the spirits of the body acting upon the spirits of the medicament by almost infinite of examples but for brevities sake I shall propound two or three Let any one swallow ten or twelve seeds of coloquintida whole he shall have the seeds again in his excrements yet notwithstanding his body shall be purged this is a sufficient argument to convince any one that it is the spirits of the medicine that purgeth Let the seeds of coloquintida be powdered and mixed with honey and then spread upon leather and applyed to the belly and this also purgeth this is another cogent argument to demonstrate that as the spirits of medicaments do operate even so they are carryed by the spirits into the body Three seeds of coloquintida in powder purge as much as twelve seeds whole This at the first sight should seeme to be an argument to prove that it is the substance of things that worketh but when we seriously consider that the seeds whole do also worke although not so powerfully and that purging medicines do also work by outward applicacation we must conclude that the reason why the seeds powdered worke more than the seeds whole is because the spirits of medicines being lock'd closer up in their parts do disperse themselves but moderately whereas after they are opened and their parts separated they doe fly away with more alacrity hence it is that all manner of drugs if they be kept entire doe retain their virtues longer then when they are powdered Here we may take notice of a vulgar errour which is generally received concerning the virtues of simples which they say are either actually or in power as if the body did reduce them out of power into act I confesse the heat and moisture of the body may so soften them and open their parts that they may spend their virtues faster no otherwise than as if they were infused or decocted but I deny that there is any essentiall difference between their power and their action because they do alwaies act although according to severall circumstances with more or lesse vigour but this concerns not our present purpose Those things that alter the body doe not onely in a generall way make evident these positions which we have delivered in that it doth plainly appeare that it is their spirits which doe act upon the spirits of mans body c. But they doe also confirme the same if we consider them severally in their private and particular operations as for example Cordials and such things as are spirituous are commonly given with good successe indifferently unto all that faint and swound away although such like fainting or swounding in several persons doth proceed from severall causes the reason of this is because the result of all things which do injury to the body is the fixing stopping or intercepting of the spirits so that such like cordials which have power to rescue the arrested spirits do for the present revive the body in that they doe move the said spirits which are the cause of all other motion Those things which doe violently purge if they be given without any preparative unto those bodies wherein there is a tenacity of humours they doe commonly cause Syncopes or sudden faintings away The reason is because the atomes of such like purging medicines finding those passages bolted up through which they should enter into the intestines are immediately carryed into the nerves where they doe intercept or confound the regular motion of the spirits The reason also wherefore purging and vomiting medicines do oftentimes procure sweat is because their spirits are carryed into the nerves Opium doth allay pain and doth cause sleep the reason of the first is because it thickens the spirits and intercepts their motion towards the brain The reason of the second also is because it doth by condensing the spirits shut up the sensories Those things which are drying and astringent as china guajacum sarsaparilla conserve of red roses vitriolated c. do oftentimes prove analepticall The reason is because they do fix the spirits which are the chief instruments of nutrition Camphor causeth sleep by attenuating the spirits and causing expence thereof Milke and some other things which being eaten are straightway converted into a milky nature as almonds the foure greater cooling seeds c. do resist drunkennesse The reason is because they do precipitate the spirituous part of beer wine or any other liquor which would sly up into the brain and disturbe the regular motion of the spâ—riâ—s â—o we see posset drink is lesse vapoâ—ous than beer or ale because the spâ—râ—â—s of the said beer or ale are precipitated with milke Sâ—l Pâ—â—unellae Vinegar and al acide juices are proficuous in pestilentiall diseases The reason is because they do precipitate that mercuriall vapour which doth intercept the motion of the spirits No otherwise than Aqua fortis which is made of vitriol and saltpeter doth precipitate and tame quicksilver and make it lesse fluid and vaporous New milke warme from the cow and milke suck'd from a womans breast is a great restorative The reason is because it doth in a more than ordinary manner increase the spirits which are the chief instruments of nutrition Those things which are knowne by experience to be hurtfull to the eyes and to dimme the sight as garlick lettice colewort c. do it upon no other account than by thickning the visive spirits and on the contrary where the eye sight is not perfect it is oftentimes helped by such things as do rarifie the said spirits as fennell betony Eyebright c. Here we must take notice that condensation and rarefaction are not of themselves hurtfull or profitable to the sight but as they do retard or accelerate the motion of the visive spirits which is the next and immediate cause of seeing they do by consequence become hurtfull or profitable The water of the sperm of froggs preventeth the spreading of a gangrene by intercepting the spirits which would carry the septick quality of the extreme part gangrenated nearer unto the centre of the body In contused wounds the part is preserved from mortification by injecting of spirit of wine into the wound or fomenting the part therewith the reason is because it doth both comfort the spirits rarefie the pores that so the motion of the spirits in the part may not be hindred Adde hereunto the virtue of actual heat in any manner of distemper whatsoever either outward or inward They that are well versed in chirurgicall operations cannot but know the efficacy of hot stupes And so in feaverish distempers those things which are given actually hot provided they nourish not too much do sooner quench thirst and abate the praeternatural heat of the body than cooling Iulapes The reason is because heat doth open the pores and by consequence make way for the spirits to move This motion of the spirits Courteour Reader is that we did intend in this inconsiderable treatise to propound unto thee Wherewith we were loath on a sudden to interrupt thee thinking it more convenient first to broach some tenets which are involved in it under the notion of Paradoxes Yet we presume that upon serious consideration thou wilt looke upon all we have here written as Orthodox And that for two reasons First because all operations of externall things upon mans body are reducible to reason upon this account And secondly because there is no contradiction in the whole Series of our discourse but each position doth so confirme another that in the whole there is such a symmetrie as doth become the simplicity of truth FINIS
spleen yet the veins and arteries of the liver are somewhat smaller then those of the spleen the reason is because it is required that the blood of children which is strained chiefly by the liver should be somewhat thinner then that of those which are grown up which is percolated by the spleen for as we affirme that the spirits by their first motion do bore the veins and arteries and doe move alone therein untill such time as the veins and arteries are capacious enough to receive the mothers blood so it is required that the blood which first enters into the veins and arteries be almost as thin as spirits by reason of their slendernesse and afterwards that it have such a consistence as shall be agreeable to the smalness or largnesse of the vessels So that the blood of children is so much purer than that of those that are grown up by how much their veins and arteries are smaller And that it may be continued so the liver as I said hath veins and arteries somewhat smaller then the spleen that being the chief percolatory of childrens blood and this of those that are old Those that are of middle age have their liver and spleen alike proportionable to their bodies and doubtlesse they doe their offices alike but children have large livers and very little spleen and on the contrary old men have their liver somewhat wasted and their spleen much inlarged The Embryon having all its parts finished and the whole clock-work of nature compleated doth struggle in its determinated time to get out of the wombe as from too narrow an inclosure and is extruded by the mothers body as too great a burthen No sooner is the infâ—nt born but the lungs are set on work and the Diaphragma made capable to conspire with the muscles of the Abdomen for the excretion of some excrementitious matter which before could be carried no farther then into the intestines The serous part of the blood is also now evacuated through the urinatory passages whereas before it was transpired and left in the secondine to polish the skin as also to extend and burst the secondine and make it slippery for the better extrusion of the infant now the head by degrees comes into shape whereas before it was disproportionable to the body Here we cannot but admire the great wisdome and providence of Nature in throwing out the serosity of the blood by transpiration whilst the Embryon is in the wombe that thereby the grosser parts thereof may be coagulated with some spirits within the menynges to make up the substance of the brain whose office is to fix the spirits for severall uses of which we shall speake hereafter and afterwards in expelling the said serous parts through other more open passages least the brain should be too bigg the spirits too much fix'd and the infant borne become lethargicall Nature willing to continue what she hath produced and desirous to preserve what she hath made hath provided the infant borne such a diet as is spirituous viz. its mothers milke which being received into its body warme from its mothers breast doth very much support and strengthen the first foundation of its body the spirits and doth nourish and increase the spermatick parts which are the main architecture upon this foundation yet children as by degrees they do grow up and get strength are afterwards nourished as well with other diet as they were before with milke although by how much the body is more increased in bulke by so much the greater quantity of spirits is required for nutrition thereof Here we must know that as the body becomes stronger there are spirits extracted by the Chymistry of Nature out of that diet which is lesse Spirituous or at least hath its spirits lock'd closer up in its parts As the spirits are the only ingredients which doe enter the composition of sperme so are they the nourishers and augmenters of the spermatick parts yet as the spirits are insufficient to make seed except they be condensed even so are they incapable to nourish and increase the spermatick parts except they be first tuned and fixed by a well constituted brain Hence it is that both children and those that are grown up doe oftentimes pine away and languish not for want of spirits or other nutriment but by reason of the evill constitution of their brain which being rectified by shaving the haire and application of corroborating emplaisters they do regain their flesh and are nourished as well as ever Although the flesh receive not its nutriment wholly from the spirits yet they are the chief instruments of its nutrition which do qualifie the nutritive part of the blood and are themselves qualifyed by the brain Now the chief office of the brain is as I said to fix the spirits for severall uses and first that they should not be too much dispersed secondly for nutrition and auction of the parts thirdly for the making of seed and fourthly for ratiocination Here we doe not conceive that the brain doth primarily act upon the spirits for we think it would be absurd to ascribe action to any part which is not in motion and passion to the spirits which doe continually move but we suppose that the spirits by acting upon the brain do accidentally suffer and become more fix'd As the spirits are alwaies passing through the brain which is in the mid-way of their journey backwards and forwards betwixt the veins and arteries and the nerves so part of them doe alwaies suffer condensation from the time they doe begin to move until their motion cease that is from the first original of man until he die And as there is a continual fixation of spirits so there is a continuall expence and a continuall increase thereof although sometimes the expence is greater then the increase and on the contrary those spirits which are fixed are not afterwards lost by transpiration but they doe either nourish and increase the spermatick parts for preservation of the individuum as in those of under yeares or else they are converted into seed for propagation of the species as in those of consistent age In most old men whose brain is of a dryer constitution there is a lesse quantity of spirits condensed perhaps so much as is sufficient onely for nutrition of the spermatick parts but no superfluity for seed and in those aged men whose brain is so well constituted as to prepare more nutriment then is required for the spermatick parts it is either left in the brain the seminary vessels being closed by reason of dissuetude and so doth cause a great swimming and disyness in the head or else it is carryed towards the spermatick parts which have no need thereof and there doth putrefie and corrupt which doth produce aches and pains in several parts of the body How ratiocination is performed by the condensation or fixation of the spirits it may appeare as followeth As sensation is performed by the motion of the
contrary Those things which are diaphoretick as Guajacum China Sarsaparilla have an immediate operation upon the brain and are known by experience to have cured inveterate paines in the head proceeding from obstructions whereas all other means have failed From hence we conclude that all that matter which is transpired either by sweat or insensibly is first conveighed into the brain and from thence by the nerves scattered into the habit of the body That which is transpired is in the body a spurious spirit and is regulated by the motion of the spirits passing through the same channels although it have no reentrance into the body or motion of returne it is to the spirits as a meteor to the stars which by the starrs is put into a motion of consent although to no other end than speedily to be dissolved or to vanish The spirits we conceive to be in all respects the primum mobile of of the microcosme which doe move in the largest circumference and utmost orbe of the body and did first begin that motion which is essentiall to the life of man which whole motion must be first accurately explained before we can enucleate the order of Nature in transpiration or other excretion We did denominate the spirits to be an exhalation from the purer blood which exhalation is the product of heat and heat the ofspring of motion yet notwithstanding we conceive that the first thing that did move in mans body was the spirits These positions doe imply a seeming contradiction for if the spirits be the beginners of motion how is it that they doe become the ofsprings thereof at a third remove I answer that the spirrits are to be considered after a twofold manner they are either innate such as were the beginners of motion or else adventitious those that are the continuers or preservers thereof the spirits which did begin motion in mans body were nothing else but the spirituous part of the seed which from the first instant of its motion must necessarily become more and more refined and so by degrees exhale until it be all spent the adventitious spirits are an exhalation from the purest blood which doth make a continual supply for the continual expence of the innate spirits that so that regular motion which is essential to the life of man may be continued and preserved The spirits doe continually move in the veins and arteries together with the masse of blood yet their proper orbe is from the beginnings of the nerves to all the extremes thereof as also to the whole surface of the body There is a continuation of pores from the brain and spinall marrow through all the nerves fibres and membrans of mans body through which pores there can nothing but spirits or that which is transformed into the shape of a spirit these pores as we said before are of two sorts through which the spirits which are natures intelligencers do passe and repasse through the one kind of pores the spirits are continually passing from the brain to give intelligence to all parts how the brain doth stand affected whereby motion is performed and through the other pores the spirits move backwards towards the brain whereby there is performed sensation we conceive that there are several degrees of spirits viz. Finer and grosser and according to those several degrees we suppose them to move in a greater or lesser circuit the grossest spirits move onely in the veins and arteries together with the masse of blood those which are finer passe through the arteries of the rete mirabile into the brain and from thence are carryed downe by the nerves into the habit of the body and doe return againe by the same nerves although they do passe through different pores into the brain and then they enter into the veins of the rete mirabile from whence they passe towards the heart and are again circulated with the blood these spirits which move in the nervous parts which are properly called animal spirits are also of severall degrees viz. some purer and others lesse pure the purest Spirits expatiate themselves at some distance from the surface of the body those that are lesse pure move but to the surface those that are yet grosser come not so farr but they doe in the mid way by an anastomosis of pores Change their path and make a more speedy return unto the brain even as in the circular motion of the blood the purer parts thereof are conveighed by the pulsation of the heart to the extremities of the arteries and are received again by the extremities of the veins but the grosser parts come not so farr but are lett into the veins by an anastomosis whereby they do obtain a shorter journey to the heart Here we must take notice that the purer part of the purest spirits doth continually vanish into aire and is continually supplyed by that which is in the next degree of purity so that each moment every particle of the spirits becomes more and more refined and hath such a successive being that it cannot twice be called the same The humours and spirits are in continuall motion which renders them obnoxious to continuall alteration The grossest blood doth continually become more and more refined and whereas at first it moved no farther than the first anastomoses or openings of the arteries into the veins it doth afterwards increase in its circuit untill at length it move to the utmost parts of the body then is it resolved into a vapour to the end it may increase and feed the grosser spirits which are in the veins and arteries which spirits by their circular motion increase in purity untill they move first out of the veins and arteries into the nervs so farr as the first anastomosis of the pores afterwards even to the surface of the body and at length they doe move out from the surface being then in such a degree of purity that afterwards by their perpetuall motion they do perpetually lose themselves in the aire Now as the motion of the spirits is conformable to their beginning increase state and declination even so is the motion of that excrementitious matter which is or should be transpired either by sweat or insensibly it is at first a vapour raised from the impurer parts of the blood which vapour is afterwards rarified unto such a tenuity that together with the spirits it passeth out of the veins and arteries into the nerves when it is in the nerves being capable of several degrees of rarity and density it is either transpired or left in the habit of the body however the thinner parts thereof are carryed out by an insensible transpiration I have observed that after the puncture of a nerve in the arme the whole arme hath been much lessened Many which have received some hurt in the os sacrum have had an extenuation of their thigh and legg of that side wherein they received the hurt They which doe lose the use of any part have
also an abatement of flesh in the same part They which are much prone to sweating do neither pinguefie nor increase in flesh In consumptive bodies where there is an abatement of flesh there is a more then ordinary transpiration From hence we conclude that the nerves are the immediate organs of nutrition that is that part of the blood which serves for nutriment is carryed by the nerves into the habit of the body The veines and arteries are the elaboratory of the whole body or the preparatory vessels wherein the humours are made fit for Natures use the brain is the first receptacle of the humours so prepared and the nerves are those organs through which they are conveighed unto all the parts there is nothing in the veins and arteries except that which the gall and spleen do receive which is not transported unto the severall parts by the nerves and before it can be received by the nerves it must necessarily be resolved into a vapour this vapour is multiforme answerable to the heterogeneity of the humours the severall parts whereof it will be too tedious to prosecute yet by a more generall division for our present purpose we may divide it into three parts which three parts considered as well jointly as severrally may perhaps bring us unto the knowledge of Nature in all her actions One part hereof is excrementitious another part nutritive and a third part spirituous that which nourisheth is of a middle nature between the spirits and excrementitious vapours it agrees with the spirits in its equality of parts which makes it lesse capable of being excerned and it is like to the excrementitious vapours in its aptitude to condense thus by an equall participation of both natures it hath a propriety of its owne viz. assimilation The spirits in their motion towards the external parts by acting upon the excrementitious vapours doe in some sort suffer and are precipitated or embodyed with the said vapours whereby there is begotten a third which doth participate as I said of both natures the most sound and tenacious nutriment is a mixture of the grosser spirits and most syncere part of that which is excrementitious and on the contrary that nutriment which is most volatile or consumptive is the finest spirits interr'd in the impurest excrements Hence it is that so great a quantity of this false nutriment is so speedily congested and again so suddenly dissolved for when the nerves are so oppressed and loaded with excrementitious vopours that even the purest spirits are clowded therewith needs must these vapours which cannot be transpired settle themselves in the habit of the body and increase into a considerable bulke in no considerable time and afterwards it must as suddenly wast by reason of the disproportionable mixture whereof its nutriment doth consist The spirits being too fine to continue fix'd do in a short time fly away whereupon the condensed vapours which were underpropped thereby can no longer subsist but doe putrefie and dissolve and do also by motion of consent bring the most solid nutriment into a state of dissolution There is much difference between the flesh of the same body in its infancy afterwards when it is grown up The flesh of the same body although it be nourished with the same diet hath oftentimes a manifest change in a short time onely by the alteration of the aire They whose flesh is most solid close and compact are not so apt to feed as others whose constitution is more weake and their flesh of a more Spongious and loose temperament Eunuchs and such as do seldome use the act of Venus are most apt to pinguefy and we have observed in several creatures that onely upon the the losse of a testicle they have suddenly grown fat These observations do give us occasion to doubt whether or no there be any assimilatrix in each part to make that nutriment which it receivs like unto it self It seemes unto us that the spirits and humours do rather act upon the parts then the parts upon them otherwise the parts would not be so conformable to the alteration of aire and diet but should keep constantly the same temperament how is it then that the whole body is not confusedly nourished but every part and particle thereof doth receive nutriment according to its own kind I answer that the spirits which are the cheife instruments of nutrition which are as multiforme as are the humours and parts although they doe meet altogether in the brain yet afterwards they are divided in their passage towards the severall parts and as they doe divide they doe take along with them such parts of the excrementitious vapours as are most agreeable to their particular natures so that by virtue of that action and passion which is betwixt the vapours and spirits as they are moving in their proper orbes there is such nutriment made as is sutable to each part which nutriment as it is in fieri is moving towards its centre wherein being compleated or in facto esse it doth acquiesse Doubtlesse there is the same reason in a kernell for its first expansion into parts as afterwards for the growth thereof and at length being grown to a great tree it hath the same principle for the continuation of its bulke as it had for its first growth In like manner we conceive it most probable that the same internal principle which did at first form the parts and did make the first flesh in mans body doth make an addition thereto and not that the body is made by one principle and preserv'd by another If the more spirituous part of the seed being cherished by the warmth of the wombe could at first by moving in a figure agreeable to its Nature make it self a habitation to dwell in it may as well be thought to increase this habitation and continually continually to repaire it being increased These tenets which we have delivered looke not asquint nor thwart one another but they are so harmonious in themselves and do so agree with all manner of experiments of what kind soever that we must necessarily make nature a monster if we deny them but on the contrary paint her to the life in the acknowledgment thereof According to these Hypotheses we will first recapitulate the oeconomy of Nature in mans body beginning with him before he had a being and so by degrees bring him on to his Journeys end then afterwards we will consider whether all operations of externall things upon mans body be not involved in this oeconomy To omitt much which may be spoken concerning the harmony of the well tun'd Spirits in healthfull bodies of consistent yeares how the spirits moving from the surface of the body bring pleasant objects into the brain which do so delight the fantasy that she is unwilling to dismisse them into the storehouse of memory but is eager to give them present entertainment how the fantasy by hovering upon such pleasant objects must necessarily arrest the spirits
spirits from the extreme parts which doe carry their respective objects into the brain so is raciocination by the retention of the said objects that is by the memory of such-like sensible perception as we said before that the notion of sounds or colours is nothing else but the remembrance of such things seen or heard Now these objects are retained or this sensible perception is remembred by the fixation of those spirits wherein the said objects do abide So that as the spirits are fixed and continued in the substance of the brain even so are the objects treasured up together with the spirits the comparison of which past objects with others that are present or to come is called ratiocination The spirits being pure of themselves would by their continuall motion be so attenuated that they could not be contained in the body if they had not a refrigeratory the brain to contemper and allay them by virtue hereof the sensories are shut up and sleep is caused that there may be a reparation made for those spirits which were lost while the sensories were open Whereas notwithstanding the coldnesse of the brain some spirits doe continually lose themselves in the aire it is out of the great providence of Nature that thereby they may make the aire a fit medium betwixt the sence and the object So we see the spirits for smelling do disperse themselves in the aire indifferently but the visive spirits are not scattered except in the illuminated aire It will be too tedious to discourse at large how the object by how much it is more pleasant by so much it doth the more entice out the spirits and how the exercise of the several senses upon pleasant objects doth become hypnoticall It is sufficient to know that as the spirits were the first movers in mans body upon whose motion all other natural actions do depend even so all actions cease when the spirits cease to move And as life doth commence by the motion of the spirits even so the cessation of this motion is the next and immediate cause of death whether it be by solution of continuity in some principal organ whereby the spirits are made incapable of keeping their circuit or by some mercuriall vapour which doth suddenly or by degrees intercept their motion or else by something which is stupefying that doth suddenly thicken them I say by what accident soever the motion of the spirits is staid death must necessarily ensue thereupon And no man ever yet dyed either a natural death or by any accident whatsoever but the next and immediate cause of his death was the cessation of the motion of his spirits We call that a naturall death when the spirits are not violently intercepted or discontinued but as by degrees they are thickned and have a slower motion as is evident by the slownesse of the pulse dimnesse of light thicknesse of hearing coldnesse of the body c. so in processe of time they are wholly staid although nothing violent doth happen unto them Thus we see that both the beginning increase state and declination of mans life doth depend wholly upon the motion of the spirits as also all circumstances contained in the said beginning increase state and declination As nutrition auction excretion voluntary motion sense ratiocination and whatsoever else is comprehended under these And as the spirits do governe the body within it selfe so by the mediation thereof all things else doe operate upon the body not onely that which nourisheth and increaseth but whatsoever purgeth vomiteth procureth sweat c. hath its qualities first received by the spirits and from thence communicated to the humours or parts according to the particular natures of such like qualities Aloes and Colocynth taken inwardly purge the body and so they do by outward application Terpentine taken inwardly provoketh urine and emplaisters of terpentine applyed to the back and belly do the like Emplaisters of Ammoniacum dissolve and mollifie scirrhous tumours no otherwise than Ammoniacum taken inwardly doth dissolve scirrosities of the liver and spleen Lapis haematites dragons blood bole c. stop a flux whether inwardly exhibited or outwardly applyed Quicksilver taken inwardly procureth salivation and so it doth by outward application Pills and plaisters of Asa Faetida are both good against the rising of the wombe Unctions of Brimstone cure the itch and so doth Brimstone taken inwardly In a word all things whatsoever have their operation alike upon the body whether they be used inwardly or outwardly But this could not be if the operation of those things which doe alter the body was not performed by the immediate act of the spirits neither could the spirits so act if they had not both a circular motion betwixt the centre and the surface whereby they do keepe a correspondence between all the diversity of parts of the body and did not also expatiate themselves at some small distance from the surface whereby they doe take into the body the infection of the aire There is nothing whatsoever which is not continually spending its spirits in the aire as is demonstrable in all things which are subject to wax old I meane not onely living creatures in the course of their life but even vegetables and the parts of living creatures which we call druggs unto which we ascribe several virtues Let them be kept never so choicely yet they will in time decay and lose the said virtues which we ascribe unto them the reason is because they doe subsist and preserve themselves that time they do continue by this expence of their virtues that is their spirits in the aire otherwise they should suddenly be corrupted And if they be so attenuated that they may be and are taken into the body of man or if they be contiguous to his body they doe the like Now the spirits of mans body as they are alwaies moving out and returning into the body they doe continually lay hold on that which they find in the aire to be most agreeable to their owne nature that is something which is most spirituous and doe carry it into the body and whatsoever they find in the stomack and guts of a spirituous nature they do likewise carry it into the more inward parts viz. into the veins and arteries and afterwards perhaps into the nerves so that whensoever any medicament whether drug or composition happeneth within the reach of the spirits the body is thereby altered and so much the more by how much the parts of the said medicament are separated because thereby its atomes are more speedily scattered Here we must know that the medicine acts not primarily upon the spirits but the spirits upon the medicine although afterwards they do accidentally suffer hence it is that emplasters do performe no alteration upon a mortifyed part neither do external things act at such a distance whereunto the spirits of the body cannot come to lay hold upon the spirits atomes or qualities thereof I could make a closer illustration of