but call to mind that humane Bodies as they are observed to vary from one another exceedingly in respect of the unequal Quantities of Blood that are wont to be conâ—ained in each of them So neither will they be found to be at a much greater Agreement amongst themselves in point of Bulk and Stature And consequently all such of them as â—re of any thing a greater magnitude than those others they are compared with as they will require such an amplitude of Vessels as may best comport with such their Dimensions so likewise for the same reason will they stand in need of such convenient measures of Blood as may in some sort contribute to the satisfying these their different Capacities and be every way correspondent to the more than ordinary Largeness of them And then look what excess of greatness shall be alotted to any one mans Body above another the same in a like Proportion ought to be allowed to each Particular Member and Integral Part into which the whole â—b supposed to be divided if compared with other Parts and Members which are Constructive of some lesser Body unto which their own Total had been referred According to which way of procedure by a deduction as evident as Demonstration it self That Blood that shall be adjudged convenient for the repair and maintainance of those larger parts ought to be exhibited in somewhat a more plentiful and free manner than to those others that are less and then what becomes of all those Redundances and Superfluities that according to this Opinion are so much relied on Besides humane Bodies are known to differ as well in point of Temperament as they do in bigth and tallness upon which account there are incommunicable Degrees of Heat and Cold ascribed by the Learned to either Sex Men they affirm to be of a Constitution much more hot Vigorous and Active than Females usually are whence it comes to pass that they stand not in want of those periodical Evacuations that the others cannot be so well without the Superfluous excesses of their Blood being otherwise corrected and that as either preyed upon and consumed by their own natural â—eat or driven forth of the Body again in Sweat and Vapour by the protrusion of the same cause and if so be one Sex may be set at so wide a distance from the other in respect of these two Opposite Qualities as we see they are and as is commonly believed by all What hinders but that the several individuals comprehended under either kind may in a due measure and in some less Proportion be removed from one another likewise and then the as different Circumstances that unadvoidably fall in with and are appendant to the supposal of these various Qualities that is to say as considered in a more remiss or intense Degree are neither hard to conceive nor yet difficult to be accounted for Because there is nothing either more or less to be found in them than what is occasioned by Principles apt enough to produce such Effects by way of Natural Causality And so according to the Rules of common Discourse and ordinary Reasoning what can be more necessarily concluded than that all such as are of a Blith and Spritely humour should require of Course a great deal more of Blood and Spirits for the supporting it than others which are dull and lazy and Phlegmatick for the maintainance of theirs in regard they are put to a much greater Expence thereof every moment of their Lives than the others are It faring with the one as with the Earth in Summer At what time let the Clouds gather together never so fast and the Water descend upon it in almost never so great abundance 't is forthwith returned back again in Vapour and Exhalation and unless it may for a Constancy have its wants supplied with fresh and repeated Showers will unadvoidably in a very little while become scorched and burnt up But with the others as with the same Element in the depth and dead of Winter when there neither is nor can be the same avoidance of its moisture because that heat which should alone work its removal is so exceedingly abated over what it was wont to be at the other Season of the Year all things are not the same to all men and if that Assertion shall seem overstrange to any it will be less so if we do but consider that all men are not the same neither to themselves but vary and change Conditions almost as often as the Moon does Shapes to day appearing in one Humour and to morrow in another and as Rivers are called by the same Names by way of Analogy only when the Waters out of which they are constituted are hourly fresh and new so may the same thing in some qualified Sense be verified of mens Bodies too So that to resume our former Debate there is no great Question to be made but that as every Body is fitted with particular Instruments and Organs such as may be convenient for its use and composed of such Members as may bare a Proportion to the whole so likewise with such Supplies of Blood and Nourishment as are every way agreeable to its Temper And the Sanguine and the Cholerick the Melancholick and the Flegmatick have each of them such allowances as suit best with their several Constitutions and then if the Quantities of Blood that are observed to be in each of them be not alike so if the matter were well enquired into perchance neither is there Temperament and to the Dissimilitude of the one may very well be ascribed the Inequality of the other And then upon either or both these Accounts taken jointly or severally as the matter may seem to require there may be grounds sufficient shown for the producing a Reason for whatever common Experience informs us of as touching the present enquiry without flying to meer Possibilities Contigâ—â—ties things which indeed may but perhaps never will fall out of which more anon But suppose they should both fail and be rejected as unsatisfactory and that nothing of a direct proof could be made out from either of them that is to say that neither the Inequalities of mens Bodies nor yet the Disagreeableness of their Tempers ought to be allowed of as any Cause at all for the furnishing them with such various Supplies of Blood as we usually find they have which yet to me appeares plain and reasonable enough and so 't is like it may do to many others besides I do not see however upon what Imaginary grounds or colourable pretence this laying up Provisions against future Casualities can possible be made use of as an Argument of any Force at all to evince it that being neither consistent with the usual Methods of Nature in other like Cases not yet with those commonly received Notions that are vulgarly delivered concerning her such as are acting Necessarily and Perfectly her intending but one thing at a time and nothing at all in vain Whereas
observed in all other Creatures Atque ita se habet in omnibus Animalibus c. So that if one half of the Blood or but neer so much be to be disposed of by the upper Branch of the Aorta as there is no question to be made but that it is if these long Necked Creatures he mentions should chance to forget themselves never so little and forbear holding down their Heads but one Minute of an hour what an unequal Distribution thereof must necessarily ensue upon it and how would all the faculties of the superiour Region of the Body be at a loss for want of Spirits to act withal by reason of the Head its being in so great a measure disfurnished of them according to this Hypothesis And yet we see they do forbear for a great deal longer time and that frequently too without any the least shew of Prejudice or Inconvenience to them at all which is a manifest Indication of the Author his being mistaken in the Doctrine he delivers as he is indeed in almost every thing he any where treats about insomuch that setting aside the Dele totum at the Begining which he is pleased to place amongst the Erratas though others full as knowing as himself are of opinion they deserve much better and to be reputed of as the onely piece of wholsom Advice that is to be found in the whole Book there are scarce two words coming together that may not upon very good reasons be found fault withal but what is that to me if it should be so who am only concerned to look to my self and make good my own Station 'T is no such delightfull Recreation to me to be busying my self about other mens matters and calling them to an account for what they have done could I have been permited to have enjoyed my own quiet and lived free from Molestation at home I should have been sparing enough of giving them the least Disturbance in any of their Fooleries let them have been never so many or never so egregious And now I have been put upon it contrary to mine own Inclinations so little desirous am I of seeking after advantages of that kind that I am herrtily sorry for the Occasion offered me of saying so much as I have tho in the greatest plenty of argument As I have been all along hitherto upon the defensive part so I desire to hold on still And if I can but ward off my Adversaries Blow and hinder him from doing me the Mischif he designs shall never be at all solicitous about the following of my own to the incommoding of him though I had it never so much in my power to do so because 't is the clearing up of my own Reputation as it falls in with the General Design so often intimated and not the disparagement of his that I have a respect unto and if that might have been effected by a direct Course as there would have been little need of casting Personal reflections upon any man so should it never have been offered at by me 'T is true I could have deciphered some Body plainly enough to be understood who has been exceeding fortunate at setting up with a borowed ingenuity when he has had but a very inconsiderable Stock to have made a Beginning withall of his own made vast improvements of the precarious comendations bestowed on him by some great ones who have been charitably disposed * See Mr. Fr. Potter his Letter to I. A. Esquire of the Middle Temple written in the Year 52. By which is made to appear who was the first Inâ—enter of the transfusion of the Blood He used to say it came into his Mind by reflecting on the Story â—f Medea and Jason and having bin related to a numerous society of Men evermore good at crying up a few of their own Members for transcendent in each particular Faculty whither happening to deserve it or not And though I am pretty well assured there is not any thing can be more taking with the Vulgar than to be shewed a Master Wit in his own conceit turning Master Fool at last in the Opinion of all others besides himself and that Multitudes of simple People who have suffered themselves to be deluded by the false Appearances and idle Pretences of the same Person 's imaginary clerkship could like it well enough to be rectified in their Judgements by receiving some better Information concerning him yet for me he is like to stand in the same fair Opinion with them he alwayes did not only because it looks so unhandsomly and makes so harsh a Discord to be saying all the Ill one can of a Person from whom one has sometimes heard Ill but because of the Advantage that is given against the Truth thereby to such whose Assent is more truely valuable by sideing with it so unseasonably Recriminations we all know to be none of the best means of defending a Cause by so far indeed from gaining the party who makes use of them any acquittal from the Fault he stands charged with that they rather make one where there was none before at leastwise bring such an one under a strong Presumption of being thought guilty who otherwise might have passed for Innocent But yet as Commendations violently extorted from a mans own Mouth when wrongfully accused are wont amongst equal Judges to meet with somewhat a more favourable censure then to be looked upon under the strict Formality of self praising so on the other hand it may well be hoped that they who have desired to live in Peace and could not obtain it when they come to be injuriously dealt withall and hardly spoken against without Cause may be allowed the Previledge of making their Apology after the best not to say only manner they can and then if they do now and then reflect upon their Adversaries Infirmities when it could not be otherwise avoided provided it be done with Truth and Soberness not so much out of Anger and by way of Retaliation as in order to the Invalidating the malicious Suggestions they find have been whispered against themselves or for the prevention of publick Wrongs and Inconveniences that in all Probability without some such Course taken might have been offered to others deserve something of a conivance at leastwise if not to be held absolutely excused as for my own part it cannot be denied but that I have now and then let fall some sharpish expressions against a Person of Eminency enough in his own profession for if no Body had been intended thereby it had been a pouring out wotds to no purpose and an aiming them at Random but then I considered with my self before I did so how he came by it first of all and what excellent good uses he has made of it ever since and does dayly what sort of People his cheif admirers are and have been and how they likewise came to be so and by what meanes and artifices they have been continued in
which concur to the making up of the Outward Man will be sure to have all the same Habitudes and mutual Respects one towards another and wherever this Order ceases to be found such Productions are to be accounted of no longer Natural but Monstrous The Geometrician having once gained the Dimensions of Herculus his Foot was at no loss at all to find out the Complement of his whole Body because of the Natural symmetry of Parts that was to be supposed in them even from the greatest to the least so that if he know but how to calculate truely there was no possible danger of being mistaken in raising any false Conclusions But if an exact Harmony be to be observed in matters of less Moment then why not in so material a thing as that a due Proportion of Blood should be allowed to every individual Person and if nothing can be natural but what implies a Universality to wit one common Consent and Agreement amongst the Individuals belonging to the same kind and if there be no greater Reason for an Excess of Blood to be provided for all humane Bodies in General than a Deficiency as in Truth there is none then the meanest Skill in Logick that is will teach us to infer a Mediocrity and what may most conveniently suite with each Mans particular Exigency State and Disposition for an Agreement they must of necessity concur in and it being once granted that there was no more than what was sufficient before such Act of Phlebotomy it follows by a direct and clear Consequence that there must be less so soon as ever that comes to be performed and so must needs continue to be till such time that loss shall some way or other be recruited which before it can be done how many and great Inconveniences may be apt upon several Occasions to happen out I leave to each Mans particular Judgement to determine and that serves fully enough to evince what has been so long contended for to wit that the taking away any determinate Quantity of Blood whatever must unavoidably infer some Prejudice to be done to the Party so deprived of it some very few Cases excepted because he has it not now in the exact Quantity allotted him by Nature which is seldom or never out in the measures she takes and as she rarely failes in the shaping a Hand or a Foot so as to make it either too big or too little for the Body to which it belongs so no doubt is she as little to seek in the apportioning other matters of an equal Concernment with them when ever left to be disposed of by her 'T were endless to wast time in the â—numeration of Particulars there being very few Diseases which may not be said to afford us Instances of this kind and which may not be proved to take their Rise or Augmentation or both from the Indiscreet Application of this Universal Remedy as 't is now vulgarly believed but there is no prosecuting several Arguments at one and the same time and 't is the Act of Nutrition alone that I have pitched upon as my choice and that I am engaged to keep to which will most undoubtedly come to be suspended or abated or some way or other hindered thereby and then what the Consequence is of necessity falling out thereupon hath been already shewn For what else is Nature but the directive Power of Almighty God in his Government of the World which therefore may be said to act regularly because rationally but in all rational purposes matters of Conveniency are to yield and give way to those of necessity the chiefest Good in case of Competion and where both cannot be attained at the same time is evermore to be preferred and the greatest evil as constantly to be avoided there must one be submitted to but if we shall diligently compare these two Offices of Nourishing the Body and Circulation of the Blood one with another we shall find upon due Examination had the latter to be much the more necessary of the two and consequently the other to be suspended for some time when ever they happen to be inconsistent together which will be in a manner as often as Phlebotomy shall be made use of because a convenient Quantity and no more as has been sufficiently proved being to be allowed to every man in that Estate Nature has assigned him when ever that Proportion comes to be abated of she is engaged to use her utmost endeavours for the reproducing it with what possible Speed she can and then for her to augment and wast it at the same time to part with as great a Quantity thereof about the repaires of the Body as she was wont formerly and yet forthwith to make an amends for this other accidental Loss that is supposed to happen over and above especially when the other might very well be looked upon as a task sufficient in Persons already past their best and now in a waining Condition to be sure it is is a matter somewhat difficult to comprehend At other times and upon other Occasions not altogether unlike to this when the contest has been between this very Act of Nutrition and a Good confessedly greater than it self that it has been respited for a while appears evidently enough in the Instance of Sickness before observed where the Life of Man is supposed to be brought in Jeopardy but that the Life of man is no less concerned upon a Stoppage put to the Circulation of the Blood is every whit as clear for what matter of greater Importance to the very Being and Sustentation of Humane Life can there possibly be assigned than is the free Motion and Transportation of the Blood and Spirits from one part of the Body to the other 't is equivalent to the very Action of breathing it self which all agree upon to be a thing of exceeding great moment nay in some Sense to be esteemed of before it it being possible for Life to be supported without the one as we see it is in all Children before their Births and in some Divers beyond the Seas if the Testimony of Travellers concerning that point be any thing to be heeded but never in any wise without the other insomuch that at what time soever the Heart and Arteries forbear to beat the Body is supposed from that very moment to forbear any longer to live but even to expire and die away together with their Motion A further Illustration of the truth of the same matter discovers it self to our almost every Dayes Experience were we but at leisure to give heed thereto as we ought in each common Diarrhea or Looseness of the Body in which the Strength failes and the Flesh abates immediately upon the breaking out of that Distemper which surely can be for no other reason but this the Nourishment now becoming slippery and not making a stay long enough either in the Stomack or Bowels so as to be able to impart of its alible Juice to the
whole mass of Blood as formerly the Blood thereupon forbears sending any further Supplies to the several Parts of the Body till such time as the wonted order comes again to be observed not that the Blood can ever be supposed to be endued with a Faculty of Discerning between good and evil or made to be any way capable of the foresight of an Inconvenience to ensue upon the parting with its own Stock without good Security taken for having more laid in the room of it But what though it should not Nature takes care of all beings alike and bestowes Instincts and Directions where higher Faculties are wanting for the attaining several good and useful purposes and then 't is all one upon the matter as if it self were upon whose account it is that the very Lillies of the Field though they neither Weave nor Spin come to be decked as Gorgeously and arrayed in as goodly a Sort as any of those Creatures that have Wit and Contrivance allowed them for the procuring of their own Apparrel In allusion to which Oeconomy and over-ruling Power of Providence are we accustomed to say in common Discourse upon our taking Cold at any time after the leaving off a Garment or being more thinly clad than usual that the parts so deprieved of their wonted Covering still looked for and expected a Continuance of what they had had before whereas in strict propriety of Speech to expect and look for are Acts too high and noble to be performed by such inferiour Instruments as are the Limbs and Out-parts of the Body But inasmuch as Nature is supposed to bear so great a Hand and Sway over them so as to furnish them with Dispositions Habitudes and Inclinations in a word to have the Guidance of them in many respects much after the same manner that an Arrow is directed to the Mark or a Ship Steered towards the Harbour such Expressions are aptly enough suited to the Nature of the things they are designed for and apprehended by such as either use or have them without any Difficulty at all So that the Circulation of the Blood being known to be much more useful than the Act of Nourishing the Body and that the same Act of Nourishing the Body has been at some times and is usually forborn to be exercised whether it be in case of Nature her being better imployed elsewhere or whether it be for lack of a Supply of such Contribution as the Body was wont formerly to be furnished withal what hinders but that it should as well give place here that is to say where-ever Phlebotomy shall be made use of seeing 't is all one in some Sense to be disfurnished of what we actually had and not to be supplied with what we should have had and be suspended for some little time so long at leastwise till the present harms may admit of a Reparation which be it more or be it less if any at all will be found sufficient for our purpose because as has been already shewn the Act of Nutrition if suspended at any time must unavoidably infer an Abatement to be made upon the whole Duration of Mans Life I say the Duration of Mans Life in regard the two primitive Qualities so often before mentioned and which are held to be the Maintainers of it are so inevitably cut short thereby and then the whole duration not only because 't is impossible to Substract any one single Unite from the vastest Number that can be named without an impairing to the total Sum or take away the smallest Particle imaginably from any Species of continued â—uantity without making it less than it was before but as being willing to comprehend thereby any possible Alterations greater or less whether present or future that may possibly be occasioned thereby nay though they should be of so slow and gradual a Production as could not well be taken notice of all on the sudden by one transient and single view There being very many things in Nature which though falling directly under the cognizance of humane sense when considered of altogether may yet be far enough from being accounted of as such if divided into Particles and small Tractions and a respect be to be had to the precise manner of their being brought forth The Grass of the Field increaseth daily at almost every season of the Year and the Bodys of Vegitables and Living creatures till such time they arrive at their perfect growth are incessantly passing from a less Estate unto a greater and yet who the most sharp sighted amongst you can pretend to an Infallibility of Judging the Sensible Alterations wrought either in the one or the other and the very same Proportion holds in the Determination of most things that is observable in their Increase 't is to be confessed indeed that after some Pause made and Competenty of time taken to make a comparison between the things themselves 't is very possible to make a due Estimate of what may have happened but that is not so much the Question in debate 't is the shortness of time and the smalness of the Change wrought in it which alone creates the Difficulty and so again there are many things which as to common Appearance have not their Affects at present and which seemingly act at a very great Distance of time in the producing them which yet are so far from diserving to be slighted upon the score of the insensibleness of their approach that on the contrary they may seem rather to exact so much the greater Portion of our care to be taken in the better providing and cautioning our selves against them the Venome of some Beasts how slowly and as it were with deliberation does it steal and insinuate it self into the Bodies of such Creatures as have at any time been wounded by them till at last it comes to take a full Possession of the whole Mass of Blood and Vital Spirits and brake forth to open Acts of Violence and yet all the while it hath layn thus dormant may truely be said to have as great an Aptitude to destroy as any the most deadly Draught of Arsenick or Ratsbane and the neglect of some inconsiderable Breach when it should have been Repaired how does it in time occasion Ruine and Destruction to the whole Building Herein lies the great Fallacy which simple People are wont to put upon themselves they live a Life of Sense rather than Reason or indeed Fancy rather than Sense and because they don't take notice of any present Alterations that may have happened are the more inclinable to think that therefore there have been none at all and because they believe there have been none for the present are ready to conclude that therefore there wil be none for time to come and all this proceeds from no other grounds than want of Judgement and Foresight and so being unable to determine their own Thoughts by any Solidity of Argument they are able to make out themselves are the