motion bodies were to be framed which might performe a free motion and these are called Animalia or Animantia living creatures from the soul which powerfully evidences life in them 2 Therefore mobility is in all living creatures but after divers manners For some move only by opening and shutting not stirring out of their place as oisters and cockles Others creep by little and little as snailes earth-wormes and other wormes some have a long body which creeps with winding it selfe about as snakes some have feet given them as lizards beasts birds but these last have wings also to flie through the air Which fishes do imitate in the water performing their motion by swimming III The moving principle in a living creature is the vitall soul which is nothing else but the spirit of life thick and strong mightily filling and powerfully governing the bodies which it inhabiteth IV Now because a voluntary and a light motion cannot be performed but in a subtle matter living creatures have bodies given them far more tender then plants but far more compound For they consist of spirit flesh blood membranes veins nerves gristles and lastly bones as it were props and pillars lest the frame should fall Understand this in perfect living creatures For more imperfect living creatures in which we contemplate onely the rudiments of nature have neither bones nor flesh nor bloud nor veins but onely a white humour covered with a skin or crust as it were with a sheath which the spirit included doth stir or move as it appears in worms snails oisters c. But to perfect living creatures 1 That they might have a more subtle spirit bloud and brains were given 2 And that these might not be dissipated they had vessels and channels given them veines arteries nerves 3 That a living creature might be erected bones were given him 4 And left the bones as also the veins arteries nerves should easily be hurt all was covered either with fat or flesh 5 And that the members might move tendons and muscles were interwoven throughout 6 And least in moving the bone the bones should wear one against another cause pain in the living creature a gristle which is a softer substance being as it were halfe flesh was put between the joints 7 And lastly that the frame might hang firmly together in its composure it was compassed with a hide or skin as also all the members with their membranes Therefore a living creature consists of more similar parts then a plant but of far more dissimular parts or members of which it followes V The bodies of living creatures were furnished with many members as with diverse organs for diverse actions The head indeed is the principall member of a living creature wherein the whole spirit hath its residence and shews all its force but because a living creature was intended for divers actions it had need of besides 1 Vivifying organs supplying the living creature with heat life and motion that is brains and heart 2 Moving organs that is feet wings feathers c. 3 And left one thing should run against another or fall into precipices it was necessary to furnish them with sight also with a quick hearing and touch Lastly because the earth was not to supply nutriment immediately to a living creature as to a plant fixed in the earth but it was left them to seek there was need of smelling and tasting that they might know what was convenient to their nature Hence eyes ears nostrils c. 4 Now because a living creature was not to be fixed in the ground with a root because of his free motion more perfect organs of nutrition were requisite for that cause there was given him a mouth teeth a stomack a liver a heart veins c. 5 And because they were not to spring out of the earth as plants by reason of the same motion to and fro Divers Sexes were given them to multiply themselves and distinct genitall members 6 And because living creatures were to be alwayes conversant with others of their own or of a divers kind they had need of some mutuall token even in the dark they had a tongue given them to form sounds 7 Lastly because it could not be but that a living creature should sometimes meet with contraries they had as it were shields and armes given them Hares bristles scales shels feathers likewise horns clawes teeth hoofs c. VI Therefore the whole treatise concerning a living creature is finished in the explication I Of the nutritive faculty II Of the vitall III Of the sensitive IV Of the loco-motive V Of the enuntiative VI Of the defensive VII And lastly of the generative For he that knoweth these seven knowes the whole mysterie of nature in living creatnres For whatsoever is in the body of a living creature serveth those faculties if it do not serve them it is in vain and maketh a monster It is to be observed also that the first three faculties are governed by so many spirits The nutritive faculty by the naturall spirit the vitall by the spirit of life the sensitive by the animall spirit the other four by those three spirits joyntly Of the nutritive Faculty VII Every living creature standeth in need of daily food to repair that which perisheth of the substance every day For life consists in heat And heat being that it is fire wants fuell which is moist spirituous and fat matter Heat in a living creature being destitute of this sets upon the solid parts and feeds on them And hence it is that a living creature as well as a plant without nourishment pines away and dies But if it be sparingly fed it therefore falls away because the heat feeds upon the very substance of the flesh VIII That nourishment is convenient for a living creature which supplies it with a spirit like its own spirit For seeing that life is from the spirit the matter of it selfe doth not nourish life but a spirituous matter And indeed the spirit of the nourishment must needs be like the spirit of the living creature Therefore we are not nourished with the elements as plants are for as much as they have only a naturall not a vitall spirit but we are nourished with plants or with the flesh of other â—iving creatures because those afford a vitall spirit Nay further there is a particular proportion of spirits by reason of which a â—orse chuseth oates a swine barley a wolfe flesh c. Nay an hog hath an appetite to mans excrements also because it yet findeth parts convenient for it IX Nourishment turneth into the substance â—f that which is nourished That appears 1 because he that feeds on dry meats is dry of complexion he that feeds on moist is flegmatick c. 2 because for the most part a man reteins the qualities of those living creatures on whose flesh he feeds as he that feeds on beefe is strong he that feeds on venison is nimble c. If any one have the brains
it selfe vvhatsoever it perceiveth that is too grosse and earthy in the bloud and by little veins sends it again into the entrals and by that means disburdens it selfe of that dreggy humour and last of all the gall attracteth those parts of the bloud that are too sharp and fiery vvhose little bag hangs at the liver and by strings sends them again mixt into the entrals whence the bitternesse and ill sent of dung XXI The vessels of membrification are 1 veins 2 every particular member 3 pores For the veins proceeding from the liver spread themselves over all the parts of the body like boughs and sending forth little branches every way end in strings that are most tenacious from which every member apart sucketh and by a slow agglutination assimilates it to it selfe so that the bloud flowing into the flesh becomes flesh that in the bones turns into bone in a gristle to a gristle in the brain to brains just after the same manner as the juice of a tree is changed into wood bark pith leaves fruits by meer assimilation The excrements of this third most subtle concoction are subtle also namely sweat and vapour which alwayes breaths out through the pores If any more grosse humour remains especially after the first and second concoction not well made it breeds scabs or ulcers or the dropsie XXII For the furthering of nourishment there is a spur added that is appetite or hunger and thirst which are nothing but a vellication of the fibres of the stomack arising from the sharp sucking of the Chylus For the members being destitute of the juice wherewith they are watered solicite the veins of bloud and the veins by the motion of continuity sollicite the liver the liver the Mesenterie that the entrals the entrals the stomack which if it have nothing to afford contracts and wrinkles it selfe and the strings of it are sucked dry from whence proceeds first a certain titillation and that we call appetite simply and afterward pain and this we call hunger and if solid meat be taken but dry because coction or vaporation cannot be made by reason of drinesse there is a desire that moisture should be poured on and this vve call thirst It appears then why motion provokes appetite and why the idle have but little appetite c. XXIII The whole body is nourished at once together by the motion of libration To vvit after the same manner as the root in a plant doth equally nourish both it selfe and the stock and all the boughes Therefore no member nourisheth it selfe alone but others vvith it selfe and so all preserved Otherwise if any member rob the rest of their nourishment or again refuseth it there follows a distemperature of the vvhole body and by and by corruption at length death XXIV A living creature being 〈◊〉 nourished is not onely vegetuted but also as long as his members are soft and extensive augmented the superficies of the members yielding by little and little and extending it selfe but as soon as the members are hardened after youth the living creature ceaseth to grow yet goes forward in solidity and strength so long as the three concoctions are rightly made But when the vessels of the concoctions begin to dry up also the living creatures begins to wither away and life grows feeble till it fail and be extinguished Of the vitall faculty XXV Life in a living creature is such a mixture of the spirits with the bloud and members that they are all warme have sense and move themselves Therefore the life of living creatures consists in heat sense and motion and it is plain for if any creature hath neither motion nor sense nor heat it lives not XXVI Therefore every living creature is full of heat sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker For every living creature is nourished How it appears out of that which went before the nourishment is not made but by concoction but reason teacheth that concoction is not made but by heat and fire It comes therefore to be explained whence a living creature hath heat and fire and by what means it is kindled kept alive and extinguished which the two following Aphorismes shall teach XXVII The heart is the forge of heat in a living creature burning with a perpetuall fire and begetting a little flame called the spirit of life which it communicates also to the whole body Hence the heart is said commonly to be the first that lives the last that dies XXVIII The vitall spirit in the heart hath for its matter bloud for bellowes the lungs for channels by which it communicates it selfe to the whole body the arteries Our hearth fire hath need of three things 1 matter or fuell and that fat 2 of blowing or fanning whereby the force of it is stirred up 3 free transpiration whereby it may diffuse it selfe the same three the maker of all things hath ordeined to be in every living creature For the heart seated a little above the liver drinketh in a most pure portion of bloud by a branch of the veins which being that it is spirituous and oily conceives a most soft flame and left this should be extinguished there lies near to the heart the lungs which like bellowes dilating and contracting it selfe blowes upon and fans that fire of the heart perpetually to prevent suffocation Now being that that inflammation of the heart is not without fume or vapour though very thin the said lungs by the same continuall inspiration exhaleth those vapours through the throat and drawing in cooler air instead thereof doth so temperate the flame of the heat whence the necessity of breathing appears and why a living creature is presently suffocated if respiration be denied it And that flame or attenuated and most hot bloud is called the spirit of life which diffusing it self through the arteries that accompany the veins every way cherisheth the heat both of the bloud that is in the veins and all the members throughout the whole body Now because it were dangerous to have this vitall spirit destroyed the arteries are hid below the veins only in two or three places they stand forth a little that so the beating of that spirit as well as of the heart it selfe when the hand is laid upon the breast may be noted and thence the state of the heart may be known Of the sensitive faculty XXIX Sense in a living creature is the perception of those things that are done within and without the living creature XXX That perception is done by virtue of a living spirit which being that it is most subtle in a living creature is called the Animall spirit XXXI That perceptive virtue consists in the tendernesse of the animall spirit for because it is presently affected with whatsoever thing it be wherewith it is touched For all sensation is by passion as shall appear hereafter XXXII The seat and shop of the animall spirits is the brain For in the brain there is not only greatest store of that spirit residing but
also the whole animall spirit is there progenerated XXXIII The animall spirits are begotten in the brain that is in bloud and vitall spirit 2 purified with the fanning of respiration 3 communicated to the whole body by Nerves The excrements of the brain are cast forth by the nostrils eares and eyes that is by flegme and â—ears For the strings of the veins and arteries running forth into the brains instill bloud and vitall spirit into them And the bloud that turns into the substance of the brains by assimilation but the vitall spirit being condensed by the coldnesse of the brain is turned into the Animall spirit which the air drawn in by inspiration and getting into the brain through the hollownesse of the nostrils and of the palate doth so purifie with fanning every moment that though it be something cold yet it is most moveable and runs through the nerves with inexplicable celerity Now the Nerves are branches or channels descending from the brain through the body For the marrow of the back bone is extended from the brain all along the back of every living creature and from thence divers little branches run forth conveying the animall spirit the architect of sense and motion to all the members in the whole body XXXIV To know the nature of the senses three things are pertinent 1 the things requisite 2 the manner 3 the effect XXXV The things requisite are 1 an object 2 an organ 3 a medium to conjoyn them Or Sensile Sensorium and the Copula XXXVI Objects are sensible qualities inhering in bodies Colour Sound Savour Tangor For nothing is seen touched c. of it selfe but by accidents wherewith it is clothed And if we would be accurate Philosophers N. W. of the three principles of things only light or fire is preceptible For matter and spirit are of themselves insensible the light then tempered with darknesse makes the matter visible Motion which is from light makes a sound but heat which is from motion stirs up and temperates the rest of the qualities odours savours tangors XXXVII The organs of the senses are parts of the body in which the animall spirit receives the objects that present themselves namely the eye the eare the nostrils the tongue and all that is nervie Nothing in all nature acts without organs therefore the animall spirit cannot do it neither XXXVIII The medium of conjoyning them is that which brings the object into the organ in sight the light in hearing the air moved with breaking in smels the air vapouring in taste the water melting in touch the quality it selfe inhering in the matter XXXIX The manner of sensation is the contact of the Organ with the object passion and action There is but one sense to speak generally and that 's the Touch. For nothing can be perceived but what toucheth us either at hand or at a distance There is no sense at all of things absent XL Therefore in every sensation the Animall spirit suffers by the thing sensible That there is no sensation but by passion is too evident For we do not perceive heat or cold unlesse we be hot or cold nor sweet and bitter unlesse we become sweet or bitter nor colour unlesse we be coloured therewith Our spirit I say residing in the organs is touched and affected Therefore those things which are like us are not perceived as heat like our heat doth not affect us But we must observe that the Organs that they may perceive any qualities of the objects want qualities of themselves as the apple of the eye colour the tongue savour c. XLI Yet in every sensation the animall spirit doth reach upon the thing sensible namely in receiving speculating laying up its species For the Animall spirit resident in the brain what ever sensorie it perceives to be affected conveys it selfe thither in a moment to know what it is and having perceived it returns forth with and carries back the image of that thing with it to the center of its work-house and there contemplates it what it is and of what sort and afterward layes it up for future uses hence the Ancients made three inward senses 1 The common sense or attention 2 The Phantasie or imagination 3 The memory or recordation But these are not really distinct but onely three distinct internall operations of the same spirit Now that those inward senses are in brutes it appears 1 Because if they do not give heed many things may and do usually slip by their ears eyes and nostrils 2 Because they are endued with the faculty of imagining or judging For doth not a dog barking at a stranger distinguish betwixt those whom he knowes and strangers yea sometimes a dog or a horse c. starts also out of his sleep which cannot be but by reason of some dream And what is a dream but an imagination 3 Because they remember also for a dog that hath been once beaten with a cudgell fears the like at the sight of every staffe or gesture c. And therefore it is certain that every living creature even flies and worms do imagine But of the inward senses more at large and more distinctly in the Chapter following XLII The effect of sensation is pleasure or grief Pleasure if the sense be affected gently and easily with a thing agreeable thereto with titillation griefe if with a thing that is contrary to it or suddenly with hurt to the Organ XLIII And that the Animall spirit alwayes occupied in the actions of sense may somtimes rest and be refresbed sleep was given to a living creature which is a gathering together of the animall spirits to the center of the brain and a stopping of the Organs in the mean time with the vapours ascending out of the ventricle Hence it appears 1 Why sleep most usually comes upon a man after meat or else after wearinesse when the members being chafed do exhale vapours 2 Why carefull thoughts disturb sleep that is because that when the spirit is stirred to and fro it cannot be gathered together and sit still 3 What it is to watch and how it is done namely when the spirit being strengthened in it selfe scatters the little cloud of vapours already attenuated and betakes it selfe to its Organs 4 Why too much watching is hurtfull because the sprits are too much wearied weakened consumed c. Thus much of the Senses in general somthing is to be said also of every one in particular XLIV The touch hath for its instrument the nervous skin as also all the nervous and membr anaceous parts of the body Therefore haires nailes bones do not feel c. though you cut or burn them because they have no nerves running through them Yet they feel in that part where they adjoyn to the flesh because they have a nervie substance for their gluten Hence the pain under the nailes and membranes of the bones is most acute Now being that the skin of the body is most glutinous and altogether nervie
by reason of a dark superficies Every of these colours hath under it diverse degrees and species according to the various temperature thereof with the others which we leave to the speculation of Opticks and Painters XXIV There remains a quality which is perceived by two senses touch and sight namely FIGURE whereby one body is round another long another square c. but the consideration of this is resigned to the Mathematicks Of an occult quality XXV An occult quality is a force of operating upon any otber body which notwithstanding is not â—iscovered but by its effâ—ct For examp that the loadstone draws iron that poisons assaile and go about to extinguish nothing but the spirit in bodies that antidotes again resist poison and fortifie the spirit against them that some herbs are peculiarly good for the brain others for the heart others for the liver and such like Such kind of occult qualities as these God hath dispersed throughout all nature and they yet lie hid for the better part of them but they come immediately from the peculiar spirit infused into every creature For even as one and the same matter of the world by reason of its diverse texture hath gotten as it were infinite figures in stones metals plants and living creatures so one and the same spirit of the world is drawn out as it were into infinite formes by various and speciall virtues known to God and from these occult qualities sympathies and antipathies of things do properly arise CHAP. V. Of the mutations of things generation corruption c. FRom the contrarieties of the qualities especially of cold and heat For these two qualities are most active those mutations have their rise to which all things in the world are subject which we shall now see I Mutation is an accident of a body whereby its essence is changed Namely whither a thing passe from not being to being or from being to not being or from being thus to being otherwise II All bodies are liable to mutations The reason because they are all compounded of matter spirit and fire which three are variously mixed among themselves perpetually For both the matter is a fluid and a slipperie thing and the spirit restlesse always agitating it self and heat raised every where by light and motion doth eat into rent and pluck asunder the matter of things From thence it is I say that nothing can long be permanent in the same state All things grow up increase decrease and perish again Hence also the Scriptures affirm that the heavens wax old as doth a garment Psal. 10â— v. 27. III The mutation of a thing is either essentiall or accident all IV Essentiall mutation is when a thing begins to be or ceases to be the first is called generation the other corruption For example snow when it is formed of water is said to be generated when it is resolved again into water to be corrupted V An accident all mutation of a thing is when it increases or decreases or is changed in its qualities the first is called augmentation the next diminution the last alteration which we are now to view severally how they are done Of the generation of things VI Generation is the production of a thing so that what was not begins to be Thus every year yea every day infinite things are generated through all nature VII To generation three things are required Seed a Matrix and Moderate Heat These three things are necessary in the generation of living creatures plants metals stones and lastly of meteors as shall be seen in their place VIII Seed is a small portion of the matter having the spirit of life included in it For seed is corporall and visible therefore materiate and it is no seed except it contein in it the spirit of the species whose seed it should be For what should it be formed by therefore seeds out of which the spirit is exhaled are unprofitable to generation IX The Matrix is a convenient place to lay the seed that it may put forth its vertue Nothing is without a place neither is any thing generated without a convenient place because the actions of nature are hindred Now that place is convenient for generation which affordeth the seed 1 a soft site 2 circumclusion least the spirit should evaporate out of the seed being attenuated 3 veins of matter to flow from elsewhere N. W. And there are as many matrixes or laps as there are generations the aire is the matrix of meteors the earth of stones metals and plants the womb of living creatures X Heat is a motion raised in the seed which attenuating its matter makes it able to spread it self by swelling For the spirit beng stirred up by that occasion agitateth it self and as it were blowing asunder the attenuated parts of the matter disposeth them to the forme of its nature This is the perpetual processe of all generation and none other From whence hereafter under the doctrine of minerals living creatures plants many things will appear plainly of their own accord yet we must observe that some things grow without seed as grasse out of the earth and worms out of slime wood and flesh putrified yet that is done by the vertue of the spirit diffused through things which wheresoever it findeth fit matter as a matrix and is assisted by heat presently it attempts some new generation as it were the constitution of a new Kingdom But without heat whither it be of the sunne or of fire or the inward heatof a living creature it matters not so it be temperate there can be no generation because the matter cannot be prepared softned or dilated without heat Of the augmentation of things XI Everything that is generated increaseth and augmenteth it self as much as may be and that by attraction of matter and â—ssimilation of it to it self For wheresoever there is generation there is heat and where there is heat there is fire and where there is fire there is need and attraction of fewell For heat because it always attenuateth the parts of the matter which exhale seeks and attracts others wherewith it may sustein it self as we see it in a burning candle and a portion of matter being attracted and applyed to a body taketh its form by little and little and becomes like unto it and is made the same For by the force of heat of heterogeneous things become homogeneous the spirit of that body in the mean time attracting also to it self somewhat of the spirit of the universe and so multiplying it self also So stones minerals plants living creatures c. grow Of diminution XII Whatsoever hath increased doth at some time or other cease to increase and begin to decrease and that for and through the arefaction of the matter Namely for because the heat increased with the body increasing doth by little and little and little consume the thin and fat parts thereof and dry up the solid parts so that at last they are not able to
to the eye by a second line for by the first line the light falls upon the object by the second from thence upon the eye Refracted is that whereby things are seen through a double medium and so by refracted lines as when an oare or pole seems broken in the water Also when a piece of mony in the bottome of a vessel full of water seemes bigger and nearer the superficies so that one may go back and see it Of the motive faculty LI. Motion was given to a living creature 1. To seek his food 2. For those actions to which every one is destinated 3. To preserve the vigour of life For a living creature being of a more tender constitution then a plant would more easily putrifie and perish if it were not quickned by most frequent motion Therefore the Creator hath most wisely provided for our good that we cannot so much as take our meat without labour and motion LII The moving principle is the animall spirit Therefore a body without life though never so well furnished with Organs moves not and when the braine the feat of the animall spirits is ill affected for example either with giddinesse or a surfet the members presently fall or at least stumble and totter And when the nerve of any member is stopped it is presently deprived both of motion and sense as may be seen in the palsie and apoplexie LIII Now the animall spirit moves either it self only or the vitall spirit with it or lastly the members of the body also LIV. The animall spirit moves it self perpetually sometimes more sometime lesse namely running out and into the Organs of the senses or howsoever stirriug it self in its work-house For from this inward motion of it are perpetual phantasies or imaginations even in sleep which then we call dreams LV. It carries the vitall spirit along with it when at the sense of something either pleasing or displeasing it conveyes it self to and fro through the body taking that with it as it were to aide it as it is in joy and sorrow hope and feare gratulation and repentance and last of all in anger For joy is a motion wherein the spirit poureth forth it self at the sense of a pleasant object as though it would couple it self with the thing that it desireth Thence that lively colour in the face of a joyful man from the vital spirit flowing thither with a most pure portion of the blood And this is the cause why moderate joy purifies the blood and is helpful to prolong life See Prov. 15. v. 13. 17. v. 22. Sorrow is a motion whereby the vitall spirit at the sense of an object that displeaseth it runnes to its centre the heart as it were feeling a hurtful thing thence palenesse in the face of those that are affrighted and stiffnesse of the skin and haires hence also danger of death if any one be often and greatly affected with sorrow the like motions are in hope and fear joy and sorrow that is in the sense of good or bad either present or past But anger is a mixt motion whereby the spirit for fear of injury flies to the center and thence poures forth it self again as it were in revenge Hence they that are angry are first pale and afterwards red c. N. W. All these motions commonly called affections or passions of the minde are common to all living creatures But according to more and lesse for Sanguine creatures are merry Melancholy sad Flegmatick faint Cholerick furious c. LVI The said Animall spirit moves the members but with the use of instruments Tendons and Muscles and the joynts of the bones The puppets wherewith Juglers a pleasant sight to children shew playes that they may turne themselves about as though they were alive must of necessity have 1 Joynts of the members that they may bow 2 Nerves or strings with which drawne to and fro they are bowed 3 Some living strength which may draw the nerves forward and backward which the neurospasta that is hid under the covering supplies Just so to the motion of a living creature there are requisite 1 Joynts or knuckles of bones For bones were given to a living creature that he might stand upright But that he might bend also his bones were not given him continued but divided with joynts of limbs 2. Certain ligaments fastned about the bones wherewith attraction and relaxation might be made therefore certaine tendons were given them as it were cords being of a nervy and half gristly substance which growing out of the head of one bone and running along the side of another bone grow to the lower head thereof and when the tendon is drawne the following bone is drawne so as to bend it self Now it is to be noted that these tendons about the joynts of the bones are bare on both sides but about the middle of them they are extended into a kinde of a membranceous purse stuffed up with flesh Which flesh or fleshy purse they call a muscle of which every member hath many not only least that the tendons when they are drawne should depart out of their place or the bones or tendons be hurt with oft rubbing against one another or for the shape of a living creature only for what a body would that be which consisted of meer bones veins nerves and tendons a Sceleton but because there can be no motion at all without muscles as it shall forthwith appear 3. The neurospasta or invisible mover is the animal sqirit which as it can at the pleasure of the phantasie convey it self into the belly of this or that muscle so it stretches or dilates it as it vvere a paire of bellowes and drawes in that vvhich is opposite from whence nothing can follow but the bending of that member Thence it appears 1. That the animall spirit can move nothing without an Organ For why doth no man bend his knees before because there wants a knuckle above Why doth no man move his ear because that member wants muscles c. 2. It appeares also That by how many the more muscles are given to any member by so much the nimbler it is unto motion by how much the bigger so much the stronger For example in the hands and feet that they might be sufficiently able to undergo the variety of labours and going It appeares also why they that are musculy or brawnie are strong but those that are thin are weak 3. It appeares also that the animal spirit is most busie in motion running to and fro at the command of the phantasie most speedily through the nerves and arteries 4. That the motion of a living creature is compounded of an agitative expansive and contractive impulsive and continuative motion For the animal spirit coveys it self at the pleasure of the phantasie into this or that muscle and the muscle giving place to the spirit flowing in stretcheth forth it self then when the muscle is stretched forth in breadth the length of it must be