distended but not contracted but the Muscles are both distended and contracted But all this signifies nothing to the Muscles which by their own ordinary voluntary Motion contract and relax but by some preternatural Cause are hindered from that Motion and many times distended when voluntarily they ought to be relaxed as in Convulsions and relax and flax when they ought to be contracted as in the Palsie XIX The Action of the Muscle is performed by its Fibres Tendons and Nerves The Fibres cause Contraction by which the Tendon is drawn to together with the Part which is fastned to it Through the Nerves the Animal Spirits flow in causing Feeling Swelling and Contraction But if one of these three be wanting or hindered the Action cannot be perform'd For if the Nerve be obstructed or cut then the Animal Spirits not flowing into it there can be no Swelling or Contraction of the Muscle If the Fibres are cut athwart their Contraction is made toward two several Parts upward and downward and so the Part to be moved is not brought to If the Tendon be wanting though the Muscles swell because it is not fastned to the Part that is to be moved it does not draw it As to the Flesh that is interlarded among the Fibers that contributes nothing to the Motion but only strengthens the Fibers and by its Heat cherishes and renders them nimble and defends them against the Injuries of Heat and Cold but is unfit for the Motion of Contraction by reason of its Softness and Loosness which renders it unable to contract it self or raise other Parts Which Vesalius Erastus and Laurentius not aware of erroneously affirming this Flesh to be the chief Instrument of Motion the Absurdities of which is apparent for that the Muscles of meager Men are stronger than the Muscles of those who are more fleshy If any one object that the Muscles of the Calves of the Legs and Arms draw with more force by reason of their Carnosity I answer that their Carnosity is not the reason but because they are furnished with stronger and more numerous Fibers than others XX. The Operations of the Muscles are various according to the Variety of the Muscles to which they are fastned In the Breast they dilate and contract in the Gullet they facilitate Swallowing in the Larinx they cause the Modulation of the Voice c. XXI But how the Animal Spirits causing the Operation of the Muscle flow and are determined in greater quantity at the pleasure of the Mind sometimes into these sometimes into those Muscles is a difficult Question some will have them conveighed through Imaginary Valves which they ascribe to the Nerves Others not satisfied with this Fiction have invented double Tubes so placed from one Muscle to the other that in the Contraction of the Muscle the Orifice guarded by a peculiar Valve opens and that through that same Passage the Spirits flow out of the relaxed Muscle into that which is to be contracted the Valve of the other Closing at the same moment so that they cannot flow forth again but of necessity must distend the Muscle until the Situation of the Parts being again altered that Valve opens and the other shuts by which means there is a Passage opened for the contracting the other Muscle This is indeed ingenious but little to the purpose 1. Because the Muscles that move the Part to the opposite Part are most commonly too far distant from the former so that those little Pipes must be very long as in those Muscles that move the Part forward and backward 2. These little Pipes if not every where yet would be some where visible seeing that the small little Nerves through which the Spirits flow are visible 3. For that in Wounds the Muscles are many times divided one from another and yet notwithstanding their Separation their Motion proceeds in good order every way Which could not be if there were any such intervening Pipes in those Places cut and then cicatrized For by reason of their smallness they must of necessity be quite closed up by the Scar. 4. The altered Situation of the Parts cannot cause an opening and shutting of the Valves For it is supposed that the Situation of the Parts alters as the Spirits flow into this or that Muscle and so the thing caused would precede the Cause and the Influx of the Spirits must be before the Cause of the Influx XXII Cartesius seems to favour this Opinion of the little Pipes For says he there are little gapings in every one of these Muscles through which those Spirits may slow out of one into the other and which are so disposed that when the Spirits come from the Brain toward one of those they have somewhat a greater force than those that go toward the other and together close up all those Passages through which the Spirits of this may pass into the other By which means all the Spirits before contained in these two Muscles immediately slow into one of them and so swell and contract it while the other relaxes This seems a fpecious Fiction and needs no other Refutation than the Story of the little Pipes Add to this that when a Body is bended forward and backward who can imagine such Gapings can be extended from the Muscles before to those behind Shall those Gapings and the Spirits pass in a streight Line through all the other Parts that lye between To this De la Forge answers that those Spirits do not pass through all the Parts that lye between but from the Tendon of the whole Muscle through the Pores and invisible Channels into the Tendon of the other for though the Muscles are remote one from another the Muscles lye close together This specious Fiction pretends that the Spirits flow rapidly from the Tendon of the acting Muscle through those supposed Channels in the Tendon and Belly of the Muscle which is to act but what if the opposite Muscle should not act but lye still wherefore then the action of the acting Muscle ceasing do not those spirits flow into the opposite that rests when the Passages are open and the Muscle is capable to receive them If it be impossible they should be so soon dissipated through the Pores of the Muscle or return into the Veins or Arteries where do they then remain Since they do not enter any other from the acting Muscle surceasing its action so suddainly Or if they cannot enter the Muscle that is to act by reason of the length of the distance What hinders their entrance into the next adjoyning Muscles or Tendon This the Valves occasion adjoyning to the Channels says de la Forge But wherefore are they not sufficiently open when the violent rushing of the Spirits into the acting Muscle and it's Tendon is sufficient to open the Valves of the Channels tending toward the other opposite and so to make a free passage for its self from that into this Besides that all Valves give
Secondly Because action is competible to the whole operating Organ but use to every part of the Organ for instance The action of a Muscle is to contract but the use of the Musculous Membrane is to contain its fibres and to seperate it from other Muscles of the Artery to bring blood to it as of the nerves animal spirits to support the fibres of the flesh Yet oftentimes use action and function are promiscously used by Anatomists And the action of a part because it tends to some end or other is often called use And also use because it excludes not action is called action But use is of greater latitude then action Hippocrates divided things that make up the whole into things containing things contained and things that move or have in themselves the power of motion Galen calls these three things Solid parts Humors and Spirits In this division the threefold parts of the body are not comprehended but only three things without which a man cannot continue entire that is alive For only the containing or solid parts are true parts of the body Yet these parts cannot continue alive except they be continually nourished by the humors Not that humors are parts of the body but the proximate matter which by coction is changed into the substance of the parts into which till they are changed they cannot be called parts and when they are changed they cannot be called humors for a bone is not blood and blood is not bone though the one be bred of the other The same must be understood of spirits which being made of the subtilest and hottest part of the blood do very much contribute to the nutrition of the body Therefore though a man cannot continue alive without these three yet it does not follow that all these three must necessarily be parts of the body A Vine consists of solid woody parts and a Juyce whereby it is nourished and yet it is evident this Juice is no part of the Vine because if a Vine be unseasonably cut abundance of it runs out the Vine remaining entire wherefore a blind man may see that it is no part if the Vine but only liqour which by further coction would be turned into a Vine Thus also when there is a Flux of blood by the Haemorrhoids Menses or any other part or when one makes water or sweats no man in his wits will say that then the parts of a mans body are voided although a man cannot live without blood and serum But if pieces of the Lungs be brought up in coughing or if piecesâ—… of the Kidneys be voided in Urine as it sometimes happens in their exculceration then it is certain that the true parts of the body are voided Besides these are parts of the body whence actions immediately proceed and they proceed not from the humors and spirits but from solids For the humors and spirits move not the Heart Brain and other parts but they both breed and move the humors and spirits for when the Heart Brain and other parts are quiet humors and spirits are neither bred nor moved this appears in a deep swoon and though there is abundance of them in the body and those very hot and fit for motion as in such as dye of a burning Fever yet as soon as the Heart is quiet they neither move through the Arteries Veins and Nerves nor are able to move the Heart or any part else which is a certain Argument that they are Passive and that no Action can proceed from them And that the humors and spirits are moved by the Heart and bred in it and other parts will more plainly appear lib. 2. cap. 11. and lib. 3. cap. 10 11. and in several other places And now though solids cannot act without the humors and spirits and by them their Actions in as much as by their quantity or quality as their heat cold c. they are able to cause this or that mutation or temper in Solids are made quicker slower stronger weaker better or worse yet they are without air yet air is no part of the body neither does the Action of respiration proceed from it but from the muscles of the breast forcing it out though in the mean time air by giving way to the motion of the muscles and passing in and out through the Aspera Arteria affords such an aptitude for respiration as without it no respiration could be performed though also by its heat or cold it may make respiration quicker slower longer or rarer according as by these mutations the heat of the parts is augmented or diminished and thereupon necessity obliges one to breath quicker or slower So the Heart and other solid Parts are not mov'd by the humors and spirits but act upon the humors and spirits they move attenuate and concoct them till at length they turn their apt particles into a substance like themselves and so apply and unite them to themselves and make them parts of the body which they were not before they were applied and assimilated For one part of the body is not nourished with another part of its whole a bone is not nourished with flesh nor a vein with a nerve c. Neither can that which nourishes the parts by any means be called a part for otherwise there would be no difference between a part and its nutriment With which Nourishment unless the Parts be daily cherished and their consumed particles restored their strength and substance would quickly waste and fail and by that failure at length their Action would be lost So that Man of necessity must have both Blood and Spirits for the support of Life hence saith the Text in Levit. 17. 11. the Soul that is the Life of the Flesh is in its Blood as being the nearest Support of the Body without which neither the Parts of the Body can act nor the Man himself live Yet it does not follow from thence that the Blood and Spirits are part of the Body For the same might be said of the external Air without which no Man can live For take away from a Man the use of external Air either by suffocation or drowning or any other way you presently deprive him of Life as surely as if you took from him his Blood and Spirits Yet no man of Judgment will say that the external Air is a part of the Body Seeing that most certainly if that without which Life cannot subsist were to be accounted a Part the external Air must of necessity be said to be a Part of our Body as well as the Blood and Spirits Moreover it is to be considered that if the Humors and Spirits have contracted any Foulness or Distemper they are by the Physicians numbred among the Causes of Diseases not among the diseased Parts Besides that if they were Parts they ought to be similar yet never any Anatomist that I ever yet heard of recken'd 'em among similar Parts For most of the Organic Parts
divine Operations But no Man unfolds that substantial Form that first Act that first Matter of Fermentation by which all animate Beings obtain Life and are thence said to live nor what that first Act that Form or Matter is but all Men acquiesce in the Name alone of a Vegetable Soul LXVIII This same Soul I call the vivific Spirit produced out of Corporeal Matter surpassing all other Spirits produced out of Matter Now altho' this Definition of mine be sufficient to denote the Substance it self of the Soul or rather the Subject wherein it abides nevertheless it will not satisfy many who desire a farther Explication of the Nature of this Spirit which however it is better to contemplate in Thought than to express in Words For how or with what Knowledg instructed it forms and joyns the Parts of the Body to be form'd so fitly and with so much decency of Order and Shape he only knows who alone and first of all created all things at the Beginning What it is that rowses it and frees it from the Incumbrances wherewith it is surrounded and brings it upon the Stage of Action has been already sufficiently explain'd that is to say the Heat acting in convenient place and time upon the Seed for that without such a Heat it cannot be dissolved or waken'd out of the thicker Matter LXIX Regius thinks he has found out a way to unfold this Gordian Riddle more clearly and after another manner promising to explain this obscure Mystery of Nature as do many others by manifest Reasons He writes that the Formation of the Birth is perfected by the heat as well of the Womb as of the Seeds by which their Particles are agitated in the Womb and being agitated by reason of their Shapes and Magnitudes which they have acquired in the seminary Passages tempered and shap'd after a certain manner of necessity become in the Womb a perfect prolific Principle of the Creature to be form'd furnished with Alimentary Iuice and cloathed with little Membranes in some Measure resembling the Seeds of Plants Then he adds that this Explication of the Formation of the Birth is so manifest that there is no farther Necessity of framing in the Womb or Seed any Idea Fantasie or Principle of a Soul or any other Faculty to be the Author of Formation But the most learn'd Gentleman who at first sight promises something of a Delphian Oracle in these words does but explain the lesser Obscurity by the greater Obscurity and swelling with an extraordinary Self-Conceit he is pleased with his own Invention as to believe that never any Man ever did or ever will invent any thing more subtilly and ingeniously when as there is nothing in it but Vanity and Ostentation For what others call the Soul of the Seed the vegetative Soul the Plastic Power the Architectonic Vertue c. that he calls certain Shapes and Magnitudes of the Particles of the Seeds more difficult to be apprehended than plastic Power or vegetative Soul And altho' perhaps some Persons may believe that the Artificial Formation of other things without Life may in some Measure be conceived by his mechanic Explication annexed yet does it not from thence appear how the Parts of our living Body are generated out of the diversity of the Shapes and Magnitudes of the Particles of the Seed what should occasion the Heart to be form'd in the middle of the Breast and not in the Abdomen or Head why there should be in that particularly eleven Valves and no more wherefore not two Hearts in one Birth how the Parts receive Life from the Principle of the Birth and what introduces Motion and Actions c. All which with an innumerable number of other things he that will refer to the Shapes and Magnitudes of the Particles of the Seed ought first to tell us what they are and how they are mixed Who does not this proposes his Shapes and Figures as meer Imaginary Chimeras and clears up no Obscurity but wraps us up in more Darkness and while he pretends to tell us something of Novelty and better says nothing at all but intangles an obscure thing in newer but obscurer Terms LXX Lately Tho. Willis has set forth the Substance and Nature of this Soul quite otherwise de an Brut. c. 2. Where after he has asserted the Soul of Brutes which we call Vegetative to be Corporeal and extended through the whole Body and divisible together with the Matter wherein it abides at length concludes that the Soul lying hid in the Blood or Vital Liquor is either a certain Fire or Flame But that we have affirm'd the Soul of a brute says he to be not only Corporeal and extended but that it is of a certain fiery Nature and its Act or Substance is either a Flame or a breath near to or a Kin to Flame besides the large Testimonies of Authors both Ancient and Modern Reasons and Arguments almost demonstrative have also induc'd me to it As to what appertains to the Suffrages of others that I may not seem to insist upon the Authority of a single Gassendus who has maintained this Hypothesis I shall here cite many both ancient Philosophers and Physicians For not to mention Democritus Epicurus Laâ—…rtius Lucretius and their Followers Hippocrates Plato Pythagoras Aristotle Galen with many others tho' disagreeing about other things Yet in this Opinion That the Soul was either a Fire or something Analogical to it they all shook Hands to whom among the Moderns Fernelius Heurnius Cartesius Hogeland and others also have joyn'd themselves and lately Honoratus Faber has delivered in express Words That the Soul of the brute is Corporeal and its Substance Fire LXXI But while the famous Thomas Willis with all those most ingenious Philosophers and Physicians asserts the Soul to be Fire he names indeed a Body of the greatest Activity but such a one as consumes and destroys all things in which and upon which it acts whereas the Soul by its Presence does not destroy those Bodies in which it is and acts but preserves 'em in their soundnss excites the Members to their Functions and defends 'em from Corruption till those Bodies wherein it abides are destroy'd by some other Cause together with the Soul it self Moreover among all those famous men not one could ever teach what it is that forces or instructs that Fire in the Generation of the Creature to adapt and joyn all and singular the parts in such an exact and admirable order together and in every one to perform such various and determin'd Operations as the making the Chylus in the Stomach Blood in the Heart Animal Spirits in the Brain Sight in the Eye Hearing in the Ear Taste in the Tongue why through its extraordinary activity and rapid Motion it does not hinder the Formation of the Organs and rather destroy 'em being form'd then form 'em it self and produce variety of Actions out of each LXXII Moreover the foresaid Thomas
so manifestly operates those nobler Actions in Brutes and frequently in some seems to imitate the Actions of the Mind And this is that which we think is to be understood by Analogous to Reason which we can better admire at than explain XLVII Yet no man in his Wits will call this Analogon the Rational Incorruptible Soul since it proceeded from Corporeal Corruptible Matter and is propagated by Generation and not only operates imperfectly but is also corruptible and perishes with the Body whereas the Rational Soul did not proceed from the Matter of the Body but was created apart by God and by him infus'd operates perfect Actions is incorruptible and immortal and is separable from the Body and not only extends its Actions much farther than that corruptible Analogon but to Infinity According to that of the Heathen Prince of Philosophers It remains that the Mind alone comes from without that she is only Divine for no Corporeal Act communicates with her Actions For she contemplates not only the Substances of Things but Things also divested of their Substances She comprehends Knowledge beholds the Invisible God reaches to the Seats of the Blessed dives into the Nature of Offices of Angels with admiration she contemplates her self and knows what she is joyn'd to the Body and what abstracted from it views things long past as present examines Futurity and what will never be Possibilities and Impossibilities and endeavours to comprehend things innumerable and infinite None of which Operations are perform'd by the Analogon Which being Corporeal contemplates only things Corporeal Concerning this Matter has the Learned Willis written most elegantly who after he has alledged the knowing Faculty of the Corporeal Soul to be Fancy or Imagination which comprehends corporeal things under an appearing Image only and not always under a true one at length in these Words But indeed says he the Intellect presiding over the Imagination beholds all the Species deposited in its self discerns or corrects their Obliquities or Hypocrisies sublimes the Phancies thence drawn forth and divesting it from Matter forms universal Things from singular moreover it frames out of those some other more sublime Thoughts not competent to the Corporeal so it speculates both the Nature of every Substance and abstracted from the Individuals of Accident viz. Humanity Rationality Temperance Fortitude Corporeity Spirituality Whiteness and the like besides being carry'd higher it contemplates God Angels its Self Infinity Eternity and many other Notions far remote from Sence and Imagination And so as our Intellect in these kind of Metaphysical Conceptions makes things almost wholly naked of Matter or carrying it self beyond every visible Species of Matter it considers them wholly immaterial this argues certainly that the Substance or Matter of the Rational Soul is immaterial and immortal Because if this Aptness or Disposition were corporeal as it can conceive nothing incorporeal by Sence it should suspect there were no such thing in the World XLVIII Therefore the foresaid Analogon is the more excellent Spirit instructed by Nature produc'd out of corporeal Matter far exceeding the Condition of other Spirits produc'd out of Matter which Aristotle affirm'd to participate of the Nature of the Element of the Stars alledging that there is contain'd in every Seed a certain Spirit nobler than the Body which in Nature and Value answers to the Element of the Stars by which the Formation of the Birth in Brutes and other Actions are perform'd This is that Vivific Spirit which no man hitherto could perfectly describe Which being drawn forth out of the Matter by Heat dissolving the Matter acts again upon the Matter and variously disposes it in such a manner that besides many other Actions it produces the Nobler Actions in Brutes But this Disposition of the Parts which is an Effect of this Spirit or rather of Nature latent in the Spirit and the Medium by which it operates Modern Philosophers contrary to Reason constituted to be the Efficient Cause of the said Operations and so have made the Fabrick of Brutes like the Fabrick of Engines moving by Clock-work not considering that the appropriated disposition of Wheels and other parts in them proceeded not either from the Engine it self or from the Concoction Blowing or Motion of the Air Fire or other Matter but from the Hand of some Artificer who by that disposition carries on that Motion which he design'd in the Engine For Example sake the Wheels and other Parts of a Clock are so dispos'd as to show the Hours yet will it be of no use as to that purpose unless the Artificer pulls up the Weight at prefix'd times and makes the Clock go slower or faster according as the Weights are either lighter or heavier which he hangs on So in Brutes though the Parts be proportionable and well dispos'd for the performance of Actions yet unless there be something to change and excite those Parts to their design'd Operations they will act nothing So that Action proceeds neither from the innate disposition of the Parts nor from the Objects but from hence that it knows and perceives the Objects and incites the dispos'd Parts to various Operations which being but slightly consider'd by some was the reason that they understood not that the Propriety of Parts in Brutes requir'd likewise some more noble Artificer to direct that disposition and to be the Cause and Author of it and of the foresaid nobler Actions And by reason of these Operations of the Fancy in Brutes as in Mankind proceeds that more copious Influx of the Animal Spirits in Brutes and consequently their continu'd Generation of Milk XLIX Hence it appears how ill they argue who denying all Knowledge and Understanding in Brutes alledge 1. That Brutes seeing there can be no thinking Substance assign'd to 'em are depriv'd of all Sences 2. Every thinking Substance is immortal 3. There is no Sence without Conscience 4. No Conscience without the Thing thinking 5. No Thing thinking without any Rationality 6. No Rationality without Immortality L. The first is to be contradicted by every Ploughman for who will presume to deny That Beasts do excel some more some less in all the five Sences Who dares say That their Organs of Sence were assign'd 'em to no purpose by the Supream Creator or that they know not what is hurtful and what is for their Benefit and Advantage To the Second we have already answered That though such Actions cannot be perform'd without some thinking Substance yet is it not requisite that that Substance should be Immortal but something Analogous The Third and Fourth we grant to be true yet we must distinguish in the mean time between the Thing Thinking which is imperfect and mortal c. and the Thing Thinking which is immortal and perfectly rational of which the first is but a certain Analogon or slender Shadow which proves the Falshood of the Fifth when some Thinking Thing may be without perfect Rationality though as the Sixth says no
the Spirit or vivific Juice which is in the Blood it self To which he adds an Axiom Because says he the same quatenus the same always operates the same And hence he concludes That the Cause that made the first Blood in the first Conception the same or at least a Cause aequipollent to it ought afterwards also to be esteem'd the Fountain of Sanguification This Opinion he confirms with many specious Reasons which I omit for Brevity's sake IV. But we answer to the most Learned Glisson That the Vivific Spirit is the first Mover in the Seed and that when it begins to rise into Act and enliven the Seed so disposes by its Motion the vital Iuice to which it adheres as to its Subject that out of some of its Particles are made the Heart out of others the Liver out of others the Vessels Membranes c. And so by that Motion they erect to themselves a Habitation the several and particular parts of which according to the various Disposition of the least Principles perform various and distinct Operations over all which that Spirit presides as General President For enlivening all the Parts together it excites every one to the Function properly allotted to them Not that the Spirit performs the peculiar part of every one but whatever Aptitude to act it bequeath'd to the several Parts in the first Confirmation that Aptitude it preserves by its presence without which they could perform no Operations at all Therefore the Vivific Spirit according to the Axiom fore-cited always performs one and the same Action in the whole Body that is to say it enlivens But it does not produce the Matter to be enlivened without which nevertheless it cannot subsist when the Consumption of its Subject that is the vital Juice requires daily reparation Therefore the several Parts enliven'd generate that Matter by degrees and by vertue of many and various Concoctions and other preparatory Operations which the Vivific Spirit cannot perform without those Parts For it could not Chylifie without the Stomach nor Sanguifie without the Heart And hence tho' that Spirit be the general Life of the whole Body without which nothing can be done and which is presuppos'd to abide and be in all and singular the Parts specially operating nevertheless because it cannot perform those Operations without the said Parts it cannot be said that it absolutely performs those peculiar Operations but it is better and indeed necessary to say That they proceed from the Nature of the several living Parts And so the Ventricle in respect of its proper Nature Chylifies and the Heart only sanguifies and no other Parts of the Body can perform the same Actions because no others have the same Propriety of Nature False therefore it is what Glisson says That it is not the Heart but this vivific Spirit which he certainly presupposes to be in the Blood that generates other new Blood in the Blood it self and is the Cause of the Motion of the Blood That the first is untrue is apparent from hence for that if the Blood were generated out of the Blood existing in the Blood then the Blood being out of order and distemper'd there will be a stop to Sanguification But the contrary appears in Persons Scorbutic and labouring under Cachexies in whom Sanguification nevertheless goes forward nay the Corruptions of the Blood are mended and corrected by the benefit of the Heart which otherwise could never be corrected by reason of the distemper of the Blood On the other side if the Heart be out of order presently there is a stop to Sanguification and the Blood it self is deprav'd The latter is false as appears by the Dissections of Living Animals For if the beginning of the Aorta-Artery be ty'd with a string near the Heart presently all Motion of the Blood ceases in the Arteries which would still continue if it contain'd within it such a Spirit-mover of it self and had not its Motion from without but cut the string and presently the Motion of the Heart returns by virtue of the Pulse of the Heart The same is also manifest in faint-hearted persons who at the time of letting Blood fall into a Swoon upon the Surgeon 's pricking the Vein nor can you hardly perceive their Heart to beat so that there is little or no Blood mov'd through the Vessels nor will the Blood flow from the small Wound but when the Patient comes again to himself and that the Heart begins to beat presently the Blood moves again and spins out at the little hole made by the Lancet Whence it appears that the Blood is not mov'd or generated by the Vivific Spirit which is in the Blood but by the Heart and that the Vivific Spirit abiding in all the Parts of the Body does only revive the Parts and that those enliven'd Parts according to the variety of their several Dispositions act specially and after various manners upon the Matter to be enliven'd V. Moreover I think it requisite more accurately to examin Whether any Vivific Spirit as Glisson presupposes be in the Blood I know indeed That the Vital Spirit generally so call'd is generated in the Heart that is to say apt to be enliven'd and to promote Sanguification by its Heat yet I cannot believe that this Vivific Spirit that is already actually living and enlivening is mingl'd with the Blood when that Spirit is of a higher Order and only abides in the German and Blossom of the Seed and the necessary primogenial moisture of the Parts themselves of the Body and must be rouz'd into Action by the flowing in of the hot vital Spirit in regard the Blood it self is not yet a Part of the Body nor enliven'd but to be enliven'd when it shall be assimilated to the Parts VI Thus an Artist who has made a Clock does not move the Wheels nor shew the Hours but he makes the Clock which could never move the Wheels nor tell the Hours unless the Artist had made that Engine and bequeath'd such an Aptitude to it which afterwards he preserves to it also So the Vivific Spirit although at the first Creation of the Parts it made the Heart and endu'd it with a Sanguifying Aptness which afterward it also preserves therein by its presence yet is it not that Spirit but the Heart which must be said to Sanguifie As to the first Principles of the Blood which as Glisson says are observ'd at the first time of Conception before the Heart appears I say that those Rudiments are also produc'd by the Heart for these Rudiments are not to be seen till the leaping Bubble begins to move which is the first beginning of the Heart and although the whole Structure of a live Heart does not appear to the Eye yet that it is there and generates the first Principles of the Blood the Effect teaches us I wonder indeed that Harvey who asserts the Blood to be made before other things did not take notice of this especially
passage to one Part but still prevent the flowing back So that those Valves that open to transmit the Spirits from the right acting Muscle to the left which never permit the same spirits to pass back from the left to the right Besides if those spirits enter the Muscle which is to act through the Tendon then the Tayl of the Muscle will swell sooner then the Head and so the Tayl shall be drawn toward the Head and not the Head toward the Tayl. Then if the Muscles that are to act could not swell so soon as they ought unless they borrow'd spirits from the neighbouring Muscles ceasing to act nor fall again unless they discharg'd their spirits into the adjoyning Muscles what shall we think of the Sphincters that rise and fall act and surcease to act yet neither receive any spirits nor discharge any into any opposite Muscles as having no such Or else as if the spirits were endu'd with reason and knew when to open or when to shut the Valves or when to pass through and when not Certainly such Philosophers seek rather to wrest Nature to their conceits then to direct their conceits according to the Laws of Nature See more of this l. 8. c. 1. CHAP. II. Of the Muscles of the Head THE Muscles of the Head either move the whole Head or some parts belonging to the Head The whole Head is mov'd either Secundarily as it follows the Muscles of the Neck caus'd by the Muscles of the Neck or Primarily as it is turn'd by its proper Muscles above the First Verteber upon which it is immediately placed either forward backward or sideways also as it is turn'd above the Tooth-resembling Process of the Second Verteber as upon an Axle The First Motion is perform'd by Nine pair of Muscles I. The First Pair call'd Splenium oblong thick fleshy and spread over both Vertebers It rises from a Nervous beginning partly from the Spines of the five upper Vertebers of the Breast partly from the lower Spines of the Vertebers of the Neck and ascending upwards inserted with a broad end into the hinder part of the Head and draws the head directly to the hinder Parts or if one only act it draws the head backward toward the side II. The Second Pair call'd the Complex Pair because every Muscle seems to consist of three Muscles as having various beginnings and many Tendonous and Fleshy parts This Pair arises at the seventh Verteber of the Neck and the first second third fourth and fifth Vertebers of the Breast and is most firmly fasten'd to the hinder part of the Head sometimes with a single sometimes with a treble Tendon Whence Galen affirms these Muscles to be three fold Nevertheless that they are single is apparent because there is no separation of any Membrane but are included within their own Membrane only which could not be if they were divided into many Muscles For then they would have every one their proper Membrane by means whereof it might be separted from the other III. The Third Pair call'd the small and thick Pair â—…eated under the Second Pair rises with a Nervous beginning from the transverse Processes of the first Vertebers of the Neck rarely from the Five Pairs of the upper Vertebers of of the Breast and growing fleshy extends it self obliquely upward and inward and is inserted with a Nervous end into the hindermost root of the Mamillary Process and lighty draws the head backward but if one only act it bends it backward toward the side Riolanus believes this Pair to be nothing else but a production of the Spinatic Muscle reaching to the head near the Mamillary Process IV. The fourth Pair call'd the bigger streight Pair is small fleshy and slenâ—…er and rises from the top of the Spine of the Second Verteber of the Neck and ending in the middle of the hinder part of the Head assists the motion of the Third Pair V. The Fifth Pair call'd the lesser streight Pair lyes under the former and resembles it in substance shape and course It rises from the hinder part of the first Verteber and being inserted into the hinder part of the Head assists the motion of the Third and the preceding Muscle VI. The sixth Pair call'd the Upper Oblique Pair is seated under the right Pairs and resembles them in substance and shape It is small and rises from the Process of the first Verteber of the Neck and ends in the hinder part of the Head near the outward side of the right Pair Bauhinus says it rises in the hinder part of the Head and ends at the lateral Processes of the first Verteber of the Neck This acting we nod slightly streight forward if either act it inclines the Head backward to one side VII The Seventh is the Lower Oblique Pair oblong fleshly and round rising from the Spine of the Second Verteber of the Neck and inserted into the transverse Process of the first Verteber and turns it round with the Head annex'd to it to the sides VIII The eighth call'd Mastoides seated in the fore-part of the Neck strong long and round which by reason of its two beginings some assert to be two-fold It rises Nervous and broad from the upper part of the Sternon and Clavicle and with a fleshy Tayl is inserted into the Mamillary Process and the hinder part of the Head this Pair bends the Head forward and downward and if one act at a time turns it obliquely to the side IX The Ninth Pair discover'd by Fallopius which may be call'd the Inner Streight Pair seated under the Gullet in the fore-part of the Neck joyns to the First Pair of the Neck It rises with a Nervous beginning from the Ligaments of almost all the Vertebers of the Neck and with a Fleshy tayl is inserted into the Basis of the Head between both Processes where it is joynted with the first Verteber and bends the Head forward when we nod X. The Muscles which move the Parts contain'd in the Head are many and various two in the Forehead four belonging to the Eye-lids twelve to the Eyes eight to the Ears four to the Membranes of the Tympanum eight to the Nose fifteen to the Cheeks and Lips ten to the lower Jaw ten to the Tongue eight to the Hyoides bone the form beginning insertion situation and use of all which we have describ'd l. 3. So that the Muscles of the Head in all are Ninety and Nine CHAP. III. Of the Muscles of the Neck THE Muscles which primarily move the Neck and secondarily the Head are four on each side which move the Neck forward backward and sideways I. Two Long which lye hid under the Gullet These rise fleshy from the fifth and sixth Verteber of the Breast and ascending upward with a sharp Tendon are inserted together into the extuberant Processes of the first Verteber of the Neck sometimes they are fasten'd to the hinder part of the Head near
Nourishments which is call'd the Chyle XXIII The Chyle is a Milkie Iuice like the Cream of a Ptisan prepar'd and concocted out of the Nourishment received into the Stomach XXIV The Nourishment or Food is concocted in the Stomach by way of Fermentation by which means they dissolve and so the Iuice is extracted out of ' em XXV Fermentation is twofold One whereby the Particles of the Mixture are stirr'd about of themselves grow warm and are rarify'd and by dissolving the Salt which binds 'em together they are so separated that they become more full of Spirits and are then for the greatest part mixed together again and tho' more full of Spirits yet remain mix'd The other which is by many call'd Effervescency is that by which the Acid Particles of the Salt for the greatest part boyling together with some Watry and Tartarous Matter are concenter'd by Coagulation and so are separated from other Particles of the Mixture that they never return to an exact Union and Mixture with 'em again XXVI After the first Manner Fermentation causes Chylification tho' in our following Discourses when we design to express a vehement Fermentation we shall make use of the word Effervescency XXVII This Fermentation is made when the Salt parts of the swallow'd Food are by the heat of the Stomach and the acid Iuice dissolv'd melted and become full of Spirits and withal corrode and move about the Sulphurous Particles and so after a kind of Combat forsaking the strict Chains of their Mixture are expanded and shaken somewhat sowre and sharper as they are through the thicker Mass together with the sulphury spiritous Particles jogg'd together in like manner and because of their passage deny'd and mixture of the thicker Matter not yet fully dissolv'd being driven back again they assail that Mass with motion upon motion and divide and expand the smallest Particles of it one from another and dispose 'em to a more easie separation and to receive the form of another Pap-like and Milkie Mixture But as for what Particles cannot be sufficiently dissolv'd by this Fermentation or reduc'd to a Milkie Substance they become Excrement whose separation from the Milkie Juice is wrought in the Guts XXVIII This fermentative Concoction which is finish'd without any vehement Motion upward or downward or any tumultuous Agitation through the Cavity of the Ventricle as happens in Water boyling over the Fire is so violent that by the force of it the hardest Meats which can hardly be mollified with a whole days boyling over a Kitchin-fire in a few hours are not only soften'd but so dissolv'd and melted that the Particles being forc'd from their friendly Union and torn one from another and mix'd with the Liquor either inherent or infus'd into the Stomach they are turn'd into a Pap-like Consistency not unlike to the Cream of a Ptisan XXIX Now that the Food is rather turn'd into Chyle than into Choler Blood or any other Humour that is to be attributed to the peculiar Quality of the Substance of the Ventricle or to the Specific Temper and peculiar Structure and consequently to the Specific Ferment and manner of Fermentation as the peculiar Quality of the Liver and Spleen produces another Ferment and as Blood is made in the Heart However it is not done by the fermentative Particles alive which are mix'd with the swallow'd Food nor by a moderate Heat as some are of Opinion For they only conduce to the dissolution of the Nourishment but the moderate Heat to promote the said Concoction or Fermentation and excite the absconding Power to Action But why that Concoction and Dissolution produces the Chylus rather than any other Humour that is to be attributed to the peculiar Quality of the Substance there is no other Reason to be given for that but only the peculiar Quality of the Substance in respect of which the Heat operates otherwise in the Stomach than in the Heart or any other part and there disposes of the Ferment after another manner than in any other Bowel Thus as the Kitchin-fire mollifies one way by Boyling another way by Roasting another way that which is Fry'd in Butter or otherwise that which is prepar'd in Vinegar or Pickle and that by reason of the Substances by which and upon which that soft'ning is to be brought to pass Thus the Heat of our Body by reason of the proper disposition of the Ventricle and the Juices therein contain'd and bred therefore otherwise soften and dissolve the Nourishment in the Stomach than the other parts and disposes the Ferment after another manner to inable that Ferment to dissolve and concoct the swallow'd Nourishment in a distinct manner from the Reconcoction in other parts of the Nourishment already melted and dissolv'd for second Concoction So that by reason of this peculiar Quality while the Stomach is sane and acts according to Nature there can be no other Juice there made than a white Chyle XXX Paracelsus writes that Archaeus with his Mechanic Spirits could perfect Chylification in the Stomach but by Archaeus he means the innate Heat To this Opinion Riolanus seems to adhere in Not. ad Epist. Wallaei Nevertheless he admits something of a shadow of a peculiar Quality in these words I attribute the Cause to the diversity of the innate Heat in the manner of the Substance that is saith he the property of the innate Heat Not that the innate Heat differs of it self in Substance But when it cannot subsist without a Body or Substance without it self it must operate variously according to the diversity of that Substance in the several parts XXXI Hence it is apparent how frivolous that is which some assert That the Ventricle does not make the Chyle but is only an Instrument and Receptacle where the Chyle is made and that it no otherwise makes the Chyle than the Pot wherein the Meat is boyl'd makes the Broth. But I would fain know who is so blind as not to see that when Chylification is attributed to the Stomach we do not mean the bare Membranes of the Ventricle but a live and sound Ventricle that is furnish'd with its own Spirit and Heat and a Convenient proper Ferment generated out of the peculiar Quality of its own Substance with none of which things a Porridge Pot can be said to be endued XXXII The Colour of the Chyle is Milkie and somewhat white by reason of the sulphury Particles dissolv'd with the salt ones and mix'd with the acid Ferment of the Stomach For every Liquor impregnated with Sulphur and a Volatile Salt or a Salt admirably well dissolv'd presently turns to a kind of Milk if any thing of acid Moisture be pour'd upon it Which is prov'd sufficiently by the preparations of Sulphur and the Extracts of Vegetable Rosins Also Spirit of Hartshorn or Soot being sprinkled with any liquid Juice or only fair Water presently turns to a kind of Milk XXXIII Plempius and Walaeus are of
is thrown off into the Bowels raw and unconcocted as when it was first swallowed down But they being again restored to the Stomach the Concoction returns and the Appetite is restored Hence says Hippocrates 6. Aph. 1. In long Fluxes of the Belly if sowre Belches happen it is a good Sign XLVII Now how it comes to pass that the fermentaceous Particles obtain that embased Acrimony has bin already said by an apt Heat melting those salt Particles to a degree of being Liquid and ready to flow I say Apt. For as Bread becomes well leavened in a luke warm Place by the Ferment mixed with it in a cold Place in great difficulty but in a hot Oven can never be fermented So this Acidity which will not be excited but by a moderate Heat of the Stomach will not be stirr'd by too small a Heat and is scattered and dispelled by too great a Heat and thereby those Juices that should make the Ferment will be quite consum'd Hence Flegmatic People that are troubled with a cold Distemper of the Stomach have neither good Appetites nor good Concoctions and Choleric Persons who are infested with an over-hot Temper of the Stomach have none at all However it does not follow from this that the greater the Heat of the Stomach is the quicker must be the Appetite and the stronger and better the Concoction For the contrary appears in burning Feavers and an Inflammation of the Stomach As also in a Lyon whether he be accounted the hottest of all Creatures yet can he not digest Iron Gold Brass or the like which however are easily digested in the Stomach of an Estriche as being endued with a sharper Ferment tho' not with so fervent a Heat As Langius relates that he saw at the Duke of Ferrara's Court an Estriche both swallow and digest those Metals l. 1. Epist. 12. XLVIII Therefore it is not the Heat but the Ferment which in some is more sharp and acid in others more moderate which is the next Cause of the Appetite and Digestion of the Stomach But moderate Heat is the Cause which disposes the Matter which begets that Ferment that elevates and excites to Action XLIX But whereas this Power and Vertue in the Stomach of making this Ferment and of Chylifying by its Assistance cannot be excited into Action but by an apt and moderate Heat some there are who question what or rather where this Heat lies that produces this Action Whether it be the Heat of the Membranes of the Ventricle or the Parts that ly round it or of any Humor or any Spirits Certainly there is no difference of this Heat in the diversity of Subjects in relation to self for all Heat is excited by the Motion and Agitation of the least Particles and subtil Matter for because the Heat is fiercer in red hot Iron slacker in the Flame of Straw this does not argue the difference of the Heat it self but of the Quantity proceeding from the diversity of the Subject to which it is inherent But the Diversity of Operations proceeds from the diversity of the things themselves upon which and by virtue of which the Heat acts For the same Heat melts Wax hardens Clay wasts the Meat upon the Spit bakes it in the Oven and boyls in the Pot putrifys in a Dunghil and hatches Eggs in a Stove without the assistance of a Hen. In like manner to promote the Act of Chylification it is required that the moderate Heat which is no more than one and the same should be proportionably adapted in the Stomach that is both in its Membranes its Humours and Spirits and that it should be cherished and foster'd in like manner by the Heat of the Parts that lie round about it for so being truly and aptly proportion'd it is impossible but the Ventricle must act properly and naturally toward the Chylification of proper Matter by dissolving and extracting a Chylus out of it L. The Preparation of Nourishment for Chylification proceeds gradually after a certain kind of Method For first the Spittle is mixed with the Meat which is chewed and masticated in the Mouth not only softning them but infusing into them a fermentative Quality of which Quality see l. 3. c. 6. 24. then comes Drink Ale Wine or any other Liquor which for the most part contains in it self acid Particles and fermentaceous Spirits This Nourishment the Stomach strictly embraces and squeezes it self round about it by the help of its Fibres and mingles with it the Specific fermentaceous Juices as well those bred in the interior Tunicle as those that are affused upon the Spittle Then by an apt and proper Heat there is a Mixture and Liquation or Melting of the whole Substance of the Nourishment together For that the fermentaceous Particles sliding into the Pores of the Nourishment withal get into their very Particles themselves stir about melt and dissolve the more pure from the thick and render 'em more fluid to the end they may be able to endure another form of Mixture and be united among themselves into the form of a milky Cream Which being done by the squeezing of the Ventricle they fall down to the Intestins together with the thicker Mass with which they are intermixt in them to be separated by the mixture of Choler and the pancreatick or Juice after another manner of Fermentation and so to be thrust down to the milky Vessels LI. The certain Time for the finishing of Chylification cannot be determined For here is great Variety observed proceeding from the variety of the Temperament of the Stomach Age Sex Position and Disposition of the Parts adjoyning and the Nature of the Nourishment themselves LII But why some Meats are digested sooner some later the Reason is to be given from the variety of the Meats themselves in Substance Hardness Solidness Thickness Thinness Heat Cold c. For which reason some are dissolved with more case and sooner some with more Difficulty and later in the Stomach But then again why the same Meats are in others sooner in others later concocted and wherefore some Stomachs will easily concoct raw Fish hard Flesh half boyl'd or tho' it be raw but the Stomachs of others will with great Difficulty the tenderest and best prepared Dyet this proceeds from the various Constitution of the Stomach the Ferment and the proportion of Heat LIII What I speak of Meats the same is to be understood of Drinks Which for the same Reasons and because of the same Varieties are digested in others well in others ill in others sooner in others later and render the Digestions of the Stomach in others better in others worse For Example if Wine or any other Liquor be drank plentifully that is either quickly digested by reason of the great Plenty Thinness and Spirituosity of acid Particles and so flows down to the Intestines or else by reason of the extraordinary Quantity being very heavy and troublesome to the Stomach is thrust forth raw
the Matter wherein they are lodged and for that Reason are indued with a more penetrating Power operate more suddainly and in a short time dissolve the thick Particles of the Dough and more swiftly rouse the latent Spirits which they do yet more violently if a little Honey be added to the Yest For the Honey contains in it self sharp Particles but lately dissolv'd by the Sulphury and involv'd within ' em But nothing of this is perform'd without a moderate Heat as being that by which the salt Particles must be brought to a moderate acid Quality and something of Volatility IV. In the same manner it is with the Chylus and Venal Blood which if they be not attenuated and prepared by the Mixture of convenient Ferment before Sanguification then they fail to be full of spirits in the heart That is to say the Spirits lying asleep therein are not sufficiently separated from the more thick and serous Matter but lye drowsie still which produces thick and watery blood of little use to nourish the Body and strengthen the Parts whence the Body becomes languid and both Natural and Animal Actions go but slowly forward V. This Ferment of the Blood and Chylus is made by the Liver with which Hepatic Ferment however the Pancreatic Iuice is mixt in the Duodenum for the more special preparation of the Chylus flowing out of the Stomach VI. The matter out of which the Liver makes this Ferment is the Venal Blood flowing into it from the Gastric and Mesaraics through the Vena Portae and a small quantity through the small Branches of the Epatic Artery with which is mix'd a sowre salt acid Iuice made in the Spleen of the Arterial Blood flowing into it through the Arteries and the Animal Spirits through the Nerves which is carried through the Splenetic Branch to the Vena Portae and together with the Blood with which it is mixed is conveighed to the Liver VII And by means of this sharp and corroding Iuice by the specific power of the Liver the spiritous Particles as well the sulphury as salt latent in that Venal Blood are dissolv'd attenuated and also made somewhat sharp and fermentative and some certain thinnest part of ' em like fair and clear water by means of the conglomerated Glandules seated chiefly in the hollow part of the Liver separating it self from the remaining thicker part of the Blood through many Lymphatic Vessels is carried from the Liver into several Veins to prepare the Venal Blood flowing toward the Heart But the greatest part of it is carried to the Vasa Chylifera in them to prepare the Chylus for succeeding Fermentation in the Heart To which end also a certain fermentative Spittle as also a salt and somewhat acid Lympha is also carried thither from the Glandules of the Arm-holes Groyns and other Glandules and somewhat of the thinner Pancreatic Iuice out of the Intestines together with the Chylus enters the Vasa Chylifera VIII But as in Ale that works many spirits already rais'd are already mingled with the whole quantity of Ale and render it spiritous strong and fit to be attenuated and digested in the Stomachs of those that drink it So also many spirits being still intermix'd and coop'd up within the more thick and viscous Particles of the Ale ascend with them to the top and boyling or rather fermenting and frothy burst forth out of the Vessel with a noise Which frothy Substance has a kind of bitterish sharp intermix'd with something of a sweetish taste And this is that which our Houswives call Yest and we the Flower of Ale which being preserv'd serv'd to ferment new Ale or new Dough. IX Thus the Operation also proceeds in the Liver and the more sharp fermentative spirits being mix'd with the thicker and more viscous sulphury Iuices for Sulphur is clammy and strongly boyling or fermenting when by reason of the viscosity of the Iuices wherein they are lodg'd they cannot enter the conglomerated Glandules and from thence the Lymphatic Vessels and yet by reason of their sharp Ebullition they are parted together with the Iuice wherein they are lodg'd become bitter and are call'd by the name of Choler Which Choler by the means of the Glandulous Balls flows by degrees to the Intestines thorough the bilary Porus and the Gall-bladder to the end that there together with the Pancreatic Iuice it may be mixed with the thicker Mass that is to say with the Nourishment concocted in the Stomach and now descending to the Intestines that it may also cause that to boyl and by that means dissolve and separate the thinner parts of the Chylus from the thicker and attenuate to that degree that they may be forc'd into the narrow Orifices of the Milkie Vessels X. To that purpose this Choler slides down through the Ductus Cholidochus to the beginning of the Intestines that is the Duodenum and is there presently mix'd with the Pancreatic Juice flowing thither through the Wirtzungian Chanel from the Sweetbread and by that means is by and by mingled with the Alimentary Mass concocted in the Stomach and descending from it and causes it to boyl XI And because at the beginning it is sharper and retains its full vigour and for that by reason of the mixture of the Pancreatic acid Iuice it is presently ready for Ebullition hence in that very beginning the Effervescency is most intense which is the reason that the Milkie Iuice lodg'd in the Mass concocted in the Stomach is for the most part immediately separated in the Jejunum and through the innumerable Milkie Vessels belonging to this Gut more than to any other with an extraordinary speed push'd forward to the Receptacle of the Chylus for which reason that Gut is for the most part found empty and fasting But in the next Guts by reason of the most thin fermentative Spirits dissipated at the beginning the Effervescency is somewhat slower and less effectual and the separation of the Chylus from the thicker Mass that remains is more tardy which is the reason they have fewer Milkie Vessels Lastly The remainder of that fermentaceous Matter being mix'd in the thick Intestines with the thick dregs of the Nourishment being now slowly dissolv'd by reason the more subtil parts and strength of it are wasted by a long Effervescency in the thin Guts causes a more slow and less frequent and that not without a longer stay fermentative Effervescency in them which moving and distending the feculent filth and rendring it more sharp molests the Guts and so provokes 'em to evacuation And now because this Effervescency happens to be late therefore those Provocations are not frequent so that men in health seldom go to stool above once or twice in a day And as that remaining Ferment is more or less acrimonious hence it causes in the Excrement a swister or later a more intense or remiss Effervescency whence more frequent or more seldom going to the Stool XII
But how it comes to pass that the said Choler becomes more sharp and fermentative in man proceeds from hence that all the milder Choler does not presently flow directly from the Liver through the bilary Porus into the Intestines but a good part of it and that the thinnest is carried from the Liver through the gaully Roots into the Gall-Bladder and there stays a while that by the specific Property and Temper of the Place the more sharp Spirits through that Stay may be the more vigorously roused up and exalted and thence boyling a little in the Cystis may flow to the Intestines Into which Place being brought and being either too little or too sharp it may there be the cause of Diseases of both kinds XIII But the superfluous and chiefest part of the Venal Blood of which the Ferment is made in the Liver which neither could nor ought to be chang'd into the Nature of Choler or Lympha being plentifully furnish'd with the fermentative Quality of the made Ferment flows into the Vena Cava with which from above out of the subclavial Veins it meets a prepar'd and attenuated Chylus or in the absence of that the Lymphatic Liquor alone mix'd with the Blood of the Subclavial Veins and so by degrees enter the right Ventricle of the Heart and there by reason of that previous convenient Preparation or attenuation are presently dilated into a Blood-like spirituous Vapor as Gunpowder presently flashes into a Flame when touch'd by Fire Now that the Blood flowing out of the Liver into the Vena Cava is mix'd and endu'd with a Fermentative and chiefly Choleric Quality appears from hence that if in a Creature newly kill'd the Liver be cut from the Vena cava and the Blood flowing out of it sav'd put but a little Spirit of Niter to that Blood and presently it becomes of a Rust-Colour which happens in no other Blood and by that means the Bilious Ferment concealed within it is discover'd XIV But that that same bloody Spirit may be more perfect and retain its Vigor the longer by the beating of the Heart it is forced immediately through the Pulmonary Artery into the Lungs and there by the Cold of the Aire breath'd in is condensed into Liquor and flows through the Pulmonary Vein into the left Ventricle of the Heart wherein again as Spirit of Wine is rectifi'd by a second Distillation it attains the utmost Perfection of spirituous Blood and so is forc'd into the Aorta that thereby it may be communicated thro' the lesser Arteries and through all the Parts of the Body to nourish and enliven ' em Out of which Nourishment that Blood which at length remains being depriv'd of the greatest part of its Spirits enters the lesser Veins and by those is carried to the greater and by them again to the Heart to the end it may be there again attenuated and become Spirituous But because in that Circulation many parts of the Blood are consum'd in the Nourishment of the Parts whose Substance also is continually consum'd and dissipated by the Heat hence it is necessary that a new Chylus fit to be changed into Blood be again mix'd with the venal Blood returning to the Heart to supply the place of what is wasted And thus our Life consists in such a continual Nourishment which failing presently Health is impair'd and the Oyl of our Lamp being wasted we goe quite out XV. It may be questioned whence those sharp hot fermentative Qualities arise in our Nature I answer out of Sulphur and Salt The first Emotion is from Sulphur but the primary Acrimony is from Salt which besides Sulphur is lodg'd in all Nourishment For there is nothing which we eat that does not naturally contain a Salt in it tho' some things contain more some less and Sulphur dissolves the Salt and renders it fluid Which being dissolv'd and attenuated corrodes penetrates and dissolves by means of its Acrimony all the Particles of the Nourishment and so disposes 'em for the Extraction of the Spirits that ly hid within ' em Which Operation is Fermentation without which Man could not live and with which being weak or deprav'd a Man lives miserably Now to advance this Fermentation the more prosperously by instinct of Nature to the natural Salt which is in our Nourishment we add the help of Sea Salt which we mix with our Meat and with which we powder our Flesh And so much the harder the Substance of the Meat is and consequently the more violent Fermentation and effective Ferment they require for Digestion so much the more we desire to have 'em well salted as Beef and Pork For that the Salt in such Meats causes a more easy Digestion So that the sulphury Spirits that are to reduce that Salt to Fusion are sufficiently redundant and effectual in Man as in young and choleric People And of this we have a manifest Example in a Herring which being salted and eaten raw eastly digests in the Stomach but not being salted tho' boyl'd is with great Difficulty digested Moreover that the Fermenting Spirits lying hid in that thick Salt may be roused up to Action we boyle our Meat in the Kitchin that the more fix'd and solid Parts of it may be the better dissolv'd and so prepared to Fusion and Volatilitie that they may be the more easily tam'd and vanquish'd in the Stomach when we feed upon those harder sorts of Food we make use of sharp spirituous and sulphury Sawces as Spice Turheps Anise Carrots Mustard many times drink strong Wine and Spirit of Wine after Meals For the sulphury Spirits being mixed with the Salt potently dissolve and penetrate the thick and sixed Particles and a fitness to melt and so advance the Energie of Fermentation Which chylifying Operation is very much assisted partly by the Spittle which flows from the Mouth to the Stomach and is endued with a fermentative Quality partly by a peculiar Ferment which is made out of some part of the Chylus remaining after its Concoction and Expulsion of the greatest part to the Intestines in the Stomach and sticking to the Folds and Pores of the innermost Tunicle and there turning sowre And so by that first Fermentation the more spirituous and profitable Parts of the Nourishment come forth of the thicker Mass like Cream and assume the Name of Chylus XVI Out of this Chylus endu'd with many salt and sulphury Particles from the Nourishment received by means of a new fermentative Preparation caused by the Choler Pancreatic Iuice and Lympha the Blood is made in the Heart which contains in it self those salt Particles of the Chylus but more attenuated and mix'd more exactly with the Sulphureous XVII Out of the salt Particles of this Blood flowing to the Spleen the splenic Artery and to the Sweetbread and many other Glandules through peculiar Arteries and somewhat separated by the Afflux of Animal Spirits there is another matter of Ferment to be composed in
the Spleen and Parts aforesaid to be the greatest part concocted into a more perfect Ferment by the Liver for the Venal Blood and Chylus XVIII And thus the first Original of Internal Ferment is from the Nourishment which afterwards is more and more attenuated by various Concoctions and alter'd in our Body into a more subtle Ferment XIX Now that it is the true Office of the Liver Spleen and Sweet-bread to make Ferment in the manner aforesaid is apparent from hence that when those Bowels are perfectly Sound and perform their Duty according to Nature the whole Mass of Blood is better and more full of Spirits and thence the Body more Lively and Active and all the Natural and Animal Operations are rightly perform'd On the other side when these Bowels are out of Order a thousand Diseases arise from the Blood and Chylus ill fermented XX. As we have already said there is a sharp Salt acid Iuice which is made in the Liver out of the artery Blood copiously forc'd through the splenic Artery into this Bowel which by the plentiful pouring in of Animal Spirits through the Nerves and by the specific Temper of this Bowel is soon altered and the sulphury Spirit that was before predominant in it is dull'd fix'd and suffocated so the salt acid latent Spirits comes forth into Action and the salt Particles somewhat separated from the Sulphury get the upper hand And hence it comes to pass that the hot sweetish Blood flows through the Arteries into the Spleen but by and by the sulphury Heat being extinguish'd together with the Sweetness it becomes Saltish or somewhat Acid and flows through the Splenic Branch from the Spleen to the Liver Which is the Reason a boyl'd Spleen tasts somewhat Sowrish And thus it happens in this Matter as in a Vinegar Vessel Vinegar is made out of Wine for the Vinegar Vessel is laid in a warm Place commonly in the Garret where the Sun may come at it Into this Vessel not quite full they pour a moderate Quantity of good strong Wine for weak Wine will not make good Vinegar Which done presently the sulphury sweet Spirit of the Wine is fix'd and suffocated by the salt and acid Particles predominating in the Vinegar and the salt and acid Particles which are lodg'd in the Wine are melted dissolv'd attenuated and forc'd to Action by the sharp Acidity of the Vinegar and so the Wine turns Eager and becomes Vinegar And thus the sulphureous Spirit of the Arterial Blood is fix'd and stifl'd partly by the Animal Spirits flowing through the Nerves partly by the acid and salt Spirits prepared and contain'd in the Spleen and the salt and acid Spirits that are in it get the upper hand which afterwards new sulphury Spirits that ly in the Venal Blood being mix'd therewith afresh are to be by the Liver altered into perfect Ferment XXI Now that the first Matter of the Ferment to be perfected in the Liver is prepared in the Spleen may be in some measure demonstrated by Experience For if the Spleen of an Ox Hog or other Male Creature be cut into small Bits and macerated in luke-warm Water and afterwards mixed with a small Quantity of Dough it dilates it and causes it to ferment like Yest or any other Leven Which it does so much the more effectually if the smallest Quantity of Vinegar be added to it XXII Now if this Function of the Spleen be interrupted there are two Causes of Diseases which arise from thence Some by reason of the salt and acid Iuice too thick and fix'd Others when it is too thin and volatile For when the salt and acid Juices in the Spleen are not sufficiently dissolv'd and attenuated then the Spirits which are extracted out of them are too sharp corroding and in too great Abundance and this Diversity produces Diversity of Diseases XXIII If the Spleen be weak either through its own or the Fault of the Nourishment or through any other Cause then the acid Iuice that is concocted in it is not sufficiently dissolv'd attenuated and volatiliz'd but remains thick and tartarous or earthy and the greatest Part of it lyes heap'd together in the Bladdery Substance of the Spleen and adjoyning Parts by reason of its crude Viscosity which causes the Spleen to wax great and to swell in regard the Spirit that lies hid within it is not sufficiently rous'd up but boyling a little in the narrow Passages in the Spleen and about the Spleen distends the whole Spleen and Parts adjoyning to it and raises a thousand windy Vapours with rumbling and roaring and a troublesome Distemper familiar to Hypochondriacks Which Mischiefs are very much encreased by a deprav'd Condition of the Pancreas proceeding from the Blood corrupted by the vitious Humors of the Spleen and brought to it through the Arteries By reason whereof it concocts its own Juice but ill and of over Salt leaves it too Acid or Austere which partly begets great Obstructions in the Pancreas the Disturbeâ—…s of the Function of that Bowel Partly flowing into the Intestines causes an undue Effervescency therein and infuses a bad subacid Quality into the Chylus whereby it becomes lyable to fixation or coagulation nor cannot be sufficiently attenuated Whence by reason of the more fixed and thicker Chylus remaining in the Abdomen and less prepared to farther Solution are generated Obstructions in the milkie Vessels in the Mesentery and Glandules of the Mesentery and therein a great Quantity of crude and ill Humors is heaped together from the Quantity and Corruption of which a thousand Diseases arise which are vulgarly called Melancholic and are said to arise from the Spleen but how they are bred by it has not been as yet sufficiently Explain'd But when the Blood remains too thick for want of effectual and convenient Ferment and Spirits not supply'd in sufficient Quantity the whole Body grows dull and languid and many Diseases arise For the Blood being thick and not sufficiently Spirituous and having salt crude and slimy Parts intermix'd with it by coagulating the Humors in the Liver and other Bowels of the Abdomen it breeds Obstructions and Scirrhosities It is not sufficiently dilated in the Heart but is forc'd too thick into the Lungs and there being yet more refrigerated by the Air drawn in it difficultly passes through the narrow Passages of 'em and so stuffing the Lungs and compressing the Gristles of the Windpipe causes difficulty of Breathing In the Heart it self by reason of the inequality of the Particles and the difficult Dilatation of many it produces an unequal and sometimes an intermitting Pulse In the Brain passing difficultly and disorderly through those narrow Channels it causes Noises and Heaviness of the Head and because it endammages the natural Constitution of the Brain and because it tears it with its remaining Acrimony the principal Animal Actions are thereby impaired the Imagination and Judgment are deprav'd the Memory is spoyl'd and thence Madness
Flowers flow being thrust into that Orifice may be there detain'd and squeez'd as happens in the Limeing of Bitches which that it has happen'd to some I am credibly inform'd Thus when I was a Student at Leyden I remember there was a young Bridegroom in that Town that being over-wanton with his Bride had so hamper'd himself in her Privities that he could not draw his Yard forth till Delmehorst the Physician unty'd the Knot by casting cold Water upon the part Certainly 't is a wonder how such a narrow Orifice of the Womb can be so much dilated as to receive the Nut of the Yard which is the reason some think it impossible to be done and look upon as Fables whatever has been said touching this matter But this is to be said that in a very fervent Lust all those obscene parts grow very hot and are relax'd to that degree as to receive the Yard with ease as appears by the Uterine Sheath which not being heated by libidinous Ardour is so strait that it will not admit the Yard without difficulty but in the Act of Venery thro' the more copious affluency of Blood and Spirits stiffens grows warm and swells and then becomes so loose and soft that it easily receives the Yard Therefore it would be no wonder if in some through extream Lust this Orifice of the Womb be so relax'd as to admit the Yard especially if the Sheath be short and the Yard so long as to reach and enter the Sybilline Chink Nor is this more to be admired at than that the Orifice it self in time of Labour should of its own accord be so relax'd for a large Infant to pass thorough or for the Chirurgeon to thrust in his Hand and part of his Arm to draw forth the Birth when necessity requires VI. Continuous to the bottom and neck of the Womb is the Greater Neck or Gate of the Womb commonly call'd the Vagina or Sheath because it receives the Yard like a Sheath This is a smooth and soft Chanel every way enclosing and grasping the Yard in Copulation furnish'd with fleshie Fibres running out in length by which it is fasten'd to the other adjacent parts and withinside full of orbicular furrows or wrinkles more in the upper part than the lower and more toward the Privity than toward the Womb and unequal to procure the greater pleasure of Titillation from rubbing to and fro of a membranous and as it were nervous and somewhat spungy Substance which swells in the heat of Lust the better to embrace the Yard about the length of the middle finger and as broad as the Intestinum Rectum Nevertheless the length breadth and loosness of it vary according to the Age of the Person her Use of Venery and her natural Constitution and sometimes this length and breadth of the Sheath varies according to the length or bigness of the Yard in Men. Whence Spigelius thus writes Annat l. 8. c. 22. The Sheath every where embraces the Yard and frames it self to all iâ—…s Dimensions so that it meets a short one gives way to a long one dilates to a thick one and straitens to a small one for Nature so manages all these differences in respect to the magnitude of the Yard that it is needless to endeavour to fit the Tools or regard their proportion for that the great Fabricator has every where done it so admirably In like manner in Virgins and Women not so prone to Venery as in those that never had Children or Labour under an immoderate Flux of their Flowers or their Whites the wrinkles are much deeper and thicker and more numerous but in Women that have had many Children as also in Harlots often lain withal they are neither so deep nor so numerous if not many times worn smooth VII This Sheath in Infants is remarkably capacious tho' the Orifice be very narrow as it is also in grown Virgins never lain with which in the first act of Coition is somewhat dilated with the rupture of the Hymen but in Women that use but moderate Copulation it remains still in such a condition that the Yard passes through a kind of looser sort of Sphincter Muscle toward the innermost Sheath VIII It is furnish'd with Vessels of all sorts It has two sorts of Arteries some from the Haemorrhoidal Arteries creeping through the lower part of it others from the Hypogastrics descending along the sides of it and then dispers'd through the whole Sheath and in the upper part for the most part adhering to the Arteries of the Womb. IX Several Veins it sends forth from its lower part to the Haemorrhoidals the rest far more in number and every way dispers'd into its Substance to the Hypogastrics into which they empty the Blood which is contain'd in 'em from thence to be conveigh'd farther to the greater Vessels and so to the heart And out of these Blood-bearing Vessels it is that that same little Net is form'd discover'd by Regner de Graef X. It receives its Nerves from those that run out from the Os Sacrum XI Regner de Graef also writes That he has here observ'd certain very small Lymphatic Vessels which in their ascent penetrating through the External Substance of the Womb meet together by degrees and increase like small Rivulets till they came to the great Receptacle of the Chylus and then open themselves into it Besides these Vessels there run out into the forepart of the Sheath those Chanels sticking to the Substance of the Urinary Passage of which hereafter XII To the end of it that is at its first entrance under the Nymphs both before and atop adheres the neck of the Piss-bladder wrapt about with the Sphincter having there an Exit but in the hinder part it is firmly fasten'd with the binding Muscle of the Intestinum Rectum Regner de Graef has well observ'd that the Sphincter of the Bladder embraces the lower part of the Sheath with a conveighance of Fibres three fingers broad to the end that in Coition it might be able gently to close it self about the Yard which Constriction he believes to be mainly helped forward by other Bodies found out by himself of which he thus writes To this Constriction those Bodies contribute after a wonderful manner which the fleshie Expansions arising from the Sphincter being remov'd appear on both sides near the Lips of the Privity in the lower part of the Sheath For they ascend on both sides to the membranous Substance which is fasten'd to the neighbouring Parts and to the Clitoris and there terminate and vanish so that the Bodies of the right and left side have no Communion one with another as may be seen if either be fill'd with Wine for the Body of the right side being blown up the left never swells neither if the left be fill'd is the right distended or the Clitoris erected The outward Substance of these consists of a very thin Membrane the inner
the Body attains that strength and firmness between the fourteenth and twentieth year that then the Seed begins to be generated and acquires every day so much the greater perfection by how much the Body grows stronger and needs less growth Now the reason why Seed is not generated at younger years and in Childhood is vulgarly imputed to the growth of the Body upon which the superfluous part of the Blood of which the Seed is hereafter to be made is then consumed But this Reason is far fetch'd and only a sign of the Cause why Seed is not generated First therefore we are to enquire why at younger years the Body most increases in bulk and grows so fast that by the knowledge of this we may come to know why the Seed is not generated at that Age. LXIII The growth of the Body proceeds from hence because all the Parts abound with a moist sulphurous oily Iuice and for that reason are very flexible and apt to extend so that the Animal Spirits flowing into them the Blood pour'd into the Arteries for Nourishment sake do not so sharply ferment and therefore cannot make a sufficient separation of the salt Particles from the sulphury Partly because their force is debilitated by the copious Moisture and oiliness of the sulphury parts partly because the Brain it self being as yet very much over moist does not at that time breed such sharp Humours as to make a smart Effervescency which afterwards come to be generated in greater quantity when all the parts come to be drier For this Reason also the Spermatic Vessels where the chief strength of Semnification lies are not then so very much dryed but by reason of the copious more moist and oily Particles of the Nourishment continually poured in upon them they are extended and grow in length and thickness and that so much the more swiftly by how much more moist and oily Nourishment feeds them as it happens in Infancy and Childhood But their strength and solidity is then more increased when they become dryer and grow less I speak of moderate and convenient driness not of a total consumption of moisture Now the reason why they become more dry is because the overmuch oily Moisture is by degrees consum'd by the increasing heat and by that means the overmuch moisture and lankness of the Spermatic Parts is abated and they become stronger in regard a greater quantity of the salt Particles separated from the Blood is mingled with them and is more firmly united and assimilated to them LXIV The same cause that promotes and cherishes the growth of the Body hinders the Generation of Seed in Children Hence it is that the Blood is more moist and oily and the Animal Spirits themselves less sharp and fewer in quantity flow to the Stones so that there is only enough for the growth of the Parts but not for the Generation of Seed But afterwards through the increase of heat that oily superfluous substance being somewhat wasted then the Brain being dryer begets sharper Animal Spirits which being mix'd with the Arterious Blood carried through the Nerves to the Stones more easily separate from it the salter Particles more fit for the Generation of Seed with which being condens'd and mix'd into a thin Liquor by the proper quality of the Stones proceeding from their peculiar structure and temper they are concocted into Seed which becomes so much the more perfect by how much the copious Moisture is predominant therein which in perfect Seed ought to be but moderate LXV And hence it is also apparent wherefore in old Age very little or watery or no Seed at all is made in the Stones Because that by reason of their abated heat over much moisture again prevails at that Age through the whole Body tho' not so oily as in Childhood but crude and more watery whence the Brain becomes moister and begets fewer or less eager Spirits and the Blood becomes colder and moister Moreover the Parts themselves concocting the Seed become more languid and over moist and consequently unapt as well in respect of the Matter as their own proper debility to make Seed I except some sort of old men vigorous in their old Age who at fourscore and fourscore and ten have begot Children as Platerus relates concerning his own Father LXVI As to the latter Question why Eunuchs and gelded Animals become more languid and less vigorous the Reason is because that through the cutting out of the Stones there follows an extraordinary change of the whole Temper of the Body in regard that lustful seminal Breathing ceases which is diffus'd over all the Parts of the Body which is apparent from the peculiar Smell and Rankness of Tast in the Flesh of Beasts ungelt and by means of which the Blood and other Humours are more warmly heated and the Spirits rendered more smart and vigorous This remarkable Alteration of Temperament is apparent in Eunuchs from hence that the Hair grown before Castration never falls off and the Hair not grown before either upon the Lips or other parts never comes Quite contrary to what befalls those that are not geit LXVII The same is manifestly observed in Deer who shed their large Beams every Year and then new ones come the next Year in their places but being gelt presently after they have shed their Horns their Antlers never grow again but they become very fat Now this change of Temper caused by the defect of lustful and masculine seminal inward Breathings thorough the whole Body tends toward Cold whence it happens that the Blood becomes more oily and less fervent and the animal Spirits are generated less sharp and vigorous and less dispers'd and that part of the Blood which otherwise ought to be consum'd in Seed and seminal Spirits remains solely in the Body fills the Vessels and more plentifully nourishes every part and that plenty and oyliness of the Blood moistens and plumps up the Body to a more extraordinary Corpulency For the fermenting Quality of the animal Spirits in such an abounding Quantity of sanguineous Juice tho' less fervent being now more languid and remiss becomes less able to separate the sulphury and oily Particles of the Blood from the salt ones which for that reason remaining mix'd together in greater quantity and joyn'd together for the nourishment of the Parts moisten them less and render them fatter but more languid and not so strong For that Interposition hinders the more dry and salter Particles of the Blood from being firmly united to the spermatic Vessels LXVIII To this we may add that in those that are gelt by reason of that extraordinary Redundancy of oylie Blood the Brain it self is overmuch moistened whence the Spirits become less sharp subtil and vigorous and consequently less sharp and fit for animal Actions Which make Eunuchs more dull less couragious languid and effeminate and slower in all the Exercises both of Body and Mind LXIX From the same Redundancy
in the Eggs return again with them to the Womb. For as nothing can produce it self so neither can any form produce it self out of Matter But breaking forth into Act out of its slender inclosure it begins the delineation of the whole Embryo and in a short time compleats it For presently the thin Particles of the Bubble are gently agitated and mov'd one among another and coagulated here and there into various forms and shapes and innumerable passages are hollow'd out through them and so all the Parts of the Body are form'd because that same spirituous Matter of the Bubble being separated from the thicker Mass contains in it self Idea's of all the Parts and hence acquires an aptitude to receive the forms of all the Parts and shape the Figures in it self Now because there is but a very small quantity of that spirituous part included in the Bubble and still the least and most subtil part of that is expended upon the Delineation of the Embryo therefore the Birth at the beginning is scarcely so big as an Emmet IX Hence it is apparent because the Liquor contain'd in that Bubble is the most subtil part of the Masculine Seed that the first delineaments of all the Parts are form'd out of the Seed alone that is out of the most thin and subtil part of it and then is afterwards increas'd and more embody'd first by the thicker Particles both of the Man and Womans Seed melted and diffus'd and then by the milkie watery Iuice flowing through the Navel X. From what has been said it is manifest how much Aristotle swerv'd from the Truth while he affirms that all the Parts are form'd not out of the Seed but out of the Blood nay while he attributes to the Male Seed no share either as to the Formation or the Matter but only affirms that the menstruous Blood by motion generates both form and parts The Seed says he is no part of the Embryo as the Carpenter contributes nothing to the matter of the Wood neither is there any part of the Carpenters Art in what is fram'd but form and species proceeds from that by motion in the matter In which Error Harvey also fell while he endeavour'd to prove that the Blood exists before all the other Members and hence all the first threads of all the parts are delineated out of the Blood which he would seem to confirm more strenuously Exercit. 56. It seems a Paradox says he that the Blood should be made and imbued with vital Spirit before the Blood-making or moving Organs are in being Thus Exercit. 16. he says that the Blood is first in being and that Pulsation comes afterward But we answer to Harvey That tho' the little Heart which sanguifies cannot be well discern'd at first or clearly be distinguish'd from other parts yet of necessity it must be form'd together with the rest of the parts before the Blood and being form'd presently beats tho' the slender Pulse cannot be discerned by us at the beginning For all the Parts delineated out of the pellucid spirituous seminal Liquor inclos'd in the Bubble and so by reason of their colour and their extream smallness are hardly to be distinguish'd by the sight For otherwise that there is a heart and that it exists before the Blood the Effect manifestly declares For seeing there is no Blood contained in the Bubble before delineation nor can flow into it from any other part therefore that which is observ'd in it at the beginning of the delineation when any small Threads begin to appear must of necessity be generated within it now then if no other part generate blood but the heart nor any blood can be generated spontaneously and by it self of necessity when any signs of blood begin to appear in the Liquefaction of the Bubble which are easily visible because of their ruddy colour we must of necessity conclude a praeexistency of the Efficient Cause of blood which is the heart tho' it cannot be so easily discern'd or known to be what it is by reason of its transparency and exility So likewise if the blood be moved through the Vessels since it cannot be done without pulsation of the heart most certain it is that the heart beats tho' the pulsation be not to be discern'd For the reason why neither the little heart nor its pulsation cannot be discern'd is not because there are no such things but because they are so extreamly small as not to be discernable to our eyes Moreover the thing is manifest in an Egg put under a Hen for the colliquation with the Bubble that first appears to the Eye is before the blood and since it includes in its Bubble the forming power that makes the Chicken and for that the blood can never penetrate the inner parts of the Egg it is an Argument that the Members of the Chicken delineated are delineated out of the Bubble of that Colliquation and not out of the blood And thus a Plant is not generated out of the green Juice with which it is afterwards nourish'd but out of the spirituous prolisic Principle latent in the Seed But when the Plant is generated then it goes on with its work in preparing the Juice which it makes for its Nourishment To this we may add That it appears by inspection into a Hen Egg that a small leaping print and the blood are seen together XI Whence it is apparent that there can be no Blood before the Organ that makes the Blood that is the heart which if the delineaments of the whole Body were form'd out of the Blood ought to be form'd with the rest after the Blood which is false as we find by the testimony of our own eyes and which the Reasons before alledged confirm And therefore the first Threads of the Infant are delineated out of the Seed alone and not out of the blood neither does the Architectonic Spirit bring forth into Action out of the Blood but out of the prolific Principle and the sanguific Bowel the heart being form'd presently that begets the blood and puts it into motion Deusingius discoursing of this matter thus breaks out What Captain says he or what Intelligence directs the blood through the vagous and floating matter of Conception What assisting Intelligence when first it is destitute of understanding shall design for it the seat for the forming the Bowels Where is the heart to be form'd where the Reins to be plac'd where the Brains or the Spleen lest the Brains should choose their seat in the Abdomen and the Intestines theirs in the Scull What Cause shall move it to a Circulation afterwards unless it were mov'd by the beating Vesicle of the heart What Providence shall so restrain its wandring at first without any Receptacles and upon the building of the several Conduit-pipes shall direct its course into each of them XII Now it is not any sort but a particular and appropriated Nourishment that is requisite for the small
an Embryo at the beginning no bigger than an Emmet what Parts are already form'd with the beating Heart Which tho' it be the defect of our Sight yet Reason sufficiently teaches us that all the Parts are delineated together since the Harmony of all together is so great and so necessary that they cannot subsist or act one without another And indeed it seems but probable that the forming Spirits contain'd in the Bubble and beginning the Formation of all the Parts more vigorously perform their Work and more speedily strengthen and perfect all Parts already delineated after they are at more Liberty from the thicker Colliquation as being assisted by the Heat of the Heart excited and kindled by a particular Fermentation But certain it is that before that Assistance they began the Formation of all and singular the Parts Of which tho' such and such first appear in the forming whereof most Spirits were employ'd and of which there is the greatest Necessity for their Use however this does not exclude the Delineation of the rest of the Parts which our Sight cannot discern XLIII Here if any one will object that perhaps the spermatick Parts are delineated together but that the bloody Parts are afterwards of necessity to be produc'd I answer that when we speak of the Formation of the Parts we speak of the first Delineations or Out-lines of all the Parts and all those we say are form'd out of the Seed alone into which the bloody Nutriment is afterwards infused by which they acquire a greater Bulk and Bigness Yet in the mean time there is no bloody part in the whole Body which is not intermixed with spermatic Threads and so no part can truly be said to be form'd out of the Blood and to subsist without a spermatic Foundation This was the ancient Opinion of Hippocrates All the Members says he are discerned and augmented together not one before or after another only those that are naturally bigger are seen before the other tho' they were not form'd before And in another place There is not in my Opinion any beginning of the Body but all the Parts seem equally to be both beginning and end together For the Circle being drawn there is no end to be found Now what Parts are first visible how the order of Formation proceeds gradually as far as the Eye can discern is elegantly described by Harvey Tract de generat Animal whom the Reader may do well to consult together with Antony Everard in his Lib. de Ortu Animal XLIV But now seeing the form'd Parts came once to associate to themselves and assimilate the Nourishment brought 'em and so begin to grow by Nutrition seeing the Heart also begins its natural Action of Sanguification from its smallest Point or Beginning Some more curiously inquire whether the Brain which is very soft in the Embryo makes animal Spirits and by their Assistance performs animal Actions I answer That as the Actions of many parts are idle at first as of the Lungs Eyes Ears Teeth and Stones c. Of which there is no absolute Necessity at the Beginning so the Actions of the Brain Liver and Spleen being more necessary begin at the Beginning but so weakly by reason of the Infirmity of the Organs that they cannot be discern'd But by degrees the more perfect they grow the more perceptible they are And hence it is probable that the Brain at the beginning may begin to make animal Spirits but very few and very weak because there is less need of 'em at the beginning But the stronger the Brain grows and the more need of Spirits there is the stronger and more vigorous Spirits it makes As is apparent by that time a woman has gone half her time when the Child begins to stir which Motion cannot be perform'd without those more plentiful Spirits And from that time the Brain is so corroborated that at length it begets more plentiful and vigorous Spirits fit to perform the chiefest animal Actions Which principal Actions however are idle in the Birth inclosed in the Womb where there is no occasion or necessity of Imagination Thought or Memory But the Infant being born the Brain increasing in Strength begets more vigorous and efficacious Spirits Therefore Children as they are weaker of Body so are they weaker in their Intellectuals Because the Faculties of the Soul do not well perform their Offices till the Organs are perfect only the Feeling and moving Faculties begin to act from the time of the Childs quickning For from that time the Motion of the Infant is peceived by the Mother and the Birth sympathizes with the Mothers Pains Which Cardanus proves by pouring cold water upon the Belly of the Mother for thereby the Infant will beforc'd to move in the womb and by that means he tries whether women with Child are quick or no. XLV I shall here add one thing more which is controverted among the Philosophers whether the Infant wakes and sleeps in the Womb Avicen utterly denies any such thing However Women with Child will tell ye that they manifestly feel the Motion of the Child when it is awake and the resting of it when it sleeps But we are to say that Sleep is the Rest of the Senses for the repairing and renewing the animal Spirits wasted by watching occasioned by the Contraction of the Pores and Passages of the Brain On the contrary that Wakefulness is a convenient opening of the Pores of the Brain and flowing in of the animal Spirits through them into the Organs of the Senses sufficient for the performance of their Actions But neither of these can be said to belong to the birth included in the womb For First the Spirits are not wasted but only few and those weak are made and therefore the Rest which is in the Infant unborn cannot be call'd Sleep because it proceeds not from the Causes of Sleep that is to say the wast of the Spirits and the Contraction of the Pores of the brain nor has it the end of Sleep which is the Restoration of decay'd and wasted Spirits Secondly The Motion of the Infant cannot be said to be waking because it wants the true Causes of waking which is the opening of the Pores of the brain and an Influx of Spirits into the Organs of Sense sufficient to perform the Actions of the Senses The first cannot be by reason of the extream Moisture and Softness of the brain Nor the latter by reason there is not as yet generated a sufficient Quantity of Spirits Moreover the Motion and Feeling of the Infant does not presuppose a necessity of waking For that men grown up and matur'd by age when fast asleep many times tumble and toss in their Sleep and sometimes walk and talk and being prick'd feel and contract their injured Members and yet never wake Therefore we must conclude that the Infant in the womb cannot be truly said to sleep or wake but only sometimes to rest and sometimes to be
mov'd XLVI Here perhaps by way of a Corollary some one may ask me what is that same Architectonic Vertue latent in the prolific Seed which performs the Formation of the Parts In the foregoing Chapter we have discoursed at large concerning the enlivening Spirit implanted in the Prolific Seed as it is the Subject of the first forming Spirit but because no Spirit of it self and by its own Power seems able to perfect Generation unless it have in its self some effective Principle by virtue whereof it produces that Effect hence the Question arises what that is that affords that active Force to the Spirit and power to form a living body and endues the Matter with all manner of Perfection and produces Order Figure Growth Number Situation and those other things which are observed in living bodies Which is a thing hitherto unknown and has held the Minds of all Philosophers in deep Suspense Of whom the greatest part have rather chosen tacitly to admire the Supream Operator and his work than to unfold him and so affirm with Lactantius That Man contributes nothing to his Birth but the Matter which is the Seed but that all the rest is the handy work of God the Conception the forming of the Body the inspiration of the Soul and the conservation of the Parts In which sense says Harvey most truly and piously does he believe who deduces the Generations of all things from the same Eternal and Omnipotent Deity upon whose pleasure depends the Universality of the things themselves But others who believe that the Bounds of Nature are not so slightly to be skipped over nor think that in the Inquiries after the Principles of Generation there is such a necessity to have recourse to the first Architect and Governour of the whole Universe but that the first forming and efficient Cause created by God with the Things themselves and infus'd and planted within 'em is to be sought out of the Things themselves more arrogantly have presum'd to give us a clearer Explication of the Matter by Philosophical Reason yet differing in their Opinions which are various and manifold XLVII For Galen calls this Architectonic Power sometimes by the name of Nature sometimes Natural Heat sometimes the Inbred Temperament sometimes the Spirit which he affirms to be a Substance of it self moveable and always moveable Aristotle distinguishing between the Heat or Spirit of the Seed and Nature asserts the Artichectonic Power to be that Nature which is in the Spirit of the Seed and therefore distinct from the Spirit it self which is inherent in the Spirit as in its Subject and acts upon the Spirit as its Matter This Nature in the Spirit of the Seed was also acknowledged by Hippocrates saying That it is learned tho' it has not learnt rightly to act Not that it is Rational but because as Galen explains it it acts of it self all that is necessary to be acted without any direction Hence Deusingius defines it to be a certain immaterial Substance arising out of the Matter so determin'd to the Matter by the Supream God that it can neither be nor subsist nor operate without it This same Architectonic Vertue others with Avicen call the Intelligence others with Averrhoes and Scotus a Coelestial Force or a Divine Efficacy Iacob Scheggius calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 active or forming Reason and says that by the word Reason or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he understands a Substantial Form which is not to be apprehended by Sense but by the Understanding and Reason And so while he seems to speak something he says nothing at all XLVIII The Platonics call it a General Soul diffus'd through the whole World which according to the diversity of Materials and Seeds produces various Generations as a Plant from the Seed of a Plant a Man from the Seed of a Man a Horse from that of a Horse a Fish from that of a Fish c. But Plotin the great Platonist distinguishes this same Architectonic Vertue from the Platonic Soul of the World as produc'd from that by which it is produc'd and therefore he calls it Nature flowing from the Soul of the World which he says is the Essential Act of it and the Life depending upon it Themistius says that the forming Power is the Soul inclos'd in the Seed potentially enliven'd Deusingius in his Original of the Soul calls it Nature in the Seed that is as he explains himself a Soul potentially subsisting in the Seed being in it self the Beginning and Cause of Motion But in a Body already form'd he calls it the Soul actually subsisting And so without any necessity at all distinguishes one and the same thing into two and gives it two distinct names as it either rests or acts and according to the diversity of the Subject to be form'd or else already form'd Just as if a man distinguishing between a Painter lazily sleeping or painting awake should call the one Nature latent in his Spirit as one that could paint if he were awake and the other a real Painter as one actually painting as if the Painter that slept were not as much a Painter as he that actually painted Whereas as it appears by the Effects that which is able to form a Body at first out of the Seed and that which actually forms were not one and the same thing and so by a certain continuation the form of the thing formed remains This Opinion of his Deusingius seems to have drawn from the Institutes of the Platonists who distinguish between the Soul and Being a Soul that is between the Substance of the Soul which is said to be in the Seed and the Appellation of Nature and the Soul which acts at this prâ—…sent and is the form of the form'd Body Fernelius calls the Plastic Power a Spirit but he does not mean such a common Spirit which the Physicians say is rais'd by the preparations of the Bowels out of the Humours but some other Spirit of far sublimer Excellency For says he this Spirit is an Ethereal Body the Seat and Bond of Heat and the Faculties and the first Instrument of the Duty to be perform'd And Lib. 2. de Abdit c. 10. he believes it to be something that flows down from Heaven For says he the Heaven without any Seed produces many both Creatures and Plants but the Seed generates nothing without the Heaven The Seed only prepares aptly and conveniently Materials for the begetting of Things the Heaven sends into the Matter prepar'd Form and consummate Perfection and raises Life in all Things A little after he adds One Form of Heaven within its Power comprehends all the Forms that ever were or can be of all Creatures Plants Stones and Metals and impregnated with those innumerable Forms casts as in a Mold and generates all things out of it self XLIX Others believe the Plastic Vertue to be a certain Power flowing into the Seed from the Soul of
it must not be denied but that the Soul is actually in the Seed tho' by reason of the Impediments its Action does not presently appear LIII But here it may be question'd Whether that Soul which forms the Birth be only in the Man's Seed or as well in the Womans I say that it is only in the Man's Seed for if part of the Soul should proceed from the Man part from the Woman then the Soul would prove a compound thing whereas it is meerly simple Or if it should be deriv'd all from the Male and all from the Woman then there would be two Principles of Formation of which one would be superfluous For there would be no necessity that the acting Principle of the Male should be joyned with the acting Principle of the Female for that the latter having an acting Principle in it self and a place convenient as the womb convenient nourishment and all other things convenient would not want any other efficient Principle of the Male but might conceive in it self and form the Birth out of its animated Seed with the Coition of the Male. And in Creatures that lay Eggs a Chicken might be hatch'd out of Wind-eggs without the Cock's treading Neither of which were ever heard of LIV. Aemilius Parisanus tho' he understood not this Mystery exactly yet seems to have observ'd something obscurely and therefore he constitutes a twofold Seed he had better have said twofold parts of the Seed one generated in the Genital Parts which he denies to be animated the other not generated in the Genital Parts but divided from the whole which he allows to be animated LV. Others who will not allow in Mankind any other Soul particularly than the Rational assert that That alone perfects the Lineaments of all the Parts out of the Seminal Matter conveniently offer'd and is the Architect of its own Habitation and stiffly uphold their Opinion with several Arguments and so tacitly endeavour to maintain that the Rational Soul is ex traduce or by Propagation no otherwise than as the Body is propagated Concerning which may be read that most acute Tractate of the Generation of Living Creatures written by Sennertus LVI But these Principles most Philosophers and all Divines oppose with great heat and affirm the Rational Soul not to be propagated but to be created and infused To whose Opinion we readily submit because the Soul is not of that nature that it can produce any thing of it self it has nothing to do in the Formation of the Body nor with any Natural Actions it is not to be divided into parts nor corruptible as the rest of the Body but immutable and separable from the Body which it inspires Besides that it is not created like the Bodies of Creatures which were commanded to be produced out of Earth and Water according to their kind wherein the Vegetative Soul of every one is included but after the whole Body of Man was form'd alive out of the Earth God is said to have breathed into him the Breath of Life and then he became a living Creature Whence it is manifestly apparent that the Rational Soul of Man inspired by God was not form'd out of Earth Water or any other corruptible Matter like his corruptible Body which was form'd out of Clay before the breathing of his Soul into him But that it proceeded incorruptible and simple from the immediate Operation of God without any parts by the separation of which it could be dissolv'd and dye as the Body for the same Reason perishes with its vegetable Soul and subsists of it self when its Temporal Habitation is fallen For which Reason Man is not only said to live Naturally like other Creatures but after the Image of God which sort of living is not ascrib'd to any other Creatures LVII But these latter tho' they seem to discourse rightly and truly of the Creation and Infusion of the Rational Soul yet if they do not likewise admit a Vegetative Soul in Man they are under a gross mistake nor do they unfold the first Efficient Principle concerning the Explanation of which the Question is here and not of the Original of the Rational Soul Against those therefore that will not admit a Vegetative Soul in Man I bring these two powerful Arguments First Seeing that the Rational Soul is not propagated by Generation but Created of necessity it must be infus'd and that either into a living or a dead Body Not into a dead Body for that Soul cannot inhabit a dead Body nor enliven it for its life is different from the life of the Body which perishes while the Soul departs out of the Body and lives to perpetuity Therefore it is infus'd into a living Body What then rais'd Life in the Body before the Infusion of the Rational Soul It will be said perhaps That at the same time that the Parts are to be delineated the Rational Soul is infus'd and that it is which introduces Life and is Life it self I answer Not when they are to be delineated but after all the Parts are compleatly delineated and form'd then the Rational Soul is infus'd according to the Testimony of the Scripture it self where it is said that God first form'd Man out of the Dust of the Earth observe the word Man therefore a living Creature or a Creature endued with a Vegetative Soul and then inspired into him the Breath of Life and he became a living Creature as much as to say that then was inspired into him his perpetual living and Immortal Soul Therefore as then so also afterwards the Rational Soul does not form and enliven the Body but is infus'd into the Body form'd and living I say living for that which forms the Body of necessity enlivens it and lives it self For such a wonderful Structure cannot be form'd by a dead thing nor by Heat alone which only serves to attenuate and melt the Substance of the Seed and rowse and set at liberty the forming Spirit lying hid and entangled within it and excite it to action not able of it self to form the Parts of the Body nor to adjust the order and shape of all its Parts And therefore it is not the Rational Soul but this same enlivening Spirit which Galen calls Nature we the Vegetative Soul rais'd out of the Seed it self wherein it is potentially is that which out of it self and the Subject wherein it abides and out of which it proceeded forms and enlivens the Body and all its agreeing Parts into which being form'd and living the Rational Soul is afterwards infus'd and united to it to determine and temper the Motions of the Corporeal Soul till the Body proving at length unfit to entertain it any longer it departs out of it not being the occasion of Death of it self but chas'd and expell'd from its Habitatation by the death of the Body So no way guilty of the death of the Body by its recess as by its access it contributed
Willis pretending to explain the Soul yet more perspicuously defines it a little after to be a Heap of contiguous Particles existing in a swift Motion And then to shew the nature and original of those Particles he thus proceeds Cap. 4. In Mechanical things Fire Air and Light are chiefly energetical which human Industry is always wont to use for the more stupendious and no less necessary Works In like manner we may believe that the supream Work-master to wit the Great Creator in the beginning did make the greatly active and most subtile Souls of living Creatures out of their Particles as the most active to which he also gave a greater and as it were a supernatural Virtue and Efficacy from the most excellent Structure of the Organs most exquisitely labour'd beyond the Workmanship of any other Machine LXXIII But suppose the Substance of the Organ wherein the Soul most nearly resides to be made out of such Principles and so the Organ of the Soul to be well compos'd what is this to our Enquiry The true Existence of the Soul consists not in the Substance of the Organ but in its own Substance and appears by its Act or Operation As the sight consists not in an Eye well compos'd of good Substance but in the Act of Seeing and perception of the visible Rayes which Act of Sight the Soul accomplishes by means of the Organ of Sight well form'd But now I would fain know what that is which gives life to that heap of Particles constituting the substance of the Soul and by its Presence forms and enlivens the other Parts and excites 'em to so many various wonderful and distinct Operations when it is said that the Soul is a heap of most subtile Particles or a Fire then only by an impropriety of Speech the Thing containing is designed for the Thing contained that is some most subtile Subject wherein the Soul most nearly resides For that properly it is something else besides Fire is apparent from the contrariety of the Actions For the Fire destroys the Soul preserves the Fire destroys Bodies form'd the Soul both forms and produces things not form'd The Fire is sensible of nothing the Soul by means of the sensitive Organs sees hears and tasts c. Hence the most learned Willis tho' a most stout Asserter of his own Opinion at length is forced to distinguish the Soul from its Corporeal Subject For says he as soon as any Matter is dispos'd to receive Life by the Laws of the Creation the Soul which is the foâ—…m of the thing and the Body which is said to be the Matter began to be form'd under a certain Species according to the Character imprinted in ' em LXXIV Therefore the Form that is the Soul is something different from that same Matter which is the next Subject or Habitaculum of the Soul In like manner speaking of the Principles of the Soul As to the first beginnings of the Corporeal Soul says he this as a Shell-fish forms and â—…its its Shell to it self exists somewhat a little sooner and so more noble than the Organical Body Because a certain portion of Animal Spirits or most subtile Animals or a little Soul not yet inkindled lyes hid in the Seminal Humour which having gotten a proper fire place and at length being kindled from the Soul of the Parent acting or leaning to it as a flame from a flame begins to shine forth and unfold it self a little before the first Ground-work of the Body is laid This orders the Web of the Conception and agitates the apply'd Matter c. LXXV Now I would have Dr. Thomas Willis explain what he means by that Little Diminutive Soul not yet enkindled For a heap of Animal Spirits or any Atoms whatever can be nothing but the nearest Matter wherein it abides For such a Subject does not live unless there be in it some living thing to enliven that heap For such a Subject in Generation neither knows how or was ever taught to form delineate compose and enlarge all the Parts in such exact order Which what it is we know not only we find it by its effects Hence Willis himself acknowledges that the Soul cannot be perceived by our Senses but only we understand it by its effects and operations From which words of his it appears that whatever Dr. Willis said before of Fire and a heap of Animal Spirits and Atoms they are only meer and most uncertain Conjectures which denote not the Soul it self but only either its next Subject wherein it abides or by a Similitude of thinnest Body of swiftest Action the manner in some measure of their Actions For to assert that the Soul is a Heap of most subtile Atoms or a Fire is the same as to assert that the Sight is Fire because that by the means of the most subtile moveable Fire its Action is accomplish'd nor can be accomplish'd without it Whereas it is not that same Medium into which the visible Rays are imprinted as the Subject and with it conveigh'd to the Eyes but the perception of those Rays that make the sight As therefore that Percipient is something else quite different from the Air by means of which the visible Rays are convey'd to the visible Organs So the Soul is somewhat else which is different from the Fire or any other heap of Atoms by means of which it subsists and operates in the Body LXXVI From whence it is apparent how absurd that is which Dr. Willis adds Cap. 2. The Existency of the Corporeal Soul depends altogether upon its Act or Life The word depends is ill he should have rather said becomes known For by the Act it self or Life we only discover that such a Soul is present and acts to enliven the Body wherein it abides For Example when I write any thing by that Act it is known that the hand of a writer performs that Act However the Hand that writes is quite different from the Act which is the writing and does not altogether depend upon that Act only by that Act the presence of the Agent is made known Wherefore it is not well added by Dr. Willis The Essence of this begins altogether from Life as it were from the firing of a subtile Matter I say he asserts this erroneously for that the Soul does not begin from Life which nevertheless lies as it were imprisoned in the Seed till with its spirituous Subject wherein it resides it remains wrapt up in the thicker Particles of the Seed from whence being set at liberty in a convenient place by the Heat it begins to act and perform its duty and enliven form nourish and increase the Body where it resides and thus by these actions we discover that such an enlivening Soul is in the Body LXXVII Of the Affections or Passions of this Soul many things might be written which however we purposely omit lest our Digression should be too tedious In the mean while we
nor can be derived thence from any other part These downy beginnings of the Placenta or Uterine Liver increase by little and little through the affusion of that same Blood to this very Bowel whose substance at the end of the third Month is notably conspicuous Within the inner Membrane is included the whole Colliquation of the Seed together with the Crystalline Bubble wherein the Birth is form'd out of the prolific Principle infus'd into it which being form'd swims upon the Colliquation free and adhering no where to any Membranes and for some time is nourish'd with that alone IV. Afterwards when the increasing Embryo begins to want a more plentiful Nourishment the Extremities of the Umbilical Vessels grow out more and more and are extended toward this Liver which from that time begins to be more manifestly conspicuous to the end they may draw a firmer Alimentary Iuice from thence and carry it to the Birth as the Plants by means of their Roots suck nutritive Iuice from the Earth But how these Vessels cross the Membranes and come to this Liver see Chap. 32. V. Harvey in an Abortion cast forth about the bigness of a Hen-egg observ'd withal in the outward and upper part of the Chorion as it were a thin Slime or a certain Down denoting the first Rudiments of the growing Placenta and in the inner part of the same several Roots and Branches of the Umbilical Vessels but never the Chorion sticking to the womb But the reason why he never saw the Chorion slicking to the womb perhaps might be either because the Matter to be pour'd forth out of the womb for the increase of the Placenta was not yet increas'd to a sufficient quantity or because the fleshic Particle which we have seen sticking to the Chorion in the Expulsion of that Conception was not torn from the womb but from the Chorion and so the Chorion coming forth together with it was not by Harvey seen to stick to the womb But those Roots of the Vessels which Harvey took for the Umbilical Productions seem not to have been the little Branches of the Umbilical Vessels in regard the Navel could not be grown out to that length in that time nor reach so far but were rather little Vessels extending themselves from that same fleshie substance sticking above to the Chorion with which the Umbilical Vessels are wont to intermix themselves See the Abortions in the preceding Chapter VI. By what has been said it is sufficiently apparent that the beginning of the Placenta or Uterine Liver is not generated out of the impurer part of the menstruous Blood flowing from the womb the more pure part in the mean season passing to the Birth through the Umbilical Vein as many have erroneonsly asserted seeing that the first threads of it are delineated out of the Womans Seed as well as the Chorion and Amnion to which afterwards the nourishment is brought not from the more impure but from good Blood pouring in And therefore they were grosly mistaken who judg'd it not to be any Bowel but only a heap of menstruous Blood collected and coagulated without the Vessels and preserv'd in that place for the nourishment of the Birth whereas both in respect of its beginning its fibrous substance and its use it appears no less to be a Bowel than the other Liver seated in the right Hypochondrion Besides that the upholders of this Opinion do not consider that the Blood cannot subsist without Corruption nine Months together out of the Vessels in the womb or any other hot and moist place and daily Experience teaches us what terrible Mischiefs follow upon the Extravasation of the Blood tho' it be good if it stay in the place but a few Months VII Fabricius ab Aquapendente calls this Liver a Fleshie Substance and a Fleshie Mole not that it is simply flesh but a Bowel that has a peculiar and proper fibrous Contexture and a flesh convenient for it self whose first threads are delineated out of the Womans Seed and afterwards a peculiar fleshie Substance thicken'd out of the Vital Blood which first flows from the Mother more plentifully thither through the Uterine Vessels and afterwards is forc'd thither from the Heart of the Birth through the Umbilical Arteries For when the Umbilical Vessels are come to the Uterine Liver a certain spirituous Nectar or Vital Spirit flows out together with Arterious Blood from the heart of the Birth which as it increases nourishes enlivens and excites to action all the Parts of the Birth and its Membranes the spirituous Blood of the Mother assisting and affording the greatest part of the Matter so does it enlarge and nourish this Placenta or Uterine Liver VIII This Liver in a single Conception is alway single and in the Conception of Twins both Births have one common Liver containing the Navels of both but sometimes each Birth has a distinct and proper Uterine Liver However Wharton believes that both Twins have a peculiar Placenta but so contiguous that they seem to be but one But that the Opinion of Wharton express'd by the word always is not generally true Experience teaches us by which it appears that sometimes the contrary happens And therefore we are certainly to conclude That in the Conception of Twins there is sometimes one Liver sometimes two But for what reason and in what cases there happens sometimes one and sometimes two is a Mystery hitherto unreveal'd and unknown to all Practisers which nevertheless we shall endeavour to unfold in the next Chapter when we come to discourse of the State of the Membranes in Twins IX The Substance of it is peculiar to it self soft loose brittle thin furrow'd with several furrows and as it were here and there slightly divided yet in the mean time altogether fibrous being a Contexture of innumerable Threads and diminutive Fibres and infinite little Branches of diminutive Vessels and swelling with coagulated Blood pour'd in not much unlike the looser Parenchyma of the Liver tho' less firm and easily dissolv'd and mangled by a slight attrition And such a sort of Substance as well at other times as particularly in December 1665. we shewed to several Doctors of Physic and Students in a Woman that dy'd after she had been six Months gone And lately in the Placenta's of two live Women from whom we extracted the Births when they could not be deliver'd of themselves which Placenta's after the Extraction of the Birth were separated whole from the Womb and drawn forth together with the Membranes X. It is of a dark ruddy Colour not unlike the Colour of the Spleen somewhat more ruddy seldom paler XI The Shape of the whole Uterine Liver is for the most part Circular sometimes Long or Quadrangular seldom Triangular but unequal in its Circumference But the bigness and thickness various according to the Condition of the Body and the Birth and the Time of the Womans going For in Abortions of thirty
Chorion grows thicker like Leather steep'd in Water and being very much dilated constitute these two Membranes the Chorion and the Amnion And as the outward Shell of a Hen or other Birds Egg before it be laid sticks with a little Branch to the Ovary so also in a woman these Membranes by means of a Caruncle sticking to the Chorion adhere not to the Ovary but to the Womb it self at the very beginning as appears in the Abortions describ'd c. 29. and perhaps in that very part where the Egg descends out of the Tube into the Womb and embrace the whole dissolv'd Matter together with the Crystalline Bubble collected therein and so within their Walls through the benigne Cherishing of the Uterine Heat the Architectonic Spirit latent in the Bubble is set at Liberty and roused into Action As for those slender small Vasa Sanguisera which from the beginning are seen dispersed through the Chorion as we have observed in the forecited Abortions I have observed them to be produced not from the Birth then not as yet form'd or from the Crystalline Bubble furnished as yet with no blood or blood-bearing Vessels but from that fleshy spungy and plainly rubicund Particle which at the upper part stuck to the Chorion and seem'd to be endamag'd without-side and as it were torn from the Womb so that it might appear that the Chorion stuck to the Womb by means of it which seem'd to receive those little Vessels from the Vessels of the Womb by Continuation and so send them to the Chorion X. Besides the foresaid Membranes there is in Brutes that bring forth living Conceptions a third Membrane found in form of a Bagg very thin and furnish'd with no visible Vessels This by Galen and the ancient Physicians is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Pudding like the Gut wherein Puddings use to be made For according to Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Gut Hence the Latins call it the Farciminal or Pudding Membrane and sometimes the Intestinal or Gut Membrane tho' it does not in all Creatures retain the shape of a Pudding or Gut but in many resembles a broad Swath XI It is a most thin Membrane smooth hollow soft and yet thick without any Vessels conspicuous to the Eye by no means enfolding the whole Birth extended to the utmost extremity from one Horn of the Womb to the other waxing slender at the extream Parts that enter the Horns of the Womb till it end in a Point XII It rises with a narrow Beginning where the Urachus or Passage of the Urine continuous to it opens into its Hollowness and presently dilates it self XIII It is seated between the Chorion and the Amnion from which it may be easily separated XIV It s Use is to collect the Urine of the Embryo flowing out of the Bladder through the Urachus and to preserve it till the time of Delivery From which use of it Needham calls it in all Creatures which have a Placenta the Urinary Membrane XV. Its Bigness and Figure varies according to the Difference of Creatures For in some it resembles a Gut in shape and bigness in others a broad Swath and is much larger as in a Cow much more in a Mare in which Creature it is every way fastened to the Chorion and enfolds the whole Birth together with the Amnion But as for its bigness and shape in Sows Coneys Doggs and some other Creatures Gualter Needham exactly describes upon View l. de format Foet And in the same place adds the whole discourse concerning it and the manner of finding it out in Brutes XVI Now seeing that Urine abounds in the Conceptions of all Creatures that bring forth living Births while they remain in the Womb and that there is a necessity for the same to be discharged out of the Womb and reserv'd somewhere till the time of Delivery the Question is whether this Membrane Alantois be in all Creatures especially in Women Aquapendens says that Women Cats and Bitches are destitute of this Membrane as also are all other Creatures that have Teeth in both Jaws And that the Urine of their Conceptions is collected in no peculiar Vessel but flows out of the Urachus between the Chorion and the Amnion and is there reserv'd till the time of Delivery But our modern more quicksighted Anatomists have found it now in many of those Creatures who were deny'd it before Yet do these very much question whether it be in Women Harvey who overlook'd it in Brutes denies any such thing in Women On the other side Highmore not only allows it to Brutes but admits it in Women and assigns it in them the same Use which it is vulgarly said to have in Brutes That is to receive the Urine of the Embryo through the Urachus and reserve it till the time of Delivery And agreeing with Vesalius says it is easy to be found if in a bigg-bellied Woman the Dissection should be begun from the Placenta otherwise by reason of its extream Slenderness it is easy to be broken But here Needham well observes that Vesalius at the time that he wrote had never dissected any woman with Child as he confesses himself in the same place and therefore made a Judgment of women by what he observ'd in doggs And describ'd a human Embryo wrap'd in the Secundines of a Whelp But afterwards when he had dissected a woman with Child he changed his Opinion and number'd but two Membranes in a woman that is to say the Amnion and Alantois reaching the Chorion not under the name of a Membrane but of the whole Conception In this Obscurity the Quicksighted Needham gave us great Light who describes not any Farciminal or Pudding-like Membrane such as the Alantois in many beasts but a bagg quite of another Fashion wherein the Urine of the Conception is collected and reserved till the time of Delivery The Secundines says he being received by the Midwife let 'em be laid in their proper Posture as well as may be Then taking a small Packthread follow it as far as the Amnion This is fastened to the Packthread a little below the Placenta the rest hangs free If the Amnion be fresh you shall find the little Veins of it otherwise they vanisht the Blood being run out and the Membrane cold This being left about the Packthread go to the next Membrane which if you prick withoutside about the Placenta or tear the extream Edges with your Fingers you shall find to be easily divided into two of which the outermost is porous and spungy and full of little Veins the innermost very slippery and extreamly transparent but void of Veins and Arteries That I take for the Chorion this for the Urinary Tunicle It cannot be call'd a folding or facing of the former because of the dissimilitude of the Substance but whether we look upon the Situation Figure or Substance
giving it nourishment and desire to satisfie the Crying of the Child and through this Affection the Passages being loosen'd by the determin'd Influx of the Animal Spirits the Chylous Iuice that was formerly carry'd to the Womb is now turn'd to the Breasts XLIII To conclude I shall only add one Question worth Examination Why upon the weaning of the Child the Chylous Iuice is no longer carry'd to the Breasts but the Milk is dry'd up It is because the Woman lays aside all thought of giving Suck which the more speedily she does the sooner and the better are her Breasts dry'd up for that then the more copious Influx of the Animal Spirits to the Breasts fails by which the Glandules of the Breasts and the Chyliferous Vessels tending thither were dilated and hence the Glandules then fall and are contracted and the said Chyliferous and Milky Vessels are compress'd by the weight of the adjacent parts so that there can be nothing more through those convey'd to the Breasts and then that part of the Chylus that was wont to be convey'd thither in Women with Child is convey'd to the Womb in others to the Heart there to be chang'd into Blood which because the Body does not want in such abundance hence it comes to pass that Women are less hungry and thirsty than when they gave Suck and so they breed less Chylus and what Blood is bred superfluous in the mean time in Women with Child contributes to the Birth in others is evacuated through the Womb. XLIV But some will say Where remains that Milk which upon the first weaning remains in great plenty in the Breasts and is not suckt out Why is it not coagulated and corrupted and consequently does not breed Inflammations and Apostemes I answer it is carry'd by degrees through the Mammary Veins to the hollow Vein and so to the Heart in like manner as the Chylus pour'd forth out of the Chyliferous pectoral Channel into the subclavial Vein flows together with the Veinal Blood to the Heart But whether that Milky Juice be carry'd to the Heart through the Mammary Veins extraordinarily in Women giving Suck especially such as abound with Milk I leave to consideration seeing that the remarkable Number and Bigness of the Veins and the small Number and Bulk of the Arteries seem to perswade the contrary XLV In opposition to this Opinion of ours one notable Doubt arises How it comes to pass that in Cows Mares Ews Goats and other Creatures the Milky Chylous Iuice flows in such abundance and so constantly to the Udder seeing that being depriv'd of Rational Souls they are no way capable of Imagination Thought Intellect Memory Will Iudgment c. True it is our Modern Philosophers that follow Cartesius acknowledge no such noble Actions as these in Brutes or if they seem to perform some Actions like to these they believe they neither can nor ought to be number'd into the Rank of principal Actions as not being perform'd by a Rational Soul but affirm 'em to proceed only from a certain kind of Motion of the Spirits induc'd by the Objects and flowing from the propriety of the Disposition of the Parts And thus they alledge that in Brutes certain Dispositions of the Spirits and the rest of the Parts are induced by the Objects from which certain kind of Motions result in reference to which the Pores sometimes of these sometimes of those Parts are opened and shut through the greater or lesser slower or swifter stronger or gentler Influx of the Spirits And in this case now proposed by us they would thus argue viz. In a Cow by reason of the great Commotion of the Birth in the Womb or the Pain of bringing forth the Pores are opened about and toward the Udder and so by the Influx of Animal Spirits the Passages before shut are dilated so that the Chylous milky Juice is at liberty to flow thither more freely through its proper Vessels Which Laxity of the milky Passages continues long after bringing forth because of the continu'd opening of the Pores wider than usual toward the Udder and the more Copious Influx of the Animal Spirits and continued by the tickling Motion about the Udder induced by the grasping of the Calf that sucks or the Hand of the Milkmaid But in regard the Object cannot of it self induce any sensitive Motion unless it be first known either as Good or Evil and this Knowledg and Perception presupposes something knowing far different from the Object to be known for being taken without Knowledg and Preception no Motion can be said to be made by its means as in those that are troubled with a Catalepsie into whose Organs both sensitive and moving tho well form'd and furnished with Blood Heat and Spirits tho the Objects fall they cause no Motion because they are not perceiv'd and consequently there are no new Determinations of the Spirits to various Parts nor no alterations of Motion Furthermore seeing the Property of the Disposition of the Parts necessarily presupposes some peculiar Disponent which induces to that proper Disposition and alters it according to the nature of the Thing and even the motion of the Spirits it self presupposes also some first mover perceiving and knowing the Object for nothing knows moves and disposes it self without a Cause it sufficiently appears that such an Explanation neither suffices nor satisfies especially if we consider over and above that most brute Animals perceive and distinguish Pains Smells and Tastes covet things grateful perceive know and avoid things grateful as such know their Friends from their Enemies c. Which most certainly are no Operations of the Disposition of the Parts mov'd by Objects but of somthing perceiving the Objects and so disposing the Parts to perform such and such Actions As in Man a Brain well form'd and temper'd and full of Animal Spirits is not the primary Cause of the principal Actions but the Rational Soul which makes use of the Brain and Spirits as Instruments and so disposes the Brain that sometimes these sometimes other Pores are more or less opened and shut and fewer or more plentiful Spirits sometimes determin'd after this or that certain manner through those open Pores and consequently these sometimes others and many times several principal Functions operate together Or as an Organ sufficiently furnished with Pipes Bellows and Wind cannot by virtue of any Object or by its own proper Disposition sing any musical Songs unless by the Assistance of the Organist who directing the Keys with his Fingers determines the Wind sometimes into these sometimes into other Pipes and so produces a grateful Harmony Thus also in Brutes besides the Objects and the proper Disposition of the Brain and other Parts there must be of necessity something else over and above which perceives the Objects and produces such wonderful Operations out of those Parts It is here in vain alledged that simple Natural Affections as Hunger Thirst Joy Sadness want in Brutes no other
the least of any inward pain mov'd his Body of himself and when he was ty'd turn'd upon his side of his own accord and cough'd freely to promote the efflux of Blood out of his Wound that he eat and drank something every day till at last his Strength failing he dy'd having liv'd nine days and eight hours after he had receiv'd his Wound Having heard this Relation I went on to view the Body and shew'd the Wound that was given him between the fifth and sixth Rib of the Right Side about a Thumb's breadth before the Ribs run into Gristles Removing the Sternum-Bone I found the Cavity of the Breast upon the wounded Side to the Mediastinum fill'd with Blood which being dry'd up with a Spunge I perceiv'd where the Sword had gone in without touching the Lungs at the Heart under the Sternum through the Mediastinum and Pericardium and had penetrated directly into the upper part of the right Ventricle of the Heart between the treble pointed little Valves near the entrance of the hollow Vein and had gone no farther the Pericardium also was full and distended with coagulated Blood It will seem a wonder to many how this man after such a Wound could live so many days and hours however I believe the Reason was this because the Wound was very narrow and in the upper part between the little Valves so that in the contraction of the Heart all the Blood which flow'd out of the hollow Vein into the right Ventricle by reason of the obstruction of the Treble-pointed Valves could not be forc'd out of the Wound but that the greatest part of it was forc'd into the Lungs through the pulmonary Artery which was much wider than the Wound and from thence to the Left Ventricle and the Aorta-Artery so that but a very little at a time could be forc'd by the several Pulses out of the Wound into the Pericardium and Cavity of the Breast which was the Reason it was so long before his Strength fail'd him CHAP. VII Of the Motion of the Heart I Have said in the preceding Chapter that the Heart is the principal and perpetual Mobile of our Body from whence proceeds all the Natural Motion of the whole Boyd and perpetually lasts so long as the Motion of the Heart lasts But the Reason of its perpetual Motion is not so perspicuous which is the Reason that Opinions vary concerning it I. Some say That the Heart is mov'd by the Animal Spirits II. Others believe that the Heart is mov'd by the dilatation of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart III. Others are of Opinion That it is mov'd partly by the dilatation of the Blood and partly by the influx of Animal Spirits IV. Others say That it is mov'd by a Subtle or Ethereal Matter V. Others hold That it is mov'd by some certain Spirit in the Blood VI. Some assert That the Heart is mov'd by the Respiration of the Lungs I. The first Opinion produces Three very specious Reasons for its Support First Because that in our Bodies all apparent and violent Motions are made by the influx of the Animal Spirits and that therefore the Motion of the Heart must proceed from the same Influx Secondly Because the several little Nerves are not in vain inserted into the Basis of the Heart but rather to that end that they may convey the Animal Spirits to accomplish its Motion Thirdly For that it is manifest in the Passions of the Mind that the Heart is more or less mov'd by the greater or lesser Influx of those Spirits But though these Arguments are propounded with some appearance of Probability yet that this Opinion is far from Truth several Reasons make manifest 1. Because those Motions that proceed from the influx of Animal Spirits are arbitrary especially in the Muscles of which number they assert the Heart to be but the Motion of the Heart is not arbitrary seeing it is not perform'd nor can be perform'd or alter'd at our pleasure 2. Because the Heart beats in a Hen-Egg or other Conception before the Brain is perfected and begets Animal Spirits or before any Animal Faculty is produc'd into Acts of moving and feeling 3. Because the Nerves of the Heart are so small and slender that they cannot contribute a sufficient quantity of animal Spirits to perfect that same durable Motion For to all the moving Parts are allow'd Nerves according to the swiftness or diuturnity of the Motion The Eye that sees and is mov'd all the Day and rests all the Night besides the visual Nerve has another large moving Nerve So the Muscles of the Legs and Arms as they cause swifter or slower Motions have greater or lesser Nerves which happens also in all the other parts Seeing then that all the other moving parts which rest much longer than they are mov'd require large and conspicuous Nerves shall the Heart that moves with a continual motion day and night all a man's Life long and therefore requires a far larger quantity of Spirits than any other part that is mov'd is it possible I say that the Heart should be furnish'd with a sufficient quantity of Spirits to maintain that continual Motion by the means of such slender and almost invisible Nerves Besides that it is as yet uncertain whether those diminutive Nerves whose productions are seen to extend themselves to the Basis of the Heart the Pericardium the Orifices of the Ventricles and the external Tunicle enter any farther into the substance it self of Parenchyma many indeed assert it but no body demonstrates it Galen and Des Cartes very much scruple it and so does Thomas Willis an exact Searcher into the Brain and Nerves to whose Industry in that Particular we are very much beholding who dares not assert any such thing positively but says That more Branches of Nerves and Fibres are distributed into the little Ears of the Heart and Vessels appendent than into the Substance of it We say that very few Nerves enter the Substance it self of the Heart and that they are so small and few that cannot afford or convey sufficient Animal Spirits to perpetuate the Motion of the Heart but only contribute some few which assist to the Nutrition of the Heart 4. Because that to cause Motion there is required a great Quantity of Animal Spirits but that for the Sence of Feeling a very few suffice And therefore all the Parts that are apt to feel which receive many Spirits to perfect their Motion have also a most accurate Sence of Feeling But those which receive but few Spirits they are not mov'd at all and have but a dull sence of Feeling as is apparent in Palsies of the lesser Degree Nevertheless That the Heart has Membranes proper for the Sence of Feeling as the outward and inward enfolding Tunicle treble pointed and miterlike Valves and proper Fibres and yet is endu'd but with a dull Sence of Feeling is manifest from what has been said in the preceding Chapter and
thence it is apparent that it receives but few Animal Spirits Which if it did admit in so great abundance as to accomplish its perpetual Motion they would without all Question occasion a most acute Sence of Feeling therein 5. Because the Hearts of several Animals as Frogs Serpents Eels c. being pull'd out of their Bodies will beat a long time after whereas all the Parts about it being cut away as also all the neighbouring Nerves there can be no Influx of Animal Spirits into them To this purpose take a living Dog and having slit him all along from the Throat take both Trunks of the Wandring Pair through which the Spirits flow to the Heart and either tie it hard or cut it off the Creature indeed will become silent and stiff but the Pulsation or Motion of the Heart will not fail for all that nay he shall live so long till his Strength failing by degrees for want of Food he is famished to Death For he refuses Meat in regard there are no Animal Spirits which can come to the Stomach and increase Hunger 6. Because that seeing the Heart is form'd and perfected before the Ware-house of the Animal Spirits the Brain and proves conspicuous beats and is mov'd before any the least Foundations of the Brain at any time appear as is apparent in an Egg set under a Hen or any other Conception If you say that nevertheless in the Egg or Bubble certain Delineaments of the Brain are in being tho' not to be discern'd by the Eye I answer that they are not yet come to any such Perfection as to operate whereas in the mean time the Heart both operates and is mov'd before it can have any Assistance from those Rudiments of the Brain 7. Because the Animal Spirits are generated out of the Arterious Blood which are generated by no other part besides the Heart Seeing then that they cannot be generated out of any other Matter and that this Matter cannot come to the Brain but by the impulse of the Heart wherein this Matter is generated of necessity it follows that the Heart is mov'd of it self before there are any Animal Spirits in any other part and is the first that forces to the Brain Matter adapted for the Generation of those Spirits that is to say the Arterious Blood Perhaps it may be objected that the Heart is mov'd at first by those animal Spirits which were mix'd in the Seed of the Parents and from that time still are intermix'd with it which is but a frivolous Evasion For the animal Spirit concurs indeed to the making of Seed but loses its own Nature and being mix'd fermented and concocted with the vital Blood becomes one Mass of another Nature with it and so both together put on the Nature of the Seed wherein there is no longer either animal Spirit or arterious Blood but that Seed becomes a new Body generated out of both being mix'd together and changed by Concoction which particularly contains in it self neither animal nor sanguineous Spirit but a new Spirit potentially viâ—…al arising out of the Mixture and Concoction of both which if at any time it be stirr'd up in the Womb and proceed from Power to Action will immediately enliven and form Vessels and Instruments that shall produce Spirituous Blood and Animal Spirits So that there are no Animal Spirits any longer in the Seed that are able to cause the first Motion of the Heart at the beginning For as no Man in his Wits will aver that there is any Blood really in a Bone tho' the Blood as a necessary Matter concurs to its making Nutrition and Growth so no Man will say of the Seed that there is in it either Animal Spirit or Blood tho' both concur to its Composition For as in the Generation of Bone the Blood concurring with the Animal Spirit losing altogether its Sanguineous Nature becomes Bone and is no longer Blood as the Spirit is no longer Spirit as it was before so likewise in the making of Seed the Animal Spirit and Blood remain no longer what they were before whence it cannot be said that animal Spirits remain in the Seed that should be able to begin the first Motion of the Heart 8. Because the Motion of the Animal Spirits does not proceed from the Brain but altogether from the Heart and this Motion of the Heart ceasing all Animal Motion ceases As is apparent when Wounds penetrate the Ventricles of the Heart for that the Blood not being forced into the great Artery and the Heart but flowing out through the Wound of the Ventricles presently at the very same instant the Brain rests and the Animal Spirits are no longer sent through the Nerves to the moving Parts neither are they moved in the Brain which is the reason that a Man so wounded falls of a suddain depriv'd of all his principal Faculties and of all Sense and Motion The same appears in Convulsions and Fitts of the Mother affecting the Heart and such like Distempers in which frequently the noxious Vapours and Humours reach no farther than the Heart but not as yet to the Brain and so the Heart ceases to beat the Brain remaining unendamaged which nevertheless upon the ceasing of the Motion of the Heart presently ceases to be mov'd nor does it begin to move again till first the Heart begins to move But most manifestly of all does this appear in Wounds of the Head that take away some part of the Scull and the Brain it self as we have seen in the Camp For if the Patient fall into a Convulsion presently we see the Motion of the Heart ceases but if the Heart begin again to beat which is easily perceived by the Patients Pulse not before but presently after some Pulses the Heart begins by little and little again to be mov'd and after the Brain by degrees all the rest of the Members are mov'd These are all certain Signs that the Heart is not mov'd by the Animal Spirits thrust forward into it from the Brain but that the Brain and by means of that the Animal Spirits are mov'd by the Blood sent upward In the mean time I will not deny but that by reason of certain Nerves scarcely discernable descending toward the Basis of the Heart the Orifices of it are somewhat less sometimes more loosen'd or contracted as in the Passions of the Mind and for this reason that the Blood in the Ventricles is sometimes more difficultly sometimes more easily expell'd according to the various Determination of the Animal Spirits to those Orifices Nevertheless the continual Motion of the Heart does not proceed from thence tho' this be not the cause of any Impediments to hinder from performing its Motion freely and equally as in the respiratory Motion of the Breast sometimes Impediments arise from the Muscles of the Larynx too much contracted by the help of the Animal Spirits flowing thorough the Nerves tho' those Muscles are no cause of Respiration And thus I have
to the Eyes in an Egg 2. Whence that Motion proceeds in Fish and other Creatures that have no Lungs and but one Ventricle of the Heart 3. By what is it occasion'd in the Hear of an Eel which after all the adjoyning parts are cut away sometimes beats after it is taken out of the Body That says Maurocordatus is a Trembling Motion Which we deny because that for some time it observes the true measure of Beating till the approach of Death and then it comes indeed to be a trembling Motion Among all the foresaid six Sentences the second approaches the nearest to Truth but only it is to be explain'd a little more at large and somewhat after another manner For here are two things wanting in the first place what dilates the Blood and secondly it does not sufficiently explain how the Heart is mov'd when the Blood does not flow into the Ventricles Which two things are to be more narrowly examin'd for the discovery of the Truth VII In the first Conception the Spirituous Blossom which is in the Seed is collected and concluded in a little Bubble wherein there is a delineation made of all the parts by the vivific Seed that lies in the Blossom which gives to all the Parts their Matter Form and Being and abides in all and singular the Parts being form'd and variously operates therein according to their diversity The most subtle and sharpest part of this is setl'd in the Heart which by its extraordinary acrimony obtains an extraordinary power of Fermentation by which the Humors pouring into the Heart are there dilated as Gunpowder is dilated and set afire by the heat of the Flame And as Gunpowder has no actual heat in it self but being kindled receives a burning heat so the Blood in the Heart being dilated by that same Spirit waxes very hot and fiery By reason of which heat Cartesius calls this Spirit a continual heat abiding in our Hearts as long as we live which is a kind of Fire which the Blood of the Veins nourishes and is the corporal beginning of all the Motions of our Members For that this Spirit by its continual agitation and dilatation supplies the heat with a continual fewel But in regard it is much dissipated by this continual agitation it has need of continual supply to the end the dissipated Particles may be continually restor'd This Supply is maintain'd by the most subtle Particles of the Blood attenuated in the Heart entring the Pores of the Heart and infus'd into it through the Coronal Arteries which Blood if it be good and sound then this Spirit is rightly supply'd and the Heart continues strong and vigorous if otherwise through bad Diet and deficiency of the Bowels then this Spirit is ill supply'd and the Heart becomes weak and infirm Now this Spirit abiding in the whole substance of the Heart forthwith dilates in the Heart both the Blood and all other proper humors whatever Which Action is sometimes swifter sometimes slower more vehement or weaker as the Matter to be dilated is fitted more or less for dilatation by the fermentaceous Particles mix'd with it and the Spirit it self is more or less vigorously stirr'd up into Act by the greater or lesser heat for these two things are the cause of all alterations of Pulses Thus in Fevers where there is more or less heat and the Matter to be dilated is thinner and more volatile there the Pulses beat thicker and swifter But if that Matter as is usual in putrid Fevers has many unequal Particles some more some less easie to be dilated then the Pulse becomes unequal if the Blood be colder and thicker the Pulse is slow and beats seldom When it is cool'd it diminishes at first then ceases altogether but being warm'd again with new Blood or warm Water it presently begins to beat again The said Spirit being stirr'd up by the heat by and by dilates and ferments the Humors and that two manner of ways First By fermenting those Humors that flow in great quantity through the hollow and Pulmonary Vein into the Ventricles of the Heart by the fermentation and dilatation of which and the rapid agitation of the least Particles between themselves a great heat is kindled in the Heart This heat presently whets and sharpens the same Spirit abiding in the innermost and thicker substance of the Heart and its Fibres which so excited presently somewhat dilates the subtle Blood infus'd into the Substance and Fibres for Nourishment and hence it is that the Fibres of the Heart are forthwith contracted which causes an expulsion of the Blood in the Cavity of the Ventricles Then again new Blood flowing into the Ventricles there happens a dilatation of the same with a sharp Heat and by that means a distension of the Ventricles at the same time which by reason of the kindled heat presently follows dilatation of the same into the Pores of the Substance about the Fibres and by that means there happens again a contraction of the whole Heart and Ventricles which things proceed in a certain order so long as Life lasts Now this Motion proves the more vehement because the Fibres being dilated beyond their poise presently when the Blood dilated in the Ventricles easily breaks forth through the broad Arteries they are as easily again contracted beyond their measure by the dilatation of the inner Blood so that same distension and contraction beyond the due Aequilibrium causes indeed the Pulses to be stronger but yet they are not the first cause of the Motion which is only an alternate dilatation of the Blood sometimes in the Ventricles sometimes in the Substance of the Heart VIII Hence it appears why Pulsation remains in the Hearts of Eels and other vivacious Creatures being taken out of the Body though no Blood be then pout'd out of the great Vessels into the Ventricles because the said Spirit abiding in their hearts is easily rais'd into Act by the small remaining heat and acts upon the Blood abiding in the Substance it self and by something dilating of it contracts the Fibres Afterwards that dilated Matter being somewhat dispell'd they are again relax'd Which not only appears in hearts that are whole but in the hearts of some after they are cut into pieces and in the several pieces themselves But because in such cases there is no new Blood dilated in the Ventricles and consequently no new heat nor any distension of the Fibres beyond their Position hence in hearts that are taken out and cut in pieces the motion is weak and quickly ceases This I perswade my self to be the true cause of the Motion of the heart till some body else shall shew me any other more probable CHAP. VIII Of the Pulse and Circulation of the Blood I. THE Motion of the Heart is by the Greeks call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Latins Pulsus by which the Heart alternately rises and falls It is perform'd by Dilatation and Contraction between which two
Fermentation is prevented if the oily Particles too much exceed the salt Here it may be octjected That in Agues the sulphury Heat predominates and yet the Animal Actions are not always dull and numm'd in such Persons Which comes to pass because that in such Persons the sulphury and oily Particles of the Blood do not exceed nor stupifie the Salt with their Oiliness and Quantity but by their Heat and Motion stirring up their Acrimony to more vehement Action produce an Effervescency either too strong or vicious and Aguish VI. But to return to the Business Out of the Sanguineous Mass by convenient Concoctions and Fermentations of the Bowels double Spirits are rais'd that is to say Sulphureous and Salt the one sweetish and the other sowr both very subtil and thin and confus'd together and yet one more volatile than the other like the Sulphury Spirits in Oils chymically extracted out of Vegetables and the Salt Spirits Chymically drawn from Salts and salt things But that the Sulphury Spirits are more thin and volatile is apparent in the Distillation of Vegetables for they are first of all and most easily separated and ascend the Alembick unless too much perplex'd among the Salt or being less attenuated by them by reason of their Oiliness but the salt Spirits ascend last and with more difficulty whose Acrimony the Taste distinguishes from the Sweetness of the Sulphur But the foresaid Spirits of the Sanguineous Mass out of which they are rais'd by Fermentations are mingled with it and carry'd forthwith to the Heart and there being often attenuated and dilated are so exactly united that they wax as it were one Spirit which we call Vital VII Now the Vital Spirit is the most subtil and efficacious Part of the Blood generated out of its Sulphury and Salt Particles dilated by the Fermentation of the Heart I say the most subtile and efficacious Part of the Blood that is to say that which is rais'd out of its Sulphury and Salt Particles for every thin and vaporous Substance as that which is raised out of the serous part of the Blood is not so be call'd a Spirit because it is no efficacious part of the Blood though sometimes less to be discern'd than the effectual Spirit it self but that which through the copious admixture of it self breaks the efficacy of its Spirits and withstands their Agility When the Blood slides into the Heart presently the frame and composure of the whole Liquor is dissolv'd and the Spirituous Particles the Bond of mixture being loosen'd are exactly united together and endeavour to expand themselves every way but being restrain'd by the Vessels on the inside they are mix'd with the other Liquor and so burst forth into the open Tubes or Channels of the Arteries through which together with the Blood they are poured forth over the whole Body with the Blood and Effluviums of Heat VIII Now some there are who with Argenterius stifly deny this Spirit different from the Blood to be in the Blood though others with no less heat assert it But this Contention seems easie to be compos'd if we allow it to be the most subtile part of the Blood free'd from the thicker Matter and exalted to an extraordinary Thinness mix'd indeed with the whole but easily separable from it for that the perfection of the Blood consists in its Mixture which without this Spirit would be only a crude and unprofitable Humor In like manner as in Wine the Spirit gives the Wine its perfection and is the subtilest part of it and by how much the Spirit is better by so much is the Wine better Yet this is separable by Chymistry from the Wine but then the remaining Substance of the Wine becomes a crude watery and unprofitable Liquor And therefore the foresaid Question may be thus decided If we mean good and perfect Blood then it may be well said that the Vital Spirit is in the Blood and that it is not different from it as being the most subtile part of it rais'd out of it self which by its presence constitutes the perfection of the Blood But if we mean Blood simply so call'd as being that which is dissipated from the Blood the Blood remaining such as is to be found in dead People which is not perfect because there is no volatile Spirit remaining therein then the Spirit may be said to be different from the Blood or to be generated in it the Blood still existing which moreover were it in it would predominate in it and agitate the thicker Particles of the Blood one with another But when as Aristotle witnesses nothing is agitated or mov'd by it self it may be well said that the other thicker particles of the Blood are not mov'd by themselves but by another Mover that is the Spirit which nevertheless is nothing else but a part of the Sanguineous Mass exalted to Spirituosity Here perhaps some will object If this Spirit agitates other Particles of the Blood one with another then the Blood contains in it self the Cause of its own Motion and is not mov'd by the Heart I answer That the Motion of the Blood is double one circulatory which without doubt proceeds from the Heart by which Motion being in good part spiritualiz'd it is carry'd through the Arteries to all the Parts of the Body The other Fermentaceous which is made by this Spirit by which the least Particles of it are agitated one among another while this Spirit passes through them like a Ferment and divides 'em one from another which vehement Fermentaceous Motion is observ'd in the Crisis's of Fevers and the Emotion of the Flowers But this Motion also proceeds from the Heart so far as it continually begets this Spirit by dilating the Blood mixes it with the Blood and quickens it by its Motion into Act so that the Motion of the Heart ceasing this also ceases IX This Vital Spirit while it always endeavors to fly away by reason of its extraordinary Volatility continually agitates the other thicker Particles of the Blood that retard it and re-assume its flight and by them shaken after a various manner and by reason of way deny'd it often beaten back again by which means it divides them one from another conquers subtilizes and detains them in a continual Fermentative Motion from which Motion and Agitation of the subtile Matter proceeds Heat which being moderate in a moderate Agitation small in a small one and violent in a violent Agitation hence it happens that the Blood according to the variety of this Agitation which may happen and alter upon divers Accidents becomes more or less hot By this Motion thus stirr'd up by the Spirit the Blood is not only preserv'd in its Heat and perfect Soundness that is by the bond of exact Mixture but is also render'd fluid thin and apt for Nourishment which depriv'd of that Motion and Spirit grows thick corrupts and grows unprofitable The same Spirit also contributes such a Thinness of
Hippocrates witnesses which could never be if they did not live However they who deny the Blood and Spirits Life seem in our Judgment to be most in the Right 1. Because the Blood and Spirits have not within themselves the Principle of their own Motion as bequeath'd to them from the Soul but because they have their Motion by force of the solid Parts which are mov'd by the Soul as the Heart Brain c. By the Force of which and that often according to the diversity of the Motions of the Mind the Motion of the Chylus Choler and sometimes of the Excrements and various other Humors is promoted and excited which no man however in his Wits will affirm to be living 2. That the Soul of the flesh is said to be in the Blood so far as animated or enliven'd Flesh wants Blood nay and Air too as the next Support without which his Life cannot subsist To the Third That Seed Potentially enliven'd and living is not generated out of the Blood and Spirits because the Spirituous Blood out of which it is made is living but by reason that by a new Specific Mixture and Disposition of the Sanguineous Mixture brought to Perfection by the Heat and Specific Property of the Seminifying Parts a new and potentially Vital Form is introduc'd which was not before in the Matter not Vital as we see dead Bodies rotten Wood Cheese Rain-water and Vinegar long expos'd to the Heat of the Sun will produce Worms alive whereas there is no Life in any of these things To the Fourth That Hippocrates does not ascribe Nourishment properly so call'd to the Blood and Spirits but only their continual Generation and Supply out of the Chylus As we say the Flame of a Lamp is nourish'd with Oil because the Oil is the next Matter with which the Flame is nourish'd To these I add That in an Animal Life cannot be but in the Parts of the Body out of which number that the Blood and Spirits are manifestly excluded we have sufficiently demonstrated l. 1. c. 1. Here some one will urge That the Seed is no Part of the Body and yet it lives Potentially and therefore why not the Blood I answer That though the Seed is a Part of the Body as of Peter being present from whom it was cut off and still perhaps remains in his Spermatic Vessels nevertheless it is only Part of the Body of a future Animal which is to live even such a Matter as contains in it self the Ideas of all the Parts of the Animal that is to be form'd But the Blood cannot be said to be a Part of Peter or the Living Creature but only a Humor or Juice next nourishing the Parts and to be agglutinated and assimilated to the Substance by new Concoction and so to be enliven'd with it at the same time XL. From what has been said the Use of the Blood appears to be for the Nourishment of all the Parts that is not only to afford Matter to be assimilated to every Part but to convey a hot Vital Spirit which excites the Actions and Concoctions of all and singular the Parts and to cause the fit Matter for Assimilation to be assimilated and supply'd in the room of that which is wasted and dissipated by the Heat XLI But seeing the Blood is carry'd as well through the Arteries as Veins the Question is Whether the Parts are nourish'd by Veiny or Arterious Blood Anciently it was believ'd that the Parts were nourish'd by the Veiney Blood because the Blood was thought to be made in the Liver and thence to be carry'd through the Veins to the Parts Which Error being discover'd by the Circulation of the Blood since which time it has been observ'd that the Blood is made only in the Heart and from thence forc'd through the Arteries to the Parts and only carry'd back from the Parts through the Veins thence it has been apparently made clear that the Body of Man is nourish'd chiefly by Arterious Blood I say chiefly because though it cannot be deny'd while the Blood returns through the Veins to the Heart but that some small part of it sweating through the Pores of the Vessels or Tunicles are fix'd up and down to various Parts and nourish them and that the Tunicles of the Veins themselves are nourish'd by the Blood which they carry and that the greatest part of the Liver receives its Nourishment from the Veiny Blood as is apparent from the vast number of Veins and small quantity of Arteries that creep through it yet in some other places where the Arteries accompany the Veins it is manifest that the Parts are chiefly nourish'd by Arterious Blood being more spirituous and concocted and with greater violence forc'd through the Ends of the small Arteries into the Pores of the Parts XLII This ancient Opinion receiv'd by all the Physicians in the Schools about the Nourishment of the Parts by the Blood has Gualter Charleton oppos'd with great Heat and endeavors to destroy it with most Strenuous Arguments as he believes by shewing the unaptness of the Blood for Nutrition The Sum of all his Arguments are these 1. The Blood consists of Four Juices which by farther Concoction degenerate all into Melancholy with which impure Juice all the Parts cannot be nourish'd yet all would be nourish'd with it were they nourish'd by the Blood 2. The Blood never comes to many Parts as the Brain the Bones the Sinews the Ligaments c. 3. Lean men who have most Blood eat most and are less nourish'd than fat People who have nevertheless less Blood whose Veins are narrower and their Diet more sparing 4. They that die famish'd or of a Consumption have a great quantity of Blood remaining in their Veins after their Decease which therefore might have serv'd for farther Nourishment and have prevented their Death 5. The Blood in all parts preserves its Redness neither does it lose its Colour in those parts that encline to White therefore it does not nourish them 6. Hippocrates cur'd a Consumptive Person whom Victuals did no good by frequent Blood-letting 7. The Blood is carry'd through the Arteries to the Parts is mix'd therein with a copious Serum and is there much less Fat and Oily than in the Veins through which it is carry'd back from the Parts 8. The Blood is of a quite different Nature from many Parts of the Body as the Brain Bones Membranes c. 9. The manner of Nutrition is the Progress of the Nourishment from a state of Crudity or Fixation to a state of Fusion by which its Spirits before fix'd are exalted to a farther degree of Activity which Spirits adhering to the Blood and like a Glutton devouring dissolving and dissipating the Nutritive Substance of the Parts render it unfit for the nourishment of the Parts for the consolidating of which a more fix'd nourishment is requir'd 10. The Blood it self is nourish'd by the Chylus therefore it cannot nourish other
several Parts which Salt and Sulphur are likewise the Principles of the Blood Moreover Similitude does not lie in the Colour which may be easily alter'd by any new Concoction but in the Particles that constitute the Substance as well of the Parts as of the Blood To the Ninth I say That Charleton confounds Nutrition with Sangnification and that what he speaks here of Nutrition belongs to Sanguification between which there is a great Difference For Aliment is not sublim'd to a greater Spirituosity for the Benefit of Nutrition but for the making of good Blood which afterwards undergoes another Change for the procuring of Nutrition which Nutrition does not consist in a farther Sublimation of the Spirits but rather in a certain new Fixation To which I farther add That the Vital Spirits do not like Cormorants consume the Substance of the Solid Parts but preserve it in its Saneness neither do they render the Blood unfit for Nutrition but fit and that those Spirits infus'd into the Parts with the Blood excite them to their Functions and as it were force them to an Assimilation with the Nourishment brought which Assimilation could never be brought to pass without the Assistance of these Spirits Now how the Spirituous Nourishment is again fix'd see l. 3. c. 11. To the Tenth I say It is no fair Consequence The Blood is nourish'd by the Chylus therefore it cannot nourish other Parts For so it would follow Wheat is nourish'd by the Iuice of the Earth therefore being eaten ot cannot nourish the Chylus So also I say of Heat Wine Wheat and other Nourishments contain in themselves a hot Spirit therefore they cannot be chang'd into Chylus and Blood Why Because a hot Spirit uses to prâ—…y upon the fluid Parts What vain Conclusions these are By reason of the Spirituous Heat of the Blood without which the Blood is altogether unprofitable for Nutrition it is said that it cannot nourish the Parts shall therefore any cold Body or Humor void of all Heat be Nourishment or profitable for Nourishment To the Eleventh I say That here Charleton altogether forgot himself For before out of Harvey he had asserted That the Blood was allow'd to be before any other Part of the Body appear'd and that out of that proceeded the Matter of which the Birth was form'd and its Nourishment If this Position of his were true where 's the Difficulty but that the Parts which are made out of the Blood should be nourish'd with the Blood Moreover if the Colliquation of the Seed be like the Parts that are to be nourish'd and that again like to the Blood then shall the Blood be like the Parts that are to be nourish'd Nevertheless we that do not believe the Parts to be fram'd out of the Blood give this Answer to his Proposition That the Parts are at first form'd out of the Spirituous Liquor of the Bubble and nourish'd with the Colliquation of the Seed but that the whole Substance of this Seed is taken out of the Arterious Blood flowing through the Spermatic Arteries to the Stones to which also the Animal Spirits are also sent through several little Nerves therefore the whole Matter of the Seed Bubble and Colliquament is in the Blood and being concocted specially in the several Parts acquires no less an Aptiude to nourish the several Parts than being generally concocted in the Stones it obtains an Aptness generally to form at first all those Parts and so we must conclude That all the Parts have their first Conformation and their subsequent Growth and Nutrition from a Juice altogether similar which is prepar'd before the one in the Stones before the other in the several Parts and so the Ancient Axiom is true We are nourish'd with the same things of which we consist And that other Oracle of Aristotle The Matter is the same which augments the Growth of a Creature with that out of which it was first form'd Lastly I answer to the Conclusion That the Comparison was ill made between the Fermentation in the Heart and the Flame of a Lamp Which Comparison is easily endur'd among Poets and Orators who only mind Ornament and Elegancy of Words but not among Philosophers that are enquiring after the Mysteries of Nature For Flame does not only dissipate the Subject to which it adheres but also destroys it and dissolves the whole Mixture of it and renders it useless but the Fermentation of the Heart does not destroy the Blood nor utterly dissolve its Mixture but by means of the dilatation of the whole Mass renders it more exact and strong and so brings the Blood to a greater perfection and generates Spirits therein which as they are thin hot and pure entring the whole Mass of the Blood preserve it in its perfection and together with the Blood which is their own Subject of which they are a part being infus'd into the Parts of the Body by their extraordinary Heat raise into Act the drowsie Heat of all the Parts True it is that those Spirits by reason of their extraordinary Subtility and Mobility continually exhale in great Quantity and by dissolving them with their Heat cause a Dissolution of many fluid Particles of the Body but this is not because of any Destruction but by reason of their extraordinary Subtility I will give you a Similitude Wine when it is distill'd the Spirit of Wine arising out of it is not destroy'd by the Heat of the Fire that promotes the Distillation but is sublim'd to a greater Subtility and Perfection there remaining all the while in it the Sulphury and Salt particles in a strict Union the most part of whose Subtility therefore exhales and is dissipated in the Air. But the contrary happens in the Oil of a Lamp which is indeed attenuated but so far from being brought to a greater perfection that it is totally destroy'd For the Oil is not made the better or more Spirituous but the whole Composition of it is destroy'd neither does it remain any longer Oil nor is made Spirit of Oil Like Wood when it is burnt is thereby reduc'd to Smoke and Ashes Or if the Spirit of Wine should take Fire it would not thereby be made more perfect but wholly destroy'd And thus it is with our Bodies as in Distillation and not as in the Flame and therefore the Comparison of Fermentation with Flame is altogether absurd I confess Blood is the Matter and Subject of the Animal Spirits but thence it does not follow that it cannot nourish all the parts of the Body Rather we are thence to infer that it nourishes all the parts seeing it contains the Nutritive Matter and the Vital Spirit that promotes that Nourishment And thus falls this new Opinion so obstinately by some defended and by others as unwarily embrac'd XLIII N. Zas In his Dutch Treatise Of the Dew of Animals believes That the Lymphatic Liquor only nourishes the Spermatic Parts For this is that which he understands by his Dew Of which
of the whole Lungs because of the great Quantity of Air suck'd in oppressing its Vessels To which in the last place we may add That the Chylus dilated in the Heart presently loses the Form of Chylus and becomes Blood so that nothing of the Chylus enters the Lungs to be there fermented but that the vaporous Blood enters the Lungs made of the Chylus dilated in the Right Ventricle of the Heart to be therein somewhat condens'd by the Cold of the Air suck'd in and to be attenuated out of Vapour into Liquor By the force of these Reasons several other of Thurston's Arguments may be easily confuted which he deduces from Exercises Asthma's and the Boylean Engin and several other things for the Confirmation of his Opinion XXXI Therefore it remains unquestionable That Respiration no way conduces toward the making of Blood in the Lungs nor for the Respiration Mixture or Circumvolution of it but only for its Refrigeration Which is apparent farther from hence for that if the Refrigeration requir'd in the Lungs could be effected by any cooling thing or Cold coming any other way to the Lungs Respiration were in vain and ought to cease for a time as is manifest by many Examples to be produc'd in the Question Whether a man might live without Respiration XXXII The Secondary Use of the Lungs is in Expiration to enable the Spirit to send forth Vocal Sounds and to Cough XXXIII But the Motion of the Lungs in reference to Dilatation and Constriction which happens in Respiration is not Active but Passive Hence Galen assigns no Action at all to it because this Bowel is not mov'd of it self in its proper Breathing Motion but follows the Motion of the Breast which is apparent from hence for that the Lungs on both sides are firmly knit and fastn'd to the Pleura for in such Men it would be hinder'd by its Connexion in that Motion whereas they feel no hindrance in Respiration because the Lungs are dilated and drawn together according to the Motion of the Breast XXXIV Platerus is of another Iudgment in this Matter as also Riolanus who believe the Lungs in moderate Respiration to be mov'd by their own Motion proceeding from their innate Force without any manifest Motion of the Breast Nay in Apoplecticks where the Motion of all the Muscles is abolish'd the Lungs are not only mov'd of themselves but also by their own Motion move the Breast and in Dogs also and in other Living Creatures if the whole Thorax should be open'd of a sudden so that the Muscles could conduce nothing to the Motion of the Lungs yet the Lungs are to be seen moving violently upwards and downwards for all that The same thing Averrhoes believ'd of old who produces this Argument for its Confirmation If Respiration says he which is perpetual should follow the Motion of the Breast then there would be a perpetual violent Motion in our Breasts but the latter is absurd and therefore the former Sennertus also is of the same Opinion The Lungs says he are mov'd by their proper Power and the Lungs and Thorax are mov'd together because they conspire to one end The Lungs are dilated by an innate Force which that it may be done more conveniently and find Room wherein to be dilated when the Lungs are mov'd the Animal Faculty also moves the Breast XXXV To these Difficulties I answer That the two first Assertions are false in regard that no man can breathe when the Motion of the Muscles of the Thorax and Abdomen ceases altogether neither could any such Disposition of the Parts of Man be found wherein the Lungs do move the Thorax remaining unmoveable For the Truth of which I appeal to the Experience of every Man For though in Apoplectics the Motion of the Muscles of the Thorax is not altogether abolish'd but only impair'd yet when it ceases altogether Respiration ceases and the Party dies as alway the Breathing Motion of the Lungs perishes when the Motion of the Thorax ceases Neither is that Motion of the Lungs which is seen in Live Dogs upon the sudden opening of the Thorax a breathing Motion which happens with the expansion of the Lungs but an accidental Motion rais'd by the Diaphragma as drawing with it upward and downward the annex'd Mediastinum of the Lungs adhering to it but without any Dilatation without which there can be no Respiration nor any Air admitted To the Argument of Averrhoes I answer That whatever follows the Motion of another Part does not of necessity follow by violence for then the natural and perpetual Motions of the Arteries and Brain were to be said to be perpetual violent Motions because they perpetually proceed from and follow the Motion of the Heart Besides that is no violent Motion that proceeds according to the customary Course of Nature although it follow the Motion of another Part but that which is preternatural and disorderly as happens in a Convulsion Lastly for a Conclusion I add That not only the firm Connexion of the Lungs with the Pleura but also Experience it self teaches us That the Breathing Motion of the Lungs is not spontaneous For do but open the Thorax of a living Animal on each side the Breathing Motion in the Lungs of Dilatation and Contraction ceases there being a free Passage for the Air through the wound into the cavity of the Thorax so that in the Dilatation of the Thorax the Air does not necessarily enter into the Lungs through the Rough Artery and distend it to fill the concavity of the Breast which Cessation of Motion would not happen if the Lungs should move of themselves for there is no reason to be given why it should be less dilated upon the opening of the Breast than when it is shut Which sufficiently refutes the Opinion of Sennertus who believes that the Lungs are fill'd like a pair of Bellows because they are dilated for by the foresaid opening of the Breast it is apparent that the Lungs are not dilated of themselves seeing that by the Dilatation of the Breast the Air is compell'd for the prevention of a Vacuum to enter the Rough Artery and so to fill and dilate the Lungs XXXVI From this Opinion of Averrhois and our own Aristotle dissents who teaches That the Lungs are mov'd by the Heart in which Particular Hoffman also agrees with him This others as stifly deny and others as badly interpret of the Breathing Motion But the Mistake of all sides proceeds from hence That they do not sufficiently distinguish between the Natural Motion which the Heart contributes to the Lungs and the Breathing Motion which does not proceed from the Heart For that the Heart does contribute some certain small Motion to the Lungs is most certain for when the dilated Blood is forc'd through the Pulmonary Artery into the Lungs out of the Right Ventricle of the Heart Reason it self shews us that the Lungs are mov'd and heave as for the same
Reason the Arteries are mov'd and swell though this small Motion is so obscur'd by the forcibly Breathing Motion that in live Lungs it can hardly be perceiv'd by Ocular Inspection And Aristotle is to be understood of this Motion Yet is not that the Breathing Motion of which the Anatomists generally discourse when they talk of the Motion of the Lungs which indeed neither proceed from the Heart nor the Lungs but is accidental and follows the Motion of the Breast Moreover If the breathing Motion should proceed from the Heart the Pulses of the Heart and Respiration would of necessity keep exact time together and the Lungs would equally swell upon every Pulsation of the Heart as in the Arteries and hence the Breast would be dilated and when the Motion of the Heart stood still the Lungs would also stand still Moreover the Inequality of Respiration would be a Sign of an unequal Pulse but Experience tells us the contrary For the Respirations are much less frequent than the Pulses of the Heart Moreover Respiration may be slower or quicker more or less according to the pleasure of him that breaths whereas the Pulse cannot be alter'd at the Will of any Person What has been said sufficiently refutes Maurocordatus who ascribing the whole Motion of the Lungs to the Heart says That when the Heart contracting the Sides causes a Systole then the Diaphragma is erected and the Rings of the Rough Artery are contracted and so the Lungs exspire or breathe outward But when the Heart causes the Diastole then the Diaphragma descending draws down the Lungs and dilates the Rings of it which causes breathing inward Which Opinion of his he endeavours to confirm with many Arguments which are destroy'd however by the aforesaid Reasons as is also that Argument That in an intermitting Pulse Respiration does not stop upon the intermitting of the Motion of the Heart which if the Mover stopp'd must of necessity stand still it self And as for what he from hence concludes That the Blood is drawn out of the Vena Cava by Respiration into the Right Ventricle to supply Respiration and from thence into the Pulmonary Artery c. These things need no Refutation since there is no such Attraction to be allow'd in their Bodyâ—… since all the Humors are mov'd by Impulsion XXXVII Therefore the Motion of Respiration depends neither upon the Heart nor the Muscles of the Breast which when they dilate the Heart presently the Air enters the Lungs through the Aspera Arteria and dilates them but when they contract the Breast they expel it the same way together with the Serous Vapors But whether we say this Entrance of the Air be either to avoid a Vacuum as some believe or by the pressing forward of the external Air by the dilated Breast and by that means the Impulsion of it through the Aspera Arteria into the Lungs as others assert comes all to one pass when both may be true about which some men so idly quarrel XXXVIII In reference to this Motion of Respiration there is a Question debated among the Philosophers what sort of Action it is For some say it is Natural others Animal others mix'd of both XXXIX But it is apparent by what has been said That Respiration is an Animal Action because it is performed by Instruments that all serve to Animal Motion that is to say the Muscles and may be quicken'd or delay'd augmented or decreas'd at our own Pleasure as in those that sing and sound any sort of Wind-Musick and there may be some resolute Men that have held their Breath till they have dy'd as Galen tells the Story of a Barbarian Slave that kill'd himself by holding his Breath And we find two other Examples in Valerius Maximus of the same Nature XL. If any one Object That a voluntary Act is done with ones Consent and cannot be perpetual and that all animal diuturnal Motion causes Lassitude which Respiration does not which moves continually Day and Night even when we are asleep and know nothing of it I answer That those are truly to be call'd Animal and Voluntary Actions which may be or are done according to our own Will and Pleasure so that although Respiration go forward when we are asleep and know nothing of it nevertheless it is an Animal Action when it may be guided by our own Will so soon as we are awake and know any thing of it They that walk and talk in their Sleep though they know nothing of it yet are talking and walking no less Animal Actions for all that For the Animality of Actions does not consist in Acting only but in being able to Act by the management and directions of the Will And therefore we are to understand that what Galen teaches us That the Animal Actions some are perform'd by Instinct and are free and that others serve ro the Affections of the Mind that the one proceeds perpetually and without impediment when we least think of it yet might be otherwise directed by us iâ—… we were aware of which number is Respiration Others are not perpetual as Fighting Running Dancing Writing c. In the one according to Custom there is a sufficient and continual Influx of Animal Spirits into the Muscles and for this reason there is no Lassitude though the Actions are diuturnal But in the other the Spirits according to the determination made in the Brain flow sometimes at this sometimes at that time sometimes in greater sometimes in less Quantity and thence proceeds Weariness XLI There is one Doubt remaining Whether a Man born may live for any time without Respiration Galen says it is impossible but that a man that breaths should live and that a living man should breathe And again he says Take away Respiration and take away Life And indeed all the Reasons already brought for the necessity of Respiration confirm Galen's Opinion and it is no more than what daily Experience confirms Yet on the other side it is a thing to be demonstrated by sundry Examples that some men have liv'd a long while without any Respiration XLII Those Divers in India who dive for Pearl and Corals to the Bottom of the deepest Rivers will stay for the most part half an hour and more under Water without taking Breath 2. A very stately Ship being built at Amsterdam for the King of France by Misfortune was sunk near the Texel into which the Spanish Ambassador having put aboard a Chest full of Gold he hir'd a Sea-man that was a Diver to go into the Ship as it lay under Water and to endeavour to get out this Chest. This Diver staid half an hour under Water and upon his Return said he had found the Chest but could not draw it out 3. I saw my self two notable Examples at Nimeghen In the Year 1636. a certain Country Fellow who dy'd of the Plague as 't was thought lay three days for dead without any sign of Respiration or
when they spurted in any black Liquor with a Syringe into the Root of the Carotid Artery they observ'd that black Liquor to pass through innumerable Arterious Veiny Branches till it flow'd at length into those Hollownesses and out of them into the Jugular Veins Bauhinus and Veslingius also write That certain little Pipes belonging to the Hollownesses run out between the Veins and Arteries into the Substance of the Meninxes and the Brain Walaeus also observing the wider Orifices of certain small Vessels open into the Hollownesses and that the ends of the small Arteries could not possibly be so wide believes that these small Pipes meet by Anastomosis with the Extremities of the Arteries dispersed through the Meninxes and the Brain and so receive from them the Blood remaining after nourishment of the Parts and empty it into the Hollownesses Which Anastomosis Highmore figures out with egregious big Lines in his 18th Table of his 3d. Book But Walaeus does not consider that the Orifices of the little Arteries gaping into the Hollownesses are not wide but very small and that the Vessels which open into them with wider Orifices are Veins which running large and numerous through the Meninx empty themselves into the Hollownesses So that there is no necessity to feign any small Pipes produc'd from the Hollownesses when our Eye-sight plainly tells us that those Arteries and Veins reach with their Extremities and open into the Hollownesses without the help of any small Pipes Into these Hollownesses therefore the Blood which remains after nourishment of the Meninxes and Brain empties it self through the Vein and that which seeks to flow in greater quantity into those parts through the Arteries and thither also flows the Blood redundant in the Choroides Fold through the Vein which sometimes streight sometimes forked runs between the middle Fold in the third Ventricle above the Pine-Apple-Kernel which Vein Galen calls the Vein that rises from no other Vein and ascends through the fourth Hollowness into the upper large Hollowness and thence by and by into the two lateral Hollownesses toward the Mastoides Excrescencies or the Basis of the hinder part of the Head to return from thence into the innermost Branches of the Jugular Vein immediately united and continuous to them and so to the Heart Now by means of that Blood being forc'd through the Orifices of the small Arteries into the Hollownesses it comes to pass that in the Cranium of a living Animal there is observ'd to be a manifest Pulsation in the uppermost large Hollowness which may be easily try'd in the Head of a Calf or Pig newly calv'd or farrow'd But because those Hollownesses are very wide hence the Blood which is pour'd into them and forc'd forward by the pulsations of the small Arteries by and by flows to the lower parts which is the reason that the uppermost larger Hollowness together with the two lateral Hollownesses are found for the most part empty without any Blood or containing very little and very seldom full of Blood which nevertheless we have frequently observ'd in People that were hang'd Hence it appears how grosly Lautenbergius is mistaken who believes the Animal Spirits to be generated in those Hollownesses as also Kypâ—…r who writes That the Blood is ventilated and refrigerated in them for the more commodious Uses of the Brain and more commodious Generation of Animal Spirits X. The other Membrane endu'd with an exquisite Sense of Feeling and furnish'd with several small Arteries and Veins is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tenuis Meninx and Pia Mater or the Thin Meninx and Holy Mother so call'd because it is extream thin and slender and like a tender and pious Mother immediately and softly enfolds the Brain and its Parts and prevents them from spreading abroad and also more profoundly involves and mantles its Cells and Turnings and so renders the exterior Superficies of the Brain as it were plain and smooth Which upper Connexion being loosned the Windings and Meanders as being cloath'd with this Meninx might be easily unfolded and separated From this thin Meninx proceeds also an extraordinary thin Membrane investing the innermost Ventricles of the Brain IX This Membrane is interwoven wiâ—…h wonderful and numerous Folds of small Vessels or little Nets penetrating to the innermost of the Kernels of the Rind of the Brain and rising from the Carotid and Cervical Arteries joyn'd together to and again with mutual Closures to the end that for the better nourishment of the great Bowel the Brain and the Confection of Animal Spirits plenty of Blood might flow from all parts through these innumerable Conduits Willis writes that he has observ'd several little Kernels interspac'd between these Folds of the Vessels which he says may be easily perceiv'd in a moister or Hydropic Brain though hardly visible in others But without doubt those Glandules here observ'd by Willis were some Kernels of the Rind it self of the Brain which swelling with serous Liquor and rising outward seem'd to him to be peculiar Kernels interspac'd between the Folds The Marrow or Pith of the Brain extended to the end of the Back-bone and all the Nerves proceeding from it receive a double Tunicle from these Meâ—…inxes which being defended and preserv'd they run forward to the several Parts for which they are appointed CHAP. V. Of the Brain I. THE Coverings being taken off we come to the Brain in Latin CEREBRUM by the Greeks call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the general Organ of Sence by means whereof the Soul which is the Princess and Governess of the Body performs all the Functions of the inward and outward Senses and voluntary Motion For here she sits and judges of the Sensations of the sensitive Parts and from hence as from a Fountain she communicates to all the sensitive Parts of the Body the Rays of all her Benignity the Animal Spirits begot in the Brai through the Channels or Rivulets of the Nerves and by them supplies to every one a Faculty to perform the Animal Actions II. Here in the first place some there are who raise a Question Whether the Brain be a Bowel or a Real Kernel And whether to be reckon'd among the number of the Bowels Hippocrates seems to have reckon'd it among the Kernels For says he the Brain is bigger than the rest of the Kernels as if he meant that the Brain were the biggest Kernel Wharton says it is a difficult thing to allow it any proportion common to the rest of the Bowels and therefore excludes it out of the number With Wharton also Malpigius seems to agree Others with Plato have plac'd it among the Marrows by reason of its Friability its Softness and its being surrounded with Bones though it differ from the Marrow of the Bones neither does it take fire as that does But they are all under Mistake who number it among the Kernels or the Marrow seeing that both the diversity of the Substance and Structure plainly shew that
that the Marrow may be mov'd after the same manner as the brain That this may be certainly known first the Skull of a living Creature is to be open'd then the Vertebers must be laid open and the long extended Marrow to be laid bare that a Judgment may be made upon the inspection both of the Marrow and the Brain but before any true observation could be made the Creature would die and the inspection of a dead Carcass would signifie little And therefore Plempius upon probable Grounds believes that the Marrow or Pith is likewise mov'd because it is a kind of production from the brain which therefore should be mov'd with the brain to the end that the Animal Spirits being admitted by Dilatation may press them out again by its Contraction XXIV The necessity of the said Motion though accidental is chiefly necessary that while it is dilated it may receive the Arterious Blood out of the Arteries and by its falling again may be able to force the Animal Spirits made out of that Blood toward the Nerves and the remainder of the Blood to the Hollownesses and Veins of the Meninx neither of which Actions can be perform'd without that Motion XXV The Brain then as hath been said is the Organ wherein and by the help of which the Animal Faculties by the assistance of the Animal Spirits generated therein are made XXVI But in regard the Animal Faculties both feel desire and move there is a Question arises In what part of the Brain they every one inhabit Fernelius believes that the feeling Faculty resides in the Meninxes of the Brain because they feel and are not mov'd That the moving Faculty is seated in the Marrow of the brain because that is mov'd yet has no feeling Which opinion Plempius refutes and rightly informs us that both Faculties are generated and dwell in the Substance it self of the brain and are thence communicated to the rest of the Parts Then again as to the principal Faculties the Imagination and Memory the Controversie runs high whether they are in the whole Substance of the brain whether all in one part of it or all distinct in distinct places Aetius and some others that follow the Arabians affirm that they abide in distinct Seats and allow to the Fancy the forepart to the Reason the middlemost and to the Memory the hindmost part of the Head induc'd by these Reasons 1. Because it rarely happens that one Faculty being deprav'd the other remains sound 2. Because the fore-part of the Head receiving a Wound the Phansie is disturb'd and impair'd and the hinder part of the Head being hurt proves detrimental to the Memory Others affirm these Actions to be exercis'd in the whole brain and only differ in the manner of their operation and that the brain is variously employ'd about them Which opinion Sennertus and Plempius uphold by strong Reasons But Ludovicus Mercatus seems to unite both these opinions together For says he though all the Faculties are in the brain however we must believe that one Faculty is more predominant in this or that Cavity than another as the Spirits are more thin more perfect and more elaborate in this Cavity and the Temperature more proper for this or that operation But Experience acknowledges all these opinions to be very uncertain and that nothing can be positively determin'd either as to the Place where or the Manner how these operations are perform'd For there are many Examples produc'd by Massa Carpus Fallopius Arcaeus Augenius Andreas à Croce Peter de Marchetois and others of Patients who having been wounded in their Heads have had considerable portions of their brains which have either dropt or been taken out while the principal Faculties have remain'd safe and sound which seems not very possible if these operations are perform'd in the whole Brain or any part of it seeing that the operating Organ being grievously wounded and some part of it taken away surely those most Noble Actionâ—…s must be very much impair'd I produce an Example a little lower of a certain young Person who had a large Impostume that grew in his Brain and penetrated to the upper Ventricles who nevertheless liv'd for 7 weeks together in perfect soundness of his Senses Another remarkable Example I met with Ian. 1670. in a young Girl upon whose Head by Misfortune had fallen a Stone that weigh'd near thirty Pound weight and broke all the right side of her Head with a Fracture of the Skull and Forehead about the Coronal Suture and the Brain wounded and much endamaged withal Which Brain two days after the taking out of fourteen pieces of broken Bones without any covering of the Meâ—…inxes began to shoot upward from the broad Wound and that by degrees to such a height that it came out without the Skull first as big as a Pigeon's next as big as a Hen's and lastly as big as a Goose Egg which protubeâ—…ant part being cut away with a filthy Stench another like it shot up again and so several putrify'd parts fell off of themselves so that during the Cure the quantity of the putrid Brain that was separated from the rest amounted to the bigness of a Man's Fist in which condition the Patient liv'd six and thirty days with a perfect soundness of Mind and Memory and all the Animal Actions performing their Duties though she were in that time taken with three Convulsion Fits and a Hickup After she was dead the Skull being taken off we found a large hollowness in the right side of her Brain by reason of the waâ—…e of so much of her putrify'd Brain which extended it self all along the upper Ventricle of the same side and side-ways passing the third or middle Ventricle as far as the Sphoenoides Bone This memorable Accident shews us how uncertain all things are which are conjectur'd concerning the Seats of the Faculties either distinct or ascrib'd to the whole Brain seeing that in this Maid all the operations of Life and Intellectuals remain'd in their full force and no way impeded by that putrefaction of the Brain which was empty'd out of her Skull But this may seem little if compar'd with what Theodore Kerckringius relates of a total deficiency of the Brain for he writes that he dissected a Boy that had lain five Months and a half sick oâ—… a Dropsie in his Head in whose Skull he found no Brain but only a little slimy Water which was a thing never before as he says taken notice oâ—… by any Anatomist Though many years before him Zacutus Lusitanus tells us of a â—…ad that was cur'd of a Wound in his Head and three years after dy'd of a Dropsie in his Head which being open'd there was nothing to be found but only a pure Water that was no way offensive to the Smell nor insipid to the Taste Something like this Costerâ—…s relates of a Boy born without a Brain which Boy Fontanus and Carpus assâ—…e us that they saw the 26th of
Decemb. 1629. Now in these Children where were the Animal Spirits made Where was the Seat of the principal Faculties and the common Sensory We must answer that these Observations contain a manifest Error not out of wilâ—…ul Mistake but the more sleight careless inspection of Kerckringius Zacutus Costerus and the rest For sâ—…st the Brain might not have been altogether defective as they thought but only through the extraordinary redundance of the Serum was so soften'd that it seem'd to be a perfect Slime which was the reason that few Animal Spirits were generated and that the operations of the principal Faculties were weakly perform'd and so at length the Children dy'd Secondly Kerckringius Zacutus and Coster through their over-hasty inspection might not observe whether there were not something remaining of a more solid Brain by which the foresaid operations might be perform'd Vesalius in the Ventricles of the Brain of one that dy'd of the same Distemper found nine pints of Serum by which means the upper part of the Brain to the thickness of a Membrane by means of its extension was become very thin However all this while the Cerebel and all the bottom of the Brain as also the Productions of the Nerves were all in their natural condition In like manner in all the former Examples produc'd by Kerckringius the upper part of the Brain might be extended thin and soft for which reason they examining no farther too rashly gave their Judgment that the Brain was altogether wanting Moreover what Kerckringius adds to confirm his Opinion from the Relation of an ignorant Butcher of certain silly Sheep that had no Brains at all is a meer Fable which Kerckringius ought not to have believ'd because no Creature of all those that bring forth living Creatures can live without a Brain and the sooner the Heart and Brain are form'd in such Creatures at the beginning of the formation the sooner and the more all the other parts of the Body encrease as also all the Actions as well Natural as Animal So that these operations prove nothing of any operations perform'd without the assistance of the Brain But as to the Seats of the Animal Functions and after what manner they operate there lies the main Question undetermin'd And these Mists a certain Observation in the Brain of an Ox still renders more obscure which Bauschius transcribes out of Iames de Negroponte how that the Bendictine Monks having a Design to fat an Ox at Padua put him up but observing that the Ox did not grow fat though he eat greedily they kill'd him with a resolution to enquire into the Cause of his continu'd Leanness to which purpose the Ox was cut up by Sebastian Scarabeccio Anatomy Professor at Padua When says he we came to the Brain we found it altogether like a Stone which all the standers by wondring at some thought it might have been congeal'd by some extremity of Colâ—… and therefore laying the Head in a Platter before the Fire they powr'd hot Water upon it and boyld it for some time then taking it from the Fire again they found the Brain harder than before so that they could not get it out of the Skull Having told this Story he proposes two Doubts If the Brain says he be the original of all the Animal Functions of Motion and Sence and this is suppos'd to be petrify'd how was it capable of admitting any Faculty to impart Motion Sence and Appetite to the Ox Or since this Ox had an Appetite to eat how came he not to grow fat Not less miraculous was that Brain which was seen in a Swedish Ox describ'd by Bartholine which was wholly turn'd into a Stone bor'd through with many holes and now preserv'd in a Farm belonging to the Count of Oxenstern where that Ox was kill'd Truly such observations more deeply consider'd command us to suspend our Judgments in determining the Seats of the Animal Faculties and their manner of operating till other things more certain are discover'd to render the truth of these things more evident XXVII The Brain is the most Noble Bowel which together with the Heart rules and governs the whole Body as its Actions plainly demonstrate For it is the only Organ by which and in which the Animal Spirits are made without which besides that Life cannot subsist no Animal Actions are perform'd which flow themselves out of this Fountain Whence it is manifest that the Wounds which it receives must be very dangerous for which reason Hippocrates truly pronounc'd all Wounds penetrating into its Ventricls to be mortal nay the least Wounds which it receives are to be accounted dangerous and mortal For though monstrous things as Avrrhoes calls them have happen'd in the Cure of Wounds in the Brain and some have with great difficulty escap'd that have had a considerable portion of the Meninxes and the Substance of the Brain taken from them yet a slight Wound of the Meninxes and Brain uses to be the Death of the greatest part and it rarely happens that any one so wounded escapes XXVIII By the way we are to take notice of what Pliny writes of Snakes that have bred in the putrify'd Brains of Men. Of which we have an Example cited by Plutarch in the Life of Cleomenes who was crucify'd by Ptolomy about whose Head in a few days after a huge Serpent twiâ—…'d her self in folds which the Doctors affirm'd to have brâ—…d out of the putrify'd Marrow of the Brain and related it as wonderful to be admir'd at by all men Thus Rolfinch tells us a Story fron Gerard the Divine of a certain Nobleman whose Body being digg'd up again a Month after it had been buried two great Serpents were found creeping out of the putrify'd Corners of his Eyes Certainly Nature seems by this Generation of Serpents out of Human Carkasses to shew the Author of all our Calamities and of our swift Corruption CHAP. VI. Of the Brawny Body the light Enclosure the three Ventricles the Choroid Fold the Fornix the Buttocks the Testicles and the Pineal Kernel IN the Demonstration of the Parts of the Brain some begin from the upper part of the Brain some from the lower the one following the Ancient the others the Modern way of Dissection For our parts we shall first proceed according to the Ancient and most familiar way and after that briefly according to the Modern way I. The Brain being a little separated at the upper part where it is divided by the interceding Scythe more below beneath the Division appears the Brawny Body or Corpus Callosum call'd also Psalloides Which Anatomists do commonly alledg to be a Portion of the Brain harder than the rest of the Substance Nor is it any peculiar Body added to the Brain but only a Connexion of both sides of the Brain or rather a Continuation of the Substance In this Body Willis affirms That he has observ'd certain oblique Plaits or Furrows which he describes in his Tables These
last Opinion many at this day stifly oppose and others as stifly defend Cartesius grants indeed that the Soul is joyn'd to the whole body but says that it exercises its Functions more particularly and immediately in this Glandule than in other Parts Regius will have it to be the common Sensory and that the Soul exists in that and in no other part of the Body Thus also de la Forge asserts it to be the principal Seat of the Soul and the real Organ of Imagination and common Sence and that the breeding of Stones in it is no obstruction to it in its Operations no though it be all Stone provided there be Pores wide enough for the passage of the Spirits He adds that though the Kernel should be wanting and only the void place left for the Arteries of the choroid Fold to empty themselves yet that place would be a sufficient Seat for the Soul the Imagination and common Sence Certainly with the same Reason he might have said that though the Heart were wanting yet if its place were left for the large Vessels to exonerate themselves it would be a sufficient Fountain for the support of all the vital Actions that is to say that in absence of the agent Organ the place of the Organ would suffice to perform the Actions of the Organ But for my part I must ingenuously confess that these 〈◊〉 are more subtil than Subtility it 〈◊〉 On the other side Wâ—…arton as vainly conceives that it only at tracts the excrementitious Moisture from the upper Thighs of the beginning of the Spinal Marrow And thus the Use of this Kernel is still undetermin'd XIX 5. The Choroid Fold which descending from the upper Ventricles in this middlemost is expanded thro' it with a much broader and thicker Contexture than in the former and has a Vein sometimes streight and sometimes double interwoven in the middle and running as far as the large Bay of the Scythe into which the small Arteries exonerate the remainder of the Blood which is to be carry'd to the Hollowness Now this Fold sends â—…orth into the Arch the fibrous Protuberancies the Testicles and Buttocks several small Branches like diminutive Fibers by means of which it is joyn'd to them every way and it wraps and enfolds the Pineal Glandule in such a manner that it cannot be seen unless the Fold be broken and taken off Malpigius together with Mâ—…bius believes that the Ventricles were form'd by Nature for no Use but only by Accident but how erroneous this Opinion is sufficiently appears by what has already been said For the service of the three Ventricles of the Brain is very necessary to afford a loose and ample passage to the Choroid Fold and defend it from compressure as also to receive and collect the serous and flegmatic Humors separated by the small Kernels out of the inner Substance of the Brain and especially out of the Vessels of the Fold CHAP. VII Of the Cerebel the Fourth Ventricle and the long Pith or Marrow I. IN the hinder and lowermost part of the Skull that is between the large Hollownesses of the Bone of the hinder part of the Head lies the Cerebellum by the Greeks call d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containing the second part of the Brain as it were a little and peculiar Brain because it is much less than the Brain and being cover'd with both the Meninxes is separated from it and on both side united to the long Pith for a little space and continuous with it but in the middlemost lower Seat it is joyn'd to the Spinal Marrow upon the hinder part by the intervening of the thin Meninx and lest the Fourth Ventricle should gape there it is wrapt about with the thin Meninx expanded as far as the Buttocks II. The Form of it is somewhat broad and something flat upon both the Lateral parts representing the Figure of a broader sort of Globe III. The Bulk of it is much bigger in Men than in Brutes IV. The Substance of it differs not much from the Substance of the Brain only that it seems not to be so soft but much firmer V. It is divided into innumerable small thin Plates representing the Leaves and Boughs of Trees and cloath'd with the thin Membrane interwoven with several Capillary Branches of the cervical Arteries and of which the inward and middle part are of a white the external Compass of a darker Colour Through those little Arteries the Blood flows to it in great quantity the remaining part of which after nourishment runs into the lateral Hollownesses VI. It has two Processes call'd the Worm-like Processes which consist of many transverse and as it were twisted Particles joyn'd together with a thin Membrane like Worms that lie in rotten Wood. Of these the foremost prominent into the fourth Ventricle adjoyns to the Buttocks and Stones the hindermost is not altogether so prominent but vanishes with a point into the Substance of the Cerebel Some also think that these Processes are distended and contracted in the elevation and compression of the Cerebel VII About the hinder part of the Trunk of the long Marrow is to be seen Varolius's Bridge which consists of two and sometimes three gibbous Processes on both sides protuberating from the Cerebel to the Circumference of the fourth Ventricle of which they that are seated near the Worm-like Process are larger the rest lesser VIII The Cerebel has no Cavities but only a wide Hollowness in the middle yet not very deep which by some is call'd the Cistern and this constitutes the higher part of the fourth Ventricle The Substance of the Cerebel differs little or nothing from that of the Brain and is cloath'd in the same manner with Membranes and a Shell and also has deep Windings and Meanders overcast with the thin Meninx to the lowest Depths and furnish'd with Net-work Folds of small Arteries and Veins whence the Office and Use of the Brain and Cerebel is thought to be the same Willis therefore observing no certainty in ascribing this Office to the Cerebel has found out another which he thinks to be more true and genuine And thus he â—…ays that the Cerebel which he takes to be a peculiar Bowel is a peculiar Fountain and Magazine of certain Animal Spirits design'd for peculiar Uses and distinct from the Brain The Office of the Brain he assigns to be to afford and supply those Animal Spirits wherewith the Imagination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Discourse and other supream 〈◊〉 of the Animal Function are perform'd and by which all the voluntary Motions are brought to pass But that the Duty of the Cerebel seems to be to procreate Animal Spirits apart and different from those generated in the Brain and to send them to some particular Nerves by which unvoluntary Actions as Pulsation of the Heart Protrusion of the Chylus Concoction of the Nourishment and many others which unknown to us and
infus'd by God and governing all the Animal Actions of the whole Body and yet be able to perceive all those things which are done in the extream parts in the least space of a moment even in the very point of time they are acted Moreover they do not believe the Seat of the Rational Soul to be so small in Man and yet in Brutes which are destitute of that Soul to be three times as big Furthermore they cannot apprehend why the Seat of the Soul should not be ascrib'd as well to the Heart as to the Brain seeing that all the Motions of the Animal Spirits and the Brain it self proceed from the Heart which when it ceases to beat all the Animal Actions fail as it happens in a Syncope and in Wounds of the Ventricles of the Heart Concerning this Matter in our Age sharp and furious have been the Contests on both sides as if they were contending for the safety of their Country and daily most terrible Paper-Disputes arise eager indeed and vehement but vain and frivolous by which the Minds of young People are more disturb'd than taught But setting aside these unprofitable Contests let us enquire into the more sensible Action of the Brain it self III. Aristotle teaches us that the Office of the Brain is to temper the heat of the Heart Which Opinion though most reject Spigelius nevertheless endeavors to assert it for Rational Galen attributes to the Brain the Office of generating and making Animal Spirits With whom most of the Modern Philosophers agree For this is most certain that the Animal Actions are not at the first hand perform'd by the Brain it self but by the Animal Spirits made in the Brain by means of which the Soul in well dispos'd Organs executes its Actions and so the Brain is the Instrument which generates those Spirits These Spirits Zabarel Argenterius Helmont Deusingius and some others as well Physitians as Philosophers confound with the vital Spirits and affirm that they differ from them not in Specie but only in certain Accidents and therefore it is that Spigelius says Not that there is here a certain mutation of the vital Spirits which destroys their whole nature but only a certain alteration of the Temperament Eâ—…t agrees with Spigelius and supports his Opinion with these three Arguments 1. The Birth both feels and is mov'd in the Womb without the aid of any Animal Spirit in regard that no Maternal Nerve runs to the Birth 2. A most subtil Spirit cannot be made in a cold Brain and full of mucous Filth for Cold stupifies the Spiriâ—…s and hinders their Actions 3. The Nerves themselves derive their Life and Heaâ—… from the Arteries which are conspicuously diffus'd through them To these Arguments others add one more that the most subtil Spirits never descend to the lower parts but always tend upwards and exhale and hence although there should be allow'd any Animal Spirits to be so subtil they would never descend into the Nerves but would always fly upwards through the Pores But though these things seem specious enough at a distance yet they neither prove nor confirm the said Sentence To the First I answer That the Birth in the Womb is neither mov'd with an Animal Motion nor feels until the first delineaments of the Brains and Nerves are arriv'd and increas'd to such a Bulk Firmness and Perfection that the Brain may be able to generate Animal Spirits sufficient and that those Spirits may be conveniently convey'd to the sensitive and moving parts and because it requires some Months to attain that perfection therefore the Birth does not move it self until the Woman have gone out half her time that is about the fourth Month and a half For what Spirits are generated before that time are very few and weak and the rest of the Parts themselves of the Body unapt for Motion or Sence Nor does the Motion of the Birth proceed nor is it perform'd by the Spirits or Maternal Nerves running to it of which there are none that enter the Birth but by the Spirits and Nerves generated in it self To the Second I say that there is no considerable Magnitude requir'd for the making of Animal Spirits but rather a Mediocrity of Heat such as is sufficient in the Brain though it be much less than in the other parts And there is a necessity for that lesser Heat which they call Cold to asswage the Heat of the Arterious Blood and in some measure to thicken its Volatile sulphurous Spirits that so the Animal Spirit may separate it self more pure from the salt Particles and may flow into the Nerves no longer beset with superfluity of viscous Vapors Moreover it is to be understood that although the Brain be said to be colder than other parts yet that it is not absolutely cold only that the Temper of it is less hot than of many other parts and that the proper confirmation of it is such as is most fit for the generation of Spirits Lastly the natural Temper of the Brain inclining to Cold is not such as stupifies the Spirits nor renders them unapâ—… to perform their Actions in the Parts but its preternatural cold Temper excluding the Blood and natural Heat by a too close constriction of the Pores is the cause that for want of convenient Matter few Spirits are generated therein and that those already generated with great difficulty and in small quantity flow through the streightned Pores and Nerves Which is the Reason that then the Actions fail by degrees not because the Actions are stupify'd as is vulgarly believ'd but because very few are generated flow into the parts For the Spirits endure no Stupefaction for Drowsiness is nothing else but a rest of the Actions in the Sensory Organs by reason of the scarcity of the Animal Spirits To the Third I answer that although the Brain and Nerves are nourish'd with Arterious Blood it does not thence follow that the Animal Spirits generated in the Brain are nothing different from the Blood and Vital Spirits generated in the Heart and carry'd through the Arteries for the nourishment of the Parts for this is as much as if a man should say The Stomach is nourish'd by the Arterious Blood generated out of the Chylus therefore the Chylus concocted therein is nothing different from the Blood Or thus The Heart changes the Chylus into Blood therefore the Blood which is generated therein is nothing different from the Chylus Or thus The Bread is turn'd into Chylus and the Chylus into Blood therefore the bread differs nothing either from the Chylus or the Blood To the Last I say That the Animal Spirits would easily exhale out of the Brain and Pith unless they were there with-held in their cool Work-house which hinders their sudden Exhalation and would flow into the Nerves which are of a firmer Substance and thus all Chymical Spirits are best kept close in cool Vessels and hinder'd from exhaling Moreover that they would not descend
into the Nerves unless being squeez'd out of the Brain and Pith by the alternate dilatation and falling of the Brain the hinder parts pressing the fore-parts as one Wave drives forward another is apparent from hence for that the motion of the Brain ceasing through a Syncope or depression of the Cranium c. no more Spirits flow into the Nerves but all the parts fall without Motion Thus in an Organ we see that the thin Air which would never of it self descend violently downward into the Pipes by the falling of the dilated Bellows is easily forc'd into them Upon this Subject read more in Sennertus's Institutes l. 1. c. 6. and his Prax. Med. p. 2. c. 33. where he refutes and destroys the foresaid Argument with most convincing Reasons This Opinion therefore being altogether rejected we must hold it for certain and unquestionable with the consent of the greater part of the Philosophers that there are Animal Spirits bred indeed out of the Vital but actually very much differing from them as the Bread differs from the Chylus the Chylus from the Blood and the Blood from the Substance of the Parts for as the Chylus coming into the heart loses its first Constitution and assumes a quite different which has nothing of similitude with the former and so is turn'd into Blood so the most subtil part of the Vital Blood assumes in the Brain a new and altogether different Species together with a new and altogether different strength and efficacy Here if any one will object that the same Spirits were before in the Blood so far as they are afterwards produc'd out of the Blood and cannot be produc'd out of the Blood unless they were in it before I will not contend with him if he mean that the Matter of these Spirits was in it before For those Animal Spirits such as they are made in the Brain are not actually contain'd in the blood but the Matter out of which they are to be made is contain'd therein In the same manner the spirituous Blood is not contain'd in the Meat and Nourishment but the Matter out of which such Blood is generated by the concoctions of the Bowels Or as the Herb or the Tree is not contain'd in the Earth but the Matter out of which the Herb or the Tree is to spring and be rais'd up by the heat of the Sun Or as the Vessel is not contain'd in the Clay but the Matter out of which the Vessel is to be made which is so different from the Vessel that a Child would account him a Fool that should call the formless Clay a Vessel IV. But now 't is the unanimous Opinion of all Physicians that it is the proper Office of the Brain to generate the Animal Spirits and that those Spirits flow through the Nerves out of that Work-House wherein they are generated into the Parts and may be sent forth every way in greater plenty by the Soul with a certain determination as Assistants and Conveyers of the Powers which she diffuses from her self But in what part of the Brain these Spirits are generated is greatly disputed and what they are is altogether unknown and therefore they both require a larger Discourse V. Peter Laurembergius believ'd these Animal Spirits to be generated in the Hollownesses of the Falx From whose Opinion Daniel Sennertus does not differ much But this Opinion proceeds from their not knowing the Use of the Sinus's or Hollownesses of the Falx and therefore they are easily refuted by what we have already said concerning those Hollownesses c. 4. Andreas Laurentius Riolanus Lud. Mercator and many others with whom Regius also consents believe these Spirits to be generated in the Cavities of the Ventricles out of the hottest Arterious Blood exhaling from the Choroidal Fold with which some think the Air to be intermix'd by inspiration and that they are forc'd out of these Ventricles through invisible Pores into the Nerves and so through them flow to the rest of the Parts Some according to the Opinion of the Arabians affirm that they are generated not in all the Ventricles but only in the fourth Ventricle which for that reason they call the most principal Both these Opinions Galen also profess'd as also Hippocrates and Plato But both Reason and Experience evince this Opinion concerning the Cavity of the Ventricles For if the Vital Spirits should exhale out of the Choroidal Fold into the Cavities of the Ventricles there to be turn'd into Animal Spirits I would fain know how the Animal Spirits already generated out of those Vital Spirits shall enter into the Nerves which have no continuity with the Ventricles Shall the Vital Spirits which exhal'd out of the Fold being become Animal again breath into the Nerves which lie at a distance from the Nerves Or can the Soul dispose at pleasure of the Spirits generated and contain'd here and there beyond the Bounds of its Jurisdiction that is to say in the Ventricles Besides if the place be consider'd it will be found no way proper for the generation of the Animal Spirits For in the Ventricles are gather'd together snotty Excrements which are found therein sometimes in greater sometimes in lesser quantity as well in those that are sound as those that are sickly Thus it would come to pass that these thin and most impure Spirits would be generated without the Vessels in the Cavities of these Ventricles among the most impure and cold Excrements of the Brain and thence notwithstanding their being thicken'd by the cold Excrements must flow out again together with the thicker Excrements through most narrow and almost invisible Pores rather into the Nerves far enough seated from the Ventricles then through the broad and open Channels of the Papillary Processes and the Sieve-like Bone which how absurd it is there 's no body but may easily perceive Besides in the watery Disease of the Head call'd Hydrocephalus in which many times there is a great quantity of serous Humour collected in the Ventricles sometimes several pounds as also in an Apostem of the Brain at what time the purulent Matter is pour'd forth into these Vessels I say in these cases neither could these Spirits be generated nor the Animal Actions proceed of which the contrary is manifest from Experience For in a Patient that I dissected in March 1653. whose distended Ventricles containd above half a pound of thick stinking green Pus from the large Apostem of the upper part of the Brain penetrating as far as the upper Ventricles I observ'd that all the time of his Sickness for seven Weeks together he was no way disturb'd in his Intellects nor depriv'd of Motion till the time of his Death Besides that if they did not flow through the already mention'd Vessels evacuating the Flegm yet would those Spirits fly out at the Wounds of the Ventricles and for want of them the Person would be depriv'd of all Animal Action Yet Galen tells us a Story of a young Man
who at Smyrna in Ionia receiv'd a Wound in one of the upper Ventricles yet liv'd for all that I my self here in Utrecht in the Year 1648. inspected the Body of a young Nobleman of Over-Yssel a Student in the Law who dy'd of a wound in his Head in whom the Cranium being first open'd it was first found that the Sword had enter'd the bigger or innermost Corner of one Eye without any harm to the Eye it self and had peneâ—…rated through the upper right Ventricles and lighting upon the upper part of the Cranium on the inside toward the top of the Lambdoidal Suture had almost pierced that also yet this young Gentleman was depriv'd of none of his Animal Actions a certain Sign that the Spirits had not flow'd out of the Ventricle through the broad Wound but sound in Mind Seeing Hearing Tasting and well moving all his Parts walking and judiciously discoursing with his Companions that came to see him upon any Discourse liv'd ten days and then being seiz'd with a violent Fever dy'd in two days Thus Lindan makes mention of a certain Patient that was wounded whose Surgeon for fourteen days together before his Death put in a Probe as far as the Ventricle of his Brain whither the Wound had reach'd without any feeling Yet he further adds that the same Person walk'd every day about the City unless it were the last four days at the end of which he dy'd In these Cases certainly the most subtle Spirits had either flow'd out of their own accord or had been expell'd out of the Ventricles by the alternate dilatation and compression of the Brain and so the person must have dy'd depriv'd of his Animal Actions if the place of their Generation had been in the Ventricles From all which Examples the weak Supports of the said Opinion are sufficiently evident though Webfer refutes the same Opinion more clearly by other Reasons l. de Apoplexia VI. Cartesius differs not very much from the said Opinion who teaches us that these Spirits are not generated in the Ventricles but says that they are separated in the Pineal Kernel by the narrow Passages of the little Arteries of the Choroid Fold and from thence infus'd into the Ventricles and no other way differ from the Vital Spirits only that they are the thinest Parts separated from them and only call'd by another Name To which he adds that there is no probability that the separation of these Spirits is perform'd in the Pineal Kernel as well by reason of the smalness of the Kernel as the vast quantity of Animal Spirits which can never be so swiftly strain'd through so diminutive a particle Besides that this Kernel being obstructed and compress'd yet it is found that these Spirits are generated in great quantity as was apparent in the forecited persons in whose Ventricles the Pus and Serum that was collected in great quantity could not but compress the Kernel and obstruct it in its Office as is also apparent in such Men in whom you shall find Sand and Stones oppressing more than half the Kernel As to that which follows where Cartesius says that these Spirits are collected in the Ventricles that is already refuted as also that other that they differ nothing from the Vital Spirits but only in their separation VII Many others believe that the Animal Spirits are elaborated in the Choroid Fold and that the Vital Blood in its passage through the Fold is alter'd into these Spirits by a singular propriety of the Brain Which Opinion as the Liver many embrace at this day and I was of the same mind once though now I have good reason to think the contrary For upon more mature consideration three Arguments utterly subvert it First Because the Blood contain'd in that Fold is altogether ruddy neither is it observ'd to undergo any alteration therein neither at any time whatever part of the Fold you inspect is it of any other colour than red and Blood-colour whereas the Animal Spirits are pellucid and invisible by reason of their extraordinary subtility Secondly Because the Fold is not continuous with any of the Nerves and therefore no Spirits can be transfus'd out of it into the Nerves 3ly Because the Blood flows into the Pithy Substance of the Brain out of the Fold partly through innumerable diminutive branches partly by the order of circulation flows to the Vein that runs between the middle Fold above the Kernel and thence is carry'd to the inferior Hollownesses of the hard Meninx or Scythe and from them to the Jugular Veins Through which Passages the Animal Spirits also if any were made in the Fold would flow forth together with the Blood nor would any reach to the Nerves which are seated without the Fold and no way continuous to them VIII Francis de le Boe Sylvius suspects them to be elaborated in the Arteries running forth all along the Superficies of the Brain and Cerebel which he thinks to be distributed thro' the Superficies for that public and not for any private Use and that out of those Arteries they penetrate into the Cortex of the Brain and Cerebel and thence into the middle whitish Substance and in this Passage are freed from its watery part that sticks most closely to it But this Opinion is overthrown by these three Arguments 1. Because that in the Arteries of the Head there is no other Humour contain'd than in other Arteries that is to say Blood and those Arteries are only assisting Parts conveying the Blood not altering it into Animal Spirits or making any other Humor or Spirit out of it 2. Because the innumerable bloody Specks which every way occur to the Sight in the dissected Substance teach us that not the Animal Spirits but the arterious blood it self is thrust forward as well through the Ash-colour'd Cortex of the Brain as through the whitish Substance out of the Arteries which bloody Specks would not appear if that blood were only chang'd into invisible Animal Spirits in the said Arteries 3. Because the several remarkable Mutations of Humors require some particular Bowel to make that alteration as appears in the Stomach which turns the Nourishment into Chylus in the Heart which changes the Chylus into Blood in the Liver which alters the blood into a choleric Ferment and therefore we must certainly conclude that the making of Animal Spirits out of Blood cannot be perform'd in the Arteries which only carry the Matter out of which they are to be generated but that of necessity it must be performed in that most noble Bowel the Brain and not in the Arteries encompassing the Brain and Cerebel but in the Substance it self IX Thus also Galen and with him Bauhinus and Sennertus Hoffman Emilius Parisanus Plempius believethem to be elaborated in the Substance it self of the Brain Whose Opinion we are also willing to embrace as being that of which the Truth appears from hence because the arterious blood is driven
from all Parts in greater quantity to the Substance of the brain than is requisite for the nourishment of it For on the outside Thousands of little branches of Arteries empty a great quantity of blood partly into the Ash-colour'd Cortex enfolding the brain in whose little Kernels apt Particles are separated for the Generation of Spirits from those that are unapt and suckt up by the extremities of the little Fibers of the brain extended into the Cortex partly enter the Substance of the brain it self Moreover on the inside also in the third Ventricle that there are infinite slender branches inserted from the Choroid Fold into the white Pithy Substance and which stick and cling to it will easily appear to those who have prudently examin'd that Ventricle and gently lifted up the Fornix or Arch for then they may perceive innumerable little branches of the Choroid Fold sticking to and entring the Substance of the Fornix the furrow'd Monticles the Stones and Buttocks and pouring into the Pores of it the thinner blood freed by the little Kernels of the Fold from a great part of its viscous Serum which in the dissection of the Substance is seen to start as well out of the invisible Vessels as out of the Pores Moreover it is requisite that the Animal Spirits should be generated in that part out of which they may most conveniently either flow or be thrust forward into the Nerves But such a part is the Substance of the brain and pith which as being altogether fibrous and continuous with the Nerves has also Pory Fibers continuous with them into which by the compression of the brain which follows its dilatation those Spirits may commodiously be squeez'd forward Lastly the Soul makes use of the Ministry of these Spirits and therefore they ought to be generated and contain'd in that part where the Soul resides But the Soul does not reside in empty Cavities or Ventricles in the midst of excrementitious Filth but in solid living Parts Therefore as it resides in the Substance of other Parts so likewise in that of the brain where it lays the foundations of the Animal Spirits which from thence it sends every way at her own pleasure through the Nerves X. This Opinion two great Difficulties seem to oppose 1. Because the Apoplexy and other heavy Drowsinesses proceed according to the Iudgment of most eminent Physicians from a stoppage of the Animal Spirits which hinders their Influx out of the Ventricles of the Brain into the Pith by reason of some obstruction of the beginning of the Pith or its compression happening through some other Cause Which Obstruction or Compression would not be the Cause of the Apoplexy or that same Lethargic Drowsiness if the Spirits were not generated in the Ventricles or the Choroid Fold but in the Substance of the Brain it self 2. Because the Disposal of the Spirits determinated by the Mind would not be compleated in the Substance of the Brain it self but in the common Sensory which is seated in the Brain it self This the Catalepsis plainly shews us wherein the Spirits flow in great quantity into the Nerves but no new determination of them follows because of the Obstruction of the common Sensory XI The first Difficulty is easily remov'd if the Cause of the Motion of the Brain be more narrowly pry'd into In the Fifth Chapter we have at large inform'd you that the Brain is mov'd by the perpetual first Mover of our Body that is to say the Heart and that the Heart dilates the whole Brain by forcing through the Arteries the Spirituous Blood into its Substance which upon the cessation of that Impulse presently falls again and so by compression forces the Spirits contain'd in it further into the Nerves XII Now if through any Cause as Obstruction or Compression c. the Arteries happen to be streighten'd through which the Blood is push'd forward and flows into the Brain by which means the free access of the Blood forc'd through the Arteries to the Brain is foreslow'd or obstructed then there is a great diminution of the Matter proper for the generation of Spirits and the motion of the Brain is very small whence happens not only a generation of very few Spirits and a weaker Impulse of them into the Nerves Now in regard that few Spirits and those weakly impuls'd are not sufficient to perform the Actions of the Sensory Organs whose Actions are also perform'd by the continual and sufficing motion of the Spirits of necessity there follows a deep Drowsiness or Rest of the Animal Actions which Drowsiness is either more or less as the streightness of the Arteries is either more or less But if those Arteries through which the Blood flows toward the inner parts of the Brain that is to say the Arteries of the wonderful Net and the Choroid Fold nay the Carotid Arteries themselves be of a sudden strongly compress'd and obstructed by the sudden falling of thick Flegm collected in the Brain upon them or the depression of the Skull and Brain presently the Motion of the Blood toward the Brain is obstructed and hence also the generation of the Animal Spirits and their motion and impulse into and through the Nerves is obstructed which is the Cause of the Apoplexy Which Physicians hitherto have absurdly affirm'd to happen from the obstruction or streightning of the beginning of the Nerves when it altogether proceeds from the obstruction or compression of the Arteries Which Hippocrates most clearly teaches us where he asserts the Cause of the Apoplexy to be the standing of the Blood more especially in the Arteries of the Neck that is to say the Carotides and others deriv'd from thence such as those which compose the wonderful Net and Choroid Fold Seeing that thereby the Motion and Action of the Spirits is destroy'd which Moâ—…ion being obstructed the body must of necessity rest Let us hear the most acute Fernelius who confirms this Matter most elegantly by Experiments and Reasons Seeing upon a time says he a lusty sane man fall to the ground upon a desperate Blow upon the Left Eye and presently depriv'd of Sence and Motion together with a difficulty of Breathing and Snoaring and other strong Symptoms of an Apoplexy and that he could neither be preserv'd by Blood-letting nor any other way but that he dy'd within twelve hours I thought it worth my while to search into the Cause of his Death To that purpose having dissected and open'd his Brain and finding no Contusion of the Bone or Meninxes or Substance of the Brain but only that the inner Veins of the Eye were broken by the violence of the Contusion I observ'd that from thence about two Spoonfuls of Blood had lighted upon the Basis of the Brain which being clotted together had bound up those Arteries which form the Net-like Contexture and which being thence propagated into the Ventricles of the Brain constitute the other Choroid Fold But the Ventricles of
the Brain were altogether untouch'd without any Damage Being thus far satisfy'd I thought good to dissect another who dy'd without any external Cause to be seen in whom there was found a thick and viscous Humor resting upon the Net like contexture the Ventricles of the Brain being neither fill'd nor obstructed Hence reasoning with my Self I judg'd it consentaneous to Reason that the Apoplexy was generated in the Arteries either obstructed or compress'd for that then the Brain receiv'd no Spirits from the Heart through the adjoyning Arteries which occasion'd an absolute necessity of its Motion and Sence And a certain Person observing these things as I suppose affirm'd that the Apoplexy was caus'd by the intercepting the Passages that are common to the Heart and Brain Thus if the Cause of the Disease of all Apoplectics were more diligently enquir'd into it would be found to proceed not from the compression or obstruction of the beginning of the Nerves in the third or middle Ventricle but solely from the compression or streightning of the Arteries tending to the Brain even then when the Apoplexy is caus'd by a rammassment of serous Matter collected in the substance of the Brain it self or between the Meninxes Which Webfer affirms that he has found to be true by experience upon several Diffections Who erroneous however conjectures this to happen by reason of the deny'd entrance of the Animal Spirits when it is manifest that the stoppage of the Arteries is the cause of it for seeing that in an Aposteme of the Brain the Orifices of the nerves are not clos'd by the quantity of Serum or Pus collected in the ventricles much less will it happen through any far slighter Collection Again that it does not happen through any Flegm that fills the Vessels of a sudden occular view teaches us in the Dissections of Apoplectics in whose Ventricles never so great a quantity of Flegm is to be found in the Ventricles and moreover because the Apoplexy is caus'd by the sole compression of the little Arteries of the wonderful Net without any detriment to the Brain much less to the Ventricles as appears by the foresaid Relations of Fernelius and the Story of Webfer of the Woman that was hang'd and yet came again to her self In which Particular Martian also agrees with us I find says he three Differences of the Apoplexy according to the Doctrine of Hippocrates Of which though there be various preceding Causes yet in reality they are all the same as consisting in the standing of the Blood by which means all Motion and Action of the Spirits are taken away For as the same Author observes when the Blood is not mov'd it is impossible but that the Motion of the Body must cease Therefore when the Blood is depriv'd of Motion not only the Motion of the Spirits is intercepted which is caus'd by the Blood but at the same time and together the generation of the Animal Spirits which is perform'd in the Brain is vitiated and interrupted for want of Matter the Veins or Arteries being intercepted for it is well known that the Animal Spirits are generated out of the Vital As to that Cause of the Apoplexy which Malpigius and Fracassatus propound when they alledge this Distemper to proceed from the stoppage of the straining through of the Serum growing in the Cortex of the Brain this Opinion if rightly explain'd will agree with the former already laid down For if the concrescible Serum as they call it that is to say if the Saltish Particles of the Blood being stopp'd in the Cortex of the Brain through the depression of the Cranium stuffing up of Flegm or any other Cause cannot be separated by straining through then also is the ingress of the Vital Spirits or Arterious blood into the brain put to a stop and thence for want of Matter for generation of the Spirits and defect of the Cause that pushes them forward when generated any farther Generation ceases as also the pushing forward of the Animal Spirits into the Nerves and thence the Apoplexy or any other Lethargic Drowsiness though the Passage of the same Spirits out of the brain it self into the Nerves may be free at the same time XIII As to the second Difficulty there is a great difference between the Generation of Animal Spirits of which we here discourse and their Determination and the Place wherein or from whence the Determination is made For because the Mind determines from the common Sensory the Spirits adhering to the Substance of the brain this does not hinder but that those Spirits may be generated in the Substance of the brain and thence be determin'd by the superior Command and Power of the Mind to these or those Parts Nor is it consequential from hence that the Spirits should be generated in that place from whence the Determination of the Mind sends them away at pleasure A Prince sitting in his Throne appoints his Subjects to these or these Offices or Places but thence it does not follow that the commanded Subjects should be born in the King's Palace or reside in his Throne for that the Beams of his Command extend themselves to the utmost Limits of his Empire He therefore that shall to the purpose explain the manner how the Appointment of the Spirits is transacted by the Soul will light a fair Flambeau for the discovery of greater Mysteries In the mean while this second Objectson makes nothing against our Opinion and therefore as most probable we conclude that the Animal Spirits are generated in the Substance of the brain it self CHAP. XI Of the Animal Spirits IN the foregoing Chapter it has been declar'd that the Office or Action of the Brain is to generate Animal Spirits and that they are elaborated in the Substance of the Brain it self now it remains that we enquire of what sort and what those Noble Spirits are and how they are generated However by the way observe that when we discourse of Spirits as here and l. 2. c. 12. we do not speak of certain incorporeal Spirits or of the general Spirit of the whole World by which the Platonics alledge that all things have their Being but of a certain most subtil Vapour which is produc'd out of Sulphur and Salt by the Concoctions of the Bowels and varies according to the variety of the Matter out of which it is extracted and the various manner of extraction which endow it with different Qualities I. The Animal Spirits are invisible Vapours most thin and volatile chiefly elaborated out of the Salt Particles of the Blood and some few Sulphury chiefly volatile and that in the Brain serving partly for the Natural partly for the Animal Actions As for those that deny that any Animal Spirits are to be allow'd specifically different from the Vital as Huffman Deusingius and several others endeavour to uphold we think it an Opinion not worth refuting and therefore to be rejected seeing that the one is compounded
of Salt and many Sulphury Spirits dilated together and exactly mix'd in the Heart the other consists of very few Sulphury but chiefly Salt Spirits and differ not in respect of their Substance only and Composition but also in their Use and are made in a peculiar bowel the brain every way different from the Heart Lastly seeing also that from them the Animal Actions proceed very much different from the Natural as the Phansie the Imagination Ratiocination the Memory Judgment Feeling Seeing Motion of the Muscles c. and that from their being vitiated peculiar Affections and Diseases arise as is apparent in Vertigo's Apoplexies Night-mares Madness Phrensie Convulsions and other Accidents proceeding from their deprav'd Motion too copious influx or deficiency the like to which cannot proceed from the defects of the Animal Spirits All which is clearly made out by Galen l. de Placit Hipp. Plat. c. 6. as also l. 7. c. 3. de usu Partium As to the Matter out of which these Spirits are generated Glisson and Charlton have endeavour'd to introduce lately something of Novelty who both maintain these Spirits to be generated of some portion of the Chylus which is suck'd up by the Nerves out of which partly these Spirits produc'd partly some Iuice rawer than the Blood is generated which flows through the Nerves to the nourishment of all the Spermatic Parts But this absurd Opinion we have already refuted l. 1. c. 16. And Deusingius also destroys it in a large Discourse l. de Nutritii Succi novo Comment The most ancient and truest Opinion is that they are generated out of the arterious blood but after what manner they are generated has never hitherto been certainly describ'd Cartesius with whom most at this day agree discourses thus concerning this Matter It is to be consider'd says he that all the more vivacious and subtil parts of the Blood which the heat rarifies in the Heart immediately and in great quantity enter the Cavities and therefore they rather muster thither than to any other part because that all the Blood which goes out of the Blood through the great Artery directs its course in a direct Line to that part and when it cannot all enter because the Passages are very narrow the more agitated and subtil parts of it pass through alone while the rest diffuse themselves through all the parts of the Body Now these most subtil parts of the Blood compound the Animal Spirits neither do they to that end want any other alteration in the Brain only that there they are separated from the other less subtil parts of the Blood For those which I call here Spirits are nothing but Bodies and have no other Propriety only that they are most subtil Bodies and are moved with an extraordinary celerity By these Words it appears that Cartesius did not differ much from the Opinion of those who believe the Animal Spirits nothing distinct in Specie from the Vital which is already refuted And this he openly seems to signifie l. 2. de hom Artic. 10. Where he speaks thus That portion of Blood says he which rises up as high as the Brain not only helps the nourishment and pre servation of the Substance of the Brain but also in the first place generates therein a subtil Vapour or rather active and pure Flame which we call the Animal Spirits A little after he adds And thus the more subtil Particles of the Arterious Bloodâ—… without any preparation or mutation other than that by which they are separated from the thicker Particles and are agitated with that vehement celerity which the heat of the Heart has endu'd them with lose the form of Blood and come under the name of Animal Spirits Moreover he asserts a certain wonderful Separation of the thinner parts of the Blood from the thicker whereas the arterious Blood altogether such as it is is equally thrust forward through the Arteries upward and downward neither is there any reason why the more subtil parts should be more specially carry'd upward toward the Head and the thicker flow to the rest of the Body As to the narrowness of the passages that proves nothing for the Carotid and Cervical Arteries are wide and large enough so that the thicker blood mix'd together with the more spirituous may as well flow through them as the other Arteries Neither does the directness of the passage to such a separation of the most subtil particles from the thicker make any thing to the purpose for the blood being violently thrust forward out of the Heart rushes forth where it finds way given without any separation of the particles For the Spirits are not separated from it by degrees as the Spirits of Wine or any other Liquor containing Spirits in a Chymical Distillation where by the force of the Fire the Spirits are dissolv'd by degrees without any other impetuous compulsion and ascend directly upward and if any such be allow'd them fly away through any direct narrow passages the watery parts flowing out at the lateral passages But here is a rapid propulsion of the whole dissolv'd sanguineous mass into the great Artery and all its wide narrow streight crooked upper lower productions that so swift sudden that in that small moment of time that the Heart makes that propulsion so sudden and rapid a separation of the thinner from the thicker can neither be done nor taught by reason nor apprehended by Imagination If the blood attenuated and render'd vaporous in the Ventricles of the Heart did ascend upwards into the Arteries of its own accord without any impulse then perchance by reason of its slow progress some such thing might be imagin'd by us but in regard that the Heart by a sudden contraction impetuously and rapidly expels as it were in the twinkling of an eye whatever is in its Ventricles such a separation can never be made Thus if any one with a Syringe shall force red Wine boyling hot into a Tube crooked toward the sides and bor'd through at the upper part with three or four Holes it will fly forth equally such as it is at all the holes at the top or sides whether crooked wide or narrow nor will the violence of the force or shortness of the time allow any separation of the thicker parts from the thinner much less a particular passage of the thinner thro' the uppermost direct little holes without the thicker And so it is with the blood forc'd out of the Heart Besides the quickest Eye in the world could never observe any difference either in thickness or thinness between the blood ascending upward to the Head through the wide and direct passages or the blood descending downward through the crooked and broad passages For that which is taken out of any Animal from the Carotid differs not a tittle from that which descends out of the Aorta or is drawn out of the Iliac Vein by a small Prick as neither the returning remainder of the blood
which descends through the Jugular Veins differs any thing from that which ascends through the Basilic Vein of the Arm or the Iliac Veins of the Thighs unless it pass through any diseased part but is altogether equal And yet there would be some difference to be observ'd if the Doctrine of Cartesius were true Lastly says the most acute Philosoper the more subtil parts of the blood compounding these Spirits want no other alteration but the separation of the most thin parts from the less thin yet in the mean time he never lets us know what those most thin parts are 2. Nor how the Brain orders that separation from the rest of the parts of the blood 3. Nor wherefore nor how they are mov'd As to the first I have spoken in the definition that is to say that all the most subtil parts of the blood but chiefly the volatile Salt parts conduce to the making of these Spirits of which we shall now more at large discourse as also of their separation and motion IV. The Matter therefore out of which these Spirits are generated is the arterious Blood consisting of a Salt Sulphureous and Serous Iuice of which not equally all the Parts or Particles but chiefly the Salt which by a peculiar quality of the Kernels of the Cortex of the Brain are for the greatest part dissolv'd and separated from the sulphury Particles and being depriv'd of their Serosity are rendred most thin and altogether volatile so that they are able with ease to penetrate through the diminutive Fibers of the pithy Brain V. Vesalius Laurentius Columbus Sennertus Plempius Fracassarius and many others are of Opinion that besides the blood Air necessarily concurs as the Matter è qua or out of which to the generation of these Spirits and that by its transpiration through the Sieve-like breathing holes of the Ethmoid Bone it penetrates into the Ventricles of the Brain Which was formerly also the Opinion of Erasistratus and Galen But that it is far distant from Truth we find partly for that those things which have been said concerning the situation of the spungy Bones and the spungy Flesh stopping the upper part of the Nostrils partly what has been said concerning the place of the Generation of the Animal Spirits plainly demonstrate that the inspir'd Air cannot penetrate into the Ventricles of the Brain and then again that the Animal Spirits are not generated in those Ventricles Moreover the Animal Spirits are always generated out of the same and like Matter of which if inspir'd Air were a necessary part they could never be generated without inspir'd Air. But on the other side they are generated in those persons who being troubl'd with the Pose have their Nostrils obstructed with so great a quantity of Flegm that by respiration no Air can pass through them They are also generated in the Birth while it lies shut up in the Womb infolded in its own Membranes at what time the Birth does not breath nor can receive in any Air. They are also generated in Fish which though they do not breath in the Air yet abound with these Spirits as appears by their seeing feeling and nimble motion Lastly they are generated in Birds before they are hatch'd while they are inclos'd within the shell and cannot receive in any Air. From all which it is easily concluded that inspir'd Air does not concur to constitute the Matter out of which these Spirits are made VI. Now the Blood is forc'd in great quantity through the Carotid and Cervical Arteries not only into the Membranes of the Head but into Substance it self of the Brain Cerebel and Pith and in its Passage first through the Cortex thence through the Pithy Substance the more subtil salt Particles therein are separated for the most part from the sulphury or oily and serous Particles of which again the thicker Particles serve to the nourishment of the Bowel it self but the thinner are still more volatiliz'd and for the greatest part being freed from the sulphury are changed into a most subtil Spirit call'd Animal which flows out of the Fibers of the Brain and Cerebel into the Nerves and through them to the rest of the Parts of the Body VII But after what manner or by what force that separation and thsir attenuation and volatilization is perform'd cannot easily be explain'd but seems to be peculiar to the Substance it self of the Brain and Kernels of the Cortex as being a Substance which is chiefly form'd out of such a salt Matter with which some few oily Particles being mixt make up the somewhat fatty constitution thereof and hence through the conformity of that like Matter it has an affinity with that other saltish Matter and easily imbibes it after it has quitted the rest of the sulphury and serous Matter and alters it within its little Fibers to greater perfection Thus Fracassarius writes that the Cortex of the Brain is more salt and softer than the Marrow because the Cortex consists more of melted Salt but the Pith of Salt strain'd through the Cortex and consequently less serous and thence more firmly concreted which he says he has often experimented and adds an experimental Observation not improbable Now this Separation happens first in the Cortex as into whose innumerable diminutive Kernels through infinite blood-bearing Vessels the blood is plentifully infus'd out of which in those Kernels there is made a separation of the salter and most spirituous part which flows into the diminutive Fibers of the Brain inserted at the lower part into the several Kernels and so in the pithy Substance of the lower part of the Brain compos'd of those little Fibers is brought to the last persection the remaining portion of the blood returning to the Heart through the little Veins For as it is the Office of all the Kernels to separate some humor from the blood so the same thing comes to pass in these Kernels of the Cortex And as in the Sweet-bread the subacid humor is separated the bilious humor in the Liver by virtue of its little Kernels and Bunches the serous humor in the Kidneys the Lymphatic in the Kernels of many other parts or any other humor according to the various constitution of the Kernels and the Parts themselves so likewise in the Kernels of the Cortex of the Brain endu'd with a property peculiar to themselves there is a peculiar most spirituous saltish invisible humor separated from the blood which growing more spirituous in the little Fibers of the pithy Brain has gain'd the Name of Animal Spirit as being that which obeys the Soul in most of its Actions VIII Now that in the separation of any Liquor the Affinity of the Particles is of extraordinary prevalency appears from hence for that in the nourishment of all the other Parts whatever the same thing is observ'd as for example that such Particles of the blood as have the greatest affinity to the Parts adhere to them
of it here they soften there they harden As to the Motion of the Animal Spirits through the Nerves see the foregoing Chapter XIV To these Animal Spirits hitherto no other Use was attributed only that they are serviceable to the Animal Actions that is to say the principal Faculties the Senses and the Animal Motions which is not to be deny'd but besides this there seems to be another natural Use to be assign'd them which is that they conduce in a high measure to the nourishment of the Parts especially the spermatical This is chiefly apparent from hence because that as the blood continually flows out of the Heart thro' the Arteries so likewise these Animal Spirits continually flow from the Brain through the Nerves to the Parts and that naturally without the determination or appointment of the Soul even when the Mind makes no appointment at all as in Sleep and in soporiferous Diseases But altho' besides this natural Motion perpetually proceeding they are frequently mov'd by another determinated Motion proceeding from the Mind yet that detracts nothing from the continual natural Motion but that these Spirits by virtue of that may be serviceable to the Action of Nutrition as they are thereby serviceable to the Animal Actions For the blood when the Body is at rest is forc'd out of the Heart through the Arteries by a setled continual Motion to the nourishment of the Parts shall it therefore when by reason of any extraordinary Exercises or heating of the Body it is ten times swifter and more rapidly mov'd and forc'd out be no longer proper for the nourishment of the Parts Certainly no man of Reason will say that that same second rapid Motion despoyls the blood of its nutritive Quality And so likewise the more rapid determinative motion of the Spirits often altering the first continual Motion cannot be said to deprive them of their Quality necessary to the Assistance of Nutrition XV. But some will say How can the Work of Nutrition equally proceed in the Parts when sometimes more sometimes fewer Animal Spirits flow into these or those Parts For it seems that those into which fewer Spirits flow should be less those into which more Spirits pass should be more nourish'd I answer that the same thing befalls these Spirits as befalls the blood which though it be more rapidly and in greater quantity thrust forward into the Parts upon extraordinary Exercises and Heats of the Body yet does it not nourish them ever a jot the more push'd on by its ordinary continual Motion in regard that rapid Motion of it is caus'd by the great Heat by Motion and Heat the blood becomes more thin and subtil and the Pores of the Parts more loose so that the blood may not be able to stick so close to the Parts but that a great quantity of it may be dissipated So also these Spirits when they are frequently determin'd in greater quantity to these or those parts endue them indeed with a firmer solidity but no larger augmentation because the chiefest part of them by reason of their tenuity is dissipated and what is not serviceable for nourishment or is not dissipated that being pour'd forth according to custom into the Substance of the Parts and being somewhat thickned enters the extremity of the Veins together with the remainder of the Blood and is mixt and circulated together with it and carry'd to the heart Of which Circulation Rolfincius and Deusingius take notice XVI Now we are to take notice what these Spirits afford or contribute to Nourishment It has been said l. 2. c. 12. that the blood consists of a sulphury salt and serous Juice and that it is forc'd forward every way for the nourishment of the Parts Therefore in its Mass there are two sorts of Substances serving to the nourishment of the Parts Sulphur and Salt Mercury is a third for the most part unprofitable indeed for nourishment but altogether necessary for the conjunction mixture and as a Vehicle of the former But of the two former some serve for the nourishment of the fleshy and fat parts others to the nourishment of the Spermatic parts The fleshy and fat parts are chiefly nourish'd by the sulphury particles of the blood which serve to endue them with an Oily softness and something of sweetness Nevertheless there are some salt particles to render the parts more firm and solid But when that in those parts the sulphury particles predominate above the salt then are they softer and fatter where less prevalent more fleshy and firm The Spermatic parts are nourish'd by the salt particles of the blood which render them more solid and hard yet have some sulphury particles mix'd with them according to whose lesser or greater proportion and dissolution some parts are softer as the Membranes Veins and Arteries others harder as the Bones and Gristles XVII But to the end this nourishment may be carry'd on without any ob struction there is of necessity requir'd some kind of separation of the salt particles from the sulphury that the one may the better be enabled to adhere to the Spermatic the other to the Fleshy and Fat Particles and be assimilated to them This Separation is caus'd by the Animal Spirit which by its influx which as it were coagulating by a slight kind of effervescency and peculiar 〈◊〉 the salt particles separates them from the sulphury to the end they may be affix'd to the spermatic parts and by the means of the heat and a small sulphureous Vapor be assimilated to them and as the spermatic parts are more or less dry or moist and more or less of the sulphury particles are mix'd with them so the salter particles of the blood are more or less harden'd in them Thus they become altogether dry and hard in the Bones but softer in the Membranes and Fibers c. These salter particles being thus moderately separated out of the remaining more sulphury Mass of the blood that which is proper goes to the nourishment of the fleshy and fat parts So that the Animal Spirits supply the place of a subacid Rennet or Coagulum which is extracted out of Salt and salt things For that such a sowr Ferment or Coagulum causes the separation of salt and sulphury particles is most evidently apparent in Chymistry For if you mingle Spirit of Wine wherein there is ten times a greater proportion of sulphury than salt particles with Spirit or Water of Tartar which consists of Salt Tartarous particles thinly dissolv'd and melted the Mixture will be exact into which Mixture if you pour in never so little Spirit of acid Salt or Vitriol there will be presently an Effervescency by which the salt particles will be separated from the sulphury and watery and being coagulated they will fix and precipitate to the bottom Thus also by the mixture of Animal Spirits which are endu'd with a gentle subacidish quality the salt particles of the blood flowing into the parts are in a
such an Atrophy caus'd by the ill temper of the Brain and Spirits has been often cur'd by Remedies apply'd to the Head alone by which the Animal Spirits being restor'd to their former Sanity Nutrition has had its usual Course 8. Because upon the cutting of any Nerve that Part to which the Nerve was carry'd shall consume and perish for want of Animal Spirits Of which Riolanus gives us an elegant Example Nicephorus Gregorius saith he saw a young Boy once that being shot with an Arrow into the Neck the Arrow had cut the Nerve upon which the contrary Foot was seiz'd with a Numness and the Disease remain'd incurable and though the other Foot grew as the Boy grew the other Leg retain'd its first exility and Shortness hanging loose and useless Upon which many that understood not the Causes and Reasons of things were strangely amaz'd how it came to pass that the Hand which was much nearer the Wound was altogether insensible of the Hart when the Foot so far distant was so deeply affected with it But by reason Anatomy was not so well understood in that Age the cause of that Accident was not so well discern'd by the Physicians of that time which was certainly this because the Arrow had not struck the Nerve after its separation from the Pith and its starting out through the Side-holes of the Spiny Fistula for there is no Nerve that slides through the Vertebers of the Neck which descends to the Thigh and Foot but penetrating within the Spiny Fistula had cut the Nervy Strings in the Pith it self which descends to the Loins and the holy Bone and thence to the Foot and for that reason the influx of Spirits into the Foot failing the Foot dry'd up and ceas'd its growth So that which way soever we consider the Matter it will appear that the Animal Spirits necessarily concur to the Office of Nutrition And moreover that in the Spleen they separate the Matter of Ferment out of the arterious Blood necessary for the preparation of the Blood and the Chylus These things Glisson and Wharton seem in some measure to have smelt out and Lambert Velâ—…hussus treading their Footsteps Only in this they were deceiv'd that besides the Animal Spirits they thought there flow'd through the Nerves some other sort of Nutritive Juice which of it self nourish'd the Spermatic Parts Which Error proceeded from that whitish Juice resembling the White of an Egg which when the Nerves are hurt is often gather'd together in the Nerves or about them vulgarly call'd Aqua Articularis Which Humor however doesnot distil from the Nerves when hurt for such a slimy Juice could never pass through the invisible Pores but is a Humor that usually setâ—…les about the Joints to render them 〈◊〉 and slippery which upon a too copious mixture with the Animal Spirits flowing out of the endamag'd Nerves grows thick and coagulated many times to the Consistence of the White of an Egg. Which loss of Spirits causes a debility and Atrophy in the Part. I thought good to insert this paradoxical Opinion of mine into these Anatomical Exercises in few words upon which others may comment more at large because that from this foundation the Use and Nature of many other parts may be gather'd There remain two things more to be unfolded First Whether the Animal Spirits are the next Instrument of the Soul concerning which thing Plempius accurately discourses l. 2. Fund Med. sect 4. c. 1. The next How these Spirits being generated in the Brain and flowing with a continual and natural Motion to perfect the Nourishment of the parts are mov'd by the Mind by another designing Motion and are sent sometimes in a larger sometimes in a lesser proportion to sundry parts But these things which chiefly concern the Actions of the Soul seem not to be the proper Subject of our Discourse wherein we have design'd to write not of the Soul but only of the Body of Man and therefore as for those that are covetous of Satisfaction in this particular I think fit to send them to the Philosophers who have on purpose set forth whole Treatises of the Soul and its Actions which however I advise to be read with great Judgment since not a few of them have feign'd many and wonderful idle Dreams in that particular CHAP. XII Of the Face IN the foregoing Chapters we have endeavour'd to display what is to be found in the Hairy Part of the Head now we come to the smooth Part which is call'd the Countenance or Vultus a Voluntatis judicio from the Iudgment of the Will because it discovers the Will It is also call'd Facies by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it distinguishes Men from Brutes and shews that there is a Celestial Spirit contain'd in them For if we more seriously consider the structure of the Face its singular Beauty and Splendor we cannot but discern something that is wonderful and divine therein Whence Aristotle very well observes that the whole man is comprehended in his Face as in the Compendium of a little Picture For the Wisdom of the supream Architect more than sufficiently appears in the several parts of human Body yet both the Beauty of the Face alone and its wonderful agreement with the Soul draws the Elegancy and Dignity of all the rest of the Parts as it were into a Compendium and seems to shew therein the Affections of all the rest of the Parts as in a Looking-glass For from thence we gather not only the Marks and Symptoms of Health Diseases and approaching Death but also make shrewd Conjectures of the Ingenuity Dispositions and Manners of Men. For as in the Cheeks Bashfulness and Terror in the Eyes Anger Joy Sadness Hatred and chiefly Love display themselves in the Forehead Gravity and Humility in the Eye-brows Pride in the Chin Majesty so by the Nose Sagacity or Stupidity by the Motion of the Face Wisdom or Folly Honesty or Knavery Civility or Rusticity Reverence or Contempt good or ill Will by the Colour we discover the Temperaments of the whole Body Moreover by the Face we distinguish of Sex Age Life and Birth Therefore it is the most certain Image of the Mind and a clear Mirror reflecting back those things which lie conceal'd wherein both the external and internal Sences discover themselves and all the Motions and Perturbations of the internal Faculties are display'd I. The Face consists of Parts containing and Parts contain'd The containing Parts are common or proper The common are the Cuticle the Skin which is here very thin the Fat of which there is none either in the Eye-brows or Nose and very little in the Lips and Region of the Chaps where it is so interwoven with Muscles that it cannot be separated from the Parts annext to it The Fleshy Pannicle which below the Eyes is so thin that Riolanus thought it to be altogether wanting in that Part. In the Forehead it is much more fleshy and sticks so
the Vitreous by which it is separated from the other two Humors XVIII The use of it is to dilate the Rays of visible things receiv'd from the Chrystalline and being so dilated to represent them to the Net-form'd Tunicle Others who believe the Sight to be in the Optic Nerve affirm the use of it to be to this purpose that the Rays being refracted in it after they have pass'd the Chrystalline Humor may come together in one Point to the end the Image may be represented to the Sight XIX The Crystalline Humor by the Greeks call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from its clear Transparency as also Glacialis resembling the clearest Icicle that may be is more solid and bright than the other two Humors generated out of the most transparent and purest part of the Seed Before it possesses the Hole of the Uveous Tunicle behind it is received into a Hollowness fram'd in the Vitreous Humor and sticks close to it In the forepart it is a little more flat behind a little more round though this Figure seems often to vary according to the various Affections of the Eye XX. This Humor is surrounded or enclosed with its own proper Tunicle extreamly thin and transparent therefore call'd Chrystalloidaea and from the form of its Contexture the Cobweb Tunicle By means of this Tunicle it is separated from the other Humors to which also in the hollowness of the vicious Humor the vicious Tunicle sticks very close but yet is distinct from it Riolanus will not allow of this Tunicle not so much as in the forepart as being that which he believes to be very finely polish'd by reason of the thickness of the Crystalline But the Sight it self evinces this Error For it is plain that that same Tunicle though very slender may be in some measure separated and that that being endamag'd the exterior part of the Humor it self does but very little trickle forth Thus says Iulius Casserius in these Words Nay I have shown this Tunicle visibly separated from the Crystalline Humor it self XXI The Rays of visible things being dilated in the Watry Humor are first received by this Crystalline Humor and hence pass throâ—…gh the Vitreous Humor to the Net-form'd Tunicle and so are presented to the Common Sensory Therefore in coâ—…deration of the first Reception or Collection the Crystalline Humor is the first Instrument of Sight but in consideration of Perception the Net form'd Tunicle as being that by means whereof the Rays receiv'd are offer'd to the common Sensory where they are perceived In the mean time all the Conjunction of all the Parts of the Eye is so close and so necessary to the end that one may not act without the other while the Defect of the meanest part even of the aqueous Humor puts a stop to the primary Operation of the whole Organ XXII Here arises another Doubt whether the Crystalline or Watry Humor are Parts of the Body As for the Crystalline we must conclude that it is really a Part of the Body because it is enfolded in its proper Cob-web-Tunicle perfects the Act of Seeing together with the other Parts lives is nourish'd is generated in the Womb has its proper Circumscription is a Body adhering to the whole and filling it together with other Parts conjoyned by common Life and ordain'd to its Function and Use. And if its Substance be more narrowly considered it is not truly a Humor though vulgarly so call'd but a Body sufficiently firm and solid which being boyl'd in Fish may be divided into little Fibers and is much more firm than Fat the Brain or the Marrow Hence Galen deservedly reckons it among the Parts of the Body and those the similar Parts too because it is divided into Parts like to its self as also the Organic Parts because it is ordain'd to perfect the Act of Seeing and to that end has a certain determin'd and sensible Formation The same Question concerning the Vitreous Humor is resolv'd by the same Reasons And though some affirm the Crystalline Humor to be nourish'd by this Vitreous Humor that however is improperly said perhaps because there are some who think it prepares Nourishment for the other though indeed it no more nourishes the Crystalline Humor than the Heart nourishes the Arm besides that there is no need of so bright and large a part for the Nourishment of the Crystalline Humor neither is it less proper for it to be nourished by the Blood then the Nerves Marrow Brain or any other whitish parts of the Body XXIII Iulius Casserius of Placentia was the first that brought another Question upon the Stage concerning these Humors Whether they are endued with the Sence of feeling As for himself he allows them a most exact Sence of feeling For my part I allow this Sence to their Membranes but not to the substance of the Humors it self in regard that the Membrane alone is the Organ of Feeling In like manner as the Teeth and Bones whose proper Substance though it be destitute of the Sence of Feeling yet the Periostium's are sensible and so they are allowed the Sence of Feeling Now the Animal Spirits contribute the Power of Seeing to the Eye being framed of all these Parts which Spirits flow into it in great quantity through the Optic Nerve But they flow into it sometime in greater sometimes in lesser quantity and hence it is that the Eyes swell sometimes more sometimes less sometimes are more quick sighted and sometimes less Thus they are more Tumid in young Persons Plethoric People that are angry and given to drink They are less turgid in aged Folks such as are given to Venereal Exercises those that are Sad or emaciated for want of Food They are also said to be more turgid in Virgins then those that have known Man But though a moderate Swelling of the Eye caused by the Spirits renders the Sight more quick yet it does not follow that upon every Swelling of the Eye the Sight should be more quick for we find the contrary in People intoxicated with Drink whose Sight is but dull by reason of the turbulent and disorderly Influx of the Spirits XXIV The Action of the Eye is manifest and known to all Men to be Seeing XXV Now this Seeing is a Sence whereby from the various Motion of the visible Rays collected in the Crystalline and Glassie Humors and striking upon the Net-form'd-Tunicle Colours are perceiv'd with their light Situation Distance Magnitude Figure and Number As to the Manner Medium and Object of Sight and many other things thereto belonging those Philosophers are to be consulted who have made it their business to write altogether upon that Subject and therefore to avoid unnecessary Prolixity are here omitted since they cannot with a sufficient Accurateness be briefly run over but require a whole Treaties of themselves such a one as among others Descartes has written Lib. dioptric Lib. de Hom. artic 18 19
another or with one or more Muscles 9. In respect of their Use some bending others stretching forth drawing to drawing from lifting up pulling down and some wheeling XII The Use of the Muscles is to contribute to voluntary Motion Which is performed by these Instruments alone for no Part moves with that motion which is not a Muscle it self or mov'd by a Muscle And this motion is call'd Animal or Voluntary being perform'd at the will of the Creature Here Picolhomini and some others start a Question Whether the motion of the Muscles can be said to be Voluntary Since it is common to Beasts which have no Reason and consequently no Will and therefore believe Spontaneous to be more proper Nor can it be called Voluntary as being performed in the Womb by the Birth without Will as also when it sucks before it knows what the Breast or Milk is also the Pulmonary Muscles move the Breast when Men are asleep and consequently cannot be said to Will To the first I answer that there is a sort of Will in Brutes arising from something analogous to the Rational Soul and proceeding from Natural Appetite and therefore they may be said to have a voluntary Motion As to the Motion of the Birth and Breathing of those that are asleep I say that Animal Motion is not always directed by the Will but it is sufficient in Persons healthy a sleep or waking that it be performed according to the Will Moreover the Will is twofold either by Election or by Instinct as in Men sleeping or the Birth in the Womb. Galen upon this Subject writes that of those things which are mov'd by voluntary Motion some are free others are serviceable to the several Affections of the Body And that every Creature knows to what Uses the Faculties of his Soul are ordained without an Instructor Therefore the Motion of the Muscles is Voluntary and not Spontaneous in regard that Spontaneous Motion such as that of the Heart is truly Natural as not depending upon the Will of the Creature Seeing then the Motion of the Muscle is an Animal Action and that the Muscle it self is the Instrument of Voluntary Motion it is a certain Rule that where-ever there is a Muscle there in the same part may be Action and that what part cannot be moved at pleasure that is neither a Muscle nor mov'd by a Muscle though the Structure of it may seem to resemble that of a Muscle Therefore the Heart is no Muscle nor moved by a Muscle On the contrary Stenonis affirms that there are several Muscles of the Larynx Tongue and Back which are never mov'd at the Will of the Mind Though it is never to be prov'd that there is any of them but what may be mov'd at pleasure and to confirm his Opinion he maintains the Heart to be a Muscle XIV Whatever Part says he neither requires any Part necessary for a Muscle nor possesses any Part deny'd to a Muscle yet in Structure is like a Muscle cannot but deserve the Name of a Muscle though it be not subject to the Power of the Will But the Heart c. Which way of Arguing were it allowable I might argue thus Whatever Part neither requires any part necessary for the Stomach nor possesses any part deny'd the Stomach yet in Structure and Composition is like the Stomach cannot but deserve the Name of the Stomach though it do not concoct the Nourishment but all these things requisite are found in the Urinary Bladder Figure Shape Substance Arteries Veins Nerves c. therefore the Urinary Bladder deserves the Name of the Stomach Then says Stenonis nor possesses any part deny'd to a Muscle where as 't is obvious that there are in the Heart two little Ears two wide Ventricles and eleven large Valves the like to which were never seen in any Muscle So that the Heart possessing many Parts deny'd to a Muscle the Structure of it cannot be like to that of a Muscle Then the Action of the Heart is to make Blood which no Muscle in the whole Body can pretend to do If he draws his Argument from the Contraction of the Fibers in the Motion of the Pulse which is a voluntary Motion and hence we prove the Heart to be a Muscle he may as well prove the Ventricle to be a Muscle which offended by corroding things contracts it self by the Help of the Muscles to expel the offending Matter by Vomit or Hickup or the Gall-bladder which does the same when offended with boiling Choler or the Womb contracting it self for the Expulsion of the Birth Nay the very Membranes of the Brain which in Sneezing contract themselves would come to be Muscles which being all Absurdities prove the Certainty of our Axiom before mentioned XV. There is but one Action of the Muscle which is to draw which is performed by the Animal Spirits determined into the Muscle and flowing into the Fiber which causes the swelling Muscle to contract it self according to its Length For so the Tendon is drawn toward the Head which Determination and copious Influx of the Spirits so long as iâ—… lasts so long the Muscle remains contracted While this Muscle is contracted the opposite Muscle relaxes because the Spirits before determined into that flow into another which causes it to grow languid so that the Swelling and Contraction ceases because the Alteration of the Determination of the Animal Spirits may happen in a moment though how it is done we cannot so well explain XVI But this Relaxation of the Muscle is no Action but a ceasing from Action and therefore they are in an Error who think it so to be Which Galen seems to assert in one Place though in another he says that Contraction is more proper to the Body of the Muscle then Extension and so he seems to make Relaxation a kind of secundary Action But if we rightly consider it it is no Action either primary or secundary but only a Motion by Accident XVII Another Question is Whether there be any Action in the Tonic Motion when the Muscles being every way contracted together the Parts to be mov'd are never bent but are at rest nor do the Muscles themselves seem to be moved I answer there is a manifest Motion in that case for the Muscles act every way with equal Striâ—…e and that which is thought to be the motionless rest of any Part is caused by the Opposite Muscles acting together at the same time and at the same time drawing every way the Part to be mov'd XVIII Riolanus seems to make some Difference between Contraction and Tension and this he calls the Conservation of the Thing contracted But in regard this Tension is nothing else but the Continuation of Contraction it cannot be separated from Contraction But says Riolanus many things are extended which are not contracted As the Yard is extended by a distensive Faculty but then it is not contracted like a Muscle Worms are
of those Nerves are in all the Parts of the Body which serve for the Organ of any Sense and these Strings may be most easily mov'd by the Objects of those Senses But when they are mov'd never so little presently they attract the Parts of the Brain from whence they derive their Original and at the same time open the Passages of some Pores in the foremost Superficies of the Brain Whence the Animal Spirits taking their Course and carried through the same into the Nerves and Muscles stir up Motions altogether like to those with which we also are excited our Senses being affected after the same manner Here the two former Opinions seem to be joyned together by the most excellent Philosophers of our Age to extract the Perception of the Senses out of this Conjunction For he believes that the Idea of the Object is to be carried through the small Fibres to the Brain and that then in the Brain certain Pores being opened the Animal Spirits flow through the Porosities of their Fibres into the Nerves and Muscles and so excite a Motion which causes the Perception But still I wish that this ingenious Invention would teach us how at the same instant of time that Motion of the Fibres can be carried from the Toes to the Head and at the same Instant the Influx of the Spirits from the Brain to the Feet Mechanics here will not serve turn Pull a Rope says he at one end and the Bell at the other end of the Rope will presently sound But the Parallel will not hold For in Man there is a rational Soul and Life Now the Soul perceives and moves the Parts without any external Object 'T is otherwise with a Bell which is void of Life and Soul nor can be moved but by some external Agent and consequently has need of other Organs than a living Body For Example the Rope does not move the Bell unless pulled by some external Mover but there is no such Mover or pulling in the Nerves or their little Fibres much less in the soft and marrowy Substance of the Nerves When a Man lyes crumpled up several ways in his Bed there is neither Sreightness nor Tension but many times a Compression of the Nerves and yet he feels the least Prick in his little Toe Is the soft Medullary Fibre of the Nerve notwithstanding the crooked Posture of the Body moved through so many Windings and Turnings to the Innermost Recesses of the Brain Is there then any Tension of the Fibres and Nerves Rather will there not be some Pressure to intercept and stop that Motion No says Des Cartes because these Fibres are included in those little Tubes through which the Animal Spirits are carried into the Muscles which always swelling those little Tubes prevent the little Threads from being too much compressed As if when the Nerves are up and down compressed by that crooked Posture of the Body those fictitious Tubes remained open and distâ—…nded to prevent the Compression of those little Strings Now compare the two Sentences of Des Cartes from his Similitude of a Bell-rope he says the more extended the Nerves are the more easily and suddainly those Threads are moved to the innermost Recesses of the Brain On the other side in another place he says that the Filaments that serve the Organs of Taste are more easily mov'd than those that officiate for the Sense of Feelling because they are more relaxed Shall then the more relaxed String more suddainly and easily be moved than another more distended Lastly I would fain know whether that thin invisible Fibres being mov'd has any Faculty to open in the Brain any Pores for the Influx of Spirits This is an Action of the Mind not of any Nerves or Fibres For the Mind can open or shut the Pores sometimes of these sometimes of those Nerves and has power to appoint the Spirit to these or those Parts in greater or lesser quantity vid. l. 3. c. 5. XXII No less difficult it seems to explain how the determinative Motion of the Spirits through the Nerves proceeds and how they come to flow and cease to flow sometimes into these sometimes into those Muscles so suddenly in a moment of time A Question which the Ancients by reason of its difficulty car'd not to meddle with But lately Regius has undertook the Point and tells us there are many Valves in the Nerves for the opening and shutting of which the Animal Spirits flow and re-flow sometimes to these sometimes to those Parts according to the determination of the Mind But not to believe any thing rashly no man shall perswade me that there are any Valves in the Nerves the opening or shutting of which either admits or restrains the flowing or reflux of the Animal Spirits according to the determination of the Mind the least shadow of which could never be demonstrated by any Anatomist that ever I heard of so that this Opinion falls to the Ground First Because that if the determinated Influx of the Spirits should take effect the Soul while it finishes those determinations would only be employ'd in the opening and shutting of those Valves but not in the Emission of Spirits for those flow continually and spontaneously through the Impulse of the Heart and Brain like an Organist who laying his Fingers upon these or those Keys causes the wind to enter these or those Pipes from the Bellows according to his own determination and as he opens or shuts the Valves of the Pipes with his Fingers so the several strings in the Brain from whence the Operations of the Mind proceed ought to be extendded like the conveyances of an Organ to the several Valves of the Nerves by which they may be shut or opened at pleasure But in regard that many times one Nerve sends it Branches to many Muscles as the Turning-back Nerve sends its Branches to many Muscles Hyoides Neck and other Parts and several to the Diaphragma consequently there ought to be Valves belonging to every Branch from each of which peculiar strings ought to be extended to the Brain and so should ascend of-times through one Nerve which runs out to various Parts though very slender like the Vagous Nerve of the sixth Conjunction a hundred two hundred or more according to the Number of the Valves but that there are such Filaments there is no Man of reason but may easily conceive Secondly Seeing that as those Valves are open'd and shut the motion of the Parts is said to be swifter or slower and for the same reason by the determination of the Mind the Sense of Feeling would move more or less acute at pleasure nay some times would intermit which that it never happens is known to all Men. Any Man may either move or not move his hand as he pleases but he can never so move it at his pleasure but the Skin of the Hand shall be more or less sensible of it which he might do if those Valves were allow'd in the Nerves
Liniment and then cover the Head with the following Quilt â„ž Oyls of Amber Rosemary Marjoram an ℈ ij Martiate Oyntment Ê’ij Castoreum Powdered ℈ s. For a Liniment â„ž Leaves of Marjoram M. j. of Rosemary Sage and Flowers of Melilot an one little handful Cloves Nutmegs an ℈ j. Castoreum ℈ s. Beat these into a gross Powder for a Quilt XIV Let him have a good Air a light Room moderately warm and Perfumed with Castor Peny-royal Rosemary Sage Thime Marjoram Baum c. let his Food be easie of Digestion Condited with Rosemary Betony Marjoram Hyssop and the like Let him avoid Milk Pulse and Fruit Garlic Onions Mustard Radishes c. Let his Drink be Barley-water with Majoram Hyssop Rosemary and the like boil'd in it sweetened with a little Hydromel or Honey and aâ—…omatiz'd with Saffron Let him sleep as little as may be and make his natural Evacuations come forth in due order HISTORY VIII Of the Profound Sleep call'd Carus A Stout young Man having fallen from a high Place upon his Head was seized with a deep sleep being put by his Friends who thought him drunk into his Bed he continued so for two days There was no Wound appeared in his Head which was defended by a good strong Cap only in the top of his Head there was a Contusion not very big his Pulse beat well nor did he shew any Signs that his Heart was affected he breathed freely If he were prickt he shrunk up the prickt Member In the mean time no noise nor pulling him by the Hair nor other means would wake him I. How far this Patients Head was affected the profound sleep sufficiently shew'd II. This sleep is called Carus which is a profound sleep with an injury to the Animal Actions III. 'T is no Apoplexy because the Person breaths freely nor Lethargy because there is no Fever and the Patient cannot be waked wherein it differs from Coma since the Patients in that Distemper are often waked and move their Limbs from one place to another IV. The cause of this is a depression of the upper Skull and the Bones of the Bregmâ—… caused by the Fall by which the Brain being depressed the Brain is hindered in its Motion which injures all the Animal Actions Besides that the Choroid-fold being obstructed by the Compression hinders the Passage of the Vital Spirits to the Brain and consequently the Generation of Animal to supply the wast of Spirits in the Organs of the Senses into which the Animal Spirits having not a free Influx by reason of that Compression the actions of the Parts fail and thence that deep sleep V. This Carus is very dangerous and threatens an Apoplexy if not taken care of in time VI. The Cure consists in raising the depressed Skull 2. In corroborating the wakened Brain 3. In taken care of the whole Body to prevent the flux of many Humors to the Head or any other Disease from breeding at that time in the Body VII Therefore a Glister given take eight or nine Ounces of Blood out of the Arm. Then proceed to Denudation and if need require Perforation of the Brain VIII The same day the Glister is given and the Vein opened toward the â—…kull in the place where the Contusion â—…ppears must be laid bare with a Crossâ—…ike Incision made in the fleshy Parts The next Morning raise the Bone with â—…roper Instruments But for fear least â—…y that violent Contusion some little Veins should be broken in the hard Meninx which may have poured forth any Blood between the Meninx and the Cranium which corrupting there should afâ—…erward be the Cause of unexpected death the safest way would be to Perforate the Skull in the firm Part next the depressed Part to give â—…he extravasated Blood an easie Exit and for the more easie raising of the depressed Skull IX The Skull being raised and the wound stopt according to Art let this Fomentation be clapt warm about his Head still shifting it as it grows cold â„ž Betony M. iiij Marjoram Rosemary Vervain Fennel Leaves of Lawrel Baum Thime Rue Flowers of Stoechas Camomil Melilot an M. j. Common Water q. s. boil them according to Art adding toward the end White-wine lb j. Make a Fomentation of 〈◊〉 iij. X. Anoint his Fore-head with this Liniment â„ž Oyls of Amber Rosemary Marjoram distilled an ℈ j. Castoreum pulverised gr ix Martiate Unguent Ê’ ij XI The Patient being rous'd from his sleep which uses to happen after the raising of his Skull give him this Purging draught â„ž Leaves of Senna Ê’ iij. Rubarb Ê’ j. s. white Agaric Ê’ s. Anise-seed Ê’ j. Decoction of Barley q. s. Infuse them then add to the straining Elect. Diaprunum solutive Ê’ iij. XII The Body being Purged let him drink twice or thrice a day a draught of this Apozem â„ž Succory Root â„¥ j. s. of Fennel and Acorus an â„¥ s. Herbs Betony Dandelion Borage Baum Rue an M. j. Rosemary Marjoram Flowers of Stoechas an M. j. Orange and Citron Peels an â„¥ s. Currants â„¥ ij Water q. s. For an Apozem of lb j. s. XIII Instead of the Apozem he may now and then take a small quantity of this or such like Conditement â„ž Specier Diambrae Ê’ j. Roots of Acorus Condited Candied Orange-peels Conâ—…erve of Anthos and pale Roses an â„¥ s. Syrup of Stoechas q. s. XIV If he be bound at any time in his Body let him be loosened with Glisters Or else take the following Mixture and hang it up in a little Bag in a Pint and a half of small Alâ—… and give him a draught or two every Morning â„ž Leaves of Senna â„¥ j. s. Rubarb Ê’ ij Root of Iallop Ê’ j. Anise Ê’ ij Leaves of Marjoram Carduus Benedict an M. s. XV. Keep him in a good temperate clear Air let his Meats be of easie Digestion and spaâ—…ing at first His Drink small his Exercises moderate little Sleep at first especially But let his natural Evacuations duly proceed either spontaneously or provoked by Art HISTORY IX Of a Catalepsis A Young Maid her Evacuations being obstructed and frequently liable to Uterine Suffocations being taken of a suddain remained void of Sence and in that Posture as she taken waxed cold keeping her Eyes open and fixed but seeing nothing if the standersâ—…y moved her Arm upwards or downward or side-ways it remained as they laid it if they set her upon her Feet she stood if they moved her Body forwards she put out her Foot if they turned her Head on one side so it stood all this while she breathed freely when this fit had lasted an hour she came to her self but remembered nothing of what had happened Two days after she was taken with another Fit which went off of it self I. THat the Seat of this Distemper was in the Head the terrible Molestation of the Animal Actions declare as the Uterine Suffocation shewed the Distemper of the Womb. II. This Affection is called a Catalepsis and is a sudden and very great
off by one half but still obstructing the other constitute the containing Cause IV. Thus the Motion of the Left-side was taken away because that half of the Pith being obstructed the Animal Spirits could not enter into that half of the Pith nor the Nerves proceeding from it which causes a Cessation of the Actions of the Instruments of voluntary Motion or the Muscles on that side But the Sense is not quite lost but remains very dull because that several Spirits pass through the contracted Pores of the Pith sufficient for Motion yet not anew to impart Sense to the feeling Parts V. This Malady is hard to be cured by reason of the detension of a viscous and tenacious Humor in a cold Part but Youth and Strength of Body promise hopes of Recovery VI. The Method of Cure requires the Attenuation and Dissipation of the Obstructing Humor 2. To prevent the Afflux of any more 3. To take away the antecedent Cause 4. To cortoborate the Parts affected VII For Evacuation of the Flegmatic Humor give these Pills â„ž Mass of Pill Cochiae Ê’s Extract of Catholicon ℈ s. with a little Syrup of Stoechas make up vij Pills Instead of them may be given Powder of Diaturbith or DiacarthamumÊ’j or a Draught of an Insusion of Leaves of Senna Root of Jalap Agaric These Purges are to be repeated by Intervals VIII Blood-letting is not proper in this Case IX To corroborate the nervous Part of the Body and prevent the Generation of flegmatick Humors let him take this Apozem â„ž Root of Acorns Fennel an Ê’vj Florence Orice Ê’iij Betony Ground-pine Marjoram Rosemary Calamint Thime an M. j. Flowers of Stoechas M. s. Seeds of Fennel Caroways Bishops-weed an Ê’j s. Water and Wine equal parts boil them to a Pint and a half and to the Straining add Syrup of Stoechas â„¥ iij. For an Apozem Of which let the Patient take four ounces three or four times a day with a small Quantity of this Conditement â„ž Specier Diambr Diamosch Dulcis an ℈ iiij Conserve of Flowers of Sage Anthos Root of Acorns candied an Ê’v Syrup of Stoechas q. s. X. The Use of Paralitic and Apoplectic Waters will be very proper in this Case of which there are several to be found among the Prescriptions of Physicians XI If the Disease will not submit to these Remedies let him take every Morning five ounces of the following Decoction and sweat in his Bed according to his Strength â„ž Lig. Guaiacum â„¥ iiij Sassafras Sarsaperil an â„¥ ij Water lbvij Macerate these twenty four hours then boil them adding toward the end Roots of Acorns Valerian Butter-bur Fennel an Ê’vj Galangale Licorice sliâ—…'d an Ê’ij Herbs Betony Miij Ground-Ivy M. ij Thyme Marjoram Rosemary Flowers of Stoechas an M. j. Sage Ms. Iuniper-berries â„¥ j. Boil them to lb. iij. XII For Corroboration of the Head prepare this Quilt â„ž Flowers of Rosemary Marjoram Thyme Flowers of Lavender Melilot an one small Handful Cloves Nutmegs an ℈ ij For a Quilt XIII While these things are doing let the Spine of the Back be well chafed with hot Cloaths especially in the Neck about the Head and then fomented with a Fomentation of hot Cephalics boiled in Wine or else anoint the Neck with this Liniment warm â„ž Oyl of Foxes Spike Rue Goose and Cats-grease an Ê’vj Oyl of Turpentine â„¥ s. Oil of Peter Rosemary Amber an ℈ ij Powder of Castoreum ℈ iiij After Unction and Friction lay on this Plaister â„ž Pul Castoreum Ê’ij Benjamin Ê’j Galbanum Opoponax dissolved in Spirit of Wine Emplaster of Betony Lawrel-Berries and Melilot an Ê’vj Mix them according to Art XIV This Disease requires a hot dry and pure Air. Meats of good juice and easie Digestion calefying and attenuating For Drink Hydromel or Wine imbib'd with Rosemary Marjoram Betony Cardamum c. Now and then a Draught of Hypocrass or a Spoonful of Juniper-wine or Anthoswine or Aquae Vite of Matthiolus will not be improper avoid long Sleeps and Repletion and let Natures Evacuations be regular and due HISTORY XIII Of Trembling A Man fifty years of Age struck with a great and sudden Terror immediately fell down fixing his Eyes upon the Standers by but not able to speak Soon after recovering his Spirits he talked well enough but rose up with a Trembling over his whole Body From that time when he moved his Limbs the Trembling still remained which as his Body drew cold was more violent as he grew warm abated I. TRembling is a Deprivation of the Voluntary Motion of the Limbs by which they are agitated with a contrary Motion in a continued Vicissitude II. The antecedent Cause is a Flegmatic Humor contained in the Brain which being stirred by the great sudden and disorderly Commotion of the Spirits proceeding from the Terror and cast off to the Pith of the Spine constitutes the containing Cause III. For the Humor in that place contracting the Pores of the Pith prevents the free Influx of the Animal Spirits through the Marrow into the Nerves and Muscles So that not being sufficient to perfect the voluntary Motion it happens that the Limbs are moved forward by a voluntary Motion but are depressed by their own Weight so that both together cause a trembling Motion IV. This Trembling is more vehement in the Body when cold less violent when the Body is warm Because the Pores are more contracted by the Cold and more dilated by the Heat Which causes a freer or less open Passage to the Animal Spirits and consequently a more or less vehement Trembling V This Trembling is not a little dangerous for it may turn to a Palsey or may be accompanied with an Apoplexy a Carus or a Lethargy VI. The Cure is the same as of the Palsey HISTORY XIV Of a Convulsion A Maid about thirty years of Age received a Wound in her Right-arm which laid a Nerve bare but unhurt However she lay in a cold Place and by reason of her Poverty not well guarded against the Cold and besides an unskilful Chyrurgeon having stopped the Blood put a Tent into the Wound dipped in Egyptiaeum and the Apostles Oyntment which caused a most painful and vehement Convulsion in her Arm which soon after was accompanied with a Convulsion of the Thigh on the same side and of her Arm and Thigh on the other side which lasted sometimes half a quarter sometimes an Hour sometimes half an hour intermitting and returning She was in such Pain that many times it made her talk idly I. THE Nerves and Muscles of this Patient were affected as appeared by the Motion not spontaneous and that still more encrease and her Head was grieved as appeared by the Delirium II. This Simptom is called a Convulsion which is a continued and unvoluntary Contraction of the Nerves and Muscles toward their beginning III. The remote Cause was the Wound received which laid the Wound bare The next Cause was the sharp and biting Oyntment provoking the Nerve and the cold
the Cough Suppuration and an Ulcer followed the Corrosion whence the Purulent matter spit up which became still more and more as the Ulcer increased However as yet it has no ill smell because the Ulcer is not come to that degree of Putrefaction VI. the sleight Fever proceeded from the Humors putrifying about the Ulcer For the Blood forced from the right Ventricle of the Heart cannot but receive some infection from the putrified Humors about the Ulcer and carry it to the left Ventricle where it kindles that Fever which is but sleight because the Putrefaction is not great But continual for that every time the Heart dilates something of that Putrefaction falls into the left Ventricle VII The Nostrils are dry because the Flegmatic humors have found out other Passages to the Breast and none come to the Nostrils VIII The Patient is emaciated because the Blood is corrupted by the putrid Humors continually heated in the Heart and mingled with the Blood which is thereby made unfit for Nourishment and uncapable of Assimulation with the Parts IX The Appetite decays because the Stomach not being nourished with good Blood grows weak and breeds bad Humors besides that the continual and violent Agitation of the Cough destroys the natural Constitution of it so that it is not sensible of that Corosion which begets Hunger neither can it conveniently retain nor concoct the Nourishment received X. By what has been said it is apparent that the Disease is a Consumption the certain Signs of which are Bloody and purulent Spittle a soft and lingring Fever and a wasting of the whole Body XI This Disease is very dangerous 1. Because the Ulcer is in such a Bowel the use of which cannot be spared 2 Because it is in a Spungy part that is not easily consolidated 3. Because attended with a Fever that drys up the whole Body 4. Because there is a great wast and decay of strength 5. Because the Cure of the Ulcer requires rest whereas the Lungs are always in continual Motion 6. Because the Medicaments do not come to the Lungs with their full Vertue but through various Concoctions 7. Because a Fever and an Ulcer require different Remedies XII The Method of Cure requires 1. That the cold ill Temper of the Head be amended the generation of cold Humors and the defluctions of cold Humors and the Cough be prevented and allay'd 2. That the Ulcer be cured and the Fever be remov'd XIII First Therefore the defluction of the Catarrhs is to be diverted from the Breast by Issues in the Neck or Arm. The Head is to be corroborated the redounding cold Humors are to be dry'd up and the obstructed Pores to be opened To which purpose the Temples and Bregma are to be anointed Morning and Evening with Oyl of Rosemary Sage Amber Nutmegs c. Let him also wear a Quilted Cap stuft with Cephalics for some time ℞ Leaves of Marjoram and Rosemary an ʒ j. s. Flowers of Rosemary Lavender Melilot an ʒ j. Nutmegs ℈ ij Cloves Storax an ℈ j. Beat them into a gross Powder for a Quilt XIV The Belly is to be gently moved with Manna or Syrup of Roses Solutive XV. Then to facilitate Excretion of the Spittle with such Remedies as at the same time may heal the Ulcer ℞ Syrup of Venus-hair of Comfrey of dried Roses an ℥ j. Mix them for a Looch Or such kind of Trochischs ℞ Flower of Sulphur Powder of sliced Liconice an ʒ j. Root of Florence Orrice ℈ ij Haly's Powder against a Consumption ʒ iij. Benjamin Saffron an ℈ j. White Sugar ℥ v. With Rose-water q. s. Make them into a Past for Trochischs XVI If the Cough continue very violent add to the Looches a little white Syrup of Poppy Moreover to allay the Cough and recover strength let him frequently take of this Amygdalate ℞ Sweet Almonds blanched ℥ ij s. Four greater Cold Seeds an ʒ j. Seed of white Poppy ʒ iij. Barley water q. s. Make an Emulsion to lb j. To which add Syrup of Popies ʒ ij Sugar of Roses q. s. XVII Afterwards for the more speedy closing the Ulcer use this Conditement ℞ Haly's Powder against a Consumption ʒiij Old Conserve of Red Roses ℥ j. s. Syrup of Comfrey For a Conditement XVIII Let his Food be easie of Digestion and very nutritive as potched Eggs Veal Mutton and Chicken-Broath with cleansed Barley Raisins Rice Almonds Chervil Betony and such like Ingredients also Gellys of the same Flesh. Let him drink Goats Milk Morning and Evening warm from the Udder and not eat after it for some hours Let his Drink be Ptisans sweetned with Sugar of Roses Let him sleep long keep his Body quiet and his Belly solule HISTORY IX Of a Syncope A Man forty Years of Age of a Flegmatic Constitution after he had fed largly upon Lettice Cowcumbers Fruit Whey and such like Diet all the Summer long at length having lost his Stomach became very weak with a kind of sleepiness and numness and a Syncope which often returned if any thing troubled or affrighted him which Syncope held him sometimes half an hour sometimes longer with an extraordinary chillness of the extream parts and much cold Sweat so that the standers by thought him Dead Coming to himself he complained of a Faintness of his Heart and with an Inclination to Vomit voided at the Mouth a great quantity of Mucous Flegm no Fever nor any other Pain I. MAny Parts in this Patient were affected and many times the whole Body but the Fountains of the Disease were the Stomach and Heart whence all the rest proceeded II. The most urging Malady was a thick Syncope which is a very great and Headlong prostration of the Strength proceeding from want of heat and Vital Spirits III. Now that it was a Syncope and no Apoplexy is apparent from the Pulse and Respiration both which cease at the very beginning whereas at the beginning of an Apoplexy they continue for some time IV. The remote cause of this Syncope is disorderly Dyet crude and cold which weakens the Stomach that it cannot perfect Concoction and thence a vast quantity of viscous Flegm which adhering to the upper Orifice of the Stomack begets in that cold and moist Distemper which destroys the Stomach And because there is a great consent between the Stomach and the Heart by means of the Nerves of the sixth Conjugation inserted into the Orifices of the Heart and Pericardium hence the Heart becomes no less languid and fainting sometimes suffers a Syncope For that Flegmatic Blood affords very few Spirits for want of which the strength fails and sometimes is ruin'd altogether V. And not only the Animal but the Vital Actions fail for the Vital Spirits failing in the Heart the Animal fail also in the Brain And the Motion of the Heart failing the Motion of the Brain fails which renders the Body numb'd and sleepy though the Syncope be over VI. In this Syncope the Patient lies like a dead Man
Secondines suppressed 91 Sennertus of the Small-pox 6 Sheeps-dung expells the Measles 38 Small-pox may sometimes scize the same Person twice or thrice 32 Small-pox and Measles both together 39 Smelling lost 200 201 Sower things hurtful in the Small-pox 15. b Spitting of Blood 89 110 222 Spleen obstructed 55 137 144 Stomach decayed 84. Fowled 161 Stone 131 Strength of Imagination 29. a Sudorificks how to be used in the Small-pox 15. a Superfetation 114 Suppression of the Courses 48 Swelling in the Fore-head by a Fall 97 Swoonings dangerous unless the Pox appear presently 31. a A Syncope 226 T. Of the Therapeutics Cure 10 Thunder-strook 157 Timorous People must avoid coming near those that are sick of the Small-pox 30. a Topicks when useless 23 a. When useful 33. a Toothach 43 65 202 Trembling 188 Tumors in the Mouth 204 205 V. Virgins Milk proper to take off the red unseemly Colour 23. a Vomiting 77. With pain in the Stomach 155 Urine suppressed 58 88 Uterine Suffocation 121 159 FINIS Definition of Anatomy Subject Different consideration of the Body Generally Difference of shape Difference of Stature Very tall People Dwarfs Difference of colour Particular consideration of the body Definition of a part What continuity is What a function is What vse 〈◊〉 Things that make up the whole Where the humors spirits be parts of the Body Actions proceed from Solids Solids 〈◊〉 not without the humors Division the 〈◊〉 Spermatic Sanguine and Mixt. Dissimilar Parts Organical Parts Parts not Organic Principal Parts Subservient parts Noble Ignoble The uppermost Venter or Cavity The middle Venter The lowermost Venter Limbs A Division of the Work Nomina The lower Venter Epigastrium The Region of the Navel Hypogastrium The Share Perinaeum Loyns Buttocks Abdomen The containing parts Cuticle Sometimes double Original The Use. The Skin It s Substance The Difference Whether the Instrument of Feeling The Temper The Figure Motion Nourishment and Vessels The Pores Hair Colour The Use. Fat The Substance The efficient Causes Fat Kernâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thâ—… The Temperament Whether it has any peculiar Membrane The Fatty Membrane Whether any part of the Body Colour The Plenty of it Aâ—…eps or Suet. The 〈◊〉 Pannicle Situation Connexion Colour Zas's absurd Opinion of the vse The Membrane of the Muscles The Bones Muscles Oblique descending The Linea Alba. Obliquely Ascending Musculi Recti The Pyramidal Muscles Their Office Transverse Muscles The Action of the Muscles of the Abdomen The Peritonaeum It s Duplicity Its Vessels The Caul The Description It s Substance and Connexion Its Vessels It s Interweaving The Gladules Corpora adiposa It s Situation The Bigness The Weight It s vse The Stomach Definition Membranes Fibres The inner Tunicle Temperament The Number Figure Situatiâ—… The Bigness The Bottom The Stomach The Pylorus The Vessels Its Nerves Its Arteries Its Veins Vas breve It carrys nothing from the Spleen to the Ventricle The Triangular Space It is moveable Wounds of the Stomach mâ—…tal A rare Observation That Stones grow in the Ventricle It s Action The Chyle The manner of Concoction Fermentation twofold The manner of Fermentation The force of Fermentation The reason of Chylification The Colour of the Chyle Whether it may be red What iâ—… Hunger Whether from sucking Whether from an acid Iuice Whether from the Iuices of the Arteries A Story The truâ—… Cause An Objection Canine Appeâ—…ite The Ferment What is the chylifying Heat The manner of Chylification The time for Chylification Fat things abate hunger The 〈…〉 diments and 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 The Order of Chyliâ—…ication The Order of Meats An Objection Whether Choler be generated in the Stomach a To wiâ—… that serous or lymphatick Iuice of which Choler by means of the Fermentum in the Gall. Bladder iâ—… bred See more hereof in Synopsis Medicinae l 4. c. 8. Sect. 10. § 14. ad 36. Salmon * This is to be understood 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 before â—…pressed 〈◊〉 we have hinted iâ—… the Mâ—…rgin of the former Pâ—…ragraph Salmon Whether part of the Chylus be carried to the Spleen * How true this Passage is I leave to those who have read what I have formerly â—…it in my Synophs Medicinae l 4. c. 8. sect 10. § 14. ad 36 but besides what we have there spoken we have had several Iâ—…cterical Patients in whom none of this has bin true but their Stools have bin as numerous as before and in some more numerous and in most of them of as good a colour as formerly Moreover I have near a hundred times seen the Excrements Chylous white and sometimes like Clay void of all manner of reddish or yellowish Colour yet the Person not only free from the yellow Iaundice but also in good Health Salmon Whether the Chylus enters the Gastric Veins â—…he use of 〈◊〉 Chylus A second â—…igression Whether aâ—… parts are 〈◊〉 by the Chylus The 〈◊〉 Whether they dâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the râ—…king the Chyle The length The reason of the length Their Circumference Their Substance and Tunicles Whether they have an attractive force Nerves and Arteries Veins The Milly Vessels Temperament Their 〈◊〉 Their Motion An Observation 1. 2. The Division The thin Gut The Duodenum The Substance Situation The Jejunum Situation and bigness The Ilium Gut Situation and bigness The thick Guts The blind Gut Connexion The Use. Situatir It s Ligament Connexion Bauhinus's Valves The Use. The Intestinum Rectum The Bigness Connexion The Fundament Haemorrhoid Veins Arteries Nerves Situatiâ—… and vse The Division Membranes Bigness â—… Shape â—…ts Rise It s Kernels The use of the Kernels Observ. 〈◊〉 Observ. 〈◊〉 Observ. 3. The Opinion of Riolanus Its Nerves Its Arteries Itâ—… Veins Milkie Vessels The definition and situation Shape Connexion It s Substance It s Colour It s bigness It s weight Its Nerves Arteries Veins Lymphatic Vessels The Exit of the Chanel Whether the Chanel be an Artery The Office of the Sweetbread A Digression The use of the Sweet-bread Iuice The Generation of the panoreatic Iuice The Effervescency of the Choler 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Name The Description The Original How they pass the Glandules Their Valves Their Use. A Proof The impulsive Cause Whether 〈◊〉 Chylus â—…e attracted The Description The Great Lymphatic Chanel The Discoverers The Receptacle of the Chyle The Receptacle of the Lympha The Number The Shape The Bigness The Wiâ—…ness Ductus Chyliferus of the Breast Two Chanels Two or more Receptacles of the Chyle The Insertion Its Valves The way to discover it Lewis de Bill's Circle The vse The ascent of the Chylus The impulsive Cause Whether the whole Chylus ascend to the Subclavial Whether the whole Chylus ascend through the Mesaraic Veins to the Liver The Definition The Discoverers The Names The Substance Their Number Colour and Shape Their Valves Bils's Error Their Situation Their Rise From the Lungs Their Insertion into several Parts Their Insertion inthe Veins Bils's Error Whether the Lympha be the same with the
and Authors report that some Pounds of the seminal Matter has been taken out of the Testicles of one who died of that Distemper I have seen several who have had that Disease of which two of them dyed by the force of the Malady I desired them both to be opened which was done And in both the Testicles were extreamly swell'd In the first the right Testicle as bigg as twice a mans Fist doubled and being opened there was near â—… Pint of seminal Matter which ran and was squeezed out of it In the other the right Testicle in like manner was tumified and is big again as the former and as black as Soot stinking extreamly so that the Surgeon judged it a Gangreen Salmon Womens Testicles were made for absulute Necessity What this Necessity is A Comparison between the Womb and the Earth Why a Woman does not conceive every time she is lain with The Male Seed is that without which there can be no Generation Whether the Womans Seed be the cause of Formation It follows not that the Womans Seed affords any Power to form the Birth Three other more weighty Arguments The Male Seed does not proceed into Act unless there be a fit ferment mixed with it The Answer to the former Arguments To the first Argument Answer to the second Argument Answer to the third Argument Another 〈◊〉 An Answer thereâ—…o * Gen. 30. The Opinion of Consentinus and Deusingius confuted The Opinion of Swammerdam refuted Whether the Seed of women be a Matter necessary for Generation The Seed of the Woman contains in it self no forming power The Opinion of Hippocrates The Opinion of Veslingius Harvey's Opinion At what Age the Seed is generated The growth of the Body whence Why Children do not generate Seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why gelded Animals grow fat An Observation in gelt Deer In gelt Persons or Beasts the Spirits become less sharp and subtle and so less fit for animal Actions Why fat People less fit for Venery Why in a Plethory the Body becomes unweildy weak slothful drowsy sleepy c. Conception Where it is made The Orifice of the Womb must be closed after Conception Whether the Seed of both Sexes concurs Aristotle's Opinion about the menstruous Blood exploded The deteâ—…sion of the Seed The Colliquation of the Seed In the small Bubble only is the forming of the Embryo Delineation performed solely by the Seed Aristotle's Errour in affirming that all the parts are form'd not out of the Seed but out of the Blood There can be no blood before the Organ that makes the blood is form'd It is a peculiar and appropriated 〈◊〉 that is requisite for the Embryo How the residue of the mans Seed enters the Bubble A twosold 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Blood bred in the Heart cleaves to the small Fibres of the Parts First of the Heart then of the Liver Lungs Kidneys Stomach Muscles c. The Heart acts sanguifies and beats first of all How the Embryo is nourished Whether the Seed 〈◊〉 ouâ—… 〈◊〉 after 〈◊〉 Harvey's Opinion that the Seed flows out again Deusingius his Opinion Harvey deluded both himself and Deusingius Harvey's Experiments examin'd first that the Seed might fall out and so no conception That Harvey's Experiments prove not what he labours to maintain The Seed after Conception flows not out of the womb Thâ—… Fâ—…tus is form'd of the Seed and nourish'd by the same The Birth is form'd in the Bubble The time of Formation First History The Second History The Third The fourth The vanity of some men who pretend to shew dry'd Abortments since scarce any thing can be discern'd before the fortieth day The Birth not form'd of the whole mass of Seed First Observation concerning the Bubblâ—… of Riolanus The discourse concerning the Bubble illustrates the Proposition The second Observation of Riolanus The third Observation The fourth Observation The Colliquated Matter Bubble proceeds both from the man and womans Seed In one Birth but one only Bubble In what Order the Parts are form'd All the Parts form'd together An Objection here answered Whether the Brain in the Embryo makes animal Spirits and performs animal Actions Whether the Child in the Womb sleeps and wakes Another 〈◊〉 What is the Architectonic Vertue What the Architectonic Power iâ—… various Opinions about it The opinion of the Platonists Plotinus makes a distinction between the Architectonic Vertue and the Platonic Soul of the World Opinions concerning this Plastic Vertue Whence the Seed has its Soul An objection that the forms of animated Being are indivisible answered How Aristotle and his Followers are to be understood Whether that Soul which forms the Birth be in the Man's Seed only or in the Womans also The Opinion of Parisanus â—…hether 〈◊〉 Soul be Rational See also Bartholinus's Anatomic Controversies upon the same Subject The Soul not ex traduce That the Soul is not Rational The Rational Soul not present when the parts were first delineated * This savours too much of Calvin's Doctrine for the usual Doctrines of Original Sin are made the great foundation of that horrible Proposition concerning Reprobation the consequences of which reproach God with Injustice they charge God foolishly and deny his Goodness and his Wisdom in many Instances For as a learned Divine of the Church of England says 1. If God decrees us to be born sinners Then he makes us to be sinners and then where is his Goodness 2. If God damns any for that he damns us for what we could not help and for what himself did and then where is his Iustice 3. If God sentence us to that damnation which he cannot in justice inflict where is his Wisdom 4. If God for the sin of Adam brings upon us a necessity of sinning where is our Liberty and why is a Law imposed against sin 5. If God does cast Infants into Hell for the sin of others and yet did not condemn devils but for their own sin where is his Love to Mankind 6. If God cause the damnation of so many millions of persons who are no sinners on their own stock and yet swears that he desireth not the death of a sinner where then is his Mercy and where his Truth 7. If God has given us a Nature by derivation which is wholly corrupted then how can it be that all which God made is Good where then is his Providence and Power and where the Glory of the Creation But since God is all Goodness and Iustice and Wisdom and Love and that he governs all things and all men wisely and holily and that he gives us a wise Law and binds that Law on us by Promises and Threatnings I think there is reason to assert these things to the Glory of the Divine Majesty Thus far that excellent Person Salmon The Corporeal Soul makes Conclusions and acts after its own manner but far inferior to the Rational Soul The Matter illustrated from Holy Scripture An Answer to such as object that there cannot
and are assimilated into their Substance whereas the rest are separated from them and forc'd farther As in other things also we find those things mix most easily which have most Affinity Thus if Oil and Water be mix'd together and one end of a long woollen Cloth dipp'd in Water be put into the said Mixture the other end hanging forth without the Pot all the Water in the Pot will drip out of the Pot all the length of the Cloth but the Oil will remain in the Pot. Which Affinity our new modern Philosophy not without reason attributes to the agreement of the small Particles and the Pores As for example if the smallest Particles to be receiv'd be round and the receiving Pores be round then are those easily receiv'd by these because of their Affinity Also if the Pores and Particles are triangular or any other way alike agreeable but if the Pores are round but the Particles to be receiv'd triangular or quadrangular then would the one with difficulty receive the other nor would there be any Affinity And thus it is in the Brain for the Salt or Saltish Particles of the blood by reason of the Affinity of the Substance and the conveniency of the Pores are easily suck'd in by the Kernels of the Cortex and therein are separated from the rest as it were by a fermentaceous Motion and being separated are easily imbib'd by the little Fibers of the Pithy Substance of which this Substance is chiefly constituted and are more subtiliz'd but the sulphureous not so easily And therefore only a very small and thin part of the sulphury Particles having the least Oyliness is mix'd with the Animal Spirits but the rest together with the serous Particles partly goes into Excrement which is then collected in the hollownesses of the Ventricles or is dissipated in Vapour through the Pores partly together with the remaining blood being thrust forward to the extream parts of the Brain is there suck'd up by the Orifices of the smallest Veins and so circulated farther However this is to be observ'd by the way that in that same passage not all the salt Particles are separated in the Kernels of the Cortex and imbib'd by the Brain for so there would happen a dissolution of the Composition of the blood but only the more fluid and volatile but that the thicker remain mix'd with the blood and are circulated with it in the same manner as in the Kidneys not the whole Serum is separated from the Mass of the blood only the thinner part which has most affinity with the Pores of the Kidney-Kernels the rest continues mix'd with the blood and is carry'd with it to the hollow Vein IX By what has been said we understand how the salt Particles of the Blood are separated in the Brain from the sulphury and serous But because their most subtil and most volatile parts only are proper for the generation of Animal Spirits the other thicker Particles serving partly to the nourishment of the Brain partly going into Exerement now we are to see how the separation of the most spirituous and volatile Particles from the thicker is perform'd This is done after the same manner as happens in distillation of Wine when the Orifice of the Alembic is exactly clos'd with a large Sponge For the Chymists to the end they may extract and separate more powerful Spirits or more clarify'd and purg'd from its Flegm out of the Wine which is to be distill'd put a Sponge to the Alembic for so thro' the intricate passages of the Sponge the Spirits only are wheel'd and contorted while the more impure and thicker are not able to pass through and so those Parts which are not cleans'd from their Dregs but are very watery are separated and set aside while the more subtil Spirits go forth and through the Beak of the Alembic fall into the Receptacle In like manner in the Cortex of the Brain the separated salt volatile Parts of the blood are suck'd up by the diminutive Fibers which are endow'd with most obscure narrow Cavities Through which narrow Passages while those Spirits are wriggl'd and contorted whatever are lesser purify'd and thicker and more and more cast away and thrown off as the other are exalted into an incorporeal tenuity and flow into the Pith as into the next Beak of the Alembic and thence into the Nerves as being the lesser Beaks deriv'd from the greatest while in the mean time the thicker Salt less volatile Particles of the blood serve for the nourishment of the Bowel it self but the rest which are yet more fix'd remaining in the mixture of the sanguineous Mass flow back to the blood-bearing Vessels through the wider Pores and are sent back for Circulation Now this expulsion of the Spirits out of the small pory Fibers of the Brain and Pith to the Nerves is forc'd by one and the same Cause that is to say the alternate falling of the Brain after dilatation by which as by a certain compression the Spirits and Humors which are in the Brain are excited to flow forth And thus by the Cortex of the Brain and the Medullary Substance the Salt is separated from the Sulphury and Seroâ—…s the pure from the impure the subtil from the thick and that Subtility by the proper force already demonstrated of the said Substance proceeding from the volatil Salt which abounds in it is exalted to the height of volatility And hence also flowing out of the Substance and little Fibers of the Brain and Pith it ought not to be contain'd in loose Vessels hollow'd like a Pipe for out of such it would easily fly away but in such firm and more solid Receptacles or Channels in which there are the smallest and most invisible Pores and such Channels are the Nerves as through which they may pass freely to their height of volatility and tenuity X. However we are to take notice that although the Animal Spirits are made after this manner out of the said Matter nevertheless they are not exalted to an equal degree of Volatility in all men For in some they are thinner and more active in others thicker and of a slower Motion according to the vulgar Phrase either purer or impurer because the salt particles of the blood out of which they are generated are in some more in others less visible And the Brain it self in some is impregnated with a more copious in others with a lesser quantity of volatil Spirit and being hotter in some volatizes the Spirits more being colder in others thickens and fixes them more And therefore in Melancholy Spirits and such as continually feed upon thick hard salt and raw Food and whose Concoctions are for that reason worse thicker and less spirituous Humors are generated and among the rest the salt ones are less volatiliz'd whence the Animal Spirits are thicker and less active as in Country people and poor people and such as inhabit the cold polar Regions and use such a sort
of Diet for want of a thinner who are therefore slower to all manner of Animal Actions and of dull Wits Whereas on the other side they who live in hotter Regions abounding with plenty of all sorts of wholesom Diet and seldom feed upon salt or smoak'd Meats but accustom themselves to a thinner and more wholesom sort of Diet and consequently are serv'd by their Bowels with better Concoctions their Humors and Spirits are thinner and more volatile and their Bodies and Wits more nimble and active Aristotle indeed says that Melancholy People are ingenious but this is not to be understood of such as are altogether melancholy and together with a thicker blood have thicker Spirits but of such as incline to Melancholy and consequently whose Spirits are neither too thin and volatil for such are too movable and inconstant nor too thick for they are stupid but in a middle temper between both And therefore such People are neither too quick nor too redious in the transaction of Business but prudently weigh and judge of things before they proceed to Execution XI Perhaps it may seem strange to some People that the salt Particles should be made so subtil and spirituous as to be able to pass freely thro' the invisible Pores of the Nerves But they will cease to wonder when they observe in Chymistry the extraordinary Subtility and Volatility of Volatile Salt and how swiftly the Spirits of Salt will pass through the invisible Pores of the earthen Vessels Nay if they only consider how common Salt without any mixture of Water or Moisture being dissolv'd into Pickle will penetrate through the thick sides of wooden Vessels and sweat through Stone Pots overcast both within and without with a Glassie Crust as we find in those Vessels where we salt our Beef or keep our pickl'd Fish If then fix'd Salt only melted passes through the Pores of the Vessels how much more easily will the most subtil Spirit of volatil Salt pierce through the Pores of the Nerves XII Here some will object That Salts and Acids are sharp and corroding so that if the Animal Spirits were generated out of the salt Particles of the Blood and consequently participated of any Saltness they would corrode all Parts whatever by reason of their Acrimony which would occasion Pains and many Inconveniencos I answer That it is certain that the Animal Spirits are indu'd with some slight Acrimony but not so much as to occasion any sensible molestation because that exceeding Acrimony which is in fix'd Salt by reason of the sharp pungent Particles conjoyn'd with it becomes mild in that volatil and vaporous Spirit because the small sharp Particles being dissolv'd are more remote one from another and their Force is broken by the intervening Air or some steamy Vapour For example if any one go into a Cellar and draw in the Air that is all intermix'd with a most subtil exhaling Spirit or if he snuff up into his Nostrils the spirituous Vapor of Wine heated at the Fire yet shall he not feel the least grievance nor perceive any Acrimony which he would do if he snuft up into his Nostrils the Spirit it self fix'd in the Liquor So in our great Salt-Works where the Sea-Salt is boyl'd and depurated the exhaling Vapors being impregnated with the volatil Salt if they be taken in at the Mouth or Nostrils little or no Salt-Savour shall be perceiv'd therein whenas the fix'd Salt is most sharp And this comes to pass because the Forces which are conjoyn'd in the fix'd and thick Body and for that Reason are very powerful in the dissolv'd and vaporous Body are separated and thereby render'd weak and of no strength And this is the Cause why the Animal Spirits do not corrode because that being dissolv'd into a most subtil Vapor they have not so much Acrimony in them as can be troublelom to any Part. To this we add that they have a most thin and subtil serous Vapor together with so much sulphury Spirit joyn'd with them for a Vehicle which does not a little weaken and temper the Acrimony Moreover the Parts themselves through which they pass and into which they flow partake of some other Moisture which also much weakens and diminishes their Acrimony XIII From what has been said it is sussiciently apparent that the generation of the Animal Spirits is not Animal but meerly Natural and that they differ not only in some Accidents or Qualities but in their whole Kind from the Vital For in these the sulphury Juice mixt with the salt is far more prevalent in those there is very little sulphury or any other Juice apt to take Fire These are extracted out of the Chylus and veiny Blood those only out of the salt part of the arterious blood These flow visible through the large Arteries and Veins those invisible through the invisible Pores of the Nerves Over those the Soul has no power over these it has And therefore there is a vast difference between the Animal and Vital Spirits But now the Question is whether the Animal Spirits themselves do not differ one from another in Substance in Manner and Place of Generation and in Use Whether some are not generated out of the Blood others out of the Lympha or some other Matter Also whether some are not generated in the foremost others in the middle others in the hindmost Ventricle Or as Willis lately tells us whether some are not made in the Substance of the Brain others of the Cerebel Lastly whether some peculiar and differing from the rest do not cause the Sight others the Feeling others the Hearing others the arbitrary Motion and others the spontaneous Motion I answer That the Animal Spirits are not generated out of a different Matter nor in various Parts for we take the Brain and Cerebel for one part neither do they differ one from another but are all of the same Nature Composition and Condition but that the diversity of their Operations arises from the diversity of the nature condition of the Parts into which they flow as those which flow into the parts adapted for feeling as the Membrane Skin those cause the Feeling those that flow into the Eye cause the Sight those that flow into the Ear cause the Hearing those that flow into the Muscles Fibers and other Parts ordain'd for Motion cause Motion though they be the same and no way different as every Instrument is adapted to this or that proper Action In the same manner as the Beams of the Sun which though they be always the same and proceed from one Sun neither confer any other Light or other Strength or any other thing to any other Things yet produce most different effects according to the difference of the Constitutions of the things into which they flow For here they produce Barly there Trees in another place Stones here Worms or Fish sometimes Insects or other things Here they extinguish Life there they are the cause
fasten'd without side into the first Bone of the Thumb XI 4. The Abductor Major arising from the Ligament of the Bone of the Metatarsus which lyes under the little Toe and the next to it terminates with a short and strong Tendon in the first Joynt of the great Toe in the inner Part. XII 5. Abductor Minor by Casserius call'd the Transversal proceeding from the Ligament of the little Toe which binds the first Internode is carry'd transverse and fleshy and stretches it self more inwardly to the first Bone of the great Toe with a short and broad Tendon To this some ascribe another Use believing it there apply'd to gather together the first Bones of the Toes Riolanus believes that it serves only for a Pillow least the Tendons should be injur'd by the hardness of the ground and the Bones Casserius who is said to be the first Discoverer of this Muscle will have it assign'd to bring the great Toe toward the little Toe thereby to make the foot hollow for the more easie walking in Stony and unequal places by the more firm taking hold of the step XIII In the flat of the Foot which is called Vestigium or the Footstep there is to be observ'd a Fleshy mass which like a Cushion lyes under the Muscles and Tendons Which some confound with the Universal Muscle AN APPENDIX Concerning the MEMBRANES and FIBRES CHAP. I. Of the Membranes in General I. A Membrane is a white similar part broad flat thick and extensible produc'd out of the clammy and viscous part of the Seed preserving containing gathering together corroborating and disterminating the Parts that lye under it or contained within it II. It was call'd by the Antient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which words at that time signify'd one and the same thing Afterwards these words became particular and were attributed to particular Membranes For now Hymen properly signifies that Membrane which resides in the Neck of the Womb vulgarly called Claustrum Virginitatis the Fence of Virginity Menina signifies that Membrane that enfolds the Brain And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tâ—…nica is the general Name for all Membranes that cover the Veins Arteries Ureters c. At this day Membrane is a general word signifying any Membrane that enfolds a fleshy Part the Pericardium Periosteum Peritonaeum the Membrane of the Muscles c. III. There can be hardly any certain Original of the Membranes describ'd as being Parts subsisting of themselves form'd out of Seed and every where conspicuous in the Body Many have with probability enough deriv'd them from the Meninâ—…es Lindan writes that the Substance of the Heart is wrapt about with a very transparent and very thick Membrane which he believes to grow from the dilated Extremities of the Fibres of the Heart and thence would have us consider whether all the rest of the Membranes do not arise by a certain Propagation from this Membrane of the Heart But these are mere Conjectures hardly credible rather it is to be said that the Membranes are Spermatic Parts form'd with other Spermatic Parts out of the Seed at the first formation of the Embryo and that therefore they have no other Original than the Seed IV. The Membranes are nourish'd like the rest of the Parts by Arterious blood flowing out of the Arteries into their Substance and fermented therein by the mixture of Animal Spirits the residue of which either unapt for Nourishment or superfluous is carry'd back through the Tubes of the Veins into the hollow Vein V. Now the Membranes are the Organs of Feeling for all the sensible Parts even the Nerves themselves feel by the help of the Membranes only which those Parts that want are destitute of sence as the Bones Gristles the fleshy Parts of many Bowels wherein the Sence of Feeling no farther extends it self then to the Membrane that enfolds it This Faculty of Feeling is bequeathed to them by the Animal Spirits continually flowing into them through the Nerves which influx ceasing the Sence of Feeling also fails as in Apoplexies Palsies c. Such Membranes also into which few Spirits flow are dull of Feeling Thus Veins and Arteries are said to be void of Sence because they feel but dully VI. The Differences of Membranes are many In respect of their Substance some thin some thick some legitimate as the Pleura Periosteum c. Others illegitimate as being rather Membranous Bodies such are membranous Ligaments Tendons the Stomac Intestines Bladder c. In respect of their Figure some broad some long some triangular c. In respect of their Situation some inward some outward VII The number of the Membranes is almost infinite but the most considerable are these that follow In the Birth the Chorion Amnios the Urinary Membrane and in Brutes the Alantois In the whole Body of Man the Cuticle the Skin the fleshy Pannicle the Membranes of the Muscles the Periostea and the Membranes of the Vessels In the Head without the Pericranium more inward both the Meninxes which descend from the Cranium into the Spinal Concavity involving the Spinal Pith and extends themselves the whole length of the Nerves In the Eye seven Tunicles the Nameless the Conjunctive the Horny Uveous Net-like Spiders Web and Vitreous In the Ear the Membrane of the Tympanum In the Mouth the Tunicle proper to the Tongue and Palate as also that which is common to the Mouth the Chaps the Gullet and Stomach In the Breast the Pleura the Mediastinum the Pericardium the Tunicle investing the Lungs and Heart and the Valves of the Heart In the lower Belly the Peritonaeum Epiploon the Mesenterie and the Membranes that enfold the several Bowels as also those of which the Intestines the Bladder and other Parts are composed Of all which primary Membranes mention has been already made in their proper Places Besides these there is an infinite number of thin Membranes that have no Names CHAP. II. Of the Fibres FIbres are white similar Parts solid oblong like little Strings designed for the Motion of some and the Preservation of other Parts I. They are Parts which are not derived from others but existing of themselves for the Complement of those Parts where they are required And therefore they mistake who believe them to be produced from the Brain or from the Spinal Marrow as are also they who think them the Productions of the Nerves it being impossible that the Nerves should be expanded into so many Strings For Example a small Nerve which shall consist of twenty fibrous Strings is inserted into some larger Muscle consisting of a hundred fibrous Strings much bigger and stronger than those in the Nerve Thus the whole Body of the Heart is fibrous whereas it has very few and those very small Nerves The Fibres indeed communicate with the Nerves so far as they receive Animal Spirits from them yet they are no more Productions
from them then the Veins are Productions of the Arteries from whence they receive Blood Therefore they are Parts existing of themselves united to others for common use II. Their Action is to be contracted into one another Though Riolanus believes that rather Use than Action is to be attributed to them All the Muscles are moved by Fibres which being cut or wounded their Motion ceases Therefore the wonderful Contexture of the Fibres of the Heart is the reason that it is able to endure such a continual Motion The Stomach Intestines Womb Bladder and the like Parts are furnished with Fibres the more to strengthen them in Retention and Expulsion Lastly all the Parts that are appointed for actual Performance are full of Fibres However some do question whether there be any such things as the little Fibres of the Brain Lungs and Liver and Fallopius positively denies them but now adays there is no Body doubts of them more than that the Arteries and Veins are not without Fibres though Fallopius and Vesalius will hardly admit them because they are so very small however Fernelius Brisot Fuchsius and other eminent Men allow them for the Strength and Preservation of the Vein and teach us that their streightness is to be observed in Blood-letting And this Experience teaches us in Warts when the orbicular and oblique Fibres being broken the Tunicle of the Veins will be extended after a strange manner nor can ever be again contracted or reduc'd to its first Condition III. Vulgarly there is a threefold difference observed from their Situation Some are streight which are extended at full length some are transverse which intercut the streight ones others oblique which mutually cut both But to these three differences we must add orbicular Fibres as in the Sphincter Muscle unless you will reckon them among the transverse ones The streight ones are vulgarly said to attract the Oblique to retain the Transverse to expel which three Distinctions Fallopius not undeservedly derides and teaches us how that all the Fibres expel but that none in respect of themselves either attract or retain But the Parts that perform one single Action have single Fibres as several Muscles whose Action is single that is to say Contraction But they that perform many Actions are furnished with various Fibers as the Intestines which retain and expel to which the streight ones are added to strengthen and corroborate But the Membranes which ought to be every way fitted and prepared for Action have Fibres so intermixed that their whole Substance seems to be but a Contexture of Fibres joyned together THE SIXTH BOOK OF ANATOMY Treating of the ARTERIES CHAP. I. Of the Arteries in General IN the Body of Man there are three Vessels that go under the Name of Arteries 1. The Aspera or Trachea Lib. 2. Cap. 16. 2. The Pulmonary by some erroneously called the Arterious Vein Lib. 2. Cap. 9. 3. The Great Artery or Aorta to be discoursed of in this Book I. This great Artery is an Organic Similar Part oblong round hollow appointed for conveighing the Spirituous Blood It is called Organic because it is appointed for a certain Use that is to conveigh the Blood It is called Similar not in a strict but profunctory sence For though it be thought to be composed of Fibres and Membranes yet because it is every where compacted after the same manner the Artery in the Hand not differing from the Artery in the Foot or in any other Part hence it is reckoned among the similar Parts It is said to be appointed to carry or convey the Spirituous Blood II. Not that the Arterious Blood is altogether spirituous but the greater Part of it is such from which greater Part the Denomination is taken For some Parts of it are more others less Spirituous For when the Chylus being mixt with the Blood of the hollow Vein enters the Heart the first time it does not presently obtain so great a Subtilty Attenuation and Spirituosity as those Particles of the Blood mixed with the Chylus have obtain'd which have passed many times through the Heart by Circulation and have been many times dilated therein For as in the Distillation of Wine the oftner it is distilled the more subtil the more pure and efficacious the Spirit is which is drawn off from it so the Blood the oftner it is dilated the Spirituous Particles are the better separated from the thick Mass and the more attenuated and what is not yet so perfectly attenuated and consequently less fit for Nourishment returns through the Heart again to be therein more perfectly dilated And therefore I admire at the Learned Ent who says that the Arterious Blood is worse than the Veiny Blood whereas the first is far more spituous than the latter But says he it is much thinner and more serous than the veiny However it is much more spirituous whence that thinness which seems to be Serosity though it be not so Thus Spirit of Wine is thinner and more fluid than Wine is it therefore more serous and worse But says he the Arterious Blood has left much of its oyl in the Lap of Life the Heart I deny it for there is no Comparison to be made betwen a lighted Lamp and the Spiritification of the Heart Vid. Lib. 2. C. 13. Besides the Blood the Arteries sometimes by Accident carry depraved and corrupt Humors mixt with the Blood though there be no mention made of this in the Definition because it is not their designed use III. Andreas Laurentius Emilius Parisanus and others believe that the Arteries attract Air through their Ends and invisible Pores to cool and ventilate the Blood But then there would be two contrary Motions at the same time in the same Arteries of the Blood push'd forth to the Exterior Parts and of the Air entring the inner Parts which can never be Besides there being a necessity that the Vital Spirits should be conveighed through the Heart through all Parts of the Body it would be a dangerous thing to cool that Heat so necessary to Life especially in cold and phlegmatic People IV. Rolfinch believes the Arteries serve for the Dissipation of Vapors But the thickness of their Substance declares this to be false that nothing or very little of spirituous and serous Liquor can exhale through it but less what is thick and earthy as adust Vapors therefore those adust Vapors are dissipated and separated from the Blood when the Blood is poured forth out of the Arteries into the Substance of the Parts whose larger Pores are proper to evacuate those adust Vapors either insensibly or by Heat More absurd are they who believe the Blood to be carried through certain Arteries to the right Ventricle of the Liver and through certain others from the Spleen to the left Ventricle of the Heart and as ridiculous are they who think they carry nothing but Vital Spirits and no Alimentary Blood Baertholin believes the Limpha to be carried