contrary Those things which are diaphoretick as Guajacum China Sarsaparilla have an immediate operation upon the brain and are known by experience to have cured inveterate paines in the head proceeding from obstructions whereas all other means have failed From hence we conclude that all that matter which is transpired either by sweat or insensibly is first conveighed into the brain and from thence by the nerves scattered into the habit of the body That which is transpired is in the body a spurious spirit and is regulated by the motion of the spirits passing through the same channels although it have no reentrance into the body or motion of returne it is to the spirits as a meteor to the stars which by the starrs is put into a motion of consent although to no other end than speedily to be dissolved or to vanish The spirits we conceive to be in all respects the primum mobile of of the microcosme which doe move in the largest circumference and utmost orbe of the body and did first begin that motion which is essentiall to the life of man which whole motion must be first accurately explained before we can enucleate the order of Nature in transpiration or other excretion We did denominate the spirits to be an exhalation from the purer blood which exhalation is the product of heat and heat the ofspring of motion yet notwithstanding we conceive that the first thing that did move in mans body was the spirits These positions doe imply a seeming contradiction for if the spirits be the beginners of motion how is it that they doe become the ofsprings thereof at a third remove I answer that the spirrits are to be considered after a twofold manner they are either innate such as were the beginners of motion or else adventitious those that are the continuers or preservers thereof the spirits which did begin motion in mans body were nothing else but the spirituous part of the seed which from the first instant of its motion must necessarily become more and more refined and so by degrees exhale until it be all spent the adventitious spirits are an exhalation from the purest blood which doth make a continual supply for the continual expence of the innate spirits that so that regular motion which is essential to the life of man may be continued and preserved The spirits doe continually move in the veins and arteries together with the masse of blood yet their proper orbe is from the beginnings of the nerves to all the extremes thereof as also to the whole surface of the body There is a continuation of pores from the brain and spinall marrow through all the nerves fibres and membrans of mans body through which pores there can nothing but spirits or that which is transformed into the shape of a spirit these pores as we said before are of two sorts through which the spirits which are natures intelligencers do passe and repasse through the one kind of pores the spirits are continually passing from the brain to give intelligence to all parts how the brain doth stand affected whereby motion is performed and through the other pores the spirits move backwards towards the brain whereby there is performed sensation we conceive that there are several degrees of spirits viz. Finer and grosser and according to those several degrees we suppose them to move in a greater or lesser circuit the grossest spirits move onely in the veins and arteries together with the masse of blood those which are finer passe through the arteries of the rete mirabile into the brain and from thence are carryed downe by the nerves into the habit of the body and doe return againe by the same nerves although they do passe through different pores into the brain and then they enter into the veins of the rete mirabile from whence they passe towards the heart and are again circulated with the blood these spirits which move in the nervous parts which are properly called animal spirits are also of severall degrees viz. some purer and others lesse pure the purest Spirits expatiate themselves at some distance from the surface of the body those that are lesse pure move but to the surface those that are yet grosser come not so farr but they doe in the mid way by an anastomosis of pores Change their path and make a more speedy return unto the brain even as in the circular motion of the blood the purer parts thereof are conveighed by the pulsation of the heart to the extremities of the arteries and are received again by the extremities of the veins but the grosser parts come not so farr but are lett into the veins by an anastomosis whereby they do obtain a shorter journey to the heart Here we must take notice that the purer part of the purest spirits doth continually vanish into aire and is continually supplyed by that which is in the next degree of purity so that each moment every particle of the spirits becomes more and more refined and hath such a successive being that it cannot twice be called the same The humours and spirits are in continuall motion which renders them obnoxious to continuall alteration The grossest blood doth continually become more and more refined and whereas at first it moved no farther than the first anastomoses or openings of the arteries into the veins it doth afterwards increase in its circuit untill at length it move to the utmost parts of the body then is it resolved into a vapour to the end it may increase and feed the grosser spirits which are in the veins and arteries which spirits by their circular motion increase in purity untill they move first out of the veins and arteries into the nervs so farr as the first anastomosis of the pores afterwards even to the surface of the body and at length they doe move out from the surface being then in such a degree of purity that afterwards by their perpetuall motion they do perpetually lose themselves in the aire Now as the motion of the spirits is conformable to their beginning increase state and declination even so is the motion of that excrementitious matter which is or should be transpired either by sweat or insensibly it is at first a vapour raised from the impurer parts of the blood which vapour is afterwards rarified unto such a tenuity that together with the spirits it passeth out of the veins and arteries into the nerves when it is in the nerves being capable of several degrees of rarity and density it is either transpired or left in the habit of the body however the thinner parts thereof are carryed out by an insensible transpiration I have observed that after the puncture of a nerve in the arme the whole arme hath been much lessened Many which have received some hurt in the os sacrum have had an extenuation of their thigh and legg of that side wherein they received the hurt They which doe lose the use of any part have
which are the supporters thereof and how the spirits which can no longer be then move by delay are condensed I say to omit much which may be spoken concerning the first originall of seed I conceive it will be sufficient for our present purpose to begin with the seed ready made which is the first original of man The seed is nothing else but condensed spirits as may appeare by its tenacity and equality of parts herein we must take notice of such a mediocrity of condensation that the major part is apt to be brought back again to its own nature and be continued therein provided it have such circumstances as are required for the effecting hereof that is such a degree of heat as the spirits alwaies had and such matter annex'd unto it hereby the purer part of the seed may not only be resolved into their first principles viz. into spirits but also this matter may be resolved into a vapour which the spirits may receive for their nutriment Now these conditions are to be found in a well constituted wombe into which the seed being injected is formed into parts after this following manner The purer part of the seed which is included in the centre is at first rarefied into a grosse spirit which hath a slow motion in a narrow or be proportionable to its grosse consistence but afterwards as by degrees it doth revive and put on its owne nature by being more and more rarifyed it doth move quicker and in a larger circuit Now as the spirits by condensation doe cease to move and by rarefaction doe recruit in their motion even so by their return unto their own nature they doe obtain the same motion which they had before condensation the spirits revived in the seed do not only regain their motion but also such motion as they had in the body of man they move in the same figure in the seed as they did in the body so that by granting the spirits a motion agreeable to their owne nature we have the parts carved out unto our intellect which we may easily conceive to be but the footsteps of the spirits That particle from whence the spirits doe first move and unto which they do returne is afterwards the heart their first footsteps are the greater veins and arteries having at first a regular motion in the seed analogicall to that of the grosser humours in mans body that is from the heart to the first anastomoses of the veins and arteries from thence by degrees they tread farther untill at length they have compleated their double path for the humours to walk in and have finished the whole series of the veins and arteries after that the purer parts of the spirits do carve out the menynges of the brain and by a farther progresse of their naturall motion they doe make the nerves and then do run divisions thereupon dividing them into fibres and dilating them into membrans After this manner is the first foundation of mans body laid and then as these spermatick parts do increase in bulk they have added unto them such appurtenances as are suitable to their severall natures the veins and arteries of the Embryon as by degrees they do become more capacious do receive by the umbilicall vein the purer parts of the mothers blood and then the grosser whereas at first the spirits by their motion drew into consent nothing else but an exhalation from the mothers seed And as by degrees the veins and arteries are filled with blood even so are the fibres of the muscles cloathed with flesh by virtue of the said blood in the veins and arteries which is first rarefied and made to put on the nature of a spirit and is carryed along with the spirits through the nerves and afterwards amongst the fibres of the muscles is recondensed in the meane time the purer parts of the spirits are together with some excrementitious vapours coagulated into marrow in the centre of all the parts throughout the whole body the more spernatick part whereof is afterwards secerned from that which is more excrementitious and by degrees by the heat of the body is ossiated In this Coagulum of spirits and vapours we include all kinde of medullossity as the spinall marrow and the substance of the brain Such parts onely of the masse of blood are carryed into the nerves as are capable of being rarefied to the consistence of spirits but those parts which are of a different nature and are too much fixed or curdled are coagulated in their distinct places according to their peculiar differences in the right and left side and do make up the liver and the spleen the liver was by the ancients thought to be the only organ of sanguification and Fernelius attributed the like office unto the spleen upon consideration of that multiplicity of veins and arteries which are disseminated throughout the whole body thereof But these opinions are now exploded by all since the discovery of the circular motion of the blood Doubtlesse the spleen as the Ancients held is the receptacle of the more grosse and melancholick blood by virtue whereof the masse of humours are purified from their feculencies It is our opinion that not onely the spleen but also the liver hath no other office than to purifie the blood by taking into it such parts as if they were in the veins and arteries would fix the blood too much and by consequence prevent nutrition For we have observed in an Atrophia and in any manner of cachecticall distemper that alwaies either the liver or spleen or else both are obstructed and upon the opening of such like obstructions nutrition is again performed and the body returneth to its naturall temperament We have likewise observed in those bodyes of children that we have dissected which have languished a long time and at length dyed of an atrophie that the liver hath been full of scirrhous tubercles and very small the reason of this we conceive to be because those parts of the masse of blood which should have been separated and left congested upon the liver were kept moving still in the veins arteries by reason of those scirrhous tubercles which did obstruct those narrow passages of the liver through which the blood should have been strained whereas if it had been strained those parts should have been left behind in the Parenchyma of the liver which is their proper centre And so it is with the spleen when its transcolatory office is by any means prevented the humours have an unjust consistence and are not so apt to be rarefyed whereupon nutrition cannot be so well performed If sanguification had been the office of the liver Fernelius had done well in attributing the same to the spleen for they do both alike consist of almost infinite small veins and arteries interwoven with their Parenchyma but if the office of all these small veins and arteries in the liver be to strain the blood we must allow the same office to the
spleen yet the veins and arteries of the liver are somewhat smaller then those of the spleen the reason is because it is required that the blood of children which is strained chiefly by the liver should be somewhat thinner then that of those which are grown up which is percolated by the spleen for as we affirme that the spirits by their first motion do bore the veins and arteries and doe move alone therein untill such time as the veins and arteries are capacious enough to receive the mothers blood so it is required that the blood which first enters into the veins and arteries be almost as thin as spirits by reason of their slendernesse and afterwards that it have such a consistence as shall be agreeable to the smalness or largnesse of the vessels So that the blood of children is so much purer than that of those that are grown up by how much their veins and arteries are smaller And that it may be continued so the liver as I said hath veins and arteries somewhat smaller then the spleen that being the chief percolatory of childrens blood and this of those that are old Those that are of middle age have their liver and spleen alike proportionable to their bodies and doubtlesse they doe their offices alike but children have large livers and very little spleen and on the contrary old men have their liver somewhat wasted and their spleen much inlarged The Embryon having all its parts finished and the whole clock-work of nature compleated doth struggle in its determinated time to get out of the wombe as from too narrow an inclosure and is extruded by the mothers body as too great a burthen No sooner is the infâ—nt born but the lungs are set on work and the Diaphragma made capable to conspire with the muscles of the Abdomen for the excretion of some excrementitious matter which before could be carried no farther then into the intestines The serous part of the blood is also now evacuated through the urinatory passages whereas before it was transpired and left in the secondine to polish the skin as also to extend and burst the secondine and make it slippery for the better extrusion of the infant now the head by degrees comes into shape whereas before it was disproportionable to the body Here we cannot but admire the great wisdome and providence of Nature in throwing out the serosity of the blood by transpiration whilst the Embryon is in the wombe that thereby the grosser parts thereof may be coagulated with some spirits within the menynges to make up the substance of the brain whose office is to fix the spirits for severall uses of which we shall speake hereafter and afterwards in expelling the said serous parts through other more open passages least the brain should be too bigg the spirits too much fix'd and the infant borne become lethargicall Nature willing to continue what she hath produced and desirous to preserve what she hath made hath provided the infant borne such a diet as is spirituous viz. its mothers milke which being received into its body warme from its mothers breast doth very much support and strengthen the first foundation of its body the spirits and doth nourish and increase the spermatick parts which are the main architecture upon this foundation yet children as by degrees they do grow up and get strength are afterwards nourished as well with other diet as they were before with milke although by how much the body is more increased in bulke by so much the greater quantity of spirits is required for nutrition thereof Here we must know that as the body becomes stronger there are spirits extracted by the Chymistry of Nature out of that diet which is lesse Spirituous or at least hath its spirits lock'd closer up in its parts As the spirits are the only ingredients which doe enter the composition of sperme so are they the nourishers and augmenters of the spermatick parts yet as the spirits are insufficient to make seed except they be condensed even so are they incapable to nourish and increase the spermatick parts except they be first tuned and fixed by a well constituted brain Hence it is that both children and those that are grown up doe oftentimes pine away and languish not for want of spirits or other nutriment but by reason of the evill constitution of their brain which being rectified by shaving the haire and application of corroborating emplaisters they do regain their flesh and are nourished as well as ever Although the flesh receive not its nutriment wholly from the spirits yet they are the chief instruments of its nutrition which do qualifie the nutritive part of the blood and are themselves qualifyed by the brain Now the chief office of the brain is as I said to fix the spirits for severall uses and first that they should not be too much dispersed secondly for nutrition and auction of the parts thirdly for the making of seed and fourthly for ratiocination Here we doe not conceive that the brain doth primarily act upon the spirits for we think it would be absurd to ascribe action to any part which is not in motion and passion to the spirits which doe continually move but we suppose that the spirits by acting upon the brain do accidentally suffer and become more fix'd As the spirits are alwaies passing through the brain which is in the mid-way of their journey backwards and forwards betwixt the veins and arteries and the nerves so part of them doe alwaies suffer condensation from the time they doe begin to move until their motion cease that is from the first original of man until he die And as there is a continual fixation of spirits so there is a continuall expence and a continuall increase thereof although sometimes the expence is greater then the increase and on the contrary those spirits which are fixed are not afterwards lost by transpiration but they doe either nourish and increase the spermatick parts for preservation of the individuum as in those of under yeares or else they are converted into seed for propagation of the species as in those of consistent age In most old men whose brain is of a dryer constitution there is a lesse quantity of spirits condensed perhaps so much as is sufficient onely for nutrition of the spermatick parts but no superfluity for seed and in those aged men whose brain is so well constituted as to prepare more nutriment then is required for the spermatick parts it is either left in the brain the seminary vessels being closed by reason of dissuetude and so doth cause a great swimming and disyness in the head or else it is carryed towards the spermatick parts which have no need thereof and there doth putrefie and corrupt which doth produce aches and pains in several parts of the body How ratiocination is performed by the condensation or fixation of the spirits it may appeare as followeth As sensation is performed by the motion of the
spirits from the extreme parts which doe carry their respective objects into the brain so is raciocination by the retention of the said objects that is by the memory of such-like sensible perception as we said before that the notion of sounds or colours is nothing else but the remembrance of such things seen or heard Now these objects are retained or this sensible perception is remembred by the fixation of those spirits wherein the said objects do abide So that as the spirits are fixed and continued in the substance of the brain even so are the objects treasured up together with the spirits the comparison of which past objects with others that are present or to come is called ratiocination The spirits being pure of themselves would by their continuall motion be so attenuated that they could not be contained in the body if they had not a refrigeratory the brain to contemper and allay them by virtue hereof the sensories are shut up and sleep is caused that there may be a reparation made for those spirits which were lost while the sensories were open Whereas notwithstanding the coldnesse of the brain some spirits doe continually lose themselves in the aire it is out of the great providence of Nature that thereby they may make the aire a fit medium betwixt the sence and the object So we see the spirits for smelling do disperse themselves in the aire indifferently but the visive spirits are not scattered except in the illuminated aire It will be too tedious to discourse at large how the object by how much it is more pleasant by so much it doth the more entice out the spirits and how the exercise of the several senses upon pleasant objects doth become hypnoticall It is sufficient to know that as the spirits were the first movers in mans body upon whose motion all other natural actions do depend even so all actions cease when the spirits cease to move And as life doth commence by the motion of the spirits even so the cessation of this motion is the next and immediate cause of death whether it be by solution of continuity in some principal organ whereby the spirits are made incapable of keeping their circuit or by some mercuriall vapour which doth suddenly or by degrees intercept their motion or else by something which is stupefying that doth suddenly thicken them I say by what accident soever the motion of the spirits is staid death must necessarily ensue thereupon And no man ever yet dyed either a natural death or by any accident whatsoever but the next and immediate cause of his death was the cessation of the motion of his spirits We call that a naturall death when the spirits are not violently intercepted or discontinued but as by degrees they are thickned and have a slower motion as is evident by the slownesse of the pulse dimnesse of light thicknesse of hearing coldnesse of the body c. so in processe of time they are wholly staid although nothing violent doth happen unto them Thus we see that both the beginning increase state and declination of mans life doth depend wholly upon the motion of the spirits as also all circumstances contained in the said beginning increase state and declination As nutrition auction excretion voluntary motion sense ratiocination and whatsoever else is comprehended under these And as the spirits do governe the body within it selfe so by the mediation thereof all things else doe operate upon the body not onely that which nourisheth and increaseth but whatsoever purgeth vomiteth procureth sweat c. hath its qualities first received by the spirits and from thence communicated to the humours or parts according to the particular natures of such like qualities Aloes and Colocynth taken inwardly purge the body and so they do by outward application Terpentine taken inwardly provoketh urine and emplaisters of terpentine applyed to the back and belly do the like Emplaisters of Ammoniacum dissolve and mollifie scirrhous tumours no otherwise than Ammoniacum taken inwardly doth dissolve scirrosities of the liver and spleen Lapis haematites dragons blood bole c. stop a flux whether inwardly exhibited or outwardly applyed Quicksilver taken inwardly procureth salivation and so it doth by outward application Pills and plaisters of Asa Faetida are both good against the rising of the wombe Unctions of Brimstone cure the itch and so doth Brimstone taken inwardly In a word all things whatsoever have their operation alike upon the body whether they be used inwardly or outwardly But this could not be if the operation of those things which doe alter the body was not performed by the immediate act of the spirits neither could the spirits so act if they had not both a circular motion betwixt the centre and the surface whereby they do keepe a correspondence between all the diversity of parts of the body and did not also expatiate themselves at some small distance from the surface whereby they doe take into the body the infection of the aire There is nothing whatsoever which is not continually spending its spirits in the aire as is demonstrable in all things which are subject to wax old I meane not onely living creatures in the course of their life but even vegetables and the parts of living creatures which we call druggs unto which we ascribe several virtues Let them be kept never so choicely yet they will in time decay and lose the said virtues which we ascribe unto them the reason is because they doe subsist and preserve themselves that time they do continue by this expence of their virtues that is their spirits in the aire otherwise they should suddenly be corrupted And if they be so attenuated that they may be and are taken into the body of man or if they be contiguous to his body they doe the like Now the spirits of mans body as they are alwaies moving out and returning into the body they doe continually lay hold on that which they find in the aire to be most agreeable to their owne nature that is something which is most spirituous and doe carry it into the body and whatsoever they find in the stomack and guts of a spirituous nature they do likewise carry it into the more inward parts viz. into the veins and arteries and afterwards perhaps into the nerves so that whensoever any medicament whether drug or composition happeneth within the reach of the spirits the body is thereby altered and so much the more by how much the parts of the said medicament are separated because thereby its atomes are more speedily scattered Here we must know that the medicine acts not primarily upon the spirits but the spirits upon the medicine although afterwards they do accidentally suffer hence it is that emplasters do performe no alteration upon a mortifyed part neither do external things act at such a distance whereunto the spirits of the body cannot come to lay hold upon the spirits atomes or qualities thereof I could make a closer illustration of