cut a little open in the places where they stick together near the streaked bodies that its interior substance may be turned the inside out and unfolded on a plain AA The substance of the Brain cut asunder which in its natural situation being folded together did cohere with the rest of its substance a. a. upon the remaining streaked Bodies B. The Trunk of the Fornix or Psalloides cut asunder which in its natural site coheres with the Basis of the same Fornix E. CC. The Arms of the Fornix which embrace the medullary Trunk on the other side of the Pineal Glandula DD. The brim of the callous Body which embraces the medullary Trunk near the Cerebel E. The Basis of the Fornix FF Two straight Roots of the Fornix lying between the streaked Bodies GG The transverse medullary Process knitting the two streaked Bodies one to another H. The Chink near the Roots of the Fornix leading to the Tunnel II. The streaked Bodies whose Superficies the small Arteries and Veins cover over KK The interior Superficies of the callous Body marked with transverse medullary streaks or chamferatings or reaching from one Hemisphere of the Brain to the other LL. The Chambers or hollow places of the Optick Nerves M. The anterior hole leading to the Ventricle lying under the orbicular Protuberances which also goes slope-wise to the Tunnel N. The Pineal Glandula which appears more plain the Pia Mater and the Choroeidal infolding being separated and removed OO The Natiform or Buttock-like Protuberances which are here far greater than in a Man or a Dog PP The lesser Protuberances called Testes which are additions or things growing out of the former QQ The medullary Processes stretching from the Testes into the middle or marrowy part of the Cerebel R. The meeting together of those Processes SS The Pathetick Nerves of the Eyes arising out of the meeting together of those Processes T. The posterior hole leading into the Ventricle lying under the orbicular Protuberances and also into the same opening of the Tunnel V. A Furrow in the medullary Trunk which being covered by the Cerebel makes the fourth Ventricle WW The Ramifications or Branchings of the medullary substance of the Cerebel which appear like a Tree X. The end of the oblong Marrow about to go into the Spinal Fig. VII a. CHAP. XI Shews with what motion and tendency of the Animal Spirits the Exercises of the Animal Faculties are performed within the Confines of the Brain Also what the use of its Ventricles is HItherto setting forth the uses and offices of the Brain properly so called and of its parts we have shewed after what manner the animal Spirits are procreated from the blood in this their principal Shop or Work-house and into what diverting places they being newly brought forth do depart of themselves and are there kept as it were in distinct Cloisters or Cells to be drawn forth for the manifold Exercises of the animal Function But because these Spirits so brought to perfection and ready for their work within the same parts of the Brain enter into other manner of motions and divers ways of emanations therefore before we proceed any further for the searching out their tracts within the oblong Marrow and Cerebel we ought to declare concerning these Spirits disposed within the confines of the Brain it self with what forces they are furnished in what form they unfold themselves and in what ways they diffuse themselves and go forward as often as being mustered in due order they produce the acts of the Imagination Memory Appetite and other superior Faculties of the Soul But for as much as hereafter when we have finished the explication of the Head and nervous Appendix we have resolved for a conclusion to treat of the Soul of Brutes and its powers I may therefore for the present lay aside this task unless that in the mean time it may not seem amiss to give a taste only in general of these few things viz. as there are two parts of the inferior Soul or of Beasts to wit the vital or flamy being inkindled in the blood and the sensitive or lucid being diffused through the whole Head and its nervous dependences the animal Spirits being continually produced in the Brain and in the Cerebel do constitute a double as it were Root or Fountain of this lucid part yea the Spirits of either linage for as much as they are continued both within those Fountains and from thence through the frame or substance of the nervous System as it were under the same beamy Systasis and contexture they effect or cause the whole Hypostasis or subsistency of the sensitive Soul But there happen to this Soul because it is apt to be moved with a various impulse and so to contract or dilate its species
in the whole or in part for that reason divers manners both of Actions and of Passions to wit the Senses which we call its Passions and Motions which we name the Actions of the same The formal reason of the former viz. the Senses consists in the retraction or drawing back of the Spirits or a flowing back towards their Fountains For where ever the impression of a sensible object is carried to this radiant or beamy contexture presently either the whole frame or some portion of it whereby it admits the species is compelled to wag and to be moved back as it were to leap back and recede into it self on the contrary the actions or motions of this Soul are made for that this shadowy Spirit being incited or stirred up in the whole or in a certain part unfolds it self more largely and by an emanation and as it were a certain vibration of the Spirits exerts or puts forth its virtue and force of acting Both the Senses and Motions of this sensitive Soul are made either transient when the Spirits or its constitutive Particles being moved somewhere in the System of the Nerves draw together with them the containing parts and deflect them with the like carriage or gesture with themselves as is observed in the five outward Senses and the local motions of the Members or else either both Actions and Passions are continuing to wit when both the Motions and Senses are silently performed without any great agitation or moving of the body or its parts within the first Fountains of the Soul viz. the Head it self These kind of Passions indeed made within the substance of the Brain are the common Sense and Imagination but the Actions are Memory Phantasie and Appetite and either of these as to their beginnings and instincts depend for the most part upon the outward Senses Concerning the former we take notice that as often as the exterior part of the Soul being struck a sensible impression as it were the Optick Species or as an undulation or waving of waters is carried more inward bending towards the chamfered bodies a perception or inward sense of the Sensation outwardly had or received arises If that this impression being carried farther passes through the callous Body Imagination follows the Sense Then if the same fluctuation of Spirits is struck against the Cortex of the Brain as its utmost banks it impresses on it the image or character of the sensible Object which when it is afterwards reflected or bent back raises up the Memory of the same thing The active Powers of this Soul viz. Local Motion Memory Phantasie and Appetite follow sometimes immediately the Passions sometimes are induced apart from them upon other occasions For indeed the sensible impression striking the streaked or chamfered bodies oftentimes the Brain being in no wise affected causes the local Motions to be retorted with a reciprocal tendency of the animal Spirits so in sleep the Appetite knowing nothing of it when pain troubles presently we rub the place moving the hand to it but more often after that the sensible Species having past from the common Sensory to the callous Body hath stirred up the Imagination the Spirits reflecting from thence and flowing back towards the nervous Appendix raise up the Appetite and Local Motions the Executors or Performers of the same And sometimes a certain sensible impression being carried beyond the callous Body and striking against the Cortex of the Brain it self raises up other species lying hid there and so induces Memory with Phantasie also often with Appetite and Local Motion associates Further these active Powers sometimes upon other occasions are wont to be stirred up and exercised apart from Passion In Man the Rational Soul variously moves the sensitive and at its pleasure draws forth and brings into act its Powers sometimes these sometimes those Moreover the blood boiling up above measure and by that means striking impetuously the border of the Brain excites the species of things lurking in it and driving them forward towards the middle or marrowy part of the Brain causes also the various Acts of the Phantasie and Memory to be represented Concerning the aforesaid interior or abiding Faculties we shall at present further take notice that their more perfect Exercises are chiefly and almost only performed by the Spirits already perfected and highly elaborated for those a making or that are new made being numerous they very much obstruct and hinder the acts of the animal Function to wit when from the Vessels on every side watering the Cortex of the Brain the subtil Liquor is plentifully instilled for the matter of the animal Spirits this flowing inwardly stuffs all the pores and passages of the Brain and so excludes for that time the Spirits from their wonted tracts and orbs of expansion Wherefore whilst the chief reflection of the Brain and Spirits is celebrated sleep or an Eclipse of the animal Spirits happens then waking returns when from the Liquor instilled the more subtil part is exalted into very pure Spirits and at length the more watry being partly resolved into Vapours is exhaled and partly supped up by the passages of the Veins entring the substance of the Brain or else is sweat out into the vacuity lying under the callous Body Concerning these I hope we may discourse more largely afterwards In the mean time that we may proceed to the rest of the things proposed concerning the frame of the Brain properly so called there yet remains that we speak of its Ventricles But since they are only a vacuity resulting from the folding up of its exterior border I see no reason we have to discourse much of their office no more than Astronomers are wont of the empty space contained within the vacuity of the Sphere But in truth as there is nothing met with in Nature that is not destinated to some use surely we suspect this same Vacuum or empty space not to be built in vain within the Globe of the Brain The Ancients have so magnified this Cavern that they affirmed it the Shop of the animal Spirits both where they themselves were procreated and performed the chief works of the animal Function But on the other side the Moderns or those of later days have esteemed these places so vile that they have affirmed the same to be mere sinks for the carrying out the excrementitious matter But indeed that opinion of the Ancients is easily overthrown for that the animal Spirits being very subtil and apt to fly away require not such large and open spaces rather than the more narrow passages and little pores such as are made in the substance of the Brain for these Spirits because they ought for the various Faculties of the Soul to be composed into various series and divers orders and dispositions therefore ought to be moved within peculiar orbs and tracts Further if any one shall exactly consider the fabrick of the Brain and seriously weigh that these Ventricles are not formed out
of the primary intention of Nature but result only secondarily and accidentally from the complication of the Brain he will be far from thinking that the supreme seat of the Soul is fixed there where being hem'd in with a most noble Guard of Spirits it doth execute and perform its Functions For it neither appears at all out of what matter and by what artifice the Spirits are there begotten nor by what ways of emanation they are derived from thence into the other parts of the Brain and nervous System Wherefore almost all Anatomists who are of a later Age have attributed that vile office of a Jakes or sink to this more inward chamber of the Brain To which Opinion there has been some trust given for that these Ventricles are often seen in the dead to be filled with water also from these ways seem to lye open for excretion both towards the Tunnel and also into the Sieve-like Bone It is observed that where-ever the blood flows more copiously into any part and waters it there Vapors or watry Humors are begotten from the superfluous Serum left in the circulation which for the most part either exhale out through vaporous Effluvia's or are brought back into the blood by the Veins or Lymphatick Vessels But when the blood by a plentiful influx waters not only the Cortex of the Brain but the interior marrow also it remains that the serous Latex when-ever it abounds more in the blood than that its superfluities may be reduced immediately by the Veins or by the Lymphaeducts if they be there or may be separated by the Glandula's should slide down into this den made hollow within the infolding of the Brain Truly there are many instances which plainly evince that the serous humors are ordinarily laid up in the Ventricles of the Brain Anatomical Observations of men dying of many Cephalick diseases and especially of soporiferous or sleepy distempers confirm this Yea it may be lawfully thought that natural sleep follows for that the Pores and passages of the Brain are occupied and stuffed with a watry Latex which serves for a Vehicle to the Spirits Then as often as a profound sleep invades any one from a Surfeit or drinking of Wine the cause is that the little spaces in the medullary substance of the Brain destinated for the motions of the Spirits are too much obstructed by a Narcotick or a watry humor certain reliques of which being resolved into vapor and thrust out from the company of the Spirits do often sweat out or drop into this Vacuum or empty space After this manner it may be believed concerning the Ventricles of the Brain or the empty space left within its plicature or folding together But in truth because this matter hath been very much controverted among Physicians of every Age and the right decision of it seems to be of great moment for the explicating the offices of the other parts of the Head I will here compare together the reasons for and against this Opinion that we may at length give our Judgment of this Opinion what may be either true or most likely CHAP. XII It is inquired into whether the serous Humors heaped together within the Vacuity of the Brain be sent out by the Pituitary Glandula and the Sieve-like Bone or not SInce Experience testifies that the Serum and excrementitious I may justly say morbifick and oftentimes deadly Humors are found frequently within these Ventricles of the Brain we ought to inquire more diligently concerning their passage in and out and the rather for that it is very much doubted by some concerning the use of these Dens nor are there wanting those in this late Age who have endeavoured to bring into vogue the ancient Opinion though long since exploded concerning the Spirits being begot in this place and here exercised I believe without doubting for the reasons before alledged that the Spirits are not here begotten nor exercised and no less certain is it made by Experience that the serous Colluvies is here often gathered together This therefore only remains that we should see from whence and how this flows hither and then by what ways of Excretion the same should be carried out As to the first it is exceeding probable that the serous Latex which is the Vehicle of the Spirits newly produced and is introduced together with them into the Pores of the Brain after it is grown stale and being attenuated into Vapour doth distil forth into this Cavern and there at last grows into a watry Humor for otherwise what becomes of that Humor or into what other Receptacle could it be derived Besides this ordinary and I believe assiduous heaping together of the serous Colluvies within the Ventricles of the Brain certainly it may be believed that this kind of serous Humor is distilled out of the Glandula's inserted in the Choroeidal infolding being too much filled into the Ventricles so called I have often seen in a Dropsie the Glandula's of the Brain to be intumified and like grains of Barley bursting with too much wet to become flaccid or withered so that they could not retain the ferosities brought to them but continually disposed them into the Cavity beneath Truly in a Dropsie of the Brain these Cavities or Ventricles are always seen to be full of water the cause of which kind of distemper is the blood being made more watry puts off in its circulation a greater heap of Serum than the Veins can presently carry back or the Glandula's are able to receive and retain For indeed that the Serum redounding on every side from the Vessels may the better slide into the Ventricles of the Brain it is so ordered that the greater infoldings of the Vessels with the inserted Glandula's should be disposed near all the Ventricles of the Head because not only the infolding Choroeides is placed nigh the concourse of the three Ventricles in the Brain but another infolding and no less noted which we above described with greater Glandula's is set behind the Cerebel nigh the fourth Ventricle In all as it seems for that end such care is taken that the watry part coming from the blood which is destinated either for the Brain or the Cerebel for that it is not fit for the procreating of Spirits might run into these infoldings of the Vessels But yet if a greater plenty of Serum be there laid up than can be contained in them or may be sent away outwardly whatever is superfluous will slide into the Cavity underneath Hence it appears from whence and by what means the serous heap is gathered together within the Ventricles of the Brain certainly to deny this going out is no other than to assert every ones Brain big with a Viper which cannot be brought forth but by gnawing asunder the bowels of its parent Who shall lightly consider the parts nigh the Ventricles and their Fabricks at first sight only would swear with the Ancients that the excrements of the brain were laid aside both lower
through the Tunnel into the Palate and above or more forward through the mammillary Processes into the Nostrils But if the structure of these parts be a little more diligently searched into there is no body who presently will not easily think that by neither of these ways the excretion of any humor can be made for neither from the pituitary Glandula through the Wedge-like bone nor from the mammillary Processes through the holes of the Sieve-like bone is there any manifest aperture or opening to be perceived But in very truth we do suppose that the brain is in some measure purged by both these Emunctories for that objection may be answered That the translations of Humors in living Creatures are easily performed through places that seem impervious or unpassable for while the Pores and passages in all the parts of a living Creature are dilated by spirit and heat they transmit the rain of the Serum as through the fine texture of a woolen Cloth This plainly appears from Arthritick distempers in which the serous Latex creeps by degrees through the nervous bodies and passing through very small spaces makes a falling down of humors sometimes upon these parts and sometimes upon others so that it is obvious that the Membranes and nervous Processes drink in the serous humors like Sponges and then by a light compression render them by heaps as is manifest in the Tooth-ach for as often as a Bodkin or Instrument is put up into a hollow Tooth clear water will come out plentifully Indeed in the body of a living Creature the passages of humors are not only made through open passages and chanels but the thinner and more watry Latex creeps through the solid and smooth bodies of the Nerves as also the Fibres and the Membranes as through the holes of a Filtre and so is transferred through imperceptible straits from place to place I sometime knew in the Impostume of the Lungs the humor to have been derived through the Membranes growing to the Pleura from the bag into an Issue made in the side and so the spitting ceasing the disease that seemed otherwise incurable was healed by such a way of Evacuation Why in like manner may we not suppose the serous humors falling down from the Ventricles of the Brain into the pituitary Glandula and the mammillary Processes to be carried away through the Nerves or Membranes passing through here or there Concerning the Tunnel the thing is probable enough because the position and structure of this seem to shew that some humor is carried out of the Ventricles of the Brain towards the pituitary Glandula For this part is so constituted that a falling down of the humors may be made from every angle and recess of the interior Brain and its Appendix into its aperture or opening And as in several Animals the figure and site of the Ventricles vary very much as we have already shewn yet in every one of them all the Ventricles of the Head whatsoever they be have their openings gaping towards the Tunnel But that this Kernel or Glandula to which the passage of the Tunnel is inserted receives and carries out the serous humors seems also to appear from hence because it admits not only those falling from the brain into its Pores but also those secreted from the blood ascending into the brain For that in many four-footed beasts certain Vessels are inserted to this Glandula from either Carotidick Artery which intimately enters its substance a sign of which is that Ink being injected into the Trunk of either Artery dyes with a black colour the wonderful Net if it be there and oftner the interior substance of this Glandula whence it may be argued that the office of this Glandula is to receive the superfluous serosities and it receives not only those sent away in the return from the brain but sometimes preoccupies or prevents them and is wont to derive them from the blood before it is carried to the brain And therefore this Glandula is very small if the superfluities of the Serum be derived to it only from the brain but greater if they come to it also from the blood to wit as it executes either one or a double office as we have already shewn at large But as to what respects the way of passing through to wit by which the humors deposited in this Glandula are carried out the vulgar Opinion is that they do come away through the holes of the bone beneath into the Palate wherefore in those kind of Animals who have the wonderful Net and many of its shoots enter this Glandula more holes are made in the underlying bone Further if you take away the ditch or gutter of the Wedge-like bone or the seat of this Glandula cut off from the Skull and pour water upon its holes being made bare from the Membrane it passing presently through the substance of the whole bone will suddenly still forth through other holes lying open in the sides of the bone Yet this Experiment concludes nothing for the Opinion proposed because these holes are wholly wanting in some Creatures and very much in an humane Skull in those who have them as in a Calf especially it is observed that the same are filled by some hollow Vessels into which if a black liquor be cast by a Syringe that passing through the substance of the bone will go into many other Vessels lying under the bone and at length into the Trunk of the Jugular Vein which certainly is a sign that the humors are not carried from hence into the Palate But as to the Vessels which cover over the holes of the bone and which more abundantly lye under the same they seem to be either Veins or Lymphaeducts But among these it is lawful to conjecture the chief means of Excretion whereby the serous humors laid up in the pituitary Kernel may be carried out to wit that they are remanded back from it as from most other Glandula's or Kernels into the mass of blood In a Calf the thing lies open to ocular inspection nor is it to be doubted of other Animals who have the admirable Net because as the arterious branches so also the veinous reach to this Glandula which sup up not only the humors deposited from the Arteries but also those falling from the Ventricles of the Brain Yea it may be lawfully believed that in a Man also a Horse and in other Creatures who want the strange or wonderful Net there are other Lymphaeducts or Water-carriers or some such kind of Vessels as are seen in the head of a Calf that most certainly carry the humors from this Glandula We cannot so easily find out their footsteps because before these break out of their dens the tracts of the Lymphaeducts if there be any would vanish Nor can we find out these Vessels in all as in a Calf by injection because the holes of the bone by which as by the leading of a thread the injection arrives at and dyes the
process The oblong Marrow seems to be a broad or high Road into which the animal Spirits perpetually flow from their double Fountain to wit the Brain and the Cerebel to be derived from thence into all the nervous parts of the whole Body which Spirits whilst they are orderly disposed in this common passage as it were by series and orders carry a twofold aspect to wit they are directed either outward towards the Nerves when they exert the loco-motive Faculty or they look inward towards their Fountains when the acts of sense or rather the apprehensions of sensible things are performed Within this open way a more large and greatly open path leads straight to the spinal Marrow through which the Spirits flow forth to the Nerves the Executors of spontaneous Motion in most members In the mean time out of the same tract of the oblong Marrow lesser paths are carried outwardly here and there by particular Nerves arising from the same within the Skull Also besides many diverting places viz. various processes and protuberances grow to this medullary Trunk into which the Spirits destinated to some peculiar offices go apart lest that all the Spirits travelling this way and that way in the same path should meet one another and disturb one anothers offices Whilst after this manner for the performing the acts of Motion and Sense we suppose the animal Spirits to be expatiated within the oblong Marrow we affirm that they are not there begotten but only exercised For indeed they being created only in the Brain and Cerebel as they proceed from this or that they perform the offices either of a merely involuntary Function or else of a spontaneous as shall be shewed more largely hereafter But that we may unfold here all things which belong to the oblong Marrow I shall mete it forth from its first coming out to the end of its race and handle its several Stadia diverting places and cross ways Where the callous Body is thought to end the oblong Marrow begins to wit when the medullar substance of the Brain is thickest nigh the bosses or knobs of either Hemisphere a body of a whitish colour and somewhat darkned or obscured and streaked like Ivory is joyned to that marrow on both sides These two bodies are the extremities or tops of the shanks of the oblong Marrow between which and the Brain there are nigh and very immediate commerces Either of these seems as it were a Cylinder rolled about into an Orb which nevertheless constitutes the top of either shank not spherical but oval and something bent downward in the hinder part A more large portion of its superficies is joyned to the medullar substance of the Brain but yet some part of it being free from the cohesion with the Brain shews it self apart and makes that protuberance shewing it self in either lateral Ventricle These bodies if they should be dissected along through the middle appear marked with medullar streaks as it were rays or beams which sort of chamferings or streaks have a double aspect or tendency to wit some descend from the top of this body as if they were tracts from the Brain into the oblong Marrow and others ascend from the lower part and meet the aforesaid as if they were paths of the Spirits from the oblong Marrow into the Brain And it is worth observation that in the whole Head besides there is no part found chamfered or streaked after the like manner If the use of these be inquired into this presently occurs that these bodies placed between the Brain and its Appendix are the great and common diverting places of either to wit which receive whatsoever impulses or forces of the animal Spirits are sent from either and communicate them presently to the other Or that I may speak more plainly this part is the common Sensory to wit as Aristotle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Sensory that receives the strokes of all sensible things dilated from the Nerves of every Organ and so causes the perception of every sense which kind of strokes of sensible things when from hence they are passed further into the Brain presently Imagination succeeds the Sense and further these bodies as they receive the forces of all the Senses so also the first instincts of spontaneous local motions To wit as often as the Appetite discerns any thing to be done presently the reciprocal tendencies of the animal Spirits that is from the Brain into these parts are disposed here to act the conceptions of motions coming from any part or member For here as in a most famous Mart the animal Spirits preparing for the performance of the thing willed are directed into appropriate Nerves That it is so it appears because every influence from the Brain into the nervous stock and on the contrary from this into that and the mutual commerce of the animal Spirits must of necessity pass through these bodies Wherefore all the Nerves also those which belong to the more inward Organs of the Senses arise behind these chamfered bodies For the Optick and smelling Nerves creep through the superficies of the Brain by a long passage and windings about that they might be inserted below this part of the oblong Marrow For indeed the Species of sensible things received by those Nerves might more immediately be carried to the middle of the Brain unless that they ought first to be staid at this Sensory Further we may lawfully conjecture that these parts perform the aforesaid office from their chamfered and as it were beamy contexture For as those chamferings with which these bodies are marked as we but now intimated are of a double kind to wit some descending which look from the Brain towards the oblong Marrow and others ascending which are carried distinctly from this towards that it may be lawfully concluded that in these carried upwards the impressions of sensible things are perceived and in those tending downwards are performed the Instincts of Motions Further that these bodies as was said perform the offices of the first Sensory besides the fabrick of their parts and the Analogy to be collected thence of their use it seems yet more certainly to appear from some Observations concerning these chamfered bodies after what manner they are affected in Paralytick diseases For as often as I have opened the bodies of those who dyed of a long Palsie and most grievous resolution of the Nerves I always found these bodies less firm than others in the Brain discoloured like filth or dirt and many chamferings obliterated Further in Whelps newly littered that want their sight and hardly perform the other faculties of motion and sense these streaks or chamferings being scarce wholly formed appear only rude The chamfered Bodies inclining one to another near their blunt and greater angles are almost contiguous but that the Trunk of the Fornix intervenes with its twofold Root yet in that place where the two Roots of the Fornix being sent straight down are inserted into the callous
Body a transverse medullar process like a great Nerve stretched from one chamfered body to the other as it were joyns the same and makes them to communicate one with the other Certainly this joyning together of the chamfered bodies is made that their actions and passions may not be double but though the species of the sensible object or conceptions of the motions to be performed coming from the Brain or Sensory being double are carried also double to the first Sensory yet for as much as either substance or frame of this communicates with the other every impression coming this or that way becomes still one and the same For it may be observed in the whole Head that though almost all things are double yet each of them communicate among themselves either by a contiguity or by processes sent forth And so as by the duplication of it care is taken against the absolute privation or defect of the act so the joyning together of its duplicature provides against the empty or confuse multiplication of the same species After this manner the chamfered bodies in Man and four-footed Beasts are constantly found of the same species or form and in every one of them figured after the same manner and are as it were the Joynts that joyn the Brain to the shanks of the oblong Marrow But we have already shewn that in Fowls and Fishes whose brains being alike differ from those of men and four-footed beasts the thing is somewhat otherwise For in Fowls the callous body is wanting to the brain but what serves instead of it is found in the oblong Marrow to wit two little Ventricles shew themselves nigh the chambers of the Optick Nerves which are arched or chamber'd with a whitish substance such as the callous body is in man or four-footed beasts Then on the contrary the chamfered bodies or the parts which serve in their stead in Fowls are not a portion of the oblong Marrow after the usual manner but are entred into the Brain it self For near the fissure of the Brain two Membranes being marked with medullar chamferings both distinguish either Hemisphere of the Brain and cover over its Ventricles The streaks or rays of either Membrane descend and being concentred about the Basis of the Brain go together into a medullary process which is inserted on both sides to the oblong Marrow So these parts viz. the callous body in which the animal Spirits are expanded and the chamfered bodies in which their passing to and fro is instituted seem to be transposed in the head of Fowls The reason whereof as I elsewhere hinted unless I be deceived is this because these Animals are of less excellency in Imagination and Memory than four-footed beasts yea also for that the sense and motion of them are their chief Faculties therefore for the exercises of these to be performed with a greater expansion of Spirits the callous body is transferred into the oblong Marrow and in its place the chamfered bodies are removed into the Brain About the lower end of either chamfered body the smelling Nerves are inserted For you may take notice that the mammillary Processes a little more obscure in man but much more conspicuous in brute Animals who are endued with a more remarkable sense of smelling do pass into firm and plainly whitish bodies of Nerves which being dilated or brought nigh the lateral turnings and windings of the Brain are implanted into the oblong Marrow on either side about the lower angle of either Ventricle behind the chamfered bodies yet so that the Tube or Pipe of either Nerve may open into the Cavity of the Ventricle as we before shewed After this manner these Nerves are carried by a long journey from the fore-part of the Brain that they may bring the sensible species to the chamfered body as to the common Sensory first and rather than to the Brain But we shall speak of the smelling Nerves more particularly hereafter Where these chamfered Bodies end from either side a marrowy substance succeeds which being somewhat of a darkish colour going forward for some space is distinguished by a peculiar bending forward from the other contiguous parts This Galen perhaps not improperly calls the Chambers of the Optick Nerves for in this place the Optick Nerves shewing themselves from the highest region of either side being carried downward with a certain compass are united about the Tunnel Then being divided again and carried a little further enter the Skull going straight forwards to either Sensory The growing together of these Nerves and their being again separated seems to be ordained for this end that the visible species received from either Eye might appear still the same and not double for this conjunction of the twofold Organ frames the double image into one which once united when afterwards it is carried to either side of the common Sensory for that it is on both sides alike appears still the same If at any time through drunkenness or a distortion of the Eyes the object appears double and two Lights upon a Table it is because the image of the same thing is received after a different manner by one Eye than the other for that reason the objects are represented like two distinct things For that this Eye is distorted after one manner and that after another the same Species coming to either Pupil by a diverse angle of incidence appears diverse or double There is another reason of the coalition of the Optick Nerves to wit that one Eye being hurt all the visible animal Spirits might be bestowed on the other Further for that these Nerves are carried with a long passage their uniting helps to their mutual strength and support Whereas the Optick Nerves arise here from the oblong Marrow all or its most intimate substance is not bestowed upon them but these Nerves are inserted into the medullar Trunk as branches of a Tree to the stock that so they may receive by that means the influence of the Spirits and by this way transmit the Species of visible Things In the mean time this more inward substance of the oblong Marrow is the common passage both to the Eyes and to the other nervous System arising more backward through which by the going and returning to and fro of the animal Spirits the impulses of sensible things and the instincts of Motions between the Brain and the other nervous parts which depend upon it are performed Forasmuch as the smelling and seeing Nerves arise so near the chamfered bodies the reason hence is plain why odors or the objects of the sense of smelling so strike the Brain it self and immediately affect it also why there is so exceeding swift a communication between Sight and Imagination Concerning the Optick Nerves in a man which also in some measure is after the same manner in other living Creatures we shall advertise you that when they after their uniting or mixing together being presently again separated do go out of the Skull the
holes or passages open to the Tunnel the Choroeidal Infolding is continually joyned yea this infolding seeming to hang from the Pineal Kernel sustaining its middle Process as it were by a nail or hasp from thence is divided into two wings stretching out on either side upon the shanks of the oblong Marrow Wherefore we may justly suspect that this Glandula is chiefly made for the sake of this infolding and that the office of it is no other than of other Kernels which are placed nigh the concourse of the sanguiferous Vessels to wit that it may receive and retain within it the serous humors deposited from the arterious blood till the Veins being emptied may sup them back or the Lymphaeducts if there be any there may convey them outwardly For it is observed that the Choroeidal infolding is beset with very many lesser Glandula's or Kernels and every where interwoven with them which imbibe the Serum secreted from the blood in the smaller Vessels therefore for this very same office where all the Vessels concur this Kernel is placed of a bigger bulk that it might be able to receive and contain the serosities there plentifully deposited Moreover it is of no small moment that this Glandula sustains and keeps duly stretched out the Chroeidal infolding otherwise hanging loose and apt to fall down into it self or at least to slide out of its proper place Wherefore I have often taken notice in the Dropsie of the Brain that this Glandula being loosned at the roots by too much moisture and often broken off and removed from its place the Choroeidal infolding hath slid together from its proper expansion and slip'd down lower and also suffered its Vessels to be folded together disorderly From these things thus premised concerning the pineal Glandula it will not be difficult to assign also the use of the Choroeidal infolding Concerning which there will be little need to refel that Opinion of the common sort which asserts That the animal Spirits to be bestowed upon the whole Brain are begot in this infolding because the Vessels of this instil nothing to the substance of the Brain or its Appendix for that they are no where inserted to it but it was before shewn that the Ventricles of the Brain or the Cavity in which these same Vessels are hung do not at all contain the Spirits which further appears more plain because in Cephalick diseases those Ventricles are filled with water and the continuity of the infolding is dissolved by too much moisture when in the mean time the sick are indifferently strong in the exercise of the animal Faculties But indeed we suppose that this infolding serves for a twofold office viz. First that the more watry part of the blood destinated for the Brain might be sent away into its Vessels to the end that the remaining portion of the bloody Latex might become more pure and free from dregs to be distilled forth into Spirits even as is wont to be done in a Chymical Distillation to wit when there is a peculiar Receiver fitted for the receiving of the Phlegm by it self more sincere pure and subtil Spirits are instilled into the other more noted Receiver The more watry blood entring the arterious Vessels of this Infolding being carried from them into the Veins is remanded back towards the Heart In the mean time lest the Serum too much redounding and boiling up in these Vessels might hinder circulation its superfluities are received for some time both by the lesser Glandula's thickly inserted and also by the pineal Kernel The other and no less noted use of this Infolding is to conserve the heat of the blood boiling within the complications of the Vessels and as it were circulating about being excited as from a fire-place within the infolding of the Brain For though the Pia Mater need not implant thick shoots of Vessels in the callous Body and inward Marrows of the Brain for that they are rather dedicated to the Exercise than to the Generation of the animal Spirits yet that the heat requisite for the circulation of the Spirits might be kept constantly in that place this infolding is hung upon the whole neighbourhood For as the blood aggested or heaped together within the Cavities of the Bosoms is instead of an hot Bath whereby the animal Spirits are distilled plentifully into the outmost and cortical part of the brain so the blood contained within the small Vessels of this infolding seems to be in the place of a lesser and more temperate Bath whereby the same Spirits might be fitly circulated in the more inward and medullar substance Lastly Another reason may also be given why the Choroeidal infolding is found always within the Ventricles or Cavity of the Brain made by its infolding and after what manner soever figured to wit that another sort of commodity might result from thence that when the Vessels of that Infolding carrying too watry blood lay aside more Serum than the Glandula's are able to receive or contain what is superfluous might slide down opportunely into the underlying Cavity as into a Sink Wherefore the Pineal Glandula though set in a more eminent place is however placed always near the hole or passage that lyes open towards the Tunnel in every brain Next to the Pineal Kernel are found in the upper superficies of the oblong Marrow certain noted Prominences which are commonly called Nates and Testes These being placed near together do constitute as it were four Mole-hills which yet are joyned one to another by certain processes Beneath these Mole-hills or rather between the joyning of them and the trunk of the oblong Marrow placed underneath a narrow and long Cavity or Den is left which by some Anatomists is called the fourth Ventricle but according to others later who place the fourth Ventricle under the Cerebel this Cavity is affirmed to be a passage to it The hinder extremity of this Den ends nigh the beginning of the fourth Ventricle the more fore-extremity of it opens before the former Mole-hills or little bulkings out called Nates From the midst of this Cavity or narrow Den a passage goes straight to the Tunnel It is very much controverted among Anatomists concerning the site of these parts and of their dependency on one another and of other parts and of their use Concerning which this is first to be noted as we hinted above that these four Protuberances are far greater in some brute Animals than in a Man as in a Sheep Calf Goat and the like also in a sound dry and old Head they are more conspicuous and their processes joynings and habitudes may be more easily noted than in a younger moist or otherwise sickly brain Indeed the use of these unless my conjecture deceives me seems far more noble than that they should deserve those vile names of Nates and Testes Buttocks and Testicles Notwithstanding to what office these parts were designed neither have the ancient Anatomists delivered nor will it by the help of Reason
be easie to guess for certain We have already shewn that these aforesaid Prominences ought not to be taken for the two shanks either of the Brain or Cerebel bending back one towards another and so growing together into the oblong Marrow For although from this supposition a very neat Hypothesis may be made for the oeconomy of the animal Function to wit by affirming that these double shanks on either side were so many distinct ways of passage through which the animal Spirits for the performing of motions flowed from the Brain and Cerebel into the oblong Marrow and returned thence from this into those for the performing the acts of the Senses yet from our Method of Dissecting it plainly appears that the brain is not fixed to the oblong Marrow nigh this place but far above it so that indeed the anterior Prominences unless mediately only viz. by the chamfered bodies receive not any portion of the medullar stock or any influence from the brain nor can have any dependency from it Besides if the Protuberances called Nates were shanks of the brain why should the same be in man he having got the greatest brain the least or at least lesser than in most other living Creatures Then between the Prominences called Testes and the Cerebel although there happens a certain communication yet it seems that there lyes open a passage from those little lumps into the Cerebel and not from this through them into the oblong Marrow For out of these aforesaid Prominences a medullar Process ascends obliquely on either side into the Cerebel by whose passage the animal Spirits tending from one stage to the other cause a mutual commerce between those parts and the Cerebel But indeed the Processes which lead from the Cerebel into the oblong Marrow and carry to it its influences being distinct from the former stand somewhat lower as shall be more clearly shewn hereafter when we shall speak of the Cerebel But in the mean time concerning the offices and uses to which the aforesaid Protuberances serve we shall make this conjecture The animal Spirits perpetually flow out and leap back again from the fountain the brain into the oblong marrow so that there may be had a constant commerce between the brain and many organs of sense and spontaneous motion from which those parts are entertained which perform their actions not at the beck of the Appetite but either by the instinct of Nature or the blind impulse of the Passions for such receive wholly their influences from the Cerebel as afterwards shall be more fully shewed Whilst therefore the Spirits flowing from the brain abound in the oblong marrow it is fit that some of them should be carried from thence into the Cerebel for what uses this ought to be done shall be told by and by wherefore from either side of the oblong marrow a Protuberance grows forth into which indeed the Spirits designed for the Cerebel may go apart from the common passage of the oblong marrow and these Prominences are the former which are commonly called Nates and as we have said are far greater in most brute Animals than in man the reason of which shall be declared anon The other hinder Protuberances commonly called Testes grow to these former and are only certain Epiphyses or Excrescences of them as it were the heads of the medullary Processes which are from thence carried by an oblique ascent into the Cerebel for when the animal Spirits ascend from the former Prominences into the Cerebel they enter these latter first as it were the more large beginnings or entrances of their passage from whence they go forward by the passage of the medullar Processes into the Cerebel Besides we may take notice that when the animal Spirits are carried out of the oblong marrow into the greater natiform Prominences to be derived towards the Cerebel they according to their custom as often as they tend towards the common Sensory from a double Organ of any Faculty ought to be confounded and mingled together before they enter the Cerebel wherefore both the first Prominences and also the second growing to them are joyned together with certain Processes like wings reaching one another which connexion indeed of them because it ought to be distinguished every where from the medullar Trunk lying under it hence from the separation or empty space that comes between the oblong marrow and the growing together of the Prominences that cavity arises which is by some called the fourth Ventricle and by others the passage to it If it be yet farther inquired to what end the animal Spirits are carried by this by-passage from the common passage of the oblong marrow into the Cerebel and thence back again I say that this is done for a twofold respect viz. both that the Passions or Affections of the sensitive Soul begun from the brain may be transmitted to the Praecordia and Viscera then secondly that the natural Instincts excited in the Praecordia and Viscera might be communicated to the brain These reciprocal commerces which are had between the brain and the Organs of involuntary Functions ought to be instituted or performed by this private passage lest otherwise the exercises of these involuntary Faculties should very much disturb the acts of the outward Senses or the intentions of spontaneous motions As to the first it is observed that by every passion of the sensitive Soul as from Anger Sadness Pleasure and other Affections the Praecordia are disturbed whether we will or no which variously dilate or constrain themselves and so stir up in the blood divers fluctuations Moreover from this kind of force of the Passions the countenance or the aspects of the Face are wont to be altered and distorted after various ways The reason of all these seems to be because when the animal Spirits existing within the brain are moved according to the Idea of the conceived Passion the other Spirits also flowing within these diverting places being in like manner moved affect the Cerebel and that coming between the original of the Nerves serving to the Praecordia Viscera and Muscles of the Face and so the parts to which those Nerves are distributed are also stirred up or provoked into motions answerable to the same passion But the aforesaid Prominences and their dependences serve no less also for the conveying of the impressions of natural Instincts to the Brain that from thence the Appetite and local motions might presently be retorted by which all the exigencies or wants perceived by the Praecordia or Viscera might be supplied When in a young one newly born the stomach crys out for hunger the Instinct of this is carried by the passage of the Nerves to the Cerebel and from thence by the medullar Processes to these Protuberances and the Spirits there inhabiting form the Idea of the impression and carry it to the brain wherein presently without any previous knowledge or experience such kind of conceptions of the Soul are stirred up that every
little living Creature presently seeks out the Mothers breasts and sucks But it may be objected it does not seem of necessity we should suppose these kind of acts of the Passions and Instincts to be made apart in this by-place for why are not the commerces of the animal Spirits ordained by the influence from the Brain into the Nerves leading to the Praecordia and so back again through the common passage of the oblong Marrow But to that it may be readily answered That this reciprocal motion of the Spirits ought to be made through the middle region of the Cerebel from one stage to another for the exercise of these Faculties And therefore since that all manner of communication between the Brain and Cerebel is performed by these Prominences there should also be had a passage by the same way between this and the Organs of the Functions merely natural Besides if the rage or furious motions of the Passions and Instincts should be carried in the same path in which the forces of sensible things are carried their acts might be greatly confounded by the mutual meeting or gathering together of the animal Spirits But this kind of Hypothesis concerning the Acts and Progress of the Passions and natural Instincts shall be made more clear afterwards when we design the Actions and Uses of the Cerebel and of the other parts which in like manner seem to be destinated to the same offices with these Protuberances In the mean time what we have affirmed that the latter Prominences are only Additionals or Excrescences of the former will clearly appear to any one beholding them But this as we have already hinted is seen without Controversie in the brains of a Calf a Sheep and some other four footed beasts where when the Nates are signally great the Testes grow to the same in a very small bulk Further that the medullary Processes lead from these into the Cerebel and convey the animal Spirits by this by-path is so manifest that none who hath carefully beheld these parts can be able any further to hesitate or be doubtful of it For indeed the little hairs or fibres wherewith these processes ascending into the Cerebel are marked are otherwise figured and placed than those which are beheld in the neighbouring process descending from the Cerebel towards the oblong Marrow Moreover either pair of Prominences do not only communicate among themselves mutually by their stretched out wings but also another medullar Process going cross-wise knits together the aforesaid Processes stretched out from thence into the Cerebel and from this joyning together of them two small Nerves are produced which bending down on either side and being carried forward enter the Dura Mater and so go straight through it till having reached to the moving Nerves of the Eyes they go forth of the Skull at the same hole with them going forward straight to the Trochlear Muscle of the Eye Concerning these little Nerves it is observed that when many others proceed from the sides or the Basis of the oblong Marrow these arise from the aforesaid Prominences in the bunching forth at the top The reason of which if I be not mistaken is this We have affirmed that these Prominences do receive and communicate to the Brain the natural Instinct delivered from the Heart and Bowels to the Cerebel and on the other side or back again do transfer towards the Praecordia by the mediation of the Cerebel the forces of the Passions or Affections received from the Brain but in either action the motion of the Eyes is affected with a certain manifest Sympathy For if pain want or any other signal trouble afflicts the Viscera or the Praecordia a dejected and cast down aspect of the Eyes will declare the sense of its trouble when on the contrary in Joy or any pleasant Affection of the Praecordia or Viscera the Eyes are made lively and sparkle again In like manner the Eyes do so clearly shew the Affections of the Mind as Sadness Anger Hatred Love and other perturbations that those who are affected though they should dissemble cannot hide the feeling and intimate conceptions of the mind Without doubt these so happen because the animal Spirits tending this way and that way in this diverting place between the Brain and the Praecordia do at once strike those Nerves as the strings of a Harp Wherefore from this kind of conjecture which we have made concerning the use of these Nerves we have called them Pathetical although indeed other Nerves also may deserve this name There yet remains for us to take notice of the aforesaid Prominences that either of these pairs and the Processes hanging on them are distinguished from the trunk of the oblong Marrow lying under by the Cavity between them so that this Cavity or Ventricle seems to exist only secondarily because the empty space between the aforesaid bodies placed above and beneath separating the same one from another ought to come between But this Cavity seeming to result so by accident hath a very signal use for in the middle of its passage a sloping aperture reaches towards the Tunnel through which the humors sliding into either of its holes one made more forward the other more backward are sent out The more forward hole is placed between the chambers of the Optick Nerves a little before the pineal Glandula into which the serous heap being laid up nigh to the confines of the oblong Marrow slides by degrees but the other hole is opened more backward into the fourth Ventricle which is planted under the Cerebel which hole is covered with a thin Membrane which girding about its mouth and that of the Cerebel provides lest the humors derived from the fourth Ventricle or the confines of the Cerebel should fall down any other way than into that hole but if at any time that little hole be broken asunder by a deluge of the Serum the watry Latex sliding down upon the Basis of the oblong Marrow overwhelms the origines of the Nerves and so brings Convulsive distempers and meltings and not seldom deadly of the vital Spirits as I have observed in the bodies of many dying of Cephalick Diseases CHAP. XV. Of the Uses of the Cerebel and of some of its Parts and Processes HAving hitherto continued the former Tract of the oblong Marrow which as it were the Kings High-way leads from the Brain as the Metropolis into many Provinces of the nervous stock by private recesses and cross-ways it follows now that we view the other City of the animal Kingdom The situation of this being remote enough from the former its kind of structure is also different from it yea it seems that there are granted to this as to a free and municipal City certain Priviledges and a peculiar Jurisdiction The Cerebel is placed a little below the orbicular Prominences in the hinder part of the Head where growing to the trunk of the oblong Marrow by a double little foot it appears almost of a
Spherical figure It s superior gibbosity coheres towards the superficies to the border of the Brain by the intervention of the Pia Mater but nevertheless it is intimately united to it nor is there any immediate commerce between this or that or their parts There hath been spoken enough already of the figure and situation of the Cerebel and of its various Processes and how it is fastned to the oblong Marrow it now remains that we proceed to design or draw out the offices and uses of it and its several parts Where in the first place shall be inquired into what kind of office the Cerebel is endued with in the animal oeconomy then when we shall descend to particulars there are more things worthy to be noted which will offer themselves to our consideration viz. first the infoldings of the Vessels covering the whole compass of the Cerebel and especially its hinder part with the heap of Kernels secondly its folds and lappets ordained with a certain and determinate series and almost after a like manner in all thirdly the double substance of the folds viz. cortical and marrowy and the concentring of all the medullary tracts in two large Marrows or middests fourthly either little foot or pedestal of the Cerebel made out of those two middle Marrows and in either pedestal three distinct medullar Processes to be found fifthly the annular Protuberance made by a process of the Cerebel descending into the medullar Trunk sixthly some Nerves which arising immediately from this Protuberance and other Nerves in the neighbourhood which being designed for the involuntary Function receive the influences of the animal Spirits from the Cerebel Lastly the Ventricle or Cavity lying under the Cerebel ought to be considered 1. As to the office or use of the Cerebel in general nothing of it occurs spoken by the Ancients worthy its fabrick or agreeable to its structure Some affirm this to be another Brain and to perform the same actions with it but if any one should have a soft and foolish Brain I greatly doubt if he should become wise though he should obtain perhaps a more hard and solid Cerebel Others place the Memory in this part supposing the Cerebel to be as it were a Chest or Box wherein the Idea's or images of things before laid up are kept apart from the incourse of fresh Species But it is far more probable that this faculty resides in the cortical spires of the Brain as we have elsewhere shewn For as often as we endeavour to remember objects long since past we rub the Temples and the fore-part of the Head we erect the Brain and stir up or awaken the Spirits dwelling in that place as if endeavouring to find out something lurking there in the mean time there is perceived nothing of endeavour or striving motion in the hinder part of the Head Besides we have shewn that the Phantasie and Imagination are performed in the Brain but the Memory depends so upon the Imagination that it seems to be only a reflected or inverse act of this wherefore that it should be placed with it in the same Cloister to wit in the Brain is but necessary for it plainly appears that there is no immediate commerce between the Brain and the Cerebel When some time past I diligently and seriously meditated on the office of the Cerebel and revolved in my mind several things concerning it at length from the Analogy and frequent Ratiocination this as I think true and genuine use of it occurred to wit that the Cerebel is a peculiar Fountain of animal Spirits designed for some works and wholly distinct from the Brain Within the Brain Imagination Memory Discourse and other more superior Acts of the animal Function are performed besides the animal Spirits flow also from it into the nervous stock by which all the spontaneous motions to wit of which we are knowing and will are performed But the office of the Cerebel seems to be for the animal Spirits to supply some Nerves by which involuntary actions such as are the beating of the Heart easie Respiration the Concoction of the Aliment the protrusion of the Chyle and many others which are made after a constant manner unknown to us or whether we will or no are performed As often as we go about voluntary motion we seem as it were to perceive within us the Spirits residing within the fore-part of the Head to be stirred up to action or an influx But the Spirits inhabiting the Cerebel perform unperceivedly and silently their works of Nature without our knowledge or care Wherefore whilst the Brain is garnished as it were with uncertain Meanders and crankling turnings and windings about the compass of this is furnished with folds and lappets disposed in an orderly series in the spaces of which as in designed Orbs and Tracts the animal Spirits are expanded according to the Rule and Method naturally impressed on them For indeed those in the Cerebel as it were in a certain artificial Machine or Clock seem orderly disposed after that manner within certain little places and boundaries that they may flow out orderly of their own accord one series after another without any driver which may govern or moderate their motions Wherefore forasmuch as some Nerves perform some kind of motions according to the instincts and wants of Nature without consulting the government of the will or appetite within the Brain why may it not be imagined that the influence of the Spirits is derived wholly from the Cerebel for the performing of these For it seems inconvenient that for these offices which should be performed without any tumult or perturbation the Spirits should be called out of the Brain which are continually driven into fluctuations as it were with the winds of Passions and Cogitations As I only imagined of the use of the Cerebel after this manner I was led to it at length by a certain thread of Ratiocination to which afterwards happened an Anatomical inspection which plainly confirmed me in this opinion For in the frequent Dissection of the Heads of several sorts of Animals certain Observations did occur which seemed to put this matter out of all doubt For I first observed the pairs of Nerves which did serve to the Functions wont to be performed by the Instinct of Nature or the force of the Passions rather than by the beck of the will so immediately to depend on the Cerebel that from thence only the influence of the animal Spirits seems to be derived into their origines or beginnings By what means the Nerves arising from the Cerebel or receiving from it the provision of the animal Spirits do perform only involuntary actions shall be declared hereafter in the mean time for the confirmation of this Opinion we have in readiness another Reason of no less moment Therefore secondly we took notice that not only the conformation or make of the Cerebel was ordained after a certain and peculiar manner that is that its frame or bulk was
couched together with folds or little circles disposed in a certain distinct series and apt method and proportionate within themselves as hath been said whence it may be argued that the Spirits arising from hence and flowing outwardly are imployed or bestowed on some certain works determinate to one thing But further it is observed that in all Animals although they differ in form and kind yet the figure of the Cerebel is always very like or wholly the same The Brain and oblong Marrow are figured in many after a divers manner for as we have shewed before there is some difference of these parts found in man and four-footed beasts but between either of these and Fowls and Fishes there is a notable difference as to these parts Notwithstanding in all these the Cerebel furnished wholly with the same lappets or little circles alike infolded one in another is marked with the same form and proportion which certainly is a sign that the animal Spirits in this work-house are begotten and dispensed as it were by a certain dimension for certain necessary offices which are performed in all after the same manner and which cannot be any other than the motions and actions of the Viscera and Praecordia As to the other Faculties of which sort are Imagination Memory Appetite yea local motions and sense are exercised after one manner in those living Creatures and after another manner in others wherefore their brains are formed after a divers manner But the motions of the Heart and Respiration in all endued with an hot blood are performed after a like manner that is with a perpetual vicissititude of Systoles and Diastoles Besides another office is to be assigned to the Cerebel and different from what is convenient or agreeable to the Brain because where the folds and turnings are wanting in the Brain they are constantly found in the Cerebel Besides these reasons drawn from Anatomy the Pathology of the humane Body affords many others which confirm the aforesaid office of the Cerebel For it oftentimes happens that cruel and horrid Symptoms infest the Praecordia and the region of the middle or lowest Belly whilst in the mean time the morbifick cause lyes in the Cerebel or nigh its confines I have known sometimes men labouring only in appearance with a Dyscrasie of the hinder part of the Head who complained of frequent Swooning and repeated meltings of the Spirits or Deliquiums as if they were just dying in whom notwithstanding nothing more could be detected of the morbifick cause or its seat but that the Patient perceived a great heaviness and pain in the hinder part of the Head and that upon any sudden motion or bending back of the Head they were ready to dye In truth the Symptoms which are wont to be raised up in the distemper called the Incubus or Night-mare viz. loss of speech and a mighty weight or load that seems to lye upon the breast proceed altogether from the morbifick matter fixed in the confines of the Cerebel and obstructing the passages of the Spirits destinated for the Praecordia But indeed this Hypothesis of the office of the Cerebel shall be more illustrated and confirmed from the uses of its several parts being rightly designed or drawn forth As to the parts and accidents of the Cerebel 1. we take notice that the infoldings of the Vessels every where cloath the Cerebel no less than the Brain also that the ridges and furrows of its folds intimately hide or cover it which certainly is a sign that the animal Spirits are begotten in this other work-house of them from the watering blood and instilled into its substance which thing also more clearly appears because the Arteries and Veins are not only variously complicated in the superficies of the Cerebel but both of them in like manner as in the Brain send forth frequent shoots into its more inward substance wherefore whilst the most subtil and spirituous part of the blood being carried through long windings about and as it were serpentine chanels of the Vessels and so sublimed into Spirits is received within the bloody part is carried away by the shoots of the Veins sent also deeply down Further even as the more watry portion of the blood destinated for the Brain runs into the Choroeidal infolding whereby it may there lay aside its unprofitable Phlegm into the Glandula's so for the sake of separating the Phlegm an heap of Glandula's with the foldings of the Vessels as it were a Receptacle fitted for this business is placed in the hinder region of the Cerebel 2. From the blood after this manner cleared from Phlegm and made subtil by a long circulation a very pure and spirituous liquor is instilled into the cortical substance of the Cerebel which is presently exalted by the Ferment there placed into animal Spirits For indeed we have affirmed that the Spirits are procreated only in the cortical part of the Cerebel as in that of the Brain wherefore because this kind of Cortex is wanting to the oblong and spinal Marrow we think these parts do serve only for the exercise of the animal Spirits and not for their production 3. The Spirits every where produced within the cortical or exterior compass of the Cerebel in which they are presently prepared for the work of the animal Function are derived from all the folds into the medullar tract and thence into two ample middle Marrows where they keep full as it were the fountain or spring and there like the bubling up of waters are circulated within with a perpetual turning and from thence they continually stream forth into the parts of the nervous System proper to themselves 4. As to the ways of Emanation it is observed that the two middle Marrows of the Cerebel pass as it were into two pedestals or little feet by which they are fastned to the trunk of the oblong Marrow and for that in either little foot of it three distinct medullar Processes are found all these or at least two of them are as it were so many paths whereby the animal Spirits stream forth from their fountain and flow back again 5. The first of these Processes ascends into the Cerebel from the orbicular Prominences the use of this we have already declared to wit that there may be a certain passage between these Prominences and the Cerebel in which whilst the animal Spirits as in a by-path move this way and that way to and fro they may transmit both the force of the Passions from the Brain by the interposition of the Cerebel to the Praecordia and convey also the natural Instincts delivered to the Cerebel from the Praecordia and Viscera towards the Brain But the second Process descending straight from the Cerebel embraces the medullar Trunk and so going round about it constitutes the annular or ringy Protuberance out of which the fifth sixth and seventh pair of Nerves take their originals so indeed that this Protuberance seems to be the Ware-house or Store-house of
the Spirits flowing from the Cerebel from which they may influence and be derived into the opposite passages of the Nerves Lastly the third process of either little foot descending from the Cerebel into the oblong Marrow is inserted into its trunk over against where the eighth pair of Nerves have their original so that it should seem very likely the provision of the Spirits destinated for this Nerve is derived also by this way from the Cerebel then what Spirits superabound remaining longer than this Nerve requires they sliding down into the common belly or chanel of the oblong and spinal Marrow increase the plenty of those parts For this same end the smooth and pyramidal bodies are reached out of the annular Protuberance above the oblong Marrow towards the Spine to wit that by the passage of those Processes the Spirits of that provision or stock superabounding might flow out partly into the beginning of the eighth pair and partly into the common tract of the medullar Trunk Thus much we have spoken briefly and summarily of the Uses of the Cerebel and of its parts and Processes But that it may be the better understood and also that this new thought of Theory concerning the involuntary Function of the animal Regiment may be more clearly illustrated we shall here give you a more particular Order or Method of the Spirits brought forth in the Cerebel and as it were take a view of or muster their Arms or Forces Further it will seem to the purpose that we should design or draw forth more openly the abundance or plenty of the Nerves receiving their gifts from this Fountain of the Spirits concerning the Acts to be performed only of the involuntary Function CHAP. XVI Of the various Order and diverse manner of Exercise of the Spirits produced in the Cerebel for the Acts of the involuntary Function AFter having shewn that the office of the Cerebel is to procreate animal Spirits apart from the Spirits begotten in the Brain and to dispense them into the Nerves the Executors of the involuntary Actions and Passions there yet remains to be unfolded by what manner of oeconomy or government the Spirits inhabiting the Cerebel and made free are busied both by an intestine Circulation within their proper dwelling places and also are wont to be expanded and flow out with an exterior irradiation for the necessities and wants of other parts then these things being shewn we shall design more particularly the Uses and Offices of the Nerves and of some other Processes doing service to this Government As to the first as the Cerebel is the other primary Root of the sensitive Soul or the Fountain from whence the animal Spirits being diffused through the whole substance of it and its Appendix are continued still under the same Systasis and radiant Contexture it is to be noted that this radiation of the Spirits from the Cerebel doth flow after another manner than the other from the Brain because this being left to it self is bestowed by a constant efflux or flowing out on the Organs both of the vital Function and the merely natural and its expences by an equal continual provision of Spirits are made up again from the bloody mass continually instilled in But on the contrary the Spirits flow out from the Brain neither by such a continual course without intermission and by little and little nor are sustained by a perpetual provision and sliding in by degrees but both the loss of them and their refection are uncertain unequal and variously interrupted For neither are the spontaneous Acts of the Function it self to which they serve performed after any constant or always the same manner but according to exterior accidents and occasions we put them forth by heaps and with a certain force sometimes and again sometimes we suffer them to be wholly intermitted and unimployed Therefore the Spirits also are in like manner supplied with an uncertain measure to wit they are instilled in sleep plentifully and more copiously but waking more sparingly and with hard labour or scarce not at all Yea the involuntary portion it self of the sensitive Soul which flows from the Cerebel for that it hath a near commerce and affinity as was already said with the other radicated in the Brain therefore it is wont to be much disturbed in the performing its office equally and peaceably and being variously affected and agitated by the impulses sent here and there or from this place and that it is compelled sometimes to contract sometimes to extend its Systasis in the whole or in part and so is rendred obnoxious to several Passions and ordinarily instigated to the performing irregular and disorderly actions But indeed the contexture of the Spirits or the part of the Soul irradiating the Cerebel and its Appendix is both affected with a certain sense and is urged into motions appropriate to it self though divers The sense or Sympathy belonging to this if it be terminated within the confines of the Cerebel is always private nor goes any farther forward to the Brain with a more strong undulation or wavering and because it is performed the living Creature knowing nothing of it unless by the effect it cannot be known for that it excites a peculiar motion But such an affection of the Cerebel is implanted in it that by every new disposition of the Praecordia and Viscera communicated to this from beneath also from every violent passion excited within the Forum of the Brain and so sent from above a certain impression is carried to the inhabitants of the Cerebel by which indeed they are disposed into various ordinations for the performing these or those motions respectively For examples sake so long as the tranquil region of the Cerebel like a serene and fair Heaven is free from all perturbation the Spirits its inhabitants being poured out with a pleasing sense or as it were a certain complacency flow within their proper habitations both with a gentle circulation and also with an equal flowing out enter the beginnings of the Nerves serving to the Functions both vital and natural by which indeed easie Respiration the Pulse Chylification and other offices of the same nature are performed peaceably But if that any trouble or molestation happen outwardly to any one from whence an impression of it is communicated to the Cerebel presently a troublesom sense being stirred up there it disturbs the animal Spirits in the Fountain it self and so is wont to excite irregular motions in the Organs of the involuntary Function For from hence the frequent alteration of the Pulse and of Respiration also Cramps of the Viscera and convulsive motions arise unknown to us or also against our wills But an impression sent from elsewhere to the Cerebel and inducing the same kind of troublesom sense either ascends by the passage of the Nerves from the Praecordia and Viscera or it is carried from above from the Brain by the passage of the orbicular Prominences as shall be shewn more
largely anon In the mean time from these things already shewed of the passive power or sense of the Cerebel it may be easily collected by what means with what order and series the animal Spirits arising from the same are moved But first you must distinguish between their twofold motion For one is customary and ordinary consisting in a perpetual and equal efflux of Spirits by which indeed they flowing into the beginnings of the Nerves nigh their risings especially of the intercostal and wandring pair the solemn acts of the Pulse Respiration Chylification and others of the involuntary Function are performed Then secondly the other motion happens extraordinary and occasional which the same Spirits perform confusedly as it were in disturbed orders as when the Pulse becomes quicker or slower than it ought or the Respiration unequal or interrupted and when the other Faculties which belong to this Class are perverted from their regular and constant manner But these kind of extraordinary motions are again twofold to wit for that its instigation proceeds from a double bound for the impulse whereby the Spirits inhabiting the Cerebel are compelled into an irregular action as we have but now intimated is carried either from beneath viz. from the Praecordia and Viscera or it is wont to be transmitted from above to wit from the Brain As to the first if at any time the Praecordia grow too hot and are burnt with a feaverish heat presently by the passage of the Intercostals and the wandring pair of Nerves the Spirits residing in the Cerebel being warned of this evil institute more frequent and stronger acts both of the Pulse and of Respiration In like manner if by chance the humors and sharp Juyces irritate or greatly trouble or afflict the Coats of the Ventricles or Intestines through the sense of this affection communicated to the Cerebel the instinct of performing the motion is reciprocated whereby the fibres of the parts being contracted and wrinkled together endeavour the shaking off of the hurtful matter More instances might be here brought of all the other acts of the vital or merely natural Function of which besides it may be observed that when a sense of the trouble is immediately conveyed from the Praecordia or Viscera to the Cerebel this affection like the waving of waters is either stopt or terminated there from whence a motion as the business requires unknown to the Brain is presently retorted as when the actions of the Praecordia are altered by a feaverish distemper without our knowledge or secondly that sense of the trouble being transmitted to the Cerebel for that it is more vehement it unfolds it self more largely and like a stronger waving of waters passing through the Cerebel goes forward further even to the Brain and warns its inhabitants of the evil by which they being incited to oppose the enemy cause a motion of another kind So as hath been said when the Praecordia grow cruelly hot the Cerebel feeling this makes the Pulse and Respiration stronger But further the Brain being warned of the same trouble seeks and diligently requires cold drink and other remedies to moderate the heat Moreover it is after this manner also in several other actions which though they are regular yet being made in the Brain without any previous knowledge they are said to be done by Instincts merely natural as when brute Animals being newly brought forth presently seek for the Dams teats and greedily suck or Birds without any shewing or example build nests with wonderful Art lay eggs and hatch young ones In these kind of works the Brain being taught before by none directs fit means to the ends instituted by Nature which indeed seems to be done by this means The sense of every necessity being brought to the Cerebel incites the Spirits inhabiting it to succour it which when they are not able to do the impression going from thence further forward is carried to the orbicular Prominences by which the Spirits there inhabiting being presently struck form the Appetite or the intention of performing which being thence communicated to the Brain it readily causes that local motions fit for the executing of the work be retorted Of these we shall speak anon a little more largely when we treat of the respect which happens between the orbicular Prominences and the annular Protuberance In the mean time we shall take notice in the second place that the irregular motions of the Spirits inhabiting the Cerebel are wont also by reason of the force of the affections to be transmitted from thence to the Brain for as often as a violent passion as Joy Sadness Anger Fear or of any other kind is conceived in the Brain presently the impression of the same being brought through the by-paths of the Prominences into the Cerebel disturbs the Spirits destinated to the vital or merely natural Function in their very fountain and for that reason presently induces notable mutations in the Organs of those Functions What hath been spoken hitherto of the Cerebel being imployed about the offices of the involuntary Function only also concerning the sense and the motions both usual and irregular of the Spirits inhabiting it will be made more clear if lastly we shall shew the offices of the Nerves and of the other processes immediately depending upon the Cerebel to be no other than such as perform only involuntary Acts which shall be briefly and succinctly done as far as is pertinent to our purpose because a more full consideration of them is left to another place CHAP. XVII Of the Nerves which receiving the stores or companies of the Spirits from the Cerebel bestow them on the Acts of the involuntary Function WE have already shewed that out of the annular Protuberance which is a certain Process of the Cerebel three pairs of Nerves to wit the fifth sixth and seventh immediately arise We have said that Protuberance to be as it were a Repository or Store-house wherein the Spirits flowing out of the Cerebel and to be derived into the depending Nerves as occasion serves are kept and in the mean time whilst they remain there they who stream out from either middle Marrow of the Cerebel divisively meeting mutually in this Cirque are united together But as the aforesaid three pairs of Nerves receive the forces of the Spirits from the Cerebel by the mediation of that Protuberance so also the eighth pair having its rise near the insertion of the other viz. the lowest medullar Process sent down from the Brain seems to derive by its passage the influence of the Spirits no less from the Cerebel wherefore when these four conjugations of Nerves owe the Tribute of their Spirits wholly to the Cerebel if I shall shew that all these Nerves serve chiefly and almost only to the involuntary acts of the Senses and Motions surely this will be a signal Argument that according to our Hypothesis the office of the Cerebel is to beget and to dispense the animal Spirits requisite for the
and determine the Offices of the Inhabitants of it to be performed at the beck of the Appetite As every one sees that violent Passions whether the will be privy or not easily do this why therefore may not the will it self also as occasion requires exercise the same dominion But in the mean time this derogates nothing from the priviledges of the Cerebel that it may not be called a free and municipal City and so Mistress of the involuntary Function for that in some few it is after the manner of the Brain because the Brain it self in many things is compelled to serve the Cerebel and its Government as we have already shewn and is necessarily bound to it For the Brain owes much to the Cerebel forasmuch as it receives from the vital Function which is of its Province the provision of the blood and by consequence the Tribute of the Spirits produced of it so indeed that both these parts though Principals perform mutual offices and as it were in a circle require and accomplish services one for another CHAP. XVIII Of the relation or mutual respect of either Appendix of the Cerebel to wit of the anterior which are the orbicular Prominences and the posterior viz. the Annular Protuberance Also of the remaining portion of the oblong Marrow continued into the Spinal Marrow BEsides the aforesaid Nerves to wit the fourth fifth sixth seventh and eighth pair which are imployed for the performing the tacit Edicts of the Cerebel for every involuntary Function and those equal in number to the rest subject to the Brain that cause the Cerebel to have an Empire divided with it there are also some Processes and Protuberances which being placed before and behind the Cerebel are its Appendixes that are taken into part of the same Office and Ministry The description and use of these are already particularly delivered But for that as a while since we intimated there happens a certain respect or habit between the orbicular Prominences which is the anterior Appendix of the Cerebel and the annular Protuberance which is the other posterior Appendix of the same and that one part is proportionate to the magnitude of the other so as when the natiform Prominences are greater or greatest the annular Protuberance is always smaller or smallest and on the contrary they who have this latter in a very great bulk in them the other is lesser and so for that either part seems to be a peculiar Repository of the Spirits which belong to the oeconomy of the Cerebel when a greater provision of them is laid up in one Store-house therefore there resides a lesser in the other when I say there is this kind of constant relation found between these parts it yet remains for us to find out for what end this is so constituted Seeing that the animal Spirits are disposed within the several parts of the Head in distinct Schemes of Rays through which are variously transmitted as through Perspective-glasses the impressions of sensible things and the instincts of motions to be performed it easily occurs that there are commerces had this way and that way in the natiform Prominences between the Brain and Cerebel and that the Spirits inhabiting the annular Protuberance are Inter nuncii or Messengers going between which transfer the mutual respects of the Praecordia and Viscera as also of the parts that are wont to be pathetically moved But if it be inquired into what kind of commerces and respects those are which the Brain carries to the Cerebel and on the contrary and that either have to the Organs of the vital and merely natural Function we shall in so difficult and very intricate a matter propose our Opinion though with an hesitating and doubtful mind We have before intimated that the orbicular Prominences did deliver to the Cerebel the forces of the Passions to be carried from the Brain to the Praecordia and did receive from it and communicate to the Brain the necessities of the natural Instincts delivered from the Praecordia and Viscera to the Cerebel To these moreover we add that the annular Protuberance serves wholly for the same offices though after another manner to wit this receives the forces of the Passions as it were at a second hand from the Deputiship of the Cerebel and transfers them then immediately to the Praecordia and this seems to be the chiefest office of this part Further the same Ring receives immediately the natural Instincts from the Viscera of the middle and lowest Belly and impresses them on the Cerebel to be conveyed further to the Brain which kind of use it exhibits secondarily by affording only a way of passage For indeed such Instincts having past through the Cerebel we suppose to be formed and perfected within the orbicular Prominences from whence being transmitted into the Brain they draw forth requisite actions without the previous knowledge of it or intention of doing Hence it may be supposed that the annular Protuberance contains chiefly the animal Spirits which perform the intestine commotions of the Affections In every violent passion of the Soul presently the Praecordia are greatly troubled to wit the same being variously drawn together or spread abroad compel the blood into divers fluctuations but indeed a great company of the Spirits somewhere got together and ready for Excursions in a set Battel do perform these disorders and irregular motions of the Praecordia and for that the Spirits can be disposed for this in no other part than here before the beginnings of the Nerves constituted for these offices therefore this Protuberance in a man by reason of the ragings of the Passions to be performed by a certain force and incitation is far greater than in any other Animal For as he is wont to be suddenly and vehemently disturbed therefore the Promptuary or Store-house is required to be more large in which a greater plenty of Spirits may be kept to be bestowed on such inordinations of the Affections Next to a man this part is greatest in a Dog Cat and Fox in a Calf Sheep Goat Hare and other milder Animals it is very small But as the annular Protuberance seems to be the chief Organ or Chest of the Spirits from whence the winds of the Passions destinated for the exciting the Praecordia are conveyed into the breast so we suppose the orbicular Prominences to be a means of passage and the very instruments whereby the instincts and necessities of the Praecordia and Viscera are communicated from the Cerebel to the Brain Yea the animal Spirits dwelling in this as a retiring place do not only transmit these kind of Ideas or formal Reasons of the Instincts but in some measure form and prepare them for the Brain For when as some brute Animals whose Brain is not imbued with a previous knowledge or practical habits chuse and bring forth some spontaneous actions as it were with judgment and deliberation certainly we may believe the intentions of these kind of acts are
of the voice such a Protuberance is wanting because it is not required in them that the Spirits should be gathered together by heaps as it were in a certain Porch before the Organs of the Voice but that it may suffice for them to be called forth by degrees out of the common tract of the oblong Marrow Further whereas some fibres of this Nerve bind about either Vertebral Artery unless I am deceived that is so ordained for this end lest perhaps in speaking when at any time we are more vehemently moved the blood being stirred up might rush upon the Brain with a torrent For this Nerve binding about the Vertebral Artery as it were with a bridle and so as a Moderator not only of the Tongue but also of the Blood restrains its more rapid influence After the same manner and for no other ends do the recurrent Nerves destinated to some part of the same office variously bind about the Trunk of the great Artery as shall be shewn afterwards As soon as this inferior portion of the oblong Marrow is uncloathed from the Pia Mater the pyramidal bodies come in view otherwise lying hid These in all Animals endued with the annular Protuberance are constantly found also as that Protuberance is bigger so these bodies appear more noted but indeed in a Man and a Dog they seem like two large Nerves which being produced out of that Ring end over against where the eighth pair arise in sharp points If the use of these be sought into it is most likely that the animal Spirits superabounding in the annular provision or store do flow out as it were by these Emissaries which Spirits however run into the beginnings of the eighth pair placed near and so are bestowed by their proper means on the offices of the involuntary Function Although the oblong Marrow retains not its name beyond the limits of the Skull yet it is the same substance which from thence being continued further into the cavity and utmost recesses of the whole Spine or Back-bone is called the Spinal Marrow but it is brought forth for this that the Nerves to be distributed into the Limbs and Members more remote from the Head might more commodiously arise out of the same medullar substance stretched out into the neighbourhood of every part Indeed all this whole medullar Trunk which is continued from the bottom of the Brain even to the Os sacrum seems like the Pneumatick Chest or Bellows of a pair of Organs which includes the blast or breath destinated to every Pipe for in like manner the animal Spirits are contained in this marrowy tract which blow up and actuate all the Nerves hanging thereto as occasion serves If you behold the origine of the whole it seems that the whole frame both of this oblong Marrow and the spinal is of a medullar or marrowy substance every where growing dispersedly through the Brain and Cerebel and then being gathered more round together in the middle of either becomes as one heap For the Marrows besmearing all their folds and turnings about are as so many little rivers which springing from thence begin to be congregated in the middle and to be poured out in one great one but being from thence united they make the oblong Marrow as it were the chanel of the Sea big enough for the motion or ebbing and flowing and reciprocation of the animal Spirits which belly or chanel however stretching it self further beyond the Skull is increased into the spinal Marrow as it were the bosom or process of the former But as the medullar tracts besmearing the folds and convolutions of the Brain and Cerebel unfold themselves into their middle Marrows and medullar Trunk and so the Spirits springing dispersedly from their first fountains congregate as it were into a certain diffused Sea so from this Sea causing an ebbing and flowing or a continual or very frequent influence of the animal Spirit the same Spirits flow out into the depending chanels of the nervous System Concerning this part of this Marrow which being included in the long bosom or chanel of the Vertebrae or Back-bone and according to all their joyntings being marked with as it were knotty processes is called the Spinal there occur not many things worthy consideration besides what are commonly known The figure situation as also the body of this in its whole tract are known generally to be cloven in two not only by Anatomists but by every Butcher The ramifications or branchings of the Nerves proceeding from the spinal Marrow are delivered hereafter Concerning its conformation something peculiar occurs For as the spinal Marrow is as it were the common passage or chanel of the Spirits flowing out of the Head into the Nerves it may be observed that this chanel not after the usual manner of other passages where many rivers flow in doth swell up more but on the contrary in what place it hath more and greater Emissaries its magnitude is increased for in those parts of the spinal Marrow out of which the brachial and crural Nerves arise or those Nerves belonging to the Arms and Legs whose beginnings are more and larger its Trunk becomes much thicker than in the rest of the frame or substance The reason of this is because within the medullar tracts the animal Spirits run not nor pass through with so swift a passage but for the most part flowing leisurely from their Fountains when they have filled the whole space they stay therein and as many Spirits upon occasion offered are wont to be bestowed on every work those remaining there in readiness frame certain convenient Promptuaries where they may divert themselves Wherefore we ordinarily observe not only of this Marrow but of the Nerves themselves that as often as a small branch is distributed into many shoots or suckers to be sent forth here and there always in the very knot of the division there grows a far greater fold than in the rest of the Trunk of the Nerve so that 't is a wonder from whence the Nerve should acquire so in the middle of its passage a new substance and more ample bulk But of these things and others belonging to the Doctrine of the Nerves it behoves us to discourse in the following Chapters CHAP. XIX Of the Nervous System in general where its parts which are the Nerves and Fibres being designed a prospect of the whole Animal Government is exhibited WHenas hitherto having beheld the several Regions of the Brain it self the Cerebel and medullar Appendix and the provision and offices of them all we have designed or drawn forth the uses and employments also of the parts and processes and the sanguiferous Vessels belonging to every one of these it is now time for me to stop and retire into the Port from this troublesom and intricate Sea of Disquisition But indeed because I find that I have not yet reached to the farthest shores and utmost parts but that beyond this Sea which we have sailed
made from one end of the nervous System to the other it will be requisite to inquire here a little concerning the Origine of the Nerves and nervous Fibres also of their Fabrick and Conformation to wit what pores and passages either of these bodies have and how disposed for the passing through and commerce of the animal Spirits As to the Nerves it is manifest from what hath been said that all of them are produced immediately out of the medullar Trunk or its processes so that as these parts are the common and broad roads which lead both from the Brain and from the Cerebel all the Nerves are particular paths reaching out from them on every side into the several Regions of the animated Body Wherefore the same Marrow which is the original of every Nerve or Sinew forasmuch as it is drawn into a more thin thread constitutes the matter of the same Nerve which indeed that it may be made more solid and compact is cloathed with a peculiar production of the Pia Mater for as from a Silver mass gilt or inriched with Gold all the threads produced from it are gilded so the same Membrane which covers the medullar Trunk is produced together with all the Nerves coming out from the same and cloathes them all Further very many Nerves arising together out of that marrowy beginning go forth as it were by bands which notwithstanding for the sake of the better passage being presently united and carried out of their bony Cloister are included in a common Coat taken from the Dura Mater For we suppose which also shall be more clearly shewed anon that all the Nerves destinated to any parts or every particular member do arise distinctly and apart and so remain in their whole passage But in that oftentimes a Nerve appearing as it were one Trunk afterwards seems to go into many branches it is because those branches being indeed singular and divided in the whole passage are collected as it were into one bundle for sometimes we have separated those Nerves seeming to grow together as it were into one rope or cord of a Nerve one from another dividing them to their very original for neither otherwise could the Instincts of the Motions to be performed be carried so respectively to these or those parts separate one from another to which the branches of the same Trunk belong The passages of the Nerves are not bored through as the Veins and Arteries for the substance of those are not only impervious to any Bodkin but no cavity can be seen in them no not by the help of Spectacles or a Microscope As to what belongs to the smelling little Pipes they seem to be so made not for the passage of the animal Spirits but that some serosities might slide down that way but the Spirits themselves are carried in the sides and not in the cavity of either Pipe but the substance of the other Nerves appears plainly firm and compacted that the subtil humor which is the Vehicle of the Spirits may pass through their frames or substances even as the spirits of Wine the extended strings of a Lute only by creeping leisurely through Hence it may be argued that because the animal Spirits require no manifest cavity within the Nerves for their expansion neither is there need of the like for them within the substance of the Brain but that the Ventricles commonly so called ought to be deputed to some other office than this But the Nerves are white smooth and round bodies within the Skull and nigh their beginnings being as it were only covered with the Pia Mater they are soft and easily broken without this for that many of them are for the most part gathered together and also cloathed with the Dura Mater they become somewhat hard and more tenacious The Nerves themselves as may be discovered by the help of a Microcosm or Perspective-glass are furnished throughout with pores and passages as it were so many little holes in a Honey-comb thickly set made hollow and contiguous one by another so the Tube-like substance of them like an Indian Cane is every where porous and pervious Within these little spaces the animal Spirits or very subtil little Bodies and of their own nature ever in a readiness for motion do gently flow to which is joyned both for a Vehicle as also for a Bridle or stay a watry Latex and that it self of very subtil parts This Humor diffuses with its fluidity the Spirits through the whole nervous System also by its viscosity retains them that they be not wholly dissipated but as it were in a certain Systasis and continued Series for it seems that without such an Humor the Spirits could not consist within the nervous stock but they would vanish away into Air. Further the same Humor is no less required for the passing through of the sensible Species because the animal Spirits we suppose like the rays of Light to be diffused through the whole nervous System and those rays unless the humid particles of the Air be mingled with them do not easily transmit the forms or images of things as is obvious in an Optick Scene which is hid or shadowed by the clear beams or brightness of the Sun And in like manner from the defect or depravation of the nervous Juyce we can readily shew that the inordinations of the animal Spirits and oftentimes most horrid distempers of the Brain and the nervous stock do arise This nervous Juyce being derived from the Brain and Cerebel into the medullar Appendix is carried from thence by a gentle sliding down through the Nerves even into the whole nervous stock and waters its whole System Upon the equal emanation of this depends the expansion of the animal Spirits through the whole and the substance of these yea the Hypostasis of the sensitive Soul it self is founded on the diffusion of the same humor The animal Spirits being left to themselves follow the motion of this Juyce and flowing together with it in the same course are pleasingly or quietly expatiated but in the mean time as occasion is offered the same Spirits as a breath moving upon those waters conceive other spreadings abroad and those more rapid For as in a River from winds or any thing cast in divers undulations or wavings are stirred up so the animal Spirits being raised up by objects for the performing the offices of sense and motion do tend this way or that way to and fro within the nervous stock and are agitated hither and thither by other means But to return to the parts of the nervous System besides the Nerves themselves Fibres also being dispersedly interwoven in the Membranes the musculous Flesh the Parenchyma and other parts and united in the Tendons are the Organs of sense and motion Yea the acts of their faculties are principally and more immediately executed by the Fibres than the Nerves for they by drawing together the Muscle and other motive parts cause the motion it self but
the Nerves only carry from the Head the instinct for the performing of that motion In like manner in Sensation the Fibres receive first of all and immediately the impressions of sensible things and express the same as musical strings do the strikings of a quill or fingers by an intrinsecal modification of the Particles and represent the various approaches of the object by the like motion of the Fibrils as by a moveable and fluid Character whose Idea the Nerves transfer only to the Head Concerning the nervous Fibres it behoves us to inquire from whence they have their rise For it appears plainly that they arise not immediately from the Head or its medullar Appendix nor is it less improbable that they are produced as 't is commonly said from the Nerves because what is asserted that the Fibres are productions of the Nerves and little bits or pieces of them torn off as it were into hairy branches seems unlikely for that the Fibres in some parts being placed nigh exceed in their bulk the magnitude of the Nerve that is brought to that part at least an hundred-fold which thing appears clearly from the Tendon of every Muscle which being made up of united Fibres is observed to be far greater than the Nerve inserted to it And indeed for almost the like reason we are induced to think the nervous Humor it self also whereby the Membranes and musculous Fibres are wont to be watered to be derived unto them not by the only means and passage of the Nerves because it is heaped up much more plentifully and in more abundance than can be carried thither through those narrow passages as appears clearly in Ulcers of the Kings Evil or in Impostumes or Wounds of the Tendons and nervous parts in which a glutinous Humor drops forth in so great abundance that all the Nerves of the whole Body could scarce be able to supply it Wherefore concerning these it seems that we may affirm that the Fibres are not continued portions of the Nerves broken off into little hairy strings or Capillaments and that all the Fibres originally proceed not from the Nerves because some of them viz. those interwoven to the Heart and its Vessels are of equal birth with the Nerves themselves and coexist with them together from the beginning However most Fibres as to their production depend upon the Nerves and all which way soever brought forth receive constantly from the Nerves the forces and supplements of the animal Spirits and also the Instincts of the Motions to be performed by them Therefore to recount the births or kinds of Fibres they are first either spermatick and first begotten the rudiments or first beginnings of which being of the like antiquity as the Heart and Brain placed in the Conception afterwards leisurely increase to wit such are as hath been said those in the Heart it self in its depending Vessels the Membranes and some other parts which form the first stuff or threads of the Embryo or secondly other Fibres are produced secondarily and by a second birth of which sort chiefly are such which are interwoven into the parts taken for the compleating of the animal Fabrick and especially those termed Sanguineous which we think to be begotten after this manner The Heart and Brain with the Arteries and Nerves hanging to them are primigenious parts and highly original but these for the second birth of others and for the nutrition and increase of all the sensitive parts distribute a twofold humor viz. one spirituous and endued with very active Particles which perpetually flow though but in a very small quantity through the passages of the Nerves from the Brain and Cerebel and the other slow and softer which being every where laid aside through the Arteries from the bloody mass is rendred more plentifully This latter being of it self dull and thicker by much is actuated by the former and being imbued by it as by a certain Ferment acquires strength and power of growth or vegetation But indeed the nervous Juyce forasmuch as it diffuses with it self the animal Spirits imparts to every part besides the faculties of Motion and Sense the determinations also of form and figure Further whilst that being joyned to the other arterious humor is disposed into the substance and matter of the member or part to be nourished it forms some tracts as it were to wit the Fibres themselves in which the animal Spirits coming together with them reside and are expatiated These twofold or twin humors coupling together in every sensitive part constitute a liquor truly nutritious to wit which is both spirituous and nourishable And in truth both these Juyces viz. the nervous and arterious being married together are as it were the male and female seed which being mingled in a fruitful womb produces the plastick Humor by whose virtue the living creature is formed and increases Hence may be observed as the particles of the spirituous liquor or of the other more watry juyce viz. this latter being supplied from the Arteries or that from the Nerves are strong or excel as to their properties or powers all living creatures become more or less nimble active and ready to any motion and labour Besides from the default or depravation of the one and the other humor excelling the sorts or kinds of this or that disease are excited concerning which and also what belongs to the explication of the nutritious Humor we may perhaps have some other time occasion to discourse The animal Spirits which enter and fill the ordained series of the Fibres as so many little places flow thither by the passages of the Nerves notwithstanding the Spirits which are seated in the Fibres interwoven with the musculous stock receive nourishment yea and as it were auxiliary forces from the arterious blood there plentifully flowing whereby indeed both the Spirits themselves acquire for the performing of Motions a greater force and as it were elastick so that their force being stirred up by a strong endeavour it seems like the explosion of Gun-powder and also the same Spirits being continually consumed within the Muscles more profusely than is wont to be in the Membranes and other parts are in some measure made up or repaired from the bloody sustenance because whenas the arterious Juyce joyns more plentifully with the nervous flowing within the sanguineous parts it may be well thought that it also lays upon the Spirits brought thither with it as it were some nitrosulphureous particles and intimately fixes them on them and so by reason of this Copula highly flatuous and apt to be rarified the Spirits themselves become there more active so that in every motive endeavour whereby the Muscle is suddenly intumified they as if inkindled are exploded Moreover a sudden refection of the consumed or wasted Spirits after great exercise or labour is for this reason also performed by the blood for that the spirituous particles being left and forsaken by motion presently a new Copula of the same kind of
but also the greater Trunks of the Nerves in many places and insert into them sanguiferous shoots Besides forasmuch as the animal Spirits flowing within the nervous stock for the performing of sense and motion tend to and fro and so bear a double aspect it is probable also that the liquor watering the Nerves as it most commonly tends forward so sometimes backward and so that the extremities of the Nerves implanted in some parts imbibe from them the humor at least some Effluvia's with which they are satisfied and oftentimes transfer them into the Brain it self Certainly there is no doubt that the Fibres and nervous Filaments or threads which cover the Sensory of taste and the Viscera serving for Concoction do immediately receive some tastes of the taken in food from which supplies are carried to the Brain it self in great hunger and faintness of Spirits Because if at any time the Spirits inhabiting it being exhausted very much with heavy and long labour begin to fail a most swift refection is performed Pectorals or Cordials being scarcely swallowed and long indeed before the alible Juyce can be able to reach to the border of the Brain by the passage of the blood Moreover it is most likely that not only the benign Effluvia's of the aliment are received by the extremities of the Nerves ending about the Viscera but also by this way that oftentimes an infestous matter and in a manner malignant is communicated by the Nerves and their passages to the Head But indeed the preternatural Juyces heaped up about the Hypochondria the Spleen Womb and other Bowels emit vaporous little bodies which not only infect the bloody mass and distemper the Head by that means but they climb to the Brain more immediately by the passage of the Nerves and strike it with an heavy ill For from hence in part it comes that Hypochondriacks and Hysterical people are so cruelly punished through the Symptoms stirred up in the Brain and nervous stock for the faults of the lower Bowels hence it is that little Pills of Opium being scarcely dissolved in the Stomach cause a Torpor or heaviness But here is no place to discourse more largely of these It behoves us to consider what remains the Springs of the nervous Juyce the Auxiliaries but now detected and its Virtues and Influences Concerning the nervous Liquor we shall inquire what that doth in its passage to wit whilst it flows within the Marrows or middles of the Brain and Cerebel the medullar Trunk and the bodies themselves of the Nerves secondly then for what uses it serves when being sliden from the ends of the Nerves it is spread abroad on the secondary parts of the nervous System 1. As to the first whilst that of the nervous Liquor passes through the Head and either of its Appendix its chief office seems to be for a Vehicle of the animal Spirits which indeed it carries along with its diffusion and contains them under the same Systasis Yea this Latex shews various Schemes of the Spirits for the performing of sense and motion even as the humid Particles of the Air pass through the Optick Configurations of the Rays of Light Also moreover the nutrition of the aforesaid parts and accretion or growth into a greater bulk depends in some measure upon the nervous Juyce watering the same as shall be shewed by and by 2. But the greatest question is concerning this Liquor being diffused beyond the ends of the Nerves upon the secondary parts of the nervous System and in the passages of them on the whole Body to wit whether such a Juyce be nourishing of all the solid parts or of some of them by themselves as Authors variously think or to what other office it is destinated Concerning these it first appears that the Brain and Nerves with the Juyce flowing out of them contribute matter or at least some influence to the work of nutrition the which if it should chance to fail a sign of which defect is if the animal Faculty falters in part the nourishment there is wont presently to be hindred or perverted This is plainly seen in the Palsie excited from an evident cause without any previous Dyscrasie of the blood where suddenly an Atrophy follows the privation of motion or sense or of both together Further in the Scurvy where the taint hath corrupted the nervous Juyce when the sick begin to be afflicted with the Vertigo and swimming of the Head and with wandring pains Convulsions and a frequent loosning of the Members the flesh falls presently away as in a Consumption and without any fault of the Lungs the sick wither away as if distempered with a Phthisis It is a vulgar observation That from the immoderate use of Venus also from an inveterate Gonorrhoea from Strumous or running Ulcers and other Impostumes by which much of the nervous Juyce is wasted a leanness or wasting of the whole Body is produced Certainly if I be not deceived there are some Atrophies yea and sorts of breakings out which seem to depend wholly upon the defect or the evil dispensation of the nervous Juyce when the blood as to its quantity and disposition is not much in fault Lastly the consideration of some Diseases and Symptoms so plainly confirms the diffusion of the nervous Liquor and its great influence on all the parts that there is even left no room for doubting Also no less doth the curing of some Diseases and the use of Remedies confirm the same For from hence a reason is taken wherefore Cephalick Plasters oftentimes yield such signal help in the Phthisis not because they stay the Catarrh of the Serum falling down on the Lungs as the common people think but because by corroborating the Brain they restore the disposition of the nervous Juyce before vitiated For this cause it is that some diseases being stirred up by the fault of the nervous Liquor of which sort among others are Cancrous and Strumous Ulcers or such as come of the Kings-Evil are hardest of all to be cured because the morbid tincture of the Brain and of the Latex watering it whether it be innate or acquired is not easily mended yet sometimes when the root of the disease lurking in the Brain or nervous stock is taken away by the help of Nature it self or by Chance by the use of some remedy presently the Symptoms of other parts though neglected in the whole vanish not without the suspicion of a miracle But how much the alteration of the Brain serves for the curing of some most grievous diseases some instances taken from the Farriers Art will clearly shew For when many Medicines and Methods of Administrations are wont to be tryed in vain for the curing the stinking disease in Horses commonly called the Farcy which Helmontius asserts to be like the French Pox and the Author of its Contagion the most certain means of curing which I have very often known to be applied with good success consists in this that some sharp Medicines
of which sort are Hearts-case Water-Pepper Ranunculus or Crowfoot and the like which very much abound in volatile Salt being bruised into a mass and put into the Ears of the diseased Horse and kept there for twenty four hours it is scarce credible by what means all the Ulcers are presently dryed up and the disease healed as it were by Inchantment is quickly profligated in the whole For since this Application is made far from the affected parts without any alteration of the bowels or the blood it should be so healed at a distance certainly the cause of such an Energy must only be that by this kind of Medicine the Dyscrasie or evil disposition of the Brain and nervous Juyce is taken away and so the first root of the sickness being cut off the shoots and fruits presently wither It were worth our labour to try such kind of Experiments also in our Medicines Yea it may be well suspected that such a way ought to be ordered for the common Cure of the Kings-Evil Among our Country-men as delivered from our Ancestors it is thought that the seventh Son or he that is born the seventh one after another in a continued series can cure this disease by stroking it only with his hand and truly I have known many whom no Medicines could help to have been cured in a short time only by that remedy Few doubt but that this disease is wont to be cured often by the Touch of our King The reason of such an effect if it be merely natural ought to be assigned not to any other thing than that in the sick especially those of ripe age the Phantasie and strong Faith of the hoped for Cure induces that alteration or rather strengthning to the Brain whereby the morbid disposition radicated in it is profligated But I shall return from whence I am digressed to inquire what the nervous Juyce contributes to nutrition 2. I say therefore secondly although nutrition depends in some measure upon the influence of the nervous Juyce yet it is highly improbable that all the several parts of the whole Body should be nourished only by this provision For besides that this were to impose upon the Government of the Soul it self and its primary Organs the cooking office of nutrition wholly unworthy the excellency and dignity of those parts it seems also that the nervous Liquor should be altogether unfit for the administring to this Province because when oftentimes immense expences are made of the aliment to be assimilated into the substance of the solid parts especially by immoderate sweat also by continual labour and exercise which Country-men and Labourers daily use it is not possible that such losses should be repaired only by the nourishment supplied or sent through the small passages of the Nerves When I had long and seriously considered with my self concerning this thing what I at length thought I shall tell you freely and without any covering or making any reflection or blaming the Opinions of others It seems first that the nourishing matter of the whole Body is distributed into all parts from the blood through the Arteries yet it may lawfully be thought that the conversion of this matter into nutriment and the assimilation of it into the substance of the part to be nourished is performed by the influence and help of the nervous Juyce as it were of a certain spirituous Ferment As to the first we have already noted that the sanguiferous Vessels do not only follow almost every where the Muscles and Bowels but also the Head and its Appendix yea the Membranes Bones and Nerves themselves and affix to them all thick shoots as so many little chanels for the receiving the nourishment Moreover as there is a purple crassament or thick substance in the blood whose substance stuffs and nourishes the Pores of the Parenchyma of the Muscles so there is a whitish Gelly by which the Membranes and the whiter parts seem to increase Besides it may be observed that the blood it self increasing contains in it self fibres and small threads such as are interwoven in the Muscles and nervous parts and if the same stand long in any Vessel it is presently coagulated into longish white and hard crusts or bits whose substance is plainly fleshy so that the blood produces flesh of it self though the same be rude and unformed wherefore the configuration and the apt disposition of the nourishing matter supplied from it depends on the coming and Energy of the nervous Juyce but after what manner this is done we shall endeavour now to shew After the web or stuff of all the parts is laid it is required then that they be both drawn forth in due proportion and grow in substance and also that the little spaces which are left by reason of the Effluvia's perpetually falling off may be continually filled with the nourishing substance cast in In these two things the business of nutrition chiefly consists for the performing of either of which the blood affords matter and reaches it forth as was said in the circulating to the several parts of the concrete and as it were stands at the doors of the part to be nourished yet that this matter may be rightly disposed and its particles to wit the thick and thin saline and sulphureous and others of a several nature separated one from another may be imployed with some choice to the destinated uses there seems need of a certain directing faculty and as it were plastick virtue got somewhere else than from the blood it self For indeed the blood being destitute of animal Spirits is unfit for the performing these offices Wherefore for that it appears there doth lye hid in the nervous stock a certain juyce and the same being gifted with animal Spirit to be diffused to all parts how can we suppose less but that this subtil and spirituous Liquor every where meeting with the arterious which is duller and thicker actuates and inspires it and as it were ordains it for the performing the designed work of nutrition especially when it plainly appears that by reason of the defect or depravation of this nervous Juyce nutrition is always frustrated or perverted Therefore it may be lawful in the difficult Controversie concerning the Matter and Method of Cure to propose this our Hypothesis though it be a Paradox and very abstruse to wit that the nervous Juyce which we have said was like the male seed is poured out with the nutritious humor copiously suggested from the Arteries as it were the genitive or seed of another Sex every where upon all the parts and that this former being indued with active Elements imbues the more thick matter as with a certain Ferment and impregnates it with animal Spirit and when it so makes it with a mutual entring in or coming together to be dissolved and to go into parts its particles being extricated one from the other the Spirit infused helping they are put upon bodies of the same measure with themselves
and are assimilated into their substances In the mean time because the animal Spirits are poured out in great plenty with the nervous Juyce those which are at leisure from the work of nutrition or remain after that is finished turn aside every where into the Fibres as into proper dwelling-houses and there being ready for the offices of sense and motion stay which offices indeed that those Spirits the Inhabitants of the Fibres may the better perform they acquire from the blood watering the Muscles certain auxiliary forces wherefore they being endued with a certain elastick force are apt to be highly rarified and as it were exploded But indeed we suppose that as the nervous Liquor being turgid with animal Spirit causes the arterious humor to become nutritious so in compensation of this the animal Spirits remaining of the work of nutrition and every where disposed within the Fibres receive from the arterious blood a mixture or certain Copula by whose help and cooperation the same Spirits exert or put forth much more strongly their locomotive force For it seems that little sulphureous bodies are added to the spirituous-saline particles from the watering blood and so when the animal Spirits are furnished with this Copula they being stirred up into motion shake off the borrowed particles which being struck with a certain force like the explosion of Gun-powder suddenly intumifie the Muscles and so by contracting them very much they cause a vehement motive endeavour We shall have an occasion of discoursing more at large of this when we treat of the Motion of the Muscles Yet in the mean time we shall take notice that the Muscles of the whole Body as to their motion have a certain Analogy with the motion of the Heart For indeed the animal Spirits in the Heart flowing within the fibres and nervous threads with which this part is much beset receive plentifully sulphureous little bodies from the inflowing blood distending the sides of either bosom which whilst the same Spirits being filled to a fulness shake off and as it were explode a Systole of the whole Heart its sides being carried with a certain force inwards is brought in or caused whereby the blood from either side the bosom is cast out as it were by the impulse of a Spring or Bolt Truly unless the Spirits inhabiting the Heart should receive food and matter of explosion from the blood it self their stock supplied or sent by the passage of the few and small Nerves would not suffice for the performing of the undiscontinued motion A sign of this is that from a defect or depravation of the blood as well as of the animal Spirits the motion also of the Heart is â—efective or diminished And not much unlike in the Muscles as in the Heart is the business performed the Spirits inhabiting their Fibres receive a sulphureous Copula and apt for explosion from the blood there more plentifully flowing than about the Membranes with which being endued as often as they receive from the Nerve as it were the fiery inkindling or the match the instinct of the motion to be performed they being excited and striking of their Copula very much inflate or blow up the Muscle and intumifie it for performing or compassing the motive endeavour Nor is it much to purpose or makes any great difference that the motion of the Heart stirred up by a perpetual instinct is found always necessary but the Muscles the most of them only occasionally and at the command of the Animal do put forth their motive power for the Diaphragma and some Muscles dedicated to Respiration are urged with a perpetual Systole and Diastole as well as the Heart it self From the aforesaid Hypothesis concerning the offices and uses of the nervous and arterious Juyce Arguments that otherwise determine the work of Nutrition may be easily answered For that the blood is said rather to prey upon the solid parts than to replenish them that ought to be attributed to the Disease and Dyscrasie of it and not to it simply because sometimes the blood is accused for that it too much stuffs the solid parts to wit forasmuch as its mass being waterish and weak it lays aside the alible Juyce which not being truly cook'd is still crude and vicious with very great plenty about the habit of the Body and so induces an Anasarca In the mean time it ought to be granted That as it is the blood that is evil which heaps up too much vicious nutriment so it is the same which being well and right doth laudably perform the office of Nutrition But that it is argued That the nervous is rather the nourishing Juyce because by reason of its defect depravation or too prodigal expence the acts of nutrition are wont to be hindred or perverted it is easie to reply to this That the impediments of the nervous Juyce being made vicious respect the form of nourishment and not the matter of it to wit it sometimes happens that the blood dispenses the alible matter in due plenty and disposition which notwithstanding by the fault of the nervous Juyce is not rightly assimilated When an impotency of motion comes upon a too great distension of the Muscle or Tendon with pain shortly nutrition being hindred a Jelly grows about the distempered part which notwithstanding drops not out of the Nerve as is commonly said but the glutinous humor being poured out of the Arteries for aliment for that it cannot be received by the hurt part is gathered together there nor is it to be thought that Tumors or Strumous Ulcers or the running Sores of the Evil do contain or pour out only a nervous humor since the matter of either is for the most part bloody which by reason of the evil Ferment of the nervous Juyce puts on a strange form and that diversly degenerous This supposition of the twofold Humor for the matter and form of nourishment is taken to be of egregious use for the solving of the most difficult Phaenomena which are met with about the Distempers of the Brain and nervous Juyce yea that Pathology seriously considered seems to infer as a certain necessary consequence that a twofold Juyce is necessary for the work of Nutrition as some other time perhaps we may shew In the mean time leaving this Speculation we shall proceed to the remaining Task of our Anatomy to wit the Neurologie or of the Nerves in particular THE Description and Use OF THE NERVES CHAP. XXI The first four Pair of Nerves arising within the Skull are described THE division or distinction of the Nerves by reason of their various respects is wont to be manifold to wit as they are either soft or hard singular or numerous in their beginnings or that they serve either to the faculty of Sense or Motion or to both together But they are commonly distinguished That some Nerves arising within the Skull proceed from the oblong Marrow and others going out of the joynts of the Vertebrae are derived
besides from the nerves of the fourth fifth and sixth pair certain branches are distributed to some of the same Muscles so that as often as any Animal intends or applies the sense for the perceiving of this or that object these nerves turn about the Eye and compose it at their pleasure for the spontaneous beholding of the same Besides we take notice that the Eyes do get a diverse kind of involuntary motion because in Fear Shame Anger Sadness yea and in all Affections of the Head and Heart whether we will or no the Eyes are respectively figured Wherefore 't is highly probable that these kind of pathetick motions of the Eyes whereof the living Creature is scarce knowing are performed by the help of the other nerves to wit of those coming from the fourth fifth and sixth pair and that more manifestly appears because the same nerves which lend their branches to the Eye take their origines from the Cerebel the office of which we have often shewn to be to dispense the Spirits for the exercise of the involuntary Function But concerning these Nerves of the third pair which are properly called the Moving nerves of the Eyes we observe that in Man a Dog and in some other living Creatures they are found to be somewhat otherwise than in an Ox for either nerve in these as in the rest is carried out of the Skull divided into four branches three of which are carried from thence into three straight distinct Muscles to wit one lifting up the other bringing together the third pressing close the Eye the other branch of it goes forwards further with a single trunk and is implanted in the middle of the Muscle going about the Eye turning obliquely to the inward corner downwards From these it appears that these Muscles to which this nerve belongs in all are sufficient almost of themselves to perform most spontaneous motions of the Eye but where the aforesaid nerve is divided into four shoots it constitutes a small and round infolding out of which many small shoots creep through and variously compass about the trunk of the Optick nerve for what use it is so made we have already intimated The fourth Conjugation of Nerves which we call rightly the Fourth by order and succession although it is accounted the eighth and last by Fallopius hath a diverse origine from all the rest For whereas most of the others proceed from the foot or sides of the oblong Marrow this hath its root in the top of it behind the round Protuberances called Nates and Testes From whence bending more forward nigh the sides of the oblong Marrow it is presently hid under the Dura Mater under which going along for some space and passing through the Skull at the same hole with the rest destinated to the Eye it is bestowed with a single trunk not communicating with any of the other nerves wholly on the Muscle called the Trochlear Muscle Above we called these nerves the Pathetick nerves of the Eyes for although some besides may deserve this name as shall be shewn by and by yet 't is most likely that the proper office of these is to move the Eyes pathetically according to the force of the Passions and instinct of Nature delivered and remanded from the Brain to the Cerebel and so on the contrary from this to that through the Nates and Testes and their medullar Processes For as we have shewn that by the diverse impulse and waving of the animal Spirits dwelling in this by-path there are instituted certain mutual commerces between the Brain and the Praecordia the Cerebel mediating between either it will be of necessity that these nerves rooted in the middle way should be struck by every tending downwards or remove of the Spirits going this way or that way and so the motions of the Eyes to follow the affections of those parts All perfect Animals are furnished with these nerves and in truth as none of them but are obnoxious to Anger Love Hatred and other Affections so every little Creature shew these by the mere aspect and by the gesture it self of the Eyes We see sometimes the greater Pike gaping for his prey first of all to roll about his eyes and to look four then with a swift shooting out of his body to invade the lesser fry of fish CHAP. XXII The fifth sixth and seventh Pair of Nerves are unfolded OF the aforesaid four Pair of Nerves the two former seem chiefly to serve for the Sense only but the two latter for Motion and every single nerve of them destinated to a peculiar Province but this which follows next to wit the fifth Conjugation of Nerves serves for the exercise of either Faculty to wit both of Sense and Motion nor is its Province so strictly bounded that it should belong only to one member for it is distributed to the Eyes Nose and Palate and the rest of the parts of the Face and besides helps in its part in some sort the offices and actions of the Praecordia and almost of all the Viscera This pair which by the Ancients was accounted the third by us the fifth pair and that by right of order or position below the former nerves proceeds with a broad and large trunk from the sides of the annular Protuberance or Process sent out from the Cerebel It consists of very many Fibres gathered together some of which are soft others hard so that the great trunk of it near its beginning is nothing else than a little bundle of very many nerves some of which are bestowed on these parts and others on other parts and in some they perform the offices of motion in others of sense But that so many nerves being destinated to so many several members and remote one from another yet arising together are collected as it were into one bundle the reason is that in all the parts to which those nerves belong a certain Sympathy and consent of actions might be conserved to wit the communion of those nerves is the cause why the sight and smell move spittle and please the Palate nor by any other means are the Praecordia affected according to the various conceptions of the Brain and transmit their affections â—o he several parts of the Face from whence the aspect or countenance of the whole Animal is pathetically figured as shall be shewed more particularly below In the mean time let us deliver a short Hypotype or figure of this Nerve its trunk going out of the sides of the greater Ring sometimes near its beginning but oftner the Dura Mater being first perforated or passed through is divided into two noted branches The first of these tending straight downward going out of the Skull at a proper hole in its descent towards the lower Jaw to whose parts it is chiefly destinated is divided into more branches with which it furnishes the Temple-muscle also the Muscles of the Face and Cheeks Moreover from them shoots and branches are distributed into the Lips Gums
and manifold affinity of this Nerve being also much diffused in the Head the mutual dependencies and confederations of very many of its parts proceed But how this Nerve in other Provinces to wit in the Thorax and lower belly and there about the motions and sensions of the Praecordia and Viscera doth cause various Sympathies of them among themselves and with other parts shall afterwards be more largely shewn when we shall speak particularly of the intercostal Nerve which is rooted in this nerve of the fifth pair where from the manifold communication of this nerve may be easily drawn the reasons of sneezing yawning laughing crying and of other actions merely natural In the mean time the superior branching of the nerve of the fifth pair shews it self after this manner in the Head and almost after the same manner is divaricated in most living Creatures except however that in some presently after its rise it is divided into three great branches one of which is destinated to the lower Jaw the other to the Eye and Nose and the third to the Cheek The Nerve of the sixth Conjugation follows which arising out of the lowest foot of the annular Protuberance and being hid under the Dura Mater presently goes out of the Skull at the same hole with the nerves of the third and fourth pair and is carried with a single trunk into the ball of the Eye but so that near the side of the Turkey Chair it is inoculated with the second branch or the greater of the fifth pair from whence it turns back sometimes one little branch sometimes two which being united with the branches of the fifth pair running back constitute the beginning of the intercostal nerve Then this nerve going forwards is divided into two branches near the ball of the Eye one of which is inserted into the Muscle drawing back the Eye planted in its outward angle and the other being torn into various fibres is bestowed on the seventh Muscle proper to Brutes so that this nerve also seems to serve to those motions of the Eye that are almost only pathetick or excited by natural Instinct For as to the use of the former shoot it plainly appears that it is innate to every Animal in a sudden fear to draw the eyes backward and to look for what is to be feared on either side and behind then as to its other shoot whereby Brutes wink or twinkle the eye it is obvious that this same motion is sudden and extemporary without any previous intention whereby the eye endeavours to shun the injuries of outward things that occur The seventh Conjugation of Nerves accounted for the fifth by the Ancients is imployed about the sense of hearing Of this pair commonly are noted two Processes the one soft the other hard which indeed seem to be two distinct nerves for that although they have their beginnings nigh one another yet are somewhat distinct and are carried to divers Organs in the mean time either agreeing in a certain common respect of use or action For whilst one nerve performs the act of hearing the other supplies some requisites whereby that act may be the better performed wherefore we shall not much strive against the common description of this pair by which it is taken for one The process of this pair or the auditory nerve properly which is called the soft Branch seems to arise in man out of the lower side of the ringy Protuberance and in beasts out of the midst of the lesser Ring In some Dissections I plainly found that this softer nerve having its beginning lower seemed to ascend a little before it went out of the medullar stock and the other more hard nerve seeming to arise higher viz. out of the medullar whitish line leading about the bottom of the fourth Ventricle did descend a little and arose near the meeting with the other This softer nerve is carried into the passage of the stony Bone where entring into the den destinated for the receiving the sound which is on this side the Snail-like winding and the Drum it so infolds it self into the most thin Membrane wherewith that den is covered that as often as the Air implanted in that cavern is moved by the stroke of the external Air made upon the Drum this impression striking this Membrane and stirring up as it were an undulation of the animal Spirits is forthwith carried towards the common Sensory by the passage of the nerve there implanted There will be a more opportune place of discoursing after what manner and by what sort of Organs Hearing is performed when we shall speak of the Senses The other Nerve of this pair or the more hard process which conduces rather to motion than sense passing through the stony Bone at an hole proper to it self arises near the auditory passage where it presently receives into its trunk a branch from the wandring pair brought thither then immediately after that joyning together or coalition it is divided into two branches The first of these tending downwards is bestowed upon the Muscles of the Tongue and the Bone Hyoides the other going about the auditory passage and bending more upwards is divided into three shoots the first of which answering to the nerve of the former division bestows some shoots on the Muscles of the Lips Mouth Face and Nostrils and so actuates some exterior Organs for the forming the voice as the former doth some interior Organs The second shoot of this division distributes its shoots into the Muscles of the Eye-brows and Forehead and the third into the Muscles of the Ear it self The offices and uses of all these have been already shewn the summ of which is that as often as the sound is admitted in especially if it be any ways unusual new or to be wondred at presently by a certain natural instinct the Ears and Eyes erect and open themselves to wit for that end shoots from this nerve are inserted into the Muscles of the Eye-lids and Ears that by the passage of these the Spirits inhabiting either Region might be called out as it were to watch For a like reason shoots from the same hard process of this nerve are distributed both into the Muscles of the Tongue and of the Bone Hyoides as also into those of the Lips and the outward parts of the Mouth that by their passage the sound being transmitted further to these Organs of the voice it being equal or like the same might officiously answer it as were an Echo That the descriptions of the aforesaid nerves might be better understood I have thought good here to represent in the following Figure the branchings of the fifth and sixth pair The seventh pair is fitly delineated in the ninth Figure This Figure shews the Branchings of the fifth and sixth pair of Nerves A. The Nerve of the sixth pair which we place first because it is outmost in the Scheme from whose trunk two shoots a. a. are carried into the two Muscles of the Eye A.
the coming away of the returning Nerve on the left side from the Trunk of the wandring pair another noted branch is sent forth on both sides which being carried towards the Heart covering its Basis in the hinder Region meets it on both sides and disperses in all its process branches through the whole Superficies of the Heart As shoots go from these branches into the hinder part of the Heart so many branches and shoots go from the Cardiack infoldings which are divaricated into its fore-part But there are two Infoldings from which the Nerves are distributed into the Heart The upper and greater is between the Aorta and the Pneumonick Artery The nerves constituting this are one or two noted branches that descend hither from either side the Trunk of the wandring pair but chiefly many nerves from either intercostal nerve to wit from the midst of its infolding From this infolding two or three noted nerves are carried under the Aorta into the left side of the Heart But from this infolding a shoot being sent forth making as it were an handle compasses about the pneumonick Artery and a branch descending from the right Trunk of the wandring pair to the exterior part of this handle and another which being carried from the nerve which is destinated to the hinder region of the Heart meet together and make the lesser infolding from which nerves are sent into the right side of the fore-part of the Heart We are to take notice That in brute Animals many more and far greater Nerves are carried from the Trunk of the wandring pair into the Heart and its Appendix than in Man to wit in whom the chief Cardiack nerves or belonging to the Heart proceed from the intercostal pair as is shewed below wherefore in Brutes for that reason the wandring pair affords greater supplies or subsidies to the Heart because the intercostal nerve scarcely contributes any to it Further through the whole tract of the wandring pair from whence the Cardiack nerves proceed very many small shoots being sent forth on both sides are inserted into the Oesophagus and the Glandula's implanted without the Pericardium From the Region of the Heart the Trunk of the wandring pair sends forth many noted shoots on both sides which being carried into the Lungs are distributed together with the blood-carrying Vessels through their whole substance and in their passage step by step they follow the Pipes of the Bronchia both the Arteries and the Veins and many shoots being sent forth on every side they climb upon and compass about these Vessels then the Trunk of the same wandring pair descending on both sides nigh the sides of the Trachea distributes many shoots also into the Coats of the Oesophagus Below the Pneumonick branches either Trunk of the wandring pair going forwards downwards nigh the sides of the Oesophagus is divided into two branches viz. into the exterior or more outward and the interior or more inward Both the inward branches inclining towards one another mutually do again grow into the same Nerve which being sent straight down towards the Oesophagus and being carried nigh the inward part of its Orifice is bent back from thence and creeps through its upper part From both branches being carried nigh the opposite parts of the superior Orifice many shoots are produced which being mutually inoculated do constitute the nervous infolding like a little net The Stomachical lower branch sends forth very many fibres and shoots nigh the left part of the bottom of the Ventricle which are united with others sent forth from the Mesenterick and Splenetick infolding Further in the right part of the same bottom of the Ventricle shoots being sent forth from either Stomachical branch are united with other shoots sent upwards from the Hepatick infolding and about this place either Trunk of the Nerves of the eighth pair seems to be terminated for that the last that may be perceived of it are some shoots sent forth from the Stomachical branches which are inoculated or ingraffed with the little branches or fibres sent upwards from the Mesenterick infoldings CHAP. XXIV The Actions and Uses of the Nerves of the eighth Pair described in the foregoing Chapter are unfolded AFter this manner the beginning and branchings out of the Nerves of the eighth pair are disposed in Man and they are almost after the same manner in Brutes unless the Cardiack branches be more because in these they go out only from this one Conjugation The Figure or Type of all these is well designed or drawn in the ninth Table or Figure It now remains recollecting the Tracts of this Description or at least the things chiefly to be noted that we inquire into the Reasons of their Phaenomena or Appearances This Nerve presently after its rise appears with numerous Fibres as may be discerned in the ninth Figure E the reason of which is because many nerves here arising together and deriving plenty of animal Spirits from the same stock or provision ought to carry the same to divers parts and remote one from another and therefore they assume their Latex or Juyce not at one Trunk as the blood-carrying Vessels and afterwards distribute it equally by branches and shoots here and there stretched out because the Spirits derived from the same Fountain have need to flow into these parts separate from them and variously to transpose and change their influence wherefore for this business it is required that we may not suppose little doors in the middle of the branchings out of the nerves as are in the Pipes of a musical Organ that the nerves which are destinated for the performing of divers offices respectively in distinct parts should be single in their whole passage and of themselves distinct chanels of Spirits for the sake of a better conduct many of them are collected together and seem to grow together into one Trunk but they are parted both in their beginning and also in their whole journey and distinguished though involved in the same Coat and so are carried to the respective parts Otherwise how should it come to pass that the Spirits to be carried for the performing the instinct of motion towards the Stomach do not enter at the same time the Lungs or Praecordia and actuate them with an inordinate influence For indeed the shoots of the nerves of the wandring pair may be followed by the eyes and hand backwards towards the beginning from the parts into which they are inserted and where they seem to be united into the same Trunk so separated with the finger that it may appear they are single After the same manner we have plainly separated one from another the returning nerve also and others their common Coat being dissected Yet in the mean time we deny not that in their progress they do communicate one with another by Fibres meeting mutually if it be granted that the same although they arise together in their very rise it self are in a manner distinct For by reason of the
nearness of the beginning and progress though all the nerves of the wandring pair have a certain Sympathy and consent in their actions yet for that they consist of parted strings they perform their actions successively and convey the influences of the Spirits to these parts separate from those We have already shewn that the Nerve of the wandring pair and others belonging to its family do serve almost only to the involuntary function Wherefore it may be thought that as there are many shoots and fibres which going out distinctly from the same origine are carried to divers parts that indeed those Bowels and Members into which these nerves are inserted do perform their particular actions stirred up either by the instinct of Nature or by the force of the Passions the Animal in the mean time scarce knowing it yea also that when certain other nerves arising afar off are joyned to this Trunk of the wandring pair and communicate with it near the very origine of it this seems to be therefore done that those nerves an affinity with the wandring pair being begun may be drawn into Sympathy with it and into an unity of action of the involuntary Function This appears clearly by the accessory nerve from the Back-bone and some others as shall be manifested anon In the mean time we shall observe concerning the Fibres of the wandring pair first that a noted shoot inclining towards the vocal process of the seventh pair is united with the same as in the ninth Figure e. Hence a reason may be taken wherefore in every violent Passion as of Anger Fear Joy and the like without the will or intention of the Animal the Tongue sends forth a voice as an index of the excited affection so that not only men but some brute beasts in their fleeing or rejoycing wail cry out and make a noise Secondly From the beginning of the wandring pair very many Fibres are distributed into the Muscles of the Neck Figure the ninth FFF in which there seems little need of the stirring up of spontaneous motions in that part for to this task the Vertebral nerves serve sufficiently Notwithstanding the aforesaid Fibres of the wandring pair are the cause why the Neck is moved about in fear or at any noise or suspicion of danger and also why in some Animals from indignation or pride the Muscles into which these nerves are inserted being inflated very much their necks swell up and the Crests of many are erected Of how great use the accessory nerve coming from the Spine to the wandring pair is for the pathetick motions of the Arms shall be shewed presently Thirdly The other Fibres of the wandring pair being gathered together seem to grow together into the same Trunk which presently constitutes the Ganglioform infolding from a shoot coming from the intercostal nerve as in Figure the ninth G.H. And indeed it is very likely that of these Fibres which are complicated together in the Trunk of the wandring pair one is destinated to the returning nerve another to the Praecordia a third to the Lungs and lastly another to the Ventricle all which although they have communication among themselves and for the sake of a better conduct are gathered together in one yet they are still distinct from their very original and constitute divers passages of the animal Spirits But that a shoot is carried from the intercostal Nerve into the upper infolding of the wandring pair as in the ninth Figure h the reason is that between these nerves a certain strict affinity and kindred might be and that either of them might be affected with the others offices For as the nerve of the wandring pair distributes shoots chiefly to the Praecordia and the Stomach and the intercostal Nerve to the rest of the Viscera of the lower Belly we may observe that between all these there are not only some commerces but Sympathies and a consent of Actions and Passions wherefore there is a necessity that the nerves designed to either parts should communicate among themselves Further in Man the intercostal nerve imparts to the Heart and its Appendix more shoots and fibres than the nerve of the wandring pair wherefore these nerves do not only communicate by these superiour infoldings but also again a little lower by a shoot sent out from the cervical infolding or that of the Neck From the aforesaid infolding a noted branch of the wandring pair is sent forth into the Muscles of the Larynx a certain branch of which entring the Shield-like Cartilage meets with the returning nerve and is united to it Fig. 9. h. It will not be difficult to collect what the use of this nerve may be for seeing the Larynx or the rough Artery serves both for the drawning in and putting out of the breath and also for the modulating the voice for either office that its Trunk like the folds in a pair of Bellows may become sometimes more short sometimes more at length these same ringy Cartilages ought to be pulled together or contracted sometimes upward and sometimes downward That a flat voice or sound might be formed they ought to be prest down as much as may be to the bottom but if you would form a more shrill or sharp sound or voice the superiour Rings are lifted up to wit that the sound might be broken but only in the very passage of the Jaws For the performing of this double motion of the Larynx two nerves are constituted like the hands of a Piper one of which stops the lower holes the other the upper of the Pipe to wit the shoots and branches of the returning nerve being lifted up from below move the ringy Cartilages downwards and the nerve sent out from above from this infolding presently draws the more superior upwards Further because a certain consent and joynt action is required in both nerves therefore they are mutually inoculated or ingraffed yea whenas either of them returning distributes frequent shoots into either side of the Trachea it seems that those that are sent out into the right part move its Rings downwards for Inspiration and a strong Voice and the others going out on both sides into the left part carry the Rings upward for Expiration and for an acute or sharp Voice Moreover as the instinct for the motion of depression or pressing down is delivered from the knots of the recourse or reflections so the impression for the elation or lifting up of those parts is received from this nerve of the Ganglioform infolding A noted branch from the middle infolding of the intercostal Nerve is carried into the Trunk of the wandring pair Fig. 9. i. For what end that is so we have shewn already to wit that the commerces of the Spirits dwelling in both nerves might be strengthened but it should be noted that it is only so in the left side where the Trunk of the wandring pair shews it self single for a long space but in the right side where the returning nerve goes from
knots of reflection are not alike on both sides also for what end the Cardiack branches proceed from both knots As to the first that the left returning Nerve not as its pair binds about the axillary Artery some reason seems to be because the left axillary Artery arising below is carried as the right by a bending and not a straight passage into the Arm wherefore the little cord of the Nerve compassing about its Trunk hath no fixed but a very moveable knot of reflection for that it might easily slide from its place But it may rather be said that it is for other uses and those more necessary that these Nerves compass about those Vessels after that manner For when they as it were Reins or Bridles cast on the blood-carrying Vessels by pulling them hither and thither variously determine the course of the blood it seems to be required that one returning Nerve should bind together or constringe the axillary Artery and the other the descending Trunk of the Aorta for as often as there is need for the blood to flow forwards towards the Head more plentifully the returning Nerves perform it easily by pulling upwards the aforesaid Arteries But the blood after a sort ought to be continually urged into the higher parts lest otherwise by its weight it should turn too much downwards wherefore in all Expiration or breathing forth when the Trachea drawing nearer together its folds is contracted upwards the blood about to descend through the Aorta is snatched upwards by one tract of the nervous little cord and in like manner the axillary Artery in the right side being shaken with it the blood flowing in the whole ascending Trunk of the Aorta is driven upwards a little swifter But besides this continual and equal snatching up of the blood towards the upper parts it is sometimes occasionally urged towards the Head by a more intense and quick motion of the Trachea and also by a more full and swift course For as often as any Animal grows angry the voice presently shews signs of such an Affection and oftentimes by chiding they make it sharp as men when they are angry chide or brawl and Dogs bark Now from such an intension of the voice and chiding as the upper rings of the Trachea a reciprocation being there made are often struck together so the blood also the Aorta being strongly drawn is urged upwards by a copious afflux so that it presently dyes the countenance and eyes of angry people with a redness and induces to the Brain it self a greater heat and provocatives to anger and a greater glowing or infiring to the Spirits by stirring them up For the same reason in Joy and Gladness forasmuch as the Trachea is exercised by singing or laughing the blood also is poured out more plentifully towards the exterior and especially the upper parts And from hence the cause is plain wherefore either returning Nerve sends forth Cardiack branches from the knot of reflection or turning back to wit that in those kind of affections the notice of which the Trachea in sounds or voices gives by the help of the Nerves the Heart it self by its means also might be affected For so as often as we wrangle or brawl the Heart being irritated presently inkindles the blood more and drives it forward more plentifully as food for those Affections towards the Brain Also in laughter great rejoycing or singing by the passage of those Nerves the Heart being brought into a consent or Sympathy or joynt action presently explodes or drives out the blood by a swifter pulse and casts it hastily out which otherwise would be heavy and troublesom by a slower motion or stagnation wherefore those sort of actions to wit laughing and singing are said to alleviate the Heart because they make the blood more freely and readily to be poured out of the bosoms of the Heart and also by the supplying help of the Lungs to be emptied into the same Below the production of the left returning Nerve another noted Nerve is carried towards the hindermost region of the Heart which being carried with a certain compass about its Basis sends forth frequent shoots which cover the left side of the hinder Hemisphere Fig. 9. o. Then this branch meeting with another pair sent from the opposite side towards the Heart and distributing shoots into the right side of the hinder Hemisphere is united with it Fig. 9. q. This Cardiack branch destinated to the hinder region of the Heart is produced apart below the rest that it might be carried by it self to its Province without the meeting with or implication of others the pairs are ingraffed on either side that they might accompany one another and be together drawn in the same action of the Heart It appears not plain whether these nerves conspire with the other Cardiack nerves arising above reaching forth to the anterior Hemisphere of the Heart or whether this pair effect not the Systole of the Heart and the upper its Diastole However it is certain shoots of the kindred or stock of either being ingraffed with others of another stock communicate one with the other The Trunk of the wandring pair sends forth on both sides very many noted branches from the region of the Heart which are spread on every side into all the Lobes of the Lungs the Bronchia of the Trachea and the Coat of the Oesophagus hard by descending Fig. 9. s.s.s. Those which go into the Lungs pass every where through their whole substance following the ramifications of the Veins and Arteries and the Pipes of the Bronchia which chanels of blood and air they variously climb over and bind about through their whole tract When that so many noted branchings of the Nerves are bestowed on the Lungs it is a wonder that by some they should be thought to be insensible and immoveable of themselves Yea it is doubted by many whether these Bowels do cause the motions of the Systole and Diastole of themselves by their own endeavour For that it is a received Opinion That this reciprocation of the Lungs doth proceed wholly from the motion of the Thorax and doth obey or observe its dilatation or constriction with a certain necessary dependency viz. that the Breast being dilated or spread open after the manner of a pair of Bellows doth compel the ambient Air into the Trachea which rushing into the Lungs blows up and distends them then the same Breast subsiding or sinking of it self that the Lungs being pressed together with the weight of it do breath forth the Air before intruded In truth however that I might judge that the Diaphragma and the Muscles of the Breast do conduce much to Respiration yet that these parts should perform this office alone and that the Lungs are merely passive I cannot grant For Respiration is chiefly instituted for the sake of the blood and the Heart and its act is wont to be determined according to the various disposition of these and to be
wandring pair do communicate one with the other with two branches as it were two hands meeting one the other that the influence of either nerve might equally reach to every region and part of the Stomach For whenas either Stomachical branch to wit both the upper and the lower is carried together from the two branches coming out from either side of the wandring pair it is provided that the Tributes of the Spirits destinated to the Ventricle should be at once certain and very plentiful For what appertains to the performing the action of this Bowel or Chylification the Spirits flowing in from either side are abundantly distributed into the Orifice and from thence into all its parts and private places and by that means it comes to pass that the Stomach dissolves bodies beyond the force of any Chymical Menstruum Then besides as to the feeling or sense of the Ventricle or the affection of it from things ingested it is carried also towards the Head by a double way whereby the passage may be the more certain to wit by either Trunk of the wandring pair that for that reason being indued with a most exquisite sense it might not be deceived concerning its objects and if that any thing inimical or contrary to it should lye hid among what is eaten it might discern it and thrust it out of its own accord or at least by the knowledge only of the Cerebel That from the same double Trunk of the wandring pair from whence the Cardiack Nerves arise a little above the Stomachical branches also proceed the cause is plain wherefore the Heart it self hath such a Sympathy with the Stomach so that its Deliquium or Swooning follows upon any great pulling or hawling of this Either Nerve of the wandring pair is terminated in the Ventricle it self for after the eighth Conjugation hath made as it were an high road for the passage of the animal Spirits to the Praecordia and to this noble Bowel it puts a bound to it self nor indeed does it seem meet to have its branches stretched out any further to the Viscera of the lower Belly because it seems an unworthy thing that the same path which leads to the chief office of nutrition and to the Palaces of life it self should lye open to the more vile Intestines also and the sink of the whole Body And truly although the ample path and broad way of the wandring pair is not produced beyond the Ventricle yet because a frequent commerce happens between this and the Praecordia and the other inferior parts therefore between the Stomach and the other Bowels though of a more base use certain Fibres as it were smaller paths are reached forth in which at least little bands of Spirits like Discoverers or Messengers run to and fro CHAP. XXV A Description of the Intercostal Nerve AFter the unfolding of the Nerve reaching forth to the Praecordia and the Ventricle we are led by the series or order of the inward parts to the describing a Nerve akin to this and which reaches forth its branches to the furthermost Province to wit to all the Viscera or Inwards of the lower Belly contained below the Ventricle This is commonly called the Intercostal because that going near the roots of the Ribs it receives in every one of their Interstices a branch from the spinal Marrow It s beginning is not yet sufficiently detected for by most Anatomists it is wrongfully taken for a branch of the wandring pair though indeed the wandring and the intercostal pair do communicate among themselves by branches sent forth one to the other yet as to both their beginnings Trunks and wandrings up and down they are plainly distinguished If that this latter Conjugation being denied the title of a peculiar nerve ought to confess it self of another stock certainly it owes nothing to the wandring pair but should borrow its original from the Nerves of the fifth and sixth pairs for two or three shoots being sent back from those nerves going out towards the Eyes and Face go into the same stock or Trunk which is the Trunk of the intercostal nerve as we have intimated before The intercostal Nerve being constituted after that manner and going out of the Skull at a proper hole presently contains the Ganglioform infolding near to another the like infolding of the wandring pair into which two nervous Processes are carried from the last pair within the Skull or the first Vertebral From that infolding one shoot is sent forth into the Sphincter of the Throat and another noted one into the Ganglioform infolding of the wandring pair Then this nerve descending towards the Vertebrae hath in the middle of the Neck another far greater infolding into which an ample nerve from the neighbouring Vertebral pair is inserted but from the same many nerves which respect the Praecordia are distributed on every side For two or three shoots are sent forth into the nerve of the Diaphragma and one shoot into the returning nerve besides numerous fibres and shoots are carried both into the returning nerve and towards the Trachea which are inserted into its Coats and into those of the Oesophagus and into the blood-carrying Vessels Further one branch descends into the Trunk of the wandring pair and two noted nerves into the Cardiack infolding then a little lower another nerve by it self proceeding out of the intercostal Trunk is inserted also into the Cardiack infolding which noted branches sent down on both sides from the intercostal nerve for that they joyn together with others derived from either Trunk of the wandring pair make the Cardiack infolding it self But these Cardiack branches from the intercostal nerve as also the Cervical infolding or that in the hinder part of the Neck whence they proceed are peculiar to men and are wholly wanting in brute beasts The intercostal Trunk descends from the cervical infolding towards the chanel-bone where being about to enter the cavity of the Breast it falls upon the axillary Artery as it were in right Angles and strains or binds it from whence it is drowned or hidden in the Thorax near the roots of the first and second Ribs and there receiving three or four branches from the Vertebral nerves next to those uppermost constitutes another infolding which is commonly called the Intercostal infolding The uppermost of these Vertebral nerves coming to this infolding in its journey binds the Vertebral Artery and almost compasses it about In Brutes by this nerve which comes upon the Vertebral Artery the intercostal infolding communicates with the root of the nerve of the Diaphragma and not by any other means unless by small fibres sent forth from the lower part of the infolding into the Vertebral nerves Further in Brutes a noted branch is carried from this infolding into the Trunk of the wandring pair But in Man the intercostal Trunk passes through the cavity of the Thorax without any communication had with the other parts unless that from hence in its whole descent running
was much more capacious in the proportion to the bulk of his Body and the turnings and windings of it were larger The orbicular Prominences called Nates and Testes also the ringy Protuberance sent down from the Cerebel came nearer the figure and magnitude of those parts in a man But what occurred chiefly worthy noting was this viz. That the intercostal Nerve although even as it is wont to be in other Brutes being included in the same sheath with the Trunk of the eighth pair was carried through the Neck yet departing from this Nerve near the Chanel-bone before it was inserted into the infolding placed nigh the roots of the upper Ribs did send forth some shoots into the Heart and its Appendix and certain Fibres into the nerve of the Diaphragma which perhaps partly is the reason why this Animal is so crafty and mimical above other Beasts and can so aptly shew and imitate not only the gestures but the passions and some manners of a Man But we will proceed to the explication of the intercostal Nerve from whence we have digressed We have already intimated for what use the Vertebral branch is inserted into its cervical infolding There is the same reason for this as for the other Vertebrals which communicate with the intercostal Nerve almost in its whole passage But for that the nerve of the Diaphragma is radicated in the same Vertebral nerve from whence a branch comes into this infolding I say from that a reason may be taken why the motion of the Diaphragma intimately conspires with the Praecordia yea and with the conceptions of the Brain which kind of Sympathy of the Diaphragma with the other parts because it is requisite to be more strict and noted in man it is observed That not only the Vertebral branch cometh between the infolding and the root of the nerve of the Diaphragma but two and sometimes three nerves are sent from this infolding into the trunk it self of the nerve of the Diaphragma Fig. 9 ε. ε. Truly from hence not only the joynt action or Sympraxis of the Diaphragma with the Praecordia may be derived but also the genuine cause is here manifest why Risibility is a proper Affection of a man For as often as the Imagination is affected by any pleasant or wonderful conception presently the Heart desires to rejoyce and as it were by shaking off its load to be eased wherefore that the blood might be more swiftly emptied out of its right bosom into the Lungs and consequently out of the left into the Aorta the Diaphragma instigated by the passage of the nerves going out of this infolding is drawn upward by a more rapid Systole and raises up the Lungs as it were making iterated leaps and causes them by their more frequent striking together to drive out both the Air and the blood Then forasmuch as the same intercostal Nerve which communicates lower with the nerve of the Diaphragma is continued also higher with the maxillary Nerves a cackling being made in the Breast with it the gesture of the Mouth and Face pathetically answers One or two noted shoots and many nervous Fibres are carried from this infolding into the returning Nerve Fig. 9. ζ. Certainly the reason of this communication seems to be that the Diaphragma and the Heart it self into which nerves are sent from this infolding might yet more conspire with the rough Artery which the returning nerve affects in its various actions and especially in laughing weeping and singing Moreover when the returning Nerves by pulling upwards the Trunks of the Aorta cause the blood for the stirring up some Affections to creep more swiftly towards the Head they may in the performing that office be much helped by the associate labour of the Nerves sent from this infolding From this infolding in the Neck many small fibres and shoots are spread into the sanguiferous Vessels as also into the Coats of the Trachea and the Oesophagus Fig. 9. ibid. As to what belongs to the former that respect the Trachea and the blood-carrying Vessels their office is that they may respectively draw together and spread abroad those chanels of inspired and exspired blood and Air according to the way and manner wherewith the Pulse and Breathing ought to be performed whereby the motions of either might be the better retarded or accelerated according to the necessities or requirings of the Heart Then numerous Fibres are stretched out from this infolding into the Coats of the Oesophagus placed near that by this means the admirable consent between the Heart and the Stomach by reason of the Nerves being reached forth from this infolding and from the wandring pair to both may be produced Concerning the Cardiack branches sent from this infolding we need not discourse any more after having but now intimated that these were as it were Internuncii peculiar to men which carrying to and fro the reciprocal impressions of the Brain and Heart cause Commerces in both Kingdoms But forasmuch as Nerves of a double kind viz. of the wandring and intercostal pair respect the humane Praecordia lest the gestures of one should be different from those of the other therefore the Cardiack branches which are of either family partly communicate in the same infolding and are partly inoculated mutually by shoots sent forth before they are distributed into the Heart it self Below the Cervical infolding the intercostal Trunk being demersed within the Thorax admits three Vertebral Nerves arising higher and constitutes the other infolding which is commonly called the Intercostal but more properly the Thoracical infolding Fig. 9. Τ. In this place the intercostal Nerve being about to pass into its last and more large Province viz. the Viscera of the lower Belly and therefore seeking aid for the journey and as it were a Viaticum for it self it gets together in this infolding an increase or aiding forces from the Vertebral nerves and afterwards receives lower others fresh nigh the several knots of the Vertebrae because it will have need of a great stock of Spirits which it must bestow on the Mesenterick infoldings and on other parts of the Abdomen That this Nerve about to enter the Thoracical infolding doth bind the Chanel-bone Artery Fig. 9. l. and that the superior branch of the Vertebral being sent into the same infolding doth bind about the Vertebral Artery Fig. 9. π. the reason of both seems that the blood for the uses and necessities of the lower Viscera to which the intercostal Nerve from thence serves may be driven forward with a more plentiful afflux downwards which thing those Nerves easily do by pulling together the blood-carrying Vessels towards their infolding so that they attempt this snatching of the blood in opposition to that which the returning Nerves perform And indeed when the blood tending upwards and downwards is wont sometimes to flow too much towards either bound sometimes to be wanting therefore the nerves as it were an incitement or remora are variously disposed both in the upper
and lower region of the Circuit about the sanguiferous Vessels After what manner this Thoracical infolding is in brute Beasts shall be particularly shewn hereafter The intercostal Nerve in a Man both in this infolding and in the whole descent through the Thorax receives many Vertebral nerves as if sparing of its own stock and greedy of anothers but sends forth from it self not a shoot whatever of Spirits is remaining either from the influence above or comes to it by the by is reserved wholly for a largess to be bestowed on the Viscera of the lower Belly But after what manner and by what passages of nerves that is dispensed into the several parts we will unfold in the following Chapter CHAP. XXVII The lower Branching of the Intercostal Nerve belonging to the Parts and Viscera of the lower Belly is unfolded AFter the intercostal Pair hath past through the hollowness of the Thorax without any expence of Spirits unless in the Neck-infolding at length it sends down from the region of the Ventricle on both sides a noted Branch either of which presently becoming divided into two constitute two peculiar Infoldings on either side but one infolding arises in the midst of them as if common to either side Of the infoldings which are on the left side one respects the Kidney and the other the Ventricle with the Spleen but of those which are on the opposite side one respects the right Kidney and the other the Liver and its neighbouring part In the midst of these the infolding proper to the Mesentery and the biggest is placed as the Sun among the other Planets Further from these are sent forth one to another and into the neighbouring parts numerous Fibres very thickly as it were dartings of rays Fig. 11. plainly shews all these Concerning these in the first place it shall be inquired into in general For what end so many nervous infoldings with almost innumerable fibres and shoots are distributed about the Mesentery and the Viscera of the Abdomen For when in these parts the fibres and nervous shoots are carried on every side with so thick a series that they are variously infolded with their manifold meeting it may seem wonderful if every one of these be destinated to some uses and are not rather sprinkled here and there by chance and as it were by the inconsiderate sporting of Nature And indeed any one can scarce think that so many Vessels should be prepared for the performing the offices of motion or sense in that place For those Viscera unless highly pulled and affected with a Convulsion are sensible of little or nothing that we know of and their motions are almost no other thing than obscure Vermiculations or light Corrugations so that for the effecting them there is required no greater preparation than for the slow progress of a Snail Wherefore from hence it hath come into the mind of some that a certain Juyce and that perhaps nutritious was dispensed by this manifold passage of the nervous Pipes which sort of office however if assigned to these Fibres dispersed about the Mesentery why should not the same office either of receiving or of carrying of nourishment be granted to those in like manner divaricated about the Lungs and the Praecordia and especially about the rough Artery But truly it is highly improbable that a nutritious Juyce should be contained in the Coats of the Trachea or of the Bronchia which the nerves may suck out nor does it more clearly appear why more nerves should be destinated for the carrying of the alible Juyce to these parts of the Abdomen or those of the Breast than is needful for the musculous stock But in the mean time though we deny that the whole nutritious matter is carried this way and that way by those or the other nerves yet we think that within those nervous passages an humor doth perpetually abound which may be for a Vehicle of the animal Spirits and a Ferment for the nutritious matter with which going with the nervous humor towards the Intestines and to the other sinks of the Body it is likely that the superfluous and excrementitious serosities do often slide down together and so are carried out But it may be well thought as to the Mesenterick Nerves and Infoldings in which they are terminated and the Fibres most thickly going out of these that these different manner of Vessels are first Chanels then Storehouses and lastly the last Emissaries of the animal Spirits If it should be demanded for what end so great plenty of Spirits should be designed for these ignobler parts I say that this is done for the performing the acts of Motion and Sense there which are highly necessary for the preserving of life it self For although local motion which is always performed by the help of a Muscle as of a Spring is not convenient for the Viscera of the lower Belly yet intestine motions are brought forth by them almost continually and after many fashions viz. for the subduing the Chyle also for the separation of some parts and particles from others both of that and also of the bloody Liquor and the protrusion of every one towards their designed bounds the Fibres and nervous shoots reaching into the Membranes of the Viscera and the Coats of the Vessels yea and into the textures of the Parenchyma are variously drawn together to wit these are pulled upwards those downwards sometimes many together sometimes apart or successively are wont to be drawn hither and thither In truth it is a sign of the indiscontinued action of these Viscera that as well in sleep and perhaps more than in waking the Culinary work of Nutrition is performed and whilst the Organs of the other Faculties are at rest there is no quiet granted to these but that the Mesenterick nerves perpetually grinding in the Mill are always busied for the preparing the alible humor and the exporting the same towards all parts Moreover in these parts to which the aforesaid Nerves belong there is found an exquisite feeling no less than a motive Faculty for whatsoever heterogeneous or hurtful thing mixed with the Chyle or blood is brought to any Viscera presently the Spirits inhabiting those parts being warned of the evil do greatly tumultuate as it were by entring into a Conspiracy that what is hostile or troublesom they might shut out But indeed because the animal Spirits flowing by the passage of the intercostal nerve to the Intestines and Viscera akin to them proceed from the Cerebel therefore the businesses of either Faculty to wit both the sensitive and locomotive forasmuch as they are performed the Brain unconsulted and the animal scarce knowing it are not so openly taken notice of and for that reason they are accounted of less than the spontaneous acts of the other parts But as to the manner it self or way of the oeconomy whereby the animal Spirits destinated to the Viscera of the lower Belly are exercised we affirm That plenty of them flow into
all the Mesentetick infoldings by the passage of the nerves sent from the intercostal pair where being heaped up to a fulness as it were in so many Store-houses or places of Receipt they are kept to be distributed from thence into several parts as occasion requires But that the Spirits flow out of these infoldings not through singular and larger branches as is done in the Muscles but as it were by Troops of Fibres into their proper tasks the reason is because here the business is performed otherwise than in the musculous stock For where a Muscle is fixed to the part to be moved it s implanted Fibres perform the whole work of Contraction or of the motive endeavour but it suffices for the nerve still to convey new supplements of Spirits and as occasion serves the Instincts of the Motion to be performed but in the Membranes and the Viscera where Muscles are wanting the nervous Fibres themselves most thickly implanted and distributed as it were so many little ropes almost into every part of the subject perform the business of Traction or drawing by themselves and their own proper endeavour or force partly and partly solicite or stir up into motion the Fibres implanted in the Viscera disposed after an uncertain order which they determinate in their action and moderate or govern them as it were so many fingers laid upon the strings of a musical Instrument For although the Membranes and the Viscera themselves are indued with some implanted Fibres yet these are not as it is in the Muscles of one kind and position but in the same part some are straight and others oblique or crooked these tend upwards those downwards and others are carried round so that divers sorts of motions ought to be performed in the same Membrane or Inward sometimes together sometimes successively or by turns wherefore distinct nerves are required not only for the several series of Fibres but for all the parts of the subject to wit which may stop here a motion begun in that place and may begin another anew or may unite one with another Truly the motion which is performed in the musculous stock seems like the rude and more simple work of some Weaver where the shuttle being always cast after the same manner the Woof is laid under the Thread or Yarn but the motions of the Intestines and Viscera may be aptly compared to a Texture very much variegated or flourished for the weaving of whos 's more artificial substance or making there is made use of many hands together or of a Machine diversly turning about and furnished with more than a thousand sorts of motions Concerning the many Mesenterick Nerves and Shoots and nervous Fibres which go out of them by bands we must consider chiefly these two things to wit what may be the office of each of them for the stirring up of motion or sense either of them or both together in any part then secondly what the communication of either of them may be with other nerves infoldings or bundles of nerves by reason of which a Sympathy or consent of actions arises at once in divers parts According to these two respects we will particularly weigh now the several nervous Vessels belonging to the Viscera of the lower Belly Therefore in the left side the supreme Mesenterick branch being presently forked like the figure of the Letter Y contains in its upper shoot the Stomachical infolding which is also the Splenetick and in the other lower the Renal infolding or that belonging to the Reins Moreover about the knot of division it sends forth some shoots to the greatest infolding of the Mesentery Fig. 11. F. G. Hence a reason is plain wherefore there happens such affinity between the Ventricle and the Spleen and between the Mesentery and the Reins so that the very often and familiar Symptom of Vomiting is both in Splenetick Colical and Nephritick people because when a Convulsion is begun in any part or Inward which the Mesenterick nerve respects presently other parts to which the infoldings or shoots of the same nerve belong are drawn into consent From this lower infolding a little bundle of Nerves being carried towards the Stomach inserts its Fibres partly in its bottom and partly sends them to meet with other Fibres sent down from the nerve of the Stomach Fig. 11. n. The reason of the former is That whereas there are many Coats of the Ventricle and divers series of Fibres are disposed in them for the actuating all of which with a due influx of animal Spirits the Stomachical nerves derived from the wandring pair are not sufficient it was fit that for the outward Court as it were or Precinct of this Inward to wit for the outmost bottom of it some forces of Spirits might be supplied from some strange Kingdom to wit from the aforesaid nervous infolding of the Abdomen Instead of this Spirits also may slide downwards from the same Stomachical branch through other Fibres sent down and be sent into this Splenetick infolding Besides also it is observed That the adventitious nerves aptly conspire with the former being of the proper dominion of the Ventricle and that either are not only inoculated within the confines of the Inward it self but they run into mutual embraces without it and as it were joyn hands together It seems plain that the nervous Filaments being carried from the aforesaid infolding to the bottom of the Ventricle may serve there for the performing the acts of Motion and Sensation but it doth not so easily appear with what office the other handful of Fibres reaching out from hence into the Spleen is charged Fig. 11. ζ. because this Inward is said to be destitute wholly of every animal Faculty When we did elsewhere inquire into the use of the Spleen we thought good to affirm That its office was to separate the dregs of the Blood and the acid-saline Particles and whatsoever were of a more fixed nature and to concoct them more being received into its own bosom and to convert them into an acid Ferment by which being again delivered to the blood through the Veins a sharpness and an asperity as also an active or fermentative virtue are gotten for its Latex Wherefore the whole substance of the Spleen consists of a texture of Fibres in the form of a net to wit that the Feculencies of the blood might be more plentifully received and contained within its spongy cavities and thick passages I say therefore that for the fit preserving and dispensing of the Splenetick Ferment besides the Arteries which carry matter and the Veins which continually sup back some portion of the same fermented there seems to be need of many nerves also which both by pulling the fibrous texture of the Spleen might cause the melancholick and dark Faeces laid up in it to be shaken together and so by defending it from putrefaction and coagulation cause it to be imbued with an acid and fermentative nature and also that those nerves
of the other rivers in the Liver should be disturbed But for that the nerves like Reins do bind about the Trunk of the Artery the inflowing of the blood it self is moderated and they cause it variously to be dispensed according to the wants of those parts to which it is destinated From the Troop of Nerves going out towards the Liver some bend down into the Pancreas and others into the Cholidock Vessels Duodenum and Pylorus and sow into them thick series of shoots Fig. 11. π. π. The office of these seems to be to pull together the excretory passages of those parts and to shake them for the causing Evacuations of the boiling or turging humors upon occasion Further from these Fibres being carried upwards when many others sent from either Stomachical nerve are united the reason is plain why from an hawling or pulling made about the Ventricle the yellow Bile is drawn out of the Gall-chest into the Duodenum which being carried from thence into the Ventricle by reason of a Convulsion of that same Intestine is cast up by Vomit because the Stomachical nerves being irritated by a Medicine or by any troublesom thing for the making an Evacuation above and for that cause drawn from thence upwards they draw together the nerves belonging to the Liver and the Cholidock Vessels for that they are tied to them and bring them into consent with the superior Spasm or Convulsion Hence it happens that not only the Stomach being first tired draws to it self the Bile by its Convulsion and allures it into its own bosom but the Bile also of its own accord growing turgid and so being poured out into the Duodenum forasmuch as it irritates the nerves of this Intestine and then by their consent provokes the nervous Vessels of the Ventricle it presently induces a cholerick Vomiting The Hepatick Infolding communicates with the Splenetick by Fibres going between either Fig. 11. τ. The reason of which seems to be That when one infolding respects the end or the right extremity of the Ventricle and another the left that a consent in either and a joynt action may be made towards the Stomach both communicate between themselves by nerves as if Internuntii Truly it seems to come to pass by the passage of these nerves that the Hypochondriacal pains oftentimes run from the left side into the right to wit for that a Spasm or Convulsion begun in the Splenetick infolding is wont to be carried to the Hepatick Between the Hepatick Infolding and the greatest of the Mesentery many Fibres reaching out by bands are cast out in the midst Fig. 11. p. p. the office of which is to sustain a certain commerce and Sympathy to wit such an one is required both that the Chyle may be ministred from the Intestines towards the Liver still in due proportion also that the Bile may opportunely slide out from the Gall-bladder into the Intestines for the provoking of Excretion For we are of this Opinion That the Meseraick Veins sucking out a certain portion of the Chyle from the Intestines immediately transfer it through the region of the Liver into the Vena Cava whereby the blood in the ascending Trunk of the hollow Vein or Vena Cava might be freshly imbued with nourishing Juyce even as in its descending Trunk it is refreshed the same being poured out through the Thoracical Vessels or those belonging to the Thorax Wherefore it is needful that there should be a very strict affinity between these Viscera and the rather because the Bile ought to be poured out from the Gall chest to the Intestines not continually but for some uses by occasions and intervals For the Nerves knowing best the wants of either part warn them both of their mutual duty and as occasion serves stir them into action It is observed That in the right side an ample Nerve is stretched out between the Hepatick and Renal infolding Fig. 11. μ. So that between these infoldings a greater and more immediate consent is had than between those pairs of the other side The reason of which doth not easily appear unless perhaps it should be so made for this end that when from the Reins in making of water there is an endeavour of the serous Excretion the Pylorus and the Cholidock Vessels being at once drawn downwards a protrusion of the Chyle and Faeces might be provoked towards the lower parts of the Belly Certainly this connexion of these infoldings is chiefly the cause why oftentimes most cruel Vomiting uses to come upon a Fit of the Stone and that from such a Vomiting the Cholidock Vessels are very much emptied as if provoked by taking an Emetick The greatest Infolding of the Mesentery being placed in the midst of the rest like the Sun disperses every where round about nervous Fibres like rays Fig. 11. ☉ and casts them not only on every one of those infoldings as if so many Planets with a peculiar Aspect or Actinobolism or Irradiation but also it distributes them into many Intestines sanguiferous Vessels and other parts lying round about without doubt upon these nervous Filaments which are carried from this infolding to the Intestines as Lines from the Centre to the Circumference every action of the Intestines and especially the Peristaltick motion of the Vermiculation depends namely for that these Fibres do move successively and still move further every begun action as it were with a spiral or Screw-like progress That from this Infolding many Fibres and shoots going forth are inserted into the Trunk of the Aorta nigh its descending and that these reaching towards the Intestines accompany the Blood-carrying Vessels and in several places climb over them from hence it may be inferred That nerves also in the Abdomen are like Bridles and Reins cast on the sanguiferous Vessels which either by straining or pulling them together may sometimes retard sometimes incite the course of the blood according to the needs of the lower Viscera From the greatest Infolding of the Mesentery some noted Fibres and shoots are sent out into the Glandula's of the Womb or the Womens Testicles Fig. 11. τ. τ. Into which also other shoots from the Trunk of the intercostal Nerve ibid. υ. υ. and others going out of the nerve which comes between this infolding and the lowest of the Abdomen do come together ibid. ψ. ψ. So that a provision of Spirits is carried into those parts from a threefold Store-house which indeed is much larger than is done in the other Sex when we find scarce any nerve to belong to mens Testicles Indeed the Womb besides that it is a very sensible part ought also to be moved diversly and in bringing forth a child very strongly wherefore there are granted to this both more strong implanted Fibres and also Nerves of a various kind and original Most of the Infoldings of the Abdomen but especially the lowest and that related to it the greatest of the Mesentery are oftentimes affected in the Passions commonly
other thing with various gestures whereof we are ignorant or not willing them we scarcely think or speak any thing but at the same time the hands are flung out here and there and whilst the Tongue hesitates or sticks or the words at it were stick between the Jaws the right hand is exercised as if by its gesture it were endeavouring to draw out more swiftly the sence of the mind Truly that these parts to wit the Hands and Arms do so nearly conspire with the Affections of the Brain and Heart in their motions in some measure in all living Creatures but more eminently in Man the cause seems to be this nerve's coming from the spinal Marrow to the beginning of the wandring pair and communicating with its nerves and receiving from them as it were the note or private mark of the involuntary Function So much for the spinal Nerve which also like a shrub growing from other shrubs hath no peculiar origine but having received various fibres is radicated for the greatest part in the spinal Marrow and as hath been shewn partly in the nerve of the wandring pair Concerning the nerve of the Diaphragma of which we shall speak next many things occur no less worthy remarking As to its beginning it may be observed That it arises from the brachial nerves with a double or triple root to wit two or three shoots going out of the aforesaid nerves grow together into the same Trunk which is the nerve of the Diaphragma In man its first shoot which is also the greatest is produced out of the second Vertebral nerve and when the first brachial nerve arises from the same handful of Vertebral nerves going out at this place the aforesaid shoot is rooted in its origine wherefore when in Brutes the first brachial nerve arises from the fourth or fifth Vertebral the nerve of the Diaphragma also begins its rise far lower two other shoots arise out of the same stocks of the brachial nerves which follow next Fig. 9. Υ. φ. But the Trunk which is made out of these shoots goes forward single through the passage of the Neck and the cavity of the Thorax without any branching forth even to the Diaphragma Fig. 9 χ. where being at last stretched out into three or four shoots it is inserted on either side to the fleshy or musculous part of it so that because the Diaphragma is a Muscle and performs both its motions to wit Systole and Diastole by its own Fibres the office of either nerve is only to carry bands or forces of animal Spirits requisite for the indiscontinued action of that part and also to convey thither the Instincts of the Motions variously to be performed As to the first use of this Nerve viz. for the passage of the animal Spirits the business is performed in this Muscle as it is in the Heart The Spirits flowing into the Diaphragma by the nerves receive subsidiary Forces to wit a sulphureous Copula from the blood upon whose explosion being still iterated by turns and the receiving of new the action of this perpetual moveable depends Concerning the Instincts of the Motions transmitted by the passage of this double nerve we may observe That they are especially in man of a double kind viz. either the action of the Diaphragma merely natural for the performing of Respiration is continually reciprocated according to the uses of the Heart and Lungs and altered many ways in their tenour according to their needs or secondly a certain irregular and unusual motion of the Diaphragma is wont to be excited at the beck of the Appetite or from the instigations of other parts for the which whilst the rest of the Organs of Respiration are compelled to conspire the act it self of Respiration becomes after a various manner interrupted or unequal 1. As to the first of these viz. the unforced motion of this Muscle it may be observed That the Diaphragma with the Muscles of the Thorax and the parts of either conspire in their motion with the action of the Lungs and Heart and that between all these such a joynt action may be sustained it is observed That three or four branches are sent out from the Vertebral nerves in the branches of which the nerve of the Diaphragma is rooted into the intercostal infolding Fig. 9. Τ. and whereas from this infolding the nerves are carried into the Muscles of the Thorax by this means a communication and consent of action is effected between these and the Diaphragma Therefore the Diaphragma drawing with it self the Muscles of the Thorax by reason of other nerves conspires with the Praecordia These in man going from the intercostal nerve are already described and in Brutes from the lower infolding of the wandring pair a nerve is sent down into the infolding of the Thorax to which besides so many shoots and certain fibres reaching forth into the nerve of the Diaphragma are instead of such a commerce 2. The Anomal and irregular motions of the Diaphragma proceed from various causes and from the divers instigation of other parts which also in man become much more signal than in brute Animals because in him the communication is notable by the nerves reaching out from the Cervical infolding of the intercostal pair into the nerve of the Diaphragma which kind of infolding and nerves are wanting in Brutes As to the Species themselves of irregular motions into which the motion of the Diaphragma is wont to be perverted it may be observed That we are able at our pleasure to stop breathing or respiration for some space and presently to take it or draw it out In laughing weeping and singing sometimes the Systole sometimes the Diastole becomes stronger and is made frequenter upward or downward with a repeated shaking which sort of actions of it are made by reason of those near commerces had between the nerve of the Diaphragma and other respective parts of the Breast and Face yea indeed from hence it is effected as we have already shewn that man is peculiarly a laughing Creature Further which we have shewn elsewhere from the Sympathy which happens between the parts of the Mouth and Face with the Diaphragma by those nerves a good reason of sneezing may be given and that Problem of Aristotles easily solved to wit why men alone or chiefly before other Creatures sneeze For the act of sneezing seems to be made for this end that man may not only clear his Nose but that all Torpor or heaviness may be shook off for him from the neighbouring Organs of the Senses yea and from all the fore-part of the Brain which thing easily succeeds if the Membranes and nervous passages besmearing the Nostrils and the Sieve-like Bone like the holes of a Sponge being strongly wrung forth or squeezed together be forced to shed forth their moistures for these parts so emptied presently like a pressed Sponge receive other humors to wit those coming from the neighbouring parts In the mean time that the watry heap
the Second swift motions and Concussions which coming between cease and return alternatly But neither those who have observed these notes of difference nor other Authors have taken notice that they are continual for that by the words Spasme and Convulsion they often designe a certain Spasmodick or Convulsive Affection wherefore to distinguish it better we will call the former distemper with Cardan tetanon a continual Convulsive Cramp but the other Spasm or a Convulsive motion in generall But that the irregular Nature and Causes of Convulsive motion might more rightly have been made known it should first have been declared after what manner the regular motive function is effected in an animated Body but the more full Consideration of this because it belongs to the Physiologie or Reasoning of the Nature of the Brain and Nervous stock it is deferred to another Discourse For the present we will signifie in a word as much as shall serve for the elucidation of the matter proposed How the regular Motion is Effected That the animal Spirits are the next Instrument of regular motion and that their Action or moving force consists only in that they being more thickly heaped up together in the motive part and there spreading themselves in a more large space they blow it up and intumefie it which for that reason being contracted as to its length draws to it self the part hanging to it In our description of the Nerves already published It s beginning twofold we have shown this kind of motion to be twofold to wit Spontaneous and meerly natural the Instinct of this is derived from the Cerebel but of that from the brain but both through the pipes of the Nerves as it were the channels both to the muscles and also to the fibres interwoven with the membrains and other motive parts of the Parenchyma or Inwards Lastly in all these the various actions are so expeditiously effected which either natural necessity or the rule of the will requires by that only means that there is an intimate Conjunction and communication of Duty and most swift Commerce between the animal Spirits which Constitute the Hypostasis of the sensitive Soul within the foresaid parts disposed or fitted by a continued Series The Subject also twofold But there is this notable difference between the motion of a muscle and that performed by other parts for in these the action is most often circumscrib'd within the bounds of the motive body so as its membranes only or one part of the inward moves another and consequently this is moved of its neighbour But in the musculous stock usually the moving part is placed in one member and to be moved of another next it although within some musculous part as the Heart and Diaphragma they properly for the most part move themselves only hence the Membranes and Inwards are said to have as it were an intestine and vermicular Motion such as where-ever it is begun the Spirits there more thickly gather together and Spreading themselves forth they first intumifie this part then going forward another and so farther till at last they draw the hindermost parts and by this means transfer an intumifaction and therefore a motion from one place to another almost after the same manner as worms and other Creeping creatures make their progression But to this motive function of the Membranes and Inwards if it be frequent or undiscontinued plenty of spirits are required which notwithstanding execute their task calmly enough without tumult or great force And indeed it is to be observed that the Animal Spirits flow not more sparingly into the Membraneous Inwards than into the Muscles as it appears from the more exquisite sense of those parts and by the manifold insertion of Nerves within them and the diversity of divarication through the foldings and fibres although in the mean time the muscles are watered with a more plentifull influx of Blood But as to the motion performed in the musculous stock the heaping together and rarefaction of the Spirits through the whole joynting of the motive part suddenly and at once unfolded are performed with such force and strength as the attraction of the muscle in its motive endeavour may exceed the force of a pully or windlace and when this force only depends on the expansion or rarefaction of the Spirits seated in the motive part we can conceive it to be no otherwise but that the Spirits so expansed or stretched forth The Motion of a Muscle is a certain explosion of the Spirits as it were fired after the manner of gunpowder to be exploded or thrown out But we may suppose that to the Spirituous Saline particles of the spirits inhabiting the interwoven fibres in the muscle other nitrous-sulphureous particles of a diverse kind do come and grow intimately with them from the arterous blood flowing every where within the same fibres Then as often as the particles of either kinde as Nitre and Sulphur combined together by reason of the instinct of motion brought through the nerves are moved as an inkindling of fire forthwith on the other side bursting forth or being exploded they suddenly blow up the Muscle and from thence cause a most strong drawing together for indeed it seems to be ordained for this end that the Muscles are imbrewed much more plentifully with the arterous blood than the membraneous inwards to wit that the Elastick coupling of the spirits being consumed and perpetually falling off through the very often and sometimes continual motion might be by that means supplyed from the fresh sanguineous juice in the mean time that the spirits themselves being supplyed in a smaller quantity through the small nerves might even like old Soldiers continue longer in the same station and follow their manifold coupling or labour How else are labouring beasts supplyed with a sufficient stock of spirits for so much labour whilst they exercise allmost all their muscles by a swift course for many howers yea sometimes a whole day or who can believe that a little handfull of spirits brought through the small branches of the wandring and Intercostal pairs of the Nerves to the heart can be able by their own strength to effect that it s so strong and indiscontinued motion Indeed it seems that of necessity there must come to them from the blood perpetually auxilarie aid and those afterwards to be allways exploded For this reason certainly the motive virtue both of the Heart and the rest of the Muscles becomes more strong and Elastick above any mechanick Organ to wit for as much as the animal spirits acting every where in the musculous stock get to themselves an explosive Copula If any one shall be displeased at the word Explosion not yet used in Philosophy or Medicine so that this Spasmodick Pathologie standing on this basis may seem only ignoti per ignotius explicatio an explication of unknown things by more unknown things it will be easy to shew the effect of this kinde of
notion and very many examples and instances both concerning natural and artificiall things from the Analogie of whose motions in an animated body both regularly and irregularly performed most apt reasons are to be taken For besides the mixtures of Nitre with Sulphur with Tartar and with Antimony all which are fired with a thundring noise also Aurum fulminans or fulminant Gold and a Composition of salt of Tartar with Nitre and Sulphur without any actual fire being only thoroughly heated are exploded with a vehement Crash also to this may be referred many Liquors which being mixed together or poured upon some certain bodies cause or stir up violent motions and plainly Explosive The spirit of Nitre and the liquor of congeled Antimony being powred on one another or either of them thrown upon the filings of Iron cause a great Ebullition with heat and black smoke It is commonly known what heat or effervescency and force plainly explosive arise from fixed Salts melted together and from acetous or sharp salt of every kind mixed with one another Nor is the effect of Explosion less seen when a Liquor imbrued with a volatil Salt as the spirit of Harts-horn or of blood is put to a saline either fixed or acetous Stagma or sulphurious Nitre to wit the particles being vehemently stricken one against another leap up with a force and on every side are carried forth a great way which without doubt if they were restrained within the space of any body as the fibres of a Muscle they would suddenly intumifie it and so would constitute an Instrument of Local motion Concerning this thing we have more fully discoursed already in our Neurologie or Tract of the Nerves and perchance we may yet publish the explication of this more fully and more accuratly some other time In the mean time that this opinion may not be thought altogether new and that I have exposed it as a childe of my own brain that had no other Patron I will here shew you the assertion of the Famous Gassendus which as it openly favours this our Hypothesis and in some sort gave an occasion of it so perhaps it will give to it some Authority Therefore this Rational man weighing in his minde how much that force or strength might be with which not only the Arm or Thigh but the whole animal Machine is moved govern'd lifted up and carryed up and down He adds Who can easily comprehend that small thing whatsoever it is within the body of an Elephant whether we conceive it to be a soul or spirit or any other beginning of motion that it should be able to agitate such a bulk and to cause it to perform a swift and regular dance and so much the more for that when as that small thing within that body no longer flourishes there is need of so much outward strength to remove it never so little from its place but indeed the same fiery nature of the soul serves chiefly to this which although it be a very little flame it is able to perform within the body by its own mobility the same thing in proportion that a little flame of Gun-powder does in a Cannon whilst that it not only drives forth the Bullet with so much force but also drives back the whole machine with so great strength But indeed he says as to the spirits which like explosed Gun-powder cause the agitation it is doubtfull whether it be they which come from the brain or those in the little tendons as it were of kin to them or springing from them that are thought to do it But although either of them concur yet they seem to be more presently destinated to this office which are those of the same kin or off-spring in the Tendons There needs no more it is declared that the motive function depends on the Elastick Copula of the animal spirits and its decision or abating But from this being supposed which indeed we may suppose with very great probability it easily follows that the Convulsive motions proceed from the like cause For whosoever shall consider the sudden puffings up the violent and strong Contractions in the members and affected parts yea sometimes the most impetuous concussions and violent throws of the whole body can conceive no less than that very many heaps of the animal spirits are exploded or thrust out even as lightning breaking forth from a Cloud Further from hence it may be Argued by a reciprocal Argument that because the Spasmodick motions are explosive that therefore the regular are also produced by the explosion of Spirits But after what manner and by what means and from what causes the animal spirits being exploded or thrust forth produce Spasmodick affections shall be our present business a little more largely and plainly to demonstrate however difficult and abstruse the matter seems to be We will not here stand to recite many opinions of others The Conjunct Cause of Spasms concerning the Nature and causes of a Spasm or Convulsion that which was most common and long famous among the Ancients that this distemper was only produced from repletion or inanition or from fullness or emptiness however Not repletion or fulness or inanition or Emptiness besides the authority of Hipocrates for the establishing of this an example is brought of a Skin or the strings of Lutes which are wont to be contracted being either filled with a moist or empted by too dry an aire easily falls of it self because it seems to suppose that which is credible to none by Experience the fragility of a Nerve to wit that the Nerves themselves after what manner soever abreviated and contracted are able with a certain force to draw to them the Muscles If that it shall be said that repletion or inanition ought to be understood in respect of the solid parts which are wont to be drawn together it may be observed to the contrary when as the Muscels and Nervous stock are very much watered with a watery humour as in an Anasarca or are plainly destitue of the same as in the Consumption or Mirasmus yet no Convulsive motions are for that reason excited among the moderns very many have determined irritation of the Nervous parts to be the cause of Convulsion taking their Conjecture from thence as I suppose for that by ocular inspection it appears from the Vellication it self and by the only touch of the Nerves that spasms are induced And indeed we have clearly observ'd in the dissection of a living whelp that the knife being put upon the naked ends of the spinal Nerves presently both themselves and the Bodies of the Muscles in which they were inserted were hauled neither is it unusual that spasms are excited almost in every man by the punctures of the Nerves and Tendons I remember by reason of an Ulcer in the Arms of a certain man that the Tendons of the Muscles were laid open which when touch'd by the Surgions Instrument caused in the Patient a certain
rigor through his whole body and forthwith a Concussion arising made him to quake for a good space But in truth albeit we grant the irritations of the Nervous parts not seldom to serve the turn of the evident Cause and further that sometimes this solitary Cause produces more light and transient spasms nevertheless that the more grievious paroxisms of this Disease and their frequent repetitions by turns may be duly unfolded it behoves us to investigate or search out other and deeper Causes to wit the Conjunct and procatartick Cause Forasmuch as spasms never happen but in a living Body where the Nervous parts are blown up and grow turgid with the animal Spirit we may readily Conjecture that those animal Spirits themselves are as in regular motion so also in the Convulsive the next Instrument of Action to wit so long as they are imbued with a fit and moderate explosive Copula and are moved to that striking forth only by the Command of the Appetite or instinct of Nature they bring forth motions altogether regular but if the same Spirits get to themselves an heterogeneous Copula and too much Elastick or if they are snatched into their Actions more impetuously and vehemently than they should be they even like unbridled Horses pricked forward with Spurs leap forth inordinately or throw off or explode violently their Copula although genuine and natural and so they carry away the containing parts as it were a Chariot tied to them together with themselves with a fierce and perverse motion There is a double Cause and two kinds of Spasms Irritation When therefore as aforesaid the Convulsive motions are chiefly stired up for two Causes hence as many Species of them are ordained For first it happens that a Convulsion is induced without a procatartick Cause or heterogeneous Copula first acquired only from a solitary evident Cause For so a vehement passion impressed on the brain a dissolution of the parts hapning somewhere in the Nervous stock a spasmodick passion is suddenly brought upon some whose brain and Nerves are of a more weak Constitution for that the animal spirits do trouble the containing parts the improportionate Object flying from them and by striking vehemently their Copula though very agreeing it blows them up and so they pull others annexed to them Spasms being after this manner excited because the natural Copula of the spirits in them is stricken more vehemently they are after a manner explosive which notwithstanding quickly leave off and very often pass away with moving of the viscera or Members only with a trembling and some horror into a fainting of the spirits But Secondly Convulsions whose paroxisms are more grevious and stay longer or are oftener repeated seem altogether to depend on a procatartick Cause or a previous disposition and to arise from some other Conjunct Cause besides Irritation And therefore in this Case we suppose A preternatural explosive Copula that the heterogeneous and greatly explosive particles do increase with the spirits acting in this or that region of the Body then from this wicked Combination and restless Collision of this kinde of matter and the Spirits frequent and vehement explosions being brought forth the spasmodick Paroxisms are induced But besides the Elastick Copula which every where happens to the Spirits from the arterous Blood and from whose orderly explosion the motive force is performed according to the Beck of the Appetite or instinct of Nature in all the Nervous parts as we have elsewhere declared also sometimes other kinde of little bodys of a fierce nature or rather like Gun-powder or Nitre come to the Spirits and intimately adhere to them when frequent and suddain divorces of this matter from the Embraces of the Spirits happen from the mutual striking together of the particles the conteining Bodys are variously blown up and so are thrown into Convulsive motions In truth as often as the Spasmodick Affection becoms habitual that the Convulsive Paroxisms arise not rarely on their own accord and without any evident cause but still on every light occasion the procatartick Cause of such a disease consists in the evill disposition of such a sort of animal Spirits For neither is the Serous filth or other less sharp humours although deposited in the very ventricles of the Brain or about the origine of the nerves sufficient to stir up such a sickness For that I have seen in the heads of dead people oftentimes the middle part of the brain and the very beginings of the Nerves wholly covered with a limpid water who whilst they were alive had neither the Epilepsie nor Convulsive Motions But to the producing or these motions very active Bodys are required such as are Saline and Sulphereous which being combined with the Spirits and then on a sudden breaking from them they imitate the combinations and violent explosions of particular mineralls For indeed if in regular and ordinary motion as we have intimated the Muscles cannot get a motive force and elastick strength unless a certain explosion of the animal Spirits be supposed certainly much more lawfully may we assert that epileptick fits and other admirable Convulsions which still happen to be excited complications of the same Spirits with other very firce particles and vehement elisions or strikings of these one against another are required But as to this kind of Sposmodic Copula because it differs from the natural and ordinary which we have elsewhere shewn to be in regular motion and to be supplyed from the blood it behooves us to inquire from whence it comes and by what means and in what places it is wont to get to the Spirits As to the first it is to be observed that Spasmodick explosions do every way happen not only in the muscles to which only they are limited which effect the regular motion but also in the membranes to wit the ventricle mesenterie and other parts almost without blood besides that the explosions themselves in the Convulsive Affection though they are excited contrary to the will of the Appetite and the manner of Nature are far more vehement and do longer continue than in the regular motion out of which it seems to be manifest that the Explosive Spasmodick Copula doth come from some other place than the Effectrice of Regular motion And indeed it is probable that that flows not as this from the arterous blood running every where among the musculous fibres but descends from the Braine with the Liquore watring the Nerves The explosive Spasmodic Copula not immediatly from the Blood but from the Brain and so is heaped up about their beginnings middle processes enfoldings and Extremities as it were the mine of the Convulsive disease Indeed nothing appears more evident than that the Spasmodick Disease doth most often arise by reason of the evill first fixed in the Brain and from thence is transmitted into various parts of the Nervous System for it happens from hence that a vehement Passion as of
more than men and some of them more then others are obnoxious to the passions called Histerick Further sometimes a violent Passion impresses on the spirits though moderatly firm this kind of dissipation and inordination so that afterwards they are able to suffer nothing strongly or to resist any injurie So it often happens that morbid impressions are affixed on the animal regimen by sudden fear or great sadness which can hardly ever after be blotted out for from hence women often contract first the Diseases named the Mother or from the Womb and men the hypochondriack and are for the most part still subject to them From these things it appears after what manner and for what Causes 2. How the morbific matter being admitted within the head is disposed the Spasmodick Matter is wont to be admitted into the Head now let us see next what is done with it afterwards if that this matter brought to the Brain induces the Convulsive distempers either not always or not altogether after the same manner 1. It sometimes happens that the heterogeneons and explosive Particles Sometimes it is carried back again from the brain are admitted into the Brain which notwithstanding are again exterminated without any great hurt and before they enter into the nervous stock for that the veins and Lympheducts or water-carrying Vessells often sup up what is superfluous and an enemy to the animall dominion and convey it forth of doors or dispose of it into Emunctuaries or Sinks Whilst such a matter is for a little while agitated in the brain its particles being affixed to some of its Spirits and at length striking against them cause the Virtego and the swimming in the head but because they enter not into the passages of the nerves Spasmodick Distempers do not follow 2. When the morbifick matter is admitted within the Head and not presently from thence sent back oftentimes it produces not its evill Sometimes it is thrust out into the nervous stock till it is inserted into the stock of the Nerves for the animal Spirits within the Brain being as yet strong and having got a more free space they evade the embraces of every heterogeneous Copula which indeed they are not able to do within the strait channells of the nerves Besides the morbifick matter it self if it cannot be sent away out of the Brain by the excretory vessells it is by and by sent forth to the System of the nerves as the more ignoble part Remaining in the brain causes the falling-sickness but if in spite of the force of the superiour faculties such a matter stays long within the brain it much infects the Spirits that inhabit it and induces the Epilepsie as shall be more particularly shewed hereafter but more often the hurtfull matter is thrown on the nervous stock from the brain without much harm to it but this happens to come to pass not always after the same way For truly the heterogeneous Particles being mixed with the nervous Liquor The spasmodic matter being fallen on the nervous stock and fallen towards the beginings of the Nerves do not indifferently enter all of them together or these or those as chance shall guide them but they are directed to the passages of some before others and that not without some Reason For we observe that the Convulsive Symptoms do choose for the most part one place in children another in riper years and a different one in more tender than in the more rebust In children who are not yet accustomed to the Affections of the Heart Afflict the foreparts of the Nerves in Children and exercise of the outward members whereby the morbifick cause may be further carried from the brain the Spasmodick matter runs more often into those nearest Nerves viz. the third fifth and sixth pares wherefore their faces and mouths and those parts are chiefly handled and it is rare and unusual for them to have their viscera and praecordia lifted up or affected with an inordinate motion as in those of riper years on the contrary in men of more advanced years Otherwise in those of riper years by its approach to the intercostals and the Nerves of the wandring pare it being more open to those of the spinal marrow which those nerves respect are wont to be more frequently pulled but yet with this difference that in the more tender and those who are very delicate and subject to passions and who by reason of the passions of the minde have very often their praecordia and viscera disturbed the Spasmodick matter more readily enters the more open passages of the interiour Nerves and therefore they are rendred more obnoxious to Spasmes stirred up in the Abdomen and the Thorax for hence it is that women are molested with the passions called Hysterical and some men with the hypocondriack as shall be more largely declared hereafter when we come to treat particularly of these Distempers After what manner it disturbs the spirits whilst it stays near the beginnings of the Nerves or being fallen more deeply into their passages When the Spasmodic matter falls upon the heads of some nerves or remaining there it creates only a giddiness and lighter Spasmes and leapings of those parts to which these Nerves belong or being slidden more deeply into the pipes of the Nerves it brings forth more cruel Convulsive Paroxisms but the same being dilated into the nervous processes is disposed through one or more of the branches of the stock or Trunk sometimes all and sometimes only those more open than the rest and by degrees cleave to the Spirits both within those Nerves as also to those planted within the hanging Fibres so that it is after the same manner and there is the like preparation in the disposition to Convulsive Paroxisms as if grains of Gunpowder were laid in a long train to be fired successively The Spirits after this manner imbred with an heterogeneous Copula are lodged within the Fibres interwoven with the membranes and Muscles but chiefly within the nervous foldings and when they grieved with too great plentitude or troubled on any other occasion are compelled to shake off their Copula the particles striking and leaping one against another hugely blow up the containing parts and so excite a motive force contrary to the commands and Laws of the Appetite and Nature The spirits enter into explosions by reason of plenitude or irritation Besides the Spirits once stirred up to the performing Convulsive motions begin their explosions from the one or the other extremity of the nervous System but for the most part at the end But they who are first explosed snatch or take with them their neighbours also praedisposed like a fiery train and so they propagate the begun affection with a long continued series of Spasms from one end to the other For a convulsion begun in the bottom of the belly or at the foot or hand creeps by degrees to the upper parts and for the
most part to the head it self and the same Distemper when it begins in the brain as in the Epilepsie is derived in like manner thence downwards to the remote Viscera and also to the exteriour members and Limbs The spasmodic matter causes Convulsions either continued or periodical or by fits The morbifick matter flowing in the heads of the nerves produces divers kinds of convulsions according to their various plenty and dispensation for first of all it is to be observed that the whole passages of the nervous System or of some of its parts through the abundant and exuberant matter are sometimes possessed so that the animal Spirits both flowing in and there implanted being full of an heterogeneous Copula and a perpetual supplement of it are urged into continual Spasms I have known some who have had all the muscles and tendons through their whole body afflicted with Contractions and leapings without intermission I have known others whose thighs arms and other members were perpetually forced into various bendings and distortions and also others I have seen who of necessity were compelled to leap and run up and down and to beat the ground with their feet and hands and if they did it not they fell into cruel Convulsions of the Viscera and Praecordia 2. If the explosive and heterogeneous Particles be combined with the Spirits in a lesser plenty they stick to them without tumult or perturbation untill after some time both Particles leaping again one from another and from their striking one another raise up Convulsive paroxysms which sort of Paroxysms are periodical and are repeated exactly at certain hours which happens by reason of the morbifick matters being dayly poured upon the nervous stock with an equal dimension and therefore about the same space of time it is also dayly heaped up to an explosive plenitude or they are wandring and uncertain in others for that the heterogeneous particles are poured in with a lesser company and so arise not to an explosive fullness under a long time when in the mean time the more full heaping of them together and their explosion are wont to happen sometimes more often and sometimes more seldom by reason of several occasions or evident causes hence it comes to pass that the Spasmodic Distemper is sometimes altogether attributed to the evident cause when indeed if a more remote convulsive cause had not gone before such a cause had stir'd up none Therefore that we may say something of the evident causes of Convusions The Evident causes of Spasms we have already observ'd if they be more vehement and happen to a weak and tender constitution of Brain and nervous stock they are sometimes solitary or of themselves cause convulsive passions but as often as the Spasmodick Distemper is heavier and being made habitual is wont to return oftener though the evident Cause be manifest and bears the blame of the effect nevertheless it is to be suspected that a procatartick or more remote cause exists and is the more strong efficient though it lies hid within for unless the Spirits are imbued with an heterogeneous Copula they would not be so easily nor so often driven into involuntary and praeternatural Explosions We meet with a double order or Glasses of Evident causes The Evident Cause twofold viz. Filling and Irritateing for either they are of that sort which increases the procatarick or more remote and brings it sooner to an explosive fullness as are an ill manner of living and errors in the six non-naturals which by infecting the blood and nervous juice heap up to a Saturity in greater plenty on the Spirits heterogeneous particles and by that means do the sooner procure Spasmodick accessions Or 2dly the evident cause is said to be whatever stirs and irritates suddenly the spirits that they presently fall into explosions and whatever it be that causes them to strike off their Copula and of this sort there are very many accidents that provoke the spirits The irritateing Cause stirs up Spasms direct or reflected planted now within the Head and now within the nervous System to convulsive motions by a divers instinct as is wont in the regular motions which motions are either direct or reflected 1. Of the former kinde chiefly are violent perturbations of the minde wherewith the spirits of the brain being agitated and confused they excite others lying within the nervous stock and often praedisposed to irregular explosions so a vehement fear anger or sadness do not only introduce epileptical and hysterical fits to those that are disturbed in their health but sometimes cause to divers others palpitation and trembling of the heart and also horrid convulsions of the members and Limbs 2. As to the other kinde of evident cause to wit whereby Spasms are excited by a reflected Act this indeed comes to pass not unfrequently as often as any heavy trouble with an irritation of the fibres and spirits happens any where to the nervous stock for that this trouble being by and by communicated to the chief fountains of the Spirits to wit the brain or Cerebell from thence inordinate and violent motions against the will of the minde that is convulsive being begun they are returned back for so either worms physick or sharp humours cruelly hauling the coats of the Intestines cause spasms in those parts and not seldom in the outward members So much for the several kindes of causes the conjunct procatartick and evident whereby convulsive Diseases becoming habitual and are wont to be repeated with more grievous Paroxisms do arise But as we have assigned another species of this Disease where the Paroxysms depend on an evident solitary cause or at most only from irritation the Spirits being not yet praeoccupied with an explosive Copula it is now next to be inquired into by what and how many ways this may come to pass Concerning this in general it is affirmed that the Spasmodic fits produced by mere irritation are either lighter and quickly passing away or more grievious and not seldom deadly as when poyson is taken or when they come upon an overpurging medicine Moreover it is noted when the morbifick or irritative matter falls upon the tales themselves or the foldings of the nerves that it also not rarely becomes explosive The irritateing Cause distinguished as to the places affected as to the subjects and so Spasms produced also from mere irritation as we have already noted are certain explosions these being thus premised we will dispatch the business in hand The irritation of the Nervous parts which is wont to cause convulsive motions happens in various places and from various matters which are incongruous and inimical to the spirits and fibres As to the things enemies to the Nature of the spirits you may observe besides poysons The places affected are the beginnings the extremities and the middle processes and foldings of the Nerves and the excess of cangible quallities which are inflicted from without many
things which are begot within us viz. the various recrements of the blood and nervous juice feverish taints praeternatural salt or sulphureous humours yea worms the stone with many other things to be infestous to the nervous stock and ordinarily to stir up Spasmodick irritations As to the places affected or the seat of the irritative matter although this brings hurt in any part of the nervous System yet for the most part it is wont to become most infestous when it is fixed near the beginnings or the ends of the nervous System or about the middle processes of the Nerves and especially in their foldings Besides such a matter which irritating the Spirits is wont to have the place of an Evident Cause doth not seldome become as we hinted but now the means of a more remote cause forasmuch as the heterogeneous particles being sent from it enter into the nervous fibres and being combined with the Spirits renders them more apt and ready to be exploded How the irritating Cause affects the origine of the Nerves 1. Therefore it sometimes happens that malignant humours and infestous to the nervous stock being poured out from the blood on the region of the brain and from thence dilated to the hinder region of the Head do fall upon the origine of the nerves where if the little skin which cloathes the oblong pith be broken they fall into the naked trunks of the nerves and enter deeply into their fibres wherefore indeed Convulsive motions arise not only in the neighbouring parts of the head but sometimes in very remote and not rarely in the whole nervous System This is generally observ'd in evill Crises of feavours the morbifick matter being translated to the head also in cephallic Distempers being brought to the worst and deadly state Truly when I have opened the heads of those who have dyed by this means I found in all of them the hinder Region of the oblong pith immers'd with a sharp and salt Serum How the extremities of the Nerves 2. As the interiour extremity or original of the System so not rarely the exterior or the end from a vellication or hawling there made begets Spasms or Convulsive motions and transfers them on every side that this is done ordinarily in the outward members the prickings of the tendons and Nerves do testifie No less are Spasms wont to be excited every way about from a vellication or pulling made in the Viscera when at any time Medicines or sharp humours also worms lying in the Ventricle or Intestines pull the membraneous part and so impress a troublesome sense on the chief sensories presently from thence by reason of the firing of the spirits Convulsive motions torment now the affected parts and now indifferently any other parts for oftentimes Spasms from the more grievous hurt of some Inwards do not only imploy the affected parts and their neighbours but also the Muscles of the face and mouth and are likewise transfer'd to the exterior members The stone impacted in the Uriters causes not only cruel Contractions in that passage but in all its neighbourhood Moreover some hysteric and other hypochondriac Symtoms are sometimes induced by this means forasmuch as by a vellication made in the membranes of some Viscera thence the Spasm is returned back How the middle proecsses and foldings 3. The irritative matter which is wont to be the Evident Cause of Spasms sometimes occupies the middle processes of the nerves and therefore the parts sometimes above sometimes beneath its seat are incited to convulsive motions This appears plain enough in the foldings of the Nerves for when the sharp recrements of the nervous juice are laid up in them they do not rarely create Spasms through the whole neighbourhood by this means the Collick or Histerick Distemper is often seen to be begot or excited there being no fault in those Inwards only from the humours deposited in the foldings of the mesenterie as we will shew hereafter when we come to treat of those particular Distempers In like manner by reason that the ganglioform foldings being stopped up with a sharp and irritative humour perfocation or choaking in the Throat and various Contractions of the Praecordia are caused Besides Spasmodick Distempers do not seldom depend upon a sharp humour within the whole trunks of the nerves and filling the passages of the nervous Bodys We have seen some troubled with admirable and perpetual Convulsions so that they have been forced as we have already mentioned to run about to leap to fling about and distort their members to strike the ground with their feet and hands and to exercise other strange gestures even as if they had been bewitch'd the genuine Cause of which kinde of passion seems to consist in this that the Juice watering the nervous stock being most sharp like stygian water and being become degenerate from its due Crasis doth irritate continually and as it were possess with a certain madness the Spirits therein flowing and implanted The difference of Spasms in respect of their origine From these things which we have discoursed about the various causes of Convulsions their manyfold Species and differences are made manifest For first we have made known that Spasmodick Passions are most often derived in respect of their origine for the head being affected or the morbific matter flowing into the beginnings of the Nerves yet sometimes though more rarely they depend upon such a matter Creeping into the extremities of the nerves 2. As to the production of the Disease and symptoms Of their Causes we observe the same sometimes to be produced from a solitary evident Cause as a sudden and vehement Passion but indeed more often to require a more remote or procatartic cause or praevious disposition moreover the causes sometimes so to interfeer that the procatartick also may supply the place of the evident cause and also on the contrary that this may serve in the place of the other 3. As to the extention of the Disease the Convulsive Distemper may be distinguished into Vniversal because the Spirits actuating the whole nervous System almost and the Encephalon it self are successively exploded and Particular in which the Spirits within some private Region of the Animal Kingome are disturbed 1. The former is meant when the animal Spirits are irritated Of the extent of the disease within their first fountains to wit the pith of the brain and cerebell from whence their violent explosions happen wherefore every internal function of the soul to wit the sense and Imagination is obscured and its exterior locomotive faculty perverted This kind of universal Spasmodick Distemper in which besides the spasms of the Limbs and Viscera the interior powers of the Soul suffer an Ecclipse is again twofold to wit either primarie which begins at the Head and arises forasmuch as the Spirits inhabiting that place being imbued with nitro-sulphureous particles are first exploded and their inkindling snatches or takes hold of
the rest dwelling in both the medulary and nervous appendix of the Encephalon begin at once Convulsive motions or inordinate contractions and continue them for some space with frequent leapings or palpitations The accession of the disease come upon them at unawares and oppresses the sick not the least thinking of it and in the twink of an Eye casts them on the ground deprived of sense and understanding for that they do not only fall but are flung down with a certain force so that oft times the part first striken against the Earth or other adjacent Bodies is hurt with a bruise or wound being last done there comes upon them a gnashing of Teeth with a foam at the mouth also oftentimes the shaking of the head and a frequent knocking it against the ground the armes and thighs yea the hinder part of the neck and back either become presently slit or else they are distorted hither and thither with various bendings some Cruelly beat their breasts others strongly thrust out their armes and thighs and fling them and sometimes the whole Body impetuously here and there many have their praecordia and hypochondria and also all their lower belly swelled and blown up very much after some time sometimes shorter sometimes longer these Symptoms the Tragedy being as it were acted cease on a sudden and then the sick come to themselves and recover their senses but after the fit there remains an akeing in the head with a dulness and hebitude of the senses and not seldom a turning or giddiness The Epileptick Paroxysms are wont to return sometimes at set times of the day moneth or year and most Commonly at the greater returns of the year or Tropicks or at the opposite aspects or conjunctions of the Sun or moon they are wont more certainly to return and to afflict more grievously sometimes their comings or accessions are uncertain and wandring according to the occasion and variety of Evident Causes there are also Fits or Poroxysms now more light which quickly passe away so that the sick are scarce thrown to the ground nor are carried into disorder or insensibility now more grievous whereby they when taken lye senselesse the space of an hour or more and are tormented with horrid Symptoms as if possessed with the Devil Sometimes tho more rarely some foregoing signes of the fit warn them of their falling into it as an heavinesse of the head a brightness of the eyes a tingling of the eares sometimes a spasm or cramp proceeds in some exterior part as in the arm or thigh or else in the back or Hypochondria which ascending from thence like a Cold air and creeping towards the head seems to bring on their falling down Boys and young Men are found to be more obnoxious to this disease than old men or men of mature age who ever are once struct down by its fit unless they be cured by the help of Medicines they will hardly be altogether free from the infection of it all their Life after the more often the Fits are the more grievous they become which as they frequently return become more cruel and enervate the use of the memory Imagination and Reason and then the strength and force of the whole animal function until its Occonomy being greatly perverted the vital function at length decays and by degrees is abolished The weapons and wicked preparation of this Disease being after this manner layd open we will next make an inquiry in what part it fixes its seat or what is its next subject The accession of the Epilepsie and the manner of invasion The subject of the seat of the Disease is inquired into seem plainly to declare that its primary seat or part chiefly affected is contained somewhere within the Head but that a Paroxysm sometimes begins in the remote parts and from thence ascends towards the head which indeed seems only to be so and happens by accident when in the mean time the morficick Cause subsists about the Encephalon it self as shall be anon declared but that from the first assault of the Disease presently a strange Insensibility and disorder with contractions almost of all the Members and Viscera succeeds it is a manifest signe that the whole joynting of the Encephalon and the original of all the nerves are possessed with the morbifick Cause But truly although it seem most difficult to unfold where this cause or morbifiek matter subsists chiefly for neither is it probable that the same is diffused thorow all the parts of the Brain Some affirm it the Meninges or thin skins of the Brain other the pith or middle part of the Brain yet it neither appears in what singular place this being fixed should draw all the other parts so suddenly into a Consent of its evill Among the various opinions of Authors about this matter there are two that seem more probable than the rest and challenge an assent with an equall likelinesse to Truth One of which asserts the very middle of the brain and the other the meninges or the thin skins encompassing or cloathing it to be the primary seat of the Epilepsie The Reason of the former is founded in this that where the fountain of the animal Spirits and the original of the sensitive soul it self consists there ought to be placed the cause of this Disease certainly when the chief faculties are first hurt all the rest easily participate of the same evil But in truth though I may grant in the Apoplexy and the deliquium or fainting of the spirits that it is so yet it follows not in a Convulsion of which kinde of distemper the Epilepsie is that all the fibres and nerves should be pulled together because the middle part of the brain is first pulled for that this as it is a moist and fluid substance and wanting of sense and motion seems not capable of contraction or the Spasmodick Distemper wherefore others thinking the brain and every part of it free from the blame of this Disease cast it altogether on the meninges affirming that the membranes cloathing the brain and chiefly their processes spread upon the clefts of the brain and Ceribel as they are hauled by the morbifick matter do conceive or beget Spasms or horrid Convulsions and then that from the Meninges themselves so Contracted and brought together the included Brain is greatly compressed and bound together so that its pores and passages being bound up the great amazing disorder and insensibility is induced and also the trunks of the nerves to which either meninge or skin is fastened being brought into a consent with them enter also into Convulsive motions And indeed after this manner the formal Reason of the Epilepsie may perhaps seem to be unfolded but truly when I consider further of the matter I think we may differ from this opinion because it does not appear by what Course or for what cause the falling down being at hand these meninges should beget such horrid Spasms Nay it neither appears
how from them however Convulsive they be the Epileptick Paroxism should be induced It is affirmed that the meninges are not first of all affected As to the former it seems an impossible thing for the meninges to be so contracted as to their whole Concavities that being bound more strictly together like a purse they should on every side pull together their contents and draw them into a narrower space for that the Dura Mater sticks most firmly to very many places of the skull yea and the Pia mater is tyed to it near the processes of the hollow turnings by a mutual knitting of the membranes and every where besides with a Continuity of Vessells Hence it easily appears either that membrane as to the greatest part of it is immovable so that they cannot fall into so universal Spasms but in respect of lesser Spasms as when a certain portion of this or that meninge or both together is pulled indeed we grant such may happen for I have often heard those troubled with great headach to complain extreamly of a great constriction of the parts lying under the side of the skull sometimes on the right sometimes on the left and yet from thence no assault of falling down has followed Further as those membranes being notably hurt do cause great vellications or haulings yet upon it there is not wont to be an Epileptick sit to follow for I have known from an Imposthume in the Dura mater when being broken and that the stinking matter had knawn the more tender meninges and shell of the Brain that the sick have fallen first into an amazednesse and at length into a deadly Apoplexie who notwithstanding in the whole course of the Disease was free from any Epileptical Symtom Also I remember I have seen one who had the Dura mater very much torn by the instrument of an unskilfull Surgion and another that by a wound had that with part of his skull taken away so that a portion of the Brain swelled forth and yet to neither of them any Epilectical passion hapned wherefore neither is it likely that the blood or humors or if any shall so argue the vapours compacted within those meninges can bring in any greater evill than either a stroke or wound inflicted on them or filthy matter there poured out Besides those who are more lightly troubled with the Epilepsie so that they scarce fall down and have their minds free through the whole assault of the disease would perceive the membrans to be so contracted and the globe of the brain to be more straitly thrust together if there had bin any such kinde of affection The spirits inhabiting the middle of the brain are the primary Subject of the disease but they on the contrary seem to have the Brain as it were inflamed and to be sensible that the spirits leap forth and are as it were explosed with a certain fierceness And indeed I think it is very likely so that the Epileptick Paroxism is stired up from a certain suddain rarefication and explosion of the animal spirits inhabiting the Brain which are in truth the first and immediate subject of this Disease to wit whereby the Brain it self is inflated and rendered so insensible and the Nerves hanging thereto also put into convulsions For hence it comes to pass that the accession of this Disease begins so on a sudden and determines perfectly without any great provision or remains of the morbifick matter because the Infection is not brought so much to the solid parts as to the Spirits themselves We have already shown by what means the heterogeneous and explosive Copula consisting as it seems of nitro-Sulphurous particles cleaving to the spirituous particles of the animal Spirits and lastly being smitten and explosed by them by reason of plenitude or irritation produces Convulsive Symptoms But although this kinde of Spasmodick Copula is first distilled from the blood into the brain yet for the most part it does not take hold of the spirits there or at least it stays not long with them in that place but rather being thrust from thence towards the nervous Appendix causes particular and respective Spasms near the places affected But sometimes if the Spasmodic matter be more plentifull and strong and the constitution of the brain weak the heterogeneous Copula being fixed to the Spirits not only in the nervous stock but also to those planted within the Encephalon it self causes the Epilectick disposition and the explosive particles of the Spirits and this Copula knocking one against another stir up the falling fit For indeed since the assault of the Epilepsie urging the Insensibility and great disorder is for the most part the first Symptom and all the pathognomick it may be concluded that the animal Spirits lying within the middle of the brain it self are affected before others and that therefore that part is the principal seat of the Disease Then forasmuch as the falling of the sick or casting to the ground and spasms of rhe members and Viscera most often follow that Insensibility great disorder or leaping forth of the spirits it follows that the animal Spirits also inhabiting the nervous System are imbrued with the same explosive Copula and are drawn into consent with those inhabiting the brain it self and are excited by them to explosions purely inordinate although sometimes by the whole series of Spirits planted both in the brain and nervous stock being like a long train of gunpowder praedisposed to explosions an exterior Spasm beginning a great way off perhaps in some member or Inward may afterwards be carried to the Brain as shall be more fully shown hereafter In the mean time it is concluded that the region of the Brain it self is always the primary seat of this Disease and that we ought to suppose the conjunct cause of the Distemper not to be water heaped up within the ventricles of the brain nor a thick or clammy humour impacted in the passages of its pores for such Causes are begotten by degrees and therefore would shew some certain signes before-hand of the first coming upon one further the assault of the fit being over such a matter could not be wholly discussed in so short a time but that from its reliques some impediments of the animal function would remain which indeed rarely happens in the Epilepsie unlesse inveterate but for the exciting of the falling down no lesse can be imagined then that the animal Spirits which flowing within the marrowie substance of the brain perform the acts of the interior sense of the Imagination and appetite having gotten an heterogeneous Copula should be inordinately exploded and so they being disturbed beyond their orders and stations the Superior faculties of the animal regimen must suffer an eclipse then from this greater explosion of spirits as it were from a fiery enkindling other Spirits inhabiting the marrowy and nervous appendix being also praedisposed to explosions conceive the like disorder and in like manner cause
the explosive Convulsive motions of the containing Bodys For although we conclude that the middle of the brain The disease affects secondarily very many parts of the Nervous System is always the primary seat of the Epilepsie and that from the beginning the morbific matter is layd up wholly in that Region yet the distemper growing grievous this being more plentifully spread thorow the head enlarges its bounds so that it being strowed here and there and far and neer stretched out Spasmodic particles are cast into the rest of the Brain and also into the nervous appendix like gunpowder or explosive seed whereby it comes to passe that at the first approach of that disorder of Spirits Convulsions follow sometimes in these sometimes in those parts and not rarely thorow the whole Body CHAPTER III. The Differences of the Epilepsie and the reasons of some of the Symptoms are unfolded Also its Curatory Method is represented THus far of the essence and the Causes in generall of the Epilepsie it shall be now our next task to explicate the differences of this Disease also the reasons of some of the accidents and Symptoms belonging to it to which we will lastly add Observations and Histories of sick people with the method of Curing The most notable difference of the Epilepsie is wont to be taken from the Subject to wit that the brain or part of it labouring with this disease is either primarily and Idiopathetically or properly affected or secondarily and not but by consent with other parts concerning the former kinde we have hitherto discoursed as to the other to wit in which the falling down seems to arise from some place without the head and then lays hold of it secondarily and as it were by a blast sent from elsewhere It is to be observ'd that this kinde of distemper as Galen hath noted proceeds either from the external or internal parts The Reason of the Epilepsie which is said to be excited by consent we meet with many examples of Epilepticks in whom the fit being just coming upon them a spasm is felt with a numness in the hand or toe or other particular member which presently from thence as it were with a pricking of tingling creeps towards the head which when it hath attained immediately the sick party falls flat on the Earth and is hurried into Insensibility and disorder of spirits and other proper demonstrations of the Symptom of the falling sickness neither is it a less usuall proaemium of this disease that there first arises as it were a conflict in the stomach spleen womb Intestines genitalls or other inwards or that some kinde of perturbation is raised in some of them then from that place the ascent of as it were a cold air is perceived to which distemper follows the accession of the falling evill with its most horrid provision of symptoms hence it was commonly believed that the cause of the Epilepsie lay hid in the part seen to be so primarily affected and propagated its evil to the brain of its self innocent The Conjunct Cause of the Epilepsie consists only in the brain But in very deed as to this we must say that in every Epilepsie not only the procatartick or remoter Cause but also the conjunct remains wholly in the Brain to wit that the spirits inhabiting it being disposed to explosions and there being explosed bring on or Cause every falling Evill As to those praeliminary Symptoms in some Epileptical people they sometimes have the place of an Evident Cause and sometimes only of a signe For when the evill disposition of any inward as the stomach spleen or womb happens with the disposition of the Epilepsie as often as any perturbation is begun in that distempered Inward it easily happens by reason of a transmission of the ferment from thence or a continuation of the spasm to the head an Epileptical fit is excited in the Brain prae-disposed to act But these kind of symtoms of the falling evil which being suscitated from without seem to propagate the distemper to the Brain do often arise from the consent of the Brain it self and are only signs of the approach of the Epileptical Fit or of the spirits beginning to be exploded in the brain For when the animal spirits planted in the middle parts of the Brain and Cerebel and also those in the oblong pith or marrow neer the beginnings of the Nerves are so filled with an heterogeneous Copula that for the Casting of it off they are ready to bring on the assault of the Disease before they are all exploded heap by heap some spirits lying more outward in some private Nerves because they are destitute of the wonted influx of their superiors fall into certain inordinations and so begin spasms which spasms as it is often the manner in this kinde of distemper begin at the extremities or ends of the Nerves inserted to this or that member or Inward from whence by degrees they creep forward to their beginnings whether being come forth with the spirits thorow the whole Encephalon before disposed to explosions being moved by that spasms and so being snatch'd away with a fiery enkindling are suddenly exploded or thurst out so they seem to stir up the Epileptick Fit beginning at first from themselves as it were secondarily and by instinct brought from some other place After this manner sometimes the Histerical passions when beginning in the bottom of the belly they are Communicated to the Brain are thought to arise from those Viscera and to be stirred up by their fault when in the mean time the morbific cause subsists chiefly about the beginnings of the Nerves as we have elsewhere signified and shall again show hereafter when we come to treat particularly of the Spasmodick distempers There yet remain other differences of the Falling sickness to wit that it is either haereditary or acquired again either kind is variously distinguish'd Other differences of the Epilepsie by reason of the Age or time in which it first comes upon one to wit when the first coming of it happens before or about the puberty or being of ripe age or after it further as to the Efficacy of the disease into strong and weak for as much as the Paroxysms or fits are with or without the disorder of spirits and falling as to its inordinate manner whose assalts are wandring and uncertain moreover it is wont to be distinguished according to the peculiar symptoms in these or those sick people by reason of some disposition or manifold Idiosyncrasy or propriety of the Temperament But from what has been said before of very many of the Symptoms which are to be met with in this Disease the causes do easily appear so that there will be no need here to consider all of them but of some of them which seem more intricate it will not be from the matter to discourse in this place We will therefore first of all inquire why those sick of this Disease
Why Epilepticks fall down with violence do not fall as those that are apoplectick or have swounding fits but are rather stricken down with violence against the Earth or any other bodys that are by chance opposite to them as if they were smitten down by some wicked Spirit so that very often some part of the head or face is hurt with the violent fall And those so distempered even like the Daemonaicks in the Gospel are frequently flung into the fire or the water but it may be here declared that the Epilepticks become obnoxious to these kinde of evills for that the fit coming upon them all knowledge or providence is taken from them and further the nerves neighbouring to the head being strongly contracted the whole bulk of the Body is carried away headlong but in the Syncope and Apoplexie the fall of the distemperd Body seems as the ruines of a building which happens by reason that its props are taken away but indeed in the falling Sicknesse it is no otherwise than if a house were overthrown by the blowing up of Gunpowder which is removed much from the place where it stood 2ly It is commonly esteemed a great pathognomick From whence the Foam at the mouth of these troubled with the falling sickness comes or peculiar Symtom of the Epilepsie if when the diseased being fallen to the earth and suffering most horrid Convulsions there flows from the mouth a spumous Spittle or foam which indeed is thought to be pressed from the Brain being strongly contracted into the palate But in truth though it be granted that this flux of spume be very often a signe of the falling Sicknesse yet it is not so appropriated to this disease but that the same sometimes happens in the Apoplexie in deep sleep in hysterical distempers and other convulsive diseases Besides this kinde of Foam does not descend from the Brain for there is no passage open by which it may pass but from the Lungs being inflated and elevated even to the Larinx or the top of the sharp arterie from whence spittle foams forth with a certain fervency and ebullition For the fit of the falling evill growing urgent when most of the nerves in the whole Body are drawn together those also that serve for the motions of the Lungs and Diaphragma suffer most cruel convulsions and lifting up all the praecordia upwards continue them almost immovable in a long Systole so that the breathing and pulse cannot be at all perceived In the mean time because the blood straitned within the bosom of the heart distends it and also almost choakes it the Lungs however hindred that they cannot be moved after their wonted and natural manner perform what they can with a thick and hasty agitation whereby the blood may be drawn forth from the Heart by which endeavour of theirs the shaking aire by the frequent or thick respiration raises the viscous or clammy humidity into froth like the shaking of the white of an egg by and by it lifts it upwards towards the Cavity of the mouth and so at last drives it out of doors wherefore a foam or spumous spittle does often succeed in other distempers where the pneumonic or breathing nerves are either contracted or are hindred from performing their Function Why some in the Falling knock their Breasts 3ly Moreover from the same reason it comes to passe that some Epilepticks being fallen to the ground beat most greviously their Breasts with their Hands and are hardly to be held from it for when the Praecordia being troubled with the Spasm and hindred that they cannot move themselves after their wonted manner and the blood stagnating in them not without a great oppression of the heart threatens a suffocation of Life then it is that the sick strikes their Breast to wit that the praecordia so shaken and as it were moved up and down might renew their motions and so the blood might be relieved from its stagnation and the heart from its heavy oppression and this is done after the same manner as when some that are sleeping being tickled or bit by a flea unknown to themselves presently rub or scratch the affected place The prognostication of the Disease As to the Prognostication of the disease we have already declared that it is of very difficult Cure which difficultly consists in this that the middle of the Brain in which is the chief spring and fountain of the animal Spirits is very much debilitated not only by the morbifick cause but also by its effects to wit the several fits and its pores loosened so that they ly open for the entrance of every heterogeneous matter and so the morbid disposition it self being confirmed by the repeated Paroxisms and taking deeper root it is hardly taken away But it is to be observ'd that the Epilepsie sometimes terminates of it self and is sometimes overcome by the help of medicines which happens about the age of puberty and then only so that who are not cured that time being elapsed that is before the twenty fifth year of age they scarce ever after recover their health for about the time of ripe age there is a twofold alteration of the humane Body and therefore there often happens a Solution or loosing of the falling sicknesse or of any other disease deeply rooted For first at that time the genital humour begins to be heaped together in the spermatick Vessells from whence it follows that the Spiritious particles and what are wont to grow to them nitro-sulphureous and morbifick particles are layd up not only in the brain but also in the testicles wherefore if this heterogenious Copula of the Spirits be more plentifully caryed to that new storehouse from thence the brain becoming free often leaves the epileptical or otherways morbid disposition 2. About the time of ripe age as the Blood pours forth something before destinated for the brain through the Spermatic Arteries to the genitals so also it receives as a recompense a certain ferment from those parts through the veins to wit certain particles imbued with a seminal tincture are caryed back into the bloody mass which makes it vigorous and inspire into it a new and lively virtue wherefore at that time the gifts both of the Body and minde chiefly shew themselves Hairs break out the voyce becomes greater the courses of women flow and other accidents happen whereby it is plain that both the blood and nervous Juce are impregnated with a certain fresh ferment wherefore the morbific ferments or seeds unlesse they be overcome by this new natural firment they afterwards continue untameable even to Death But that the Epilepsie is sometimes cured by the help of medicines Experience doth testifie we shall anon discourse of the method of healing and shew the reasons of the most famous medicines in the mean time as to what further belongs to the prognostication of this Disease if it end not about the time of ripe age neither can be driven away
those kinde of medicine between whiles in the spring and autumn and other fit times 2ly As to specific Remedies which indeed only though not allways are able to reach the Epilepsie and to subdue it of which sort are the male Paeonie Missletow Rew Castor the Claws of an Elk preparations of a dead mans Skull Amber Corrall with many others Forasmuch as these are taken without any sensible evacuation or also perturbation following in the viscera or humours it is a wonder by what formal reason or virtue of acting they are wont at any time to help in this disease In what the Virtue of the specificks consists in the Epilepsie Concerning this matter intricate and obscure enough if there may be place for Conjecture when as we have already asserted the procatartick Cause of the Epilepsie to consist in the heterogeneous Copula joyning or cleaving to the spirits inhabiting the Brain and inciting them to praeternatural explosions it follows that those things which take away or resist such a cause must be of that nature that by strengthening the brain and binding up its pores may exclude that Copula and so fix and as it were binde the spirits flowing within the middle or marrow of the Brain from leaving their Copula that they shall not be any more apt or prone to irregular explosions Perhaps after the same manner as when gunpowder or aurum fulminans being pounded with sulphure or sprinkled with spirit of Vitriol loses its thundering virtue And indeed these kind of properties to wit one or both of them may be suspected yea in a manner detected in most anti-epileptick Remedies For truly Paeony Missletow Rue the Lilly of the vally with many others abound in a certain manifest astriction that 't is likely their Particles being taken inwardly and so dilated to the brain by the Vehicle of the blood and nervous Juice do so binde and shut up its too loose and open pores that afterwards they do not ly open for the Passage of the morbifick matter Besides for that these vapourous Concerts breath forth as it were an armodiack scent or scattering therefore they are sayd to purifie the animal spirits to fix them and to strengthen them having put off their heterogeneous Copula This virtue purifying the spirits proceeding from an armoniac salt is more apparent in Remedies which are taken from the famuly of Mineralls and Animalls such are the preparations of the humane Skull of blood amber and coral as the other more binding rather exists in the parts and preparations of Vegitables It will not be needfull here for the curing of the Epilepsie to propose a compleat method of healing with exact forms of prescriptions because there are extant every where among Authors general precepts and most choyce Remedies and the Prudent Physitian will easily accomodate both the Indications and that plentifull provision of medicinal stuff to the particular Cases of the sick But because we have exhibited a quite new Theorie of this Disease here also ought to be rendred a Curatory method fited for it which we shall describe by and by more fully after we have shewn you some cases or Histories of people sick of the Epilepsie A fair maid sprung from parents indifferently healthfull being her self very Observation 1 well till about her coming to ripe age about that time she began to complain of her head being ill And first of all she felt neer the fore part or her head by fits a Vertigo or giddinesse whereby all things seemed to run round and also whilst this Symptom continued she was wont to talke idlely and to forget whatever she had but just done These kinde of fits at first pass'd away within a quarter of an hower and came again only once or twice in a month in the interval of which she was well enough Afterwards the assalts being made more grievous by degrees they also return'd more often and within half a year her brain being dayly more weakened this giddinesse or turning round was plainly chang'd into the Epilepsie that the sick being struck down to the ground at every fit was affected with Insensibility and horrid convulsions and also with foam at the mouth The Domesticks observ'd that she allways fell on the same side so that siting neer the fire if she sate in the right Corner she would be flung in the midst of the fire but if in the left Corner she fell against the wall of the Chimny once when being left alone in the house she fell upon the burning Coals and so miserably burnt her face and forepart of her head that the skull being made bare of the skin and flesh a deep and large escar was burnt into it and afterwards the outer shell of it fell off a hands bredth In the mean time the sick maid so long as the ulcers contracted by the burning ran with filthy matter she was free from the fits but afterwards they being healed up the falling evill returned This Disease began first to shew it self about the time of puberty for this maid presently after the begining of it had her Courses and afterwards they constantly observed their set times though her distemper grew dayly worse Various kinds of medicines being administred to this sick Creature availed nothing because it was the custome and practise of her and her friends quickly to change both the Physitian and method of Physick if an happy event did not presently follow and to betake themselves very much to every Empirick and outlandish Mountebanks That in this Case the Vertigenous Distemper with a short delirium was the forerunner of the Epilepsie it plainly argues the original of this Disease being planted in the middle of the brain to depend upon a certain inordination of the Spirits to wit those dwelling there at the begining begun to admit an heterogeneous Copula which being more plentifully heaped up being moved either of its own accord or occasionally while it was shaken off induced by reason of the spirits being disturbed and not yet very explosive those former distempers Afterwards from the same cause by degrees growing worse the perturbations of the Spirits did raise up their manifest explosions and chang'd the vertigo and Delirium into the Epilepsie But that this maid began to be sick about the time of ripe age it hence evidently follows as the natural ferment so sometimes the praeternatural explicates it self first at that time wherefore as it happens that the menstruous purgations doe then first break forth so the seeds of the falling sicknesse whether innate or acquired then budded forth a little and by degrees were ripened into fruit when the praeternatural Ferment first appears ofttimes the natural following blots it out hence the Epilepsie of young ones often ends about the time of puberty or ripe age but if that Firment or taint of the disease comes after the menstruous flux or together with it and ceases not presently it remains for the most part afterwards during Life
exterminated by the putting forth the Red-gum or red spreadings thorow the skin Wherefore a water now thin and Serous now thick and sticking and either participating of praeternatural Salts and sulphures is layd up within these or those recesses and Cavities of the Brain Cerebel and oblong pith the recrements of which when they begirt the beginings or ends of this or that nerve and sometimes many together affix on the Spirits inhabiting them heterogeneous particles and apt for Spasmodic or Convulsive explosions For as soon as the nerves have deeply imbibed such particles the spirits being burthened with their Copula endeavour either of their own accord or being incited by evident Causes to thrust and shake it off and so they enter into Spasmodic or Convulsive explosions The evident Causes which bring on Convulsive motions in children praedisposed are of two Kindes viz. In the first place whatsoever stir up unwonted effervescencies of the blood whether they be excesses of heat or cold a too plentifull nourishment or hotter then should be the changes of the air and weather and chiefly the periodical times of the Moon for by reason of these and other the like occasions the Blood growing more hot than by right it should be affixes sooner to the Spirits an heterogeneous Copula even to a fullness and causes it presently to be struck off and exploded by them throughly disturbed 2ly An Irritation in almost every part of the nervous System does not seldome bring into Act a Spasmodic or Convulsive Disposition wherefore not only an excess of tangible qualities outwardly inflicted but the milk Coagulated in the stomack choler or other sharp humours or also wormes knawing the Intestines are wont to excite Spasms or Convulsions Besides these kinde of evident Causes as they are stronger sometimes induce Spasmodick Distempers of themselves and without a praevious Disposition even so worms and perchance sharp humours cause Convulsive motions to some children at least to the more tender That it might more certainly and to the sense appear what kinde of morbific matter might be in Convulsive motions I have opened the dead bodies of many which this disease had opprest I have allways in vain sought the cause within the Visecra and first passages of Concoction In the heads of many a serous water being heaped up within the Cavity under the Cerebel and distending the Membrane which cloaths the oblong pith or marrow did overflow the beginings of the nerves in some no footsteps of this Disease appeared so that what sticking to the Spirits did irritate them into explosions was of so imperceivable a bulk and its originall so altogether hid that it could not be found out by the most perspicatious scrutiny of the sight Sometime past in this City many chilbren of a certain woman dyed of this Disease at length the fourth as the others dyed within the month we dissected the Head and here no serous Colluvies or water did overflow the ventricles but only the substance of the Brain and its appendix was moister then ordinary and looser what was most worthy of observation was that in the Cavity which lyes under the Cerebel upon the trunk of the oblong pith we found a remarkable heap of clotter'd and as it were concreted blood but in truth it is uncertain whether this matter deposited there from the begining had primarily caused the convulsions or rather whether this blood being extravasated and expressed by the contraction of the parts planted round about was not the effect and product of the Convulsions and not the cause of them for also in Apoplectical people this kinde of Phaenomenon ordinarily happens which yet we shall afterwards shew to be rather the effect than the cause of the disease Indeed the heterogeneous Particles which flow to the blood from the womb are wont to be sent away through efflorencies or Cutaneous Pustles in the whole Body in many children in others being poured on the head are the material cause of the Convulsive Distemper may be inferr'd besides the reasons before recited from the remedies chiefly helping For that in little children obnoxious to this haereditarie Disease the Convulsive fits are best prevented if that an issue be made Presently after they are born in the nape of the neck and blood drawn with a Leech from the jugular Veins for the corruptions of the nervous juce are brought away by that and the impure buddings of the blood are diverted from the head by this by these ways of Administrations when before two or three children of the same Parent have dyed of Convulsions soon after they were born all the rest have been freed from the same evill 2ly Thus much concerning the Convulsive motions of Children which are wont to infest them by reason of an Infection contracted from the womb â—f that at this bout they should escape the Disease it self or at least its deadly strokes nevertheless about rhe time of breeding teeth they would be found at last to be obnoxious to the same danger for when the Teeth especially the greater are about to cut oftentimes a feavour is excited to which not seldom Convulsions are Joyned and though at this Time children are grown stronger and may better bear the fits of the disease then when new born yet the convulsive Distemper now stirred up by no other grievous occasion becomes very dangerous and sometimes deadly But forasmuch as childern who fall into feavours about the time of breeding of Teeth are not all tormented with Convulsions it therefore follows that some disposition to this disease either innate or acquired doth precede and that the pain caused from the breeding the Teeth is to be esteemed only the means of a more strong evident Cause to wit Children who being indued either with a Cacochymia or juce causing ill digestion or with a more weak constitution of the brain and nervous stock have their animal Spirits too much adulterated or dissipable are sometimes disposed for the coming of Convulsive distempers wherefore when so acute pain together with a feavor afflicts that latent disposition is brought into Act. If it be here ask'd for what reason a feavour and then Convulsive motions following thereupon come to those Praedisposed in teething it may be answer'd that either effect may be attributed to the pain as the immediate Cause We experimentally know by our selves what the torment is that follows an irritation about the roots of the Teeth in truth so great and so cruell that a more cruell can scarce be for that one or two notable shoots of the 5th pare of nerves reaches to the roots of each Tooth which when it ss hauled by the sharp particles of the Blood or other humours there layd up causes a most sharp sense of trouble or pain by its Corrugation But this kinde of Vellication or hauling of this Nerve happens thus to children breeding teeth because that the membranes and fibres are every way distended by the Teeth now increasing into a greater bulk and
as yet included within the scarce hollow gums hence the blood being hindred in its Circulation causes a tumour and so presses the nerves and also pours on them the more sharp particles of the Serum by which being notably pulled or hauled they are tormented with Corrugations and painfull Spasms Therefore when so cruel pains happen to children from their breeding Teeth it is no wonder if a feavour and also Convulsive motions sometimes follow the former of these happens both for as much as the blood being hindred about the pained part is not circulated with its wonted and equall course wherefore it becomes inordinatly moved in the whole Body and besides because Spasms being stirred up somewhere in the nervous stock the corrugated and contracted nerves presse together and pull the Arteries and by that reason stir up irregular and feavourish fluctuations in the Blood But sometimes Couvulsions happen in breeding Teeth both because the blood growing hot sends forth heterogeneous particles to the animal government and so stirs up the spirits into explosions and besides also when this acute pain and as it were a Lancing follows upon the teeth being about to cut it communicates a very troublesome and irritative sense from the affected parts to the first sensorie presently from thence the motion of the rage is retorted by the same or other neighbour nerves which by reason of a praevious disposition doth not rarely become convulsive Besides these two occasions of Convulsions which are wont to be chiefly and more often in children to wit the times of Infancy and breeding Teeth this Distemper also is excited at other Times very often and for other Causes For in whom the Seeds of the Spasmodick Disposition is sown they sometimes unsold themselves presently after the birth and are ripened into morbid fruit or else lying hid for a while they now come before the breeding of Teeth and follow a long time after it and by reason of other evident causes to wit either external or Internal of which sort are a sickly or breeding nurse milk Coagulated in the stomack or degenerating into an acid or bitter putrifection a feavourish distemperature of the head Ulcers or wealks of other parts suddenly vanishing the Changes of the aire the Conjunctions oppositions and aspects of the Sun and moon and such like they at length break forth into Act from an uncertain event Concerning these there is no need that we should particularly discourse When all the Children of a man dwelling in the neighbourhood dyed of Convulsions within the space of three months at length to prevent that fatal event they sought for remedies for a child newly born I being sent for a few days after the being brought to bed first advised the making an Issue in the nape of the neck then that the next day after a leech being applyed to the jugular veine of each side two ounces of blood should be taken away besides that about every conjunction or opposite aspect of the Sun and moon about five grains of the following powder should be given in a spoonfull of Julap for three days morning and evening Take of humane Skull prepared of the root of the male Paeonie each ʒ i. of the powder of Pearls ʒ ss of white sugar ʒ i. mingle them and make a very fine powder Take of the waters of Black Cherries ℥ iii. of the antiepileptic of Langius ℥ i. of the Syrrop of the flowers of the male Paeonie ʒ vi mingle them also I order'd that the nurse at the same times should take a draught of whey or posset drink in which were boyled the seeds and roots of the male Paeonie and the leaves of the Lilly of the Vally the Infant for about four months was well but then began to be troubled with Convulsions at which time the same Remedies being administred both to the child and to the nurse in a larger dose vesicatories also were applyed behind the eares and blood was taken by the sucking of a Leech from the jugular veins within two or three days the child grew well afterwards whenever within four or five months the Convulsions return'd it was cured again by the use of the same Remedies After half a year the Convulsive motions wholly ceased but a painfull Tumour arose about the lower part of the Spinae dorsi or back-bone from which proceeded a certain distortion of the Vertebrae or joynts of the back bone and a weakness of the legs and at length a Palsie It seems in this case that the Spasmodic or Convulsive matter being wont to come upon the brain first and beginings of the nerves entring at last the Spinal marrow and being thrust out at its further end it wholly stopt up the heads of the appending nerves and shut out the passage of the Spirits to wit because other narcotick and more thick had joyned themselves to the explosive particles The Curatory Method against the Convulsive Distempers in Children IT is to be endeavour'd either to prevent the Convulsive passions threatning Children and Infants or to cure them being already begun For if the former children of the same parent were obnoxious or lyable to Convulsions that evill ought to be prevented timely The Preservation of Infants from Convulsions by the use of Remedies to those born after It is usuall for this end to put into the mouth of the child newly born some antispasmodick Remedy assoon as it begins to breath from hence some are wont to give them some drops of the purest hony others a Spoonfull of Canary sweetned with Sugar and some again oyl of Sweet Almonds fresh drawn to some may be given half a Spoonfull of epileptic water or one drop of oyle of Amber Besides these first things given to Infants which certainly seem to be of some moment certain other Remedies and means of Administrations ought to be used to wit let one spoonfull of Liquor proper to this distemper be drunk twice a day as for example Take of the water of black Cherry and of Rue each ℥ i ss of the Antiepileptic of Langius ℥ i. of the Syrrup of Corall ʒ vi of prepared Pearl gr xv mix them in a Viol. On the third or fourth day after the birth let an Issue be made in the nape of the neck then if it be of a fresh Countenance let a little blood to about ℥ i ss or ii ounces be taken by the sucking of Leeches from the jugular veins having a care lest the blood should flow out too plentifully in its sleep let the temples and the hinder part of the neck be gently rub'd with such a like oyntment Take of oyle of nutmegs by expression ʒ ii of Capive ʒiii of Amber ℈ i. Let an Amulet be hung about the neck of the roots and seeds of the greater Paeonie a little of the hoof of an Elke being added to it Moreover antispasmodick Remedies should be dayly given to the Nurse The Method of Curing to be used to the Nurses Let her
them drink a gentle Emetick of wine of squills or salt of vitriol when even the sicK are troubled with a striving to Vomit of their own accord but if the other Evacuation or down-wards shall seem better to be tryed they ought to take an Infusion of Rhubarb or the powder and Syrrop of succory with Rhubarb or of Roses with agaric and very often by these Remedies timely applyed I have seen the Convulsive Distempers in Children to be cured besides in this Case Clysters are frequently used but external Medicines are not to be omitted to wit fomentations oyntments plaisters applyed to the Belly Take of the flowers of Cammomel cut very small ii handfulls let them be put into two little bags made of fine Linnen or Silk which being dipped in warm Milk and wrung out may be applyed successively to the abdomen or lower region of the belly Take of the tops or flowers of Mallows in like manner but small let them be fryed in fresh butter of hogs Lard and in the form of a Liniment or a Cataplasm applyed to the Belly CHAPTER V. Of Convulsive Diseases of Ripe Age arising chiefly by reason of the Nervous origine being affected ALthough Convulsive Distempers which happen to those of riper years being known by other Names also are commonly reputed of some other stock and are wont to be referr'd to the passions called Hysterical Hypochondriacal or Colical or to the Scorbute yet if the matter be a little better consider'd it will easily appear that some Convulsive Symptoms both in Men and Women do come from the Brain which Convulsions properly and truly challenge to themselves the Name But these as we have already mentioned may be distinguished after a various manner by the manifold seat of the morbifick Cause but chiefly into these three kinds viz. Into Spasms or Convulsions stirred up by reason of the origine of the Nerves being chiefly affected into others being stirred up Three kinds of Convulsions hapning to those of riper years by reason of the extremities or ends of the Nerves being possessed by the morbifick matter and lastly into such from whose head the morbific matter descending fills the whole passages or the most part of some certain Nerves or of all together Therefore that we may proceed to unfold the Convulsions Distempers arising from the Nervous origine distinguished arising from the beginnings of the Nerves being affected take notice here that the morbifick matter beseiging the beginnings of the Nerves doth sometimes chiefly flow into the first pair of Nerves to wit which respect the Muscles of the eyes and face and from thence the contractions and tremblings now of the Nose Cheeks or Lips now of the Eyes or the distortions of the mouth follow Secondly 1 According to the various Nerves being affected sometimes the wandring and intercostal pair do chiefly imbibe the Heterogeneous particles and then Inflations or Contractions of the Abdomen and Hypochondria and also the palpitation of the Heart trembling difficult and interrupted breathing an intermitting pulse and other Symptoms of the middle and lower Belly do very much infest Thirdly but sometimes the morbifick Cause being placed lower affects chiefly the spinal marrow and therefore the outward members and limbs are rendred obnoxious to inordinate leapings forth and contractions Further in very many Cases of this nature because the Animal spirits being explosed about the origine of the Nerves do inordinately leap back towards the Encephalon for that reason to all Convulsions almost being excited by this means the Vertigo also the scotomie or giddiness the tingling of the eares and sometimes the amased Insensibility or falling down of the Spirits are joyned or follow But as we may Conjecture from the various figures of the Convulsive distemper it seems that the Convulsive matter hauling those or these nerves 2. According to the Various places of the same Nerves being affected or many of them together is lodged either about their beginings only so that the Spirits in that place being often explosed a frequent and very troublesome Vertigo arises besides tremblings and a short faintness about the Praecordia swoonings and often leapings and light contractions in the Viscera or muscles are felt Or Secondly the explosive particles being dilated to the beginings of the nerves enter more deeply into their processes and not seldom being slidden down into the nervous foldings belonging to the Praecordia or the Viscera of the lower belly or also to the exterior members procure there other as it were nests of Convulsive distempers that as often as the Spirits about the nervous origine are driven into explosions presently fits as it were hysterical asthmatical or otherways Convulsive arise in the Abdomen Thorax or Limbs Examples of these and by what means they are made shall be anon more clearly delivered In the mean time the spasmodic matter flowing into the pipes of the Nerves when it is transfer'd even to their processes and remote enfoldings yet forasmuch as it hath still its chief mine about the nervous original therefore after very grievous Convulsions of the Viscera or members a great perturbation of the Brain follows thereupon with a tingling of the eares a vertigo and often an Insensibility or amased excurtion of Spirits but sometimes the morbific matter as to the greatest part being translated to the farthest ends of the nerves from thence they become free or clear about their beginings For I have observed many who whilst at the begining they were infested with the vertigo often fainting away with fear head-ach and heavynesse about the hinder part of the head to have felt about the Praecordia or viscera only light inflations or tremblings but afterwards suffering more cruel Convulsions about these parts they did not complain of the former distempers of the Head By what maens the convulsive matter flows into the Nerves If it should be further demanded concerning the Convulsive matter from what place it should be brought and by what ways carried towards the beginings of the Nerves and what kinde of Settlement and as it were cherishing nests it there obtains we say that although we cannot detect the footsteps and manifest passages of this matter yet so much may be collected from certain observations and the analogie of things it may be supposed there are these two distinct manner of passages whereby the Convulsive particles being first poured out into the Brain and Cerebel from the blood are from thence carried towards the beginings of the Nerves viz. First sometimes this matter being imbibed by the Brain and Cerebel and by degrees passing thorow the pores of either slides into the Trunk of the oblong marrow whose tract being also overcome by it together with the nervous juice it slides forward towards the original of the Nerves and is heaped up neer their heads or within the medullarie trunk it self or within the annularie Prominencies in which places either a long while subsisting it stirs up frequent Vertigoes
evening in a little draught of the prescribed Julap half an ounce of Diacodium to which succeeded a moderate sleep without the wonted Convulsions following which kinde of effects from opiats exhibited in the like case I have often experimented for the quenching her thirst I gave her a Ptisan with diuretick Ingredients boyled in it by the use of these she was very much eased in a short time But what proved a great benefit to her was that an Imposthume in her ear breaking of its own accord powred forth at first a yellow matter and afterwards for many days a great plenty of thin Ichor or Excrement by which Evacuation the Convulsions of the Viscera and Praecordia wholly ceasing the disease was perfectly Cured As to the Reason of the aforesaid sicknesse without doubt it seems that those Distempers were excited by the serous colluvies layd up within the Bounds of the Head for the translation of that humour into the head brought at first both the Disease and the Secretion or flowing of it out thorow the Emunctuaries of the ear took away all the Symptoms Besides when the morbific matter had brought in to the Spirits planted about the beginings of the nerves a Disposition somewhat explosive they though being struck as it were with madness they were continually troubled yet so long as leaping back towards the Brain they obtained a space in which they might be more freely expanded or stretched forth they did indeed only more vehemently exercise the Phantasie and without farther trouble did only cause watchings But when by sleep sometimes Creeping upon her the excursion of the unquiet Spirits were restrained towards the Brain which indeed necessarily happens when we sleep the nervous Liquor within the pores of the brain at that time being more plentifully admitted they tumultuarily rushing upon the heads of the wandring pair and intercostall Nerves troubled the whole series of Spirits flowing within the passages of those Nerves and so caused the aforesaid Convulsions about the Praecordia Viscera and muscles of the Throat I have known many both Men and women sick after this manner who when they have been troubled with an headach an heaviness of the hinder part of the head or a Vertigo have while they slept felt forthwith in their Praecordia or Viscera or in both together perturbations as it were Convulsive which indeed happens from the bending downward of the tumultuating Spirits being reflected from the brain upon the beginings of the Nerves But that the use of opiats brought a pleasing sleep to this sick person without the wonted Convulsions following the reason was because the animal spirits as unquiet and furious as they were yet by the Intanglement of the narcotick Particles they were bound as it were in chains that afterwards without any resistance they were overcome by sleep I have indeed very often happily cured most grievous fits of Convulsions both Asthmatical and as it were hysterical by administring Opiates Observation 2 An honest woman M. G. of 67. years of Age yet of a florid countenance and fat in body when she had been a while obnoxious at first to a swelling of the face and very grievous fits of the headach she fell through the great cold of the winter into a very troublesome Vertigo with a trembling of the heart a fainting away of the Spirits and a frequent striving to vomit being lay'd in her bed if she opened her eyes or turn'd her from one side to another she was presently troubled with a notable gididness or swimming in the head with swooning and effectless vomiting Visiting this woman I doubted not but that the cause of her sickness was the Convulsive matter being translated from the exterior region of the head to the most inward recesses of the Encephalon by whose inspiration or heterogeneous Copula the animal spirits being touched while they leaped forth inordinatly towards the brain they excited the vertiginous Distemper and while they rushed tumultuarily upon the heads of the nerves the Scotomie disorder of the Praecordia and endeavouring to vomit A large Vesicatory or blistering Plaster being applyed to the nape of the neck and behind her ears Clisters dayly administred also the use of Spirits of harts-horn frequently and of a Cephalick Julap cured her within a few days Observation 3 A noted man about 34. years of Age when he had been for a long time subject to a Cough with great and thick spitting besides having the pores of his skin very open he was wont to sweat continually and every night to be wet with it about the begining of the spring he perceived those usuall evacuations to happen more sparingly in the mean time he Complained of a fullness of his hands and feet and as it were a certain swelling or puffiing up so that he feared a dropsie was coming upon him beside he was troubled in his head with a giddinesse and frequent Vertigo A little while after this evill increasing light contractions and sudden Convulsions were ordinarily excited about his Lips and other parts of the mouth and face also presently after the morbific matter as it should seem flowing upon the beginnings of the wandring pair and intercostal nerves he was afflicted with the trembling and leaping of the heart with frequent fainting away of the vital spirits as if a Leipothymy or swooning was falling upon him I know that very many ascribe these Convulsive passions so grievously infesting the Praecordia to the vapours rising from the spleen but it seems much more reasonable to deduce there from the Convulsive matter layd up within the brain and rushing upon the beginnings of the Nerves because a shifting or translation of some excrements from some other parts to the head goes before and that it is so layd up within the compass or bounds of the Encephalon the almost continual vertiginous distemper and the Convulsions of the parts of the mouth and face testifie it plainly wherefore I thought good to prescribe to this man Remedies according to the method hereafter shown I might be able here to propose many observations of this nature in whom the morbific matter subsisting neer the beginnings of the nerves stir up light Spasms or Convulsions only of the Viscera or members with a Vertigo But because a portion of this matter descending from the head enters more deeply the pipes of the Nerves and so strows the tinder or enkindling of explosive seed as it were gunpowder about their middle and ultimate processes and enfoldings it will be to the purpose to add some examples of this kinde A certain young maid E.L. tall and hansome sprung from sound parents and Observation 4 her self as far as might be Perceived originally healthfull after she had serv'd a master long sick being a long time and almost continually with him and was forced to watch whole nights very often and also at other times so that she never slept but short and interrupted naps she at length begun to complain of an heaviness in
her head and a frequent Vertigo within a little time after the distemper growing worse she felt tremblings in her whole body with a light shaking of her members which came at certain times though wandring and uncertain afterwards she suffer'd fits plainly Convulsive and those horrid and often infesting a little before the approach of the disease she was afflicted with a short Scotomie or swimming in her head by and by she felt a streightness and great oppression of her Breast whereby all her Praecordia were drawn together then presently gnashing her teeth and giving a great groan she was wont to fall to the ground in the mean time she was sensible but labouring with the great oppression of her heart till that constriction of her breast was loosned she was not able by any means to rise afterwards when the fit was past she was disturbed a good while with a great palpitation of the Heart an heaviness of the senses and a great debility of the animal function After that this Sick maid had liv'd subject to these kinde of fits being very often repeated for about 14. months she at last became Epileptical that as often as the assault of the evill returned being flung prostrat on the Earth she was taken with the insensibility or amazedness of Spirits with the foaming at mouth and other peculiar symptoms of the falling-sickness Neither did this distemper stay here but ere the space of a year was elapsed it degenerated into madness that at last the sick maid having lost the use of her Reason grew sometimes mad with fury and sometimes was plainly stupid and foolish It is plain from the beginning progress and often metamorphosis of this Disease The reason of the aforesaid Case that it at first had its cause and seat in the head near the beginning of the nerves and from thence did dayly unfold more largely its bounds both into the brain and into the nervous System for from the beginning the morbific matter consisting neer the beginnings of the nerves Caused only lighter Spasms or Convulsions of the Viscera and members and shakings with the Vertigo afterwards a portion of it being slidden into the pneumonic nerves and their foldings produced most grievous Convulsions of the Praecordia Diaphragma and Ventricle and also another portion of the same matter invading the Brain and its marrow caused the Insensibility or amazedness and so the fits of the Falling-sicknesse and at length the texture of the spirits being wholly vitiated and their Latex being degenerated into a most sharp and as it were Stygian Liquor the convulsive distempers pass'd into madness Therefore as to the particular reasons both of the disease and symptoms it seems that the aforesaid Virgin by her sedentary Life she being deprived altogether of the exercise of the body and the use of a more free Air but chiefly by her nightly watchings and being frequently interrupted of her sleep she had contracted a vitious disposition of the blood and humours and also a praved and weak constitution of the brain and Nervous stock to which may be added that she did perpetually attend on a master sick of most grievous distempers of Convulsions and by that means had received perchance some contagion or convulsive Infection And first of all indeed the Heterogeneous particles being poured forth together with the nervous juce into the brain and Cerebel and there cleaving to the spirits as it were skirmished with the preliminarie scotomie and vertigenous distemper then the convulsive matter settling upon the beginnings of the wandring pair and intercostal Nerves and the spinal marrow brought in with the Vertigo the leaping of the Viscera and Muscles and their lighter shakings Afterwards when entring more deeply the pipes of the Nerves it was carried into the Cervicall and Cardiac and perhaps intercostal and other unfoldings and embued the spirits performing the office of respiration and the pulse with an explosive Copula they being brought into explosions at every turn together with their superiors inhabiting the nervous origine by reason of fullness or because of irritation excited most horrid Convulsions of the respective parts But the fit growing strong from the pneumonic or breathing Nerves being strictly bound the sudden inordinate systole of the Thorax was stirred up then presently the Diaphragma being suddenly and vehemently drawn back the obstreperous ejulation did succeed Further when by reason of the systole of the Thorax being sometime continued the blood being hindred that it could not move it stagnated altogether in the praecordia therefore during the fit that great oppression of the heart with want of speech and motion afflicted the sick maid But in the mean time while as yet the region of the brain remained free and clear from the explosions of the spirits the sick party remained in her senses or memory but afterwards when the Convulsive matter being dayly increased it was unfolded in the middle or marrowy parts of the debilitated and broken brain to the former passions about the praecordia came also the Insensibility and amazedness of spirits then the Epilepsie and lastly madnesse for the reasons before recited Many medicines and of various kinds being prescribed to this sick maid by many both Physitians and Empericks but confusedly and with an uncertain method being presently changed did her no good Observation 5 A certain fair woman well coloured and well flesh'd from a setled grief fell into a sickly disposition about noon and the evening for the most part she was pretty well but in the morning when she had slept enough and often indulg'd it too much till she became very somnolent and heavy being thorowly awakened presently she was wont to complain of a heavinesse and as it were a stupidness in her whole head with a Vertigo at every motion or stirring about of her head a little after she constantly expected a convulsive fit or the insensible amazedness of the spirits and sometimes this sometimes that was wont to infest her for that after the Vertigo as it were a praevious velitation for the most part she felt in her ventricle and left side an heavy or weighty pain running up and down here and there hence belching a striving to vomit eruptions of blasts also wonderfull distentions of the abdomen and hypochondria did follow and sometimes for many hours did miserably Exercise this woman but sometimes these Symptoms hapned to be wanting and then the distemper more cruelly afflicted her brain for falling into frequent insensible fits she was wont to continue a great while immovable and with her eyes shut without sense or understanding and when her servants had moved her by rubbings and with the fume of Tobacco she came by and by to her self but presently again she fell into the like insensibility and so for four or five times before she could perfectly recover her self and be without expecting to fall into these fits again At length the Tragedy being acted she remained however affected with an
white sagar â„¥ ii make a Julap The dose 4. or 6. spoonfulls twice in a day after a dose of a solid medicine Take of millipedes or chesslogs cleansed i pint of Cloves cut â„¥ ss put to them i quart of white-wine let them be distill'd in a glass-Cucurbit The dose â„¥ i. to â„¥ iss twice in a day For poor people medicines easie to be prepared may be prescribed after this manner Take of the Conserves of the Leaves of Rue made with an equal part of sugar â„¥ vi take of it the quantity of a nutmeg twice in a day drinking after it of the decoction of the Seeds and Roots of Burdock in whey or posset-drink made of white-wine Or there may be prepared a Conserve of the leaves of the Tree of Life with an equall part of Sugar dose Ê’ss to Ê’ i. twice in a day Take of millipeds prepared Ê’ iii. of ameos seedsÊ’ i. make a powder divide it into 10. parts take a dose twice in a day or 12 Sows or woodlice brused and white-wine put to them let the juce be wrung out make a draught let it be taken twice a day In the mean time while these Medicines are taken Inwardly it is sometimes convenient to raise blisters with Vesicatories in the nape of the neck and behinde the ears for so the serous and sharp humours are very much brought away from the head besides sneezing powders and such as purge Rhume from the head often give signal help The taking away of Blood from the Sedal veins or the foot ought sometimes to be itterated yea and the Distemper urging Plaisters or Cataplasms are profitably applyed to the soles of the feet It is also beneficial to apply drawing medicines about the calves and thighs CHAPTER VI. Of Convulsive Motions whose cause subsists about the extremities of the Nerves or within the nervous foldings SOmetimes Convulsive distempers do arise without any fault in the Head by the irritation and explosion of the spirits remaining about the extremities of the nerves which plainly appears because when medicines haul sharply the Ventricles or Intestines or worms gnaw them there do not only follow Convulsions in those parts but besides convulsive motions do sometimes torment or are retorted on the members and outward Limbs for indeed as we have shown elsewhere when the sense of a very grievous Trouble torments any part and from that is communicated to the chief Sensorie presently from thence an involuntary and irregular motion is wont to be reflected on the spirits in that place irritated and that not only by the same nerves to which the sense of the pain was carried but sometimes also the Convulsion is reciprocated by others either neighbouring or altogether extraneous So the Stone being fixed in the Ureters and irritating very much its nervous fibres excites Convulsive motions not only in the distemperd Vessell but almost in all the Viscera of the Abdomen So that the urine being suppressed Torments diffused here and there and very often horrid Vomitings follow Wherefore 't is not at all to be doubted but that both diseases and some Convulsive Symptoms are very often induced by reason of an outward hurt brought to the Tops of the Nerves terminating within the membranes muscles or Viscera yea in the hysterical hypochondriacal and certain other passions if at any time Convulsive motions are excited in the hurt head by the fault of the womb spleen or other Inward verily they arise by this only means to wit by the Trouble of the rest of the parts being translated this way through the Nerves but in no wise by the Vapours to the brain and are propagated all about into various Regions of the Body Convulsions begin from the ends of the Nerves both by reason of irritation But it should here be noted that although the evident Solitary cause forasmuch as it is strong and vehement may sometimes induce Convulsions of it self and without a praevious disposition because indeed the Animal Spirits being irritated beyond measure begin greater and more than ordinary explosions as in overgreat purging and Vomiting and the fits of the Collick and Stone is ordinarily wont to happen yet in many other Convulsive Distempers whose fits are often and habituall besides the irritation made about the extremities of the nerves which serves for the most part for the evident cause also a certain more remote cause is present to whose efficacy the assault of the disease is chiefly beholden to wit when Convulsive motions are wont to be excited and at every turn repeated by the fault of the Spleen womb or other private part it may be suspected that the animal Spirits of the Fibres in the distemperd part and those disposed in its neighbouring parts had first contracted an heterogeneous explosive Copula And by reason of an Explosive Copula by which being filled to a running over they were provoked by a light occasion to Convulsive explosions Then those being first begun about the extremities of the nerves creep upwards by the passage of the same nerves and are often caryed to the same nervous origine and sometimes beyond to the middle of the brain from whence lastly being reflected on the nervous stock they also secondarily cause the Convulsions of the members and Limbs But after the Brain and a Superior portion of the nervous System are wont to suffer and be affected often by the Convulsions below excited the spirits inhabiting those parts also begin to be themselves adulterated at length and to admit an heterogeneous and explosive Copula and so to acquire in part a procatartick cause hence at length a Convulsive procatarxis or more remote cause becomes Common to either end of the Trunk of the same nerves and the animal spirits of one nerve or more being evilly disposed both at the head and tail conceive explosions from either part and deliver them presently to the other as shall be more largely declared below when we treat particularly of hysterical and other passions in the meantime we will add some histories and observations of Convulsions arising from the farther ends or extremities of the Nerves Observation 1 A fine maid about the 16th year of her age falling from her horse and lighting upon a Stone grievously hurt her left breast from whence a Tumor arose with pain which Symptoms notwithstanding by the use of medicines at the beginning seem'd to be mitigated and to be indifferently well for a long time after Three years after she having taken cold and having observed but a bad course of dyet all things began to be exasperated the hurt part swelling into a bigger bulk troubled her with an accute and almost continual pain that the sick Virgin for the cruel torment could take no rest for many days and nights neither could she suffer the glandula's of her Breast being then made more tumid to be either touch'd or handled yea nor any noyse or shaking to be made in the Chamber When to this Tumour about
to degenerate into a Cancer they had applyed fomentations and Cataplasms of hemlock and mandraks and other stupifying and repercussing things this gentlewoman began to suffer certain Convulsive affections infesting her very often At first as often as the pain in her breast did most cruelly torment her she felt in that place prickings also convulsions and contractions running about here and there then presently her Ventricle and hypochondria and often the whole Abdomen were wont to be inflated and very much distended with an endeavour of belching and Vomiting by and by the same distemper being leasurely translated to the superior parts excited Insensibility to which shortly after Convulsive motions succeeded in the whole Body so strongly that the Sick party could scarce be held by three or four strong men These kinde of fits at first were wandring and only occasionally excited to wit they would come as often as the pain of her brest was strained by some evident cause Afterwards these Convulsions did more often infest her and at last they became habitual and periodical twice in a day to wit they were wont to come again constantly at so many set hours after eating And when after this manner the sick Gentlewoman had been miserably afflicted for six months at length she began to be molested with a vertiginous Distemper of her head exercising her almost continually for which evill when a fomentation of aromatick and cephalick herbs had been a good while administred to her head she became better as to the giddiness but then she was perpetually infested with a quite new and admirable Symptom viz. an empty cough without spitting night and day unless when she was overwhelmed with sleep After this worthy Virgin had tryed without much benifit diverse medicines and remedies prescribed by several Physitians she was at last helped by making use of the most temperate Bath at the Bath then being presently married after she had conceived and was brought to bed she by degrees grew well If the reasons of the whole disease and its Accidents be inquired into The reason of this without doubt the convulsive distemper was first of all excited from the tumour or pained place of the breast the cause of which was partly the most sharp sense of pain being impressed from its fibres and nervous parts but partly by the heterogeneous Copula being affixed on the spirits inhabiting those fibres and nerves for truly it may be suspected that the most sharp humour impacted in the Tumor which perhaps had in some sort flowed thither by the passages of the Nerves being repercussed by the use of Topicks had entred the fibres and nervous filaments or little strings disposed thorow the whole border or neighbourhood and so the heterogeneous and explosive Copula had clove to the spirits for the shaking off of which as often as by pain they were excited they entred into convulsive explosions and together with them other spirits flowing within the neighbouring Nerves by consent of the forms as it often happens were exploded after the same manner Then the convulsive distemper when it first had begun in the extremities of the Nerves being continued thorow their passages even to the head was wont to cause the insensibleness and from thence leaping back upon the whole nervous system the convulsive motions of the Limbs and all the members The fits about the beginning of the sicknesse being excited after this manner by reason of pain from the distemper'd part were carried secondarily to the brain and its appendix But afterwards when the spirits inhabiting those places being often explosed by sympathy had so loosned and weakned the pores of the containing parts that there lay open a passage within the same for all heterogenious particles to enter with the nervous juce the convulsive procatarxis or more remote cause also increased in the head and the spirits inhabiting the Encephalon being infected with an heterogenious Copula they themselves begun the convulsive fit or at least afforded the first instinct to its assalt which did return for the most part at such set hours after eating because the morbific matter was carried in together with the nervous juce almost in an equal dimension In truth in such cases where the convulsion being generall doth possess almost all the parts of the whole nervous system successively we may suspect that the animal spirits had contracted an heterogenious and explosive Copula in the whole nervous stock which when it is arisen at the set time to a fullness incites the spirits themselves at the appointed time in like manner to explosions and the same explosion being begun somewhere is propagated in order to all after the manner of a fiery enkindling As to that empty cough which succeeding the fomentation of the head exercised this sick person allmost incessantly for many months it seems that this Symptom should depend altogether from the nervous origine being distemper'd and not at all on the stuffing of the Lungs for she did not avoid any thing with the cough and if at any time that force of coughing was violently restrained presently she was troubled with the sense of choaking in her Throat So that as it is very likely the morbific matter laid up near the nervous origine being rarified and stirred by the fomentation entred more deeply the heads of the nerves appointed for the Lungs and stirred up in their fibres and filaments perpetuall convulsions after the like manner as when the nervous juce which waters the fibres and tendons of the Muscles being made sharp and degenerate induces to those parts continual leapings and contractions hence when a Convulsion or spasm was stop'd in some branches of the distemper'd Nerves so as she could not cough presently the Convulsive motion running into other branches of the same neighbour Nerve stirred up that choaking in the Throat I will here propose another example of a Convulsion arising from the extremities of the Nerves being affected Observation 2 A noble Matron of fifty years of Age after her courses had left her for about half a year began to complain first in a pricking pain of her left pap then afterwards that distemper leaving her she was ill about her ventricle for there arose an hard and as it were a schirrous Tumour with a sad pain upon this came an inflation of the stomach with difficulty of respiration a nauseousness and frequent Vomiting Then the disease encreasing with a more sharp pain running about here and there she fell into Convulsive distempers of the ventricle to wit in that place she was allmost continually troubled with Convulsions variously running about just as if her ventricle had been torn to pieces Besides a constant perturbation of minde with thirst and watchings and a freqnent deliquium of spirits as if she had been just dying exercising this sick Lady All which symptoms she plainly perceiv'd to arise from that Tumour in her ventricle They saw that all vomitory cathartical antiscorbuticall and hysterical
Medicines did her no good but were rather hurtfull and troublesome she received some benefit by the taking away of blood by Leeches and by the use of Asses milk and afterwards she was much eased by the long drinking of spaw-waters The reason of it The aforesaid Symptoms which commonly are ascribed to the hysterical passion and the vapours from the womb here plainly appear to have proceeded from a Tumour arising about the bottom of the ventricle for that the blood of this Lady being very hot and melanchollick when it could be no more purged by her courses flowing from her it laid up its recrements and adust faeculencies at first in her breast and then from a new beginning in the membranes of her stomach From the tumor there made sharp and heterogenious particles falling down perpetually entred the fibres and nerves planted round about which cleaving continually to the spirits dwelling in and flowing into those parts excited them to frequent explosions and so made Convulsive distempers in all the neighbouring parts But that sometimes the convulsive motions were more light in that place hence it appears that the whole nervous stock and the head it self as is wont to be in greater convulsions had not as yet been touched with the same distemper But the disorder of spirits arising about the parts affected and from thence transfer'd by a smaller undulation or waving to the head and so only lightly disturbing the spirits inhabiting it induced watchings with a great heat and perturbation of the phantasie what we have hitherto discoursed of Convulsions from the morbific cause setling upon either end of the nervous system will more clearly appear when we shall hereafter trear particularly of the chief kinds of convulsions viz. the hysterical hypochondriacall and other passions In the mean time there will be no need to add a Curatory method for this Hypothesis of convulsions arising by reason of the extremities of the nerves being affected because the ways of curing may be better accomodated to the passions of this kinde hereafter particularly to be spoken of But for the present it behoves us to proceed to the unfolding of the convulsive passions whose cause or morbifick matter seems to subsist within the nervous foldings We have largely enough in another place discoursed of the nervous foldings and in their description and use we have shown that 't is very likely the more grievous fits of convulsive motions beginning oftentimes within these parts are from thence propagated on every side into the neighbouring parts and not seldom to a great distance at least that it seems much more probable that the heterogenious and explosive particles after they have overcome the tract of the head and its medullary appendix and being more deeply slidden into the Channels of the Nerves and their passages together with the juce watering them do spread their stores within the nervous foldings as it were in Cross-streets and by paths and there sometimes make their stations untill at length being more plentifully heaped up they as it were with Collected forces produce the more cruel convulsive distempers This I say appears to be much more probable That the nervous foldings is the seat of Convulsive matter then what is commonly said to suppose them vapours arising from the womb spleen ventricle or any other inward in which all the fault is easily thrown For within these foldings there are spaces large enough for morbific mines that the matter may be there at leasure laid up and remain till it be gathered to a fullness But then because we believe that great plenty of spirits lodge there more than in any other little cells the heterogenious Copula growing to them lays as it were tinder for more grievous explosions so that the spirits being explosed within these bodies do not only inflate and dilate them but elevate and lift them up from their Place even as a house blown up with gun-powder wherefore the parts lying over them are suddenly lifted up into a tumour and loose are drawn violently hither and thither That after this manner the more cruell fits of Convulsions about the praecordia and Viscera are very often stirred up I have found to be true besides the Arguments taken from reason not long since by my own sight For when I opened the dead body of a Gentlewoman who had been exceedingly troubled with as they say the Mother fits or hysterical Distempers I found the womb wholly faultless but the Nerves near the foldings of the Mesentery as it seem'd only to be lifted up and elevated into a bulk and the membranes of that inward appeared torn and loosned one from another as being on every side tumid and loose as it were blown up into little bubbles or bladders Indeed there are more considerations of solid reasons whereby we are induced Observation 1 to believe that the passions called hysterical do most often arise from the convulsive matter heaped up within the Mesenterick enfoldings and by turns explosed which shall be more clearly manifested where we treat especially of those diseases But neither is it less probable that the Collick-pains do very often proceed from a more sharp and irritative matter contained in the same enfoldings Besides as often as the convulsive fits seem to begin from the spleen or ventricle by reason the beginnings of which are inflations and very great disturbances of those parts it is likely that the nest of the convulsive matter was hid within the nervous enfoldings belonging to the spleen or ventricle Also this kinde of matter seems to excite within the Cardiac foldings most heavy tremblings and passions of the heart and within the pneumonic or cervical or those belonging to the Lungs and throat enfoldings most terrible fits of the Asthma In our Treatise of the Nerves we have related a notable case of a worthy Gentlewoman to whom a serous matter wonted to distill from the forepart of her head through her left nostrill fell down behind her ear where when the most cruel pain did infest her Convulsions also and admirable contractions followed whereby the joynting or compaction now of the brain and the whole head seem'd to be pulled downward now the throat praecordia and Viscera upwards which kinde of Convulsions vexing the parts so opposite and at such distance by turns when they did proceed from one and the same seat of the disease planted in the midst it will be obvious to conceive that the grieved place as the origine of either convulsive affection was the ganglioform enfoldings planted near the Parotidae or the two chief Arteries of the throat into which the Nerves both of the wandring pair descending from the head are entred and out of which the shoots do stretch themselves into the muscles of the throat and branches into the praecordia and viscera Further front the same cause to wit the convulsive matter heaped up and by turns explosed within the ganglioform enfoldings we think and not undeservedly
the blood contracted from the intemperance of the year it seems that the brain also from the same occasion was made prone to the aforesaid passions For when for a long tract of time the southern winds did continually blow with a moist constitution of the Air from thence the passages and pores of the brain being very much loosned and opened and its connexion too much dissolved they gave an easie passage to serous humours and for all sorts of heterogeneous particles wherefore the blood being very feculent and watery as soon as it began to grow hot from the feavour carried its serous recrements and filths presently thorow the too open doors into the head for whosoever he was who did not complain of his head being too much stuffed with a moist air and numbness of spirits on the contrary his pores being bound together by an intense cold or dryer air all his senses and faculties remained more quick and lively These things being thus premised concerning the morbid provision of the brain and humours to wit of the blood and nervous humour by reason of the constitution of the year whereby indeed very many at that time sell into a slow unequal and long continuing feavour surrounded with Cephalick and Convulsive symptoms and hardly curable hence also it will be easie to unfold the reasons of the rest of the symptoms and accidents chiefly to be noted in this disease Why this disease chiefly invaded children women and phlegmatick men For first of all that this irregular Feavour raged chiefly among Children young men women and phlegmatick men the reason was because in those kinde of bodies the blood was apt to be more waterish and less perspicable and from thence to gather a serous Colluvies or watry humour and heterogeneous feculencies and also the brain being more humid and weak easily received any recrements of the bloud Wherefore it may be observed that those sort of persons were found more prone to Convulsions arising by reason of any other occasions The reason of the Atrophie coming upon this feavour Secondly the noted Atrophie or leanness came so suddenly upon this feavour because by reason of the depravation of the nervous juice the officies of nourishment depending upon it which as we have elsewhere shown are highly active presently failed For although we do not grant the nervous humour to be only nutritious but to dispense thorow the Arteries a matter destinated to the nourishable parts prepared in the bloody mass yet it may be lawfull to think that the Liquor watering the brain and nervous stock by means of an efficient cause doth conduce very much to alimentation for this growing turgid with animal spirit actuates and invigorates the nutritious juice brought to every part by the blood and admitting it into the passages and most intimate receptacles of the body to be nourished and as it were leading it in assimilates or resembles it Wherefore when this houshold Liquor is so depraved that it doth not rightly supply the animal spirits requisite about the work of nutrition all the members and parts of the stomach vitiated in its tone either spues back whatsoever nourishment is brought or cannot receive it to its proper use wherefore truly in this disease the bulk or habit of the body however fuller or fatter was more sooner pull'd down then in a continuall Feavour where it might much more evaporate by the intense heat or copious sweats The reason of which is because in a burning feavour altho the blood growing very hot exhales more plentifully yet in the mean time it continually affords something of nourishment which the severall parts help'd by the benefit of the nervous juice easily received and assimilated but in this nervous pestilence altho the nutritive matter was sufficiently provided yet by the defect of the Nourishment of the spirits the nourishment was altogether inhibited Why this feavour was hardly cureable 3. For the aforesaid reasons also this feavour being a long while protracted was wont scarce ever to be critically helped and difficulty cured by the help of allmost any medicines For the feavourish matter creeping presently from the beginning of the disease into the nervous Liquor could hardly afterwards and not but of a long time be exterminated from its bosome for that this water with a slow motion and flowing leasurely in the streight vessells does not as the blood conceive of its own accord a purifying effervescency or fermentation neither can the forces of medicines reach to it so easily and unmixed but either they are first hindred by other parts or because they are heterogeneous they are wholly excluded from the brain casting back whatever is incongruous In truth for this reason all distempers of the brain and nerves as it were making a mock at Medicines are most difficulty cured Therefore in this feavour if the evill impressed on the brain and nervous stock was taken away either a cruell cough with plentifull spitting ot tumours or an Impostum in the neck did follow to wit the morbifick matter being supped back by the blood and again deposited setled either in the Thorax or in the Glandula's and emunctories nigh the hinder part of the neck But this disease was the more contumacious because the discrasie or evill constitution of the blood was not easily mended for altho from the beginning its Latex the recrements being poured forth even into the nervous Liquor grew but little and sluggishly hot yet afterwards these receptacles being filled and the morbific feculencies and besides the nutritious matter not imployed in nourishing the parts being resident even in the blood did aggravate it and for the exclusion of this trouble not to be mixed with it did induce an Effervescency such as is wont to be in an hectick feavour either almost continuall or presently apt to come again For I have often observed in this feavour from grewell barly-broth and other slender diet no less ebulition of the blood to be stirred up than from broth made of flesh whether indeed the nourishing juice supplying the blood from the chyle because it was not imployed in the work of nutrition carried something heterogeneous and not rightly miscible as a trouble to the blood and by reason of the particles of this superfluous juice being copiously sent away with the serum the urine became very thick red and very full of contents Also for the same reason the belly was for the most part loose forasmuch as the blood filled full of the nutritious juice did suck forth a lesser portion of the chile from the bowells and did pour back again part of that which had been brought to it on the intestines the feavourish distemper did likewise stick so long in the blood because till the animal regiment being restored nutrition was rightly performed that superfluous matter was carried into the mass of blood We deliver the example and the Aetiology or rational account of this aforesaid feavour more largely for this reason because the
feavour a phrensie or madness should come remedies appropriate to those distempers are made use of 2dly But if either with or without this sort of displeasure In the Cough brought to the head the Lungs also have taken the evill of this disease so that the sick not yet free from the feavour seem to fall into a waisting or Consumption with a troublesome cough with abundance of thick and often discoloured spittle Medicines commonly prescribed for such kinde of Distempers are convenient enough wherefore pectoral Decoctions Electuaries syrrops distill'd waters of milk and snails and other remedies of the like nature ought diligently to be made use of the forms of which may be found in the before-described Cases Thus far we have described the continual feavour for the most part convulsive and arising no less from the fault of the nervous juice then of the blood I will here further propose an example of a disease having the likeness of an intermitting feavour but radicated chiefly in the nervous juice the nature of which kinde of distemper for that it is very rare and truly pertinent to our convulsive Pathologie will appear from the following history A noted Woman very young A very rare Observation and indued with a more weak constitution of brain and nervous stock and for that cause very obnoxious to convulsive distempers after she had conceived with child about the fourth month of her being big from cold being taken she was grievously afflicted with Astmatical fits and besides with a frequent sinking down of her spirits but by the use of remedies indued with a volatile salt she grew well within a fortnights space but after that about 14. days an unwonted and truly admirable distemper fell upon this Gentlewoman One morning awaking after an unquiet sleep that night she felt a light shivering in all her body as if she had had the fit of an Ague frequent yaunings and reatchings with an endeavour to vomit followed thereupon then her urine which was but now of a citron colour and of a laudable substance became pale and waterish and was rendred at every turn to wit almost every minute of an hour moreover about her loins and hypochondria and in other places pains with light Convulsions running about here and there were excited which kinde of symptoms plainly convulsive with her frequent making of a lympid urine continued in the Morning allmost to Evening in which space of time a great quantity of water at least three times more then the liquor she had taken was rendred in the mean time neither was the heat great nor did thirst trouble her nor was her pulse encreased In the evening the aforesaid distempers ceased and her urine became citron colour and moderate and besides all night she enjoy'd a moderate sleep then the morning following about the same hour the fit returned accompanied altogether with the like symtoms and so dayly acted the same Tragedy The reason of it Visiting this Gentlewoman after she had been sick in this manner for 12. days I framed the Aetiologie of the aforesaid case to wit that this disease chiefly radical in the nervous stock did depend upon the effervescency and flux of the humour watering the nervous parts For it might be suspected that this water being diffused from the blood made degenerate by reason of the suppression of her Terms upon the brain and nervous stock became more sharp and serous than it ought to be and for that cause incongruous to the containing parts wherefore being gathered together to a plenitude by the nights sleep it did stir them up or provoke them for the expulsion of it every where into wrinklings and contractions hence shiverings yaunings streachings and wandring pains were excited in the whole body Furthermore from the sollid parts after this manner contracted and shaken not only the nervous Liquor but also the nutricious every where laid up in the sollid parts but not truly assimilated were shaken off and then either Latex being exterminated from its receptacles and received by the veins or Lymphaducts or water-carrying vessells was render'd to the Mass of blood from whose bosome before it had acquired a lixiviall tincture from it being at last cast forth by the reins constituted a clear and Copious urine But that this distemper observed such exact periods the reason is because the nervous water being supplyed with an equall dimension did arise to a fulness of running over dayly at the set time Therefore also the urine appeared concocted and yellow before and after the fit because then its matter consisted only from the serum of the blood Afterwards during the convulsive fit the limpid humour being shaken off from the solid and nervous parts and passing quickly thorow the blood adulterated the colour and the quantity of the urine I prescribed to this big-bellied woman Phlebotomie and besides a powder composed out of Corall pearls ivory and other Cardiacks to be taken thrice in a day in a proper Liquor morning and evening she took of the tincture of Antimony 12. drops whose singular effect in the too great flux of urine I have many times experienced By the use of these all the symptoms ceased in a short time CHAPTER IX Of Vniversal Convulsions which are wont to be excited because of the Scorbutic disposition of the Nervous juice Vniversal Convulsions by reason of the Scorbutic disposition of the nervous juice THus much concerning universal Convulsions diffused thorow the whole nervous kinde which come upon feavours and especially concerning the Convulsions which are wont to be excited in the commonly called malignant hectick Feaevour There yet remains which was proposed in the third place for us to shew by what means and from what causes universal Convulsions are induced without poyson or feavourish infection by reason of the scorbutick or otherwise vitious dyscrasie or evill disposition of the nervots juice For indeed the Liquor watering both the nerves and the nervous parts sometimes disceding from its naturall disposition is so much stuff'd with heterogeneous and explosive particles that the animal spirits admitting an incongruous Copula every where growing to themselves are irritated into continuall as it were cracklings or convulsive explosions These kinde of Affections of the spirits Two kindes of these viz. Separate and Connex or joyned together are either divided or separated between which no Communication or dependency intercedes viz. When many parts of the body are troubled at once with so many Convulsions proper to themselves which do not come successively one from another but are terminated in the same muscle or member where they begin After which manner I have known some sick people who have had their muscles and tendons all at once in their whole body perpetually to leap forth with so many distinct Convulsions Or Secondly the Convulsive Distempers which are excited in the whole nervous kinde together are continued or connex which succeed one another with a certain perpetual vicissitude continued
between themselves Forasmuch as inordinate motions almost of all the members mutually relieving themselves being risen in one part presently passe over to others For so Horstius relates of a maid obnoxious to Convulsive motions whose members and Limbs not only were forced into divers manner of flections and distortions but besides as if agitated by an evill Spirit not being able to stand in a place she was necessitated to run up and down here and there and to dance and leap in the Hot-house nor could be hindred from it by any force or chiding but that she would run here and there now she would cast her self on her feet now impetuously fling her self after another manner for if she did endeavour never so little to be quiet presently her Praecordia was most grievously afflicted Wherefore the Business of our present task is to enquire a little more exactly into the nature and Causes of either Convulsive Affection to wit both of that which is affected through the very much leaping of the tendons and muscles together and of this which is caused through the madness and inquietudes of the members or of the whole body that from thence it may appear what method of healing ought to be administred in either Case As to the former kinde it easily appears that these kinde of distempers The nature of the broken Convulsive distemper are not simple but complicated to wit of a Convulsion and Palsie For the muscles and tendons are perpetually urged with Convulsive motions notwithstanding the sick being made weak they are not able strongly to move any of their members or their whole body yea to these Distempers pains equally diffused thorow all the Limbs are adjoyned Hence we may infer that the animal Spirits are imbued with a manifold Copula viz. both with explosive and also narcotick ot stupifying and in some sort irritative or provoking particles so that although being alway burthened they enter into explosions yet not many together nor indeed any hastily or strongly are exploded by reason of the other interjected Particles of another kinde wherefore the motive force does not long continue but is short and as it were interrupted just as if gunpowder being kneeded with some muddy substance should be fired for then the whole mass is not let off at once with a noise nor does one heap presently fire another but a few grains only and those successively to wit one a little while after another with small crackling noises are let off or exploded In like manner the nervous Liquor is stuffed thorowout with Convulsive particles which even cleave to the Spirits but forasmuch as some narcotick and other painfull ones are mingled with them the elastick force of the former however lasting and greatly diffused is yet much broken and every where cut off For the illustrating this kinde of broken convulsive Distemper An observation I will here describe a very notable case of a certain Gentleman lately living in this neighbourhood which being truly admirable not any writings or observations of Physitians have scarce shewed the like An honourable Gentleman whom I knew sprung from Parents and grandfathers obnoxious to a someways morbid disposition either of the Brain or nerves about the hight or beyond the strength of his Age the fruit of this diseased Race began to punish him for first of all he was wont to be tormented with a debility and numbness of his Limbs and with light Convulsions with which kinde of Distempers when he had a while laboured at length for cure sake going to the Bath having used too much the hot bathes instead of a remedy he brought back only an exasperation of the Disease that from that time the aforesaid Symptoms did not any more torment him by fits but almost continually to wit the Convulsive motions and painfull extensions did incessantly exercise every Limb yea every part of his Body so that all the muscles were perpetually drawn together with repeated leapings all at once and that not without great torment The only means he had for quieting them was to exercise his whole body sometimes some of his members perpetually with a local motion for so long as he was awake he was necessitated to be rock'd in his bed or on his couch or to be carried in a Coach or to have his members press't or rubb'd for which end they had made for him a Bed and a Chair set upon bowfashon'd feet such as are on Childrens Cradles in which when he lay down or sat upright he was moved up and down continually with a tottering or rocking motion which unless he did he was infested with most cruel pain and horrid extensions of his muscles This kinde of dayly trouble of the Convulsive Distemper in the night-time and presently after sleep entertain'd much more grievous Symptoms for being newly awaked his whole body presently was wont to quake his muscles to be exercised with painfull stretchings every Limb to be wetted with a squalid or ill-favour'd sweat as if in the agony of Death which was so very Corrosive that like aqua fortis unless they presently wiped it off it quickly eat and rotted the Linnen The sick man during this Conflict was tormented for many hours between the sweats and shiverings untill being quite tired out sleep creeping upon him brought him some ease but if at the approach of the fit he was presently taken out of his Bed he was better and so prevented the wonted cruelty of the Distemper Therefore as soon as he was awaked from sleep though it hapned within half an hour immediatly to avoyd the torture his servants being called they took him out of his Bed As to his Appetite he was well enough he eat without loathing nor was his stomack disturb'd with what he eat Bur he did often complain of the pain of the heart and sometimes a troublesome Spitting with a stink in his mouth as if he had taken Mercury molested him for many days All hot things whether food or Physick did nor agree with his constitution he did not dare to taste either wine or strong beer In the first years of his sickness he abhor'd the very sight of the fire afterwards becoming weaker though the winter was sharp he would not sit neer the Chimny his Urine was always of a Citron colour which if it were evaporated in an earthen vessell over hot coals saltish faeculencies remained in the bottom to above half the Liquor his belly was continually bound and never put forth its load unless provoked by a purge or Clyster Yea besides the Convulsive motions a Spurious Palsie possessed every member of his whole Body for he could not lift up his hand nor step a foot forward his tongue shaking brought forth his words but imperfect but sometimes when his minde was carried sorth by some sudden occasion of Joy he would be able his Spirits being raised with a wonderfull strength suddenly to rise out of his chair and without the help of
another to stand upright and to jump which interval however lasted scarce a minute of an hour but that his members flagg'd and were affected with their wonted languor and trembling When this worthy Gentleman had been sick after this manner above 12. years and had consulted the most famous Physitians in all England and had tryed very many Remedies and almost of every kinde viz. Antiparalytick antiscorbutick drying Diets Sweating medicines purges Causticks baths Liniments yea and had twice tryed salivation could finde no cure by any method of healing wherefore all hope of cure being wholly layd aside for the latter seven years of his life he made use of only Remedies chiefly respecting some Symptoms viz. he took thrice in a week a solutive medicine of Senna and Rubarb with Correctives now in form of a Syrrop or of an extract another time every night he was wont to take a dose of an opiate out of conserves and temperate Species Besides as occasions serv'd he had ready a Julap to be taken when his Spirits fainted moreover he continually drunk Beer made of oaten mault altered with temperate and diuretical herbs By the use of these he pass'd over at least seven years without any great alteration for the worse at length old Age coming on him together with the disease more cruel fits of Convulsions not as at first after sleep but assoon as he was warm in his bed invaded him that he was forced to abstain altogether from his Bed and rarely put off his cloaths unless to shift his Linnen from hence transpiration being hindred the serous Recrements and others wont to be evaporated were fixed on the Lungs which at first brought in a frequenr or short breathing afterwards an Asthmatical Distemper and lastly a deadly Consumption or wasting If the Reasons of the aforesaid Symptoms be sought after it will be easie The reasons of the symptoms chiefly tormenting to deduce all these evills from a depraved Constitution of the Brain and nervous stock and more immediatly from the dyscrasie and fault of the juice watering those parts For when that Liquor in which the animal Spirits do abound was as to its temper highly sharp and Corrosive like Stygian water and as to its mixion was fluffed full of both narcotick and explosive particles it is no wonder because the Spirits being very much burthened and for that cause restrained from their due expansion that they should be forced every where into small explosions as it were Cracklings and that the containing bodies being loosed from their due extension and strength should be also continually irritated into painfull Corrugations or shrinkings up Those Convulsive Distempers did more sharply infest after sleep The growing worse presently after sleep whence it proceeded because the heat of the Bed did exuscitate or stir up the heterogeneous particles of the nervous juce and rarifying them as it were compell'd them into explosions then also because the nervous parts did imbibe its juce in sleep and a more plentifull provision of the morbifick matter brought together with it which being filled to a plentitude at the first instant of waking they immediatly endeavour to shake off what is troublesome For this Reason it is observed that the pains of Scorbutical people and the fits of Asthmatical are made worse by the heat of the bed and by sleep therefore as in these presently to leave the bed was wont to give ease so likewise it did in our sick man But that the trouble Why allayed by Motion excited by the continual leapings and painfull extentions of the muscles was somewhat allayed by the local motion or moving from one place to another of the body or members the reason is because the Animal Spirits whilst they are compelled to divers actions from without they remit whatsoever inordinations are excited from within for as in pain and itching which are lighter Convulsions it helps to press rub or scratch the affected part so the Convulsive motions of the muscles and tendons are somewhat pleased by the inordinate agitation of the whole body or the members As to the Ptyalismus or copious spitting with the stinking breath The spitting which was wont to return at uncertain intervalls we do suppose that might perchance proceed from Mercury sometime secretly given although I have seen many labouring both with Convulsive and also scorbutick distempers in whom this kinde of perpetual defluxion of spittle from the mouth was very troublesome without any suspition of Mercury also some as shall be told hereafter on whom a salivation coming the explosive matter being after this manner Critically evacuated help'd the disease moreover it is likely that this distemper was produced from the mere recrements of the nervous juice and that the salival passages when many and enough were open did receive and convey forth of doors the superfluities plentifully deposited in the glandula's from the nerves and also from the Arteries As to the lucid Intervalls whereby the sick man us'd to obtain some truces Why this sick man obtained some truce from pains though short the cruelties as it were of the disease being mitigated as when but now his sickness had bound him to his chair he was able on a sudden to leap up and walk about but yet this unlook'd-for strength being vanish'd by and by falling again into his wonted languishment I say these kinde of motions of labouring Nature prostrate under a great burthen are its utmost endeavours and some more strong inforcements to wit whereby for a moment of time she recollects her self and attempts as it were to shake off the yoak of the Disease but because she is not able to sustain long this strife she quickly relapses and lies down under her former burthen Truly it is a wonder how much above the strength of Nature Anger and fear and some other passions of the minde do stretch the nervous kinde and compell them to shew a force plainly stupendious But these prodigies of her attempts are only of a small duration The secret leading cause of the aforesaid distemper The Conjunct cause of the aforesaid disease being after this manner designed and the Reasons of the Symptoms chiefly tormenting being shown it remains yet for us to inquire into the secret leading cause to wit by what occasions the nervous juice being become so degenerate at first brings in the Palsie and then leapings or intestine Convulsions of all the muscles further we ought to explain wherefore the fruits of this Disease increasing by little and little came suddenly to maturity by the use of the Baths also wherefore this sickness yielding to no Remedies became uncurable As to the first it may be said that the sick person being sprung from parents who were obnoxious greatly to Cephallic Diseases had contracted originally an evill Constitution of the brain and nervous stock so that within the 6th lustre i.e. about the 36th year of his Age he began to be sick of a spurious Palsie
and folded into fewer folds from whence we suspected that the Animal Spirits were not plentifully enough brought forth Further the whole substance of the head was more moist than it ought to be and wholly immersed in a wet watery humour that its Covering viz. the whole meninges were pulled asunder and the compassing or crevices and all the ventricles run over with clear water 'T is probable that this deluge of the Brain had lately hapned to wit forasmuch as by reason perspiration being hindred and the Secretion of urine being but little the serosities gathered together in the bloody mass were carried to the head and therefore the substance of the Brain and especially the chancelled or chequer'd bodies were so wholly wetted and soked that being cut their substance could scarce remain compacted but that it would flow away somewhat after the manner of thick Liquids within the bosoms overlying and inserted to the brain and its Appendix and the vessells coming from them the blood had concreted into little round hard and as it were fleshy balls just like those within the ventricles of the heart and the vessells hanging to them which also lately when the Bloud circulated slowly we thought might happen for the same reason for which the blood was coagulated within the Praecordia The trunk of the Spinal marrow being drowned in clear water was very much extenuated that it could scarce fill half of the bony cavity or hollowness which we thought to be effected by the deluge of salt Serum in which it was as it were boyled The Nature and the manner of the continued convulsive distemper being made So much concerning universal Convulsions which being very much conjoyned with the Paralytick Distemper are excited dividedly in many parts at once There remains others which we call'd continued because being suddenly translated from some parts to others they mutually relieve one another and compell the members now these now those and often the whole body to be involuntarily moved and diversly bended or agitated In these Cases the Animal Spirits not only those implanted in private corners and mines get to themselves an explosive Copula and being some how satisfied or irritated strike it off by certain turns but when the whole mass of the nervous Liquor abundantly abounds with elastick particles they then every where cleaving to both the Spirits implanted and flowing in for that reason stir them up into Continuall Convulsions But forasmuch as not all the Spirits at once are not able however predisposed to be exploded because within the nervous passages there is not room large enough for their so great agitations therefore the explosive force arising in these or those parts is by and by transfer'd from thence unto others and so to others and so like fire-draks or wild-fire it runs wandringly here and there most swiftly creeping from these Limbs to those and then presently from all into the Praecordia or Viscera and back again That the Image of those kinde of distempers may be known we will here propose some more rare Cases of sick persons whom sometime past I endeavoured to Cure Observation 1 A very fine and religious maid tall and slender begot of a Father sickly and obnoxious to most grievous Distempers of the nervous kinde about the 20th year of her Age was afflicted for many days with an head-ach very Cruell and periodical at length at the time of the winter folstice 1656. the pain of her head ceased but instead of it a mighty Catarrh followed with a thin and Copious spitting also an ulcerous distemper of the nose and throat when she had for some time endured this trouble at length by the prescript of a certain Woman receiving the fume of Amber by a tunnell into her mouth she was suddenly cured to wit the Catarrh or violent Rhume ceas'd suddenly but from thence she complained of a notable Vertigo with a pain in the head and of the tingling noise of the ears on the Third day the tendons of the hinder part of her neck were pulled together that her head was bended now forward now backward and now of one side sometime it continued stiff and unmoveable a little after this the same kinde of Convulsive Distemper invaded the outward members and Limbs of the whole body her arms and hands were wonderfully turned about that no jugler or tumbler could imitate their bendings and rollings about she was necessitated to spread abroad her leggs and feet here and there to strike them against one another and to transpose or cross them by turns After this manner either sitting in a Chair or lying in a Bed she was perpetually afflicted with these Convulsive motions unless when overwhelmed with sleep and when she did a little restrain her members from the great labour of the Muscles presently she was taken with a difficult and short-breathing with a sense of Choaking but in the mean time her eyes jaws mouth and lower bowells remained free from any Convulsion neither was she troubled with vomiting belching nor any inflation of the belly and hypochondria Besides she was still her self and had truly the use of her memory understanding and phantasie she did nor said any thing madly or foolishly but in these wonderfull evills she shewâ—d an admirable example of Christian fortitude and patienee even with godly and discreet speeches her appetite was soon lost so that she took any meat or aliment very unwillingly thirst continually troubled her and her strength was grown so feeble that she could not stand or walk her urine was of a Citron colour very full of saltness on whose superficies grew little tararous skins When I was sent for to this Gentlewoman on the Sixth day of her sickness I framed the Aetiology of this kinde of admirable distemper For the consideration of her father who at that time was sick in the same house with most grievous Convulsive passions kept me that I did not with many others refer all things to the delusions of witches wherefore that I might seek out the natural Causes of these Symptoms it was in the first place plainly to be suspected that this Gentlewoman had contracted hereditarily the seeds of Convulsive Distempers which at length about the flower of her age broke forth into this kinde of fruit for when her blood was very much imbued with heterogeneous and explosive particles they at length as is wont in such a disposition began to be poured into the head and there to be fixed being therefore first deposited in the Meningae they induced the huge periodicall head-ach then afterwards the same matter having accidentally shifted its place falling down into the sinks of the throat and mouth changed the Cephalage or head-ach into a Catarrh or Rhume and when lastly by an untimely use of the administred Remedy the defluxion stop'd the morbifick matter flowing back into the brain brought the Vertigo and then being thrust forth on the nervous stock it excited the aforesaid Convulsive Affections As to
her but rarely yet she continued Languishing and weak and when she being of a more fine temper and prone to a Consumption by reason transpiration was hindred the recrements of the bloods being laid up in the Lungs brought in a Cough which every day growing worse she at length dyed of a Phthisis or wasting Observation 2 Some years since I was sent for to a Noble Virgin sick almost after the same manner and something worse For this suffer'd almost perpetually coming by turns involuntary motions to wit shakings of the head and members or deflections or movings about here and there besides she was afflicted with an exceeding troublesome and plainly wonderfull Convulsion of the Diaphragma and muscles serving for breathing for every minute of an hour and oftener her back-bone was suddenly bent in about its middle and together her breast shooting out forward and her hypochondria being drawn inwards she made a noysie sobbing now double now threefold but still with a less and less noise this kinde of motion and ebbing of a crashing noise was wont to come for many hours and so that she might be heard through the whole house and when any short interval of this hapned she was compelled presently to shake or writhe together extreamly her arms and hands and sometimes her legs and feet and also to fling about most furiously her head and by and by to hold her neck as it were stiff and immovable and then in speaking her tongue would be taken after that manner that she would repeat the same word very often yea sometimes twenty times at least when the Convulsive motions tormented her strongly in her outward members she was free for a little while from that throtling and noisie distemper and this space of intermission she call'd her time of ease tho in the mean time her head and members were carried violently here and there with Convulsive Motions if at any time she lay on her left side presently a contraction of her right hypochondrium inwards with a sobbing or throtling vex'd her Within a few days her strength being very much lost by the assiduity of the passions she contracted so great an imbecillity in her Loyns and joynts of her legs that she could not stand nor lean on her feet Her Stomach distemperd either with weakness or the Convulsion return'd back whatever was put into it by vomit In this Case as in the former it appears clearly that the Animal spirits The nature and cause of the discribed case not only those implanted in this or that part or region had contracted an heterogeneous Copula to be shaken off by some turns but also the spirits influencing some nerves being imbued with explosive particles had brought in the perpetuall and wandring Convulsive Motions And when at first it hapned that the spirits so afflicted did assolt not all the nerves together nor any indifferently but for the most part only those belonging to the Diaphragma and the Appendixes of the spinal marrow so that within those spaces the fury of the spirits perpetually explosing was limited for this reason it hapned that the convulsive affections being restrained in any one of those parts did break forth more furiously strait in another and when by their proper instinct their motive force was imployed in one Region the same was in the mean time wont to be remitted in another Moreover in this sick person the morbific matter consisting both of narcotick and convulsive particles caused together the paralytick and convulsive distemper Coming to her on the 4th day I gave her an Emetick potion by which she vomited 7 times abundance of ropy phlegm with yellow choller yet without any ease on the next day I took six ounces of blood from her left Arm presently from thence the blood being more impetuously carried towards the head she complained mightily of an head-ach and giddiness But within 3 days she being let blood in the foot found her self better she afterwards took Remedies for the distempers of the nerves to wit spirits of Harts-horn and of blood Bezoartick and shelly powders Julaps and Electuaries antispasmodical by the use of these the Symptoms seem'd to be something remitted but yet they remained somewhat after the manner but now described After a fortnight by the prescription of a certain Country-Woman she took in a draught of beer 6 spoonfulls of blood taken from the ear of an Asse by which she seem'd on a sudden to be cured for forthwith all the Convulsive motions did leave and she remained free from them 24 hours but yet the disease returning the next day with its wonted fierceness would not give place neither to that Remedy nor indeed easily to any others she therefore for the future took medicines methodically prescribed Once within 6 days she was gently purged besides she took the powder composed of Bezoar pearls and Corrall with the roots and seeds of Paeony also an Electuary prescribed by Horstius for these kinde of admirable Convulsions also Julap and decoctions proper in convulsive Distempters Clysters were often used frictious oyntments and vesicatories were administred with success within another week the sobbing affection wholly ceased and likewise the other convulsive motions being grown more gentle by degrees very much remitted Growing well of these distempers a Catharr falling down in her throat she was so much troubled that she almost continually spit forth a sharp and as it were Corrosive spittle as if she had had a salivation by taking Mercury which kinde of Remedy indeed hath been found to have been the last event in this case but I wholly abstained from administring it because both the sick and her friends would not give me leave After this plentifull and troublesome spitting had continued for many days the disease seem'd almost to be wholly Cured so that this noble Gentlewoman being free of her Convulsive motions went abroad and was well both in strength and stomach Only she complained that oftentimes in a day she was suddenly afflicted for about a minute of an hour with a shivering of her whole body which kinde of Distemper coming upon her sometimes in the night broke her sleep within the space of a month this Symptom also and likewise her Catarrh wholly ceased But from thence she was sometimes afflicted with an extream Soureness in her ventricle and the passage of the Oesophagus and sometimes also in her mouth and pallate that it was feared lest the inward skin being fretted those parts should Contract an ulcerous disposition besides she was wont to be tormented often in her sleep sometimes also being awake with the night-mare or Incubus For this I prescribed Spring and fall a gentle purge to be administred with the use of antiscorbutick Remedies and sometimes Chalibiates or medicines of prepared steel which kinde of method she observed so much to her benefit that she was well in health for many years and is as yet well Among the many Remedies which were taken against that Sourness and
as it were ulcerous disposition of the pallat and Oesophagus I prescribed that she should drink every morning her own urine fresh made this whilst it was very Saltish was wont to give her great ease but at sometimes her urine flow'd from her thin and plentifully which being nothing salt but like to sour vinegar from the drinking of that she received little or no benefit The Reason of the Case but now described seems not much unlike the former unless that in this sick Gentlewoman the explosive particles had enter'd into more passages of the nerves to wit besides the appendixes of the spinall marrow into those dedicated for the office of breathing and also by fits into those designed for the motion of the Tongue and almost perpetually tormented the Spirits abounding in them with Rage or fury But that the Cure of this Disease hapen'd by the falling down of the sharp humour into the emunctories of the mouth and throat we may from thence gather that the material Cause of this was the heterogeneous particles and as it were nitrous begotten in the blood which when from thence being passed thorow from the brain they were carried into the nervous stock caused the aforesaid Distempers But assoon as by the help of Remedies the more plentifull provision of that matter was hinderd and the morbifick particles allready produced both from the blood and the Brain and nervous stock were derived into those emunctories of the head the Convulsive Distemper presently ceased and within a short time such a Crisis or secretion still remaining the perfect Cure of the Disease followed Forasmuch as the urine being of it self very salt and as it were lixivial became at some times sourish which did not give any help as the former to the sourness of the throat it may hence be gathered that the salt particles of the blood and humours coming away by the urine had a twofold state or condition to wit of fixedness and fluedness wherefore the serum imbued by them became now of this now of that nature for it seems that the Saline particles being degenerate within the mass of the blood remained fixed and rendred the urine for the most part Lixiviall but those which flowed without the blood in the nervous juce or were laid up about the solid parts did degenerate into a flux or acetousness and therefore from these being derived into the emunctuaries of the mouth that noted sourness of the mouth and Oesophagus proceeded moreover when these kinde of particles being gathered to a fullness in the nervous juce and solid parts did swell up and arising to a fluxion boyled up into the blood presently these being sent away from thence in heaps thorow the Reines rendred the urine increased in quantity sourish But forasmuch as the Saline particles being of a divers Condition and that those of the same kinde could not be mingled together they mutually moved against one another and break their forces therefore the salt urine and not the sour healed the sourness of the throat It appears by a vulgar experiment that the most sharp Spirit of Vitriol by the mixture of the Salt of Tartar or any other lixivial grows very milde yea and yet from thence appears that the acid humour sweating out into the parts of the mouth and throat of this Gentlewoman came near the nature of sharp Vitriol because the fume of Tobacco being taken at the mouth of the sick person was wonderfully sweet as it happens to such who have beforehand tasted Vitriol Because we treat here of admirable Convulsions which do not ordinarily happen and whose nature and causes ly deeply hid for the better illustration of these kinde of Distempers we will yet shew one or two more Cases no less wonderfull than the former About ten years since I visited the daughter of a certain Nobleman troubled Observation 3 after that manner with Convulsive motions that some thought her possessed with an evill Spirit This Virgin about 16. years of age fair and well-made yet begotten of a paralytick Father without any evident Cause about the winter-solstice began to fall ill At first she was troubled though not in any grievous manner with an head-ach and giddiness for many days then she felt now in one of her arms and then in another a trembling and sudden Contraction which kinde of Convulsions returning often that day endured scarce a moment the next day sitting nigh her Sister in a Chair suddenly leaping out she fetch'd one or two jumps and many others successively with wonderfull agility at the distance of many feet then when she was come to the farther part of the Chamber she stood leaping a great while in the same place and every time to a great height when her legs were quite tired with leaping she fell on the floor and presently she flung her head here and there with wonderfull violence as if she would shake it from her neck As soon as she ceased from this motion for weariness presently the same fury invaded her hands and feet so that she was forced strongly to exercise these members by striking the walls or posts or by beating the pavement when by reason of shame or modesty due to her friends and by-standers she did hinder her self with great violence from these motions for all the while she was her self and spake soberly the distemper being sent inwardly she was very much infested with a mighty oppression of the heart with a bemoaning and very noisefull sobbing then when she would ease her self she was forced presently the fury being transmitted to the muscles of the outward Limbs either to leap about or to fling here and there cruelly her head or arms or also to run about the Chamber most swiftly or to beat the ground with her feet because these kinde of vehement motitions of her Limbs or viscera in the Tragedy of the distemper did mutually relieve themseives returning as it were in a round Coming the 5th day after this Lady had been sick The Curatory Method I gave her a vomit of the fusion of Crocus Mettallorum wine of squills and salt of Vitriol by which she vomited 7 times cancker'd oile or choller in a great plenty with the mixture of a sharp and as it were vitriolic humour The next day ten ounces of blood was taken from the Saphana vein besides she took twice in a day antidotes of the powders of pretious Stones of humane skull and the root of the male paeony By the use of these within a week she seem'd to be cured she continued for many days afterwards free from the aforesaid distempers But after two weeks at the time of the full Moon she fell into a relapse of the same disease more cruell than before for besides those wonderfull leapings and vehement Conversions and roulings about of her head and members she was forced besides to fetch often a most rapid course round about the Chamber she began at this time from the praescripts of others
to take anti-hysterical Remedies and purges at certain set intervalls but without any help At last I being sent for because she seemed indued with a strong habit of body and with a notable fierceness of spirits I gave her a stronger Emetick by which she vomited forth ten times greenish Choller like to rust with phlegm sharp like stygian water and she was suddenly eased After this I gave her every morning a draught of white-wine dilated with the water of black Cherries with sows or hog-lice bruised and infused therein and strongly pressed forth By the Use of these she seem'd presently to be cured and was well above a Month And when afterwards the distempers being about to return she felt at any time some forerunners presently by the use of a vomit and the expression of the Millepedes or Cheslogs she averted the approach of the Disease within three months she so far recovered her former health that she has now liv'd for many years free from those kinde of Convulsive distempers But from the time the convulsive passions wholly ceased she was sometimes troubled about the parts of her mouth and throat with a defluxion of a most sour humour like the vitriolick Stagma besides sometimes she was obnoxious to the Pica or longing of women and at sometimes also to the Cough with a discolored spittle threatning a Consumption notwithstanding which by remedies used in these kinde of Cases she was easily cured The reasons of aforesaid case As to the Aetiologie or Rational account of the aforesaid Case there is no reason that we should fear to refer both the Causes and Symptoms of this disease to the explosive particles the brain being pass'd thorow without hurt sent as a supply Continually from the blood into the nervous stock which forasmuch as they being poured forth in great plenty were not restrained within private mines to be struck off only by turns cleaving every where both to the implanted and inflowing Spirits forced them as it were inspired with a madness to be perpetually exploded and to grow raging here and there by bands so that indeed they were not able at all to be ruled within the containing parts but there was need to overthrow and to tame them impetuously tumultuating and apt to be carried here and there like a whirlwinde by some very violent and strong exercise In truth in was in this sick person as it is in musical Organs which if filled above measure by too great a blast of winde unless presently the passages of more Pipes be opened the whole frame of the Organ is quickly shaken and in danger to be broken to pieces In like manner in this Lady when the animal Spirits actuating the pipes and the depending fibres of some of the nerves were moved beyond their due tenour there was a necessity that their force should be bestowed on many vehement local motions together whilst they inslated above measure the nervous bodies wherefore when their madness was hindred in on part by and by like winde pent up creeping somewhere else it broke forth more violently in some other part In this sick person the use of one or two Vomits brought help once or twice because that by it what was lodged in the gallie-vessell yea the glandula's and emunctuories and also about the viscera of concoction being by this means emptied the purging of the blood and nervous juce were more Copiously drawn into the same place therefore indeed that the animal Spirits flowing within the Pipes of the distemperd nerves might be less infected by them By this reason also the juice of the Sows or hog-lice was beneficiâ—l forasmuch as it derived the morbifick matter from the nervous kinde to the urinary passages Besides these Remedies the Root and in a great part the branches of the morbific matter being cut off and when others as it were antidotes hindring every where its vegitation were carefully administred whatsoever was left of it Nature at length becoming superior as she is wont in these criticall Cases sent away to the sinks of the mouth and Throat Observation 4 Whilst I was writing these things I visited an illustrious Virgin who was troubled with other kinde of Convulsive motions and those universal and no less to be admired she was about 18. years of age hansome and well made and before this time healthfull when the Pestilence raging in this neighbourhood she had come within the danger of its Contagion she fell into a panick fear with frequent swouning the night fellowing she suffer'd so great a deliquium or sinking down of her Spirits and insensibility that she seem'd just a dying hardly strugling with so great an evill afterwards she had every day Convulsive fits though at first at uncertain hours and returning after a manifold Kinde But within a short time its comings being made regular twice in a day to wit they constantly returned at eleven of the clock and before five in the afternoon that no intermitting feavour kept more exactly its periods yea also the same accidents of the fit dayly chanced after the same manner When she had thus been sick for three weeks one day I was sent for that I might take notice of all the Symptoms and the whole figure of the disease she being up about ten in the morning was well in her Countenance going and speech she behaved her self exceeding well so that none would ever suspect her to be sick at eleven of the clock she began to complain of a fullness of her head and numbness of Spirits with a light swimning by and by she felt a great pulsation and as it were the leaping of some live animal in her left hypochondrium putting my hand on her side I plainly perceived this motion then a stretching and belching followed which done she was presently put to bed and a maid siting upon a pillow held her down who during the fit most strictly graspt the sick person holding her to her bosom with her arms foulded about her wast besides servants were ready and her relations standing by who now press'd down her belly and hypochondria rising up and swelling to a great bulk now held her hands and arms The chief Symptoms of the Disease which being excited by turns almost divided the whole fit were these two viz. one while Cruel Convulsions of the Bowells did infest her so that the abdomen rising up into a mighty bulk strove against the hands of the by-standers held upon it that it could not be pressed down and at the same time her Praecordia being contracted upwards the motions of her blood and heart were almost stop't in which space of time this virgin her head falling down with a small pulse and almost without voice lay nigh sensless after two or three minutes of an hour these Convulsions ceased and then the sick person setting her self upright look'd about cheerfully and for a while the force of the disease changed into talking and singing both of which she without
ceasing performed most pleasantly and most elegantly beyond her proper capacity with these kinde of speeches and pleasant jeasts she fell upon all the standers by that nothing in a Comedy could be more pleasant then she utterd most sweet tunes of musick and more pleasant than any other could or her self at another time After she had past six or seven minutes of an hour thus jesting and singing the Convulsions of her Bowells and Praecordia and the want of speech came upon her as before and these soon remitting the force of the Spirits leaping back from the inferior nerves on the brain it was lastly imployed in the pleasantness of speech and Songs as often when she talkt to the by-standers as any of them replyed any thing bitterly or reproachfully she fell into those most grievous and longer continuing Convulsions of the Viscera After this manner she was wont to be molested with an alternate distemper of the Bowells and brain about the space of an hour Then towards the end of the Viscera the fit declining more light Convulsions being made they repeated three or four times without any intermission then these wholly ceasing the force of the disease brake forth into her outward members from whence it quickly vanished for her Arms and Legs for a minute of an hour suffer'd leapings forth and Contractions presently after the sick person being taken up left ber bed free from all Convulsion till a new fit returned yea indifferently well in strength she walk'd about the house and during the interval of her distemper she cheerfully performed the accustomed Offices of Life excepting that her stomack languishings all day she loathed food in the evening after the second fit she supp'd moderatly This was the present state of the Disease in whose fits the more clear use of some faculties seem'd in a manner to Compensate the irregularity of others But about the beginning of her sickness it was somewhat otherways for the Convulsions of her bowells were far more grievous and an insensibility was joyned to them besides in their intervall talking idly an incongruous singing yea both laughter and weeping without any known reason breaking forth were wont to follow one another but now the animal Spirits being forced into longer explosions performed them so regularly now this now that as a more Commodious way was made that they seemed after a manner to be done by the Command of the will and of Reason That we may therefore according to our hypothesis frame an Aetiology or rational account of this Distemper In the first place it seems The reasons of the aforesaid Distemper that a vehement fear did drive the Spirits inhabiting the brain and Praecordia into great disorders so that they being disturbed out of their ranks both the kinde of madness or foolishness and the frequent swooning succeeded Further it may be suspected that from the same impression the hurt was carried to the brain it self so that its conformation being somewhat vitiated the heterogeneous and morbific particles were admitted together with the nervous juice Then although the spirits at the beginning being confused and troubled after their short inordinations at last recovered themselves and performed the wonted offices both of the animal and vital function yet by reason of the taint impressed on the brain the heterogeneous particles being constantly admitted cleaving to those Spirits induced explosive endeavors as soon as the spirits were filled to a plentitude with the extraneous Copula they being irritated entred into Convulsive explosions for the shaking or striking it off About the beginning of the Disease when both the Disposition of the Brain and the Spirits inhabiting it was more perverse and vitious from the fresh received hurt a fullness of the heterogeneous Copula sooner happened and so its explosion following more often and more inordinately was dispatched with greater tumult But afterwards when the hurt of the animal regiment abating the supplements of that Copula even as thc nervous Liquor were dayly brought in with an equall dimention the explosions of the Spirits being made regular and more milde observed their just periods or set times That she felt upon the approach of the fit a fullness and as it were an inflation in her head with an heaviness and dullness of the spirits the Reason is because at this time the spirits inhabiting the brain being now prepared for explosions were wont first of all to be moved and as it were to swell up then that pulsation in her left hypochondria succeeded for that the Spirits inhabiting the nervous foldings and fibres thickly planted about the Spleen began to be exploded afterwards when the Spirits flowing both within the mesenteric and Cardiac enfoldings were exploded rogether those elevations and as it were leapings up of the Abdomen and Thorax were induced and when in this distemper the motions of the blood and heart were almost wholly stopped therefore there was a small and almost no pulse and she became Speechlesse and in a manner sensless The Convulsion of the Viseera and Praecordia remitting a pratling and singing succeeded because a falling down or removal of the Spirits as yet exploded being made from the nervous stock into the brain it changed the Convulsions into an exaltation of the fancy and more ready exercise of the phantasms or Representation of the Imagination So long as the Spirits within the middle of the brain are regularly and orderly exploded they bring forth the Acts of the habits and faculties so much more noble and as it were above the strength and tenour of Nature as in this sick Gentlewoman but on the contrary when the explosions of the Spirits in that Region happen to be inordinate they cause for the most part foolishness or at least the exercise of their powers are incongruous and absurd The Convulsions of the Bowels and the phantastic actions releiv'd one another mutually and by turns because plenty of Spirits being disposed to be struck off made their tendency as it were with a direct and reflected waving or undulation now on this part now on that by turns then lastly when they were almost all exploded the more often Convulsions of the Viscera were stir'd up and when a small handfull only remained to be exploded that being at last excluded both from the head and bowells it ran forth into the spinal marrow and employed the last assolt of the disease in the Convulsions af the Arms and Legs There yet remains one great difficulty in this Case why the fits of this disease were always repeated exactly at set hours and yet had so unequall periods to wit that the Coming of the first was only but six hours before the second and then the return of the next did not hapen but in 18 hours space For the solving of this it is to be supposed that these fits did depend upon the nervous juice being stuffed to a plenitude with heterogenious particles which particles were altogether conveyed thither from the bloody mass
combine with them Wherefore forasmuch as the animal spirits running thorow the nerves of the wandring pair and Intercostals are continually entangled with all perturbations both of the Concupiscable and irascible Appetite it is no wonder if they acquire a convulsive disposition before the rest It being supposed which indeed ought to be supposed that the animal spirits have contracted an heterogenious and explosive Copula The same cause afterwards disposed thorow the whole passage of the Nerves now the nervous origines and carried it together with it self into the interior nerves and spread it thorow all their passages it will not be hard to assigne the Reasons of the hystericall fit and of all its Symptoms For first of all the disease being ready to fall upon one oftentimes the Vertigo a rolling about of the eyes and a certain inflation of the brain as it were praevious skirmishings are stirred up because the whole band of the Spirits being in readiness for explosions the more light companies of them leaping back towards the brain are first struck off then Presently a perturbation succeeds in the bottom of the belly or hypochondria for that the Spirits within the enfoldings here and there are next disturbed For we have elsewhere shown if at any time the animal Spirits are exploded in a certain whole Series those which abode in the extream parts first of all enter into that assertion Wherefore the beginnings of this Disease are found to be or the most Part in the head and Bowells but that the Convulsions are first perceived now in the bottom of the belly now in the hypochondria the reason is because the morbific matter is sometimes carried by the passage of the intercostal nerve into the utmost mesenteric enfoldings but sometimes the same being slid down not beyond the ends of the wandring pair subsists much neerer to wit about the enfoldings of the spleen or stomack When therefore the animal Spirits as hath been shown within the nervs of the wandring pair and intercostals are imbued from their origine The reason of the hysterical symptoms unfolded even to their utmost ends with an heterogeneous and explosive Copula they at length either from mere fullness or by an irritation somewhere made are stirred up to explosions in which affection if any Spirits leap forth towards the middle of the brain they induce the Vertigo the inflation and other praevious accidents of the head but the Spirits inhabiting the other extremity of the nervous Trunk viz. the mesenteric enfoldings begin chiefly to be exploded which presently by their letting off compell the lower Parts of the hypogastrum to be lifted up and contracted upwards and so induce the ascention of a certain bulk as it were of the womb then when the upper parts of the enfoldings of the mesentory are by degrees intangled with the same distemper and the bowells annexed to the same are elevated and drawn forceably towards the upper parts the violent swelling of the Abdomen as it were with a certain leaping forth succeeds Further the Ventricle is not only elevated by changing its place all its fibres to wit the direct oblique and transverse being affected at once with the Convulsion is often distended like a blown bladder hence very often vomiting or at least a rumbling and murmur of the hypochondria are excited but as soon as the Spirits being exploded with a certain series it comes to the Region of the Thorax the diaphragma being drawn together with an huge diastole is sometimes depressed and so meeting with the ascention of the viscera causes an Inflation and high intumescency or swelling up with a mighty strugling so that the laces of those in this distemper must be forthwith loosned or else they are in danger of falling into a trance In the mean time the Diaphragma being so depressed and its diastole continued the bloud remains almost immovable in the praecordia and so by its stagnation causes a great oppression and very often a faâ—ling of the vital function Further the Convulsion of the Diaphragma happens sometimes towards the upper parts and so that driving the Lungs upwards induces a violent Systole and protracted longer than it should be and when by this means the blood is driven forward into the pneumonic vessells and is not at last received from the bosome of the heart it stagnates there and besides in the whole Body from whence the oppression of the heart and oftentimes a swooning yea sometimes a want of speech and motion now with a blewness of the face and now with a dead aspect follow After these things are acted in the lower and middle Region at length the distemper reaches to the head by the passage of the nerves as it were a fiery inkindling and the spirits being there exploded leaping now towards the middle of the brain produce a swimming in the head and often symptoms very like the Epilepsy sometimes the spirits there exploded rush into the beginnings of the other Nerves and there stir up the like explosions wherefore hysterical people towards the end of the fit often Laugh or weep or talk Idly sometimes the parts of the face and mouth yea sometimes the arms and other members are troubled with convulsive motions and so when at length all the spirits which had contracted an heterogeneous Copula are exploded the fit ends but presently after matter for another fit begins to be gathered together From whence the diversity of the symptoms happens It sometimes happens that the convusive disposition is not drawn out so long and largely for besides that oftentimes the nerves only of the wandring pair and the intercostalls are troubled with it that neither the brain nor the outward members are at all molested yea sometime neither the interior nerves themselves are possessed with the morbific cause thorow their whole processes for the convulsive Disposition as we but now intimated oftentimes arrives not beyond the enfoldings of the spleen or stomack and then the fit beginning from the inflation of the ventricle or left hypochondrium is thought to arise not from the fault of the womb but of the spleen which kinde of distemper by and by being brought to the Thorax and there involving the Diaphragma and Lungs with a Convulsion stops respiration and the motion of the heart or in some manner perverts it but then from thence the fit passes over now with and now without a great perturbation of the Head These things happen indeed after a various manner according as it happens that the morbific matter or explosive Copula descending from the head is gathered together as it were heaps of gun-powder more or less now in this now in that part But concerning which matter by what means the same being brought forth in the head first affects the beginnings of the nerves and so constitutes the procatartick or more remote Cause of the passion called Hysterical now remains next to be inquired into The more remote Cause of
the diseaâ—e suâ—… either nephâ—… begâ—…ings of the Nerves As to the morbific matter or explosive Copula which cleaving to the spirits flowing within the head and with them derived into the nervous passages is often the cause of the distempers commonly termed of the Womb we say that this as in other kinds of Convulsions is the heterogeneous particles poured forth from the blood which yet are wont to be affixed to the spirits flowing into the beginnings of the nerves cheifly for two causes to wit either by the fault of the spirits themselves or by the force of the matter it self instances of either kinde are ordinarily met with It sometimes happens that the animal spirits planted within the brain and in the passage leading from it to the praecordia are very much disturbed by a sudden passion as of fear anger sadness c. And forced into disorders and that by that means they being driven out of their orders do acquire to themselves heterogeneous particles whereever met with and combine with these that by and by for that reason they acquire an explosive disposition as we have already declared Further in the second place sometimes the morbific matter it self being made more fierce and strong in spite of the succour of the animal Aeconomie or rule is poured forth into the brain and its appendix from the bloody mass which cleaving fast to the spirits presently disposes them into explosions This is ordinarily discerned in the evil crises of feavours also in some malignant distempers also in Scorbutic and other Chronical diseases ill cured An ill or weak constitution of the brain or nervous stock whether it be hereditarie or acquired by reason of an ill manner of living very much cherishes these causes For in bodies so disposed both the animal spirits from every light occasion are moved in Confusion and the passages of the brain and nervous System more easily lye open for the running in of the heterogeneous and explosive matter In truth for this reason women are more obnoxious to convulsive distempers than men and some women then others as we will shew more largely hereafter But altho these kinde of passions of women called hysterical most often proceed from the fault of the head or from the morbific cause arising within the Encephalon yet sometimes such distempers are stirred up Or near the womb or other Inwards by reason of a Cause beginning somewhere else viz. Now in the womb now in the other Bowells and of this Convulsive Pathologie there are chiefly two heads viz. 1st Sometimes it happens that a Tumour or an ulcer This last happens after a twofold manner or a congestion of sharp humours arises in the membranous parts about the womb or planted about the other Viscera and often irritates the parts so distemper'd by reason of the breaking of the union into painfull Convulsions then forasmuch as the animal spirits placed round about and those inflowing Either by reason of the dissolution of the union are moved into frequent disorders they at length getting to themseves heterogeneous particles sent either from the distemper'd part or from some other place are disposed to convulsive assaults and when first of all the convulsive motions happen only in the neighbourhood of the affected place to wit that the bulk ascending in the lower part of the belly or its swelling up be only perceived afterwards they are propagated by the passage of the nervous bodies and by the consent of the convulsion there begun leasurely into the other viscera of the lower belly then to the praecordia and lastly into the head it self and the distemper being thus by little and little delated to the spirits inhabiting the brain they moreover having gotten in their proper Sphear an heterogeneous Copula retort the same back to the viscera and so the morbific cause being made reciprocall is begun at either end of the nervous Trunk Some time past I have seen a noble virgin in whom a small Tumour arising with most cruel pain below the Os pubis did stir up huge Convulsions first in the lower belly and afterwards ascending to the Praecordia and head were at length stretch'd to the outward members for once or twice in a day after that great pains did torment her in the affected part the abdomen and by and by the hypochondria were wont to be lifted up then difficulty of breathing on an Insensibility succeeded and presently the distemper being brought outwardly most horrid Convulsions and Contractions of the members and Limbs followed Sometimes it also happens that convulsive symptoms are induced in Child-bearing women by reason of some hurt or evill brought to the womb Harvie Relates that wonderfull convulsions were caused by the injection of some sharp thing into the womb So sometimes tho rarely it happens that a morbific matter or explosive Copula is fixed to the spirits dwelling about the extremities of the nerves and near the womb immediately from the place there affected and without fault of the brain There yet remains another case or manner of affecting 2. Or by reason of an obstruction of the Nervous juice by which the convulsive disposition is produced from the fault or the parts lodg'd at a great distance from the brain tho in the mean time the taint which is the cause of this distemper is often mediately communicated to the brain it self to wit when at any time the nervous juice is hindred somewhere in its motion or circulation from thence stagnating in the nervous parts and loading them does often bring in a convulsive disposition So when some usual Evacuation whereby the superfluities of the nervous Liquor were wont to be sifted forth is stopp'd as from Issues suddenly shut up or old ulcers dryed up without a purge many fall into convulsive distempers Yea it may obtain here some place what is wont commonly to be noted for a cause of the hysterical passions in maids and widdows to wit the untimely restraint of the seminall humour which ought to be bestowed about the pleasure of Venus at least if they receive help from the state of a conjugal Life it therefore happens because the restagnations of the nervous humour which often fix a taint to the brain and nervous stock by this means are prevented Moreover the nervous juice flows back towards its beginning because its passage is somewhere shut up by a swelling or cancrous Tumour Lastly in this City a notable instance of this kinde of distemper hapned viz. A certain maid of 12. years of age had contracted an hernia or burstness hence by the order of her Mother she wore a truss ill fitted for a fortnight not without great pain and torment a little hard knot much pressing upon the glandulas of the Groin within this space when before she was perfectly well she began to complain of a giddiness and heavy dulness of her head and so a little after she felt convulsive and as it were hysterical distempers
the side of the groin is wont to give a suspition of another child or the secondine or afterbirth to be left behinde or also of some hard swelling tumor there increasing but afterwards when the menstruum coming plentifully away the womb is reduced to its due magnitude that tumor by degrees vanishes but while it there remaineth unless for that reason the Lochia or menstrua were stopp'd it doth not produce the hysterical passions For the reducing of this part the sooner into its due position fomentations Liniments and Plaisters are convenient But most times that Symptom passes over of it self without any further harm To what other distempers the womb is obnoxious in child-bearing and by what method to be helped we have fully shown in another place As to the other vices of that part which happen to some women not bearing children we declare that they chiefly are either a disease of the womb made by the breaking of the unity viz. which is either some ulcer or Tumor or an inhibition of some wonted excretion or putting forth to wit a suppression either of the menstruous blood or the whites or the seminal humour Moreover because of the menstrua being retained the heterogeneous particles being often poured forth into the head bring in the Convulsive passions in like manner when the whites are stopped the excrementitious matter being supped up by the blood is deliver'd to the brain and nervous stock yea when an usual evacuation of the seed is hindred the superfluities of the nervous humour flow back upon the brain and infect its indwelling Spirits with an explosive and morbific tincture There is no need here to discourse more largely or particularly of those Peculiar distempers of the womb but to compound medicines and intricate administrations proper for womens diseases with anticonvulsive Remedies CHAPTER XI Of the Distempers commonly called Hypochondriack which is shown to be for the most part Convulsive briefly also of Chalybeats or Steel-Medicines IN the foregoing Chapters we have clearly shown that the Passions called hysterical do not allways proceed from the womb yea more often from the head being distemper'd next we shall inquire concerning the hypochondriacal Distempers of what original and nature they are and upon the fault of what parts they chiefly depend The vulgar opinion is that the symptoms wont to accompany this disease are wholly produced from the spleen wherefore they are ascribed very much to vapours arising from this inward and variously running up and down here and there when in truth these sicknesses for the most part are convulsions and contractions of the nervous parts but that it might appear by what causes they are wont to be excited we ought to consider first the Symptoms themselves and to place them into some order or rank A description of the hypochâ—ndriaca Affections As to the Distempers therefore which are vulgarly termed hypochondriac it is observable that they happen chiefly to men of a melancholly temperament with a dark aspect and more lean habit of body it is rarely that this disease troubles fair people with a fresh Countenance or also those indued with a too Phlegmatic complection It betrays it self in manifest fignes about the hight or midest of their Age men are found to be more frequently obnoxious to this than women being made habitual in either it is very hardly or not at all to be cured in women by reason of their weaker Constitution it is accompanied with a great many more Convulsive Distmpers wherefore Commonly it is said in this Sex the hysterical to be joyned with the hypochondriacal Passion The Symptoms which are imputed to this Disease are commonly very manifold and are of a divers nature neither do they observe in all the like beginning or the same mutual dependency among themselves for they seem in these most to affect the Inwards of the lower belly in those the Praecordia in others the Confines of the Brain and in most though not in all the ventricle labours much concerning the appetite it is often too much but presently burthened with what it hath taken in and when the food staying longer in it by reason of slowness of Concoction their Saline particles being carried forth into a flux pervert the whole mass of the Chyle into a pulse or pottage now Sour or austere now salt or sharp from hence pains of the heart great breakings forth of blasts rumbling of winde and often vomiting succeed and because of a pneumatick defect or of Spirits the Chyme or juice is not wholly made volatile and carried forth of doors but that the ballast of the Viscous or Slimy matter sticking to the coats of the ventricle is left behinde an almost continual Spitting infests them a distention in the hypochondrium and often there and under the ventricle a cruell pulsation is felt also there pains ordinarily arise which run about here and there and for many hours miserably torment with a certain lancing In the mean time from the Contractures of the Membranes and from the fluctuation of winds stirred up by that means rumbling and murmurs are produced Also in the Thorax oftentimes there is a great constriction and straitness that the respiration becomes difficult and troublesome upon any motion also most grievous asthmatical fits fall upon some moreover the sick are wont to complain of a trembling and palpitation of the heart with a noted oppression of the same also a sinking down or melting away of the Spirits and frequent fear of a trance comes upon them that the sick think Death is always seising them In this Region about the membranes and chiefly the mediastinum or that divides the middle of the belly an accute pain which is now Circumscrib'd to one part now extended to the shoulders is a familiar Symptom of this Disease But indeed in the head an Iliad of evills doth for the most part disturb hypochondriacal people to wit most cruell pains returning at set times do arise also the swimming of the head and frequent Vertigoes long watchings a Sea and most troublesome fluctuation of thoughts an uncertainty of minde a disturbed fancy a fear and suspition of every thing an imaginary possession of diseases from which they are free also very many other distractions of Spirits yea sometimes Melancholly and madness accompany this sickness besides these interior Regions of the Body beseiged by this Disease wandring pains also Convulsions and numbness with a sense of pricking invade almost all the outward parts nightly Sweats flushings of the Blood in the face and the palms of the hands eratick feavours and many other Symptoms of an uncertain original do every where arise concerning which forasmuch as the genuine Causes and the manner of their coming to pass could not be readily determined presently all the fault is cast upon the Spleen and Physitians accuse that as if it were the chief author of every irregular Distemper but by what right or authority by and by shall be sought into In
out that in anger sadness and other distempers of the minde according as the ferment if the Spleen being more or less moved is inspired to the blood its liquor diversly boyls up Further for this reason it happens that great inflations and Commotions of the left hypocondrium come upon splenitic people from every violent passion The reasons of the hypochondriacal Symptoms laid open These things being thus premised concerning the use of the spleen it will be easie according to our hypothesis to lay open very many of the symptoms belonging to the hypochondriac Distemper and to give reasons for each of them For when the Spleen is wanting in its office that is when it doth not strain forth the melancholly recrements of the blood nor cook them into a fermentative matter as we but now observed in children and others of a sanguine Complexion or too phlegmatick to happen often the disposition of the minde is made duller the body grows fat with idleness yea and the blood being more sluggish than it ought to be is apt to stand still within its vessells or at least to be less lively circulated But on the Contrary where the fermenting power of the spleen is too much axalted or perverted the blood by that means being more sharp than usual or made more sour it runs about rapidly here and there and conceives irregular motions yea and the nervous juice falling away from its right temper imbues the animal Spirits with an heterogenious and an explosive Copula and so irritates them as it were with goads into frequent Convulsions as that not wholly undeservedly many kindes of diseases may be imputed to the Spleen being out of order But the ways or means of affecting whereby the Spleen being evilly disposed doth produce the symptoms of the hypochondriack passion or at least contributes to the rise of them are chiefly these following The Influences of the Spleen in producing the symptoms unfolded First it sometimes happens that the spongie substance of the spleen from the faeces of the blood being too much impacted in its pores and stagnating is very much stuffed and obstructed that from thence it doth not sufficently receive the recrements of the bloody mass but the same being carried thither but not received do flow back into the neighbouring branches of the Caeliack Artery from whence they are presently carried into the membranes of the ventricle the Caule the mesenterie and other nigh parts and are wont to be affixed to them hence the tone of those viscera are so much spoyled that they do not rightly perform their due offices about the concoction of the Chyle and the membranes planted every way about being much imbued with heterogeneous and irritative particles for that they are almost continually pulled by convulsions here and there stirred up they are grievously obnoxious to wandring pains contractions distentions and the encrease of Windes by reason of this kinde of regurgitation of the blood from the Spleen being obstructed it is likely that the pulsation which is felt by hypochondriacks under the Ventricle is excited 2. When the faeculencies of the blood are excluded from the Spleens being obstructed being fixed as was said to its neighbouring parts they bring forth the sickly distemper of the left hypochondrium but though indeed that Inward sufficently receives the melancholly or atrabilious juice carried to it from the blood by the Arteries yet oftentimes it does not rightly Cook it but the Salt being too much excited it changes it into a too sharp or acid austeer or sour or some other kinde of vitious humour whereby when as the whole mass of blood and the nourishable Juice contained in its bosome are almost wholly infected the fruits of the hypochondriack seeds bud forth thorow the whole body the blood grows unduely hot is in some places impetuously moved and again in others is apt to stagnate or stand still from hence it is familiar with Spleenetick people presently after eating to grow red in the face to have the palms of their hands hot their hypochondria to swell oppressions of the heart and noted variations of the pulse to succeed But these fermentative particles being translated from the blood every where into the solid parts wandring pains runng up and down here and there and a sense of pricking are stirred up in many members of the Body moreover from this Infection of the blood for that its mass is changed from a benign and balsamick temper into a salt and tartareous a lean habit of body with a black and dark Countenance is induced 3. From the blood being so depraved by the fault of the Spleen oftentimes the taint is carried to the animal government for heterogeneous and Convulsive Particles are poured frequently into the brain and from thence into the nervous stock so that the animal Spirits dwelling in either province conceive various irtegularities by reason of the evill being impressed on the head hypochondriacks use to be troubled with various phantasms with an heap and fluctuations of thoughts besides to them happen frequent Vertigoes Scotomies headaches and often parlytical Distempers then forasmuch as the morbific matter flides down from the head into the nervous stock Convulsive Diseases are excited in very many parts of the body but chiefly about the Praecordia and Viscera of the lower belly for when the Spirits flowing within the nerves which respect those parts are greatly disturb'd by reason of the distemper of the minde the Convulsive particles the more readily enter into those pipes and more easily impress on those Spirits a Convulsive Disposition Therefore partly by reason of the infection mediatly transmitted to the Brain and partly by reason of the hurt as hath been shown immediatly Communicated from the Spleen the Palpitation of the heart trembling and frequent swooning Constrictions of the Breast impediments of breathing Pains of the stomach belching Vomiting and many other accidents in those Inwards happen to hypochondriacks 4. Besides these inordinations which are wont to be derived by the passage of the blood from the Spleen into the humours and sollid parts and to the brain it self and nervous stock there are other farther evills which seem to arise from this Inward also by the passage of the nerves Because as we have shown their extreme branches and the nervous fibres themselves interwoven in the Viscera do drink in with their outward most little mouths a certain humor and convey it sometimes upwards it is highly probable that the nervous fibres distributed to the Spleen of which as we but now hinted there is a mighty Guard do receive its most sharp juice which Creeping higher thorow the nervous pipes becomes a Cause of Convulsive motions In truth that there may be those intimate Commerces between the brain and the Spleen to wit far sooner than what can be made by the compassing about of the blood it may be lawfull to believe that the nerves of the wandring pair and the intercostal to be the
or the Guts Intrinsical Inward Inverse A turning inside out or outside in upside down quite contrary Inverted Turned wrong-side out or upside down quite changed from its natural scituation Involuntary Not with the will unwilling Irradiation A beaming forth or lasting forth beams like the Sun Sometimes applyed to the spirits beaming themselves forth or running forth from their Centre like beams Irrigation A watering wetting or moistning Irritate To provoke anger or stir up Irritated Provoked anger'd or stirred up Ischuria The disease of the Bladder the stoppage of the Water when it cannot come forth but by drops and with pain Ischuretical One so troubled with that distemper Jugular Belonging to the Throat the Throat-vein and Artery Julap A cooling Cordial or a mixed Potion to cool and refresh the heated spirits used in Feavers L Lactiform Like milk or in the form of milk Languor Feebleness failing or decay of strength fainting or weakness of spirits Larynx The top of the Asper Artery or the head thereof which reacheth up to the Mouth or Jaw which with the bone Hyoides joyned thereto serves for breathing and forming of the voyce or the air into articulate sounds Lassitude Weariness and irksomness Lateral Belonging to the side Latex Liquor or Juyce of any sort in the Body Laudanum A Medicine used by Physitians to cause rest given in difficult Cases Lienary Belonging to the Spleen Leipothymy A swouning or fainting away of the spirits Lethiferous Deadly that causeth death Leucophlegmacy The kind of Dropsy that riseth of white phlegm throughout all the Body and makes the flesh spongy Ligature A band or string bound hard about the Arm Leg or any other part of the Body Limature The pouder or dust that cometh of fileing the fileings of steel or other metals Limpid Clear pure and bright like Water Linctus A Medicine that is to be lick'd with the Tongue Liniments Ointments Lixivial Belonging to Lie made of Ashes Lobes Lappets or such as the Liver is distinguished into Lochia All that comes away from a Woman after she is brought to bed Locomotive That moves from place to place Lucophlegmacy See Leucophlegmacy Lumbary Belonging to the Loins Luxuriat To grow rank or abound Lymphic Vessels that carry or contain the waterish humors of the Body Lymphatic Vessels that carry or contain the waterish humors of the Body Lympheducts Water-Carriers or Conveyors the same sort of Vessels which carry forth the waterish humors M Magma The blended dross and faeces of several Metals as also of Chymical Extractions Mammillary Processes in the Temples Bones hanging down like broken brows of Banks representing the fashion of Teats and Cows Vdders Mansorius A Muscle which springing up circularly from the Throat-bone of the upper Jaw moveth the nether Jaw Massoterie A Muscle which springing up circularly from the Throat-bone of the upper Jaw moveth the nether Jaw Mandible The Jaw wherein the Teeth are set Mastic A certain medicinal Gum. Masticator The Pipe or Conduit that conveys the pituitous matter out of the Head into the Mouth Matrace A Vessel used for Chymical Distillations Maturation A ripening Maxillary Belonging to the Jaws Maxillar Belonging to the Jaws Mechoacan A purging Drug brought from the Indies Meconium The juice of the Leaves and heads of Poppy Medastinum Or Mediastinum the thin membrane that divides the middle belly or the Breast from the Throat to the Midriff into two bosoms or hollows one on the right side the other on the left Medullar Marrowy or belonging to the marrow or pith or the white substance of the Brain Membranes The little thin skins joyning the bones and sinews together in several parts of the body the upper thin skins of any part Meninges The thin skins that enwrap the Brain both of the pia mater dura mater one called the hard the other the soft Meninx Menstruum A preparation made by Chymists to dissolve metals also to extract tinctures and the virtues of medicinal druggs woods flowers herbs c. Mesentery A certain thick fat skin or the double skin that fastens the bowels to the back and each to other Meseraic Veins arise or are rather inclosed in Mesentery being branches of the great vein by which the Guts are nourished and the juice of the meat concocted is conveyed to the Liver to be made blood Mercurie Quick-silver and its preparations of it Metaphysical Supernatural things of sublime speculation beyond nature Metastasis Is translation or when a disease removes out of one place into another Metathesis Is transposing the puting of one thing for another Miasm Infection or taint Microscope A Perspective-glass to behold minute and very small bodies a Magnifying glass Millepedes The hundred-feeted Creature and Heslog-sows or Hog-lice Mirabolans A certain medicinal fruit brought out of the Indies Modification A measuring or bringing into measure Morbid Sick corrupt filthy or naughty That causeth the Sickness or disease Morbifick Sick corrupt filthy or naughty That causeth the Sickness or disease Mucilage Thick boiling up of a thing to a gelly or thick consistency Munited Defended or fortified Muscles Parts of the body that serve for motion softer and more fleshy than the sinews Musculous Full of Muscles or belonging to the Muscles Myologie The doctrine of the Muscles N. Narcotick Stupifactive or that makes the part sensless Nates Two prominences in the brain so called because in the form of Buttocks Natiform In the form of a Buttock Neoterics People or men of late times Nepenthe A drink to drive away melancholy Nephritis A pain in the reins of the back also the Stone or Gravel in the Reins Nephritic One troubled with the pain in the Reins Nerves Are the sinews which convey the spirits that serve for life and motion through the whole body Neurologie The doctrine of the Nerves Nitre That as is usually called Saltpetre A salt taken out of the earth Nitrosulphureous Nitre mix'd with Sulphur or of a nitrous and sulphureous nature or quality O. Oblique Cross traverse a slope not strait or right Oblong Longish or somewhat long Oeconomie A certain order of doing any thing an houshold rule regiment or governance Oesophagus The mouth of the stomack Olibanum An outlandish Gum. Opiologie The doctrine of Opium Opium Made up of the juice of wild poppie used to stupifie and bring into a sensless sleep Opiats Medicines made of Opium for some part of its ingredients to cause sleep and ease for pains Optic Belonging to the sight as the Nerves that bring the virtue of seeing to the eyes Opopanax The juice made of a certain herb Ophthalmic A medicine to cure the diseases of the eyes Orgasm Rage or fury Orifice The hole of a wound or the mouth of any thing Origine Beginning rise or birth of a thing Orbicular Of a round form or shape Orthopnoea Is such a straitness of breath that one cannot breath or fetch breath without stretching out of the neck or holding it upright Os Pubis Is the bone at the bottom
Valves A part of the brain made like folding doors so called Van Helmont A Famous Dutch Doctor Vapid Dead decay'd without tast or smack Vegetation A growing or putting forth or flourishing as a Plant. Vegetal Belonging to such a growing or flourishing Vegetable That which hath life and groweth but not sense as herbs and trees Vehicle That which carrieth or beareth another thing as the blood is of the animal spirits Vena Porta See Porta Vena Vena Cava See Cava Vena Venous Belonging or appertaining to a Vein Ventricle Is the stomach or that part which receives the meat and drink being swallowed down and which hath in it self the virtue of digestion Ventricles Of the heart two notable little hollows caverns on each side of the heart Ventricles Of the Brain several notable caverns therein Vermiculations Creeping like a Worm or motions like the creeping of a Worm Vernal Belonging to the Spring or in the time of the Spring Verberation A beating or striking Vertigo A diziness giddiness and turning round within the head A certain disease which causeth a turning within the head Vertebral Belonging to the joynts of the back-bone Vertebrae Those several joyntings and knittings of the back-bone or chine so called of Anatomists Vesicatories Medicines that raise or cause Blisters where applied Veterans Old Soldiers or any thing that hath served long in a place Viaticum Voyage provisions as meat and drink upon a journey Vibration A shaking striking or quavering Vicinity Neighbourhood or nearness of dwelling or being Viscid Clammy or sticking like Bird-lime Viscosity A clamminess or glewiness Viscera Are the chief Entrals or Inwards as Heart Liver Lungs Spleen the Bowels c. Vitriol Copperas a certain Mineral found in several Countreys used in Medicines Vitriolic Belonging or appertaining to Vitriol Umbilic Belonging to the Navel or of the likeness or shape of the Navel Undulation A wavering like the waters where one follows upon the heels of the others Unctuosity An oyliness or juiciness Unctuous Oylie or juicy Volatile That easily flies away or that is apt to flie or vanish Ureters The pipes or passages by which the Vrine passes from the Reins to the Bladder Urinary Belonging to the Vrine or the passages of the Vrine Uterine Belonging or appertaining to the Womb. Uvea The fourth thin membrane of the eye called also Chorion W. Wezand The Windpipe or Throat X. Xeroeus Wine A Spanish Wine so called I suppose they mean Tent. Here ends the Table of hard names THE FIRST INDEX or TABLE WHEREIN IS Alphabetically digested the principal matters contained in the Treatises of Fermentation and Feavers A. AGues Of Agues Page 68. The reason of the Ague fits 69 70 71. The signs of the Disease 72. Of the Cure of the Ague 74. Of the double Tertian or Quartan 75 Of a Tertian Ague or Feaver 77 Some symptoms of the Disease 78 Its Cure 79 80 Histories of the Disease 81 82 Of Quotidian Agues 82 Their Cure 83 Of a Quartan Ague 84 Causes of it 84 Why it usually begins in Autumn 85 Its Cure 86 Aurum fulminans What it is 40. B. Beer How made by Fermentation 20 Blood The Blood Anatomiz'd 57 58 Compared with Wines 61 The motions and heats of the Blood 64 The difference of the Fermentation of Wine and the Blood 64 The difference of the Blood growing hot in Feavers 90 Of the inkindling of the Blood in a burning Feaver 109 How the Blood is infected by Poysons 121 and its several mutations thereby ibid. Of the great heat of the Blood in malignant Feavers 131 Of Blood-letting in the Small-pox 146 Blood Menstruous see Menstruous Blood Bread How made by Fermentation 20 Buboes In the Plague 126 127 C. Carbuncles Of Carbuncles in the Plague 126 127 Catarrhal Epidemical Feavers see Feavers Causon Or Burning Feavers 109 Cautions Concerning putrid Feavers 110 111 Concerning the Plague 128 Chrystilisation Of Salts how made 49 Chyle The Concoction of the Chyle in the Ventricle is made by Fermentation 14 Coagulation What it is 49 Congelation What it is 49 A second manner of Congelation 51 Of artificial Congelation ibid. Crisis Of a continual Feaver 91 Of a putrid Feavor 96 Cure Of Agues 74 79 80 83 86. Of putrid Feavers of every kind 110 Of the Plague 128 Of Pestilential Feavers 133 134 The Cure of the Small-pox 143 144 145 Of the Milkey feaver 151 Of the Malignant feaver of lying in Women 154 155 Of the Symptomatic feaver of Women in Child-bed 157 Of Epidemical feavers 167 168 171 176 177 178. Cyder How made by Fermentation 24 D. Death And Putrefaction of Bodies 26 Diarrhea Of a Diarrhea in Feavers 1â—4 Dysenterie Of a Dysenterie in Feavors 104 Of a Dysenterie in Child-bed Women 157 E. Earth Of the Chymists what it is 5 Ephemera Or a Feaver of a days continuance 91 Epidemical Feavers see Feavers Essential Putrid Synochus what it is 109 F. Feavers Of Feavers in general 57 Of Intermitting Feavers or Agues see Agues 68 Of continual Feavers 89 What causes continual Feavers 89 The several kinds of continual Feavers 91 Of the Feaver for a day ibid. The cause of it and of its Crisis ibid. An History of such a Feaver 92 Of a putrid Feaver 93 Four seasons to be observed in it 94 The causes of it ibid. A Prognostication of the Disease 97 Of the Crisis of a putrid Feaver ibid. The symptoms and signs of putrid Feavers 99 100 Of the putrid Synochus or continual Feaver 107 Of the symptomatic putrid Feaver ibid. Of the slow Feaver 108 Of the symptomatical Feaver from an Vlcer or a Consumption of the Lungs ibid. Of an Essential putrid Synochus 109 Of the Causon or Burning feaver ibid. The Cures of putrid Feavers of every kind 110 Histories of several putrid Feavers 112 113 114 115 116 117 118. Of a Pestilential or Malignant Feaver in general 119 Of a malignant Feaver in specie 131 How it differs from the Pestilence ibid. A description of malignant Feavers ibid. A difference of them 133 Causes of them ibid. The Cure of them 133 134 Of Feavers Epidemical of another sort 134 An History of a Pestilential Feaver 134 135 An History of a Malignant Feaver 136 137 Of the Feavers of Child-bearing Women 147 Of the Milkey Feaver 150 The causes of it 151 Its Cure ibid. Of a putrid Feaver in Women lying In 151 A figure of the Disease 152 153 The causes of it ibid. It s Cure 154 155 Of Symptomatic Feavers of Women in Childbed 156 The general reason of them ibid. The Cure of them 157 Histories of acute Feavers in Women lying In 158 159 160 161. Epidemical Feavers 163 A description of an Epidemical Feaver in the year 1657. ibid. The causes of it 164 The differenee of it from other Feavers 166 A Prognostication of it ibid. Of the Cure of it 167 A description of a Catarrhal Epidemical Feaver in the year 1658 169 The causes of it 170 The symptoms of it and the cure of it
sorts of Convulsions in Children 30 Of Convulsive Diseases in those of ripe age 31 Three kinds of such Convulsions ibid. Histories of such Convulsions 33 34 35 36. How the Convulsive matter flows into the Nerves 32 Why Convulsions proceed from the extremities of the Nerves 38 Why the blood is soon congealed in Convulsive distempers 39 How to cure Convulsions in Men and Women 39 40 Of Convulsions from the extremities of the Nerves and the nervous infoldings 41 42. Reasons of such Convulsions so coming 42 Histories of such Convulsions 42 43 44 45. Of Convulsions arising from the nervous liquor 46 Three kinds of causes of universal Convulsions ibid. Of Convulsions arising from poysons and sorcery ibid. Of Convulsions caused by the biting of a mad Dog 46 47. Of Convulsions from the Tarentula 47 Of Convulsions coming by Witchcraft 48 The reason of them ibid. What Convulsions argue Witchcraft 49 Of universal Convulsions from Feavers ibid. And the reason of the symptoms ibid. A description of an epidemical Convulsive disease in Hassia 50 The reason of it ibid. Of universal Convulsions from the Scurvy 60 The kinds of such Convulsions 61 The nature of the broken Convulsion ibid. An History of it ibid The reason of the symptoms and cause of the disease 63 Why it grew worse by Baths 64 The nature and manner of continued Convulsive distempers 66 Histories of such ibid. The Cure of them 67 68 71 75. Of Convulsions from the Hypochondriacal distemper 90 Convulsive Diseases see Epilepsie Of Convulsive diseases of those of ripe age 31 Of an epidemical Convulsive disease in Hassia and the reason of it 50 The nature of a continual Convulsive disease 66 The cure of such Convulsive diseases 67 68 71. Of a Convulsive Cough see Cough Convulsive Matter how it flows into the Nerves 32 Convulsive Astmah see Astmah Copula Praeternatural a cause of Convulsions 4 The explosive spasmodic Copula not from the blood but from the brain 5 Cough Convulsive 102 An example of it ibid. It s Cure 106 Cramp Or Tetanon what 1 D. Diet To be prescribed in convulsive Feavers 59 Dog Convulsions from the biting of a mad Dog 46 E. Electuaries For the Epilepsie 23 For Convulsions in Men and Women 40 Elixirs For the Epilepsie 23 Emeticks See Vomits and Purges Emperical Remedies for the Epilepsie 23 Emulsion For a convulsive Feaver 59 Epilepsie Or Falling-sickness when made 7 The Epilepsie a chief kind of Convulsion 12 Its description and history of the disease 12 13. The seat of the disease 13 The difference of Authors about it 13 14. The primary subject of the disease 14 15. The Epilepsie affects the Nerves secondarily 15 The differences of the Epilepsie 16 The conjunct cause of the Epilepsie where only it consists ibid. Other differences of the Epilepsie 17 Why those troubled with the Epilepsie fall down with violence ibid. Why troubled with the foam at the mouth ibid. Why beat and knock their breasts 18 Prognostications of the disease ibid. How changed into other diseases ibid. Of the Curatory part of the Epilepsie 19 22 23. In what the virtue of specificks consists in their curing the Epilepsie 20 Histories of the Epilepsie 20 Explosion What is meant by it 2 F. Falling-sickness See Epilepsie Falling Down violently in the Epilepsie why 17 Feavers Of universal Convulsions from Feavers 49 A description of an Epidemical Feaver infesting the brain and nervous stock 1661. 51 Its cause and symptoms ibid. Why it chiefly invaded Women Children and phlegmatick persons 54 Why hardly cureable ibid. Filling And irritation causes of Convulsions 9 Foaming At the mouth in the Falling-sickness how it comes 17 G. Gassendus His opinion of the explosion of the animal spirits 3 H. Histories Of the Epilepsie 21 Of Convulsions in Men and Women 33 34 35 36. Of Convulsions arising from the extremities of the Nerves and nervous infoldings 42 43 44 45. Of some Epidemical Feavers 55 56. Of a rare Convulsive Feaver 59 60. Of a broken Convulsive distemper 61 Of a continued Convulsive distemper 66 67. 68 69 70 71 72. Of some troubled with Mother-fits 83 84. Of Hypochondriacks 95 96. Of Convulsive Astmahs 104 105 106. Hypochondriac Passions often proceed from Convulsions 33 Of the Hypochondriack distemper 90 A description of its affections ibid. This distemper belongs to the Nerves 91 The causes of it ibid. Dr. Heighmores opinion of it examined ibid. The Reasons of the Hypochondriacal symptoms 94 The influences of the Spleen thereupon ibid. The cure of this disease 97 Hysterical Passions often proceed from Convulsions 33 Of an Hysterical distemper in a Man 37 The reason of it 38 Of the Hysterical passion commonly called the fits of the Mother 76 A description of it 76 77. The causes of the symptoms 77 Dr. Heighmores opinion of it examined ibid. This distemper chiefly belongs to the brain and the nervous stock 78 The cause of it chiefly about the beginnings of the Nerves 79 And afterwards displayed through the whole ibid. The reason of its symptoms ibid. From whence the diversity of the symptoms happen 80 The more remote cause of this disease ibid. How the Womb is assected in the Histerical distemper 81 The Womb not always in fault in these fits 82 An account of this disease taken from some Anatomical observations 85 86. The cure of the Hysterical distemper 87 88. How to preserve one from it ibid. I. Infoldings Of the Nerves the seat of Convulsive matter 45 Intentions In curing the Hysterical passion 88 89. Irritation A cause of Convulsions 4 How the spirits are explosed by irritation and how it causes direct and refected Convulsions 9 The irritating cause distinguished ibid. How it affects the beginnings of the Nerves 10 How the extremities and middle parts ibid. Julaps For the Epilepsie 24 For Convulsions in Men and Women 40 For an Epidemical Convulsive Feaver 59 L. Liquor Of the Nerves a cause of Convulsions 46 Liquors To cure Convulsions in Children 30 Lungs Affected a cause of the Convulsive Astmah 103 M. Medicines Of steel see steel Medicines Method Of curing the Epilepsie 22 23. Of curing the Convulsions in Children 29 Of curing Convulsions in Men and Women 39 Of curing some Epidemical Feavers 57 58. When insensibleness or madness accompanies them 59 Of curing a continued Convulsive distemper 67 71 73 75 168. Of curing an Hysterical distemper 87 88. Of curing Hypochondriacal distempers 97 Of curing the Convulsive Cough 106 Of curing the Convulsive Astmah ibid. Minenges Not first affected in the Epilepsie 14 Mother Fits See Hysterical passion Mortifick Matter of Convulsions how disposed in the head 7 How sometimes carried from the brain into the Nerves ibid. When it causes the Epilepsie ibid. How it affects the spirits falling on the Nerves and how it causes continuals Convulsions and how by fits ibid. Motions How regular motion is made 1 Of Convulsive motions ibid. Of Convulsive motions in Children 25 Of Convulsive motions beginning from the extremities of
the Nerves 41 42. The difference of the motions of a Muscle 1 How the motion of a Muscle is made 2 Muscle Its motion see motions N. Nerves Sometimes Convulsive motions are received from the ends of the Nerves 6 How the morbific matter is thrust forth from the brain on the Nerves 7 The Nerves in Children and those of riper years differently by the morbific matter ibid. How the morbific matter falling on several parts of the Nerves affects the spirits 8 How the beginnings middle and ends of the Nerves are affected in Convulsions 9 10 11. The nervous System secondarily affected in the Epilepsie 15 Distempers arising from the origine of the Nerves distinguished 31 By what means the Convulsive matter flows into the Nerves 32 Wherefore Convulsions begin from the extremities of the Nerves 38 Of such Convulsive motions beginning from the exmities of the Nerves and within the nervous infoldings 41 42. The infoldings of the Nerves the seat of Convulsive matter 45 The Liquor of the Nerves causes Convulsions 46 The scorbutick disposition of the juice of the Nerves causes universal Convulsions 60 61. The cause of the Hysterical passion most commonly begins about the beginnings of the Nerves 79 The nervous juice obstructed a cause of the fits of the Mother 81 The Hypochondriacal distemper belongs to the Nerves 91 The Nerves sometimes the cause of the Convulsive Astmah 104 Nurses Of Infants how to be ordered to cure Children of Convulsions 29 O. Observations Worth noting in the Falling-sickness 21 In Convulsions in Men and Women 33 34 35 36. In Convulsions arising from the extremities of the Nerves and nervous infoldings 32 43 44 45. In some Epidemical Feavers 55 56. A rare observation 59 An observation of a broken Convulsive distemper 61 62. Observations on a continued Convulsive distemper 66 68 69 70 71. Observations on the fits of the Mother 83 84. Anatomical observations of the distemper of the Mother fits 85 86. Observations on Hypochondriacal persons 95 96. Observations on the Convulsive Astmah 104 105 106. Opinion Of Gassendus of the explosion of the animal spirits 3 Of Dr. Heighmore of the Hysterical passion 77 His opinion of the Hypocondriacal passion examined 91 Oyntments For the curing Convulsions in Children 29 P. Pills For the Epilepsie 23 For such as are troubled with Convulsions 41 Plasters For the Epilepsie 24 Powders For the Epilepsie 23 For Convulsions in Children 29 For Convulsions in Men and Women 40 Poyson Of Convulsions arising from poyson 46 Prognostications Of the Epilepsie 18 Purges For the Epilepsie 22 For Convulsions in Men and Women 39. R. Remedies Great for the Epilepsie 24 Remedies for a cold constitution troubled with Convulsions 40 For an hot constitution troubled with Convulsions ibid. Repletion And emptiness not the cause of Convulsions 3 S. Scurvy Of universal Convulsions arising frow the Scurvy 60 Sneizing Powders for the Epilepsie 24 Spasms See Convulsions How they differ from Convulsive motions 1 Specificks In what their virtue consists in the curing the Falling-sickness 20 Several Specificks for the Epilepsie 22 Specificks for curing Convulsions in Men and Women 40 Spirits For such as are of an hot constitution and troubled with Convulsions 41 Spirits The Animal spirits the instrumens of regular motions in the body 1 The explosion of the Spirits makes the motion of a Muscle 2 Gassendus his opinion of the explosion of the animal Spirits 3 How the Spirits are disturbed by the morbifick matter falling on the several parts of the Nerves 8 How the Spirits are exploded by reason of irritation ibid. The Spirits in the middle of the brain the primary subject of the Epilepsie 14 15. Spleen Its use 92 93 Its influences producing the Hypochondriacal symptoms 94 Steel Medicines and their preparations 99 100 101. T. Tablets For such as are troubled with Convulsions 41 Tarentula Of Convulsions arising from the biting of the Tarentula 47 Why Musick allays the poyson of the Tarentula 47 Teeth Breeding sometimes causes Convulsions in Children and why 27 28. How to cure such Convulsions coming of Teeth 30 Tenasmus What it is 11. Three kinds of it 12 Tetanon What it is 1 V. Vomits For the Epilepsie 22 For Convulsions in Men and Women 39 St. Vitus Dance described 48 The reason of it ibid. W. Waters Distilled for the Epilepsie 24 For Convulsions in Men and Women 40 41. Witchcraft A cause of universal Convulsions 48 How falsly imputed and how to know Convulsions coming of Witchcraft 49 Womb How affected in the fits of the Mother 81 Not always in fault in those fits 82 Worms A cause of Convulsions in Children 30 FINIS
Blood are first possessed with the impoysoned infection either drawn in with the Air or attracted through the pores its ferment is presently dissipated through the whole mass of the Blood the infested portions immediately begin to be loosned from their equal mixture to go into parts and to be coagulated and the same being delated into the bosom of the Heart are wont there to stagnate and so to induce a Syncopy Swoonings and often sudden Death also being carried outwardly fixed about the skin to cause Buboes inflamed risings and other marks of Poyson in the mean time the sick appear well in mind nor are they troubled with Delirium nor Convulsive motions If that from a more strong cause the hurt is inflicted to both parts at once the course of the Disease is performed with a more horrid provision of symptoms and especially with a Syncopy and Phrensie at once infesting As to what appertains to its rise when the Plague first arises in any Region or Country there is attributed a twofold cause of it viz. Primary or Metaphysical also Secondary or Natural subordinate to that The very Heathens did acknowledg this Disease wherever it raged sent first of all from God for the castigation of the wickednesses of men and therefore for its extirpation they equally made use of Prayers and Sacrifices as of Medicines As to what belongs to the Natutal cause there are divers opinions Some will that the Pestilence newly arisen be derived from the Heavens and influences of the Stars only on the contrary others have affirmed it only to arise from the internal putrefaction of the humors of our Body but these endeavour to deduce the cause of this sickness too far off and these more near than it ought We will walk in the middle way and what Reason persuades and what very many Authors assert we will place the chief and first seminary or seed plot of this Poyson in the Air because it seems consonant to Reason that from the same Fountain from which the common food of life is had the beginnings of death no less diffusive are to be sought There is the same necessity for our breathing in the Air as of Fishes living in the Water wherefore as to waters infected by Poyson the murrain of Fishes dying in heaps is ascribed so men dying of an Epidemical slaughter without any manifest cause nothing could kill besides the infection of the commonly inspired Air. For the Air which we necessarily draw in for the continuance of Life consists of an heap of vapors and fumes which are perpetually breathed forth from the Earth in which the exhalations of Salt and Sulphur being mingled with the atomical vaporous little Bodies constitute here as it were a thick cloud the motions of these are swift and unquiet they are of a manifold figure and very much diverse wherefore some continually meet against others and according to their various configurations they cohere with these and are mutually combined one with another and from those they are driven and fly away from hence the reasons of the Sympathy and Antipathy of every thing depend From the diverse agitations of these kind of Atoms near the superficies of the Earth this or that tract of the Air enters into diverse alterations by which Bodies chiefly the living are variously affected because the intestine motion of the Particles of every Animal depends very much upon the motion and temper of the Particles of the Air forasmuch as these perpetually exagitate those raise up those lying asleep repair the loss of those flying away shake the vital flame with their Nitrosity and supply it with a Nitrous-Sulphureous Food eventilates it being inkindled by continual turns of access and recess and carry away the Soot and Fumes So long as an apt contemperation happens in either for motion and configuration living Creatures injoy perfect health and life but if the little Bodies swiming in the Air be of that sort of figure and power that are plainly adverse to the Spirits implanted in living Creatures they loose the mixtures of these from the rest from whose Elements they are collected and pervert their motions hence the dispositions of things are destroyed life profligated and the same being scarce extinct the Bodies undergoe putrefaction hence the tops of Trees or of Corn being struck with a blast suddenly grow dry or wither hence among Cattel the murrain often rages which kills at once whole Flocks by reason of this kind of cause the Seeds of the Pestilence first put themselves forth and attempt the slaughter of human kind for as invenomed Bodies in the bowels of the Earth or concreted on its superficies produce the Arsenical or Aconital mixtures so these being even resolved into vapour and heaped together in the Air create most pernitious Airs from which Malignant and Pestilential Diseases arise the infection which after this manner Contaminates the Air the most ingenious Diemerbrochius a searcher of this Disease contends that is only sent as the wrath of angry Apollo immediately from the angry right hand of God but this were to multiply without any pretext of necessity I will not say beings but miracles and in every Plague to assert a Creation of new substance when in the mean time the virulent product of Minerals and Vegitable which dayly appear and of as quite adverse Nature to us as the Plague clearly testifie that there lives hid in the Bowels of the Earth plenty of invenomed matter sufficiently fitted for this business For the little Bodys which being roled about with earthy matter do constitute the Poysonous mixtures in the bosom of the Earth the same being resolved into vapours will be no less hurtful afterwards and impress a pestiferous blast to the Air which they wander through wherefore by the leave of so Learned a man I should say that it seems not improbable that the things which first of all affix the seed plot of the Pestilence to any tract of Air be the Poysonous Effluvia of fierce Salts and Sulphurs and by the Divine Will instigating breathing forth from the bowels of the Earth which somtimes being a long time before shut up are leisurely exhaled out of Dens and Caverns somtimes by reason of the motion of the Earth or Earthquake or a gaping of the Earth they break forth in heaps also of the same kind are those which ordinarily are breathed forth from the filth of Souldiers in their nasty Camps or from unburied Carcases or from places beset with standing and stinking Mud but the little Bodies after this manner exhaled obtain their wonderful height properties and abilities by a long putrefaction that therefore they are incongruous and heterogeneous to all others whatsoever and so being received into the Air ferment it as it were a mass of Liquor and pervert it from a wholsom and benign into a most pernicious and wicked Nature Some Bodies more easily others not so readily receive the malignant tincture of the Pestilent Air. Those who by
Fire and to renew it by little and little with spirit and vigor in a long time yet in the mean time after the heighth of this Disease when the Blood being made more weak and impure could not expel forth of doors this feaverish matter or adust recrements by a critical motion it often transferred it to the Brain and therefore about the height of this Feaver a torpor and stupidity of spirits sleepiness vertigo tingling of the ears tremblings and convulsive motions with a great oppression of the whole animal faculty were most often induced Men of a more cold temperament or in years who were taken with this Disease altho they were but little feaverish were wont however to be in greater danger of Life because in these besides the disposition of the Blood not easily reducible also what was gathered together in the fits that was extraneous and not to be mixed was hardly subdued and difficultly sifted forth of the mass of Blood wherefore both the Blood was still more notably depraved in its Crasis and in every fit more infected by the impure mixture Moreover the nervous Liquor was greatly perverted from its due temper and defiled most badly by the adust recrements continually poured on the Brain Therefore when old men melancholic or otherways sickly persons fell into this Feaver they became presently after its first assault stupified and for the most part vertiginous Tho in the fits the heat was not very sharp and piercing they were however very unquiet and still tossing about oftentimes they talked idly and at random after a long burning either no sweat or only partial and often broke off followed whereby the fit was not fully helped but that in the whole intervals the sick were thsrsty and remained very ill with a driness of the mouth a scurfiness of the Tongue and a suffusion of a viscous filth After some fits their strength being exceedingly cast down they were wholly fixed to their Beds or rise only for a little while could scarce stand or set a foot before another to move from place to place or able to walk in the mean time they laboured with a languishment a difficult breathing a nummedness of senses and a great debility of the whole nervous stock The Urine in most was highly red of a more deep colour and of a thicker consistency than in a common Tertian The Pulse whilst the strength was not wholly cast down for the most part was strong and equal afterwards when the sick became very languishing it was weak and unequal and oftentimes intermitting to which also constructures of the tendons and convulsive motions in the wrists being joyned were for the most part prognosticks of Death Those who leisurely being debilitated declined towards Death some little time before they died lay for the most part without speaking or knowing those about them as it were stupid and it rarely hapned in this Feaver that any one about to die was so perfect in their memory and intellect as to dispose of their Family affairs or to take leave of their friends But it hapned to those who escaped from a deep languishment and almost desperate condition not quickly or suddenly to recover from their manifest evil disposition but lying a long while wavering stupified and without strength that Nature at length not but after a doubtful and difficult strife got indeed scarcely the better of the Disease and then recovered strength by degrees and health lingringly and slowly If the nature and formal reason of this Epidemical Feaver but now described be demanded we say that this as that of the former year properly is an intermitting Feaver for what commonly spread bore that figure altho some here and there more rarely had it continual which we shall by the way mention by and by The seed plot or seminary of this need not be derived from the air being infected with any Infection but rather its leading cause is to be sought from the undue constitution of the year and from thence an indisposition of our Blood being acquired Because in the Spring and Autumn intermitting Feavers have yearly sprung up and increased to wit for that our Blood like to the juice of Vegetables is wont to be more lively moved than usual and to flower at those times Wherefore if the mass of Blood by reason of the foregoing season of the Summer or Winter should be altered from its due temperature and should contract either a sharp or atrabilous disposition or of any other kind its evil dispositions begun before are chiefly ripened about the Equinoxes to wit when the Blood more freely fermenting if that it hath departed from its natural disposition doth not so easily sanguifie but that it will be apt to pervert the alible juice poured to it into an extraneous and feaverish matter When therefore this year had not very much declined from a right constitution as not only the Dog-days going before but that the two solstices and the equinoxes were wholly intemperate it was no wonder if intermitting Feavers more frequent than usual and those noted with some unusual symptoms did increase about the Autumn That therefore an intermitting Epidemical Feaver raged at this time I judg it not to be attributed to the fault of the present Air but to the irregularities of the foregoing season yet from what causes and occasions some symptoms proper to this Feaver and distinct from the common rule of intermitting Feavers did arise will be worth our Inquiry I have already said that the provision that made this Feaver so deadly consisted in two things chiefly viz. the temper of the year now extremely cold then upon it very hot then that it had variously perverted the disposition of our Blood and had distempered the pores of the skin with an undue constitution According to the reasons taken from either I shall endeavour to explicate the accidents of this Disease and to assign the causes of its appearance 1. First We shall observe that the type of this Feaver was various to wit in some with a continual heat in others with an eruption of spots but in most intermitting and like a Tertian and sometimes tho rarely a Quotidian repeating the fits every day or every other day the cause of this diversity we impute to the more strong and potent morbific procatarxy of this year which produced in the Autumn a more common intermitting Feaver than it was wont wherefore in some perhaps indued with a more praved habit of Body it stirred up Feavers something malignant and in whom it caused intermitting Feavers according to the wonted manner of the season it made them to be noted with a peculiar appearance of symptoms 2. Those taken at this time with the Epidemical Feaver whether it was continual or intermitting suffered presently evil Distempers of the head viz. now they were wont to be infested with cruel head-ach now with a stupor or too great distraction of the Animal Spirits The reason of this is that the nervous
that sense of choaking in the Throat so often excited in the convulsive fits did proceed But there will be a more fit place to speak of this when we shall particularly handle the convulsive diseases and symptoms We shall now endeavour to search into what remains of the last kind of Convulsions of which we made mention above to wit which relies on the nervous Liquor being infected thorow its whole mass with heterogenous and explosive particles and for that reason irritateing the whole processes of the Nerves and the nervous bodies into universal Spasms or Convulsions and those either continual or intermitting CHAPTER VII Of Convulsive Motions arising from the Liquor watering the nervous Bodies and irritating their whole processes into Convulsions THat Convulsive distempers do sometimes wander thorow the whole nervous stock and infest now these parts now those now many together is so noted and obvious almost to dayly experience that nothing can be more we may therefore take notice in these that the tendons of the Muscles do every where leap up and are drawn together with spasms in others some exterior members are bended or stretch'd forth with various flections and contortions here and there after divers manners we have seen some forced by the unbridled and untamed force of the spirits as if struck with madness to run or leap about or strongly to smite with their feet or fists the earth or any objects which if they should not do forthwith they would fall into swooning fits and horrid Ecclips of spirits It would be too tedious to enumerate all the cases of universal Convulsions wandring thorow the whole nervous stock But the symptoms of this kind Chiefly three kinds of causes of universall Convulsions tho they are various and manifold may be reduced nevertheless to three chief Heads to wit forasmuch as they depend chiefly upon three kindes of causes for indeed in these wandring Convulsions we ought to suppose the whole nervous Liquor to the vitiated and the animal spirits flowing every where in the same to be adulterated and for that reason to be allmost perpetually exploded Take notice then that this kinde of Infection is most commonly impressed on the nervous juce and the spirits every where flowing in it by one of these three ways viz. 1st By Poysons or witchcraft 2dly From malignant or ill-cured feavours in which the morbific matter is poured forth on the Brain or nervous stock Or 3ly when the nervous Liquor by a long tract of time by reason of the scorbutic or otherwise vitious distemper doth degenerate from its due constitution into sour or acid or any otherwise praeternatural and Convulsive Liquor we will here consider of each of the aforesaid cases and first of all of the fits of Convulsion which are produced by poysons or Sorceries From poysons and sorceries First therefore it is somewhere shown by us that some poysons do act rather on the nervous Liquor than on the blood which depraving it most strongly induce Convulsive distempers And it appears clearly from the eating of Hemlock From poysons of the rank of vegitables the laughing-Parsly man-drakes the furious nightshade wild Parsnips and other hurtfull herbs how soon after horrid Contractions of the Ventricle numbness delirium Convulsions twitches of the tendons in the whole body were wont to follow From a mad Dog Besides those kinde of Convulsions follow upon the biting of a mad Dog and other venomous beasts where the Virulent infection being received by the nervous juice and lurking a long while in it at last puts it self forth and infects and poysons the whole mass of Liquor in which it was involved with its ferment But what doth yet more illustrate it are the admirable Symptoms the truly painfull Convulsions and unweariable dancing which Authors have related to follow upon the biting of the Tarantula and indeed might seem fabulous unless that the truth of the Thing were asserted by many men of good Credit both ancient and modern For besides Mathiolus and Epiphanius Ferdinand Gassendus and Kircher add that themselves were eye-witnesses of this distemper yea it is said 't is a known thing in Apulia and found almost by dayly experience that in that part of the Country there are Phalangii or a certain kinde of Spider which is called Tarantula from Tarenta an ancient City of Apulia This little Animal being very frequent in the Summer often bites the heedless Countryman and infects him with its Venemous stroke from whence presently succeed a pain in the hurt part with a Tumor and itching by and by in various parts of the body a numbness and Trembling also Convulsions and loosnings of the members and other Convulsive Symptoms with a great loss of strength as may be collected from Mathiolus Ferdinand and others relating the wonderfull effects of this Disease But truly what these Authors say concerning the cure of this Distemper and is practis'd commonly thorow the whole Country is worthy of great admiration for those stung with a Tarantula as very sick as they are as soon as they hear musical Instruments presently they are eased of their pains and leaping into the middle of the room they begin to dance and jump about and so continue it a long while as if they were well and ailed nothing but if it happen that the Fidlers leave off never so little a while they straitways fall to the ground and return to their former pains unless by the incessant musick they dance and leap till the poyson be wholly shaken off For this end therefore Musitioners are hired and are changed by turns that without intermission of the noise those who are bitten may dance so long till they are quite cured Thus saith Mathiolus to which Ferdinand adds that poor people do expend almost all their substance in these fidlers and musitians who wander up and down all that Province and by playing to these Tarantulasized people make much benifit they dance or leap about in the villages and publick streets and fields some one day some one week and others more To these Authours the most learned men Gassendus and Kircherus agree both of which have related it from their own observation that they have known such affected and they assert that they are not affected or excited indifferently with any musick but with certain kinds of Tune and that they dance to some measures before others Let us inquire a little further into the Reasons of these aforesaid Accidents The reason of the symptoms of those bitten by a Tarantula if we may follow our conjecture in this first place 't is without doubt that a certain venemous infection is fixed on the humane body from the bite of this little creature which tho it being less infestous to the blood and vital spirit as soon as ever it passes from it into the nervous Liquor it presently unfolds it self thorow its whole mass like leaven and infects the animal spirits flowing every where in it