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spirit_n artery_n blood_n vein_n 5,874 5 10.2889 5 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A43353 Aero-chalinos, or, A register for the air for the better preservation of health and cure of diseases, after a new method / by Nathaniel Henshaw. Henshaw, Nathaniel, d. 1673. 1664 (1664) Wing H1481; ESTC R24982 41,792 111

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while in the womb is most probable that all viperous creatures after the birth cannot live long without breath is most certain yet I do not find the uses of Respiration so clearly determined but that it may afford us matter for farther enquiry The common received Opinion is that Respiration serves chiefly for cooling the heart next that it yields matter for production of new vital spirits and lastly that it discharges the lungs of a fuliginous excrement which seems to transsude from the Mass of blood into the branches of the rough Artery that the heart is cooled by breathing is very probable but not immediately for the air going no farther than the lungs first cools them next the blood in them and consequently the heart becomes less hot than otherwise it would be but this is in effect no more than is obtained by bathing the limbs in cold water which does a together if n●t more effectually cool the Mass of blood as much as the air in breathing can be conceived to do it and yet bathing will in no wise become a Substitute to breathing Nor does the generation of vital spirits seem to be the chief use of the air in breathing in regard it is not easie to conceive any such contrivance in the lungs that may serve for the letting in of air into the veins and arteries which contain the blood without endangering contrariwise the effusion of that precious juice much less has Anatomy as yet discovered any such passages unto us Lastly as I shall not deny but that the lungs do discharge themselves of a fuliginous excrement by breathing so I think it as true that this is none of the principal uses of Respiration Nor is it at all likely that either the heart should grow so hot or that the vital spirits should vanish so fast or the fuliginous excrement be accumulated in that quantity upon the intermission of breathing for a short time only as to indanger our lives beyond recovery as the absolute necessity of Respiration would seem to inforce Before I come to deliver my own Opinion I shall make a slight digression concerning the circulation of the blood which will not a little illustrate what we are about to say concerning this Subject 2. 'T is manifest in the circulation of the blood in Animals that the blood is moved from the left Ventricle of the heart through the great Artery into all its branches from whence it is brought back by the smaller veins which discharge themselves into the Vena Cava from whence it is returned into the right Ventricle of the heart from whence it is sent by the Vena Arteriosa into the lungs and so brought back again into the left Ventricle of the heart by the Arteria Venosa And in this circular motion of the blood life chiefly consisteth and if the same by any chance should cease or intermit though but for a very small time less than a minute death would unavoidably follow In this motion of the blood it is observable first that as the pulsation of the heart sendeth it through the Arteries into the whole habit of the body so the return of it by the veins seems to depend chiefly upon the tonical motion of the body for the parts being extended by the flowing in of the blood somewhat beyond their tone do again gently subside and thereby continue the intended course of the blood toward the heart again An argument hereof is that all Paralytick parts grow immediately cold and that for no other reason than that the tonical motion together with the power Locomotive ceasing the circulation is either very weakly or not at all performed through that part which then grows cold for want of that constant fresh supply of blood which formerly kept it warm But herein the tonical motion is not a little helped by exercise and labour which we find by experience to cause the heart to beat quicker and oftner as also to induce a necessity of breathing more frequently and this it doth no otherwise than by accelerating this circular motion of the blood which then enforceth the heart and lungs to double duty Our second observable in this circular motion of the blood is that there passes as much blood from the right Ventricle of the heart into the ●u●gs at every pulse taking one time with another as is sent from the left Ventricle into all the parts of the body beside Nor can it be otherwise the left Ventricle being supplied from the lungs only and the lungs receiving it not elsewhere than from the right Ventricle of the heart So that to continue this circular motion of the blood 't is necessary the supply neither exceed nor come short of that quantity dispensed from the left Ventricle of the heart into the whole body the Lungs excepted From hence it follows that there flows a greater quantity of blood by many degrees into the lungs than what is sufficient for its own private use As also that the blood in the lungs must of necessity move very much faster than it does in any part of the body though we take for example the great vein or artery themselves and that in the same proportion as the Vena Arteriosa and Arteria Venosa are smaller than the trunks of the foresaid great vessels For let the same quantity of liquor be conveyed through a pipe whose capacity is but one fourth or one tenth so big as another pipe through which the like quantity must pass in the same time and it is evident the liquor must run four times or ten times as fast through the smaller pipe as it does through the greater And thus it appears that a very considerable part of the Mass of blood is continually running through the Parenchyma of the lungs and that at a much swifter rate than it doth through any part of the whole body beside 3. Farther before we proceed to treat of the use of Respiration it will not be amiss to consider what kind of motion that is which the lungs are exercised with in breathing Nor is it any other than a motion of dilatation and constriction whereby the lungs are reciprocally opened and shut somewhat after the manner of a pair of Organ-Bellows the air entring into them when dilated or opened and receding again upon their subsiding And this is what we call Respiration Nor yet does this reciprocation of the lungs proceed from any power to move they are endowed with of themselves For if we consider the frame and structure of them they will appear of a Parenchymous kind of substance not much unlike the liver and altogether void of Muscles without which no local motion can be performed We may conclude therefore that the lungs are moved by consent and that chiefly of the Diaphragme or Midriff in a free and ordinary breathing But in any difficulty of breathing as in the Asthma Tabes violent exercise c. not only the Midriff but almost all the Muscles of the