latter convey the Sension from the Fibres which are planted somewhere more inwards about the Viscera to the Cerebel from which without Knowledge of the Animal oftentimes involuntary Motions are retorted as when Vomiting follows upon an Emetick Medicine unknown and against our Minds If that this private Sension belonging to the Cerebel be a little stronger and vehement passing thorow the same Cerebel goes further even to the streaked Bodies as when Medicines provoking the Stomach more sharply induce a Sension or trouble about the Heart or otherways molestious which they plainly give notice of Further when the Tangible Impression arrives first and immediately at the streaked Bodies if the same be light it is there terminated and the sensible Species presently vanishes but if the Impulse of the Object be somewhat stronger it passes further to the Callous Body and oftentimes to the Shell of the Brain and therefore their Affections Imagination and sometimes Memory gather'd from the touch of the thing succeed and when the sensible Species being also dilated to the Common Sensory a divergency or bending down of the Spirits from thence is reflected into the same Nerve or others related to it so it stirs up local Motions These sort of Effects are sufficiently known by the Common Proverb Where the Pain is there the Finger will be for it is implanted by Nature in every Animal to rub or press the place with its finger or foot where any sense of Trouble or Pain is As to the Kinds and Differences of Feeling both are taken either from the Objects or from the various affection of the Sensory the ways or means of the former are so manifold that they cannot easily be recounted for hither ought to be referred as we said but now the universal Tangible Qualities By Tangible Qualities we understand here the various habitudes of Natural Bodies which arise from the Crasis and Disposition of the Elements of which they are made as also from their Intestine Motion or Effluvia's variously appearing in themselves which kind of Modifications of Bodies the Sense of Feeling chiefly finds out and makes their knowledge or marks so certain that when we do not believe the Scrutiny of the other Senses we are wont to rest satisfied with the Examination of this Concerning the Species of Feeling Constituted in respect of the Sensory we shewed even now that the sensible Impression was immediately derived from the External Organ either to the streaked Bodies or to the Cerebel Therefore for that Reason Sension is either manifest and knows plainly every thing or private of which the Animal is scarce knowing but the Consequence declares this Kind of Sension to have been stirred up for a Motion being made in any inward unseen argues a previous sense of it to have been as from the change of the Pulse or a failure of Spirits shews a certain Malignity to have affected the Praecordia or the Cerebel In either of the aforesaid Kinds of Sension to wit whether the same be manifest or private the Tangible Impression either coming pleasantly to the Fibres gathers together the Spirits implanted in them and more nearly delights them and strokes them with a soft and gentle rubbing whence pleasure arises or the Impulse of the same pulling and wrinkling the Fibres distracts and dissipates the Spirits one from another and so Grief Pain or Trouble Succeeds But concerning these Affections viz. Grief and Pleasure we shall have hereafter a more fit place to speak of them so that it next remains for us to proceed from the Sense of Feeling to its nearest Neighbor and Relation the Taste CHAP. XII Of the Taste THe Taste is so like to the Sense of Feeling that it seems to be a certain Species of it and certainly the Object in either Organ ought to be brought near and laid upon it yea in tasting to be admitted more deeply within the Pores and its passages Upon this Sense depends chiefly both the Life and Vegetation of Animals for this chooses and takes in Juice for nourishment convenient and that by this Office it might be constantly and rightly performed it is furnished with a faculty or a certain implanted Judgment whereby some wholesome and agreeable Aliments fit for every Individual are discerned from those that are disagreeable and hurtful also further as it were in reward of its work it is delighted after a notable manner with the Exercise of its Function For unless convenient agreeable things â—it to be Eaten move Spittle and as it were prickle them with a most grateful pleasantness of Taste the appetite of desiring or taking of Food is quickly extinguished with oblivion or tediousness so for the preserving the Individual no less than the Species Desire and Pleasure ought to be had The Sensory of the Taste is not so diffusive and almost Co-extended with the whole Body as that of Feeling but is limitted to one part only yea and its Sensible is of one Kind only to wit a Savoury thing nor does it include as the Tangible Quality the Subjects of many Catagorical things Indeed the chief and almost only Organ of the Taste is the Tongue to which after a manner but obscurely do consent the Palate and the Upper part of the Throat But in all of them the Nervous Fibres are the immediate Instruments of Sension wherefore 't is observed that the Tongue is notedly more Fibrous than any other part also consists of a very porous Contexture for this end that the savory Particles of the thing might be more plentifully and more deeply admitted into the passages of the Sensory and so meeting at once with many Fibres might excite a more acute Sension yea it may be suspected that whil'st the subtil Particles of the savory Humor are imbibed so deeply by the Tongue the Animal Spirits do in some measure snatch the same for their nourishment and convey them inwardly by the passages of the Nerves towards the Brain for it plainly appears that in great Fastings or want of Food and swouning or failure of Spirits that a refreshment of them immediately follows upon the first tasting of any noble Liquor Eating is a certain Kind of Solution whereby the savory Particles may be the better taken in from the Food by the Sensory Because whil'st solid eatable things are reduced into bits by Chawing the Tongue and other parts of the Mouth and Throat pour forth as it were a certain Menstruum which washing and as it were Elixivating the savory little Bodies carries them into the Sensory and insinuates them into the Pores of the Tongue Further The savory Particles because so impacted in the Sensory do employ its passages hence it comes to pass that one savour not rarely excludes another so sweet things being tasted because they are clammy and very obstructing hinder or pervert the more exact taste of Wine wherefore that the hindred Faculty might be again restored salt or sharp things
against some hard thing and the like or from an inward cause to wit for that the Blood being sharp and thin and the little mouths of the Vessels and the places between being too loose it growing more than ordinarily hot either of its own accord or occasionally and flowing forth thorow these easily breaks into the soft and yielding substance of the Brain Further although we have assigned the seat of this Disease in the Callous Body yet the blood because effused somewhere nigh or above it because it compresses the underlying Marrow by intumifying the distemper'd places causes the Apoplectick fit Secondly An Imposthum or Ulcer is rarely wont to be excited within the Brain but often in the Meninges and almost for the same occasions by which the extravasation of the blood happens while it is ripening it causes only an Headach or heaviness but when it is broke the filthy stuff flowing from it into the shelly part of the Brain gnaws and putrâ—â—ies it and then by degrees instilling its putrid particles and very infeâ—tous to the Spirits into the middle or marrowie part of the Brain raises up at lasâ— the fit of the astonishing disease Thirdly The Serous heap or deluge being poured forth from the blood into the Head though rarely or never of it self yet sometimes by reason of more strong evident causes runs so suddenly into the Brain that filling and stuffing soon all its Marrowie Pores causes astonishment or deprivation of sense and motion And this I have known to happen to some from drinking of sharp thin Wine or Spaw-waters and sleeping upon it and I have observed the like effect from a long and total suppression of Urine also in Haemorrhages or fluxes of blood being suddenly stopped And lastly the Serous Recrements in malignant Feavours being translated to the Head by a critical transposition often causes a mortal senselessness or becoming speechless Another kind of evident causes from which sudden blasting or being smitten is wont to be caused consists in the sudden profligation or extinction of the Spirits which indeed doth not seldom or rarely happen from strong Narcoticks or Medicines causing sleep and also from the immoderate drinking of hot waters Though we have already discoursed concerning the use and effects of Opiates I cannot however pass over their way of affecting assigned by that most famous Doctor Webfer This Learned Man affirms That Narcoticks only do too much open and dilate the Pores and passages of the Brain and as it were open the doors of it before fast shut whereby every extraneous and incongruous thing is admitted into the Chamber or sleeping place of the Spirits together with the subtil liquor poured forth from the blood and so by a violent incursion dissipates their ranks and orders But indeed it appears from what hath been above said that Narcoticks do not only or always operate so for we have shewn that whilst they are yet within the Ventricle they often cause sleep and sometimes death it self Besides it should follow from thence that Opiates being often given should bring still a greater evil because by dilating more and more the Pores of the Brain they cause a much more easie entrance to all manner of impurities but truly it is clear enough that Narcoticks are most hurtful at the first time being taken and afterwards being often taken do little hurt so that some accustomed to Opium will devour a great quantity of it without hurt which is certainly a sign that this doth not so much alter the conformation of the Brain as that it doth immediately agitate or work upon the Animal Spirits whom at first because so very improportionate to them it slays with a mere blast then afterwards there being a certain familiarity between them and this Medicine it disturbs them not Thus much concerning the causes of the accidental and sudden Apoplexy which falls indifferently upon all men though not at all predisposed for which also there can be no preventive Medicines instituted and it is rarely that it is cured But besides we observe that this Disease is sometimes habitual and that it remains as a constant disposition in some men by reason of which at first they are exercised only with light skirmishes but after some time they become more grievous and of which at last for the most part they dye Concerning this therefore we shall inquire 1. what the Conjunct Cause of this Disease may be and the formal reason of it 2. In what the Apoplectick Disposition or Procatarxis of the Disease consists Then 3. What Evident Causes it hath 1. As to the first we may suppose upon the coming of the Apoplectick fit that a certain matter before heaped up and dispersed in the compass of the Brain at length doth descend into its middle or marrowie part and there doth assault all the Spirits and suppress and beat them down in the very fountain of their emanation Although it doth not plainly appear whether they effect it either by stuffing only the Pores of the Marrow or by driving away the Spirits themselves or by inflicting on them a numness notwithstanding it is likely that it may be done by either of the ways And indeed we say the medullary Pores of the Brain may be somewhat stopped or obstructed because the same matter which at first setling on the Callous Body caused senselesness being sliden down from thence lower into the Callous Body and then stuffing its Pores is wont to excite the Palsie of one side But yet we may not conclude that the sideration or being struck doth arise only from the Pores of the Brain being stopped because then the fit would oftentimes creep on them gently and by little and little forasmuch as all the Pores cannot be possessed by the inflowing matter at once but successively and some after others But when as this Distemper leaps upon one suddenly and like lightning what can we conceive less than that the Spirits are struck down as it were by a blast from the malignant contact of the matter rushing upon them For it seems that its particles descending on every side from the compass of the Brain into its middle part or the Callous Body and entring it from every part do presently fill the passages how strait so ever they be and drive to flight hither and thither the Spirits and compel them into a close place who being then beset and reduced to a strait corner when they can neither resist long or are able to penetrate into other Pores possessed by the Morbifick matter at length are struck flat down letting go every function of the knowing soul but then they do not easily nor quickly rise up again because they are not able to quit themselves from the embraces or bonds of the malignant matter nor pass any where into empty or open places wherefore they lie long suppressed till at length sometimes perhaps that matter though leasurely is dssâ—pated or supped up into
spaces of time had been measured out by the wheels of a Clock Secondly The Animal Spirits being wearied by the hard labour of the Body or too serious intention of the Mind indulge themselves with Sleep of their own accord For when after immoderate exercise by reason of Heat and Sweat flowing forth the Spirits plentifully exhale and those which are left being as it were poured forth and distracted one from another as soon as those have left them they presently lay aside all work that they may Concentre themselves within and recollect their forces for the like reason after vehement study or long Contention of the Mind by reason that the Animal Spirits become very much tyred we grow Sleepy yea sometimes serious Meditation and when imployed with Hearing chiefly of Sacred things and great Attention procures an invincible Sleep the reason of which is not that the Spirits are so much consumed or wearied but because they are gathered together in two great heaps in the Brain and so with them too great plenty of the Nervous Humor is poured in whereby the Brain is overflowed Hence also it is that if presently after Eating Reading or Philosophical Lectures be attended to they shall cause Sleep sooner than an Opiat to wit because these more grave Exercises of the Mind both convey more plentifully to the Head the Blood and at the same time the Spirits Concentre together on every side towards the middle Part of the Brain wherefore from the Blood coming to its border a mighty heap of Nervous juice is admitted in by which the Spirits are presently overturned and their spaces stuffed up the contrary happens as often as any one after a full Banquet shall go to the Theatres to see Plays for the Spirits being stretched forth by delectation blow up and distend the Brain so that the coming in of the Sleepy Humor thô heaped up at the Door is kept out Thirdly We may observe that the Animal Spirits when delighted with a soft Harmony are invited inwards from the Organs of the Senses and being there recreated slide into Sleep So a certain Musical and soft modulation of the Voice the gentle murmur of Waters the soft whispering of the Wind also pleasant Fancies as when we Imagine our selves to be in a green Meadow or splendid Houses because by this means the Spirits gently Concentre together Sleep is wont to creep upon one Fourthly There remains another manner of introducing Sleep to wit when the Animal Spirits are oppressed by Narcoticks or Opiats taken inwardly or applied outwardly and so are inhibited the exercise of their Function For Opiats because they Poison the Spirits extinguish their forces as Water poured upon Fire or Sulphur laid on the Kitchin Fire and cause a Torpor or Numness wherefore if they are more largely taken that they cannot be overcome by the Spirits put to flight who by little and little being recollected renew the Systasis of the Soul a deadly or perpetual Sleep follows Fifthly To this rank ought to be referred the Penury or evil Constitution of the Animal Spirits for when they are either deficient in Plenty or are dull and Torpid that they can neither tolerate daily or hard Exercises nor actuate the Brain nor defend it against the Inundations of the serous Humors from thence are wont to be induced a Torpor or Numness and frequent Sleepiness of the Animal Faculty as is to be observed in Dropsical and Scorbutical People but the Consideration of this Kind of Torpor we shall refer to another place where we speak of Soporiferous Diseases 2. Another Kind of evident Causes by which Sleep is introduced consists in this that the Brain is first affected then by its Consent the Animal Spirits being half overthrown betake themselves to rest these Kind of Effects are chiefly brought in when an heap of Serum is poured in upon the Brain from the Blood too much stuffed with a watery Humor which watering it with too much moisture rushes overs its Pores and Passages and as it were drowes the Animal Spirits flowing in them Such an Inundation of Spirits is produced either from a too great taking in of Food whence the Blood swelling up above measure with the nourishing Humor too much puts down upon the Brain the plentiful provision of Nervous Juyce wherefore presently after a more full feeding or drinking men become Sleepy or also the Blood as to its Temper being made more watery moistens the Brain as it were with a perpetual shower and so renders those affected continually Sleepy as is wont to come to pass ordinarily in Dropical and Scorbutical People To these may be added and oftentimes is partly the Cause the imbecillity or weakness of the Brain and the loosness of its Pores so that they gaping too much most easily admit the serous heap whereby Sleepiness is brought in For it is observed That Drunkards especially such as drink Wine fall asleep with it on the least occasion and not only become Drunk but also Drowsie or Sleepy The reason of which is that when the passages of the Brain are more often and untimely unlocked with the Particles of the Wine at length become so feeble that the Blood growing hot above measure pours forth its Recrements upon the Brain and so causes from thence a torpor or stupidness therein These are the chief means whereby Sleep is effected when it is excited by reason of the overflowing of the Nervous juyce and as it were the over-turning of the Animal Spirits But as to these it hath been far otherways taught by the Opinion of the Vulgar to wit that fumes and vapors are raised up from the Chyle or Humors growing hot within the Viscera of Concoction which cloud the Brain and so cause a Numness But this Opinion easily falls since the Circulation of the Blood and the more plentiful Suffufion of it on the Brain have been known and that the rather because a passage from the Stomach into the Head thorow so many Inwards and bony Cloysters like stops seem impervious or not passable for the sending up of fumes Without doubt much the greatest part of the Humor with which the Brain is watered and the Spirits inhabiting it over-turned during Sleep is carried by the Arteries and distilled in immediately from the Mass of Blood But althô we deny vapors elevated from the Stomach to the Head to cause Sleep yet by reason of some affections of the Ventricle it manifestly appears that Sleepiness is induced for as much as Opiats being taken they begin to operate oftentimes presently and before the virtue or any of their Particles can come to the Brain by the passage of the Blood This also appears because we become Sleepy from more gross Meats and of ill Digestion which stay long in the Stomach and burthen it The reason of which seems to be because when as the Corporeal Soul or a principle portion of it is the immediate
or shuts up their passages Hence it follows that preternatural Waking or that which is immoderate depends upon these two either on one or both together for either they being grown too outragious and as it were struck with a fury will not lye down of themselves or the nervous Liquor doth not so fill and stop up the Pores of the outward part of the Brain that from thence the Spirits may be compelled inward to rest Examples of both of these are ordinarily to be met withal And first of all we shall take notice that the Animal Spirits sometimes becoming outrageous and so Elastick or shooting forth or otherways enormous that they will not only not lye down and be quieted but scarce be contained within the proper sphere of their emanation wherefore being spread abroad in continual waking so fill the Brain and keep it extended that the nervous Juice though it lyes heaped up at their doors cannot be admitted but if it enters of it self and the Spirits are called back inwards from the Cortex of the Brain presently they being forced thither or tumultuating within the middle part of the Brain raise up many and often most horrid phantasies whereby sleep is driven away or directing thence their declination further into the nervous Stock there stir up great disorders which continually drive away and break off Sleep though it seems ready to creep upon them As to the former of these I have often observed that some being disturbed with waking were afraid to sleep though desiredly coming upon them for as soon as they shut their eyes to sleep presently leaping up they would cry out they should grow mad with a multitude of confused phantasms so that they were necessitated to abstain from sleep Secondly whilst the Spirits become more outrageous and are for sleep sake recalled towards the interior compass of the Brain sometimes they convert their rage into the nervous Stock and then tumultuarily rushing in upon the Nerves destinated for the Precordia or the Inwards raise up inordinations in the respective parts hence in those thus distemper'd as often as they shut their eyes to invite sleep either tremblings leapings and binding up of the heart with loss of Spirits and breathing stopped or inflations and rising up of the Bowels with a sense of choaking and other symptoms commonly called or taken to be Hysterical follow or else secondly the Spirits being recalled from their watches and turning on the nervous Stock transfer their rage sometimes on the spinal Marrow and the Nerves reaching from thence into all the exterior Members Wherefore in some whilst they would indulge sleep in their beds immediately follow leapings up of the Tendons in their Arms and Legs with Cramps and such unquietness and flying about of their members that the sick can no more sleep than those on the Rack Once I was consulted with for a noble Woman who was in the day-time cruelly tormented with the pain about the heart and Vomiting but in the night she was hindred from sleep though it seemed to approach by reason of these kind of Convulsive Distempers invading her with it nor indeed could she sleep all the night unless she had before taken a large Dose of Laudanum wherefore this Medicine at first being permitted her only twice a week afterwards she took it daily for three whole months contracting by it no hurt either in her Brain or about any other function and when in the mean time by the use of other Remedies the Dyscrasies of the Blood and the nervous Juice were amended and the Animal Spirits were made more benign and gentle she having after that wholly left off her Opium could sleep indifferently well These kind of sleep-destroying Distempers stirred up either within the middle part of the Brain or within the nervous Stock either more inward or more outward do depend wholly on the evil constitution of the Animal Spirits for those who ought to be gentle clear and bright and to actuate gently the containing bodies and to influence them with a benign influence become sharp and fierce and like Effluvia's sent from Stygian Waters unable to be restrained do distend them too much and refuse to be governed by the command of the will and to be quieted by sleep yea being restrained in one place they immediately grow tumultuous in another Such a constitution of the Animal Spirits proceeds from the acid and oftentimes as it were Vitriolick Dyscrasies of the Blood begetting it and of the nervous Juice cherishing and increasing it as shall be more fully shewed hereafter when we speak of madness In the mean time as to what belongs to the Cure of thorow or long waking which we but now described because it cannot be long tolerated therefore those things which may bring present ease ought first to be administred for this end those things which sooth the Spirits and gently moderate their disorders are convenient as those commonly called Anodynes viz. Distilled Waters Decoctions Syrups and Conserves of the Flowers of Water-Lilies Cowslips Mallows Violets Hearts-ease of the leaves of Willow Lettice Purslain also Emulsions or Juicy expressions If that the unquiet Spirits will not be allayed by gentle flatteries you must compel them into quietness as it were with bonds and strokes plenty of them ought to be diminished and the places also to be inlarged in which they may expand themselves in freedom and without tumult and quitted from the intanglements of other Humors to wit of the Blood and Serum For which ends sometimes the opening of a Vein is convenient and Blisterings are always to be made use of also Diacodium and Laudanum if it be convenient are frequently given and in the mean time whilst that Opiates give some truce to the Disease the cause of it ought carefully to be rooted out by the use of other Remedies as much as may be wherefore such as take away the sharpness of the Blood and nervous Juice and render a sweetness to them are to be administred day after day in Physical hours In which rank are shelly Powders Apozems and Distilled Waters Alterers made out of temperate Antiscorbuticks the more gentle prepared Chalybeats Spirits of Harts-horn and of Sut and almost before all other things the Tincture of Antimony is much esteemed There remains another sort of thorow or long Waking the cause of which in some if not in the greatest part consists in almost a continual openness or too much gaping of the Pores or passages in the Cortex of the Brain For besides that the Animal Spirits becoming sharp and somewhat outragious refuse to lye down of their own accord and to indulge rest moreover no stop or yoke is imposed upon them from the nervous Liquor entring into the Pores of the Brain but being free and quitted of all burthens they are also expanded within the exterior spaces of the Brain every where open wherefore for this cause those troubled with long Waking
opening them any longer But we shall rather pass to the other conjunct cause of the Palsie which more immediately affecting the Animal Spirits and sometimes striking down and as it were extinguishing them by mere contact or as it were by a malignant blast brings in a resolution or loosening in the respective parts What we before affirmed in the Apoplexy we now again do the same in the Palsie that there are deadly Particles not only oppilative or stopping but sometimes Narcotick or Stupefactive and as it were extinguishers of the Spirits which kind of affection if it be strong causes sometime Paralytick Symptoms without any great obstruction of the ways The breath or steams of Antimony Mercury or Auripigment often causes weaknesses tremblings and loosening of the Members in such as are long conversant among the Furnaces of Chymists and of Metals We may in like manner believe that in some Scorbutick and very Cacochymical people heterogeneous Particles and as it seems of a Vitriolick nature passing thorow the Brain and its marrowy appendix do enter into the nervous passages together with their watering Juice and cast down some handfuls of the Spirits in them or suppress their motion Hence suddenly arise stupors numness or looseness in the Members or Muscles sometimes in these sometimes in those and soon after vanishing in one place presently spring up again in another But at length when these sort of Particles being abundantly poured forth into the Nerves and laid up in heaps they become variously fixed here and there and moreover shut up the ways of the Spirits and so cause a fixed and permanant Palsie And indeed in every Palsie made by obstruction the Morbific matter is not thick and cold Phlegm as Galen and many other Physicians have asserted for such doth not pass thorow the Brain much less the nervous passages but it seems to consist of most subtil and very active Particles though infestous or deadly to the animal regiment But indeed the Palsie happens in Men no otherwise than the blasting or burning or withering in Trees because some winds being indued with very frigid or cold blasts to wit with a Nitrous or a Vitriolick Spiriâ—â— when they blow upon the green and tender sprigs of trees cause them suddenly to wither for that the tender stalks like Nerves every where inter-woven with the sprigs and leaves are bound together by the blast of the malignant air so fully that they receive not any more the Juice sent from the Trunk or Root by reason of which defect they wither Much after the same manner extraneous Particles and as it were Vitriolick being admitted within the organs of sense and motion for that they at once bind up the Pores or cast down or suppress from motion the Animal Spirits cause in the respective parts as it were a withering or drying up But this is not so caused by mere Phlegm or a Serous â—â—ood as plainly appears because those indued with a moist and cold Brain have always their Nose and Eyes moist with the distillation of a snotty or watry humor yea those who are troubled with a Dropsical Brain in which the Brain and the tops of either Marrow do as it were swim in water are not for that reason disposed to the Palsie unless by the pressing together of the Marrow We have hitherto described the various cases of the Palsie and the means by which it is caused together with their â—everal formal reasons and conjunct causes As to what belongs to the other causes of this Disease we must first distinguish that it is either accidental or habitual The former happens to some from a solitary evident cause such as a stroke wound bruise and excess of either heat or cold without any previous disposition and besides this and the conjunct cause which for the most part is a compression or breach of the unity it hath none The habitual Palsie depends upon a Procatartick cause which is always an extraneous and as it were a Vitriolick matter begotten somewhere before and heaped up which being from thence suffused into the organs of sense and motion for that it stops up the marrowy or nervous Tracts or sometimes profligates the Spirits by mere contact or effects both together brings forth loosenings in the respective parts by reason of the influence of the Spirits being deny'd them This kind of Procatarxis or foregoing Cause depends upon a twofold antecedent or secret leading cause to wit one remote which is a vicious Blood carrying to the Head a Morbific matter either begotten in it self or taken from the Bowels or some other place and the other more near which is an indisposed Brain to wit weak and too lax or loose or otherways evilly made and so easily admitting heterogeneous or strange and deadly Particles The Morbific matter being brought to the Brain sometimes induces the Palsie primarily but more often secondarily and not but after other Diseases first excited The reason of the former to wit that the habitual Palsie be a primary Disease and by it self requires these two things viz. That the heterogeneous Particles be disposed chiefly for the causing or stirring up the Palsie then that they be admitted by degrees and but in small quantity for if they enter in great heaps they would first cause the Carus or Apoplexy and if they be not of a plain Vitriolick nature or quality when having passed thorow the Brain they come to enter into the organs of Sense and Motion they would first occasion in them Convulsive and painful Distempers yea sometimes the Colick Gout or Scurvy first and then at length the Palsie 2. The secondary Palsie often succeeds Distempers for the most part Chronical after the natural and vital faculties being by them very much hurt a slow and long Feavour strength being at length worn out causes oftentimes enervations or resolutions of the whole Body or of some Members Long and immoderate sadness a Consumption a Scorbutick Atrophy or wasting being long fixed in Bed unhealthy old Age yea and many other passions after a notable evil first brought to the Brain and nervous Stock at length brings on the Palsie But indeed this Disease more frequently comes upon some other Distempers either of the Brain as chiefly the Carus and Apoplexy or of the nervous stock and such chiefly are the Scurvy Convulsions Colick and Gout By what means it succeeds Cephalick Diseases we have already shewed in this and how the Scurvy in another tract we shall now inquire how it is often the off-spring of the other three 1. We have shewn already that the Spasme or Cramp or Convulsion doth sometimes bring in the Palsie to wit when from contrary or opposite Muscles being one of them loosened and the other pulled together Further it is an usual thing for those who are long obnoxious to Convulsive Distempers to suffer at length debilities in some members and at length resolutions or want of motion I
and feet yea and stretch forth all their members with a mighty strength and a most strong force that indeed the whole Soul seems to grow hot and furious in the whole body to be mad or rather as it were to be inflamed with a sudden burning And truly a Phrensie cannot be more aptly defined than that it is a burning or inflammation of the whole sensitive soul or animal spirits as to their whole Hypostasis or Constitution This burning always beginning from the spirits inhabiting the Brain and wandring from thence into the other parts of the sensitive soul seems to receive from the Blood first growing hot and raging with a Feavourish fire both the first incentive matter and then the constant food of the burning For indeed it is probable that the blood burning Feavourishly doth pour forth on the Brain sometimes sulphureous Particles together with the spirituous which being half inflamed and after a sort burning forth penetrate together with the others and from thence immediately entring into all the marrowy and nervous passages adhere every where to the spirits and so render them being inflamed highly rageing and implacable Certainly it is more likely that the Phrensie is rather excited after this manner by an inflammation of the Spirits than from that of the Meninges or of the Brain which more surely causes an Headach or Lethargy than a Fury as we have frequently found by Anatomy And indeed that it is so is not only ours or any new opinion but that great follower and best interpreter of Hippocrates Prosper Martianus who hath affirmed the same thing almost in express words viz. Comment on his Book De Morbis 3. vers 99. pag. 151. he says That Hippocrates doth call the Phrensie a Delirium with a Feavour which is continual and depends upon a firm and stable Distemper to wit from an inflammation of those parts which serve to institute Nature Reason and the Mind For so the Animal Spirits whose viciousness cause the Delirium do not grow hot as it were by a simple quality but are altered as to their substance This Man manifestly distinguishes between heat and flame and affirming that to be in respect of quality and this an alteration in respect of substance plainly ascribes the cause of the Phrensie to the inflammation of the spirits He has in the same place more things apposite to our matter to wit that the containing cause of the Phrensie was not the inflammation of the Meninges but of the Spirits whose substance is indeed altered that is forasmuch as it is become fiery such a continual Delirium is excited I have oftentimes compared the production of the Spirits from the Blood into the Brain to a Chymical Distillation of which it is observed if the spirituous sulphureous liquor be provoked with too strong fire that in Distilling it sometimes takes fire and ascends in the Alembick with a very great flame This is known of Oyl of Turpentine of it self or with the Flowers of Sulphur to the great loss of some In like manner we may believe that the blood growing more strongly hot doth often communicate also a burning to the Spirits distilled out of it viz. that some half burnt Particles do insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Brain which rushing into all the passages of the Spirits both there and in its appendix every where inkindle the Spirits and compel them into most swift motions almost like Lightning But because the Phrensie doth not come upon all Feavours but only on those highly burning the reason is plain by what follows to wit the closure of the Brain ought to be so shut up that not only any extraneous thing might not be poured into them but that the more intense flame of the Blood however burning it be and though planted round about might not be able to break thorow wherefore some distemper'd with a burning Feavour although the Blood grows hot thorow the whole the Bowels burn the Marrow rages the Tongue and Jaws rosted like a coal yet the Brain being still firmly shut up all the Animal Functions remain whole and sound But on the contrary others who have a weak and too loose a Brain and their Blood more sulphureous than it ought become Phrensical not only from a burning Feavour but sometimes from a more gentle visit By reason of what foregoing cause and for what occasions or evident causes this is wont to happen is the next thing we shall inquire into Hitherto hath been shown that the immediate subject of the Phrensie is the sensitive Soul or the Hypostasis of the Animal Spirits and that the formal reason of the Disease doth consist in their Inflammation and that the conjunct cause is the sulphureous particles poured forth from the Blood into the inclosures of the Brain and there continually inkindling the Spirits and now it is no difficult matter to assign its procatartick or foregoing causes which we find partly in the Blood and partly in the Brain and its inhabitants The previous disposition of the Blood disposing to the Phrensie is sometimes simple sometimes twofold the former is an hot sharp or bilous constitution of it to wit that contains very many sulphureous Particles in it self which are apt to inflame the Blood in a Feavour more than ought to be and to insinuate its burning into the Brain This disposition when it is very potent and active often produces this Disease of it self but for the most part there is another disposition of the Blood which helps that former and renders it more efficacious to wit that besides the sulphureous and inflameable Particles there are others sharp and penetrative which enter into the Pores and open them so that the former more easily enter in or are introduced This the saline little Bodies conjoined with the sulphureous do in a manner effect hence Cholerick and Melancholick persons growing Feavourish are more prone to become furious but much more do the Heterogeneous Particles implanted in the Blood and moved by a Feavour open the doors of the Brain and intromit all that are inflameable wherefore a Phrensie frequently comes upon the Small-Pox and malignant and Pestilential Feavours The other provision to a Phrensie which is of the Brain consists partly in its temper and conformation and partly in the disposition of the Spirits inhabiting it As to the former those indued with an hot and dry Brain are found to be most prone to a Phrensie not because that constitution is more obnoxious to an inflammation or burning for to this it is less apt but because in such a Brain otherwise than in an hot and moist or cold and dry the Pores and passages are more open and too much gaping and so give an entrance to the incentive matter suggested from the Feavour which besides they much more easily admit if the Spirits being very fugacious or apt to flight or pathetick or passionate are upon every light occasion ready to fall
so these being admitted within the middle part of the Brain for the acts of the Animal Functions do not quickly pass thorow and irradiate all the Pores and Passages but like little acid Atoms creep about here and there slowly but incessantly and as it were with a certain unquiet motion of tingling or creeping diffuse themselves by little and little thorow the whole neighbourhood Hence a storm of thoughts is perpetually stirred up by which the Brain is wont to be busied without intermission so that Melancholic persons have continually day and night disturbed Phantasies for that their Animal Spirits consist of a continually moveable matter Hence also they look with eyes turned inwards or fixed or obliquely and sullen or dogged and exercise the other faculties both sensitive and loco-motive inadvertently because the Spirits being worn out and distracted by continual motion do not well actuate or beam into the nervous System 2. Though the Effluvia's continually fall away from an Acetous Spirit prepared by Chymical Art yet they do not go far but gather together on an heap thickly near the superficies of the liquor and penetrate only the neighbouring bodies not touching those that are at a distance Hence the Spirits of Vitriol Salt or Vinegar will not ascend out of the Cucurbit into the Alembick unless urged with a very strong heat but being included in a low Phial they shall corrode and pierce thorow the stopple It is after the same manner concerning the Phantasie of Melancholick persons for inasmuch as the Animal Spirits being degenerate into an acid nature do not irradiate or quickly pass thorow the whole compass of the Brain as before but flowing in the middle part are carried with its force only into the nearest Pores and Passages therefore cogitations raised up from thence though they be continual yet they comprehend but a few things and so as when many bands of Spirits are thrust together in strait bounds every small object and of very little moment seems to them very great and of notable weight certainly after the same manner and for the same reason as when the visible images passing thorow a Microscoptick Glass are carried to the Eye for because many beams of the same thing are concenter'd its magnitude seems to be increased into an immense greatness so when as every intentional Species or Image by the conflux of very many spirits together is formed in the Brain it appears to the soul greater and of more weight than usual Every one may experiment this truth in himself For when as we become thoughtful from eating gross or melancholick meats or by reason of the passion of sorrow the reason of which affection is because the Animal Spirits are unfit for a more free expansion then we are very solicitous and fearful concerning every little thing as if then our health or fortune were for ever in danger Hence also because the Animal Spirits though almost ever in motion are notwithstanding still limited within the same short bounds Melancholick persons persist a long while in thinking and revolving in their mind often the same thing 3. But there yet remains another similitude of the Animal Spirits with those distilled from Vitriol and other saline bodies to wit that as the Effluvia's sent away from these kind of Acetous Spirits do not evaporate so much from open spaces and tracts before made as they cut out Pores and Passages that are new for themselves in an objected body so that they easily pass thorow and render friable or crumbling the Cork or stopple to the Vessel where they are which happens not from the Spirit of Wine to any thing that stops up the Phial so indeed in Melancholick persons it is usually wont to be For because the Animal Spirits being as it were pointed with saline Particles whilst they flow from the middle of the Brain they observe not their former tracts and ways of their expansion but they thickly make for themselves new and unwonted little spaces within the globous substance of the Brain Hence cogitations are brought before the Soul not such as they were wont to be but new and incongruous and for the most part absurd But indeed because the Phantasie is prevaricated about the Conceptions of things and by reason that the acts of judgment and reason are falsly framed the only cause is for that the Animal Spirits leaving their former walks and going backward and forward in their ways in the Brain being carried hither and thither obliquely and transverse affect altogether unaccustomed and bye ways which indeed is proper for them to do out of the Acetous disposition with which they labour to wit forasmuch as the Effluvia of those kind of Liquors expand themselves not in a direct or free emanation as the rays of light but by a bending motion and as it were creeping they craul on every side into the neighbouring part Thus much for the primary Melancholick Distemper to wit a Delirium or Raving being excited by reason of the vices of the Spirits inhabiting the Brain The beginnings of which although they proceed chiefly and oftentimes almost only from the Acetous disposition of the Spirits yet afterwards the conformation of the Brain it self is often brought to be a part of the cause to wit forasmuch as the Recrements of the Melancholick Blood being perpetually poured forth renders its substance more thick and dark and the primary tracts or paths of the Animal Function being near blotted out new oblique and by-paths are made insomuch that the Spirits though better should be begotten could not easily irradiate the Brain or presently recover their former passages Melancholy is not only a Distemper of the Brain and Spirits dwelling in it but also of the Praecordia and of the Blood therein inkindled from thence sent into the whole Body and as it produces there a Delirium or idle talking so here fear and sadness but by what means we shall now see First in Sadness the flamy or vital part of the Soul is straitned as to its compass and driven into a more narrow compass then consequently the animal or lucid part contracts its sphere and is less vigorous but in Fear both are suddenly repressed and compelled as it were to shake and contain themselves within a very small spaces in either passion the Blood is not circulated and burns not forth lively and with a full burning but being apt to be heaped up and to stagnate about the Praecordia stirs up there a weight or a fainting and in the mean time the Head and Members being destitute of its more plentiful flux languishes The formal reasons of these Distempers and their causes we have before exposed But because these are habitual in Melancholick persons the cause is partly in the Blood and partly in the Animal Action of the heart For the Blood because of the saline particles being exalted becomes less inflamable from whence it is neither sufficiently
distilled Water Tablets Chalybeats or Steel-Medicines Spirits Powders Cases and Examples of the Sick The first History The second History The Reason of the Case described The third History The Seat of the Apoplexy A Description of the Disease It s Subject The spontaneous Functions only deficient in the Apoplexy The opinions of others concerning this Disease The Theory of this Disease is best shewn by the famous Dr. Webfer Another Reason given by the Author The Exclusion of the Blood from the Brain does not easily happen Because all the Arteries communicate one with another and some of them supply the defects of the others A total Exclusion of the blood from the Brain sometimes hapning causes a terrible Syncopy This depends oftenest on the motion of the heart being hindred and so either because of the Cardiack Nerves being bound together Or By reason of the Spirits in the Cerebel being hindred from their flowing into the Nerves Hence there is a twofold Apoplexy one in the Brain the other proper to the Cerebel The Theory of the former delivered This Disease either accidental or habitual The cause of the former is either a great breach of the unity in or near the middle of the Brain Or a sudden stupefaction or extinction of the Spirits 1 A Solution of the unity either from blood let forth of the Vessels Or 2 From an Imposthume or the breaking of an Vlcer Or 3 From a Deluge of the Serum An extinction of the Spirits from Opiates or from immoderate Drinking of hot Waters The operation of Opiates as it is assigned by the famous Webfer The formal reason of the habitual Apoplexy 1 What its Conjunct Cause is It consists in the Pores of the callous Body being suddenly stop'd and the Spirits being driven away by the contact of malignant matter What the nature or disposition of the morbifick matter is The procatarctic Cause of the habitual Apoplexy The differences of this Disease Its Prognosticks The Curatory Method What is to be done in the Fit In what position the Sick ought to be kept Phlebotomy Other ways of Administration noted Vomiting Medicines Comforters Cupping-glasses Hot or glowing Iron The preservatory Method Purging and Bleeding Spring and Fall Cephalick Remedies An Electuary A distilled Water Lozenges Spirits and Tinctures Tea Coffee and Chocolate prepared how to be made and taken A Powder Medical Aâ— Examples A very rare History An Anatomical Observation The middle of the Brain which is the Seat of the Apoplexy is also the Seat of the Epilepsy The streaked Bodies the Medullar Trunks and the Nerves are the Seat of the Palsy what the Palsie is It s Conjunct Causes are Obstruction of the passages and the Impotency of the Spirits In the Palsie either motion or sense only or both together is hurt Spontaneous motion is abolished by reason of the ways being obstructed either in their beginnings or the middle passages or about the ends The ways are obstructed by Impletion or Compression or by a breaking of the Vnity An obstruction in the streaked Bodies causes the Vniversal Palsie or the Palsie of one side Why sense is not hindred as well as motion in every Palsie In an universal Palsie why all the Muscles of the Eyes and Face are not loosâ—ed A Compression of the streaked Body sometimes stirs up the Palsie A Paralytick obstruction doth sometimes happen in the Oblong and Spinal Marrow A Palsie often succeeds stupidity or becoming foolish A Palsie sometimes from the pressing together of the Marrowy Cord. Sometimes from the unity being broke The Seat of the Palsie sometimes in the Nerves themselves which are either obstructed or compressed or the unity broken 1 An Obstruction Sometimes in the beginning of the Nerves 2 Sometimes in the middle 3 Or in their utmost processes The other conjunct cause of the Palsie to wit the impotency of the Spirits Often arises from narcotick or vitriolick Particles by which the Spirits are put to flight In every Palsie the matter is not so thick or cold as it is vitriolick or other ways infestous to the Spirits The blasting or withering in Trees like the Palsie The more remote foregoing causes of the Palsy which are two 1 More remote to wit a vicious Blood and for that reason pouring forth a deadly matter upon the head 2 Nearer to wit a weak and loose Brain admiting the evil Particles The Palsy is either a primary Distemper and a Disease of it self Or secondarily viz. Coming upon or succeeding other Diseases Wherefore the Palsie often succeeds Convulsive Diseases Wherefore the Distemper of the Colick 3 Wherefore the Gout The evident Causes of the habitual Palsie Want or paâ—city of Spirits oftentimes the Cause of the Spurious or Bastard Palsy For this Reason Old Men are obnoxious to this Disease 2 Also Scorbutical Persons and such as are full of ill humours 3 Also others long sick Hence some dare not venture on local motion Others endeavouring cannot bear them long The Impotency of the Spirits proceeds in some measure from the default of the explosive Copula 2 The kind of Palsy in which Motion and Sense are hurt at ones 3 Kind in which sense only is affected Wherefore feeling is sometimes lost and motion safe What is the proper Organ of feeling The Prognostick of the Palsy It s Cure Three means of healing according to which this Disease is 1. Either accidental 2. The off-spring of another Disease 3. Habitual 1 The Cure of the former A Powder for a Fall Topicks to be applyed to the Distempered part 2 How the Palsie coming upon another Disease is to be cured The Cure of the habitual Palsie Whilst it is In fieri or doing The Intentions of healing respect the Blood and the Brain Bloodletting A Purge Cephalick Remedies 2 How the Disease in habit is to be cured Bloodletting and Purging cautiously and rarely to be admitted Altering Medicines ought to be given with choice How the Palsy is to be healed in a cold temperament Electuary Coffee A Decoction Spirits A Distilled Water Tinctures and Elixirs Powders Lozenges Pills How the Cholerick or hot Palsie is to be cured An Electuary A Distilled Water Chalybeats or Steeled Medicines A Decoction The juice and expressions of Herbs Pills Topick and particular Remedies Vniversal Remedies 1 Diaphoreticks They are not to be administred indifferently to all They often hurt the Cholerick Sweating Medicines Stoves Baths Natural Baths When the use of Baths is hurtful in the Palsie Salivation Vomitories Histories and Examples of Paralyticks The Example of the Palsie habitual excited of it self The first History The Reason of it The second History more rare and notable An Anatomicâ— Observation â— which the Caâ— is explained â— The third History The Reason of this The fourth History The Câ—rt expoposed The Reason of it The fifth History shâ—wing when the Baths are hurtful An example of the Palsie from a Lethargy The Distempers of the Brain follow in which Reason is hurt as
can the blood be made to boyl wherefore it follows that it is inkindled like the spirit of Wine and so as it were flames forth and boyls up Further we shewed that it is truly inkindled in hot living Creatures because the proper Passions of Fire and Flame are found only besides in the Life of the Blood for in like manner both to this and to them there is need constantly of an Internal Sulphureous Food together with the External nitrous yea and either Flame alike to wit the Kitchin and Vital whil'st they burn desire Eventilation To these may be added that the Life and Flame of the Blood as to their Various ways of production and extinction there particularly described and rehearsed are wholly after the same manner Lastly the analogie or agreement of either Flame being sufficiently unfolded we have declared by what beginnings the Vital Flame arises by what degrees it increases and after its hight is diminished Further we have shew'n reasons wherefore this is not visible and destructive as the common Flame but as it is Subordinate to the Corporeal Soul as to a Superiour Form it admitting a proper Species and serving to the uses of Nature destinated by the Creator silently burns with a gentle and friendly heat like a Fire shut up in Balneo Mariae apart by it self and as it so destroys not the Blood but inkindling the Liquor even so its Superficies wholly dissolves the frame of the whole mixture it follows thence that some particles being burnt others of a various Kind being manumitted or let go they are Variously imployed in the offices of the others but of these those which are chiefly Subtil as it were Beams of Light sent from a Flame are as it were distilled into the Brain and Cerebel These most subtil particles are called the Animal Spirits and first of all entring the Cortical Substances of those parts and from thence flowing into the Meditullia or middle parts of either of them and into the Oblong and Spinal Marrow and further into all the Nerves and Nervous Fibres dispersed thorow the whole Body Constitute the other and more noble part of the Corporeal Soul commonly called the Sensitive by us the Lucid or Etherial into whose Nature as also into the ways of its Subsisting Acting and Suffering we shall now in the next place inquire Secondly The sensitive part of the Soul even as the Vital is extensive and divisible whose Hypostasis when as the Animal Spirits as to the Integral parts do Constitute a great and difficult question arises concerning them of what sort of substance they are and from whence they are indued with so notable an Energy or Power I shall say nothing to those who wholly deny these Spirits for that the existencie of which is almost palpable and may be proved demonstratively by the effects nor am I much solicitous of those who arguing Contend that the Senses and Faculties of living Creatures however perceptive cannot be but from an Immaterial and Immortal Substance and therefore without any necessity multiply almost to Infinity and I know not for what end not only Essences but also immortal Souls of Brutes yea of Fleas Flys and of other more vile Insects Against these Opinions there needs no other Argument than that any one may consider truly in every Brute or Man the Organs of the Animal Faculties than which certainly nothing in the whole nature of things can be made more Mechanically and with a more neat Artifice The Brain and Cerebel the two Roots of the Lucid part of the Soul or rather the Fountains of the Primary Spirits are placed in the top itself of the Body into which when the Animal Spirits are distilled from the Blood placed above and round about as it were by a descent they from thence flow forth through the Medullary and nervous Appendixes as it were by Bills or Pelicans placed here and there into all the inferiour parts Either head consists of a double Substance viz. a Cortical or Barkie which for the most part serves for the reception of the Spirits and a Medullary or Marrowy which serves for their dispensation and exercise Further as the Animal Spirits for divers uses of the Animal Faculties ought to obtain Tendencies or Stretchings-forth of a divers sort within their distinct and peculiar passages either Medullary part being wonderfully Divaricated is cut every where into Various tracts of Labyrinths as it were so many Conclaves and Chambers all which Medullary tracts the Cortical part every where lies between and fortifies From these as it were Primary Palaces of the Soul the Oblong and Spinal Marrow like spacious Courts are stretched forth which also are furnished by reason of the Medullary substances variously lying between with many Porticoes and Walks planted here and there for the necessary works of the Animal Function From these Marrows the Nerves arising are carried to the several parts of the whole Body as it were so many distinct paths then from these many other small Shoots or nervous Fibres being on every side sent forth as it were so many smaller or lesser Paths are almost innumerable at the ends of which others secondary Fibres Membranaceous and Musculous are disposed though thick Series as it were so many martial Fields in every one of which is placed a Maniple or Band of Spirits In this most ample and highly intricate Labyrinth of Cloysters and Animal passages the Medullar or Nervous Processes how small soever being most thickly set variously implicating one another and ordinarily cutting cross one another yet all of them distinct and designed to certain offices allways agree mutually between themselves and intimately conspire together So that every Impulse or Instinct is carried from one end to another presently yea from every part to all the rest sooner than in the twink of an eye Further from the effects it is demonstrated that within these several tracts some subtil particles do flow and cause Animality or Life in all which tho they be most thin invisible and nimble we rightly call the Animal Spirits and the Constitutive parts of the sensitive Soul Altho it appears plain that such like Spirits are the Authors of the Animal Function and do constitute the Hypostasis of the Soul it self yet what they are according to their proper essence seems hard to be unfolded because we can hardly meet with any thing in Nature to which they may be compared in all things The comparing of these with the Spirits of Wine Turpentine and Harts-Horn and such like does not quadrate or agree For besides that those Chymical Liquors neither represent the Images of their Objects nor are indued with any Elastic Virtue as the Animal Spirits those also are less Subtle than these and less Volatil for as much as they may be powred forth out of one Vessel into another or may be distilled but the Animal Spirits presently vanishing after life is extinct
leave no Foot-steps of themselves Wherefore it is better according to our Hypothesis that we liken these Spirits sent from the Flame of the Blood to the Rays of Light at least to them interwoven with the Element and the Air. For as Light figures the Impressions of all visible things and the Air of all audible things So the Animal Spirits receive the impressed Images of those and also of Odors and tangible qualities and stay them at the first Sensory But the Air or Aerial particles whilst free and unmixed create nothing of force or tumult yet they being more strictly pressed together shut up in Clouds or Instruments or imbued with Sulphureous and other Elastick Bodies being become presently raging they often break forth into Meteors viz. Winds Hurricanes and horrid Thunder After the same manner the Animal Spirits whilst pure are carried in the open spaces of the Head and its Appendixes remain quiet enough but they being shut up within the Muscles and there being mixed with Sulphureous Particles from the Blood and sometimes in other places with an heterogeneous matter become very impetuous to wit Elastick or Spasmodick or Causing Cramps as we have declared formerly at large Therefore the Animal Spirits according to this Analogy to wit which thing of them happens chiefly and almost only with other things we say are most subtil Bodies and highly active instilled from the inkindled Blood into the Brain and its Appendix which partly of their own nature for as much as they are lucid and aerial and partly from the agreeable furniture of the Organs for that they are shut up within Passages as it were Pipes and other Machines abound with both an objective Virtue by which many rays of Light promptly meet together in the Images of all sensible things and effect the sension of every Kind and also an Active by which the loco-motive powers and also the acts of the Spasmodic Affections are performed beyond the forces or Instincts of wind or any blast shut up in machines In Mechanical things Fire Air and Light are chiefly Energetical which humane Industry is always wont to use for the greatly stupendious and no less necessary works This the Furnaces of Smiths Chymists and Glass-men and of other boylers of several Kinds Dioptrick Glasses Musical Warlike Mathematical Instruments with many other Machines never enough to be admired do testifie In like manner we may believe that the Great Workman to wit the Chief Creator from the Beginning did make the greatly active and also the most subtil Souls of Living Creatures out of their Particles as the most active to which he gave also a greater and as it were a supernatural Virtue and Efficacy from the Excellent structure of the Organs most Exquisitly laboured beyond the Workmanship and artificialness of any other Machine We have described these Parts formerly in Plates so that we need not here repeat their Anatomy but only add a few things that were omitted In the Animal Government altho the Spirits are disposed as it were an Army spread abroad thorow the whole Field yet we say that they obtain Orders and Offices one thing in this part and something different in that In every one of these we have noted as it were a double Aspect or Gesture in the Provinces in the Medullary shanks of the Head in the Nerves and also nervous Fibres to wit one of Begetting and Dispensing and another of Exercise and Government As to the first we have shown that the animal spirits being procreated wholly in the Cortical or Barky substances of the Brain and Cerebel do descend by and by into the middle or marrowy parts and there are kept in great plenty for the businesses of the Superiour Soul in the mean time a sufficient stock of these gently flowing from this highest Province into the oblong and Spinal Marrow and thence into the Nerves Nervous Shoots actuates all these passages and blows them up into a certain Tensity Lastly a sufficient plenty of Spirits distilling forth from the ends of the Nerves enter into the nervous Fibres planted in the Muscles Membranes and Viscera and so constitute them the proper and immediate Organs of the Sence and Motion After this manner the Region of the whole Sensitive Soul being viewed if we would describe its Idea or Image we must altogether represent the same Figure and Dimension and the whole Head with its System and Appendix so that as we may behold all these parts shaddowed in the same Image we ought to frame at once the Hypostasis of this Soul adequate and Co-extended to them As to the several sorts of Offices and Exercises of the Spirits so planted in distinct Provinces First we deservedly attribute to them a two-fold Aspect to wit inward for Sense and outward for Motion But more particularly we may conceive the middle or Marrow part of the Brain as it were the inferiour Chamber of the Soul glased with dioptric Looking-Glasses in the Penetralia or inmost parts of which the Images or Pictures of all sensible things being sent or intromitted by the Passages of the Nerves as it were by Pipes or strait holes pass first of all thorow the streaked Bodyes as it were an objective Glass and then they are represented upon the Callous Body as it were upon a white Wall and so induce a Perception and a certain Imagination of the thing felt Which Images or Pictures there expressed as often as they import nothing besides the mere Knowledg of the Object then by and by further progressing as it were by another waving from the Callous Body towards the Cortix or shell of the Brain and entring into its folds the phantasie vanishing they Constitute the memory or remembrance of a Thing But if the sensible species being impressed on the Imagination promises any thing of Good or Evil presently the spirits being Excited respect or look back upon the Object by whose appulse they were moved and for the sake of embracing or removing it away by other spirits flowing within the Passages of the Nerves and successively by others implanted in the Members and moving Parts they swiftly give their Commands of performing the respective motions So the Sense brings in the Imagination this the Memory or the Appetite or both at once and at length the appâ—â—itâ— stirs up local motions performing the prosecution or driving away of the appeariâ—g Good or Evil. For the several Kinds of these sort of Animal Functions yea for the Various Acts of either Kind to be performed the Animal Spirits who are the immediate Instruments of them all obtain peculiar and distinct tracts or paths within which if there be any let or bar to hinder presently some function is hindred or some member of the sensitive Soul being as it were cut off becomes impotent Who can sufficiently admire the innumerable series of nervous Fibres distributed in a most wonderful order thorow the several parts
propagate its Species or produce other Souls for which end it Continually lays up from its provision an incentive matter and Continually desires to expose it to an inkindling It is natural for every Animal without guide or example to take its proper food and to Swallow it down both that the web of the Body being daily increased might grow to its due magnitude and also that the Soul as it were its woof being daily supplyed with new plenty of Spirits may be able to be Coextended or stretched forth equally with the Body and able to perform lively the Acts of its Functions Then assoon as the Lineaments both of the Body and the Soul being sufficiently drawn forth and the Compass and Bulk of each Compleated some Animal Spirits superfluous from the individual work begin to abound and so seperate into the genital parts with a Subtil humour picked from the whole Body as it were into a Store-house destinated for the propagating the Species and there being lay'd up forme the Idea of the Animal which afterwards is transferred into a fit Matrix for to be perfectly formed The genital Humour is not as Hippocrates formerly taught and as now commonly believed carried from the Brain into the Spermatick Vessels for no peculiar passages lye between that and these Bodies far remote but without doubt the bloody mass it self sends its most noble part into the Genitals as well as into the Brain Wherefore when as there are no Nerves that reach to the Testicles and that there are noted Arteries sent and admirably made thorow wandering Passages and frequent engraftings of the Veins to wit for that End that they may carry the most pure flower of the Blood as it were thorow the winding Chanels of an Alembick distilled by a long passage and so wrought and made most highly subtil into those parts what is superfluous of this or less clarified the Veins do not only receive and carry back but also because from the much Spirit a great quantity of Serous water which serves always for its Vehicle abounds therefore the Water-Carryers are produced in these parts abundantly more than in any others But that a great loss of the genital Humor doth hurt very much the Brain and the Nerves and bring to them a notable debility the reason is because the blood as it makes up the losses of the seed destinated for the propagating its Species carries thither and bestows whatsoever is most precious of its own in the mean time as the Brain is defrauded of its due provision by the great plenty of Spirits being carried into the Spermatic Bodies yea as the blood is not able sufficiently to impart to the Genitals out of its proper store it remands or snatches its Tribute from the Brain and other parts that it might be there bestowed so that not seldom the strength of the whole Soul and Body is consumed on the mad insatiate fulfilling of Lust or Venus and in these desires everyone or the unskilful complains of Flames and feels the blood not only to flame forth but a greater fire increasing to make hot the marrow yea oftentimes it is known to burn up the Flesh Inwards and Bones and to reduce them to a rottenness As to that most quick and Intimate Commerce of the brain with the genital Members for as much as the Venerian imagination Causes presently an insurrection in these parts and on the other side a swelling up of the seminal humor stirs up the Venerial Imagination the Cause is not an Instinct thorow the private passages of the Nerves which are wholly wanting reciprocated from this to that but because for the Act of Generation greatly necessary and performed with a most vehement Affection one part of the soul by it self or one part after another is not moved but the whole Hypostasis together and on a sudden and is inclined or snatched towards the Genitals hence every most light incentives of Lust are most swiftly powred forth thorow the universal parts of the Soul fiery of themselves and Extreamly perclive or apt for such fires Whilst this Corporeal Soul being inkindled like flame in the animated Body on every side diffuseth Heat and Light we may take notice of its various tremblings shakeings inequalities and irregular Commotions these sorts of Irregularities to be observed concerning the phasis or appearance of this Soul of which we treat tho they are more perspicuous in Man than in Brute Animals yet they altogether respect the inferiour Soul of Man which is Common to him with the Brute Animals But that we may briefly handle some of these Affections of the Corporeal Soul first it is to be noted that its flame does not always flame forth equally For besides that its food is sometimes afforded more plentifully and too sulphureous sometimes more thinly and less inflameable so that the Flame is inlarged or Contracted its accension also in the praecordia tho of it self moderate and equal is wont to be variously shaken by the fanning of Passions so that it is carried sorth sometimes into an Excessive burning as from Anger and Indignation sometimes this vital flame is in danger to be always blown out as by sudden Joy and another time almost suffocated as by sudden fear or sadness In like manner the Systasis or Constitution of the Soul from the rest of the Affections being exposed as flame to the winds is diversly changed in its appearance as will more clearly appear when we shall speak particularly of its Affections Nor do these sorts of Inordinations only proceed from the sudden impulses of Passions but sometimes the Vital flame habitually becomes decayed weak and as it is were half exstinct as by intemperate Cold and also as is observed in the phlegmatick diseaâ—e the dropsie longing of maids and other diseases in whom the Blood being too watery like moist and green wood sends forth but a small and inconstant flame and almost overwhelm'd with fume and vapour But sometimes the bloody Liquor being more sulphureous than it ought is almost wholy inkindled as happens in a Choleric Complexion and in an intemperate Feavor According to either of these hights as the inkindling of the vital flame is altered so the lucid particles which flow from it to wit the beamie texture of the Animal spirits diversly shines and breaths forths from the decayed or bound up inkindling of the Blood the sphear of the sensitive soul is seen to be straitned and to be drawn in within the limit of the Body and to be immerged or sunk down so that it doth not sufficiently actuate or illustrate the whole frame of the Brain and its Appendix On the Contrary when the Vital Fire is very strong so it doth not burn forth too much and feavourishly the Constitution of the Animal Spirits being made greater in it self is much inlarged forth far beyond the Compass of the Body so that any one exulting for Joy
parts or particles But as soon as they have taken flame from some incentive being put to it by and by their Particles being rapidly moved and as it were animated produce a shining with Heat and Light and not only make light all about them but Create innumerable Images of all things that are seated near them and thickly object them on every side In like manner the Vital humour in an Egg remains torpid and sluggish in the beginning and like to unkindled matter but as soon as it is actuated from the Soul being raised up presently like an inkindled fire it excites Life with Motion and Sense and in the more perfect Creatures with heat Further the Animal Spirits as Rays of Light proceeding from this Fire are Configured according to the Impressions of every of their Objects and what is more as it were meeting together with reflected irradiations cause divers manner of motions Then what is vulgarly delivered that Matter out of which Natural things are made is meerly passive and cannot be moved unless it be moved by another thing is not true but rather on the contrary Atoms which are the matter of sublunary things are so very active and self-moving that they never stay long but ordinarily stray out of one subject into another or being shut up in the same they cut forth for themselves Pores and Passages into which they are Expatiated Yet it may be argued That if the Soul of the Brute be Composed out of these whilst the same is Extended and is Corporeal it cannot perceive For it admits the Species of the Object into its whole self or into some part of it self not the first because then neither the Senses would be distinguished one from another nor any of them by a perception or common sensation of these But if as indeed it is it shall be said that all the sensible Species being received by appropriated Sensories to a certain part of the Soul to wit the first or common Sensory where they are perceived Then it may be again objected That so manifold and divers Species or Images of sensible things which at once are Conceived from Objects cannot be painted forth in a certain small part of the Brain but that some should obliterate or blot out or at least Confound others I say none ought to wonder who hath beheld the Objects of the whole Hemisphere admitted thorow an hole into a dark Chamber and there on a sudden upon Paper exactly drawn forth as if done by the Pencil of an Artist Why then may not also the Spirits even as the Rays of light frame by a swift Configuration the Images or Forms of things and exhibit them without any Confusion or Obscuring of the Species But yet tho it be granted That the Images of sensible things are represented in a certain part of the Soul to wit actuating the Brain it self to which there happens a most speedy Communication with the whole and also with the several Parts however we are yet to inquire of what Kind of power that is which sees and knows such like Images there delineated and also according to those Impressions there received chooseth Appetites and the respective Acts of the other Faculties That we may go on to Philosophize concerning this matter I profess indeed whilst I consider the Soul and the Body to wit either of them by it self and distinct I cannot readily detect in this or in that or in any material subject any thing to which may be attributed such a Power with a self-moving energy But indeed when I consider the animated Body made by an Excellent and truly Divine Workmanship for certain Ends and Uses nothing hinders me from saying That it is so framed by the Law of Creation or by the Institution of the most Great God that from the Soul and Body mixed together the same Kind of Confluence of the Faculties doth result by which it is needful for every Animal to the Ends and Uses destinated to it In most Mechanical things or those made by humane Art the Workmanship Excels the matter who would think there could be an Instrument made out of Iron or Brass being most fixed and sluggish Mettals whose Orbs like to those of the Celestial without any external Mover should observe almost continual motions the Periods of which being renewed at a constant turn or change should certainly shew the spaces of Time No Body admires that a rude and simple sound is given by wind blown into a Pipe but indeed by Wind sent into musical Organs and that being carryed variously thorow manifold openings of Doors into these or those pipes that it should create a most grateful Harmony and Composed Measures of every Kind this I say deservedly amazes us and we acknowledg this Effect far to Excel both the matter of the Instrument and of the hand of the Musitian striking it Further altho the Musical Organ very much requires the labour of him playing on it by whose direction the spirit or wind being admitted now into these anon into those and into other Pipes causes the manifold harmony and almost infinite Varieties of Tunes yet sometimes I have seen such an Instrument so prepared that without any Musitian directing the little doors being shut up by a certain law and order by the mere Course of a Water almost the same harmony is made and the same tunes equal with those Composed by Art And indeed Man seems like to the former in which the rational Soul sustains the part of the Musitian playing on it which governing and directing the animal spirits disposes and orders at its pleasure the Faculties of the Inferior Soul But the Soul of the Brute being scarce moderatrix of its self or of its Faculties Institutes for Ends necessary for it self many series of Actions but those as it were tunes of harmony produced by a water Organ of another Kind regularly prescribed by a certain Rule or Law and almost always determinated to the same thing This indeed holds good concerning the more imperfect Brutes in whose Souls or Natures are inscribed the types or ways of the Actions to be performed by them which they rarely or never transgress or go beyond and that according to the vulgar saying in the Schools They do not so much act as are acted yet in some more perfect Brutes whose Actions are ordained to many and more noble Uses there are far more Original Types and to their Souls there ought to be attributed a certain faculty of Varying their Types and of Composing them in themselves for the Brutal Soul it self being so gifted naturally as she is Knowing and Active concerning some things necessary for it she is taught through Various Accidents by which she is wont to be daily affected to know afterwards other things and to perform many other and more intricate Actions But how all this may be done without calling an immaterial Soul into play to wit by what
humidity therefore the Spirituous Effluvias or the lucid part of the Soul which ought to irradiate these Bodies is very much obscured as the beam of the Sun passing thorow a thick Cloud Wherefore at this time the strokes of sensible things being not deeply fixed are presently obliterated and in them local motions hardly follow yea in some Beasts in whom the Blood being continually and habitually thick and who have a less Clear Brain tho through their whole Life some acts of the Exterior Senses and Motions are performed yet few Characters are left of any interiour Knowledg Wherefore we shall here inquire only concerning Brutes that are more docil to wit in whom are besides local motions and the five Exterior Senses Memory and Imagination and in these we may conceive this kind of Introduction or Method of Institution concerning the Exquisite Knowledge by the sense with which they are wont to be imbued Therefore as soon as the Brain in the more pefect Brutes grows Clear and the Constitution of the Animal Spirits becomes sufficiently lucid and defecated the exterior Objects being brought to the Organs of the Senses make Impressions which being from thence transmitted for the continuing the Series or Order of the Animal Spirits inwards towards the streaked Bodies affect the Common Sensory and when as a sensible Impulse of the same like a waving of Waters is carried further into the Callous Body and thence into the Cortex or shelly substance of the Brain a Perception is brought in concerning the Species of the thing admitted by the Sense to which presently succeeds the Imagination and marks or prints of its Type being left constitutes the Memory But in the mean time whilst the sensible Impression being brought to the common Sensory effects there the Perception of the thing felt as some direct Species of it tending further creates the Imagination and Memory so other reflected Species of the same Object as they appear either Congruous or Incongruous produce the Appetite and local motions its Executors that is the Animal Spirits looking inwards for the Act of Sension being struck back leap towards the streaked Bodies and when as these Spirits presently possessing the Beginnings of the Nerves irritate others they make a desire of flying from the thing felt and a motion of this or that member or part to be stirred up Then because this Kind or that Kind of Motion succeeds once or twice to this or to that Sension afterwards for the most part this Motion follows that Sension as the Effect follows the Cause and according to this manner by the admitting the Idea's of sensible things both the Knowledg of several things and the habits of things to be done or of local Motions are by little and little produced For indeed from the beginning almost every Motion of the animated Body is stirred up by the Contact of the outward Object to wit the Animal Spirits residing within the Organ are driven inward being strucken by the Object and so as we have said constitute Sension or Feeling then like as a Flood sliding along the Banks of the shore is at last beaten back so because this waving or inward turning down of the Animal Spirits being partly reflected from the Common Sensory is at last directed outwards and is partly stretched forth even into the inmost part of the Brain presently local Motion succeeds the Sension and at the same time a Character being affixed on the Brain by the sense of the thing perceived it impresses there Marks or Vestigia of the same for the Phantasie and the Memory then affected and afterwards to be affected but afterwards when as the Prints or Marks of very many Acts of this Kind of Sensation and Imagination as so many Tracts or Ways are ingraven in the Brain the Animal Spirits oftentimes of their own accord without any other forewarning and without the presence of an Exterior Object being stirred up into Motion for as much as the Fall into the footsteps before made represent the Image of the former thing with which when the Appetite is affected it desiring the thing objected to the Imagination causes spontaneous Actions and as it were drawn forth from an inward Principle As for Examples sake The Stomach of an Horse feeding in a barren Ground or fallow Land being incited by hunger stirs up and variously agitates the Animal Spirits flowing within the Brain the Spirits being thus moved by accident because they run into the footsteps formerly made they call to mind the former more plentiful Pasture fed on by the Horse and the Meadows at a great distance then the Imagination of this desirable thing which then is cast before it by no outward Sense but only from the Memory stops at the Appetite that is the Spirits implanted in the streaked Bodies are affected by that Motion of the spirits flowing within the middle part or Marrow of the Brain who from thence presently after their former accustomed manner enter the origines of the Nerves and actuating the Nervous System after their wonted manner by the same Series produce local Motions by which the hungry Horse is carried from place to place till he has found out the Imagined Pasture and indeed enjoyes that good the Image of which was painted in his Brain After this manner the sensible Species being intromitted by the benefit of the Exterior Organs in the more perfect Brutes for that they affix their Characters on the Brain and there leave them they constitute the Faculties of Phantasie and Memory as it were Store-houses full of Notions further stirring up the Appetite into local Motions agreeable to the Sensions frequently they produce an habit of Acting so that some Beasts being Taught or Instructed for a long time by the assiduous Incursion of the Objects are able to know and remember many things and further learn manifold works to wit to perform them by a Complicated and Continued series and succession of very many Actions Moreover this Kind of acquired Knowledg of the Brutes and the Practical habits introduced through the Acts of the Senses are wont to be promoted by some other means to a greater degree of perfection For in the third place it happens to these by often Experience that the Beasts are not only made more certain of simple things but it teaches them to form certain Propositions and from thence to draw certain Conclusions Because draught Beasts having sometimes found water to be Cooling they seek it far as a remedy of too much heat wherefore when their Precordia grow hot running to the River they drink of it and if they are hot in their whole Body they fearlesly lye down in the same In truth many Actions which appear admirable in Brutes came to them at first by some accident which being often repeated by Experience pass into Habits which seem to shew very much of Cunning and Sagacity because the sensitive soul is easily accustomed to every Institution or
it were in a Circle the Throat or Appetite provokes the Sension and the Sension causes the Appetite to be sharpned and iterated this Kind of mutual reciprocation of the Animal Spirits from the Brain to the Sensory and on the contrary persists for some time till the same like â—waving of Water either leisurely vanishes or is obliterated by the exciting of a new waving So indeed Passions and Desires wear out themselves or are consumed by time or they are blotted out by the coming of some other Passion When the Animal Spirits desiring too much a sensible Delight do often and for a long time iterate and intend the Appetite and Act of the pleasurable Sension there is need of Reason to come between whereby they being changed into Sacred and Moral Meditations may be called away from their Carnal Genius which Avocation however they obey not but difficultly and unwillingly for as much as to be expanded and to enjoy pleasing Objects is the Recreation and Food of the Spirits and to be restrained or kept in and very much to be employed about the works of the Mind is to them a Labour and a difficult task CHAP. IX Of the Passions Particularly COncerning the Number of the Passions as it hath been variously disputed among Philosophers so in famous Schools this Division into Eleven Passions long since grew of use to wit the Sensitive Appetite is distinguished into Concupiscible and Irascible to the first are counted commonly six Passions viz. Pleasure and Grief Desire and Aversion Love and Hatred but to the latter five viz. Anger Boldness Fear Hope and Desperation are wont to be attributed But this distribution of the Affections is not only incongruous for that Hope is but ill referred to the Irascible Appetite and Hatred and Aversion seem rather to belong to this than to the Concupiscible But it is also very insufficient because some more noted Affections as Shame Pity Emulation Envy and many others are wholly omitted Wherefore the Ancient Philosophers did determinate the Primary to a certain Number then they placed under their several Kinds very many indefinite Species Truely the Sensitive Soul like a Proteus is wont to be so diversly disturbed and altered into manifold Kinds with the various Flâ—ctuation and divers sorts of Inclination of the Animal Spirits Blood and other Humors that a cense or view of all the Passions can scarce be had But however that these if not all at least the chief of them may be in some measure discovered we will here ordain Pleasure and Grief for the extreams or the opposite bounds of the Inclinations of the Corporeal Soul then we will consider after what manner the Objects belonging to either by what means soever may be applied and what sorts of Impressions they are wont to fix on the Spirits Blood and solid Parts The Corporeal Soul therefore affecting Pleasure as the greatest height of its felicity in which it would acquiesce is moved at the appearance of any Good if it be to come and contrary to opinion by and by for the getting it Desire or Love arises if with Opinion Hope and Boldness if Opinion esteems Fruition hopeless Desperation is raised up if this Good be past or should be lost by our default Shamefacedness or Repentance is brought in if it be possessed by others Emulation and Envy Love is busied about it being taken absolute without respect to time or possession Besides also there are other respects and habitudes of appearing Good able to excite many other Affections with ease In like manner on the contrary side Grief or Trouble is a Sickness of the Sensitive Soul and a Disposition very much ingrateful to it wherefore at all the Objects apparently threatning its Induction the Soul variously Contracts her self and is inclined hither and thither that she might shun the approaches of the threatning Evils wherefore there are so many Affections respecting Grief and Subordinate to it as there are means by which the Sensitive Soul or the Disposition of the Spirits composes her self for the shaking off or the shunning of any Evil. Hatred is busied about Evil taken absolutely that being absent we prosecute with Aversion by and by about to come with Fear and unworthily brought with Anger falling upon our selves we sustain it with sadness inflicted on our Friends with Pity There are besides many other Appearances of approaching Evil for the shuning of which the Soul is compelled into many Metamorphoses and at the same time draws into the like Gestures as it were Mimical the Humors and Members of the Body and oftentimes the Rational Soul it self As it would be a business very tedious and of immense Labour to rehearse all the Kinds of Passions and to unfold them we have designed therefore to speak only of the Chief Species of the Passions with their manner of affecting in respect both of the Body and also of the Superior Soul Love and Hate follow next and as it were at the back of Pleasure and Grief because the Sensitive Soul being greatly prone as hath been said to Pleasure Prosecutes all things apparently Good without respect to Circumstances with an Universal and most ample Affection of Love in like manner shunning Grief or Trouble it hates and detests all things apparently Evil which may seem to induce Evil by any manner of way The Good exciting Love is objected after a twofold manner to wit either to the Sense or the Opinion As to the first Objects which consist of Particles Congruous and Curiously fitted to the Sensory so that they stroke gently the Spirits there flowing and cause them to run and to rejoyce together these bring forth a desirable Sension whose Impression being transmitted by the passage of the Nervous Processes to the Brain by pleasing there in like manner the Spirits stirs them up into a pleasant apprehension of the sensible thing and a desire of it Hence these Spirits inhabiting the Brain for the fruition of this Object try several or manifold Endeavours viz. Some being reflected towards the Sensory desire to cleave more closely and to be united to this Good in the mean time others flowing towards the Breast sometimes dilate and open the Bosoms of the Heart that they may more plentifully receive the Blood imbued with a certain Virtue of the Object and enjoy it and sometimes the Spirits draw together these receptacles of the Heart and drive outwardly the Blood as if about to seek something more largely of Good from the Object with which being filled at last it is received by the heart by and by dilated Further in this Affection of Love concerning the sensible Object if that it be very strong the whole Sensitive Soul or the whole Systasis of the Spirits is inclined towards the beloved thing lifts up to it the whole Nervous System and together with the solid Parts draws and leads the Humours so when we are indulged with a fair Aspect or Melody
quickly about to come but when these seem to be at the Doors the Soul alters her Position and is respectively urged with Hope or Fear Concerning which First it is observed that these Passions do not as the forementioned proceed equally from the Sense and the Imagination but are founded only on Opinion from whence after entring into the desire of any thing the Spirits being Solicitous concerning the following of it and as it were depressed when they upon some other Occasion as the Drinking of Wine are a little elevated with the fruition of another pleasing Object and they begin to strengthen Opinion forthwith doubtful desire is changed into a certain Confidence that we hope shortly to possess the desired Good In like manner when as Aversion beholds the absent Evil a long way off the depression of the Spirits places it near and by and by Causes a fear of its being about to come upon them Indeed Hope and Fear are very near of Kin to Desire and Aversion and either of these Symbolical Affections denote only the more near or more remote approach of the same Object As to what appertains to the Provision and Exercise of Hope when we desire greatly any absent Good and that an Opinion arises that we shall shortly obtain it presently the Animal Spirits who first like Soldiers sent before carefully seek after and observe the willed thing forthwith returning towards the Soul bring News of the Coming of its Guest and prepare a Reception for it wherefore the whole Soul is presently brought into an Expectation of its coming all the Doors of the Senses are opened that this Good with all its Train might enter thorow open Gates In the mean time the Spirits inhabiting every Sensory are prepared to go forth to salute this approaching the Imagination doth forestall its Entrance to wit this frames an Idea of the wish'd for and coming Good which it places within its Borders as in a Throne and confers on it Adornments and Splendor borrowed from the Phantasie Moreover the Praecordia are Careful for a part of its Reception for they being actuated with a more full Influx of Spirits send forth the Blood more lively into the Exterior Parts as it were for the meeting of this new Guest hence any one being full of Hope feels in his whole Body a certain Inflation with the Spirit and Heat plentifully poured forth Then if by any accident an occasion of fear or doubting is brought in presently a sudden girding together in the whole with a certain putting down of the Spirits and a sinking of the whole Soul ensues For in the Passion of Fear the Sensitive Soul being first stretched out being struck by the nearness of the approaching Evil and being as it were prickt on every side for as much as she conceiving her self taken by the Enemy cannot fly away into this or that Part she enters into her self and that the Animal Spirits may be pressed together she is Contracted most strictly if the Affection be vehement whil'st the Animal Spirits suddenly go back from the Superficies of the Body they greatly bind up at the same time the Pores and Passages as it were fastning the Doors to shut out the Enemy from this Constriction the Pores of the Skin being drawn inward oftentimes succeeds an erection of the hairs or the hair standing an end then the same Spirits being acted into Confusion they are inhihited from performing the wonted Offices of their Functions and not only want the helps of Reason but sometimes the Locomotive Faculties fail yea by a resolution or loos'ning of the Nerves made in the Bowels oftentimes the Excrements involuntarily flow out Further when the Animal Faculty languishes so much the Motion of the Praecordia is tyred hence the Blood stagnating within the Bosoms of the Heart oftentimes a swonning follows and when therefore it is not carried lively enough into the outward Parts a Coldness and Paleness succeeds in them In a sudden fear we feel a certain stiffness whence 't is commonly said that the Blood is curdled in the Body but this happens because whil'st the Nervous Parts compassing about the Blood-carrying Vessels are suddenly bound together they at the same time repress the Blood from its Excursion and so stop or plainly invert its Circulation In the mid'st of fear lest the Spirits being driven too much into flight the Sensitive Soul should be wholly loosned Reason is wont to interpose something of Hope and so by degrees to lift up the dejected Spirits and to animate them to stay so that this Passion being alleviated by such a remedy may more easily pass over but if by the strong Evil falling on one all means of Hope be cut off then a greater Affection to wit Desperation comes in the place of Fear in which for the most part this Soul yielding her self overcome wholly sinks down and being half dead is drowned in her proper Body as in a Sepulcher of if she retains any strength presently being carried into Confusion all things being turned upside down she Contracts Melancholy or Madness As Desperation follows Fear all helps being cut off so Hope when it is joyned to more and more certain of the same passes in Audaciousness And in this Affection the Sensitive Soul swells up and opposes her self dauntless to any ensuing Evil wherefore the Spirits Guardian by a more strong Connexion of themselves every where extend the Muscles and strengthen them by a more full Inspiration to the bearing or resisting any thing hence the Breast being inlarged and then strongly bound together a bigger Voice is sent forth the Fists being Contracted the Arms lifted up the Head erected the Face grim and threatning the Neck swollen and the rising up or the stretchings forth of other Parts shew the Animal Spirits in the whole Body unfolded and prepared for Battel as if about to enter into Conflict In the mean time the Praecordia being moved most strongly by a more full influx of the same Spirits notably rarifie the Blood and like Lightning send it forth impetuously and drive it into the outward Parts Anger is of some Kin to Boldness in which the Sensitive Soul by reason of the Evil unworthily brought to it at the same time is made sad and grows hot wherefore as she Contracts her self by reason of Sadness so presently girding her self for Revenge she is dilated therefore as here divers Contractions come together this Passion is performed with a mighty Perturbation of Spirits and of the Blood for those affected at the beginning wax Pale by and by they are overspread with Red the Forehead is wrinkled the Lips quiver the Tongue murmurs the Countenance is sometimes cast down sometimes lifted up and threatning but the Praecordia are especially agitated with a notable heat and boyling up of the Blood which kind of Various and sometimes Contrary Symptoms may easily be resolved to wit that the Soul at
once conceiving Sadness and Indignation like the Sea working with opposite winds has Floods excited from every Coast and striking one against another among themselves Besides the Eleven Affections even now recited and unfolded according to the Vulgar Opinion there remains some others excited according to the other manifold Affections and Gestures of the Corporeal Soul the chief of which are Pity and Envy Glory or Boasting and Shame which however are very near related to the afore recited or are Composed out of them For Pity is made out of Love and Sadness by reason of the Evils of a Friend On the contrary Envy out of Hatred and Sorrow by reason of the Good things of an Enemy Glory or Boasting is a certain kind of Joy and Exultation conceived by reason of an Opinion of our Good had from others and Shame is a certain Sadness and Consternation of the Soul by reason of an Opinion of our ills conceived by others Further Concerning this Passion 't is observable that when the Corporeal Soul being abashed is enforced to repress its Compass she notwithstanding being desirous as it were to hide this Affection drives forth outwardly the Blood and stirs up a redness in the Cheeks to wit the Sensitive part of the Soul as it were hiding its head puts before her self a Portion of the Vital or the Bloody Soul under whose wings somewhat stretched forth the Confusion might be hid Besides we take notice that the Corporeal Soul is not only affected by Objects and their Impressions and compelled into various Gestures and the aforesaid Passions but besides she hath certain innate Dispositions by reason of which by the mere instinct of Nature without any Influence of the Object she puts forth her self and is excited into certain Emanations or Spontaneous forces Of which sort are first an amplification or inlarging the Individual Person and then a Propagation of its Kind It is Natural for every Animal without example or teaching to seek for and swallow down its food both that the Body may be daily increased to its due Magnitude and also that the Soul being daily supplied with a new Score of Spirits may be co-extended to the Body and be able lively to perform the Acts of her Functions Then as soon as the Lineamenâ—s both of the Body and Soul being sufficiently drawn forth and the Bulk and Compass of either are Compleated some Animal Spirits flowing over from the work of the Individual begin to abound and then being separated into the Genital Parts with a subtil Humor picked from the whole Body destinated for the Propagating the Species as it were in a Store-house and there layed up they form there the Idea of a new Animal which afterward is transferred into a convenient Womb to be perfectly formed When the Seeds of a new Animal are so lay'd the whole Corporeal Soul is drawn with all its Powers into this work of Propagating the Species more than of the Conserving of the Individual wherefore the Blood supplies the Testicles no less than the Brain with a most subtil and noble Matter for the store of Animal Spirits and when after too great Expence the Spirits are deficient in them that presently the loss may be made up oftentimes the Brain and Nerves are defrauded of their due Pension and are suffered to languish that in the mean time the Blood may pour forth more plentifully spirituous Particles into the Spermatic Vessels Yea it is thought that it doth sometimes snatch the Animal Spirits from the Brain it self which it bestows on the Genitals in the Act of Venery For it appears so when by immoderate Venery the Brain presently labours with a want of Spirits for as much as from thence there is no passage for them to the Spermatick Vessels but by the Blood if that the Animal Spirits superabound with a Prolifick Humour Swelling up within the Genital Parts presently the whole Corporeal Soul as it were incited to the begetting of a young one is inclined to Concupiscence or Lust The Incentives of Lust even against the Mind are sought for and they are lay'd hold on however brought by any Sense the Blood boils up the Marrow in the Back grows hot the Eyes are inflamed the Genitals are inflated so that there wants little unless Reason coming between recalls her and Prohibits her from the Beastliness of it but that the whole Corporeal Soul on every occasion should be dissolved in Lust. In these kind of Affections of Concupiscence may be most clearly discerned the distinct Strivings and contrary Endeavours of two Souls because whil'st the Corporeal Soul being incited to Lust inclines her self wholly towards the Genital Members and Compels thither greater floods of the Blood and greater store of the Animal Spirits the Heart and Brain being left wanting of Provision on the contrary the Superior Mind rising up and shewing the Commands of Reason and Religion shews a receipt to the other and Commands that the Animal Spirits return to their tasks to be performed within the Brain and also that the raging Blood should be recalled towards the Praecordia and being there suppressed might be restrained from disorderly Excursions Hence the flame of Lust being re-extinct for a time and the Powers of the Inferior Soul being reduced into Order the Acts of Sobriety Prudence and of other Science and Discipline may be exercised but if the reins of Reason be let loose or new incentives of Lust are brought the Corporeal Soul shaking off the yoak snatches her self again to the like Enormities There remain yet some other Affections of the Corporeal Soul as Sleep and Watching Grief and Pleasure excited in private Members which for as much as they respect not the whole Soul at once but this or that Portion of the Body or Peculiar Powers of it and chiefly the Sensitive or Locomotive therefore we shall handle these anon and shall next proceed to the Sense and its Kinds CHAP. X. Of the Sense in General THe Vital or Flamy part of the Corporeal Soul being rooted in the Blood seems not much to know or perceive what things are offer'd outwardly to or acted inwardly in the Body So althâ— the Blood have life yet 't is scarce sensible or knowing for this which ought to be always employed with a perpetual Motion and even inkindling for the Offices for the sustaining of Life cannot be at leisure to mind any smaller Matters or outward Accidents Indeed great Passions also in some measure disturb the Blood and pervert and variously drive it from its wonted Course and like violent Blasts shake not only the Leaves or Body of the Tree but also sometimes pull up the Roots out of the Earth So whatsoever mutations or alterations happen to the Blood proceed either from the Complexion of its Liquor being changed or from the impulse or incitation of the containing Bodies But the other Sensitive part of this Soul which being
The Spirit of Vinegar being poured upon Salt of Tartar and drawn off by distillation becomes insipid Spirit of Vitriol poured upon Quick-silver and drawn off by distillation putting away its acidity acquires a taste like Allum and if we may believe Helmont passes by Coagulation into true Alum Distilled Vinegar impregnated with the solution of Minium or red Lead grows wonderfully sweet 5. The Sower austere or binding or astringent Savour arises in Bodies whose Particles are stuffed with very many little Spears and Hooks which in chewing being rolled upon the Sensory are fixed to it and greatly draw together and pull its Fibres not much unlike as if a Comb which Cards Wool should be drawn up and down upon the hands In substances indued with an austere savour a fixed Salt enwrapped with the Particles of the earthy Element predominates First Bodies naturally austere among Vegetables are the Fruit of the Medlar-Tree of the Dog-Bryer of the Cypress-Tree Flowers of Pomegranat Galls Slows Sumach c. Among Minerals Alum Iron Vitriol Among living Creatures or among their Parts there is not as I remember any austere savour to be met with Secondly Bodies Artificially produced which have an austere sower or rough savour are all made Vitriols to wit the Vitriol of Silver of Steel of Tin of Copper c. The reason of which is because in these Minerals the Saline Particles are very much intangled with Terrene and they continue in the same state when they are drawn forth from their Substances by the soluted Mixtion Spirit of Vitriol being drawn from Mercury by frequent Cohobations acquires a Pontick or Aluminous Savour Thirdly As to the Instances by which an austere sower or rough taste may be taken away out of all Substances it is to be observed that Vitriol of every Kind by long distillation and circulation with the Spirit made of Wine grows sweet and loses its astringent force If waters impregnated with Vitriol be poured into Oil of Tartar there will be precipitated a certain thickish Matter wonderfully sweet Steel Tin or Lead being dissolved in Vinegar and Coagulated by Evaporation go into sweet Salts Further it is a common Experiment If having before tasted Vitriol you take the fume of Tobacco at your Mouth the austere taste at first impressed on the Sense is changed into a plainly honied sweetness the reason of which is because the Sea-salt Particles such as are in Vitriol being mingled with the Sulphureous out of the burnt Tobacco create a sweet Savour from whence also we may Collect that Sugar and Honey are of a Sulphureous-saline Nature which also clearly appears by their distillation for as much as they like Salt Minerals yield an Acid and very Corrosive Stagma 6. Of Kin to be the austere is the acerb or sower taste the Particles of whose subject are indued with little Tenters or Hooks or Claws but which are more dull and blunt and with which they strike the Sensory and stop up its little Pores and being once fixed they are not easily removed whence a stupor or numness in the Teeth and Palat is caused not unlike Burdocks which being fixed to the Skin become troublesome and are not easily shaken off In acerb or sower biting Bodies a fluid Salt implicated with an earthy Matter excells First Bodies naturally sower among Vegetables are unripe Fruits as Grapes Pears and Apples and most of all Wildings Crabs or wild Apples thô kept till they are mellow also sower Herbs Among Minerals or Animals there is nothing easily to be met with that has a sower Taste Secondly Bodies that are made sower anew are chiefly Wine and Beer degenerating into a deadness through Age or Thunder also Leaven or Bread too much leavened Broths and Milk-meats if they Contract a settlement and hoariness become sower because in all those Concretes disposed to Corruption the Saline Particles being exalted and tending towards a Flux carry forth also earthy Particles involved with themselves Thirdly As to the taking away of this Taste we have observed That sower Fruits do grow sweet either by the goodness of the Air and Sun in sower Fruits brought to maturity or by the goodness of the Ground or Soil as when wild Apples translated to a good Soil grow sweet the reason of either is because the Spirituous and Sulphureous Particles before subjugated at length Predominate over the Saline If Wine degenerated into deadness is impregnated with new Lees of Tartar it shall recover its Vigor The like happens if a Can of good Wine be poured into a Vessel of sower Beer or Ale Wine growing dead if it be distilled often yields a sweet Spirits and in no less quantity that if the Wine had been in its full strength because the Spirits before subjugated in that Mixture recover their Dominion by distillation Seventhly The sweet savour seems to be made for as much as the Particles of any Body are so figured into soft prickles that they tickle the Sensory with a soft rubbing and from thence stir up a delightful Sense of Pleasure like as if feathers were applyed to the Sides or the Soles of the Feet In these the Saline Principle seems to be associated with Sulphureous and Spirituous and when they are in like manner are carried forth First Those which are naturally sweet are among Vegetables first Sugar and Manna then Cassia ripe Fruits Grapes Raisons some Roots as Parsnips c. Among Animals some ascribe Honey but others more rightly say that is swet out of Plants and gathered by Bees Among Minerals nothing that I know hath naturally a sweet Savour Secondly The things which have a sweet Taste and are made by Art are the Sugar of Lead Salt of Steel Lythargites yea and out of many other Bodies Vinegar extracts a sweet Salt Tasting Vitriol before-hand as was said and then taking a Pipe of Tobacco the smoke grows sweet like Honey In this and in the former instances whil'st the Saline little darts grow to the Sulphureous Particles or Saline of another Kind both of them become more blunt An Alchalisat Spirit and the fixed Salt of any Body being mixed and circulated by a long digestion acquire a sweetness Barley soaked in Water when it begins to sprout and dried with a gentle fire grows exceeding sweet And Wheat in like manner also if being wet it sprouts yields a wonderfully sweet Meal the reason of which is because by that Artifice the Sulphureous and Spirituous Particles overthrown by the Earthy get their Liberty Thirdly There are many Instances by which sweetness is abolished for all sweet things too much boiled grow bitter Sugar or Honey by distillation yield at first an insipid Phlegm then sharp and burning Spirits In the dead Head remaining after distillation is a burning Salt and an insipid Earth and whatever is sweet perishes Further Sugar or Honey being mixed with a great quantity of Common Water and distilled through a Bladder yield a
shake or to contract more near together its Systasis or Constitution so care is taken that a greater company of Spirits yea and a more plentiful flux of Blood are compelled to the principal Parts viz. The Heart and Brain as it were the stays of Life The Animal Spirits of their own accord leap forward to these places as to the two fountains of Life yea and the Blood is more fully heaped up in either for as much as the blood-carrying Vessels being bound together straitly by the Tract of the Nerves drive forward swiftly to these places its Latex and take it away more sparingly from thence therefore whil'st an occasion is offer'd of Weeping presently the Bosoms of the Heart with the whole Neighborhood swell up and are hugely inflated by the Blood there heaped together and for as much as it is suffused with abundance of Serum very much boiling hence both the Lungs are stuffed up that they can yield but a sobbing respiration and the Diaphragma that it might give place to their swelling is depressed lower with a stronger and more often repeated Systole which is the Cause of Sobbing in the mean time for as much as the Air is hardly blown into the Windpipe the Lungs and the Diaphragma being so distended and at last hardly returned that mournful sound in Crying or Lamenting is effected The parts of the Face and Mouth composed into a mournful Aspect aptly answer to this Affection of the Praecordia the reason of which we have shewed elsewhere because the Nerves which Contract the Praecordia are intimate Relations and rejoyce in a mutual Sympathy with those which pathetically Compose the Face in Laughing and Weeping But whil'st these things are acted in the Praecordia and Countenance the business is carried no less tumultuously in the Brain for here the Spirits being acted in Confusion all things are upside down and the Brain by the too great influx of the Blood is in danger to be either overturned or drowned which that it might not come to pass and that madness follow not upon any Passion the Nerves binding about the Truncks of the Arteries in many places bind them strongly and so repress the flowing of the Blood and its Liquor being at first notably rarified is thickned suddenly and as it were melted wherefore its Serosities running forth like a Flood are disposed into the Kirnels of the Eye destinated for this business by Nature Then because these Kirnels are pulled by the Pathetick Nerves which are of the same stock with those of the Face and Praecordia and are strictly bound together the serous Humors by reason of these Passions of the Mind being imbibed by the Kirnels of the Eye are as it were stroked out from thence and so distil in showers of Tears From hence a reason may be had why Tears are wont to break forth in some after a sudden Joy because in great Joy joyned with admiration the sensitive Soul enlarges it self very much and diffuses most amply its Systasis or Constitution then as it were fearing a Dissolution it again Contracts it self wherefore in such an Affection the Blood flowing forth plentifully into the Brain blows up all the Vessels and by reason of its fulness distends them then after its Channel being thus intumefied the same Vessels being presently bound hard together suffers a Flux and as it were growing liquid plentifully deposes its Serosities into the aforesaid Kirnels There remains another Consideration about Weeping why Men or Man Kind only or chiefly in bewailing are wont to weep or to shed tears even for the same reason which is given for Man's being a visible Creature makes him fit for Weeping To wit Man is more fitly made for all Affections and chiefly for the conceiving of Joy and Sadness than Brute Animals and as he is a sociable Creature he ought to Communicate those sociable things some signs naturally implanted in him to wit Laughing and Weeping But as to the Organs which perform these Kind of Affections we have elsewhere observed that there happens in Man otherways than in Brutes a wonderful consent between the Praecordia and the parts of the Mouth and Face by reason of the Conformation of the intercostal Nerve so that as soon as sadness possesses the Breast presently the Aspect of the Face corresponds with the same Perturbation Thus much for the Kirnels of the Eye and their Use and Action Among the intrinsecal Parts of this Member next follow the Muscles concerning which there is scarcely any thing rare to be met with or that has not been already taken notice of by others It is obvious for any to conceive that so many Muscles ought to be constituted as there are Kinds of spreading abroad by which this Globe may be moved as it hangs within the Compass of the Bone for this is made after a fourfold way or manner to wit on that side and this side upward and downward and two ways obliquely viz. By bringing it about both towards the outward and inward corner For these several Kinds of Motions are constituted so many distinct Muscles which are found almost in all perfect Animals and are easily seen in the dissection Four strait Muscles are inserted into the Cardinal spaces of the Eye to wit the Muscle lifting it up and pressing it down its Zenith and Nadir and drawing to and putting from as it were possessing the opposite points of the Horizon to wit East and West the oblique Muscles compass it about like a Sphear towards the Exterior and the Interior corner I pass by here that the Muscles of the Eye do change their Names according to the Passions of which they are Marks wherefore that lifting up is called Superb or Proud because that in Pride it holds the Eye elate or lifted up which however is more true of the Eye-lid and that Muscle deserves rather the Name of Holy and Devout because it greatly lifts up the Eye in strong Prayer wherefore it is the manner of Hypocrites who affect the Habit of Sanctity so to role the Eyes about that they hide the Pupil of the Eye and turn up the white to be seen The depressing Muscle by its action shews the mark of an humble abject and often of a Pious Mind also that drawing inward may not be improperly called Drunken because Drunkards drawing their Eyes towards the inward corner are wont to look asquint and when one Eye is drawn in more than the other for that by this means the Pole of the Sight is varied they behold things as if they were double I knew a young Man obnoxious to the Palsie when the drawing in Muscle was strongly drawn the other Muscles of the left Eye being loose by reason of the Eye being thus distorted every object appeared double nor could he distinguish the true one The Muscle drawing from or outward may be well enough called the Indignator to wit because in such an Affection we bend our Eyes outwardly with
both these benefits requisit for the Spirits to wit their sedation and refreshment are granted and almost only to Animals in Sleep For althô in Waking pleasant sensible Objects do something please the Spirits and that the nourishing Liquor supplied from Aliments newly received in may something cherish them yet a fuller refreshment and quieting by which they are sufficiently fortified for the lively performing the Animal Functions are not obtained but in Sleep for then the Spirits being at leisure for some time from Motion get to themselves new stores and in the mean time the Brain like a dry Sponge imbibing most greedily the nutritious Liquor takes it for Provision for it self which after a little space it dispenses to the several Parts both of its proper Regiment and also of its Appendix yea plenty of the Spirits and their food being somewhat exhausted the Brain as it were another Stomach seems to be hungry after Sleep greatly to desire it and not to be satisfied unless it daily enjoys it and that in its wonted measure for in the space of every Night there is a certain Necessity of Sleeping for so many hours as we have formerly accustomed our selves to if at other times as after Eating an evil Custom indulges Sleep we afterwards more hardly want it than our Dinner for the privation of due Sleep or what often accustomed to is as it were a fasting to the Brain by which if long affected that and its Nervous Appendix languish as it were for hunger Therefore for the taking of Sleep by which the Brain may be filled with the Nutricious Humor and the Spirits wearied or exhausted by Motion may be refreshed a certain Law of Nature or Necessity is incumbent upon us and calls it upon us oftentimes against our Minds But this kind of Disposition being innate to most Animals and chiefly to Man whose Spirits are most of all employed is the Final or Procatartick or more remote Cause of Sleep but its formal or Conjunct Cause consists in these two things viz. in the Vacation or Rest of the Spirits and in the Irrigation or watering the Parts containing them by which as common to either Affection a relaxation follows from a Tensity or Inflation of the Brain and Nervous Parts As to the evident Causes or occasions by which Sleep is wont to be introduced first we must distinguish concerning Sleep That it is either Natural or Ordinary which every one enjoys daily for so many set hours and its accession and duration depends upon either Conjunct Cause existing together in Act viz. at the same time the Spirits remitting their tasks sink down and the nourishing Humour flows into the Brain then this being sufficiently watered and they refreshed Waking returns Or Sleep is not Natural or Extraordinary which for some occasions follows in an undue measure and inconvenient time Concerning preternatural Sleep we shall speak more properly of it in another place when we shall treat of Soporiferous or Sleepy Diseases But as to the Non-natural we have observed that it is of a double Kind according to the Complication of the Conjunct Cause For either the Spirits first lye down and so the Brain imbibes more copiously the apposite Liquor or first the Brain is too much moistned with Humor and so the Spirits being as it were drowned are forced from their watches For when the Blood every where washes the Cortex of the Brain by almost innumerable Ramifications of Vessels a certain spirituous Water from these bloody Rivulets always stands at the Door and is ready to be instilled into the Medullar Substance of the Brain which for as much as it is copiously received within presently overwhelms the Spirits and obstructs their passages and so Sleep being call'd upon every Animal Function ceases for a time yet lest this should be too frequently and untimely done the Animal Spirits so long as they are lively and active inflate the Substance of the Brain and keep it extended so that the Spirituous Liquor which is also Soporiferous is not admitted but only in a small quantity such as may suffice for the exciting of Sleep But if either the Spirits being weary lye down of their own accord or are compelled by the boyling Blood coming impetuously to the borders of the Brain to give place to it the aforesaid Liquor rushing in on heaps produces almost invincible Sleep Wherefore according to which either the Animal Spirits open the doors of the Brain of their own accord or the Nervous Liquor besieging them impetuously breaks thorow The Prophases or evident Causes of Sleep are of this or that rank there are many Kindes of both of these and ways of being done the chief of which we shall briefly touch upon First In the first place therefore there are many Causes for which the Animal Spirits begin of their own accord to keep Holy-day among which the force or power of Custom obtains the chief place For when we have accustomed our selves to Sleep at certain set hours the Spirits about the same time as it were dismissing the force of their Motion leaving presently all work and External Commerce retire inward and indulge themselves with Rest The reason of which is because the sensitive Soul for as much as it is void of all Science and proper direction determinates this or that thing to be done by outward Accidents and Circumstances wherefore the Animal Spirits in what path they are once led unless they be hinder'd will repeat to an hair their former tracts Hence it is that we both Sleep and also Awake at set and wonted hours also we expect and hardly can pass by the same times of Dinner and Supper So solemn the manner of Nature is to do the same thing which it did before and till being taught new things it is the manner of its Government constantly and exactly to observe the old An Example of this Kind of Natural assiduity is admirable which was told me for certain of a Fool living some years in our Neighborhood who thô he were silly and foolish yet did he know exactly without any sign the interspaces of the Hours and as often as the space of an whole Hour was elapsed as if he had been a living Clock he would presently personate the like Number of the Hour with so many hoarse founds and no business or employ about any other occupation could make him omit this Task He at the beginning was wont to imitate aloud by making a noise every stroke of the sounding Clock and as often as he heard the sounding of the Bell of the Clock presently he cry'd One Two Three c. repeating successively the several Pulsations hence it hapned afterwards that the Animal Spirits by daily imitation being accustomed to be stirred up to such a Motion according to the set spaces of Time at length they were able to distinguish the same Periods of their own accord nothing directing as if the sliding
moving Parts and drive them into Motions before accustomed to hence the divers movings of the Body and Members are produced But because the tendency of the Spirits excited is made only outwards and is not at all reflected inwards into the streaked and Callous Bodies therefore for that the Common Sensory nor the Imagination are affected they neither perceive nor remember the Actions they had done If it should be demanded for as much as the Common Sense at this time is stupified or asleep by what instinct the Animal Spirits are determined according to the Impressions of Sensible Things for the performing of local Motions of this or that Kind It may be said That this reciprocation of Sense and Motion depends chiefly upon Custom viz. The Spirits being before accustomed to be ordered after this or that manner and having gotten the Liberty of Action in Sleep compose themselves of their own accord for the performing of their wonted Measures even as when an Harper whil'st he is thinking of some other thing his Fingers being before taught the Nâ—mbers of the Tune exactly strike the Strings with wonderful agility and discretion Therefore the Cause of walking in Sleep seems to consist in this viz. That the Animal Spirits are too fierce and unquiet and will not all lye down together but that some of them more fierce than the rest leap forth of their own accord and enter into Motion like as perhaps one or two Dogs starting out without government leave the company of the rest and fall to Hunting For that Cause also the Spirits so apt to wander and roam about for Excursion obtain their more free spaces in the Oblong Marrow nigh the Nervous Original rather than in the Brain or in its middle or marrowie Part. For it seems that during Sleep the Pores and Passages in the globous frame of the Brain are stuffed up so that the Spirits there like to water frozen are thrust in hard together in the mean time the Substance within the Medullar Processes of the Brain and the Oblong Marrow which lead towards the Nervous Original is more loose and possessed less with an adventitious Humour that the Spirits there being ready for Motion easily make way for themselves to go forth and entring the little heads of the Nerves produce local Motions of which the Common Sense and the Superior Faculties of the Soul are utterly ignorant For such a Disposition of the Brain and its Appendix which inclines to wandring by Night as if it depended upon a certain peculiar Conformation of the Organ is proper to some Men from their Birth nor does it indifferently happen to all Men or is ever contracted by the reason of inordinate Living I have known in a certain Family where both the Father and all his Children were obnoxious to this Affection the Brothers would often run up and down in the Night in their Sleep sometimes meet and lay hold upon one another and so awake one another But others who had not this Evil impress'd upon them from their Birth have fallen into this Distemper without any fore-warning or manifest Occasion Thus much concerning Sleep and by the by of Dreams we have largely handled thus the Nature of it because this Speculation very much Conduces to the illustrating the Affections of the Brain and the Nervous Stock It behoves us next that we consider of the Aurora of Sleep to wit Waking but this may be considered under a twofold respect either First for as much as it succeeds Sleep it is its bound or Secondly according to its proper Essence As to the former we Awake or Sleep is shaken off either because it ends of its own accord or because it is interrupted That it may end of its own accord two things are requisite to wit that the Animal Spirits being enough refreshed rise up of their own accord and return to their wonted watches which indeed they for the most part do at a set-time unless hinder'd Secondly That what ever is superfluous of the serous Humor by whose Embraces the Spirits are bound be evaporated for after Banquetting or often Drinking by which a greater plenty of the serous and spirituous Latex is carried to the Brain we Sleep longer so that there is need that Sleep be longer protracted that it may suffice to spew forth the untamed Wine But Rest is very much interrupted by a violent Sensation to wit some Spirits dwelling about the Extremities of the Nerves being awakned by the impulse of some strong object awake others in the Common Sensory whereby Sensation is performed and then the stroke being further continued all being as it were at a Sign given called to Arms awake suddenly and fall to their watches This kind of troublesom Sensation which awakes the Animal Spirits from Sleep is not only brought in from an outward sensible thing as when a great sound or stroke made on the Flesh shakes off Sleep but sometimes the Nervous Parts are pulled by a sharp Humor Physick Worms and other Internal Distempers and so a Convulsion or Pain arising the Spirits are compelled into Motion and for that reason we are excited from Sleep As often as Sleep is broken off sooner than it ought often yawning and reatching for the most part follows the reason of which is because the Spirits being awakned strive by contracting and extending those Parts to shake off the Dewie Humor not sufficiently evaporated from the Brain and Nervous Parts Further If we are forced to awake before the Spirits are refreshed with their wonted Provision they from thence become dull and heavy and less ready for the exercise of the Animal Function As to the Essence or formal Reason of Waking it consists in the liberty and expansion of the Animal Spirits in the Brain and the whole Nervous Stock For these like standing Souldiers desire to watch both to meet the sensible Object also by reason of their obedience towards the Superior Powers of the Soul so long as they are fit for this work But that the Animal Spirits may be able to perform their watches in a just time and with their whole strength it is required that they should be free without any Impediments to wit that they be not irritated with any gross or otherways Excrementitious Humor nor drowned with a serous heap but that being free from all burthen they might remain ready and still nimble for the swiftest Motions Then Secondly That the Spirits may rightly perform their watches there is need that they should be only intangled in moderate Affairs Being fitted by these Kind of defences they lively accomplish their Task and daily for so many hours continue their Motion like the Wheels of a Clock and then the time being expired they go to Rest of their own accord The End of the First Part. THE SECOND PART PATHOLOGICAL OR Of the DISEASES which belong to the Corporeal Soul and its Subjects viz. The Brain and the Nervous Stock CHAP. I. Of the Headach THE
the change of the Air or the year the great Aspects of the Sun and Moon violent passions and errors in diet she was more cruelly tormented with them But although this Distemper most grievously afflicting this noble Lady above twenty years when I saw her having pitched its tents near the confines of the Brain had so long besieged its regal tower yet it had not taken it for the sick Lady being free from a Vertigo swimming in the Head Convulsive Distempers and any Soporiferous symptom found the chief faculties of her soul sound enough For the obtaining a Cure or rather for a tryal very many Remedies were administred thorow the whole progress of the Disease by the most skilful Physicians both of our own Nation and the prescriptions of others beyond Seas without any success or ease also great Remedies of every kind and form she tryed but still in vain Some years before she had endured from an oyntment of Quicksilver a long and troublesome Salivation so that she ran the hazard of her life Afterwards twice a Cure was attempted though in vain by a Flux at the Mouth from a Mercurial Powder which the noted Emperick Charles Hues ordinarily gave with the like success with the rest she tryed the Baths and the Spaw-waters almost of every kind and nature she admitted of frequent Blood-letting and also once the opening of an Artery she had also made about her several Issues sometimes in the hinder part of her Head and sometimes in the forepart and in other parts She also took the Air of several Countries besides her own native Air she went into Ireland and into France There was no kind of Medicines both Cephalicks Antiscorbuticks Hysterical all famous Specificks which she took not both from the Learned and the unlearned from Quacks and old Women and yet notwithstanding she professed that she had received from no Remedy or method of Curing any thing of Cure or Ease but that the contumacious and rebellious Disease refused to be tamed being deaf to the charms of every Medicine Further this so long possessing the out-parts of the Head though it could not invade the cloysters of the Brain yet when I visited her unfolding its ends in some other parts of the nervous kind it had begun to stir up most cruel pains in her members and also in her Loins and bottom of her Belly as is wont to be in the Rheumatism and in the Scorbutick Colick If we should inquire into the Aetiology or the Causes of this inveterate Disease we can suspect nothing less than that the Meninges of the Brain being from the beginning more lightly touched had afterwards contracted an habitual and indelible vice It appears by the History that the distemper at first arose from a Morbific matter which was translated into the Head after an ill cured Feavour Then perchance by reason of some hurt brought to the Membranes the tone of the Fibres was so much endamaged that afterwards the Humors flowing in them both the nervous and others being heaped up to a fulness or growing hot by mere aggravation raised up the fits of the Headach But at length the diseased cause growing worse by reason of the frequent fits it seems that the unity of those Fibres were so much broken that from thence little Tumors or Scirrhous knots or swellings being riased up in all the exterior Meninge or in a great part of it produced pains almost continual and those apt to be made worse or imbitter'd upon every light occassion Certainly it seems most likely that the invincible and permanent cause of so long and yet not deadly Headach proceeds from some such thing viz. a Scirrhous Distemper of the Dura mater the Pia mater being in the mean time safe For from any other cause if there had beee a conflict of Nature and Medicine with the Disease either a quick death or a joyful victory had far sooner been obtained A noted Gentleman of about forty years of Age strong and healthy going a journey for a whole day in a continual rain the wet beating on the hinder part of his Head caught cold and the next day he began to feel a pain in that part which in a short time after becoming very bitter afflicted him night and day and kept him almost continually without sleep For the Cure of this Distemper Phlebotomy Purging Glisters Blisterings and Remedies to cause rest yea and many others of every kind though diligently applyed by the Counsel also of many Physicians helpt little or nothing When the Disease notwithstanding these grew every day worse after a fortnights time preternatural swell'd kernels and painful arose all about his Neck the pain in his Head nothing remitting Further the Tendons of his Neck being very much distended and stiff became very troublesome to him to which in a short time succeeded Convulsive motions and a sudden leaping of the Tendons in several parts with a delirium and at length the sick person worn out with pains and watching yielded to death Though we had not leave for the dissecting the dead body yet it may be suspected that both the Pericranium and the Meninges in the hinder part of the Head cloathing the Cerebel where they are more thick and very nappy were first affected and then from thence the evil was afterwards communicated to the whole Head and wandered into all the nervous stock when as in those Membranes transpiration was hindred from the cold and the wet and also the tone of the Fibres very much hurt it is probable that the nervous Liquor watering them being then hindred in its motion and stagnating did burthen the containing bodies then that being depraved in its Complexion grew hot with other humors flowing thither and being at length coagulated with them grew together into Scirrhous and Strumous Tumors and so laid the copious seed-plot of a most grievous Headach Then afterwards when through watching and perpetual pains a great inordination of the Spirits and a great Discrasie of the Juice watering the Head were produced for that reason the knotty Concretions in the Neck the stifness of the Tendons and at length Convulsions and Convulsive Motions followed in the Brain and in the whole nervous Stock and so when as the animal oeconomy or regiment was much decayed and that the motion of the Praecordia could not be continued the vital flame expired Sometimes deadly and incurable Headaches are no less raised up from a fiery swelling and Imposthum than from these kind of knots and little pimples of the Meninges Sometime since a young man of the University whenas he had complained for a fortnight of a most grievous pain in the Head incessantly afflicting him it was at length increased by a Feavour and afterwads waking Convulsive motions and talking idly followed at which time a Physician being sent for letting blood Clysters Plasters Revulsives Blistrings also internal Remedies which call away the Flux of the Blood and Humors
discoursed concerning the former of these we shewed that the essence of Sleep did consist in the corporeal souls withdrawing it self by little and little and contracting the sphere of its irradiation left destitute and as it were shut forth of doors the outmost compass of the Brain or its shelly part and so the exterior and all the organs of sense and motion from the emanation of the spirits so that they for refreshment sake being called inward lye down and give themselves to rest in the mean time the Pores and passages of the outward part of the Brain being free and empty from the excursions of the spirits are prepared for the coming of the nervous Liquor stilled forth from the Blood for a new provision of Spirits In accustomed and natural Sleep these two causes conspire and happen together as it were out of a certain mutual compact of Nature viz. at the same time the Spirits give place the nervous Humor enters but in unnatural sleep or that which is extraordinary sometimes this cause and sometimes that is the former for the Spirits being wearied or called away first withdraw themselves and so offer an entrance to the nervous humor heaped up before the doors or else the nervous humor driving to those places more plentifully and as it were making its way by force repels the Spirits and entring into their passages does as it were drown them we have particularly assigned the various occasions of either of these and after what manner they come to pass Concerning the eclipse or desect of the Memory we need not speak much here because it is wholely from the same cause as immoderate Sleep to wit the exclusion and an interdiction for a time of the passing up and down of the Animal Spirits from the exterior passages of the Brain full of some humor Preternatural Sleep or an insatiable sleepiness which is the chief symptom in the Lethargy and sleepy Diseases seems to arise wholely from the same causes as non-natural Sleep carried forth only with greater force or energy to wit either the Animal Spirits being first distemper'd leave the outward compass of the Brain and give an entrance not only to the nervous but to the serous and some other vicious Humor or else the superfluous and excrementitious humors together with the nervous break thorow the cortical doors of the Brain and as it were overflowing its Pores and passages drive thence and repel the Spirits sometimes this is chiefly the cause sometimes the former and sometimes both together We shall first speak of that which is the more frequent cause of the Lethargy to wit the eruption of either too much or too incongruous humor upon the confines of the Brain and then afterwards of the departure of the Spirits from the affected part I have often found by Anatomical observation that the Lethargy doth arise from the Serous heap rushing into the outward infoldings of the Brain and entering into its Pores and Cortical passages for in many dead of this Disease I found the spaces between the foldings of the Brain full of clear water yea and its outmost substance soft and infirm from too much wet moreover in some I found the interior cavities swelled with water and the whole frame of the Brain overflowed with a Dropsie or rather a flood When therefore in a great and mortal Lethargy it hath appeared that it has been after this manner we may well suspect in a lesser and cureable sleepiness that the out-borders of the Brain are at least too much watered with humor and the tracts of the Spirits overflowed especially if there appear any signs of water or of Serum abounding about other parts of the Head A grievous sleepiness is wont to be excited not only from the Serum being too much or from the over plenty of any other Morbific humor but sometimes from its malignity for it often happens that a certain infestous and virulent matter is instilled from the Flood into the Brain which entering the Pores of the Cortical substance profligates the Spirits and either extinguishing them or driving them away inwards so that this region being left destitute of them a sleepiness and forgetfulness succeeds There is none almost who hath not taken notice that this often happens in malignant and ill handled Feavours also in the Scorbutick Cachexie the Yellow Iaundice and certain other Chronical Diseases oftentimes a sluggish and vapid or tastless water is sent in instead of the subtil and spirituous nervous Juice that is the parent of forgetfulness and of sleepiness This Conjunct Cause of the Lethargy to wit the heaping up of too much Humor or too incongruous within the shelly part of the Brain depends upon other Causes to wit more remote leading causes and also evident causes As to the former they are wont to be in fault both when the Blood supplies the distemper'd part with Morbific matter and also because that the Brain it self too easily admits it For indeed the Blood transfers to the Head in some a great quantity of a watery humor and in others of a salt or scorbutical humor also again in others excrementitious humors and deadly to the animal government sometimes taken from these bowels and sometimes from those and as occasion serves instills them together with the nervous Juice out of the Arteries on the outer borders of the Brain and there by little and little insinuating this kind of Morbific Matter by a long congestion causes a dark cloud or else by a sudden transportation of it overflows at once all the outward part of the Brain and drives away the inhabiting Spirits like a Sea breaking in and compels them to run more inwardly But indeed the Morbific Matter how copiously or infestous soever it be and poured on the Head doth not induce the Lethargic Distemper unless the very weak or vicious constitution of the Brain be also in fault for if this be strong and of good temper it easily resists the assaults of all those yea it bears without hurt the errors and enormities in thâ— six non-naturals Those who have this part too humid or too cold as Children and old Men also those distempered with Cacochymical Humors the Dropsie Scurvy or Humors gathered about the mouth of the Stomach are very prone to sleep and sometimes fall from a stronger Evident Cause into a continual drowsiness Besides those who have a weak Brain and their Pores too lax or open that by that means the feculencies obtruded from the Blood find a more easie passage often become obnoxious to sleepiness yea and to the Lethargy for such as are given to Surfeiting and Drunkenness are wont presently after to fall asleep which weakens the tone of the Brain and fill and too much open its Pores with a crude and filthy Juice so that when it hath been for a long time accustomed by reason of these occasions to admit into them the Serous superfluities it afterwards refuses
nothing brought to it but that its passages like a course or wide strainer suffers all the grosser particles both Saline watery and earthy easily to pass thorow them Besides these more remote leading causes which become the act of the stirred up Morbific there are more strong Evident Causes for so great danger does not hang over the Brain as that its whole compass should be invaded from every morbid provision nor upon every light occasion But there are many and diverse occasions by which the sleepy assaults are seen to be incited the chief of these are great Surfeits Drunkenness especially of Wine or the Drinking immoderately of Strong-waters then after such excess to lye all night or sleep in the open Air further an evacuation of the Serum by otherways after having been long suppressed also if Spaw-waters being drunk in a larger quantity and not again render'd presently by Urine threaten a Lethargy And so also do recrements of other Diseases either not well or not at all Cured being translated to the Head so as a continual sleepiness often happens after acute Feavours or such as continue long and other Chronical Diseases and especially the Headach Frensie Empyema or collection of gross Humors upon the Lungs and the Colick Thus much of the Lethargy whose assault proceeds from the Cortex or shelly part of the Brain being affected to which succeed either an eclipse or an exclusion of the Spirits there inhabiting with a sleepiness and oblivion But as non-natural sleep so sometimes what is preternatural begins from the Spirits being first dejected and which is usual to succeed another Cause It is obvious to any one that this ordinarily happens from more strong Opiates without any previous flood or stopping of the cortical part of the Brain for it is not probable that Narcoticks stir up the Humors and send them to the Brain when it plainly appears that all the effervescences and flowings of these are allayed by them But if it should be asked after what manner and by what means Opiates cause sleep and sometimes a deadly Torpor or sleepiness we say That this Medicine is a certain kind of poison beating down or extinguishing the Animal Spirits by its blasting the Blood and solid parts in the mean time being almost untouch'd Wherefore when the Animal Spirits become raging and as it were struck with madness running hither and thither and will not be quieted and allayed Opiates being administer'd like water flung upon a flame destory some of the outmost bands of them so that the rest being lessened and flying inwards quietly lye down We have at large discoursed of these things in a particular Tract Of the Operations of Medicines on the Humane Body For the present we shall note which is to the purpose that Narcoticks or Medicines causing rest being taken at the mouth do put forth their powers partly in the Ventricle and indeed immediately and partly in the Brain both that and the Mass of Blood mediating By what means Narcoticks do operate whilst in the Ventricle and provoke sleep we have shewn Chap. XV. When they are moderate in either province they gently intoxicate some unquiet Spirits and so immediately quiet the rest but if any one takes Opiates in too large a Dose he shall presently feel hurt both in the Ventricle and in the Brain and a little after being insensible shall suffer a greater evil in either to wit a mighty heaviness and as it were an immoveable weight in the Stomach which seems to opress both it and the neighbouring parts indeed by this sign the Fibres of this place the Spirits which before actuated them being broken become without life and as it were dead then by reason of the Opiate particles being carried about with the Blood to the frame or compass of the Brain and instilled into its Cortical or shelly part the Spirits being driven away from thence or extinguished an irresistable and oftentimes a deadly sleep follows yea I have sometimes known from a more grievous hurt inflicted on the Ventricle only by the use of a more strong Narcotic Death it self to have followed before sleep could creep upon them coming by a long way about A strong man vexed with a most cruel Colick for ease sake whilst a Physician was sent for took rashly a great quantity of Opium a little after he had taken it he complained of a great burthen oppressing and mightily weighing down the Ventricle His Friends and the by-standers gave him Cordial waters Wine and Strong-Waters but without any ease This oppression creeping wider ahout the Precordia raised up pains and swoonings but still being awake and constant in mind he cryed out that his spirits more and more failed him till about three hours after complaining that his sight was gone he presently dyed But that we may return to the Lethargy as it is a Disease and not the effects of Opium whence we digressed concerning which we are yet to enquire whether it may arise from a Narcotick Humor begotten in us as some Chymists assert We shall tell you our conjecture that we think this 't is sufficiently plain that there are other sorts of Morbific particles produced in our Bodies than those commonly called Elementary and Humoral and that they do affect after a various manner viz. besides the Watery Earthly Bilous Phlegmatick or Melancholic we may find others Vitriolick Nitro-sulphureous and others participating of enormous Sulphurs and Salts and active to our evil The Convulsive Pathology can by no other means be delivered and explained unless by supposing that some extraneous little bodies and as it were Nitro-sulphureous which sticking to the Spirits and at last cast off by them stir up the Explosive that is Convulsive force In like manner we may think that others of another nature may perhaps be begotten such as are of a Sulphureous Vitriolick or Narcotick nature which when they creep into the Brain and nervous Stock fall upon some Animal Spirits which they by chance do meet with extinguishing and fixing them ordinarily induce their losses and eclipses such as happen in the Vertigo Apoplexy or Palsie as we shall more fully shew hereafter In like manner in a great fit of the Lethargy though it be improbable that these kind of Narcotick particles should be in heaps derived from the Blood into the Brain in so great a quantity that they should at once overturn the spirits dwelling in its whole precincts and fix them yet we may believe that this may be some part of the Cause Wherefore in every long sleepiness or Lethargick disposition we do suspect the Animal Spirits to be burthened with such a Lethaean Copula and that we should direct the darts of every Medicine against it Thus much concerning the formal reason subject and causes of the Lethargy properly so called the summ of all which is That the Animal Spirits the inhabitants of the exterior Brain being hindred from their wonted
two Beds in one and the same Chamber overwhelmed with a most profound Sleep which had oppressed them the day before after they had eaten some roots which they had dug up in the Garden being it seems Henbane which they took for Parsnips After they had both Oyl and Oxymel poured down their throats and a Feather thrust down a great way that made them vomit I prescribed for them tincture of Castor with a spoonful of Treacle-water which Remedies I had then about me to be given them at every turn all night besides that they should anoint their Nostrils and Temples with the same Tincture and if it might be done that a strong Clyster should be given them the following day the old Man first and afterwards the Son awaking returned to themselves the sleepiness being almost wholely shaken off In these distemper'd after the reliques of the Narcotick were cast out by Vomit left they should do further hurt there was only need that by fit Medicines among which Castor deservedly is esteemed to be contrary to the venom of Opiates the Spirits being excited should be set free from the sleepy poison afflicting them CHAP. IV. Of some other sleepy Distempers viz. a continual Somnolency the Coma or heavy Sleeping and the Caros or a deprivation of the Senses IN the former Chapter we have fully shown what doth belong to the knowledge prognostick and Cure of the Lethargy properly so called But we did not only therefore affirm that the seat of this Disease was in the unequal compass the cranklings or infoldings of the outward part of the Brain because we had there assigned the repository of the Memory and the porch of Sleep although we might from hence conclude it but besides because it hath appeared so to me from Anatomical observations very often that the Lethargy does not arise as is commonly thought from the interior Ventricles of the Brain being distemper'd for we have known these to be frequently overflown with water and sometimes distended with extravasated Blood and yet the sick whilst they lived were free from the Coma or any great stupidity I must confess that sometimes the Dropsie of the whole Brain causes the continual sleepiness but in this case not only the internal Cavity but also the Intersitia or the spaces between the outward Infoldings are filled with a flood of waters The Lethargy therefore being confined to the outmost borders of the Brain we so constitute its limits that those circlings about being almost wholely possessed together with the interspersed Marrow perpetual and inexplicable Sleep or hard to be rid of with oblivion or forgetfulness is induced in the mean time the middle part of the Brain or the Callous body from whence the Animal Spirits irradiate or beam forth into all parts both sensible and motional being almost unhurt for the total eclipse of this causes the Apoplexy as shall be shewed hereafter But indeed on either sides of these ends or limits other soporiferous distempers are ordinarily found which though of kin to the Lethargy yet some of them are lesser than it as Somnolency or continual sleeping and the Coma only one is greater as the Caros Therefore we shall now and in order speak briefly of every one of these as also of some opposite passions viz. thorow waking and the waking Coma and first of Continual Sleepiness Most Authors call this not a Disease but an evil habit or a sleepy disposition for the distemper'd as to other things are well enough they eat and drink well go abroad take care well enough of their domestick affairs yet whilst talking or walking or eating yea their mouths being full of meat they shall nod and unless rouzed up by others fall fast asleep and thus they sleep continually almost not only some days or months but as it is said of Epemenides many years wherefore we ought to believe this a Disease and worthy of Cure which defrauds one of more than half his life The seat of sleepiness as that of the Lethargy is to be placed in the outward part of the Brain but with this difference that the material or conjunct Cause of this Distemper though it vexes or troubles always without doors yet it penetrates less deeply than the Lethargy yea it disturbs or affects almost the whole superficies of the Brain or the mere Cortical substances of the infoldings the included marrow being almost untouch'd in which respect it differs not only from the Lethargy but the Coma also for in the Distempers which we described though continual sleep presses on them yet 't is easily broken off then besides being fully awakened they remember many things and converse with their Friends though immediately prone again to sleep whence it appears that the cause of this Disease sticks only in the outer border of the Brain nor does it enter deep into its compass as other sleepy distempers do But indeed it may be suspected that while the Blood every where washing the border of the Brain with thick rivulets and instils every where into it a subtil water for the matter of Spirits oftentimes a great plenty of water flowing thither with it and entering together the Cortex and remaining there mightily fills it and like an Anasarca in the Body swells it up But this Cortical or shelly part being swelled up after this manner and as it were dropical so presses the Medullary infoldings every where lying under it that the expansion of the Spirits being hindred by reason of the Pores of the exterior part of the Brain being something bound up sleepiness is induced to which it happens that the Blood that by reason of the Cortex of the Brain being intumefied with water as it were between the Skin Circulates less expeditiously thorow all the neighbouring parts and so is apt to fill the Vessels and bosoms and to stagnate in them by which means it comes to pass that the exterior border is yet more compressed and so the spaces requisite for the emanation of the Spirits are also more streightned Indeed this appears to be part of the cause from hence because this kind of sleepiness by reason of the Blood not freely circulating in the Head and therefore apt to stagnate is wont to make red the Face with a certain blueness and blackness Further whilst the subtil Liquor which is for the matter of Spirits passing thorow this pond or deluge heaped together in the Cortex of the Brain goes forward into the Marrow lying under it is probable that with it do creep thorow some extraneous and as it were very small Narcotick particles which growing to the Spirits immediately render them torpid or stupid and prone to sloth of their own accord This Distemper as I have observed in many is not very dangerous for as it often happens it is wholely Cured or at least remaining for many years without the Carus or Apoplexy which is wont to be feared it doth
good dyet let her take also Morning and Evening a Dose of Cephalick Powder or Electuary drinking after it a draught of Posset drink with the leaves of Sage or Betony or the Roots or Seeds of Poeony boiled in it Let the Infant take twice a day a spoonful of proper Distilled Water Let him have an Issue made in the nape of the Neck and let it lye sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other and rarely or never on its back If a Neck-lace of Coral or little balls of the Seeds or Roots of the male Poeony be worn about the Neck or at the pit of the Stomach it is not altogether useless if that in sleep being often and grievously shaken they are seen to be more dangerously troubled with this Distemper let Blisters be raised in the hinder part of the Neck or behind the Ears also Evening and Morning let there be daily given a Dose of the Powder of Ammoniacum or other proper Dose in a spoonful of Distilled Water or Iulep CHAP. VII Of the Vertigo or a turning round in the Head HAving viewed the exterior compass of either part of the Head and detected the Diseases which beset the sensitive soul about the first beginnings and last springs of the Animal Spirits we shall next descend to the middle part of the Brain where the phantasie and common sense reside and behold what kind of passions these parts are obnoxious to Concerning this in the first place we shall note that sometimes troops or rather mighty armies of Spirits inhabiting these places are affected and sometimes also small handfuls or bands then again many of them are affected together or else only a few at a time or they become Elastick from an heterogeneous Copula and so are compelled into inordinate motions or as it were explosive or shooting off as in the Epileptick fit or suffering an eclipse as in the Apoplexy are deprived of all motion Concerning the former disposition of the Spirits we have formerly treated largely enough and the astonishing Disease we shall handle afterwards But in this place we shall speak of a certain Passion or distemper belonging to these parts viz. the Vertigo in which a certain band or handful of the Spirits are affected and their motions are seen to be partly perverted and partly suppressed Being but little solicitous about the names by which the Vertigo is wont to be known we shall describe the nature or formal reason of it after this manner viz. The Vertigo is an Affection or Distemper in which the visible objects seem to turn round and the sick feel a perturbation or confusion of the Animal Spirits in the Brain that they do not rightly flow into the Nerves Wherefore the visive and the loco-motive faculties do often in some measure fail that those labouring with it fall and oftentimes are covered with darkness In this fit it is observed that the imagination and the common sense are in a manner deceived whilst they believe the quiet objects to be moved but the rational judgment remains for we understand our error and we presently ascribe this fallacy to the inordination of the Animal Spirits for that we plainly know that the spirits flowing within the Brain do decline from their wonted irradiation or beaming forth and do not rightly perform the offices of motion and sensation during the fit That we may find out the Morbific Cause and the preternatural manner of the Vertigo we shall inquire after what manner this same affection or Distemper how extempory or sudden soever it be is wont to be excited from non-natural things for men ordinarily become Vertiginous or have a turning in their head with a long turning round of the body looking down from an high place passing over Bridges Sailing and by Drunkenness and many other ways It will be worth our while to consider a little further the means of affecting by which these exterior actions stir up this turning or rolling about from whence it will the better appear what kind of intrinsick causes â—ay be able to excite this passion In the first place therefore when men are foâ—â—ome time turned about both in that motion all things seem to be turned about and also they ceasing from turning about that still continues in the phantasie so that the affected oftentimes fall to the ground further though they shut their eyes they still perceive as it were a turning round like the turning about of a Mill in the Brain The reason of these is not that the deception of the sight is first brought to the eyes and afterwards continued for some time because this affection is caused by the turning round of the body whether they look with or shut their eyes But indeed the cause of this apparition wholly depends upon the fluid substance of the animal spirits For that the spirits flowing within the Brain are even like to water or a thick heap of Vapors included in a Phial which being shaken round about together with the Vessel and made so to turn about continues for a time that motion though the Vessel stands still in like manner also when the body of a man is turned round about the spirits inhabiting the Brain from that turning about of the Head like the containing Vessel are agitated into spiral or round motions and when therefore they cannot irradiate the Nerves with their wonted influx and direct beams from hence oftentimes a Scotomy or dizzness and a failing of the feet together with a rotation or whirling about of visible objects are induced The visible Hemisphere seems to turn round because as the sensible impression is received by the means of the recipient so the objects as the spirits seem to be moved round about Secondly looking from on high and passing over Bridges stir up a Vertigo or giddiness in the Head for that there is a terror cast on the imagination from unaccustomed objects as also from the site of the body or going in danger whence that being very solicitous how it should rightly order and more firmly direct the spirits into the bodies of the Nerves calls them back into the middle part of the Brain and so perverts them from their wonted afflux and irradiation and whilst it indeavours to set their battel in better array and to direct them more surely by too great a care drives them into a certain confusion and irregular motion Wherefore 't is observed that drunken men and very bold because they are not careful or solicitous concerning the guiding of the animal spirits suffer no such thing Sailing or riding in a Coach causes a turning in the Head by the like reason as the turning round of the Body because the very fluid spirits being too much agitated like water shaken in a Glass leap hither and thither disorderly Further it is wholly for the same reason why many going by Ship or by Coach are subject also to cruel Vomiting to wit because the spirits being snatched
own accord many have been of the opinion that the cause of this Disease most commonly lyes hid in the stomach but it is much otherways and as we have elsewhere shewed Vomiting frequently follows upon the Spirits being disturbed in the Brain But that Vomits help much in this Disease the reason is because this kind of Physick causes a great revulsion of the humors from the Brain and very much restrains the Spirits tumultuating in it When the Membranes and Fibres of the Ventricle and Viscera planted nigh them are pulled various humors viz. the nervous serous watery pancratick and cholerick are drawn into those parts and so squeesed forth so that the Head being freed from their flowing to it doth easily shake off from it many impacted there before then as to the Animal Spirits we have shewed somewhere that there is a most intimate commerce and agreement between those inhabiting the stomach and those dwelling in the Brain to wit that therefore the grateful or ingrateful affection of the Ventricle from things taken into it might bring rejoycing or dejection to the Spirits dwelling in the Brain Opiates whilst they lye in the stomach cause sleep in like manner it doth not a little help in the Vertigo and other Cephalick Diseases whereby the Spirits of the Brain wandring up and down and agitated enormously may be repressed and returned into order if their Companions or Kindred be striken down by the working of the Medicine because whilst many are called forth from the Brain to their assistance the others remaining remitting their disorders resume their wonted offices or functions without doubt it is for this reason chiefly Emeticks bring so often help in the Distemper of madness so that Empericks do almost only use them 2. But to return from our digression let us consider what is to be done for the Curing of an inveterate and almost continual Vertigo out of the fit Therefore first a method being instituted concerning bleeding and purging according to the constitution and strength of the Patient and after rest to be repeated let a Vomit also by my advice be taken once a month if nothing to the contrary hinders it for which end let there be given to the weaker after the stomach is filled with slippery Meats Wine and Oxymel of Squils to about two or three ounces and after it let a great quantity of Posset-drink be drunk with Carduus boiled in it that the Patient may vomit of himself or by provocation To others may be given an Emetick of the Salt of Vitriol or the Sulphur of Antimony or of the infusion of Crocus Metallorum as concerning Issues Blisterings the bleeding at the Hemorrhoidal Veins Plasters or quilted Caps to be worn upon the Head or other Topicks to be applied to the soals of the Feet or to the wrists for revulsion or derivation sake let the Physician deliberate Take of the Conserve of the Flowers â—f the male Poeony fix ounces of the Powder of its Root one ounce of the Seeds of Poeony powder'd two drams of Amber Coral Pearls powder'd of each two drams and a half of the Salt of Coral one dram of the Syrup of Coral what will suffice to make an Electuary the Dose is one dram and an half or two drams Evening and Morning drinking after it of the following distilled water three ounces Take of the fresh leaves of Misleto six handfuls of the root of the male Poeony and of Angellico each one pound and an half of the whitest dung of the Peacock two pound of Cardamoms bruised two ounces of Castâ—r three drams all being cut small and mixt together pour to them eight pints either of White Wine or Whey made of it Let them be distilled in fit Stills and the whole liquor mixed together Take of the Powder of the Root of the male Poeony half an ounce of red Coral prepared of Species Diambrae each one dram and a half of the Powder of the Flowers of the male Poeony fresh bruised and dryed in the Sun one dram make a Powder to which add of the whitest Sugar dissolved in the water of Poeony and boiled to the consistence of Tablets ten ounces of this make Lozenges according to art each weighing half a dram eat one or two of them often in a day Because all things are not convenient to all Men and that the Physician ought to try diverse Medicines and institute various methods and to try now this now that therefore we shall here add some other forms of another kind Take of our Syrup of Steel six ounces and drink a spoonful of it in the Morning and at five in the Evening with the distilled water but now described or any other Cephalick to the quantity of three ounces or take of our Tincture of Steel from fifteen to twenty drops in a draught of the same distilled water twice in a day I have known this to have given notable help to many Let there be given daily after the same manner Doses sometimes of the Spirit of Sut Harts-born or of Sal Armoniack impregnated with Coral Amber or the Skull of a Man or of the Tincture of Antimony Amber or Coral Take of the Powder of the Root of the male Poeony one ounce and an half of the Seeds of Poeony Coral prepared and of the whitest Amber each three drams of Pearls prepared of the Powder of the Flowers of the male Poeony fresh bruised and dryed in the Sun of each two drams of Sugar-Candy one ounce make a Powder and take one dram twice in a day with a draught of Tea or Coffee or a Decoction of Sage or Rosemary For poor people may be prescribed Powder of the leaves of the Apple-tree Misleto dryed in the Sun and powder'd to the quantity of a dram to be taken twice in a day Or take of the whitest Peacocks dung six ounces of the Powder of the Flowers of the male Poeony one ounce of Sugar two ounces make a Powder of which let them take a spoonful twice in a day in some convenient liquor Let those troubled with the Vertigo drink for their ordinary drink small Ale with leaves of the Orchard Misleto boiled in it instead of Hops and in the Vessel holding about four gallons let a little bag be hanged in which put half a pint of Peacocks dung and three drams of Cloves bruised Examples of those labouring with the Vertigo are so frequently met withal and almost daily that there seems no need to add here any but however that the image or type of this Disease may be known I shall only mention some few and more rare cases A Divine about sixty years of age after he had been troubled for about three months with a light Vertigo or as it were a frequent coruscation or brandishing of the Spirits in the fore part of the Head at length the Disease growing worse he became ready to fall and with a darkness before his eyes
of them should be stopped or pressed together at once yet the blood being admitted to the Head by the passage of one Artery only either the Carotid or the Vertebral it would presently pass thorow all those parts both exterior and interior which indeed we have sufficiently proved by an experiment for that Ink being squirted in the trunk of one Vessel quickly filled all the sanguiferous passages and every where stained the Brain it self I once opened the dead carcase of one wasted away in which the right Arteries both the Carotid and the Vertebral within the Skull were become bony and impervious and did shut forth the blood from that side notwithstanding the sick person was not troubled with the astonishing Disease wherefore it may be doubted whether the blood excluded from the Brain by reason of some Arteries being obstructed or compressed doth bring forth this Disease Certainly there is more of danger that the cause of the Apoplexy should be from its too great incursion and extravasation within the Brain as it was in the three Apoplectick people cited by the Author and that not only because the marrowie substance of the Brain was deprived of the Blood coming to its use for such a defect might have been supplied by the other Vessels extending their branches every where but rather because by the extravasated Blood and not seldom being concreted into an hard and mighty bulk the marrow of the Brain is pressed together the passages of the Spirits being by that means shut up But indeed though we deny this to the afflux of the blood into the Brain being hindred in any part only yet it may be granted to its total exclusion for therefore we have often noted a want of all motion to be caused which Distemper however hath been rarely taken for the astonishing disease but rather is wont to be called a Syncopy or Swooning away or the Hysterical Passion If at any time the motion of the Heart be wholly suppressed presently the Blood being retained without the Brain the Animal Spirits fall down even as the light vanishes when the flame is put out The action of the Heart is stopped or hindred either by reason of the improportionate flowing in of the Blood as in the violent passions of fear or sadness or by reason of the Animal Spirits which serve for its motion being denyed by the Cerebel This we think to happen sometimes because of the Cardiack Nerves being Distemper'd with a Convulsion or otherways bound together after which manner it is usual in Convulsive and Hysterical Passions sometimes for the outward parts as the Arms and Legs and sometimes the Inward to wit the Praecordia and Viscera one after another to be affected but a want of motion follows the inordinations of these in which the sick lie for some time without motion or sense with a small or seldom beating Pulse as if dead Which indeed so seems to come to pass by reason of the Cardiack Nerves being contracted at that time and so the Spirits which were about to flow being suspended though we believe such a want of motion sometimes to be produced by the mere confusion of the Spirits within the Brain but in this case the heart it self is lively enough moved and the Pulse is also strong and landable But besides it seems most likely that the motion of the Heart is ofen suppressed or inhibited by reason of the Animal Spirits destinated to the vital function being suppressed in the fountain it self to wit within the Cerebel We have mentioned this to be done in the Distemper of the Incubus but without doubt it ought to be attributed to this cause for that I have observed in some a failing of the Spirits with a sudden privation of all the Animal functions to follow upon a great weight in the hinder-part of the Head in which the sick become senseless and immoveable with the Pulse and breathing very much lessened and scarce perceivable and lye quite cold for many hours yea oftentimes a day or two more like dead than living persons I have known sometimes those distemper'd to be stiff and cold Pulse and breathing to be thought quite gone and to be indeed esteemed quite dead and put into their Coffin yet after two or three days to have reviv'd again but whoever awakes out of this fit whether it be of short or long continuance does not for that reason fall into a Palsie or half Palsie of one side as those for the most part do who are distemper'd with the Apoplexy Further no doubt but that many die from such a Morbific cause whose death wrongfully hath been ascribed either to the mortal Syncopy or to the Apoplexy properly so called Truly the case afterwards described can only have the like reason given for it Wherefore though it may seem a Paradox yet it is not incongruous to reason that we affirm that there is a twofold Apoplexy one in the Cerebel which we but now described the other seated in the middle of the Brain into the causes of which and the manner of it we shall now inquire But here in the first place we must distinguish concerning the various assault or fit of this Disease to wit forasmuch as sometimes being excited without any previous disposition or Procatarxis from a sudden and solitary cause it is often invincible and for the most part mortal against this there can be no preventive method of healing or preservatories instituted and the Curatory method which is wont to be taken proves very oft ineffectual Or Secondly the Apoplectick fit having an antecedent cause or previous Procatarxis is brought into act by reason of various occasions or evident causes As to what belongs to the blasting or being stricken of the former kind to wit suddenly and unthought of its conjunct or next cause is either a great solution or breach of the unity happening some where within or near the middle of the Brain by reason of which its Pores and passages being obstructed or pressed together the whole emanation of the Spirits is suppressed or else it is an huge and sudden profligation of the Spirits or an extinction of those dwelling in the Brain We shall shew the formal reasons of both of them particularly and the several ways of their being affected Extravasated Blood the breaking of an Imposthum and a great flood of Serous humor plentifully flowing forth are wont to effect the greater breach of the unity within the Brain From Blood effused or extravasated within the Brain and there either growing together in clodders or striking on the affected places doth often times cause mortal Apoplectick fits as I my self have proved by Anatomical inspection in some others besides the instances brought by the famous Webfer but such Morbific extravasations of the Blood within the Brain proceed either from an external cause as a fall from on high or by a blow on the Head or by hitting it
therefore here pass over purposely in this part of the Diseases belonging to the Head and according to our wonted method descend yet lower to the other regions of the Brain and its dependences and now we shall endeavour next to describe the Distempers which belong to the Streaked Bodies Oblong Marrow and also to the Nerves and nervous Fibres We have formerly shewed that these parts do perform all the functions belonging to motion and sense wherefore the failing or the enormities of these are the affections of those Bodies or of the Spirits inhabiting them But indeed sense and motion are hurt chiefly after two manner of ways to wit either is wont to be perverted or hindred when Motion is perverted Cramps and Convulsions when Sense pain arises when either function or both together is hindred or abolished the Distemper is thence stirred up called the Palsie which we are at present about to handle Concerning Convulsion and Pain we have already treated The Palsie is described after this manner to wit That it is a resolution loosening or relaxation of the nervous parts from their due tensity or stiffness by which means Motion and Sense to wit either one only or both together in the whole Body or in some parts cannot be exercised after their due manner The nervous pats are loosened because the Animal Spirits do not sufficiently irradiate them nor blow them up nor actuate them with vigor The cause of which defect is either an obstruction of the ways by which their trajection or passage is hindred or the impotency of the Animal Spirits for that they are distemper'd with a numness or that being but few in number they do not lively enough unfold themselves By reason of these various means of being affected there arise diverse kinds of Palsies For in the first place as to motion by it self this spontaneous faculty which is chiefly and almost only lyable to the Palsie is sometimes taken away in the whole or altogether in some parts but sometimes this being only hindred is lessened or depraved Secondly In like manner also one sense only by it self or more together is sometimes wholly taken away and sometimes only much diminished or vitiated Thirdly Sometimes it happens that both powers are hurt at once We shall speak of each of these in their order and first of the Palsie in which spontaneous motion is abolished which we say is excited from two causes chiefly to wit the ways being obstructed and the Animal Spirits being touched with a numness or as it were with a certain malignant blast As to the former an interception of the Spirits from the loosned parts by reason of their passages being obstructed that always existing above them is wont to be caused in various places and for divers causes but chiefly it happens in the first sensory viz. in the Streaked Bodies or some where about the Medullar Trunks or lastly in the Nerves themselves and so either in their beginnings or middle processes or in their extreme ends i. e. the nervous Fibres When the evil or hurt is brought to the Streaked Bodies or the oblong or spinal Marrow it either obstructs the whole Medullar thread or rope from whence arises an universal Palsie below the distemper'd part or one moiety of it whence comes the Hemiplegia or Palsie of one side or it affects in one side or in both at once the little heads of some Nerves whence loosnings or resolutions are caused in this or that member apart from the others There are many means whereby the ways or passages of the Animal Spirits are obstructed in the aforesaid bodies First Either their passages are filled by an extraneous matter impacted in them Or Secondly They are pressed together by Blood flowing out of the Vessels a Serous deluge or some Tumor lying upon them Or Thirdly and lastly the unity or continuity is broken as by a stroke or wound or bruise also by excess of cold or heat According as these several places are distemper'd and the several means of their being affected we shall run thorow the chief cases of the Palsie together with the Aetiology or reason thereof with the manifold appearances of Symptoms in them and in the first place we will speak of the Palsie arising from an hurt brought to the common Sensory to wit the Streaked Bodies And indeed that it so comes to pass I have proved by ocular inspection and shall be plainly demonstrated anon by Anatomical observation Further as often as an universal or an half Palsie follows as it is often wont to do upon a Lethargy the Carus or Apoplexy any one may conceive that such a change of the Disease happens from a translation of the Morbific matter for that this at length going out of the Pores and passages of the Callous Body which it at first possest and sinking down a little lower runs into the Medullary tracks of one of the Streaked Bodies or perhaps both of them And so when the Animal Spirits are hindred from their wonted out-flowing or irradiation into the nervous Stock the motive faculty only or if the obstruction be very great both this together with the sensitive is hindred I have sometimes observed in a Palsie coming after a grievous fit of some other Disease that all the moving parts of either side have been loosened after a more light manner For though they were not able to perform the more strong motive endeavours yet for the most part they could extend bend yea and move their members hither and thither to wit because the Morbific matter being diffused abroad thorow both the Streaked Bodies had not so closely filled every where all the passages Moreover on the contrary I have known in a Palsie of one side so suddenly excited that there has been a far greater resolution so that they so struck were not able to move any way hand or foot nor any other member on the distemper'd side Further sometimes it happens from the Morbific matter being copiously fallen down and obstructing closely all the Medullary tracts of one of the Streaked Bodies that all the respective parts have not only been destitute of motion but some of them also of sense so that some members felt not any painful impression how vehement so ever it was Such a Distemper happening in a lesser degree is wont to excite a sense of numness or pricking or tingling such as in members lean'd or lain upon If it be demanded why sense is not always hindred as well as motion in every Palsie since as it seems either is performed by the same Nerves and Fibres within the same Medullary tracts so that one faculty is only the inversion of the other as to this we may say that as light beams thorow glass when wind is excluded so also sense being safe oftentimes motion is lost Besides sense is only a passion and a sensible impression which is propagated from the organ by a continuity of
the nervous process to the common sensory without any endeavour or labour of the Spirits which may be done though the common sensory be in some measure obstructed and the Spirits inhabiting it benummed But motion is a difficult and laborious action to which is required that the Spirits expand or stretch out themselves lively and not only put forth as it were explosive endeavours in the moving organs but chiefly about the parts where the beginning of the motion and its first force is and from thence in the whole passage thorow the nervous parts Wherefore as but a few Spirits and bound suffice for sense many free and expeditious as to their expansions are required for motion But that the Morbific matter being slid down into the Streaked Body the Muscles of the Eyes Mouth and Face do still retain their motions it is because that some of them about the beginning of the Spinal Marrow below all the Nerves arising from the oblong Marrow have their place of obstruction I say that it is so because the Nerves destinated to the aforesaid Muscles the motions of which are stirred up by natural instincts and brought from the fifth and sixth pair even as the Nerves serving the Praecordia and Viscera derive chiefly the influences of the Animal Spirits from the Cerebel whose regiment though the Streaked Body be distemper'd remains often unhurt Not only an obstruction of the Streaked Body but also a compression sometimes causes the Palsie as shall be shewed by and by from Anatomical observation to wit when the blood is extravasated and growing cloddery within the inferior cavity of the Brain and perhaps a Serous deluge is there heaped up and doth lie heavily upon the Streaked Body and press it together so that for that reason the Medullary tracts being bound together are hindred from the Spirits flowing into them Next after the Streaked Bodies the seat of the Morbific Cause is in the oblong and spinal Marrow also sometimes in these though rarely an obstruction but more often a compression or a solution of the unity excite the Palsie As to the former it is not probable that great plenty of Morbific matter should be sent from the Brain into this or that part together and in heaps for such a great and sudden flux hardly happens beyond the streaked Bodies But it may be suspected that Narcotick or otherways deadly Particles being forthwith poured forth into the Brain and from thence thrust forth into its appendix doth at first stick within the more narrow spaces of the Medullary Trunk and then by degrees being heaped up causes the Paralytick obstruction whilst these Particles are carried in the Brain here and there in the Callous or Streaked Bodies they stir up frequent Vertigoes and mists before the eyes and sometimes in the motive parts short numnesses but these being by degrees heaped up together within the Trunk of the oblong Marrow or the spinal forasmuch as they possess all or part of its passage and by that means either obstruct all the Pores of the Spirits at once or some ranks or orders of them they bring forth either an half Palsie or a loosening of some members sometimes the superior sometimes the inferior I have observed in many that when the Brain being first indisposed they have been distemper'd with a dullness of mind and forgetfulness and afterwards with a stupidity and foolishness after that have fallen into a Palsie which I often did predict to wit the Morbific matter being by degrees fallen down and at length being heaped up some where within the Medullar Trunk where the Marrowy Tracts are more straitned than in the Streaked Body to a stopping fulness For according as the places obstructed are more or less large so either an universal Palsie or an half Palsie of one side or else some partial resolutions of members happen But in either Marrow and especially the Spinal an interception or inhibition of the Spirits creating a Palsie most often happens from a compression or a breaking of the unity The extravasated Blood or the Corruption flowing from the broken Imposthum and perhaps a Serous deluge being deposited within the hollowness of the Back-bone yea also an hard Tumor being risen somewhere in it by pressing together the marrowy rope shuts up the ways of the Spirits Further either a stroke wound or bruise of the Head or spine yea and a distortion of this latter do often pervert or break off the Marrowy Tracts yea an excess of cold taken in Frost and Snow straitens and stops up the passages of the Spirits Those kind of cases and instances being obvious enough to common observation there will not be any need here to speak of them particularly or to unfold them more largely Thirdly The Morbific cause being sometimes planted lower possesses either the greater Trunks or the lesser shoots of the Nerves themselves and that likewise is either an obstruction or a compression or a breaking of the unity by reason of any of these ways and according to the like means of affecting within the nervous passages as in the marrowy it is wont to be excited The oppilative or stopping Particles being fallen down from the Brain and carried forward into the oblong Marrow enter into the Nerves destinated to the Muscles of some parts of the Face and by obstructing the ways of the Spirits in them bring forth the Palsie in the Tongue and sometimes a loosening in these or those Muscles of the Eyes Eye-lids Lips and of other parts and then by reason of the contrary Muscles being contracted beyond measure they stir up a Cramp or Convulsion in the opposite part Nor is it less usual for the same Particles for that they are fewer to be carried yet further without any great hurt into the Spinal Marrow and lastly going forth from it to run sometimes into the several Trunks of the Nerves and sometimes into some handfuls of them and for that reason to induce the Palsie to the several Muscles or members or in some of them only As often as for this cause the Muscles of one side of the Neck are resolved or loosened the other opposite being too much contracted render the Neck twisted or awry It ordinarily happens by reason of some private Nerves being so obstructed for some Fingers of the Hand or Toes of the Feet to be loosened But if many handfuls of Nerves together happen to be stopped a Palsie follows oftentimes in the whole Arm or Thigh It would be too tedious to mention every case here by which the Nerves are wont to be stopped about their beginnings middle processes or utmost ends to wit the Membranaceous or Musculous Fibres by reason of compression or breaking of the continuity and so deny the exercise of the moving faculty to the respective parts The reasons of these kind of Distempers are so clear and manifest and so commonly known that it would be superfluous to insist on the
have known many Epileptical persons and others troubled with Convulsions by reason of the motive function being abolished or inhibited in this or that part to become at first lame and then Bed-rid the reason of which seems to be because the Morbific matter being continually admitted within the tracts of the Brain and its appendix both medullar and nervous and often thrust forth doth at length so debilitate and dilate them so that it gives an open passage besides to other kind of Particles either Narcotick or Vitriolick by reason of which the Palsie comes after the Convulsion Further I have often observed by reason of the diverse mingling of the Morbific matter like as when Rain and Snow happen together that the sick have at once been infested both with Convulsive motions and the Palsie A notable example of this with the reason of it we have fully described in our Tract of Convulsive Diseases Chap. IX p. 115. 2. They who are frequently and grievously obnoxious to the Colick at length become also Paralytick The case is so frequent here that the succession of this Disease is accounted among its prognosticks for those who are wont to suffer cruel fits of torments in the Belly returning by intervals or are troubled with pains about the Viscera of the Abdomen cruel and almost continual at length have wandring pains in their Body and Members and then afterwards stupors or numness and lastly resolutions or want of motion The cause of these effects proceeds both from the seat of the Disease and the Morbific matter being changed to wit this which being very small but sharp and irritative runs only into the Sphlanchnick Nerves and so by reason of the Fibres of the Viscera being pulled did stir up in them Cramps and pains afterwards becoming more copious and also duller and Narcotick pours down thorow the Spinal Marrow and entering into the Nerves destinated to these or those Members or Muscles brings forth resolutions in the respective parts We shall more largely shew the reason of this when we treat of the Colick It is a very ordinary observation that the Palsie comes upon the Gout frequently in the Members obnoxious to it the reason of it is easily known forasmuch as in this sickness the Morbific matter is twofold and doth depose salt and as it were lixivial Particles thorow the Arteries and as we suppose others sourish or acetosous to come to them by the Nerves as shall be more largely shown hereafter it is no wonder if that at length other sorts of Particles become companions to them by other beaten ways and at length either by filling or by compressing obstruct the very small passages of the Spirits As to what belongs to the evident causes of the Palsie to wit for what fore-causes or occasions those disposed to this Disease contract it the sooner or that having been taken with it already are yet wont to be more grievously tormented I say whatsoever doth more vitiate the Blood also those things that stop up the Brain and its nervous appendix or stir up suffusions of the Morbific matter in it also what do inflict a Narcosis or stupefaction to the Spirits or lessen their numbers may be brought hither In this rank first occur the disorders in the six non-naturals an evil manner of living drinking thin clear Wine or strong hot liquors too much sleep or too untimely an idle and sedentary life immoderate Venus too much loss of blood a moist Air or Marshie dwelling an House new Plastered Metalick fumes and vapors frequent use of Narcoticks or stupefying Medicines or too much taking Tobacco excess of cold heat or moisture vehement and long passions of sadness or fear with many others all which we have not here leasure to recite Thus much concerning the Palsie in which the loco-motive faculty is abolished or lost or very much hindered by reason of the ways of the Spirits being obstructed and themselves affected with a certain stupefaction in the whole or in the respective parts There follows another kind of this Disease depending upon the want and fewness of Spirits in which although motion be not deficient in any part or member wholly yet it is not performed by any but weakly and depravedly only For though the distemper'd are free from want of motion they are not able however to move their members strongly or to bear any weight moreover in every motive indeavour they labour with a trembling of their limbs which is only a defect of debility and of a broken strength in the motive power For when strength is wanting for the lifting up of any member firmly and at one essay or endeavour Nature flagging acts with a more often repeated tryal or endeavour and so the part being in motion is compelled as it were to shake and tremble To which happens that when the nervous Fibres flagging or growing weak they are not able to sustain the Tonick endeavour or the stiffness in the Animal regiment and these endeavouring or striving to exert or put forth their utmost power enter into motions as it were Convulsive and reiterate them perpetually Wherefore in some Paralyticks there is always a trembling and shaking in all the limbs Those who thus become Paralytick by the paucity or want of Spirits and so from their small or diminished dispensation into the nervous System are made obnoxious to such a Distemper by reason of various causes and occasions First Extream or unhealthy old age or immoderate loss of blood or the genital humor induce this kind of Paralytick disposition in many men to wit because from the wasted blood and almost liveless there is stilled forth into the Brain but a very small stock or provision of Animal Spirits Secondly Almost for the same reason the loco-motive faculty grows weak or fails in persons greatly Scorbutick and such as are full of indigested juice for such not being fit for any strong exercise go infirmly and weakly and are very much tired by any long or swift walking further by any more heavy endeavour they suffer often times a numness in their limbs with an impotency of moving them For indeed the bloody Mass is in these very watry and stuft with impurities and for that the Brain being weak and loose as to its Pores admits easily all sorts of filthinesses into it self wherefore fewer Animal Spirits being only created and those not clear and subtil but dull and hindred by the adhesion of a more thick matter although there is not always an obstruction of the ways or a Narcotick disposition they are not able to unfold themselves into motive endeavours Thirdly Not only Scorbutical persons but also many others hardly and long growing well from some Chronical Disease are distemper'd with Members very much loosened from their due vigor and strength and with a languishing of their Limbs that though they are well in their stomach and have a good and laudable Pulse and Urine yet they are
as if they were enervated and cannot stand upright and dare scarce enter upon local motions or if they do cannot perform them long yea some without any notable sickness are for a long time fixed in their Bed as if they were every day about to dye whilst they lye undisturbed talk with their Friends and are chearful but they will not nor dare not move or walk yea they shun all motion as a most horrid thing Without doubt in these although the Animal Spirits do after a manner actuate and irradiate the whole nervous Stock yet their numbers are so small and in so few heaps that when as many spirits ought to be heaped together somewhere in it for motion there is great danger lest presently in the neighbouring parts their continuity should be broken Wherefore when the spirits inhabiting the Brain are conscious of the debility of others disposed in the Members they themselves refuse local motions for that it would be too difficult a task to impose on their companions wherefore the sick are scarce brought by any perswasion to try whether they can go or not Nevertheless those labouring with a want of Spirits who will exercise local motions as well as they can in the morning are able to walk firmly to fling about their Arms hither and thither or to take up any heavy thing before noon the stock of the Spirits being spent which had flowed into the Muscles they are scarce able to move Hand or Foot At this time I have under my charge a prudent and an honest Woman who for many years hath been obnoxious to this sort of spurious Palsie not only in her Members but also in her tongue she for some time can speak freely and readily enough but after she has spoke long or hastily or eagerly she is not able to speak a word but becomes as mute as a Fish nor can she recover the use of her voice under an hour or two In this kind of spurious Palsie arising from the defect or rather the weakness of the Animal Spirits than from their obstruction it may be suspected that not only the Spirits themselves as to their first numbers of them and particular originals are in fault but besides that sometimes the imbecillity and impotency of local motion doth in some measure also depend upon the fault of the explosive Copula suffused every where from the blood into the moving Fibres For indeed from a very Cacochymical blood or full of juice and for that cause vappid and liveless as the Animal Spirits are but few that are instilled into the Brain so it is probable that those themselves derived from the Brain into the Nerves being disposed at length within the muscular Fibres do meet with other Nitro-sulphureous Particles which we have somewhere shown to be necessarily required to the Musculary motion from the so vitious blood that are but dull and degenerate from the Elastick power wherefore indeed the Spirits being concreted so evilly within the Muscles even as Gun-powder being full of more thick feculences rarely and weakly perform the acts of explosions As to what belongs to the other species of the Palsie in which the sensitive faculty is also affected we say that this is hurt either by it self or together with the motive and such an hurt of both together doth almost only happen forasmuch as the passages and ways of the Spirits are more firmly shut up so that whether they tend forward or backward all their irradiation is intercepted That sometimes happens though rarely from the Morbific matter fallen down from the Brain into the oblong Marrow but more often by reason of a grievous hurt of the Spine or Back-bone as from a fall from on high stroke or wound inflicted on them For from such occasions by compressing the marrowy cord or by too much distending or writhing it all the tracts of the Spirits are blotted out Sometimes the sensitive faculty is hurt by it self the motive being still safe this is sufficiently obvious and the reason very clear of the organs whose Nerves are only sensible to wit as of the sight hearing tast and smell But indeed that in the extream habit of the body or members the touch or feeling sometimes perishes the loco-motive power being unhurt as is ordinarily discerned in Lepers those distemper'd with the Elephantiasis and some Mad-men who are wont to go naked and lye on the ground whose skin and musculous flesh are so benumned that they feel not the gashes made in their flesh with a Pen-knife nor Needles any where thrust into them this I say seems very hard to be unfolded But as to this it may be said that perhaps the same Nerves carry the instincts of motions and the impressions of sensible things forward and backward or to and fro but that the same Fibres which are loco-motive are not altogether or chiefly sensible We have elsewhere shewed that its power is performed by the tendinous and musculous Fibres but the sensible Species is almost only received by the membranaceous Fibres wherefore the outer skin is the primary organ of feeling after this the Membranes covering the Muscles and lastly those constituting the Viscera are somewhat affected by the Tangible object Wherefore the loss or hurt of feeling arises by reason of an hurt brought to the exterior Membranes to wit when the Fibres of these are obstructed by a Vitriolick matter or are benummed very much by excess of cold so that the Animal Spirits which ought to receive their impressions are excluded from their organs And indeed from hence it appears that these inhabiting the exterior Membranes are only affected because sense being lost the members wither not as when deprived of motion but remain full and round which is a sign that the Animal Spirits entring still the Nerves and fleshy Fibres do contribute their virtue to the office of nourishment after what manner we have already shewn but when motion is lost the Spirits are almost wholly banished from those parts and the flesh consumes because the nourishing matter though carried thorow the Arteries is not assimulated We have largely discoursed of this in our Treatise of the Nerves The Theory of this many-form'd Disease being now at length finished its kinds and differences all or at least the most and chiefest of it together with the reasons of each of them being rehearsed in order we shall shew next those things which belong to its prognosticks and Cure 1 Every Palsie whether accidental or habitual and either of them whether universal or partial or whether suddenly excited or by degrees if it happens that the knowing and vital faculty be unhurt it ought not to be accounted an acute Disease but being free from sudden danger admits a long Cure or at least an endeavour of it 2. This Disease coming from a solitary evident cause as from a stroke a fall wound c. or coming upon the Apoplexy Carus Convulsion the Colick
or other Distempers of the Brain or nervous System if it be not in a short time altered for the better or gives not place to Medicines it remains for the most part incureable 3. If that a total resolution follows from a total obstruction in the beginning of the oblong Marrow or from the Back-bone being vehemently hurt and that sense and motion are both taken away the Distemper is hardly or scarce at all to be Cured 4. Those who are once cured of a Palsie arising from an evident solitary cause do not so easily relapse into the same as when the Disease depends upon a procatartick cause 5. A Palsie happening to men of years to Cacochymical very Scorbutical and intemperate persons although the Distemper be not very great is difficultly Cured As the Palsies are manifold and are from diverse causes so the Cure is not to be instituted always after one manner but after a various method to wit appropriate to every kind of this Disease For the most part there are these three kinds of it or rather there are three means of healing of which there ought to be had concerning the Cure of this Disease now this now that or now another to wit because resolution whatever or in what place soever it be is either caused 1. from an external accident as a stroke a fall a wound excess of cold or the like suddenly Or 2. It succeeds to some other Distemper as the Apoplexy Carus Colick or a long Feavour Or 3. It is primary and a Disease by it self by degrees excited and depending upon a procatartick cause or a previous provision Concerning each of these we shall speak particularly 1. Therefore when the Palsie is caused by reason of some accident with a vehement hurt there are not many intentions of healing but only that the part hurt may recover its pristine conformation And first of all that the Blood and other humors flowing to it being weak and distemper'd and staying there might not increase the hurt Phlebotomy is most requisite in this case and presently to be celebrated then the belly being made slippery by the use of Clysters and a slender dyet if the matter requires it let there be instituted either easily digested meats or moderate Hydroticks or water meats to wit that whilst the sick is kept in bed he may continue in a gentle sweat that all the superfluities may copiously exhale from the hurt part and that the Spirits being gently agitated may repeat their former ways and tracts within those Pores and passages so unlocked by the warm Effluvia's For this end the Powder ad Casum described in the Augustan Pharmacopoea or as it is in ours is of common use let there be given of Irish Slate to the quantity of about a dram in a draught of white Wine warm'd or of Posset-drink made of it and repeated every six or eight hours Besides if there be at hand the Decoctum Traumaticum let it be taken ever now and then frequently in Posset-drink or a Decoction of the Roots of Madder or of Butter-bur or of St. Iohns-wort Flowers Further in the mean time let the distemper'd part be carefully lookt to which may be easily known partly from the hurt inflicted and partly from the loosened members If there be any thing dislocated in it you must take care that as soon as it can it may be put again in its place if a Tumor Contusion or a wound be excited they are to be succour'd by Balsams Liniments Stuphes or Fomentations or Pultesses But if nothing preternatural appears outwardly let a Plaster of Oxycrocium and of Red-lead each alike what will suffice be laid upon it and let the sick be kept quiet and in a moderate heat for three or four days If the resolution remains confirmed and the afflux of new matter be not feared let more resolving and discussing Remedies be applied to the distemper'd places wherefore make use of Fomentations and hotter Oyntments yea natural Baths if they are at hand or at least artificial Sometimes it may be expedient for the distemper'd Members to be wrapped in Horse-dung or in warm grains and to be kept so for some time and lastly between whiles besides the use of these to add Clysters and gentle Purges But if no help follows these administrations the sick ought then to be handled with the like long method and with the same Remedies as those that have an habitual Palsie or any other coming upon other Diseases and confirmed which means of Cure for every common Palsie more deeply rooted shall be shewed anon 2. When the Palsie coming upon a Feavour Apoplexy Carus or other Cephalick or Convulsive Diseases is greatly and suddenly excited first the Physician ought to endeavour the taking away of the conjunct cause which hath almost ever its seat in the oblong or spinal Marrow Wherefore at the beginning of the Disease Blood-letting and Purging if nothing shews the contrary Clysters Vesicatories Cupping-glasses Sneezing Powders Oyntments and other administrations used in Cephalick Diseases to wit which by any means may shake off or pull away the deadly matter fixed to the Medullary Trunk or to the little heads of the Nerves coming from it are to be made use of If that at first the force of Medicine effects nothing within fifteen or twenty days for that the Distemper is radicated and become habitual it must be expunged by a long method and equally by preservatory as well as curatory Indications of which we shall speak anon 3. The habitual Palsie depending upon a procatartick cause whether it be in fieri or in disposition or whether it be made or in the nest or bird either requires a peculiar means of healing There are two chief causes of the former in both which the Curatory Method respecting only the fore-leading Causes is designed after the like manner to wit whether any falling dangerously ill of the Palsie or growing well of it relapses into danger the same Remedies almost are to be insisted on The intentions therefore of healing are First That the offices of Chilification and of making of Blood be rightly performed and matter for the procreating the Animal Spirits be supplied both laudable and sufficient to the Head then Secondly That the Brain being still firm and well made the heterogeneous Particles being excluded it may admit all that are fitting and rightly exalt then into Animal Spirits For these ends I think convenient to propose the following method which ought to be varied according to the various constitutions of the sick In Spring and Fall that they enter into the ordinary course of Physick yea the whole year besides some Remedis are in constant use Blood-letting is not always convenient to all men But though we forbid this it is not for the same reason with the Ancients supposing the Palsie to be a cold Disease but because the Animal Spirits are both procreated out of the Blood and
become also Elastick in the motional Fibres by reason of the bloody Copula therefore if plenty of this be taken away they grow weak and deficient Which thing indeed I have observed in many and for the most part languishings and tremblings to have been begun in the Arm out of which the blood had been taken However in some indued with a sharp and hot blood and apt to flame forth too much though disposed to the Palsie it is sometimes convenient to let blood a little and sparingly About the Aequinox a Purge ought to be instituted and after due times between to be iterated three or four times But first if nothing oppose let a Vomit be given of the Salt of Vitriol Sulphur of Antimony or an Infusion of Crocus Metallorum or of Mercurius Vitae then let there be taken Pills of Amber or of Aloephanginae by it self or with the Resine of Ialap every seventh or eighth day At other times we prescribe Cephalick Remedies such as in the sleepy Diseases viz. Electuaries Powders Spirits and Volatile Salts Tinctures Elixirs with distilled Waters and Apozems sometimes these sometimes those or others Let Issues be made in the Arm or Leg yea in fat people and such as are full of ill humors in both together or between the shoulders Let them drink all the year medicated Beer of Sage Betony Stechades Sassafrass Wood and Winterines Bark Wine and Women ought to be forbidden or but moderately to be used If that the Palsie be excited after a previous disposition either of one side or in some members and that it still continues notwithstanding the first attempt of Medicine a long and complicated method is always requisite and oftentimes doth not suffice for not only the Disease or its conjunct cause or its foregoing severally but all together ought to be opposed for which ends Phlebotomy being for the most part interdicted only a gentle Purge and rarely is convenient Besides some chief Cephalick Medicines and Antiscorbuticks are wont to help against the foregoing cause of this Disease But all of this sort are not convenient to all yea as we have observed in the Scurvey according to the various Constitutions of the Sick there are also Remedies of a diverse kind and virtue For to Cholerick Paralyticks to wit in whose sharp and hot Blood there is much of Salt and Sulphur and very little of Serum the more hot Medicines and indued with very active Particles are not agreeable yea are often hurtful which things notwithstanding are very profitable to Phlegmatick persons whose Blood is colder and contains much of Serum and but few active Elements Wherefore for this twofold state or condition of sick persons it seems convenenient that we institute here a double Method of Cure and two classes of Medicines of which these may be given to cold Parlyticks and those to the hot In the former case for the taking away the Procatartick cause after Vomiting and Purging being rightly instituted I was wont to prescribe according to these following forms Take of the Conserves of the leaves of the Garden Scurvy-grass of Rocket made with an equal part of Sugar each three ounces of Ginger Candied in India half an ounce of the rinds of Oranges and Lemons Candied each six drams of the Powder of the Claws and Eyes of Crabs each four scruples of the Species of Diambre two drams of Winterens Bark one dram and a half of the Roots of Zedoary the lesser Galingal of Cubebs the Seeds of Water-Cresses Rocket each one dram of the Spirits of Scurvy-grass Laevender each two drams of the Syrup of Candied Ginger what will suffice to make an Electuary Take of it about the quantity of a Walnut at eight of the Clock in the Morning and at five in the Afternoon drinking after it a pint of the following Decoction warm or Coffee with the leaves of Sage boiled in it six ounces of or â—per Wine three ounces Take of the shavings of Lignum Sanctum six ounces of Sarsaparilla and of Sassaphras each four ounces of white and yellow Sanders of the shavings of Ivory of Harts-horn each half an ounce infuse them according to art and boil them in sixteen pints of Spring water till half be consumed adding of Crude Antimony in Powder and tyed in a rag four ounces of the Root of the Aromatick Reed of the lesser Galingal each half an ounce of the Florentine Iris one ounce of Cardamums six drams of Coriander Seeds half an ounce six Dates make a Decoction to be used for ordinary drink Going to sleep and first in the morning let a Dose of the Spirits of Sut or Harts-horn or of Armoniacal Amber or of Blood c. be taken with three ounces of the following distilled water Take of the leaves or roots of Aron one pound of the leaves of Garden Scurvey-grass of the greater Rocket of Rosemary Sage Savory Thyme four handfuls of the Flowers of Lavender three handfuls the outer rinds of ten Oranges and six Lemons of Winterans Bark three ounces of the roots of the lesser Galingal of Calamus Aromaticus the Florentine Iris each two ounces of Cubebs Cloves Nutmegs each two ounces all being cut and bruised pour to them of white Wine and of Brunswick Beer or Mum each four pints distil it in common Stills and let all the liquor be mixed together Sometimes in the place of the Electuary may be taken for fifteen or twenty days a Dose of the Tincture of Sulphur Turpentined of the Tincture of Antimony or of Amber Also sometimes Elixir Proprietatis or of Poeony let them be taken in a spoonful of distilled Water drinking after it three ounces of the same Also sometimes the following Powders or Lozenges may be taken by turns in the medical course Take of the Powder of Vipers flesh of Monpillier prepared one ounce of the hearts and livers of the same half an ounce of Species Diambre two ounces make a Powder take one dram once or twice a day with the distilled Water three ounces or with Viper Wine with a Decoction of the leaves of Sage of the root and seeds of the Burdock and the Candied roots of Eringo made of Spring-water what will suffice and boiled to one moiety six or eight ounces in the Morning warm expecting to sweat after it Take of Bezoartick Mineral Solar half an ounce of Cloves powdered two drams mingle them make a Powder and divide it into twelve parts let one be taken after the same manner twice in a day between these kind of Remedies gentle purging may be often used Take of the Powder of the picked roots of Zedoary the lesser Galingal each half a dram of Species Diambre one dram of the Powder of the seeds of Mustard Rocket Scurvygrass Water-Cresses each half a dram make of them all a fine Powder add to it of the Oyl of the purest Amber half a dram and with white Sugar dissolved
in the compounded Poeony water and boiled up to the consistency of Lozenges six ounces make Lozenges according to art weighing each half a dram Eat of them three or four twice in a day drinking after every Dose of the liquors before mentioned Take of the Powder of Virginian Snakeweed two drams of the lesseâ— Galingal one dram of the gummed extracts of the remains of the distillation of the Elixir Vitae of Quercitan two drams of the Flowers of Sal Armoniack or the most pure Volatile Salt of Sut or Harts-horn one dram of the Balsom of Peru one scruple of the Balsom of Capivus what will suffice to make a mass let it be made into small Pills involved in the Species Diambre The Dose is half a dram evening or morning Take of the Resine or Gum of Guaicum three drams of the Species Diambre one dram of the Chymical Oyl of Guaicum rightly rectified one dram and a half of liquid Amber what will suffice to make a mass let it be formed into Pills to be taken after the same manner If that the Palsie happens in a Cholerick temper or to a young Man it admits only of milder Medicines and all the more hot things and Elastick do but imbitter the Disease The following forms are in use for the taking away of its foregoing cause Take of the Conserves of the Flowers of Betony of Fumitory of Primroses each two ounces of the Species Diambre one dram of Ivory Crabs Eyes and Claws each four scruples of the Powder of the Flowers of Poeony two drams of Lignum Aloes of yellow Sanders each one dram of the Salt of Wormwood one dram and a half and with the Syrup of the Flowers of Poeony what will suffice make an Electuary The Dose is two drams twice in a day drinking after it either the simple water of the Flowers of Aron or of the following Compounded Water three ounces or of the Decoction of Sage with the leaves of Tea infused in it four or six ounces Take of the Roots of Aron or Cuckopint of the male Poeony Angelica Imperatoria each half a pound of the Flowers of Sage Rosemary Marjoram Brooklime Water-Cresses each four handfuls of the rinds of six Oranges and four Lemons of Primroses Cowslips Marigold flowers each three handfuls let them be all bruised and cut and pour to them of new Milk six pints of Malaga Wine one quart distil them in common Stils and let the whole liquor be mixed together Sometimes instead of the Electuary may be taken between whiles for fourteen or fifteen days of the Syrup of Steel of which let one spoonful be taken in three ounces of the distilled Water It may be made after this manner Take of the whitest Sugar dissolved in black Cherry Water and boil'd up to a consistency eight ounces adding to it of our Steel in Powder three drams let them be stirred together over the fire and then by degrees pour to it of the Water of Rosemary warm twelve ounces let it boil gently for a quarter of an hour scumming it and pouring it forth warm thorow an hair sieve or strainer There may be also made steeled Lozenges after this manner to wit with Sugar sufficiently boiled with Steel adding of the Chymical Oyl of Amber or of Rosemary half a dram and presently let it be poured forth that it may flow into a consistency of Lozenges The Dose is two drams twice in a day drinking after it of distilled Water or of the following Apozem six ounces Take of China Root one ounce of the shavings of Ivory Harts-born each half an ounce of white and yellow Sanders of the Wood of the Mastick-tree each half an ounce let them be infused in warm water and close stopt for a whole night six pints in the morning add to them of the Roots of Chervil of sweet smelling Avens of Broom and Parsley each one ounce and a half of the dryed leaves of ground Ivy Sage Germander Betony each one handful of Coriander seeds three drams let them be boiled till half is consumed then add to it of white Wine half a pint and strain it into a jugg upon the leaves of Water-Cresses bruised two handful Let it infuse warm and close shut for two hours strain it again and keep it in a close Vessel well stopt In the Scorbutick Palsie the Juices and expressions of Herbs do often bring notable help Take of the leaves of Brooklime Water-Cresses and Plantan fresh gathered each four handfuls bruise them together and pour to them of the distilled Water but now described eight ounces squeese the juice strongly forth and keep it in a glass and take of it twice or thrice in a day three or four ounces At the extream Physical hours viz. Morning and Evening may be taken these following Pills Take of Millipedes prepared three drams and a half of Pearls one dram and a half of the Root of the Cretick Dittany one dram Venice Turpentine what will suffice to make a mass let it be formed into small Pills the Dose is half a dram drinking after it a draught of the distilled Water For ordinary drink let there be prescribed either a Bochet of Sarse China yellow Sanders c. or small Ale with the dryed leaves of ground Ivy boiled in it and of Sage with the Wood of Sassafras infused therein 2. Whilst these things are doing for the taking away the foregoing cause of the Disease there is no less a curatory care required for its conjunct cause to wit that all obstructed places being opened they might admit the Animal Spirits free from stupefaction and that they may pass freely thorow There are two chief kinds of Remedies which conduce to those ends viz. one particular and private to be applied to the distemper'd places to wit that by Fomentations Oyntments Plasters and such like outward applications the sleepy Spirits might be awakned and their passages opened the other universal to wit that the Blood and Spirits and the other humors and the active Particles flowing in the whole Body being very much agitated and put into a rapit motion like a torrent they might cast down and remove all impacted heaps or stays by which the Spirits are obstructed The administrations used to the distempered parts are so ordinarily and commonly known that it were superfluous to insist here on the describing them more largely First Liniments made out of Oyls Oyntments and Balsoms are to be applied according to the temper of the Patient more or less hot and with frictions or strong rubbing twice a day Sometimes before these are made use of Fomentations made of Cephalick Herbs or spices boiled in Spring Water adding to it sometimes Strong Waters Wine or Bear or their Lees. Further oftentimes it is convenient to make about the distemper'd places Blisters and to use Cupping-glasses and Medicines to take away the hairs and to raise pimples Little Bags and Plasters often help Moreover
swelled up with too much heat or being pregnant with an invenomed matter is the parent of the Delirium forasmuch as it insinuates into the Pores and passages of the Brain either fierce and untameable particles or such as are malignant and deadly to the Animal regiment First As to the first in the fits of intermitting and in the height of continual Feavours the blood growing hot by an immoderate burning sometimes stirs up the Delirium by the mere force of its Ebullition or boiling up to wit for that it swelling up very much whilst it passes thorow the small shoots of the Arteries every where diffused thorow the outward compass of the Brain it very much blows them up and distends them and so pressing together the substance of the Brain variously drives in the Spirits and as it were compells them into very confused troops Moreover from the blood so swelling up with a frothy rarefaction the Effluvia's of heat and with them heterogeneous particles entring into the Pores and passages of the Brain agitate the Spirits and tumultuously snatch them hither and thither Secondly Almost for the like reason Drunkenness a deep Sleep or a Delirium is brought in to wit forasmuch as the bloody mass doth insinuate the spirituous particles of the Wine by which it grows hot into the Pores and passages of the Brain by which the Spirits dwelling in them are either plainly overturned or are moved into inordinate and confused motions For that the untameable little Bodies of Wine or Beer plentifully drunk open the shut places of any Brain how sound and firm soever it be and penetrating deeply into the Marrowy passages disturb and plainly overturn the Acts both of reason and of the imagination Thirdly The blood suggesting not only feavourish and turgid or vinous and untameable particles but sometimes malignant and as it were venomous to the Animal regiment stirs up a Delirium either with or without a Feavour As to the former in the Plague Small Pox malignant Feavours although the heat be but moderate the malignant matter being translated to the Brain because it dissipates a great company of Spirits rather than that it drives them into tumults brings forth abrupt incoherent and at length distracted notions For the like reason also some intoxicating and venomous things taken inwardly and as some affirm outwardly applied quickly cause a Delirium This is commonly reported of the furious night-shade Mandrakes and some other plants as for the roots of wild Parsnips the thing is very well known A certain intimate friend of mine told me and he was a Man that might be credited and also very learned That he entring into the House of a certain Gentleman found the Mistress of the Family her Daughters and all her Maids excepting one become all at once Delirious and speaking absurd and incongruous speeches run up and down and leaped about the House and for that he plainly thought them all mad he learnt of the sober Maid who had her reason and was her self that all that had happened from their eating of Parsnips which she had not tasted Which indeed the event shewed to be true for after they had tired themselves and fallen to sleep they all at length awakned sober We have not here leasure to examine whether this or other kinds of intoxicating things infestous rather to the animal government than the vital do communicate to the Brain their evil by the passage only of the Blood or also in some measure by a contact of the spirits residing in the Ventricle But moreover we advertise you that sometimes a Delirium is excited from a want and great dissipation of the Animal Spirits because their series or orders being kroken off and drawn one from another like as if they were tumultuarily heaped together cause confused and incongruous notions Hence it is observed that some have become Delirious by great Haemorrhagies or long watchings and excessive want of Food for this reason many are wont to die delirious and talking idly There remains the other kind of Delirium in which the Blood being faultless the Animal Spirits flowing some where in the nervous flock first enter into disorder then the same affection creeping thorow the nervous passages to the Brain stirs up the Spirits inhabiting its middle part into a Delirium This is sufficiently obvious in the passions that are called Hysterical to wit after a swelling up of the Belly and an oppression of the Heart doth succeed sometimes a lying speechless sometimes a talking idly with weeping and laughing In like manner I have observed in a most cruel Colick that sometimes after great torments about the Bowels and the Loins they have fallen into a Delirium then a little after this ceasing the torments have returned I knew a young Maid as we have somewhere else mentioned from the taking of an Emerick Potion whilst it worked was wont constantly to fall into a Delirium I have also often noted that a Gangrene beginning in some external member has caused a Delirium And this in a Wound or Ulcer is ordinarily noted for a mortal sign because it denotes the Animal Spirits in the distemper'd part to be slain Nor doth this symptom coming upon those who are long sick and almost worn out give any better prognostick in the fits of intermitting Feavours it is almost ever safe but in continual Feavours dubious and of something a suspected event in malignant it more often fore-speaks evil in Convulsive Diseases the first assaults of a Delirium for the most part are free from danger but yet its frequent coming frequently turns that disposition into a Carus Apoplexy or Palsie This Distemper as often as it is seen to be safe enough requires not a Cure for the fit quickly and easily passes over yet because some who have a loose and weak Brain and the Animal Spirits too easily dissipable and apt to flight and confusion being disturbed by any light occasion are wont presently to grow Delirious and to talk idly therefore there is need of Medicine for these not only of Hellebore but also Cephalick Remedies which may strengthen the Brain and fortifie it against the incursions of the Morbific matter also which may fortifie the Animal Spirits and render them more fixt and strong for resisting We have above described the forms of these kind of Medicines and their manner of administration which are profitable for the taking away the foregoing cause of any other Cephalick Disease A Delirium coming upon continual and malignant Feavours requires a peculiar was of healing for in the first place it shews the morbific matter dangerously translated towards the Head and therefore ought to he called back from thence by any means for which end may be laid Plasters that draw blisters to the hinder part of the Neck other Plasters or Pultisses or the flesh of living Creatures or their warm bowels to the feet inwardly may be taken temperate Cephalicks
into passions of sadness fear anger or hatred so that they resist not the incursions of the extraneous matter and more readily conceive a burning themselves The evident causes of the Phrensie are either more remote viz. whatever things are wont to excite a Feavourish intemperance as Surfeits Drunkenness a very vehement disturbance of either body or mind usual evacuations being suppressed with many others or more near as a Feavour and its dependences and adjuncts to wit if it be pestilential malignant or after an evil manner if it arises by reason of a Surfeit taken from very incongruous Meats or Drink or if it succeeds violent passions as of Love hatred envie indignation or sadness or immoderate studies for these kind of occasions render the Blood and Animal Spirits growing Feavourishly hot very propense to the frantick Distemper Since that this Disease depends rather and more immediately upon the Soul than upon the Humors or solid parts being distemper'd its kinds and differences are neither various nor manifold In respect of magnitude the Phrensie is either great or moderate also continual or intermitting to wit according as the Animal Spirits are more or less inflamed and as they receive the food of their burning continually from the Blood or by turns Secondly As the burning begins only in the Brain or together with it in the Cerebel it is commonly distinguished into the Phrensie or the Paraphrenesis which is as much as to say that either the spontaneous Animal Functions are only or chiefly hurt or else together with them the vital also But this Disease as to the Feavour on which it depends hath its nature and manner malignant or free from malignity also according to the temper of the sick the Phrensie is distinguished into Sanguineous Cholerick Phlegmatick or Melancholick and this not improperly for the Animal Spirits are wont to grow hot and burning after a diverse manner in this Disease according to their various dispositions The Prognostick in this Disease is always doubtful and the event is to be instituted with an evil suspicion For the Phrensie of it self as Trallianus says is a most acute and most dangerous Disease then if it comes upon a Pestilential or malignant Feavour or of some other evil kind we cannot but expect the end of it to be mortal If a Phrensie happens in a sound body well habited of a Sanguine temperament and young there is greater hopes of health than if it were sickly aged lean or Cholerick and obnoxious to violent Passions If the Phrensie remitting by frequent turns have lucid intervals it is better than if the fury should be undiscontinued But if the sick sometimes seem to be better yet after moderate sleep to awake always furious it is a sign that the Disease is pertinacious and for that reason dangerous for that a new stock of incentive matter is from thence carried to the Brain which indeed we have elsewhere shewn to be made far more plentifully in sleep than waking A Phrensie is in a short time terminated with the Feavour either in health or death or else it is protracted and remains after the Feavour or at length it is healed or passes into other Diseases to wit the Lethargy or Madness or Melancholy If the Feavour having a laudable Crisis either by Sweat or great quantity of Urine is fully cured for the most part the Phrensie also ceases but if the Feavour be not cured and carries still the Morbific matter to the Head so that besides the Animal Functions being depraved the vital begin to fail which appears by the Pulse and breathing being altered for the worse if the Urine be pale if that frequent bleeding at the Nose if Vomiting and Convulsion happen the Physician concludes death to be at hand Sometimes a Feavour though it be not at once or fully Cured yet passing away afterwards slowly and by degrees leaves a Phrensie or a talking idly behind it which if it doth not by its stay obliterate the former tracts of the Spirits in the Brain either will end by little and little of its own accord or is to be healed by the help of Remedies If that by reason of the Phrensie being long protracted the Meninges or the Cortex of the Brain be possessed from the Blood or Serum there heaped up and stagnating with an inflamed tumor or a serous deluge the Lethargy or sleepy Diseases follow the Cure of which is often very difficult or not at all But if from a long Phrensie either the Animal Spirits though their burning should cease contract a vicious nature or that the passages and Pores of the Brain are perverted a perpetual raving oftentimes succeeds the former Disease passing into Madness or Melancholy or foolishness or stupidity Wherefore it is vulgarly said of those that are Frantick and not soon Cured that their Brains are crack'd or broken so that after that they are always Mad or raving In the Cure of the Phrensie we ought to respect at once the Feavour and the Fury The Feavourish burning of the Blood or its immoderate growing hot which for the most part is the antecedent cause of the other effect ought in the first place to be appeased and allayed and the Animal Spirits to be cherished and freed from any great burning If the Phrensie happens about the beginning of the Feavour or the middle of it the same Remedies in a manner and the same method or curing conduce to either end But if this Distemper comes upon this whilst it is at a stand or at its height the means of Curing are oftentimes repugnant to either and there is need of great caution lest whilst we endeavour to help one Disease we do not increase the other in this case the vital indication concerning the preserving of strength obtains the first place and the taking away of blood or purging is not to be rashly and copiously celebrated In the former case when the Feavour and the Phrensie are almost both of an age Phlebotomy rarely or never is to be omitted but is presently to be performed and if strength will bear it let it be afterwards repeated For nothing depresses and diminishes the immoderate flame of the blood like to this Remedy and nothing more averts or recals its burning from the Animal regiment Wherefore if the matter requires it let a vein be opened sometimes in the Arm or Hand sometimes in the Leg or Foot and sometimes in the Neck or forehead perhaps sometimes it may be expedient to open the temporal Artery yea also to take away blood in other places by Leeches and sometimes by Cupping-Glasses For this gives the chiefest help and according to Galen is the most powerful and principal Remedy and is wont to fulfil very many indications in a Phrensie But for the prevention of the Feavourish matter being carried from the Bowels into the Head Clyters are of chief use with which if need be let the Belly be continually kept slippery Vomiting
Medicines and Purging unless very gentle have very rarely any place here Cataplasms of Rue Chamomel Vervine Bryony Roots red Poppies with Sope may be laid all over the Feet or instead of them may be applied Pigeons or Chickens cut up and laid warm In the mean time as you see occasion there ought to be prescribed Iuleps Apozems Powders and Confections by which the rage of the Blood and the burning of the Animal Spirits may be allayed Take of Pipin Water Black Cherry Water and Cowslip Water each four ounces Water of the whole Citrons two ounces of Pearl powder'd one dram of Syrup of the juice of Citron one ounce mingle them and make a Iulep let three ounces be taken three or four times in a day Take of Grass Roots of the Leaves of Wood-Sorrel and Pimpernel each one handful of Barly half an ounce of Apples cut of Currans or Strawberries or Rasberries one handful let them be boiled in four pints of spring-water till a third part be consumed clarifie it and strain it then add to it of the Syrup of Violets one ounce and of Sal Prunella a dram and a half Take of the Leaves of Borage fresh gathered and young four handfuls of Wood-Sorrel two handfuls two Apples sliced of Sal Prunella two drams the pulp of one Orange of white Sugar one ounce let them be bruised together and pour to them of spring-water two or three pints let them be strongly squeezed forth and kept in a Glass and cleared from its setling let six or seven ounces be taken of this often in a day when they will For the quenching of thirst let the excellent drink of Palmerus viz. Spring-water with Sugar and the juice of Lemons or Water or Posset-drink with Elm leaves or Pimpernel infused or boiled in it be drunk Emulsions of the Decoction of the roots and flowers of Water-Lilies with Melon-seeds or else Spring-water distilled with the pulp of boiled Apples dissolved in it Hypnoticks or Medicines causing rest are often very necessary in this Disease but yet the stronger are not convenient in the beginning nor let them be frequently used because sleep caused by Opiates carries more morbific matter to the Brain and fixes it more deeply there Take of the Water of Cowslip flowers four ounces of the Syrup of Poppies half an ounce of Pearl one scruple make a drink to be taken at night late Take of the Seeds of white Poppy two drams of Sugar-Candy a dram and a half bruise them together and pour to them of white Poppy Water six ounces make an expression to be taken after the same manner Narcoticks or Stupefying Medicines which are made of things meerly cold are cautiously to be exhibited because they agree not with some who have the Fibres of their Stomach very tender and sensible I have often observed these kind of Hypnoticks to have stirred up a great oppression in the Ventricle and then presently an Inflation or blowing of it up and a little after distractions and inordinations of Spirits use to follow in the Brain yea in the whole Body so that there was not only a frustration of sleep but great disquietness was stirred up Take of liquid Luadanum prepared with the Salt of Tartar or the juice of Quinces Let a Dose of it be taken in a convenient liquor Things inviting Sleep as Epithems or moist Medicines applied to the Temples and Forehead are often used with success of which sort are Rose-cakes dipt in Vinegar Rose-water and grated Nutmeg and Embrocation or washing with Water or Milk Oyntments of Oyl of Nutmeg by expression Oyntment of Poplar to which sometimes may be added of Opium five or six grains or a Cake of Poppy flowers with Vinegar and Nutmeg c. Further for this end rather than for the taking away the inflammation of the Meninges the hot Lungs of a Lamb or Weather as also Pigeons or Chickins slit in two do often give notable help Also for this use Housleek bruised and mixt with a Womans Milk and applied to the hinder part of the Head being shaved is wonderfully praised Also the Epithem of Penotus of twelve grains of Nutmeg of Camphir half a scruple and the Tincture of Rose-water impregnated with red Sanders twenty ounces is commended by some Further they are wont to apply Epithens not only to the Head but also to the Heart Liver and other parts A little bag of silk may be applied to the Praecordia with Cardiac Species being sewed or quilted in it with silk and sprinkled with Rose-water or Vinegar of Roses also rags wet in Rose Vinegar may be laid to the Testicles The Feet way be hathed with a Decoction of Willow leaves Lettice or the heads of white Poppy But these kind of cooling Topicks only and cherishers are to be used in the beginning of the Disease but in its height resolves and softners are to be added as the Flowers of Chamomel Melilot Elder c. also the leaves of Mallows Orage Marjoram Hysop and such like In the declining of the Disease resolvers only and those sparingly are to be administred In the mean time there ought to be great means used for keeping up of strenght for that too much failing all hopes of Cure is lost For strength is quickly worn out by reason of great watchings the perpetual agitations both of the body and mind a thin Dyet and Phlebotomy sometimes often requisite Wherefore great care must be had lest whilst we endeavour to root out the Disease by Purging or frequent letting of Blood we should suddenly debilitate the Vital Function If this begins to fail the Phrensie being let alone a better dyet may be granted and especially Cordialls are to be used Take of the Tincture of Coral half an ounce take of it twenty drops twice or thrice in a day with a Dose of a Cephalick or a Cordial Iulep or let it be given with Coral dissolved in Milk made with the juice of Oranges one spoonful often in a day Take of the Rob or Conserves of Rasberries and Barberies one ounce of prepared Pearl of Magistery of Coral each one dram of Confection of Hyacinthae two drams Syrup of the juice of Alchermes what will suffice make a Confection and let the quantity of a Nutmeg be taken three or four times a day drinking after it of the following Iulep three ounces Take of the Water of the Flowers of Water-Lilies red Roses and of Elm leaves each three ounces of the Syrup of Coral two ounces of the Cordial Water of Saxony one dram mingle them Take of the Conserves of the Flowers of Water-Lilies and of Violets each one ounce the Stalks of Lettice candied or preserved half an ounce of the Powder of red Coral bruised in a morter with the juice of Orange and dryed two drams of the Species of Diamarg frigid one dram of white Poppy seeds one dram and a half with what will suffice of the Syrup of the
juice of Wood-Sorrel make an Electuary let the quantity of a Nutmeg be taken often in a day In the Phrensie not only the Belly but also the Bladder and their offices ought to be thought on and often solicited or provoked Wherefore the sick are to be warmed and the Urinal given them and asked to make water but if they will not or cannot let the region of the yard below the belly be bathed with a Decoction of Pellitory of the wall Elder Flowers and of the Seeds of Parsley and wild Carrot Seeds or daucus with a Spunge and after the Fomentation anoint it with Oyl of Scorpions and Oyntment of Dialthaea In a long suppression of Vrine you may put up to the bladder a piece of Wax Candle The Histories and cases of Frantick people are so many and so diversly described and so accurately by Hippocrates in his Books De Epidem that there seems little need here to add others especially because it would be an immense work and tedious to relate the various manner and cases of Mad-men In the mean time as to the event of the Disease there is great diversity for that for the most part the Feavour being cured the Phrensie ceases by little and little or else that having no or an evil Crisis either death or a long raving follows But that our Hypothesis of the Inflammation of the Spirits may be illustrated I shall propose here one more rare instance I was one time sent for to Cure a Maid that was strong and having a Feavour was highly raging being continually bound in her Bed I took from her a great quantity of Blood and caused it to be again iterated I often took down her Belly with Clysters yea I ordered all the other administrations in order usual in this case in the mean time she took Iuleps Emulsions and Hypnoticks But these little or nothing availing she continued still for seven or eight days without sleep and furious perpetually calling and bauling for cold drink wherefore an Hydropick being granted her at her pleasure yea to satiety she was nevertheless not any thing less quiet or thirsty I therefore bid them for that it was Summer time that in the middle of the Night she should be carried by Women forth of doors and put into a Boat and her Cloths being pull'd off and she tyed fast with a Cord should be drenched into the depth of a River the Rope being tyed only about her middle that she might not be stifled in the Water but there was no need of that for the Maid of her own accord fell to swimming that scarce any Man could do it better who had learned the art After about a quarter of an hour she came forth of the Water sound and sober and then being had to Bed she slept and sweat very much and afterwards without any other Remedy she grew well This Cure succeeded so happily and so suddenly forasmuch as the excess both of the Vital and the Animal flame being together immensly increased was taken away by a proper Remedy for the more intense Fire to wit by the moistning and cooling of the Water CHAP. XI Of Melancholy AS the Phrensie arises from the burning of the Animal Spirits as we have elsewhere shewn or as Prosper Mart. seems to affirm from their substance being inflamed so indeed other Distempers of raving arise from their substance being altered by other ways and from their genuine nature being changed from a spirituous-saline into an acetous or sharp disposition like to Stygian Water or else into a liveless which therefore are either Melancholy or Madness or Foolishness or Stupidity of which we shall now speak in order and first of all of Melancholy Melancholy is commonly defined to be a raving without a Feavour or fury joined with fear and sadness From whence follows that it is a complicated â—istemper of the Brain and Heart For as Melancholick people talk idly it proceeds from the vice or fault of the Brain and the inordination of the Animal Spirits dwelling in it but as they become very sad and fearful this is deservedly attributed to the Passion 〈◊〉 the Heart It would be a prodigious work and almost an endless task to rehearse the diverse manner of ravings of Melancholy persons and there are great Volumes already of Histories and examples of this sort and more new and admirable observations and examples daily happen Fabulous antiquity scarce ever thought of so many metamorphoses of men which some have not believed really of themselves whilst some have believed themselves to be Dogs or Wolves and have imitated their ways and kind by barking or howling others have thought themselves dead desiring presently to be buried others imagining that their bodies were made of glass were afraid to be touched lest they should be broke to pieces There are extant manifold and various kinds of the Imagination so depraved concerning which may be commonly observed That the distemper'd are Delirious as to all things or at least as to most so that they judge truly almost of no subject or else they imagine amiss in one or two particular cases but for the most part in other things they have their notions not very incongruous We shall first inquire into this more universal Distemper for that the Imagination is prevaricated concerning very many things to wit by what causes and with what difference of Symptoms this is wont to come to pass afterwards we shall speak of the special raving or idle talking Although the universal Distemper of Melancholy contains manifold Delirious Symptoms yet they chiefly consist in these three 1. That the distemper'd are almost continually busied in thinking that their Phantasie is scarce ever idle or at quiet 2. In their thinking they comprehend in their mind fewer things than before they were wont that oftentimes they roll about in their mind day and night the same thing never thinking of other things that are sometimes of far greater moment 3. The Ideas of objects or conceptions appear often deformed and like hobgoblins but are still represented in a larger kind or form so that all small things seem to them great and difficult After this manner the Phantasms in the Brain evilly affected are objected to the Intellect almost after the same manner as the visible images are shewed to the Eye by the interposition of some Optick Glass to wit where every object appears an horrid and huge monster and for that reason a small portion only of the visible matter or thing being increased to that immensity is received by the aspect then by reason of its horrid and unusual appearance the image being once conceived is not easily or suddenly let go we will now consider by what affection of the Brain and Spirits these appearances happen Here we shall first of all inquire into the disposition or preternatural Constitution of the Animal Spirits For inasmuch as they are after an irregular manner they always
or for a long time continue in their irregularities and when the Palsie Apoplexy Vertigo or Convulsion are not joined to this Distemper of theirs which argue obstructions of the Brain it may be inferred that the Animal Spirits not fetching their force elsewhere are driven into such inordinations nor do chiefly conceive their disorders by reason of the Pores and passages of the Brain being obstructed but rather in this case they cause these aforesaid Symptoms in the sick from the default of their own Nature Such an indisposition of the Animal Spirits is wont to be described after this manner to wit that they when as they ought to be transparent subtle and lucid become in Melancholy obscure thick and dark so that they represent the Images of things as it were in a shadow or covered with darkness The explication of which does not seem incongruous forasmuch as we have already shewed that the Animal Spirits flowing forth from the inkindled Blood go forth after a manner as the rays of light from a flame And it sufficiently appears that the light shews and illustrates it self diversly according as it proceeds from the burning of bodies flaming forth after a various manner as of Spirits of Wine Oyl Fat Mineral Sulphur Nitre and others in like manner the Animal Spirits forasmuch as stilled forth from the Blood having got this or that or some other disposition they are either subtil clear or dull thick and as it were sooty they variously pass thorow and irradiate the organs of the Animal Functions and so for that reason diversly pervert their actions But further when as the Animal Spirits are not wholly loose and free as the little bodies of light but mutually cohere or stick together and left the continuity of the soul should be broken off they ought to be contained in a certain Latex therefore these with the Vehicle to which they cleave may be very aptly compared to some Chymical Liquors drawn forth by distillation from natural mixtures Which Analogy indeed seems fittest for the unfolding the mad distempers 1. Liquors Chymically Distilled are according to the active Elements after a various manner combined in them of a diverse kind the chiefest of these by the consent of all are said to be such as in which the Spirit being united with the Salt doth volatise it and on the other side is sharpned by it and after a sort fixed or kept Of this sort they conceive the great Elixir and the Liquor Alcahest to be and indeed in a manner are the Spirits of Blood of Harts-horn of Soot and such like very subtil volatil and penetrating yet not apt to be inflamed or suddenly to be dissipated And indeed the Animal Spirits seem to be after a manner having obtained a sound and legitimate disposition like a spirituous liquor stuffed with a volatile Salt which is distilled from Blood besides to this there is given from the fire an high Acrimony and Empyreuma or smatch of burning which are wholly absent from the liquor watering the Brain and Nerves 2. Other Chymical Liquors are sulphureous and burning as the Spirits of Wine and Turpentine which consisting of Spirit and Sulphur combined together are easily inflamed and depart one from another of their own accord and fly hither and thither what way they can find the Animal Spirits of this nature as we shewed in the former Chapter seem to be in the Phrensie 3. Some Liquors or Spirits are produced by Chymical operation in which the fixed Salt being carried forth to a Flux hath obtained the dominion of which sort are such as are distilled from Vinegar ponderous Woods and some Minerals with a gentle fire whose particles are very moveable and unquiet but of a short activity so that Effluvia's do not long flow from them that if they should be distilled in Balneo nothing but an insipid Phlegm would be carried into the Alembick And indeed the Animal Spirits in Melancholick Distempers are to be suspected to be of this kind of acetous nature with the dominion of a fluid salt as shall hereafter be more largely shewed 4. Some Stagmas drawn forth by Spagyrick art are sometimes most sharp to wit in which the untamed Particles of a fluid Salt and also Sulphureous and Arsenical being combined together are exalted as are the Stygian Waters distilled out of Nitre Vitriol Antimony Arsnick Verdigriece and the like all which are of a fierce nature very penetrating and not to be broken so that their Effluvia's are agitated with a perpetual motion penetrate every thing and are also diffused far and wide And these kind of Liquors may be aptly likened to the disposition of the Animal Spirits acquired in Madness as shall be anon declared But for the present that we may deliver the formal reason and causes of Melancholy let us suppose that the liquor instilled into the Brain from the Blood which filling all the Pores and passages of the Head and its nervous Appendix and watring them is the Vehicle and bond of the Animal Spirits hath degenerated from its mild benign and subtil nature into an Acetous and Corrosive like to those liquors drawn out of Vinegar Box and Vitriol and that the Animal Spirits which from the middle part of the Brain irradiating both its globous substance as also the nervous System and do produce all the Functions of the Senses and Motions both interior and exterior have such like Effluvia's as fall away from those Acetous Chymical Liquors Concerning which there may be observed these three things 1. Their being in perpetual motion 2. Not long able to flow forth 3. not only to be carried in open ways but to cut new Porosities in the neighbouring bodies and to insinuate themselves into them From the Analogy of these conditions concerning the Animal Spirits it comes to pass that Melancholick persons are ever thoughtful that they only comprehend a few things and that they falsly raise or institute their notions of them We shall consider of each of these a little more largely 1. Therefore we shall take notice that the Effluvia's falling away from these distiled Acetous Liquors are perpetually in motion for the Spirits of Vitriol or of Vinegar or Sea Salt continually evaporate the reason of which is because those Particles of the fluid Salt do scarcely agree with any others but where ever they are stopped being apt immediately to leave their subjects seem to endeavour to get new consorts And hence some have thought nothing more like to perpetual motion than the Acid Spirits of Minerals shut up and Hermetically seal'd in a Phial for so the Vapours or Effluvia's will creep about the sides of the Glass with a continual Circulation In like manner we may suppose That the nervous Acetous Liquor is instilled from the Blood sometimes stuffed with a fixed Salt or with Vitriolick Particles or other heterogeneous into the Brain for the matter and Vehicle of the Animal Spirits and
it self fom the beginning Melancholick foulnesses deposes them in the Spleen which receiving again after their being exalted into the nature of an evil Ferment is more vitiated in its disposition by their foulness Fourthly But besides it is said there is another kind of Melancholy distinct from the Hypochondriack and the former that is begotten in the whole Body together this is nothing else than the Mass of Blood being degenerated from its true nature by reason of errors in the six non-naturals and for many other occasions doth acquire at Atrabilary or Melancholick disposition that is where the Spirit being depressed the Sulphureous Particles together with the Saline and also with some Earthy are carried forth for the Melancholick disposition of the Blood is very much a-kin to this Sulphureous-saline which we have shewed oftentimes to excel in some kind of Scurvy For what causes and upon what occasions this is wont to be produced may be sufficiently known from the Aetiology of that Disease being at large explained The differences of this Disease may be easily gathered from what hath been said for in respect of its first subject which is sometimes the Soul sometimes the Body or rather the Blood it is called either Animal or humeral Melancholy Again it is impressed according to that with various powers to wit it is first impressed either on the Rational Will or the sensitive concupiscible or irascible Appetite also it is divided into very many kinds as it is employed about diverse things to wit either Sacred or Magical or Humane the huge cense or bead-roll of which is almost infinite the chief of which that are wont to come within the Cure of Medicne are Religious Amorous and Jealous Melancholy 2. By reason of the temperament of the sick according to which the Particles of the Melancholick blood being made sometimes Sulphureous sometimes Saline or Earthy the Spirituous being depressed are exalted more or less a Delirium or sadness fury or stupidity are more or less variously joined to Melancholy 3. The Disease is either continual or intermitting according to the conjuct cause either stronger both the Hypostasis of the Spirits and also the bloody Mass being both together vitiated or else lighter and less deeply fixed so that the Distemper'd sometimes are well enough for many days or months yet apt to relapse upon any great occasion 4. In respect of the hurt Imagination there are very many types of Melancholicks to be met with yea almost innumerable yet the chief difference of which is that some are dilirious in all things and others in one thing only The Prognostick of this Disease though as to health or death it is for the most part safe yet by reason of the event it is very uncertain For some quickly grow well others not of a long time and others are never cured This Distemper suddenly excited from a solitary evident cause as a vehement Passion is far safer than by leasure invading after a long Procatarxis or foregoing cause For the former if the evident cause be presently removed often ceases of its own accord or with a little help but in this latter for that the Mass of Blood and the whole heap of Animal Spirits are departed from their due disposition and not rarely the conformation of the Brain as to the tracts of the Spirits is altered The Cure very difficultly and not under a long time succeeds Melancholy being a long time protracted passes oftentimes into Stupidity or Foolishness and sometimes also into Madness further sometimes it brings on Consulsive Distempers or the Palsie or Apoplexy yea sometimes a violent Death As to the Cure there is little or no hopes if the Distemper'd being very contumacious and refractory reject all Medicines and every method of Physick Further there is scarce any better thing to be expected from them who lying sick with only imaginary Diseases take all Remedies and require still more and of diverse kinds to be given them As the Cure of Melancholy as it is always difficult and long so it is wont to be mighty intricate and perplexed for that it ought to be diversly and variously instituted in respect of the evident Procatartick and Conjunct causes of its kind also by reason of the Symptoms daily arising Neither is it only behoveful oftentimes to change the Remedies and Method of healing but also variously to make use of between whiles warnings deceits flatteries intreaties and punishments But first of all the Evident Cause of this Disease if any noted thing went before should be inquired into and if it may be either presently removed or else its removal to be in some sort feigned Further the affections of the mind being vehement and stirred up from thence are either to be appeased or subdued by others opposite Wherefore to desperate Love ought to be applied or shewed indignation and hatred Sadness is to be opposed with the flatteries of Pleasure Musick a desire or vain glory or also a pannick terror In like manner as to the rest of the Passions you must proceed to quiet or elude them The Curatory Method accommodated for the healing of Melancholy suggests many other indications the chief of which and to which the rest may be the better placed are these three commonly noted viz. Curatory which respects immediately the Disease and its Conjunct Cause Preservatory which cuts off the Procatartick and Evident Causes and Vital which is imployed about conserving of strength As to the first Indication the intention of the Physician is so much to lift up make volatile and corroborate the more fixed or dejected Animal Spirits that being also apt to go backwards or out of the way that afterwards they may irradiate more freely being stretched forth the whole Brain with a full and not broken beam for the Acts of the Imagination Judgment and other principal faculties and so lively actuate the Praecordia and make them to vibrate or beat strongly that the Blood being more plentifully inkindled it may be projected from thence without stop or stagnating into the whole Body Therefore for the healing of the Spirits first of all it is to be procured that the Soul should be withdrawn from all troublesome and restraining passion viz. from mad Love Jealousie Sorrow Pity Hatred Fear and the like and composed to chearfulness or joy pleasant talk or jesting Singing Musick Pictures Dancing Hunting Fishing and other pleasant Exercises are to be used They who care not for Sports or Pleasures for to some Melancholicks they are always ingrateful are to be roused up by imploying them in more light businesses sometimes Mathematical or Chymical Studies also Travelling do very much help moreover it is often expedient to change the places of habitation in their native soil Those who will still stay at home are to be warned that they take care of their Houshold affairs and that they should govern their Family that they should
plentiful afflux of the Spirits being denyed to them do slacken of their motions the blood heaped up in the bosoms of the heart and apt to stand still stirs up a great weight and oppression and for that reason sighs and groans in the mean time the face and the outward members grow pale and languish for that the affluence of the Blood and Spirits is withdrawn Hence in our Idiom or Speech the Heart of despairing Lovers is said to be broken to wit because this Muscle is not lively enough actuated by the Animal Spirit and so is shaken weakly and slowly and doth not amply enough cast forward the blood with vigor into all parts Indeed in Love the Corporeal Soul intimately embracing the Idea of its most grateful object endeavours all it can to be joyned and fully united to the same emitting toward her the roots of the affections with which it is most strictly enfolded seems from thence to draw its chiefest life and growth so that the body being neglected when as it inclines it self wholly towards the thing beloved if by chance being broken off from this union it suffer a divorce like a plant taken out of its natural soil for that it does not receive any more or assimilate food convenient for it self it soon withers Hence the Animal Spirits leaving their accustomed offices and wonted tracts of expansion do not actuate or irradiate either the Brain or the Praecordia nor the nervous Appendix after their due manner wherefore not only for the present an untrimmed and a delirous disposition of mind with a mournful habit of body are excited but from thence the vitiated Blood and the Spirits having gotten an acetous nature an habitual Melancholy is introduced Such an inordination of the Animal Function as Mad-Love hath about the acquisition of its object the same or very like hath Iealousie about the retention of the same being gotten so always as well in the fruition as in the desire Res est solliciti plena timoris Amor Love is ever full of careful fear This Soul if it be not secure of its most dear prey it presently grows hot and pours forth darkness and clouds upon its own serenity Then afterwards being infected by a Cholerick tincture it receives every object as if it were imbued with a yellow colour for indeed as the ferment of the stomach being too much indued with a sourness perverts all things that is put into it into its nature so Iealousie being once arisen changes all accidents and circumstances into the food of its poison and when the sensitive Soul being as it were bowed inward in this passion becomes not conform to its Body for that reason the Oeconomy of the Functions both Animal Vital and vegetative being depraved Iealousie makes one rave and to wither away Superstition and a despair of Eternal Salvation are wont to impress on the sensitive Soul the Blood and the Body almost the like Distempers of Melancholy as Love and Iealousie but their way of affecting is somewhat different for in those the object whose acquisition or loss is indanger'd is wholly immaterial and its affection being at first conceived by the Rational Soul is impressed on the other Corporeal In the prosecution of which if â—he easily obtains her desires then no perturbation of the humane mind arises but if as it often is wont to happen the Corporeal Soul being oppugned or refused it will not stand to the monitions of the Rational but presently growing hot moves inordinately the Blood and Spirits opposes the Corporeal goods and blandishments to the spiritual objects from the intellect and endeavours to draw the man to its side and so whenas there is a continual skirmish between the two Souls and that sometimes the superior Will and sometimes the sensitive Appetite prevails at length the judgment seat of the Conscience is erected by the mind where every several action is scrupulously examined By reason of this more frequent strife of the Souls the Animal Spirits being too much and almost perpetually exercised and often commanded and as it were drawn hither and thither into contraries at length they depart something from their vigor and their nature and at length being made more fixed and Melancholick for that they are detained from their wonted expansion cut unaccustomed and by-tracts in the Brain and so induce a Delirium or idle raving with mighty fear and sadness In this sort of Distempers the Corporeal soul being snatched as it were violently departs both from it self and from the Body and according to the characters of the impressed Idea being modified it is wont to assume a new image either Angelical or Diabolical in the mean time the Intellect because the Imagination furnishes it only with undecent and monstrous notions is wholly perverted from the use of right reason By the like means of affecting it happens that some Melancholick persons undergo imaginary Metamorphoses as to their fortunes or as to their bodies viz. whilst one imagines himself and plays the part of a Prince and another a Beggar another believes that he has a Body of Glass and another that he is a Dog or a Wolf or some other Monster for after the Corporeal Soul's being distemper'd with a long Melancholy and the mind blinded it wholly departs both from it self and also from the Body and affects and as much as in it lyes truly assumes a new image or condition CHAP. XII Of Madness AFter Melanchoâ—y Madness is next to be treated of both which are so much akin that these Distempers often change and pass from one into the other for the Melancholick disposition growing worse brings on Fury and Fury or Madness growing less hot oftentimes ends in a Melancholick disposition These two like smoke and flame mutually receive and give place one to another And indeed if in Melancholy the Brain and Animal Spirits are said to be darkned with fume and a thick obscurity In Madness they seem to be all as it were of an open burning or flame But indeed for that as we have already shewn that the Animal Spirits being inkindled or inflamed do excite a Phrensie with a Feavour which is wanting in Madness their affection will be better illustrated in this Disease as well as in Melancholy by the Analogy of Chymical Liquors Whenever therefore Madness without a Feavour being excited with a remarkable hurt of the animal Function is wont to be permanent and continue long its next and immediate subject are the Animal Spirits which acting not by consent nor from any force from another but of themselves are habitually distemper'd and depart from their proper and genuine nature to wit a Spiritual saline into a Sulphureous-saline disposition like to Stygian-Water as we have shewed above therefore they perform only inordinate acts and so persist a long while to act amiss or evilly To this vice of theirs perhaps the Brain or the Blood or other parts may contribute
It easily occurs if the reason of these be inquired into that the Latex watering the Brain and nervous Appendix doth contain in it self together with a subtil Spirit great plenty of volatile Salt Therefore when this is so depraved that the Spirit being depressed the Saline Particles degenerate into a flux and acquire to themselves little Sulphureous bodies it becomes plainly Corrosive and Stygian Wherefore malignant humors and Ulcers chiefly happen in the nervous parts and their Emunctories and there are excited upon any light occasion as when a small hurt happens to the Breast of a Woman a Cancer follows because indeed the nervous humor being hindred somewhere in its passage doth there stagnate presently the Spirit being depressed or flying away the Saline Particles degenerating from a volatile to a four nature get to themselves soon after strange companions and snatching either Eartâ—y or Sulphureous little bodies or of some other kind begin to congeal into Sâ—â—â—hous Strumous or Cancrous Tumors And when after this manner by the stagnating of the nervous Liquor and by its getting an heterogeneous concretion the Mine of a Tumor is blown up in some part and the supplements of the same liquor are continually perverted into the like nature of viciousness to which also happen the Melancholâ—ck impurities poured forth from the Blood and other humors which with their joined forces encrease the rage even as when diverse Salts and Sulphurs are destilled together and constitute in the distemper'd part a Septick matter and like to the Escharotick or crusting up of Stygian Water According to this reasoning or Aetiology the irregularities of these kind of Tumors as also the appearance of the Kings-Evil are most aptly unfolded If that the nervous Liquor so corrosive and made degenerate doth not grow into Tumors flowing into the nervous Fibres it is wont to cause here and there most cruel Pains and Cramps But as this Liquor of the Nerves being depraved after this manner stirs up the aforefaid Distempers in the nervous parts so it is not difficult to conceive that the same water for that it is for a Vehicle of the Animal Spirits flowing in the Brain doth acquire together with those Spirits a Corrosive and as it were a Stygian nature and for that reason excites Madness The depravation of the Animal Spirits together with the juice watering the Brain or the disposition of Madness is wont to arise after various ways and for diverse causes but truly for the most part this Distemper as we have observed of Melancholy begins either from the Spirits themselves or else from the Blood First Madness beginning from the Spirits arises sometimes from an evident solitary cause as a violent Passion sometimes also it proceeds from a foregoing cause lying in the Brain as when it comes upon Melancholy or a Phrensie We shall a little weigh the reasons of either case and the various manner of their being made 1. As to the former when a vehement affection puts any one besides himself that happens to be made thus either because the Animal Spirits are too much overthrown and hurried into confusion or because they are elevated above measure and endeavour to stretch themselves forth beyond their sphere First The Spirits are wont to be cast down by a violent and terrible Passion so it often happens that some being struck with a panick fear by seeing a true or an imaginary Spectre or Ghost afterwards fall into a perpetual Madness Further some by reason of some notable disgrace or repulse others by reason of their hopes of obtaining their Love being suddenly and unthought of frustrated and others by reason of a rash breaking their oaths or vows and violated Conscience being first highly troubled in mind anon become Mad. The reason of which is because the Animal Spirits being driven beyond their orders and wonted passages and put into confusion do make for themselves new and devious ways which entring into immediately they bring forth delirious Phantasms in the mean time the Saline Particles of the nervous juice the spirituous being depressed depart from their volatileness and suffering a flux assume to themselves the Sulphureous little bodies poured forth from the Blood into the then weak and open Brain From whence this Liquor being most sharp like Stygian Water and the Animal Spirits becoming fierce and very much incited become furious Secondly Sometimes the Animal Spirits whilst they are too much elevated almost after the same manner induce both to themselves and the nervous juice the mad disposition Hence Ambition Pride and Emulation have made some mad the reason of which is because whilst the Corporeal Soul swelling up with an opinion and pride of its own excellency lifts up it self and endeavours on every side to expand or stretch it self forth most amply beyond the border or sphere of its body the Animal Spirits being tumultuarily called into the Head will not be contained within their wonted bounds but being there broken and diversly reflected by reason of their too much excretion are compelled into new and plainly devious tracts wherefore both they being thrust forth from the course of their proper emanation and also the nervous Liquor do quickly acquire a sharp and incitative Disposition as was said but now for that reason Madness follows Thus much concerning Madness excited by reason of a solitary evident cause but this Disease doth also arise from a Procatartick cause preexisting in the Brain and chiefly from Melancholy or the Phrensie going before in that the Animal Spirits with the nervous juice being a little more exalted and in this a little more depressed acquire the disposition of Madness As to the former it is a vulgar observation that sudden and great Melancholy is for the most part next to Madness the reason of which is because when the Animal Spirits together with the nervous liquor degenerate into a sourness are perverted there only wants the accession of Sulphur by which they afterwards getting a Stygian nature may induce Madness as when an acid Liquor distilled out of Vitriol or Salt by the addition of Sal Nitrosus becomes Aqua fortis but indeed in a great passion of Melancholy because the Spirits being disturbed the passages of the Brain are too open the Sulphureous Particles carried from the Bilous and Rancid Blood find an easie entrance and so the former sour or acid disposition turns into a Stygian or Maddish Hence it is observed if any one of a more hot temperament falls into a Melancholick Delirium with fear and sadness forasmuch as the Sulphureous Particles in its humors are joyned to the Salts being depressed into a flux that sadness and thinking at the beginning very readily a short time after becomes madness Secondly for that also a Phrensie often ends in Madness the reason is almost the same with the former but inverted to wit because in a Phrensie the Spirits and the nervous Liquor becoming Sulphureous
and too much inflamed afterwards burning forth get to themselves Saline Particles and so in like matter get a most sharp and as it were a Stygian nature wherefore the Feavour then ceasing the Fury becomes fixed and continual 2. The disposition of Madness hath no less frequently its roots in the bloody Mass and is at length produced into act to wit when as the Blood being depraved and becomes Nitro-sulphureous it either perverts the nervous Liquor as also the Animal Spirits or supplies them but evilly Which kind of taint of the Blood is either hereditary or acquired First It is a common observation that men born of Parents that use sometimes to be mad are obnoxious to the same disease and though they have lived above thirty or forty years prudent and sober yet afterwards without any occasion or evident cause they have fallen into Madness The reason of which is for that the Blood at that time bending from its due temper by degrees into a Nitro sulphureous affords to the Head Animal Spirits and also the nervous juice participating as hath been said of a most sharp nature We have formerly shewn that in our Complexion Elementary Particles do persist during life apart from the secondary afforded by nutrition and have their times of crudity maturity and defection wherefore we suppose the morbid seeds do ripen into fruit according to the periods of Ages Further we take notice that oftentimes the fruits of Diseases of this kind do remain ripening for a long time or perpetually as long as life yet sometimes falling off as it were of their own accord do wither away then sometimes in another tract of time from the infection being left new fruits do spring up and by little and little rise up to their height Wherefore Hereditary Madness is sometimes continual and sometimes intermitting Its fits are wont sometimes to come again after a shorter time and sometimes after a longer interval Secondly As the foregoing Cause of Madness sticking in the Blood is oftentimes innate or original so sometimes the same is by degrees begotten either by an evil manner of diet or by the suppression of usual evacuations or by reason of a Feavour going before or for some other causes and at length being brought to maturity breaks forth into Madness It is an usual thing in great want of sustenance that some poor people being constrained to feed only on very disagreeing meats and of ill digestion become at first sad with an horrid aspect louring and dark and a little after Mad. The Haemorrhoids and the after flowings of Women in Child-bed being restrained in their flux or some evil and foul running Ulcers being suppressed dispose some towards this Disease Further those who originally or by acquisition are indued with a more sharp temper and with fierce manners and threatning countenance by reason of the dispositition of their Blood being nigh to a Nitro-sulphur are in danger to fall into Madness from some strong evident cause Thirdly Venomous Ferments being insinuated to the Blood and nervous juice as first of all from the biting of mad Animals or by the taking of some poisons are wont to stir up Madness Concerning the reasons of the former we have proposed our conjectures in another place Of late a very Noble Lady and to be credited told me from her own knowledge that a certain Gentleman having eaten at dinner time the tender leaves of Wolfs-bane in a Sallad with other herbs in the Evening found himself ill and complaining of a great unquietness and agitation of his Blood and Spirits he desired his Friends to send for a Chirurgeon to let him blood or that otherwise he should grow Mad which indeed as he said came to pass for before he could be let blood he fell into Madness and dyed in a nights space This kind of deadly Distemper so suddenly happened for that this poison had not only perverted the Blood and Animal Spirits as to their temper but had slain or beat them down immediately with its malignant Ferment Thus much for the formal Reason and Causes of Madness The primary Symptoms of it we have mentioned to be a Delirium and a Fiâ—ry the reasons of which appear clear enough from what has been already said To these we may moreover add Boldness Strength and that they are still unwearied with any labours and suffer pains unhurt of which we will speak briefly Mad-men are not as Melancholicks sad and fearful but audacious and very confident so that they shun almost no dangers and attempt all the most difficult things that are The reason of which is because the Animal Spirits being very fierce and provoked both fortifie the Imagination that no object may seem greater or bigger than it is wont to be and actuate also the Praecordia with vigor so that they cast forth the Blood strongly and swiftly and drive it forwards lively to the utmost borders of the Body In this Distemper the Soul endeavours to be carried forth and to lâ—ap beyond the compass or sphere of the Body and so striving on every side against the incursions of any exterior things bears it self without fear Secondly Mad-men are still strong and robust to a prodigy so that they can break cords and chains break down doors or walls one easily overthrows many endeavouring to hold him The certain cause of which is because in the Blood and nervous juice of Mad people are contained Particles as it were Nitro sulphureous or otherways most sharp and as it were Stygian from whence the Animal Spirits are indued or are strong with an Elastick or Explosive force stupendous great and far beyond what 's natural Thirdly it is observed that Mad men are almost never tired for although by playing mad pranks and striving many days and nights they strongly exercise their members and live in the mean time without sleep or eating yet they scarce languish at all nor desist from their agonies for want of strength Which without doubt comes to pass for that the Animal Spirits though very moveable and Elastick are not however volatile and easily dissipable but by reason of the Saline Particles being depressed from their volatileness into a flux being joined with the Sulphureous become firm and more fixed and therefore continue longer in their activity In like manner as we have observed in Aqua fortis which though it be contained in a vessel that 's open perpetually sends forth very many Effluvia's and yet still retains its substance unwasted and its corrosive force otherwise than the spirit of Wine or Blood the virtue of which soon evaporates In the fourth place almost for the same reason Mad-men what ever they bear or suffer are not hurt but they bear cold heat watching fasting strokes and wounds without any sensible hurt to wit because the spirits being strong and fixed are neither daunted nor fly away Further the blood having gotten a Nitro sulphureous
this Disease with Histories and Examples or to describe the manifold Types of it but rather let them go to the Hospitals of Mad people where they may behold not without a wonderful spectacle as it were a new and monstrous nation of men contrary to rational people and as it were our Antipodes all which if they were gathered together in one place and that all Madmen and Fools were joyned to them I know not whether this world would not be equally divided between them and the sober and prudent Thus much concerning the cure of continual Madness The intermitting either has perfect lucid intervals in which the sick return to themselves or the fury only ceases the Delirium being still lest insomuch that the distemper'd become gentle and tractable yet still they continue amiss as to their imagination and judgment and speak and do many absurd or incongruous things and afterwards sometimes again become furious The Cure of either of these Distempers as to the Curatory Indication is the same as in continual Madness so that there is no need to shew here any other Medicines or method But as to what respects the Prophylaxis or Preservatory Indication by which the means of healing is instituted out of the fits cautions and threatnings are to be given them in whom only the Fury intermits the Delirium remaining the very same Remedies of Medicine which we have prescribed for the taking away the foregoing cause of Melancholy are convenient In Madness which perfectly intermits as to all its Symptoms at the chiefest convenient times to wit Spring and Fall they ought to enter into a solemn course of Physick and besides there is a continual need of looking to or governing the sick both as to diet and to their manner of living that they may be always preserved in an equal and a moderate temper and also that as soon as the signs of the approaching fit appear its coming may be hindred by Blood-letting and by administring of Medicines Therefore in the times of the Aequinoxes let Blood be taken out of the Arm and seven or eight days after out of the Hemorrhoidal Veins by Leeches Let Purges and Vomits be given twice or thrice at due intervals Moreover between whiles let them take in order altering Remedies at Physical hours The Formulas or Recipes of these are set down both in this Chapter and in the former for the cure of Melancholy Let the dyet be slender and of good digestion as concerning exercise or motion sleep and other non-naturals let them be all moderate When the approach of Madness is seen to be at hand and constantly before the Summer Solstice let Phlebotomy be celebrated with Vomiting and a more slender or sparing diet CHAP. XIII Of Stupidity or Foolishness STupidity or Morosis or Foolishness although it most chiefly belongs to the Rational Soul and signifies a defect of the Intellect and Judgment yet it is not improperly reckoned among the Diseases of the Head or Brain forasmuch as this Eclipse of the superior soul proceeds from the Imagination and the Memory being hurt and the failing of these depends upon the faults of the Animal Spirits and the Brain it self We have before clearly shewed that the Rational Soul doth subsist in a sensitive or corporeal Soul and that its principal seat is the Imagination Further from this and the Memory either the notions themselves or their occasions of all things are supplied which the Mind beholds wherefore when it happens that these Corporeal Functions are defective or hindred forthwith the eye of the Intellect as if covered with a vail is wont to be very much dulled or wholly darkned Therefore that the reason of Foolishness and Stupidity may be rightly delivered first we ought to inquire by what means and from what causes the Imagination and the Memory are often defective or fore-hindred That we may proceed methodically concerning these hither ought to be referred what we have discoursed before concerning the Functions of the Corporeal Soul and their subjects and instruments we have at large declared that the Callous Bodies or the middle of the Brain is the seat of the Imagination and the Cortical Marrows of the Brain the seat of the Memory and further that the Animal Spirits are the immediate organs of either Wherefore because their powers being hindred which are the first or chief movers of any other Function both rational and sensitive the Imbecillity and dulness of the mind the slowness of the ingenuity stupidity and madness at length do often arise the fault is either in the Brain it self or the Animal Spirits or both together and at first now these now that 1. As to the Animal Spirits we have largely enough declared of what sort they ought to be of their proper and genuine nature and what they are by reason of their preternatural disposition in the Phrensie Melancholy and Madness But besides which we before mentioned it may be suspected that these Spirits being sometimes almost destitute of active Particles become as it were liveless or vapid to wit when the spirituous Particles ought to excel and to get to themselves volatile Salts in Stupidity both these together with the Sulphureous being too much depressed they are almost drowned and overwhelmed with the watery and terrestrial For indeed Fools are not so dull or of such thick understanding as their soul seems to be indued with and their Animal Spirits are rather formed of clay than their Heart There are many occasions or evident causes by which the Animal Spirits acquire so deadish a texture the chief of which we shall touch on by and by 2. But it doth not frequently come to pass that Stupidity is excited by the mere solitary fault of the Spirits or of the Corporeal Soul it self but more or rather the Brain it self is found to be first in fault For as there are many things requisite by which this exact subject or machine of the Animal Function is constituted if by chance any thing of them be deficient or depraved it easily follows that such so distemper'd have little wit First It is a vulgar observation That the wit and ingenuity doth depend somewhat on the magnitude and figure of the Head and consequently of its Brain for as to its bulk it is a Proverb that it argues little of Brain or too much Foolishness And although this does not always happen yet it does for the most part The reason of which is because in a little Brain but a few Spirits are begotten and exercised but in a greater consisting for the most part of a vile or base texture or frame it is less fitted for the quickness or sharpness of the mind Secondly The genuine and best figure of the Brain ought to be globous to wit for the end that the Spirits may be poured forth with an equal efflux on every side from its middle part to the whole compass and may be from thence retorted
every where by equal angles of reflections But those who have a flat head or too sharp or otherways improportionate are affected for the most part with some noted fault of the Animal Function for these kind of Brains like distorted Looking-Glasses do not rightly collect the Images of things nor truly object them to the Rational Soul Thirdly The substance of the Brain should be well temper'd and of a laudable frame not only as to the qualities of heat and cold of driness and moisture but its Systasis or Constitution consisting of plenty of a volatile Salt and Spirit with a moderate proportion of the rest should be thin and airy that the Spirits may pass thorow the whole and cut out to themselves paths also it should be moderately firm and compacted that the tracts and passages being made may remain and not be presently blotted out again by the sinking of the too soâ—t parts But in Stupidity it is to be suspected that there is in the Brain an excess of some manifest quality as of moisture or coldness for which reason Children and old people are wont to be affected with a dulness of their senses or sometimes the Texture is too thick and Earthy so that the spirits do not easily irradiate it or cut tracts for themselves to wit they cannot penetrate an opacous or thick body no more than rays of light To this kind of deadish Texture of the Brain those that are born of Plowmen and Rusticks as if they were formed of a worser clay are obnoxious hence in some Families reckoning many descents backward there is scarce one witty or wise man found In some places the influences of the Heaven and Air incline as it is thought the Inhabitants to Stupidity so to be born in Batavia is proverbially as much as to say a Fool. Fourthly Besides these vices of the Brain which are for the most part original and born with it sometimes its evil conformation as to its Pores and Passages by reason of some acquired inordinations is a cause that the Animal Function is not rightly performed For first of all as to what appertains to the smaller Passages and Pores of the Brain which the spirits themselves frame every where thorow its whole substance and perpetual flow into them for the exercise of the Animal Functions it sometimes happens that these are either defective or perverted and so bring on a dulness of mind or Foolishness These little spaces are defective because the consistency of the Brain being either too obdurate or too fluid it will not indure to be cut thorow after a due manner or to remain or continue so bored thorow But we suspect those Passages to be perverted either because they are too loose or too strait or else for that their making is unequal Too strait Pores do not sufficiently admit store of matter for a good plenty of Spirits Those loose above measure receive together with that matter Heterogeneous Particles and infesting the Animal Regiment They seem to be unequally formed where they are more open in one part of the Brain and more strait in another For this cause we think it to be that some understand or know things well enough but still judge evilly for that their notions and conceptions like the visible Images passing thorow a diverse Medium become distorted Further perhaps for this reason it comes to pass that some excel or are strong in Imagination and Phantasie yet are very deficient in Memory and others on the contrary 3. It sometimes happens that both these conjunct causes do concur together to Foolishness to wit because both the Animal Spirits are dull and toâ—pid and also the Brain evilly conformed And in truth which part soever is first in fault it quickly will make the other in like manner guilty Because when the Spirits being blunt and sluggish do not freely pass thorow the Brain the Pores and Passages in it are not either sufficiently cut thorow or else they close again and the Spirits if they cannot expand themselves by reason of the evil texture of the Brain as they should do they at length becoming slothful and idle grow heavy and acquirâ— a vicious disposition Thus much concerning the Conjunct Causes of Foolishness as to its Procatartick and Evident there belong more occasions by reason of which the aforesaid evils are wont to be brought to the Brain or the Spirits or to both together For in the first place Stupidity as we but now observed is sometimes original or born with one and so it is either hereditary as when Fools beget Fools the reason of which is clear enough to wit the same weak Particles flowing for the constituting the Animal Organs in the Son which were in the Fatherâ— or Stupidity being born with one is as it were accidental to wit it frequently happens that wise men and highly ingenious do beget Fools and Changelings or heavy witted which we suppose so to come to pass sometimes for this cause for that the Parents being too much given to study reading and meditation the Animal Spirits that inhabit the Brain are so much wasted that for the supply of them the most generous Particles of the Blood are still carried to the Head and but few only and small are permitted to descend to the Spermatick Bodies When the rational Soul becomes greatly solicitous in bringing forth its child which are the works of the Intellect then the Corporeal Soul the Spirits being called away to wait on the other becomes not at all or very weakly prolifick Besides this reason there is another frequently to be met with wherefore the first implanted sagacity of men as well as of Brutes is not often propagated from the Parents to the Children For when as we presume certainly the Colt of a generous Horse or of a delicate strain or the Chickens of a Game-Cock that they will patrissare or be like their Sires so that they are sold at a great rate and the virtues of these if not broken by inordinate and preternatural feeding or bringing up descend by a long series to their young from age to age This often happens otherwise to men to wit because the Parents do so enervate and weaken their bodies by intemperance luxury and evil manners that they beget only languishing and unhealthy Children Hence it is that for the most part those who are born of Parents broken with old age or of such as are not yet ripe or too young or of drunkards soft and effeminate men want a great and liberal ingenuity or wit Nor does there happen a less detriment to them of the Animal Faculty whose sires are obnoxious to evil affections of the Brain as the Palsie Epilepsie Carus Convulsions and the like so that to be born of Parents who have a sound mind in a sound body is far beyond a large patrimony Secondly There are more evident causes by which Stupidity is wont to be induced
to some originally whole Some at first crafty and ingenious become by degrees dull and at length foolish by the mere declining of age without any great errors in living to wit because the nervous liquor and the blood whose evil dispositions the Animal Spirits partake of like some Wines and other fermented liquors depart from their vigor after a perfect Fermentation and by little and little degenerate into a dead and pallid substance For it is observed the wits of some people do receive a various increase and decrease according to the periods of their Ages I have known many in their childhood very sagacious and extreamly docil or apt to learn that by their literature and discourse have caused admiration who afterwards becoming young men were dull and heavy and those who at first were very beautiful were afterwards not at all handsome or beautiful in their aspect In like manner it often happens on the contrary that many at first indocil or unapt to learn and wholly unfit for literature and seeming of an ill favour'd countenance when they have become young men or have put off their childhood have had both an excellent wit and become beautiful The reason of the former is that some ripe wit or ingenuity like garden fruit does not remain long in the same condition but soon declining quickly withers For in every mixture or concretion rightly made there is required that a progression from crudity to maturity be made gently and by little and little that is the active elements do not at first arise above the rest and shew themselves above measure but being involved with the others rise up and put forth themselves by little and little for otherwise being too free in the beginning and made loose they easily fly away leaving their subject almost dead or taste less Wherefore Boys who are seen to be dull in their first Age may be hoped afterwards when the temper of the Brain the superfluous moisture being evaporated is come to maturity to become ingenious enough Thirdly Sometimes great strokes or bruising of the Head especially such as happen from a fall from some high place do bring hurt or debility to the Animal faculties I have known some very learned and men of great wit and judgment who outliving some of these falls by chance afterwards were of a heavy and dull ingenuity It is commonly said of such so distemper'd that their Brain is turned and indeed a vehement Convulsion or shaking of the Brain greatly perverts and not seldom presses together or shuts up the accustomed tracts and paths of the Spirits so that they perform the acts of the Memory and the Imagination for ever after hardly and amiss so as some by some great wound inflicted on the Head have become sottish and afterwards mad Fourthly Frequent Drunkenness and Surfeiting especially if they sleep in their Cups and lie as it were buried in Wine and Sleep do very much decay the wits of some and make infirm the use of their Reason to wit because by them Heterogeneous little Bodies and infesting very much the Animal Regiment are introduced Almost for the same reason the frequent use of Opiates very much troubles the sharpness of the mind Fiftly Violent and sudden passions as in the first place an unexpected and very great affright or terror or vehement sadness have caused Sottishness or Foolishness in some so that they have been scarce able to express the sense of their mind in words or to perform the familiar actions of life Which certainly comes to pass forasmuch as the spirits inhabiting the Brain upon such an occasion are very much dissipated and drawn asunder one from another and afterwards are not able to repeat the the former footsteps of their motions in like manner as Souldiers being put to flight by a sudden and violent attack of the enemy recover not easily their orders and stations Sixthly It is observed that some men have contracted also Foolishness by reason of cruel Diseases of the Head This frequently happens in a great and long Epilepsie for that this Distemper possessing the middle part of the Brain perverts and so fills and stuffs up with feculencies all the Pores and passages the Spirits being thereby frequently and vehemently thrust forth that the tracts of the Spirits being shut up the acts of the internal Senses and Motions are hindred I knew a young maid at first of an acute wit and lively ingenuity who after she had long laboured with the Falling-sickness became sottish and foolish like a changeling Further I have taken notice in many that Stupidity hath accompanied the Palsie or has gone before it as we mentioned in the Chapter of the Palsie to wit the same matter which brings a resolution or loosning being in the Streaked Body being heaped up in the Callous causes often if not an Appoplexy or Carus a Foolishness Many differences of this Disease are to be met with and first there is commonly wont to be a distinction between Stupidity and Foolishness for those affected with this latter apprehend simple things well enough dextrously and swiftly and retain them firm in their memory but by reason of a defect of judgment they compose or divide their notions evilly and very badly inferr one thing from another moreover by their folly and acting sinistrously and ridiculously they move laughter in the by-standers On the contary those who are Stupid by reason of the defect of the Imagination and Memory as well as of the Judgment do neither apprehend well or quickly nor argue well besides they behave themselves not as the others by toying and gesticulation but sottishly foolishly or like a dull Ass so that the simplicity of these is the more miserable who shew so the Disease in their countenance and behaviour In Foolishness it seems that the Animal Spirits being somewhat active though less firm do pass thorow only more short and oblique tracts and do not beam thorow the Brain with an equal and constant irradiation but leaping forth or running out desultorily or after a leaping manner sometimes here sometimes there perform the acts of the Animal Functions perfunctorily only or ridiculously But in Stupidity the Spirits being obtuse and dull of their own proper nature and flowing very little pervious in the more thick Brain cannot exercise themselves rightly for the performing the offices of the Animal Regiment Stupidity whose Pathology we here chiefly deliver hath many degrees for some are accounted unfit or incapable as to all things and others as to some things only Some being wholly fools in the learning of letters or the liberal Sciences are yet able enough for Mechanical Arts. Others of either of these incapable yet easily comprehend Agriculture or Husbandry and Country business Others unfit almost for all affairs are only able to learn what belongs to eating or the common means of living Others merely Dolts or drivling Fools scarce understand any thing at all or
boiled in it For those who have their Animal Spirits too poor and liveless let them take Chocolate as we have described it above which seems most profitable For ordinary drink let small Ale or Beer be prepared in a vessel containing three or four Gallons and after it has work'd put into it in a little bag these following things Take of the leaves of Sage the sharp leaved and dryed four handfuls of Cubebs one ounce of Cloves and of Nutmegs bruised c. Mix them according to art Outward Applications have also a place here such are a quilted Cap Plasters and Liniments and sometimes let these sometimes those or others be administer'd Take of the flowers of the Lily of the valley Rosemary flowers Stoechadoes each one handful of Celtick Spike two drams of the roots of Cypress the lesser Galingal the Florentine Iris each three drams of Labdanum Benzoin of Toluvian Balsam of Amber each two drams of Nutmegs Cloves Mace Cinamon each one dram and a half make of them all a fine powder quilting it in a Cap with silk between Take of the Plaster of Floris unguent so called two ounces of Tachamahac of Carranae of the Balsom of Tolu each three drams of the Powder of Amber Myrrh each two drams of Cloves Nutmeg Mace each one dram being all liquefied or melted together let them be made into a mass of which make a Plaster spread it on leather and the head being shaved put it to it Take of the Oyl of Palms half an ounce of Capive Balsom three drams of the Balsom of Peru one dram of the Oyl of Nutmeg by expression two drams Oyl of Amber half a dram make an Ointment for the Head I might here add many other Medicines and ways of Administrations but in this almost desperate case where oftentimes no Remedies are wont to help and the Cure never perfected these may suffice CHAP. XIV Of the Gout AMong the Diseases of the Head and the nervous stock we may refer hither some Distempers that are chiefly wont to infest the Feet and the Belly to wit the Gout and the Colick That the seat of either is in the nervous parts we may very well conclude from the primary Symptom to wit pain The cause of this latter Charles Piso has affirmed to exist within the Head and Fernelius affims the same of the other Wherefore we shall endeavour to deliver the Pathologie of either together with the apposite means of healing them and first we shall speak of the Gout The name of the Gout denotes plainly its subject because that it is almost only Articulate or is in the space where the heads of two or more Bones meet together This Disease is wont to be excited more frequently about the Internodia or knittings of the Bones of the Feet because this part being greatly declining and remote from the Praecordia and the fountain of Heat receives readily the Morbisick matter and does not easily overcome it or quickly put it off Yet the Gout often happens in the jointings of the Hip or huckle bone the knee the bending of the arm the shoulder the wrist the ancle and of other parts The fits of this Disease which are almost ever intermitting invade either wandringly or periodically which being finished sometimes sooner sometime more slowly the intervals happen lucid or quiet enough presently after the first assault of it for the most part pains arise without any tumor though afterwards about the height of the Disease the distemper'd part often swells up the pains in the beginning yield to no Remedies but are made more cruel by Catharticks and are not presently put to flight by Topicks or wont to be allayed The Fit most often falls upon one without any previous distemper but suddenly yet sometimes there will be an heat of the blood or a little feavourish distemper going before The disposition to this Disease is sometimes hereditary and sometimes acquired by reason of an evil manner of living The occasions or causes which being wont to move this disposition stir up the Gouty pains are all violent alterations or passions inflicted on the humors or spirits Hence Surfeiting immoderate drinking especially of sharp and thin Wines transpiration being hindred wrath or indignation immoderate Venus or Lust sadness also the changes of the air and of the year and any great mutations ordinarily induce fits of this Disease Those obnoxious to this disease are sometimes in danger to be distemper'd also with the Stone or Gravel in the Reins and so on the contrary those obnoxious to the Stone are wont to be troubled with the Gout Yea the Gout growing grievous it every where heaps up about its nests to wit in the joynts a calculous or stony matter and there excites a stony or hard bulk The distemper'd parts whose pains are stirred up in the hauled Fibres for the most part are the Periostea or the heads clothing the Membrane of the Bones and perhaps the Tendons and Ligaments there planted about But sometimes the pain in these parts wholly depends upon a breach of the unity and this proceeds from a certain matter being impacted in those Bodies or lying upon them first of all we shall inquire what sort of morbific matter this is secondly from whence it comes and thirdly by what means it so stirs up periodical Gouty Fits by breaking the unity in them As to the Morbifick Matter it seems first that it is not the Blood or nervous juice of it self nor is it one only simple humor laid up a part from the others We deservedly excuse the Blood from this censure because these pains only infest Bodies for the most part without Blood yea and almost them only For although in the neighbouring parts by reason of the course of the Blood being hindred sometimes a tumor happens with an inflammation yet this is not the Disease but a Symptom and for the most part comes upon the Gout Further it appears that the nervous juice how ever sharp or biteing or pricking or pulling it is supposed to be does not excite of it self the pains of the Gout because then the Distemper would cause pains also or as much in some other passages of the nervous parts and also in the Internodia or knittings of the Bones It is improbable for the same reason that any singular excrementitious or superfluous Humor or Matter deposited from the Blood or nervous juice to cause the pains of the Gout For if such were only carried thorow the Nerves it would excite pains by order and a continual tract not first in the feet or extream joints but by irritating the nervous Stock in its whole journey If that according to the opinions of Hollerius Sennertus and other Moderns it be affirmed that some impurities falling off from the heated Blood and received by the joints is the material cause of the Goutish pain then it should follow that all who are greatly
Reins appeared most sound and firm but the right Kidney was almost consumed a small heap of the Glandâ—la's being only left all the Vessels and the Vreter being joined together and wholly shut up so that no Urine at all had passed there of a long time The left Kidney being large enough contained within the cavity and its passages a great heap of Sand or Gravel and little Stones besides there was a round hard and whitish stone fallen into the Vreter three inches deep and there fixed and had wholly shut out the passage of the water the Membrane of the Vreter where the Stone stuck was become so thick and callous and so free from pain that here it could by no means be moved either upwards or downwards It seems in this case that when the coagulated Particles of the Blood and nervous juice to wit the Saline fixed and the Acetous meeting together at first in the Reins did stir up for a while the Distemper of the Stone afterwards by the use of the abovesaid Powder the saline Particles being still thrust forward into the habit of the Body and not easily rendred heaped together the Goutish seed plot in the Joints the Reins being in the mean time free But at length when by the drinking of his own Urine the saline Mine was brought back into the Reins the Disease of the Gout was changed into the mortal Disease of the Stone CHAP. XV. Of the Colick Passion IT has been mentioned in the former Chapter by what right we have referred this Disease among the Distempers of the Brain and nervous Stock to wit both in respect of the Symptoms urging which are pain and Convulsive motions as also from the reason of the cause by Charles Piso placed in the head and truly not improbably Concerning the word Colick from the Intestine called the Colon we shall not strive for that it is supposed though wrongfully to be chiefly affected in this Disease The Distemper may be described That it is an hauling or notable pulling of some parts of the Abdomen or the Belly from whence a very acute pain arises and with it for the most part a Vomiting as also Convulsions and Contractions almost of the whole Viscera of the Belly are wont to be joined And for that the Navil and its neighbouring parts are sometimes as it were with a Perforation or boring thorow drawn inwards and sometimes swell out with an inflation or blowing up and as it were with a great leaping forth the Intestines by an inverse motion of the Fibres are oftentimes pulled together upwards wherefore the Belly being extreamly bound together renders little or nothing yea although it be often provoked by Clysters it doth not easily part with its contents It appears clearly that the Ventricle with the Duodenum and the bladder of Gall are in like manner pulled by Vomiting and by the casting forth of great plenty of yellow or green Choler Sometimes the Vreters and the bladder of the Urine are so contracted that in all the fit the Urine is wholly suppressed or but very sparingly rendered Besides a Vertiginous Distemper of the Head frequently preceeds or follows the fits of this Disease yea the Colick growing worse and inveterate oftentimes causes pains in the outward members and at length ends in the Palsie Therefore forasmuch as very many parts are wont to labour in this Disease we shall inquire which is primarily affected and by what means the other suffer then what is the conjunct cause of the Disease in what place it subsists and from whence it draws its original As to the part primarily or first of all distemper'd though the Disease being urgent the whole region of the Belly is wont to be disturbed yet its primary seat ought to be placed where the pain chiefly infests and pertinaciously sticks But this by the consent of very many Physicians is said to be some where in the Gut Colon. Wherefore Celsus saith That the Colick is a Distemper of the greater Intestine which also reason seems to perswade something for whether the Morbific Matter is supposed to be heaped up in the Cavities of the Intestines or to be wholly fixed in their Membranes certainly there are extant deep little Cells in the folds of the Colon for its receptacles and thick coats of this Intestine in which the peccant humor may be deeply fastned But indeed this opinion to which we cannot easily assent as also the denomination of the Distemper seems to have grown in credit in the Schools of the Physicians from this only because we ordinarily observe that the Intestines enter into pains and torments being irritated by wind medicines Choler and perhaps other humors contained within their cavities hence as it is obvious may be inferred that the Colick pains do arise from the sharp and provocative contents of the Intestines and especially of the Colon. But if it were so without doubt those things which loosen the Belly and draw forth plentifully the wind and the dregs or Faces should give certain ease the contrary of which often happens to wit by some more violent or often Purging the Disease has grown worse Wherefore that the seat of this Disease and the nature of it may be truly known we ought first of all to distinguish here concerning the torments of the Belly or pains commonly esteemed for Colicks to wit these are either meerly occasional arising from a solitary evident cause and ordinarily happen without any previous disposition to some men and especially to those who being of a tender constitution have very sensible Fibres and Spirits quickly dissipated after this manner disagreeable or unwonted eating or drinking also medicines taking of cold and many other alterations about the six non-naturals oftentimes excite great perturbations with pains in the Viscera of the lower part of the Belly which kind of Distemper ought to be esteemed not the Disease but only Symptoms excited from a manifest cause But besides the Colick properly so called happens to some not only produced by an accidental cause but falling upon some men predisposed by a peculiar right depends wholly upon a foregoing cause ripened by degrees The more grievous fits of this Disease for the most part have their periods and observe the changes of the Air and Year further being excited they do not easily give place to any Remedies nor quickly pass over but notwithstanding the use of Fomentations and though the Belly be taken down very much by Clysters or Purging they oftentimes continue with great fierceness for many days and sometimes weeks The pains in every fit still repeat the same part and are followed with a concourse for the most part of other the like Symptoms But the pains of the Colick though they have not the same seâ—â— in all but sometimes exercise their cruelties under the Ventricle sometimes about the Navel or the Hypochondria and sometimes in the lower part of the Belly or about
character 54. 't is of kin to boldness ibid. Animals reduced into classes 7. as Fire and Light are chiefly energetical in mechanical things so in Animals In perfect ones there ought to be many senses 56 Animal spirits what they are 23. to what compared ibid. they abound in an objective and an active virtue 24. they are the efficient cause of sense and motion 56. a most swift communication of them implanted within all the parts ibid. an opposite tendency of them effect both sense and motion ibid. they pass through the sensible species and not the effluvia of the object penetrate even to the head 59. they actuate the Rainbow of the Eye very much 85. they are the immediate subject of sleep 87. and the immediate subject of the Vertigo 147. their distemper being after a diverse manner as it is the cause of the phrensy so it is of Melancholy Madness and Stupidity 188. from what disposition of them the primary Phaenomena of a melancholick Delirium proceed ibid. as they are compared to light they are call'd opacous or full of darkness 189. these kind of spirits in melancholy compar'd to those in Chymical Liquors ibid. they are not like the spirit of Blood as they should be nor like the spirit of Wine for such is rather in the Phrensy ibid. they are like acid spirits distill'd out of Salt Vinegar Box and such like ibid. Stygian Waters are like the nature of the Animal Spirits in madness ibid. three chief affections of acetous Chymical Liquors which agree with them in Melancholy first the effluvias falling away from these Liquors are perpetually in motion in like manner also the Spirits in the Phantasy of a Melancholick Person thence the effluvias from acetous Chymical Liquors do not proceed far in like manner the imagination of a Melancholick Person though always imployed comprehends only a few things and therefore every thing is conceived with a greater Image than it should be Lastly effluvias from acetous Liquors do not evaporate so much from open Pores as they make new and in like manner whilst the Animal Spirits form new tracts in the Brain produce unwonted and incongruous notions 190 191. after they have for some time been vitiated in melancholy the conformation of the Brain is also hurt 191. how they acquire a disposition like to Stygian Water 202. they are the subject of Madness 201 Antiscorbutick Medicines good for pains in the head 116 Apoplexy its seat 153. a description of the disease ibid. its subject ibid. the spontaneous functions only deficient in it ibid. the opinions of others concerning this disease ibid. the theory of this disease is best shown by Webser 154. a reason added by the Author ibid. a twofold Apoplexy 155. The Theory of the former delivered ibid. this disease either accidental or habitual ibid. the cause of the former 156. an extinction of the Spirits comes from opiates or immoderate drinking of hot Waters ibid. the formal reason of the habitual Apoplexy ibid. what its conjunct cause is 157. it consists in the Pores of the Callous Body being suddenly stopp'd and the spirits being driven away by the contact of malignant matter ibid. what the nature or disposition of the morbifick matter ibid. the procatartick cause of the habitual Apoplexy ibid. the differences of this disease 158. its prognosticks ibid. the curatory method ibid. what is to be done in the fit and in what position the sick ought to be kept ibid. Phlebotomy and other administrations noted as Vomiting-medicines Comforters Cupping-glasses hot or glowing Iron 159. the preservatory method ibid. purging and bleeding Spring and Fall ibid. Cephalick remedies ibid. Spirits and Tinctures Lozenges Tea Coffee and Chocalet prepared how to be made and taken 160 a medical Ale ibid. Examples and Histories of Apoplectical Persons ibid. an Anatomical observation 161 Appetite it stirs up local motion 36. the Appetite Imagination and Phantasy in the callous Body of the Brain 25 Approach of the sensible object is made either by contact or effluvias sent forth or by reflected or repercussed particles of the Air Breath or Light 56 Arguments and Reasons of very many Authors perswade that the Soul of Brutes is not only Corporeal but Fiery 5 Artery cutting what it may profit in the head-ach 120 121 Authors for two distinct Souls in man 40 B. BAths when their use is hurtful to the Palsy 173 Bewailing wherefore oftentimes joined with weeping 80 Blasting or withering of Trees like the Palsy 164 Blood animated but hardly sensible 55. its disorders allayed by sleep 92. it performs its offices which are the generation of the Animal Spirits and nourishing the parts better in sleep ibid. how it excites the head-ach 108. the Blood and its contents are sometimes the means of the conjunct sometimes of the evident cause in head-achs 109. for what causes it is wont to be moved and bring hurt to the distempered head ibid. it delivers to the head the morbifick matter received from any other part 110. its inordinations how they may be taken away and prevented 114. its exclusion from the Brain does not easily happen because all the Arteries communicate one with another and some of them supply the defects of others 154. its total exclusion from the Brain sometimes happening causes a terrible Syncope 155. which depends oftnest on the motion of the heart being hindred and so either by reason of the Cardiak Nerves being bound together or by reason of the Spirits in the Cerebel being hindred from their flowing into the Nerves ibid. the original of madness either from the Blood or the Spirits themselves 203 Bloody Brutes why some more hot some more cold 13 Bloodless Creatures whether they have Fiery Souls ibid. Brain and Cerebel 2. Roots of the sensitive Soul 23. a twofold action in the Brain and its Appendix of begetting and dispensation and of Exercise and Government 24. the reason and manner of the former ibid. an exact anatomy of the Brain through its corticated or shelly part 25. the Brain and Praecordia the two Roots of the Soul 48. vices of the Brain noted 148. its distempers wherein the reason is hurt as wel as the other Animal functions 179. what its indisposition is to the Phrensy 183. the Procatartick cause of the Phrensy partly in the Brain 184. Melancholy a distemper of it and the Heart 188. its conformation is hurt after the Animal Spirits being for some time vitiated in melancholy Diseases 191. the Brain labours in stupidity as to its magnitude and figure 209. as to its substance or texture 210. and in its evil conformation as to its pores and passages ibid. Bridges passing over them looking down from on high places and drunkenness how they cause a turning round of the head 146 Brutes their various kinds with their Souls described 7. all their Souls after the manner of Fire want a twofold Food viz. a Sulphurous and Nitrous 6. the more perfect Brutes are indued with knowledge either inbred or
well as the other Animal Functions Who are said to be Foolish or to talk idly This is either shorter as the Delirium or longer and with a Feavour called Phrensie or without a Feavour as melancholy madness stupidity What the Delirium is It s formal Reason The Causes of the Delirium 1 Either from the Blood Or 2 From exterior Spirits planted in the nervous Stock By what and how many ways the Delirium is caused by the Blood 1 By reason of its too great heat 2 By reason of untameable Particles carried from it into the Brain 3 By reason of malignant Particles suffused from it 4 By reason of Effluvias or venomous Particles obtruded also on the Brain 5 By reason of its afflux being denied to the Brain How a Delirium proceeds from the irregularities of the exterior Spirits The Prognostick of a Delirium It s Cure Of the Phrensie what it is The Paraphrenesis Their Conjunct Causes The Phrensie not from the Inflammation of the Meninges The Paraphrenesis not from the Inflammation of the Diaphragma Wherefore breathing is hurt in this Disease The formal Reason of the Phrensie This Disease proceeds from the burning of the Animal Spirits The Inflammation of the Meninges stirs up rather the inveterate Head-ach or the Lethargy than the Phrensie Prosper Martianus also asserts this Chymical Spirits in their distilling are sometimes inflamed So the Animal Spirits What the Indisposition of the Brain is to the Phrensy The Procatartick Causes of the Phrensy which are partly in the Blood and Partly in the Brain The evident causes of the Phrensie The differences of it The Prognostick The Cure of the Phrensie Phlebotomy Clysterâ— A Iulep An Apozem A Drink Hypnoticks External Medicines causing Sleep Epithems The means for the preserving of strength Cordials The Histories of sick persons in Hippocrates Lib. Epidem A notable History The Distemper of the Animal Spirits being after a 〈◊〉 manner as it is the cause of the Phrensie so it is of Melancholy Madness and Stupidity The definition of Melancholy That it is a Distemper of the Brain and Heart Its Examples or Types various and almost infinite Melancholy is â—ither 1. Vniversal or 2 Particular The primary Phaenomena of a Melancholick Dâ—â—â—rium From what disposition of the Spirits they proceed As they are compared to Light they are called opacous or full of darkness These kind of Spirits in Melancholy compared to those in Chymical Liquors 1 They are not like the Spirit of Blood as they should be 2 Nor like the Spirit of Wine Such rather in the Phrensie 3 But these are like acid Spirits distilled out of Salt Vinegar Box and such like 4 Stygian Waters are like the Nature of the Animal Spirits in Madness The formal Reason of Melancholy aptly represented by acetous Chymical Liquors There are three chief affections of these which agree with the Animal Spirits in Melancholy 1 Effluvias falling away from these Liquors are perpetually in motion In like manner also the Spirits in the Phantasie of a Melancholick person 2 Effluvias from acetous Chymical Liquors do not proceed far In like manner the imagination of a Melancholick Person though always employ'd comprehends only a few things And therefore every thing is conceived with a greater Image than it should be 3 Effluvias from acetous Liquors do not evaporate so much from open Pores as they make new And in like manner the Animal Spirits whilst they form in the Brain new Tracts produce unwonted and incongruous Notions In Melancholy after the Animal Spirits being for some time vitiated the Conformation of the Brain is also hurt The Affection of the Praecordia in this Disease as to fear and sadness is delivered After what manner the Corporeal Soul is affected in these two passions The cause of either depends partly on the blood and partly on the Animal Action of the Heart The procatartick Causes of Melancholy are Partly the acetous Nature of the Spirits and partly the Melancholy Dyscrasie of the Blood The Distemper begins sometimes from this sometimes from that How it begins from the Spirits and the Animal Government By what means this Disease arises from the Blood Melancholy doth not arise from an atrabilary humour heaped up in some place or mine By what means according to the Antients it is said to arise from the Head How from the Womb. How from the Spleen How from the whole Body The Differences of the Disease 1 In respect of its first Subject 2 By reason of Temperament of the Sick In respect of the next Cause as it is singular or conjunct In respect of the Imagination diversly hurt The Prognostick of this Disease The Cure of the Disease The evident Cause first to be removed Three primary Indications 1 Curatory The healing of the Spirits is best performed by admonitions and artificial inventions concerning the business of Life Yet oftentimes there is need of Medicine besides The Preservatory indication concerning the Procatartick Causes of the Disease Phlebotomy Purging Vomiting Vomitories Purgers Pills Powders Syrups Altering Medicines are of the greatest moment and not pargiâ—g Medicines as the Antients thought An Electuary A Iulep A Distilled Water Lozengâ—s An Apozem Spaw-Waters Chalybâ—ates Steeled Medicines Whey Broths Iuices of Herbs A Bath Hypnoticks The first History An Example of Melancholy beginning from the Spirits The Cure The second History An Example of Melancholy arising from the Blood The Curatory Method proposed Vniversal Melancholy De Morbis Convulsivis Cap. 2. Particular Melancholy is excited by reason of two sorts of Affections concerning Good or Evil. Love-Madness The Reasons of Symptoms in mad Love Iealousie Superstition and Desperation The reason of the Symptoms The imaginary Metamorphosis of Melancholick Persons Madness and Melancholy are akin The Subject of Madness are the Animal Spirits The dispositionâ— of which are like to Stygian Water Three chief Accidents in Madness Which are also to be found in Stygian Water 1 The Particles of this are always in motion And in like manner the Animal Spirits in Mad-men 2 The Effluvia's of Stygian Water every where make new Pores and Passages In like manner also the Animal Spirits in Mad men 3 The Effluvia's of Stygian Water are diffused far In like manner as the Animal Spirits in Mad-men What the Conjunct Cause of Madness is How the Animal Spirits acquire a disposition like to Stygian Water It is shewed in the first place that corrosive and as it were Stygian Particles are begot in the humane Body Wherefore the Nervous Liquor oftentimes becomes corrosive Because the volatile Salt most easily degenerates into an acid and most sharp with the acquired Sulphur Hence the Reasons of Tumours and Vlcers in the Kings Evil and the Cancer are given Hence also the Madness of the distempered Spirits The Original of Madness either from the Spirits themselves or from the Blood It begins for two occasions from the Spirits 1 By Reason of a violent Passion by which They
are either too much cast down Or elevated above measure 2 Madness beginning from the Spirits succeeds Melancholy or the Phrensie 1 By what means it comes upon Melancholy 2 How upon a Phrensie 2 The Original of Madness sometimes from the Blood 1 It is either Hereditary The Reason of which is shewn 2 Or acquired and so either By reason of errours in the six Non-naturals Or by reason of Poysons An History of a Mortal Madness from eating the leaves of Wolfs Bane The Reasons of the symptoms of Madness explained 1 Wherefore Mad-men are audacious 2 From whence their immense strength 3 Wherefore they are never tired 4 Wherefore they are not easily hurt The Differences 1 In respect of the Original 2 By reason of the Magnitude 3 In respect of Time The Prognostick The Cure What the indications are of continual Madness 1 The Curatory Indication As to Discipline As to Medicine Phlebotomy Vomiting Medicines Purging Medicines The preservatory Indication Altering Medicines Whey An Expressions An Electuary A Iulep Distilled Waters Specificks A Decoction and Infusion of Apples Other Chirurgical Remedies 3 The vital Indication Histories and Examples of mad people are to be sought in Bedlam or Hospitals for mad people The Cure of Intermitting Madness The Curatory Indication Preservatory Stupidity arises chiefly from the failing of the Imagination and Memory Wherefore the Organs of these Faculties labour in this Disease 1 As to Magnitude 2 By Reason of the Figure 3 As to its Substance or Texture 4 The evil conformation of the Brain as to its pores and passages 3 Stupidity sometimes proceeds from both of them being in fault together What the Antecedent Causes of Foolishness are 1 An Hereditary Disposition Why strong or wise men are not always begotten of strong and wise Man The first Reason A Second Reason 2 Ripeness and the Declination of Age dispose some to Foolishness 3 Great hurts of the Head sometimes cause Doting or want of Ingenuity 4 Frequent Drunkenness 5 Vehement Affections 6 The more grievous Diseases of the Head oftentimes excite Foolishness The Differences of this Disease How foolishness and stupidity differ Degrees of stupidity The Prognostick of the Disease Evil if from an hurt of the Head What is excited from a Lethargy admits a Curt. Sometimes it is cured by a Feavour The Cure requires both a Master and a Physician What the labour of the former ought to be What the Medical intentions art What kind of Remedies are shewn 1 Evacuating Remedies 2 Altering Medicines Spirits A Distilled Water Tinctures Elixirs An Electuary Coffee Chocalate Physical Beer Outward Applications A Cap or quilted thing for the Head A Plaster A Liniment The Distempers of the Gout and Colick are Distempers of the nervous Stock The Subject of the Gout Its appearances rehearsed The parts affected The Morbifick Matter It is not any simple or singular Humour suggested from any of them In the Mine of this Disease two humours concur and mutually grow hot In like manner as when the Spirits of Vitriol are poured upon Oyl of Tartar A Vitriolick Matter partly supplied from the Nervous Liquor Either Matter growing degenerate or depraved turns to the Gout 1 From the Blood for that it becomes full of a fixed Salt 2 From the nervous Liquor for that it is acetosous or sharp The former is as it were the feminine Seed of the Gout The other masculine The Procatartick or foregoing Causes of the Gout 1 A Mine of fixed Salt laid up about the Internodia or Knitting togegether of the Bones This Matter is not meerly Excrementitious nor a Bilous or Phlegmatick Humour To this previous procatarxis to wit a fixed Salt the Discrasie of the bloud and the debility of the Distemper'd Member doth help What the Saline Particles of the bloud ought to be to wit in a middle state between fixation and volatilisation When being too fixed they become Morbifick And so they bring forth the Scurvy Dropsie and other Diseases and especially the Gout The Saline fixed or Arthritical Disposition of the Blood proceeds from various Causes 1 Sometimes it is Hereditary 2 Oftentimes acquired by reason of an evil manner of living From what Causes the debility of the Ioynts is excited 2 The other foregoing Cause of the Gout from the acetous part of the nervous humour Such an acetous disposition does not come upon the whole Mass of the nervous humour but only some portions or recrements of it It is shewn that acetous fluxions do proceed from the nervous humour And so part of the Gouty Mixt is sent from the Brain and Nerves The evident Causes of the Goutish Fit 1 The drinking of sharp Liquors 2 Immoderate Exercise 3 Evacuations being suppressed 4 The Circulations of the Heaven Air and Year The differences of the Gout 1 As to the places affected 2 As to its Original 1 In respect of other Diseases It is wont to be complicated with the Scurvy 2 With the Stone The Reason of this is shewed The Prognostick of this Disease The Gouty Matter being restrained or any other way translated oftentimes excites dangerous Distempers The acetous recrements of the nervous Liquor do chiefly effect this The first Instance of such aâ— Effect A second Instance The Cure Three primary Indications 1 Curatory for the allaying the pains in the Fits 1 For the taking away of the Breach of the Continuity Phlebotomy Purging Forms of Purges Vomiting Altering Medicines or such as preserve from the Gout Pills An Electuary 2 The Spirits ought to be allayed or quietâ—d 1 By Topick Remedies Pultesses A Fomentation Outward Narcoticks Resolving Topicks consisting chiefly of Saline Particles even analogic or correspondent to the Morbific Mine Forms of these Plasters in the declination of the Fit Opiates 2 The preservatory Indication out of the Fit Usual Purging and Vomiting Phlebotomy Altering Medicines called Antidotes of the Gout Pills A Distilled Water Tinctures Powders Medicated Beer A Milk Diet. Drinking of ones own Vrine A notable History of the Stone converted into the Gout and on the contrary of the Gout into the Stone The reason of this shewed by Anatomical Observation Why the Colick is counted among the Distempers of the Brain and the nervous Stock From whence the denomination A description of the Disease The seat of the Disease is not always or often in the Intestine or Gut Colon. viz. neither in its Cavity or Coats Pains commonly taken for Colicks These are merely accidental or habitual These latter are properly the Disease The conjunct cause of the Disease are not the Contents of the Intestines Not the humors impacted in the Membranes The nervous Liquor seems most of all to contribute to the cause of this Disease Charles Piso 's Opinion cited and examined The seat of the Morbiâ—ick Matter not in the Brain The part primarily affected in the Abdomen not in the Peritonaeum But more rightly it seems to be the Mesentery Where the seat of the Distempers called Hysterical often lyes hid The Colick-mine is affirmed to be within the nervous and other mesenterick infoldings of the Abdomen From which planted thereabouts the Colick Symptoms are excited The yellow or green Bile or Choler that is cast forth by vomiting in the Colick-Fits is not the material cause of this Disease Wherefore pains of the Loins often come upon the Colick pains In what the foregoing cause of this Disease consists 1 The nervous Liquor is in fault because the Morbifick Matter is gathered together in it 2 The nerves of the wandring pair and their mesenterick Infoldings because they receive into themselves this matter The evident causes of this Disease The differences of this Disease It s Prognostick The Cure 1 The first Indication Curatory What the chief Medical intentions are in the Fit For the most part Clysters are to be begun with Which are at first to be gentle afterwards more sharp Clysters Fomentations Pultesses An Oyntment Cold Fomentations Opiates Evacuating Medicines Vomiting Medicines Purges Salivation Baths Diureticks Mineral Purging Waters 2 The Vital Indication suggests Remedies Cardiack Hypnoticks 3 The Preservatory Indication by which are indicated Vomiting Purging Altering Remedies The Objection of Charles Piso solved The first History The Reason of it The second History The Reason of it The third History The Reason of it shew'd
into disorder by too great a motion and confused fluctuation run inordinately into the heads of the Nerves of the wandring pair and for that reason stir up Convulsions and Convulsive motions in the Bowels Thirdly 'T is observed that the Vertigo comes upon Drunkenness as a known symptom and that to those unaccustomed the drinking though moderately of Wine or strong Ale also the taking of Tabaco easily induces the same affection the reason of which is because from the Liquor or vapour so taken certain fierce particles and untameable are carried into the Brain by the passages of the Blood and nervous Juice which being improportionate and incongruous to the Animal Spirits drive them hither and thither from their wonted tracks of flowing and reflowing or ebbing and so move them into whirlings and turnings about These are the chief occasions or solitary evident causes which do use to bring the Vertigo or turning round in the Head to some men how sound of constitution soever they be which kind of effect these occasions produce forasmuch as the Animal Spirits being disturbed beyond their set courses and orders are moved inordinately fluctuating here and there both within the passages of the Brain and also some of them like a thred broken off from their wonted irradiation into the nervous Stock For these being always reciprocal depend mutually one of another to wit a perturbation of the Spirits within the middle part of the Brain and their flowing forth into the nervous Stock being hindered for from what ever cause either effect is induced the other immediately follows A turning round of the body going in a Coach or in a Boat or Ship also Drunkenness and the unaccustomed fume of Tabaco compel the spirits in the Brain to fluctuate and shake disorderly which for that cause are presently inhibited from their wonted flowing into the Nerves that those so affected can hardly go or stand in like manner on the contrary looking from on high passing over Bridges a languishment or syncope falling on them recal the spirits from their wonted emanation who for that cause tumultuating within the Brain or being moved inordinately cause a Scotomy or dizziness or a turning round of the objects These things being thus premised concerning the Vertigo raised up by reason of an outward accident or from a solitary evident and non-natural cause we shall next inquire how and by what means it is wont to be induced from an intrinsick and preternatural cause Concerning these take notice that the Vertigo is sometimes a symptom depending upon some other Distemper placed sometimes within the Brain and sometimes without it but sometimes this is a Disease of it self which being raised up within the middle part of the Brain becomes very troublesome and often terrible and very hard to be Cured As to the former many Cephalick Diseases or such as belong to the Head viz. Acute pain the Lethargy Epilepsie Carus Apoplexy with many others do often accompany the Vertigo to wit because the equal expansion of the Spirits in the Brain and therefore their irradiation into the nervous Stock from such like various Morbific causes are easily hindred or disturbed as shall hereafter appear when we deliver the Aetiology or reason of the Vertigo as it is a Disease of the Brain But sometimes this symptom is wont to be produced by reason of other Distempers placed a long way from the Brain and that chiefly by two ways or means For first it is usual for a dizziness to arise by reason of the flowing of the Blood being suddenly called away from the Brain as in a Syncope or Swooning great want coming near it wicked hard labour great Haemorrhagies or expence of blood long fasting in passions of violent sadness and fear yea by reason of other occasions when the motion of the blood is deficient or fails in the heart so that the affected are proclive to faintings and swooning away presently because the tribute of the vital liquor is withdrawn the animal Spirits growing deficient in the Brain withdraw their radiation from the nervous Stock for when their spring is cut off those that remain leaping back from their emanation wander about confusedly in the Brain and very often stir up the Vertiginous Distemper Secondly an inordinate recourse or flowing back of the Animal Spirits from some inward or from some outward member often causes the Vertigo forasmuch as the Spirits being disturbed from the affected part by a long series thorow the passages of the Nerves at length disturb others inhabiting the middle part of the Brain and drive them into the like disorders for this cause it is that sharp humors gnawing or pulling the Fibres of the Ventricle because the infestous and irritative matter being moved in the Spleen Pancreas or Intestines causes light dizzinesses in the Brain I have known from an accute pain an Ulcer or a mortified Inflammation in the Foot or Arm frequent tremblings and failings though short in the Brain to have been induced Whilst that the conceived inordination of the spirits is transferred from the distemper'd part thorow the Nerves into the Brain a certain Formication or tingling or as it were the ascent of a cold air is seen and perceived wherefore the cause of this Distemper is commonly ascribed to Vapours arising up to the Head which error we have elsewhere sufficiently confuted Further many are wont when they have fasted or stayed long beyond their hour of dineing to have a dimness before their eyes and their heads to have a turning and then afterwards those clouds vanish having eaten a little this does not so happen according to the vogue of the people for that wind or vapours ascend to the Head from the empty Stomach which the aliments being taken in do immediately suppress but because the Fibres of the Ventricle and the nervous Filaments or little strings being destitute of the nervous Juice with which they desire to be watered are wont to enter into corrugations or wrinklings and light Convulsions which kind of Convulsions and disorders of Spirits for that they are continued thorow the passages of the Nerves into the Brain produce the Vertiginous Distemper which as soon as the Fibres of the Stomach remit their wrinklings ceases of its own accord For this reason I have known some by a Vomit being given tearing the coats of the Ventricle to have been taken with a cruel Vertigo yea I do suspect that this Distemper does sometimes arise from meats of ill digestion and ungrateful to the stomach But the Vertigo is not only a symptom but sometimes a primary Disease of it self whose nature that we may the better search into we ought to inquire into its subject the formal reasons and causes of it and then these being found out and truly unfolded we will proceed to its prognostick and Cure Without doubt the immediate subject of the Vertigo are the Animal Spirits which every one labouring with this Disease