Hole into the Urethra which if they be stopped about their Exit into the Urethra nothing bursts forth out of the Chanels in that place where they are annexed to the glandulous Bodies tho' the Seminary Vessels be forcibly disten led which would necessarily happen had they a mutual Commerce with the glandulous Body Hence Regner de Graef infers that there is neither any Seed generated in 'em nor any thing Seminal contain'd in 'em but believes that what is therein contain'd is something peculiar some slimy Liquor which serves for a vehicle to the Seed issuing out of the Vessels with which he judges the Seed to be encompass'd lest it should vanish before it comes to the Womb. But in regard that in dead Carkasses the demonstrations of the Parts are not the same as in living Bodies the Pores and narrow Passages being then so clos'd that they will admit no breath to go through whereas they are passable in living Bodies I question whether those things sufficiently prove that Experiment of Graef according to his foremention'd Opinion For tho' he perspicuously explain thereby as well the little Caverns of the Prostates as the Liquor in them contain'd and also their evacuating Passages yet he does not tell us truly what that Liquor is of what Matter generated and wherefore that Commerce between the Seminary Vessels and the Prostates is not so little as he describes it but rather so much and so necessary that those Chanels through which the Seed is squeez'd out of the Vessels ought to run through the middle of the Prostates to the Urethra and through them empty the Seed into it at the same time that the Liquor of the Prostates flows into it Here we are at a stand and therefore seeing the Prostates were not placed in vain where they are nor in vain admit the evacuating Chanels of the Vessels through the middle of their Substance seeing they are no way beneficial to the Piss-bladder or to the Evacuation of the Urine seeing lastly that they contain a certain proper kind of slimy Juice and being compress'd empty it into the Urethra with the Seed of the Vesicles it seems also probable to us that there is a great Commerce between them and the Seminary Vessels and that the Seed carried thither through the occult Productions of the Vasa Deferentia is contain'd in them or else that they add something necessary to the greater perfection of the Seed tho' the foresaid Commerce be not so perspicuous to the sight That there is Seed contain'd in 'em is apparent from the Observation of Vesalius related in one that was troubled with a Gonâ—…rrhea Anat l. 5. c. 13. In one saith he that was troubled with a Flux of Seed against his will when we dissected him at Padua we found this glandulous Body when it was divided no less full of Seed than the Stones themselves and if we must confess the truth all the while of the Dissection in no part of the Body so great a quantity of Seed as was found in this glandulous Body tho' it varied from the Substance of the Stones in softness and smoothness If therefore they contain Seed they are not to be esteem'd such mean Parts as Regner de Graef seems to account ' em Iâ—… he object that their Liquor is not true Seed however of necessity he must confess that the Seed without it cannot have its utmost perfection of Foecundity for if without that Liquor the Seed could be perfectly fruitful the Prostates would not be given to all Males but would have been wanting in many as unprofitable and superfluous LXI Here also the Opinion of Wharton is to be rejected Lib. de Gland c. 31. and of Antony Everard who both alledge that there is a threefold different Seed made in divers parts The first and most noble in the Stones the second more serous in the Seminary Vessels and the third more thick and viscous in the Prostates And that this threefold matter necessarily concurs to Generation so that if one of 'em be absent the Seed becomes unfruitful and barren But they affirm this without any foundation neither do they consider that the same Seed which is made in the Stones in its passage through the Parastates acquires a greater perfection and so some part of it is conveigh'd through the Vasa Deferentia through the occult Extremities of those Parts to the Prostates but the greater part of it is carried to the Seminary Vessels and is there reserv'd till the time of Evacuation Neither is there any other Matter which is to be chang'd into Seed that flows to these Parts or is concocted or preserv'd in 'em than that very Seed which is concocted and prepar'd in the Stones Besides if there be such a necessity of this triplicity how shall the Seed be generated in Animals which naturally want Seminary Vessels as certain in Dogs and is to be question'd in Wolves and Foxes which Animals however have a very fruitful Seed This Opinion is by many strenuous Arguments more at large refuted by Regner de Graef Lib. de viror Organ LXII Here two things remain to be inquir'd into First What is the true â—…ction of the Stones Secondly How the Seed which is thick can pass through invisible Pores from the Stones to the Seminary Vessels and Prostates LXIII As to the first our Opinion from what has been said is plainly made out that the Office of the Stones is to make Seed out of the Arterial Blood and concurring Animal Spirit From this Opinion of ours many depart For Aristotle was the first who taught that the Stones conduce no otherwise to the generation of Seed than that they extend the Seminary Vessels by their weight for the more convenient ejaculation of Seed whose followers are Fallopius Cabrolius Spigelius Regius and several others induc'd chiefly by these Reasons 1. Because there is never any Seed found in ' em 2. Because they have no Cavities or Ventricles to receive and preserve it 3. Because they admit no manifest Vessels through which the Seminal Matter flows in and out 4. Because Fish Serpents and many other Creatures that want Stones generate 5. Because it is observ'd that some Beasts have generated after their Stones were cut out As Aristotle tells us of a Bull that bull'd a Cow and got a Calf after his Stones were cut out 6. Because Cabrolius reports Observ. Anat. 3. that at Montpelier he dissected the dead body of a Man that had ravished a Virgin in whom he could find no Stones neither within or without but only Seminal Vessels 7. Because the same Cabrolius saw a young Man that had no Stone who nevertheless was married and had several Children by his Wife LXIV But all these Arguments are easily refuted by the following Reasons 1. Though the Seed be not ordinarily seen in the Stones by reason of its extraordinary thinness and the extream thinness of the Vasa Seminifera or Seed-bearing Vessels yet does
is a milky Liquor carried thither through the â—…eries somewhat mixed with the Nervous Liquor which Opinion we resute l. 2. c. 12. XXV Nicolas Hoboken also asserts this Liquor to be carried thorough the Arteries tho' after another manner For tho' up and down in other places of his book de secund Human he writes that he could not observe any blood-bearing Vessels in the Amnios Yet in his Treatise de secund Vitul he writes that the Arteries possess in a plentiful number the Tunicle of the Amnios and that in that place there is a great Correspondence between them and very many small Glandules not only in great number besieging the outer parts of the little String but the inner parts of the Amnios So far forth as by means of those little Glandules the Arterious blood carried thither is affected and prepared that the said Liquor may be thence conveighed to the Hollow of the Amnios But he does not add what Alteration it undergoes nor does he any way prove that Correspondence which he supposes by Conjecture Moreover in many parts by means of the Glandules the Lympha is separated from the blood as Choler in the Liver the splenetic Juice in the Spleen c. But it was never heard that any Juice which is not in that blood could be separated from it or that the Arterious Blood could be changed into milkie Juice XXVI Here we meet with one Difficulty that is to say that the milkie Vessels as well those that come from the Mother to the Womb as those that run from the Birth to the Womb are never to be seen But no Man will make a wonder of this who sees how easily all blood-bearing Vessels even the Chyle-bearing Pectoral Channel which is somewhat bigger ly hid when empty and sometimes the Lymphatic Vessels being empty'd disappear so that they neither be discern'd or found any more He also that has observ'd how invisible those Passages are through which sometimes in the Dropsy the serous Humours of the Abdomen and in the flowing of the Whites that vast Sink of the Vitious Humours is emptyed through the Womb from the Liver Mesentery and other Vessels of the Abdomen So also these milkie Uterine and Umbilical Channels without Question are very small and in dead women evacuated and thence they have hitherto so long layn hid that they have scap'd the Sight of the Anatomists Of which nevertheless there have not long since been some Discoveries made which some Persons not dreaming of the milkie Vessels have taken for Lymphatics others for diminutive Nerves XXVII Charleton reports that Vanhorn a famous Anatomist of Leyden in an Epistle to Thomas Bartholin wrote that he observ'd two milkie Branches descending toward the Separation of the great Artery extended to the Seat of the Womb near the Crurals Something also to this purpose has Anthony Everard observed in Coneys For he writes that in a Coney with young he observ'd some milk-bearing Channels arising from the descending Trunk that run along together with the Spermatic Vessels to the parts serving for Generation Deusingius gives a clear ocular Description of these Vessels de hum Corp. Fab. p. 7. c. 3. For says he that there are milkie Vessels also belong to the Womb conveighing Alimentary Iuice to the Birth we have not only in another place by most solid Arguments demonstrated but observ'd by ocular Inspection in Bitches Whelps innumerable diminutive milkie Branches running through the broad Ligaments of the Womb to the Horns themselves and the whole Body of the Womb. Moreover we observ'd in the Year 1655. a little milkie Branch entring together with the Umbilical Vessels through the Navel of the Whelps contained in the Womb. And as in other Creatures so there is no Question to be made but there is in Women But tho' we have not hitherto seen these milkie Conveighances to the womb however it suffices for the Demonstration of the Truth that they have been discovered by more quick-sighted Anatomists and that also it may be demonstrated by most certain Arguments that of necessity they must be there tho' they are seldom conspicuous 1. Because there is a great Similitude in Colour Tast and Substance between the Liquors of the Chyle-bearing Pectoral Channel and the Amnios 2. Because in breeding Women a certain Chylous Milkie Liquor flows in great abundance from the womb As has been observ'd and seen by Andrew Laurentius Zacutus Lusitanus and others 3. For that colour'd Liquors being swallowed down come presently to the womb which cannot penetrate thither so suddainly through any other than the milkie Vessels conceal'd and devious from the rest Thus writes Iohn Heurnius that upon the giving of Saffron in Broths a Woman brought forth a Child stain'd with a Saffron Colour Also Henrie ab Heer 's reports That a Woman having swallowed Saffron within half a quarter of an Hour brought forth a Child stained with a yellow Colour Which Colour could not possibly reach so soon to the womb and the birth unless together with the Chylus it were carried thither through certain milkie Vessels devious from the rest For if the Saffron were first to be concocted in the Heart and then to be carried thither with the Blood it would lose its Colour Or grant it still to be retained yet it would require the Interval of some Hours before it could come to the womb Concerning this Matter see some other things said c. 18. whereby the remarkable Experiment try'd by Herdotius in a Bitch with Puppy this same devious Passage of the milky Juice to the womb is made very apparent and there illustrated with other Observations XXVIII Here we are to take notice of the mistake of Curveus who writes that at the beginning there is a Humour in great abundance collected between the Chorion and the Amnios and that that being filter'd through the Membrane of the Amnion penetrates to the inner hollowness of the Amnion and that this inner Iuice differs not from the other but only in its thinness caus'd by the same filtration Whereas the Humour which is found without the Amnion is not contain'd simply in the Chorion but between the Chorion and the Urinary Membrane neither is there any at the beginning in that part to be filter'd whereas from the very beginning the moisture moderately abounds in the Amnion and whereas the inner Juice is not thinner but much more thick and viscous than that which afterwards increases between the Chorion and the Urinary Membrane Moreover the milky Juice of this Amnion being boyl'd grows to the consistence of a Gelly but the other without the Amnion thickens without any boyling The first is apparent by the Experiment of Rolfinch Lib. 6. Dissert Anat. c. 32. Where says he We boyl'd the Humours wherein the Birth swims with a gentle heat when the thinner Particles being consum'd that which remain'd at the bottom was clammy like Glue The Humours upon the Tongue taste somewhat sweetish so that this glutinous
could scarce reach to the top of her head with his fingers ends Neer Schoonhoven in the Village Leckerkerck a few years agone there lived a Country fellow a Fisher commonly called the great Clown a very strong man I have often seen him when he stretched out his arm the tallest of ordinary men might go under it and not touch it Anno 1665. at Utrecht-Fair in the Month of Iuly I saw a very strong man and very tall and witty enough which is a rarity in such great bodies above eight feet and an half high all his Limbs were proportionable and he was married to a very little woman whom when he Travelled he could without any trouble carry in a Pouch along with him he was born at Schoonhoven of Parents of an ordinary size At the same time a Country wench was shewn Eighteen years of age who was nigh as tall as the said man her whole body was well shaped but she was of a dull capacity Yet these rare instances of a vast stature which I have seen like unto which Platerus Observat. l. 3. describes four more are nothing compared with some which are described by Historians The body of Orestes which by command of the Oracle was dug out of the Earth is said to have been seven Cubits long which Cubits according to Aulus Gellius among the Romans amounted to twelve feet and a quarter William Schouten in his Journal reports that in the Port called Desire neer the Straits of Magellan he found men of ten and eleven Cubits Fazellus decad 1. lib. 1. cap. 6. mentions several bodies found in divers places some of which were seventeen others eighteen others twenty others two and twenty Cubits long and one of their Teeth weighed five ounces Pliny writes that in Crete a Mountain was broke by an Earthquake and on that occasion a body of forty seven Cubits was found which some thought Orion's others Oetius's So likewise Camerarius relates divers stories of such Giants Meditat. Histor. cent 1. cap. 82. And on the other hand likewise sometimes men are â—…ound of a very low stature viz. three or four feet long We call such Dwarfs Formerly I have seen three or four of them Platerus Observ. l. 3. in principio describes three such which he saw Aristotle lib. 8. histor animal cap. 12. writes for a certain truth that Pigmies dwell about those place where the Nile runs into Egypt and they are such short dwergens that they are not above an ell high But this People could never yet be found by the modern Seamen who have sailed the World over perhaps because they could not get with their Ships to that peoples Country and therefore one might very well question the truth of the story had not Aristotle who ought to be trusted a great way writ it Nevertheless Spigelius does not believe Aristotle but reckons his story of the Pigmies a fable being so perswaded 1. From the authority of Strabo lib. 1. Geograph 2. From the experience of Francis Alvarez a Portugueze who himself Travelled those parts whereabout Aristotle writes the Pigmies are namely where the Nile runs into Egypt yet he could no where see or find that little Nation but says that those parts were inhabited by middle statured people The difference of colour is great according to the difference of Countries For in Europe and Christendom people are white in Aethiopia and Brasile black in divers parts of India tawny in some places almost red in others brown in others whitish IV. A humane body considered particularly or according to each part affords for consideration the neat figure of each part the most convenient connexion the admirable structure the necessary action and lastly the great yet harmonous diversity of all and each function and use V. The part of the Body is any bodily Substance joyned to the whole in continuity having its own proper circumscription and with other parts making up the whole is fitted for some function or use This is an exquisite definition For First the part of a humane body must be a bodily substance and such as is joyned to the whole in continuity a thing is said to be continued whose least particles stick one to another in rest not in contiguity For contiguous bodies must of necessity be diverse and one may be separated from the other without hurting either both remaining entire For as Wine contained in a vessel cannot be called a part of the vessel nor the vessel a part of the wine because there is no continuity between them two so likewise blood contained in an Artery cannot he called a part of the Artery nor of a humane body since it is not joyned thereto in any continuity Secondly A part must with others make up the whole for whatever things are above the complement are not reckoned parts of one body but are bodies subsisting by themselves which often adhere to the whole that they may be nourished by the whole Thus a child or mole in the womb are not parts of a womans body but subsist by themselves and yet by means of the placenta uterina and umbilical vessels they are joyned to the womb that they may receive nourishment from it nevertheless the woman when she is delivered remains entire So likewise Sarcomata or fleshy excrescences and such things are not reckoned among the parts of a humane body because they neither make up the complement of the whole nor are designed for requisite functions and uses but adhere to the whole that thereby they may be nourished VI. Thirdly A part must be made for some function or use VII A Function or Action is a certain effective motion made by an Organ through its own proper disposition to it This is either private whereby the parts provide for themselves or publick whereby the whole is provided for for instance The stomach by a private action or coction converts the blood brought to it by the Arteries into a substance like it self and so is nourished But it performs another action besides whereby it provides for the whole Animal to wit chylification VIII The use of a part is a certain aptiude to some proper intention of nature to wit Such as not only turns to the benefit of the part whence it proceeds but also respects the good of some other part or of the whole It is doubly distinguished from action First because action is only competible to parts that operate but use is often competible to things that do nothing at all that is to such as help an acting part so that it may act better Thus the cuticle acts nothing but its use is to moderate the sense of the skin to cover it and the extremities of the vessels and to defend it from external injuries Fat acts nothing it only cherishes and moistens the parts and makes their motion easier Hair acts nothing but its use is to cover and adorn the head and to defend it from external cold
disburthen themselves The other Kernel he asserts to be a little less which he affirms to have found sometimes double sometimes treble sometimes consisting of more Bodies But if many Kernels are found in any Body that was sickly at his Death he calls those Kernels Adventitious because they are not to be found in healthy Bodys IX The learned Malpigius besides the aforesaid Vessels observes other very thin and slender Bodies extended like small Threads among the Vessels that shoot sorth which he calls Corpora adiposa or fat Bodys and he believes 'em to be certain peculiar hollow Vessels carrying the materials of Fat for the Generation of Fat tho' it be impossible to observe their Original by reason of their extream Slenderness In the mean time he is of Opinion that these Materials of Fat are separated from the Blood by the means of certain invisible adipous Kernels and are so sent to these Vessels and thro' those conveighed into the Membranes rhere to be coagulated into Fat. For as there are certain peculiar Kernels appointed for the separation of Acid Salt Bitter Lympid c. Humors from the Blood for this shall be made out in the following Chapter so he believes that there must be certain peculiar Kernels which he calls A lipous of necessity appointed of oily and fat Particles from the Blood and that those oily Particles being separated are to be carried through certain peculiar adipous Vessels in the same manner as the Blood the Animal Spirits the Chylus and lympid Humor called Lympha are carryed through peculiar Vessels upon which he introduces many ingenious and probable Conjectures But what it is that makes me question the Truth of these Kernels and Adipous Vessels I have already set down in the fourth Chapter preceding where I have made mention of these Kernels X. The Caul is seated about the Intestines into whose Windings and Turnings it insinuates it self and spreads a great part of its self between the Spleen and the Stomach XI In many Persons it scarcely extends it self below the Region of the Navel in some farther reaching even to the Bladder and sometimes in fat Women compressing the Mouth of the Womb to the bottom of which it rarely grows it occasions Barrenness as Hippocrates testifies And in Men if it fall down through the torn Peritonaeum into the Scrotum it causes that Rupture which is called Epiploce when the Caul falls into the outward Skin of the Cods It appears in more Folds and Doubles toward the Spleen than in any other Parts Sometimes in Women after Delivery remaining all rumpled about the middle of the Belly it occasions terrible and frequently returning Pains XII For the most part in Men grown up it hardly exceeds the weight of half a Pound and yet sometimes it has bin known to weigh several Pounds Thus it is found to be wonderfully encreased in some Diseases And Wharton relates that in a Virgin that dy'd of a Cachexie he saw a Caul that was fleshy or rather Glandulous about half a Thumb thick Sometimes also in fat and tun belly'd People that are sound it is covered over with a great quantity of Fat which encreases its weight Thus Vesalius l. 5. c. 4. saw a Caul which being augmented to the weight of four or five Pounds drew down the Stomach with its Ponderosity and was the Occasion of the Parties Death by its weight XIII By cherishing the Heat of the Stomach and Guts it causes more successful and speedier Concoctions It supports the splenick Branch and other Vessels tending to the Stomach Colon and Duodenum Moreover it many times receives the Impurities and Dreggs of the Liver as appears out of Hippocrates l. 7. 55. also out of his 4. lib. de Morb. lib. 1. de Morb. Mulier As also from the Observations of Riolanus Rossetus and other Physicians CHAP. VII Of the Ventricle Hunger and the Chylus I. TAke off the Caul and presently the Ventricle or Stomach appears as it were a little Belly call'd by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as also Gaster II. It is an organic Part of the lower Belly seated in the Epigastrion next under the Diaphragma which receives the Nourishment taken prepared by Mastication and let down through the Gullet and there concocts it and dissolving the best part of the Nutritive Substance converts it into a Chylus or whitish kind of Substance like to Cream III. It consists of a triple Membrane the outermost thick and common springing from the Peritonaeum the middle fleshy the innermost full of Wrinkles and covered over with a viscous Crustiness to preserve it from the Injuries of Acid Iuices IV. In the middle and innermost Membrane in the first place there is to be seen great Variety of Fibres extended some obliquely some streight and some Circular For the strengthning of the Bowels and more easy Retention and Expulsion V. The innermost Tunicle is vulgarly said to be common to the Gullet and Oesophagus whereas it is of a far different Nature and Structure and in regard of its Temper and Composition contains a most admirable fermenting Quality which the Membrane of the Mouth of the Stomach and Oesophagus is not indued withal and hence it engenders and stores up within it self a peculiar Fermentative Humor which being in a sound Condition the Concoctions of the Stomach are rightly perform'd but being vitiated by the Mixture of Choler or any other depraved Humors occasion a bad Concoction And therefore it would be better to say that this Tunicle is not common with but continuous to the Oesophagus and Mouth of the Stomach For there is a great Difference between Continuitie and Communitie For the one denotes only the inseparable Adhesion of the Substance alone but the other signifys the Equality both of Faculties and Uses For Example the great Arterie is continuous to the Heart but not common as not having such Qualities and Actions as the Heart has VI. The Temperament of the Stomach is moderately Hot not so hot as the Heart Liver and many other Parts Which moderate Heat is augmented and cherished by the Heat of the Parts that lie round about it To the end the Concoction of the Chylus may be the better accomplished which otherwise is greatly endammaged by the Excesses of these Parts either in Heat or Cold. VII In a Man there is but one Stomach It being a rare thing to find two Stomachs in any Body Of which I never read but three Observations of which one concerning a Stomach divided into two is cited out of Ioselinus by Theod Schenkius in Anat. The other is cited by the same Person out of the Observations of Salmuthus And the Third is set down by Riolanus Anthropogr l. 2. c. 20. in these Words Once I saw a double Stomach continu'd but distinguished with a narrow Mouth in a Woman publickly dissected in the Year 1624. In this Woman the Stomach was
string the motion of the Milkie Liquour in the Mesentery is not perceiv'd to be hindered And then he adds the Experiment of Lewis de Bills by which he believes it to be obvious to sight These are the principal Arguments by which that Famous Artist endeavours to uphold his Opinion Now let us examin of what weight they are and whether they are so ponderous as they promise to be to the end we may see whether Truth will give her voice for this acute Invention XXIV I answer to the first and second That there is not only a lesser but a greater Proportion between the Milkie Mesenteric Vessels and one or two Thoracic Ducts than there is between so many innumerable Veins that proceed from the Head the Trunk the Feet the Arms and some other Parts and one Vena Cava into which they all evacuate themselves For if we consider so many Myriads of Veins all of 'em may be thought to evacuate into the Vena Cava ten times as much Blood as either the Vena Cava can contain or disburthen from it self And yet who does not see that it is done without any disorder and why therefore should we wonder that the same should be conveniently done in the Milkie Vessels Besides we must consider that the flowing of the Chylus is not so continual for many times there is a great distance between the two Meals at what time there is no Chylus that is either made or flows which is manifest to the Eye in Creatures hang'd a long time after they have fed in which those Vessels are found empty of Chylus and that Men who feed often or else eat to excess and therefore neither Concoct the Chylus over hastily or in over great quantity so that it cannot swiftly make its way through those Passages such men are out of order either because they do not digest the Food they have eaten sufficiently or for that the quantity of the Chylus being too great cannot pass quick enough through those Milkie Vessels and therefore by the way by reason of its longer stay grows thick sowre coagulates or is otherwise corrupted which breeds Obstructions and impedes the Passage of the Chylus Lastly If we may argue from similitude we must consider how much serous Humour passes in a little time through the narrow Ureters which if it may be done with so little trouble in those Vessels why may not so much pass through the Milkie Vessels and the Ductus Thoracicus XXV To the third and fourth I answer That the portion of the Chylus that passes through the Ductus Thoracicus is not so small in quantity but very copious as is obvious to the sight If a living Dog be quickly open'd four or five hours after he has been well fed and the Milkie Vessels in the middle of the Breast be cut away and then the Intestines together with the Mesentery be alternately and softly pressed by the hand so they be relax'd as in Respiration that Compressure is alternately made in healthy and living Creatures then it will appear what a quantity of Chylus passes through that Vessel in the Breast For in a short time a great quantity will flow forth into the hollowness of the Breast neither shall any thing be discern'd to flow thither through any other Passages Moreover by the singular Observation of Walaeus there is wasted every day in a healthy Plethoric Person very near a pound of Blood Is it impossible that in a whole days time a pound of Chylus should pass through the Milkie Vessels to restore and supply that waste of Blood In the space of half a quarter of an hour we have squeez'd out above two Ounces by the same way as is before express'd how much therefore might pass in a whole day certainly much more may be thought to pass than is wasted supposing that the Chylus were continually present in the Guts from whence being continually present and still passing proceeds the growth and increase of the Body and the Plethory is caus'd To this may be added Lower's Experiment cited by Gualter Needham l. de Format Foet c. 1. who in a live Dog having made a hole in the right side of his Breast tore the Receptacle of the Chylus with his Finger near the Diaphragma and then sewing up the External Wound preserv'd the Dog alive nevertheless tho' the Dog were very well fed within three days he dy'd as being starv'd to death but then after he had opened the Body the whole Chylus was found to be cram'd into that part of the Breast which was wounded and the Veins being open'd the blood was seen to be much thicker without any serous Humour or Refreshment by any mixture of the Chylus XXVI To the fifth I answer That a great part of the Chylus that is wont to be carried through the Ductus Thoracicus to the Subclavial Vein during the time of breeding and giving suck is carried to the Womb and the Dugs and because that for want of that Chylus which is carried another way the Womans Body is not sufficiently nourish'd hence those Women if they be otherwise healthy by the force of Nature become more hungry and greedy that by eating and drinking that defect may be supply'd and that in the mean time the Necessities of Nature may be furnished which requires Nourishment for the Embryo or Birth But if through any Distemper of the Stomach or of any other Parts those Women are not so hungry but eat little or less than they were wont to do then they grow weak by reason that the Chylus is carried another way for the Nourishment of the Birth and are emaciated almost to skin and bone as we find by daily Experience XXVII To the sixth That when the Pectoral Chanel is ty'd and the Creature lyes a dying we see that the Milkie Mesentery being partly press'd by the adjoyning Parts that lye upon 'em and partly flagging one upon another vanish by little and little This is true but not because the Chylus enters the Mesaraic Veins but because it is pour'd forth into the Chyliferous Bag and the Ductus Thoracicus which are then dilated and extended more than is usual by the Chylus and when they can hold no more then it stays about the great Glandule of the Mesentery in the Milkie Mesaraics and may be seen therein for a whole day and longer which could not be if the Chylus enter'd the Mesaraic Veins XXVIII As for the Experiment of Lewis de Bills which has seduc'd too unwarily several Learned Men into another Opinion what is to be thought of that we shall tell you L. 7. c. 2. Iohn Swammerdam in his Miracles of Nature p. 29. promising to himself that he will restore to the Liver the Office of Sanguification or of making Blood affirms that the whole Chylus ascends through the Mesaraic Veins to the Liver and that what we see in the milkie Vessels is nothing else but a whitish lymphatic Juice And this he proves from
backward toward the Ligature but are almost quite empty beyond the Ligature Have they not the same Right and Power as the lymphatic Vessels Wherefore also when there is no Ligature cannot the Lympha be forc'd by the Finger from the chyliferous Bagg toward the Liver and Glandules of the Groyns and Armpits tho' it may be easily forâ—…'d toward the Vasa Chyliferae Why do the Valves obstruct this more than that Motion of the Lympha Certainly all these things plainly teach us that the Lympha does not move from but to the chyliferous Bag and the Vasa Chylifera In the Liver or a little below the Liver the thing is so plainly manifest by the forementioned Ligature that it is beyond the Contradiction of any Man that has Eyes whenas there is no Chylus strain'd through the Liver nor any Chylus that comes thither whatever Regius Bils and other Asserters of antiquated Learning and erroneous Demonstrations so vigorously maintain to the Contrary as shall be more largely prov'd l. 7. c. 2. Now then if this happen thus in the Liver why shall the same thing seem such a wonder in the forementioned Glandules in which the same thing is evident by Ligature Why must the Glandules of the Groyns and Armpits make milkie Juice and not rather extract it out of the Vasa Sanguifera themselves in like manner as we see that in the Ventricles of the Brain the small Glandules adhering to the Choroïdal Plexure so far as which no milkie or chylous Liquor penetrates extract a serous and lymphatic Liquor out of the Vessels to which they adjoyn and discharge it into the Cavities of the Ventricles However if any Follower or Admirer of Lemis de Bils either will be pleased or can at any time demonstrate this thing otherwise to us so as to convince us by seeing it with our Eyes we shall rest satisfy'd in the mean time we are bound to believe what we have hitherto seen and now asserted XX. Reason also gainsay's the foresaid Opinion For that the milkie Iuice of the chyliferous Receptacle cannot immediately upon its slipping out of the Receptacle toward the Glandules supposing 'em to be the Glandules of the Groyns changed into this pellucid and clear Lympha and lose all its milkie Colour in a Moment But this they say is done because it is strain'd through the Glandules lying in the Mid-way But there are no Glandules where the Insertion of the lower lymphatic Vessels into the Receptacle of the Chylus shews it self There are two indeed a little lower but the various lymphatic Vessels pass by 'em at such a Distance that they do not so much as touch 'em so that the Lympha contained in them cannot attain its transparent Thinness from such a Straining Others more studious of Novelty than Truth that they may by some means or other underprop this new Opinion assert with Regius that the milkie Juice being infused with Violence into the Receptacle of the Chyle becomes Frothy and White but by Cessaâ—…ion the Froth ceasing becomes watery and flows to the Glandules so coloured like Water Like brown Ale which being poured forcibly into the Glass foams at the top with a white Froth but let it stand a little and the Froth turns again to watery Liquor But how lame this Simile is is every way apparent For certainly there is not so much Violence in the Motion of the Chylus which should occasion the chylous Juice to become white and frothy for that natural Motion proceeds softly and gently of which no more violent Motion can ever be felt by a Man not discern'd by the Eye in Dissections of living Creatures So that if it presently loses its white Colour which they call Spumosity descending from the chyliferous Bagg by a short way to the Loins and Glandules of the Groins why does it retain it in a Channel four times as long ascending to the subclavial Veins Whence has it that whiteness in the Intestines and milkie Mesaraics before it is infused into the chyliferous Bagg with that feign'd Violence Wherefore standing quiet in the milkie Vessels or taken out in a Spoon by that Sedateness does it not lose its Colour but still preserve its whiteness XXI And thus whether we consider the Autopsia viz. Ocular Convincement or Reason the Lymphatic Vessels do not seem to have any other Original than from the cluster'd Glandules and the Parts by us already mention'd And further also it manifestly appears that the Lympha is a Liquor very much distinct from the Chylus XXII After the description of these Chanels or Vessels let us examine in few words what sort of Liquor the Lympha contain'd in 'em is For the Opinions of Learned Men are very various in this Matter and every one advances his own as truest or at least most probable XXIII Bartholine de vas Lymp Brut. c. 6. writes that the Lympha is a simple Water being the remainder of the Nourishment as it is Elementary This Martin Bocdan who Apol. 2. Memb. 11. Artic. 3. agrees with his Praeceptor asserts in Man to be diffus'd between the â—…at Membrane and the Muscles but in other Creatures is contain'd under the Skin and because it does not all transpire through the Skin therefore that these Vessels were made for its Evacuation But both the one and the other describe a very mean rise substance and use of this Lympha when such a simple Water could never be sufficiently expell'd through the Pores only by the heat of the Parts nor would there be such a necessity for it to be carried inward through the Pores of the Body If you say that this is requisite for the moist'ning of the Parts certainly that Office is sufficiently perform'd by the moisture of the Meat and Drink assum'd Besides a meer Water never settles into a Gelly as this Lympha will do if it stand a while in a Spoon XXIV Glisson Anat. Hep. believes the Lympha to be a Liquor consisting of the Vapors of the Blood gather'd together like Dew forc'd into these Vessels and flowing back with the Vehicle of the Nourishment brought through the Nerves But this Opinion is confuted by these Reasons 1. Because such Vapors may easily thicken into Dew or Water but never like the Lympha into a Gelly 2. For that the Supposition of the Nutritive Juice being carried through the Nerves is false and by us C. 16. of this Book and L. 3. c. 11. and L. 8. c. 1. sufficiently refuted 3. Because the Vapours of the Blood partly invisibly through the Pores and visibly by Sweat partly by the Expiration of the Lungs or else condens'd may be emptied with the Urine Stool Weeping c. so that if that be all there is nothing that compells 'em to enter those Vessels XXV Backius does not seem to differ much from Glisson who seems to deduce those Vapours of the Blood out of the Veins into these Vessels for he affirms the Lymphatic Vessels to be Veins arising
wholesom what shall we say to a Birth of nine Months which however is no Critical Month and yet most frequent and most wholesom What to the Tenth Month Certainly there is no Effervescency of the Body of the Infant as there is of the Humours which boyl at certain times and break forth Critically And therefore since there is no solid Effervescency in the solid parts of the Birth neither is there here any bad or good season of Critical Evacuations to be observed and thence no reason that Children born in the eighth Month should be thought less likely to live than those that are born in the seventh seeing that dayly Experience teaches us how that Children born in the eighth Month live as well as they that are born in the seventh For if they are born in the seventh Month and can be ripe so soon why not in the eighth why shall not the latter brook the Violence of the Air and the change of Nourishment as well as the former rather why not better seeing they are more mature In vain do many here alledge the great toil and tumbling of the Birth in the seventh Month more than in other Months by which he is so weakened and tvr'd that he cannot brook the Labour of Expulsion in the Eighth for these are idle Dreams refuted by the Women themselves who assure us that they perceive that extraordinary Motion no more in the seventh than in the sixth or eighth As vainly others fly to the numbers of Days Hours and Minutes confining the Exit of the Child to certain numbers when the incertainty of the days of delivery frequently delude those Numbers Lastly the Astrologers in vain endeavour to reconcile this matter by the benigne or malign aspects of Saturn as if Saturn rul'd always or at least that there were no Children born in the eighth Month but under his Reign whereas such Births frequently happen under the Dominion of other Benign Planets which seem to be secured from Saturn's Injuries by their Clemency and Benignity Besides Asto the Influences of the Stars how unknown and meerly conjectural they are not only the fallacious uncertain and contrary Judgments of Astrologers so frequent in their Writings demonstrate and of what little Prevalency and Efficacy they are experience teaches so that whether they have any power over things here below is not without reason questioned by many And hence though many in explaining the meaning of Hippocrates Concerning the Children born in the eighth Month by him pronounced short-liv'd have laboured very much and have studyed to underprop and adorn his Sentence with many fictions and pretences of Truth yet not only frequent and daily Observation but the Authority and Experience both of the Ancients and Moderns overturns all they have rear'd beyond the Limits of Greece For Galen says they are in a very great Errour that will not acknowledge the eighth Month for a due and natural time of delivery In like manner Aristotle asserts that Children born in the eighth Month live and grow up Nevertheless he adds that the words of Hippocrates may be interpreted in the best Sence But many dye in several places of Greece so that very few are preserved So that if any one there doth live he is not thought to be born in the eighth Month but that the Woman has mistaken her reckoning Pliny writes that in Egypt and Italy Children born in the eighth Month do live contrary to the Opinion of the Ancients and that Vastilia was happily brought to bed of Caesonia afterwards the Wife of Caius Among our Modern Authors Bonaventure saw three safe that were born in the eighth Month. So it is credibly reported that the Learned Vincent Pinelli together with his Sister were born Twins in the eighth Month as was also Cardinal Sfondrati and both his Sons Cardan brings five Examples of great Men all born in the eighth Month who lived and asserts moreover that in Egypt generally they live that are born in the eighth Month. Which if it has befallen so many Princes we may easily conjecture that the same as frequently happen among the ordinary People who seldom reckon so exactly Riolanus relates that in the Iland Naxus the Women are usually brought to bed in the eighth Month and Avicen gives the same Relation of the Spanish Women We find the same to be true in Holland and that it is so likewise in France England Scotland and all the Northern Countries is very probable because we never hear of any complaint against the eighth Month in any of those places V. Now the reason why some are born in the seventh some in the eighth and others in the ninth Month is to be ascribed to the difference of Regions Seasons Dyet Passions of the Mind Temperament of the Seed Womb and Woman her self by means whereof the heat of the Womb increases sometimes later and sometimes sooner So that sometimes there is need of a swifter sometimes a slower Ventilation Paulus Zachias seems to accuse Hippocrates and Aristotle of a Mistake for appointing so many uncertain limits for sound Delivery and believes that there is a certain time for the Delivery of Men as well as of Beasts that is to say the end of the ninth and beginning of the tenth and that all other Births either on this side or on that side are all preternatural occasion'd by some Morbifick Cause which is the reason of so many weak and distempered Children Which if it were true in those that are born before the nine Month Term then certainly the Mother or the Child would be affected with some Morbifick cause either before or after the Birth whereas in Children that come in the seventh Month which frequently happens any such bad affection rarely happens but that the Mother and the Child equally do well as if the Birth had bin delay'd till the end of the ninth Month nor is the Child more sickly or weaker than those that are born at the end of the ninth Month which are many times as sickly and weak as those that are born in the seventh Now as to those that are born beyond that Term it has been controverted among several whether any such thing happen and whether a Woman bring forth after that time In the mean while it is a Rule hitherto held certain environ'd with many probable reasons and the Authority of great Men that some Women may be brought to bed in the eleventh twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth Month and that the Children are duly born by reason of the weakness of the Infant or the Mother the Coldness of the Womb scarcity of Nourishment or some such like cause which may occasion Nature to delay the Appointed time of Birth as many famous Philosophers have perswaded themselves and others Hippocrates expresly asserts that Children are born in the eleventh Month. Aristotle admits the eleventh and no farther They that lye longer than the eleventh Month seem to lye hid that is that the Mother has
the Nature of Musculous Fibres to act by extending If he meant that the same dilatation of the Thorax was caus'd by the contraction of the Diaphragma then he contradicts Reason and Experience in such a manner that no man can excuse him any longer For seeing that the Diaphragma must of necessity bring the Ribs toward its Head and the Head of it being the middle membranous Part and that situated in a higher Medium and a more elevated Place than the Ribs annex'd to it below of necessity while it contracts it self it must bring the lower Ribs inward towards its Head and so must streighten not dilate the Capacity of the Breast Moreover 't is another Mistake of his to think that the Diaphragma in the act of drawing in the Breath drives the Bowels of the Abdomen downward whereas they are mov'd upward as any one may find in himself and find true in the Dissections of living Animals Reason also teaches us that in the Act of Breathing inward the Convexity is reduc'd to a Flatness because the sides of it together with the Ribs annex'd are mov'd outward and upwards and hence also the Muscles and Bowels annex'd to the Diaphragma must of necessity ascend upward and outward Moreover Swammerdam himself writes that in Expiration the Abdomen is forc'd inward and downward and therefore in drawing the Breath inward which is the contrary motion it heaves upward Lastly he adds That in Expiration the Diaphragma ascends upward whereas at that time in the middle where it adheres to the Mediastinum which is annex'd to the Sternum-Bone and the Vertebrae of the Back it is mov'd neither upward nor downward but descends every way in compass downward and then returns to its former Oven-like Convexity IX Riolanus disputes whether the Motion of the Diaphragma be Natural or Animal and seems to conclude That the Motion of it is Natural because it does not depend upon our own Will and follows the Condition of Respiration But his Opinion is repugnant both to Truth and Experience as we shall shew Ch. 13. And seeing it is perform'd by the Muscles of the Thorax of which the greatest part composes the Diaphragma of necessity the Motion of the Diaphragma is Animal In vain also does Riolanus distinguish between it free Motion when it is mov'd of its self and its violent Motion when it follows the Motion of other Muscles which Motion does not consist in acting alone but in being able to act And therefore when the Diaphragma or any other Muscle ceases to act for a time and for a while follows the Motion of other Muscles we must not presently deny the Motion of it to be animal for it is able to move its self at pleasure at any time and if it cease from its Motion or follow the Motion of other Muscles this also proceeds from its own Will because it can do otherwise CHAP. IV. Of the Pleura Mediastinum and Thymus or Canel-Bone-Kernel I. THE Pleura is a Membrane hard white and strong spred under the Ribs and their Muscles and girdling all the inner parts of the Thorax II. Lindan over-curiously enquires into the Etymology of the Name and thinks it to be call'd Pleura erroneously seeing that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Rib and not a Membrane and therefore with Aretaeus and Ruffus he would rather have it call'd the Girding Membrane Certainly 't is a frivolous thing to be so nice in Etymologies of this Nature when we know what the Thing is and what all Physicians for so many Ages have meant by the Pleura Membrane But such Criticks as these seem more desirous to know the Bones than taste the Kernels III. It is thought to be double which Doubling seems to be more conspicuous about the Vertebrae of the Back and in the Mediastinum However Riolanus denies any such doubling with whom some others agree because it is not easily demonstrated beyond the Mediastinum On the inside where it looks toward the Lungs it is very smooth but on the outside being more rough it sticks fast to the Mid Pleura Muscles the Ribs the Sternon and the Vertebrae of the Back but not immediatly to the Bones but by means of the Periosteum with which those Bones are most neatly cloath'd IV. Inwards sometimes in one sometimes in both sides it often sends forth from its self nervous diminutive Fibres by means whereof many times the Lungs and that in healthy People are annex'd to the Pleura without any Inconvenience to Respiration V. Both above and below it is pervious with several holes for the Passage of the great Artery the hollow Vein the Gullet and several other Vessels VI. It is furnish'd with Arteries Veins and Nerves from the Intercostals VII It is said to have its Original from the Bones of the Spine from which it ascends on each side through the sides to the Sternon under which the Membrane of each side joins together dividing the Lungs and the Capacity of the Breast into two parts and constituting that Fence in the middle of the Breast which is call'd Mediastinum which conjunction of the Membranes of each side is then most conspicuous when the Sternum Bone is torn from it VIII Between these Membranes from the Clavicles to the Pericardium some there are who assert a certain Cavity wherein vicious Humors frequently gather'd together occasion several Distempers believing that Cavity which they made by tearing the Membrane from the Sternum-Bone to have been there before Which is a perfect Mistake For that if you begin the dissection from the hinder part the Ribs being loosen'd then you shall find the doubl'd Pleura annex'd without any Cavity between IX The Mediastinum receives Arteries from the innermost Mammary Arteries and sends forth Veins to the mammary Veins and the Vein without a Pair which are seen upon removing the Sternum Moreover it inserts a Vein call'd the Mediastin into the subclavial Branch of the hollow Vein which Vein is sometimes single and larger and sometimes double and slenderer X. The Use of it is to sustain the Heart as it hangs and to defend it from Injuries also to divide the Breast and Lungs into two Parts that the one being endammag'd or out of order the other may perform the Office of Respiration also to contain the Diaphragma upward lest the Bowels hanging from it the Liver and Stomach should draw it too much downward with their weight XI To this same Mediastinum about the Throat in the uppermost part of the Breast grows the Thymus close joyn'd to the Divisions of the subclavial Arteries and Veins which is a glandulous soft spongy and whitish Body bigger in Women and moist Bodies than in Men and dry Bodies This Part in new born Infants is distinguish'd with a small triple Kernel and seems to have some Assinity of Substance with the Sweet-Bread in People grown up the Moisture being consum'd it
who at Smyrna in Ionia receiv'd a Wound in one of the upper Ventricles yet liv'd for all that I my self here in Utrecht in the Year 1648. inspected the Body of a young Nobleman of Over-Yssel a Student in the Law who dy'd of a wound in his Head in whom the Cranium being first open'd it was first found that the Sword had enter'd the bigger or innermost Corner of one Eye without any harm to the Eye it self and had peneâ—…rated through the upper right Ventricles and lighting upon the upper part of the Cranium on the inside toward the top of the Lambdoidal Suture had almost pierced that also yet this young Gentleman was depriv'd of none of his Animal Actions a certain Sign that the Spirits had not flow'd out of the Ventricle through the broad Wound but sound in Mind Seeing Hearing Tasting and well moving all his Parts walking and judiciously discoursing with his Companions that came to see him upon any Discourse liv'd ten days and then being seiz'd with a violent Fever dy'd in two days Thus Lindan makes mention of a certain Patient that was wounded whose Surgeon for fourteen days together before his Death put in a Probe as far as the Ventricle of his Brain whither the Wound had reach'd without any feeling Yet he further adds that the same Person walk'd every day about the City unless it were the last four days at the end of which he dy'd In these Cases certainly the most subtle Spirits had either flow'd out of their own accord or had been expell'd out of the Ventricles by the alternate dilatation and compression of the Brain and so the person must have dy'd depriv'd of his Animal Actions if the place of their Generation had been in the Ventricles From all which Examples the weak Supports of the said Opinion are sufficiently evident though Webfer refutes the same Opinion more clearly by other Reasons l. de Apoplexia VI. Cartesius differs not very much from the said Opinion who teaches us that these Spirits are not generated in the Ventricles but says that they are separated in the Pineal Kernel by the narrow Passages of the little Arteries of the Choroid Fold and from thence infus'd into the Ventricles and no other way differ from the Vital Spirits only that they are the thinest Parts separated from them and only call'd by another Name To which he adds that there is no probability that the separation of these Spirits is perform'd in the Pineal Kernel as well by reason of the smalness of the Kernel as the vast quantity of Animal Spirits which can never be so swiftly strain'd through so diminutive a particle Besides that this Kernel being obstructed and compress'd yet it is found that these Spirits are generated in great quantity as was apparent in the forecited persons in whose Ventricles the Pus and Serum that was collected in great quantity could not but compress the Kernel and obstruct it in its Office as is also apparent in such Men in whom you shall find Sand and Stones oppressing more than half the Kernel As to that which follows where Cartesius says that these Spirits are collected in the Ventricles that is already refuted as also that other that they differ nothing from the Vital Spirits but only in their separation VII Many others believe that the Animal Spirits are elaborated in the Choroid Fold and that the Vital Blood in its passage through the Fold is alter'd into these Spirits by a singular propriety of the Brain Which Opinion as the Liver many embrace at this day and I was of the same mind once though now I have good reason to think the contrary For upon more mature consideration three Arguments utterly subvert it First Because the Blood contain'd in that Fold is altogether ruddy neither is it observ'd to undergo any alteration therein neither at any time whatever part of the Fold you inspect is it of any other colour than red and Blood-colour whereas the Animal Spirits are pellucid and invisible by reason of their extraordinary subtility Secondly Because the Fold is not continuous with any of the Nerves and therefore no Spirits can be transfus'd out of it into the Nerves 3ly Because the Blood flows into the Pithy Substance of the Brain out of the Fold partly through innumerable diminutive branches partly by the order of circulation flows to the Vein that runs between the middle Fold above the Kernel and thence is carry'd to the inferior Hollownesses of the hard Meninx or Scythe and from them to the Jugular Veins Through which Passages the Animal Spirits also if any were made in the Fold would flow forth together with the Blood nor would any reach to the Nerves which are seated without the Fold and no way continuous to them VIII Francis de le Boe Sylvius suspects them to be elaborated in the Arteries running forth all along the Superficies of the Brain and Cerebel which he thinks to be distributed thro' the Superficies for that public and not for any private Use and that out of those Arteries they penetrate into the Cortex of the Brain and Cerebel and thence into the middle whitish Substance and in this Passage are freed from its watery part that sticks most closely to it But this Opinion is overthrown by these three Arguments 1. Because that in the Arteries of the Head there is no other Humour contain'd than in other Arteries that is to say Blood and those Arteries are only assisting Parts conveying the Blood not altering it into Animal Spirits or making any other Humor or Spirit out of it 2. Because the innumerable bloody Specks which every way occur to the Sight in the dissected Substance teach us that not the Animal Spirits but the arterious blood it self is thrust forward as well through the Ash-colour'd Cortex of the Brain as through the whitish Substance out of the Arteries which bloody Specks would not appear if that blood were only chang'd into invisible Animal Spirits in the said Arteries 3. Because the several remarkable Mutations of Humors require some particular Bowel to make that alteration as appears in the Stomach which turns the Nourishment into Chylus in the Heart which changes the Chylus into Blood in the Liver which alters the blood into a choleric Ferment and therefore we must certainly conclude that the making of Animal Spirits out of Blood cannot be perform'd in the Arteries which only carry the Matter out of which they are to be generated but that of necessity it must be performed in that most noble Bowel the Brain and not in the Arteries encompassing the Brain and Cerebel but in the Substance it self IX Thus also Galen and with him Bauhinus and Sennertus Hoffman Emilius Parisanus Plempius believethem to be elaborated in the Substance it self of the Brain Whose Opinion we are also willing to embrace as being that of which the Truth appears from hence because the arterious blood is driven
from all Parts in greater quantity to the Substance of the brain than is requisite for the nourishment of it For on the outside Thousands of little branches of Arteries empty a great quantity of blood partly into the Ash-colour'd Cortex enfolding the brain in whose little Kernels apt Particles are separated for the Generation of Spirits from those that are unapt and suckt up by the extremities of the little Fibers of the brain extended into the Cortex partly enter the Substance of the brain it self Moreover on the inside also in the third Ventricle that there are infinite slender branches inserted from the Choroid Fold into the white Pithy Substance and which stick and cling to it will easily appear to those who have prudently examin'd that Ventricle and gently lifted up the Fornix or Arch for then they may perceive innumerable little branches of the Choroid Fold sticking to and entring the Substance of the Fornix the furrow'd Monticles the Stones and Buttocks and pouring into the Pores of it the thinner blood freed by the little Kernels of the Fold from a great part of its viscous Serum which in the dissection of the Substance is seen to start as well out of the invisible Vessels as out of the Pores Moreover it is requisite that the Animal Spirits should be generated in that part out of which they may most conveniently either flow or be thrust forward into the Nerves But such a part is the Substance of the brain and pith which as being altogether fibrous and continuous with the Nerves has also Pory Fibers continuous with them into which by the compression of the brain which follows its dilatation those Spirits may commodiously be squeez'd forward Lastly the Soul makes use of the Ministry of these Spirits and therefore they ought to be generated and contain'd in that part where the Soul resides But the Soul does not reside in empty Cavities or Ventricles in the midst of excrementitious Filth but in solid living Parts Therefore as it resides in the Substance of other Parts so likewise in that of the brain where it lays the foundations of the Animal Spirits which from thence it sends every way at her own pleasure through the Nerves X. This Opinion two great Difficulties seem to oppose 1. Because the Apoplexy and other heavy Drowsinesses proceed according to the Iudgment of most eminent Physicians from a stoppage of the Animal Spirits which hinders their Influx out of the Ventricles of the Brain into the Pith by reason of some obstruction of the beginning of the Pith or its compression happening through some other Cause Which Obstruction or Compression would not be the Cause of the Apoplexy or that same Lethargic Drowsiness if the Spirits were not generated in the Ventricles or the Choroid Fold but in the Substance of the Brain it self 2. Because the Disposal of the Spirits determinated by the Mind would not be compleated in the Substance of the Brain it self but in the common Sensory which is seated in the Brain it self This the Catalepsis plainly shews us wherein the Spirits flow in great quantity into the Nerves but no new determination of them follows because of the Obstruction of the common Sensory XI The first Difficulty is easily remov'd if the Cause of the Motion of the Brain be more narrowly pry'd into In the Fifth Chapter we have at large inform'd you that the Brain is mov'd by the perpetual first Mover of our Body that is to say the Heart and that the Heart dilates the whole Brain by forcing through the Arteries the Spirituous Blood into its Substance which upon the cessation of that Impulse presently falls again and so by compression forces the Spirits contain'd in it further into the Nerves XII Now if through any Cause as Obstruction or Compression c. the Arteries happen to be streighten'd through which the Blood is push'd forward and flows into the Brain by which means the free access of the Blood forc'd through the Arteries to the Brain is foreslow'd or obstructed then there is a great diminution of the Matter proper for the generation of Spirits and the motion of the Brain is very small whence happens not only a generation of very few Spirits and a weaker Impulse of them into the Nerves Now in regard that few Spirits and those weakly impuls'd are not sufficient to perform the Actions of the Sensory Organs whose Actions are also perform'd by the continual and sufficing motion of the Spirits of necessity there follows a deep Drowsiness or Rest of the Animal Actions which Drowsiness is either more or less as the streightness of the Arteries is either more or less But if those Arteries through which the Blood flows toward the inner parts of the Brain that is to say the Arteries of the wonderful Net and the Choroid Fold nay the Carotid Arteries themselves be of a sudden strongly compress'd and obstructed by the sudden falling of thick Flegm collected in the Brain upon them or the depression of the Skull and Brain presently the Motion of the Blood toward the Brain is obstructed and hence also the generation of the Animal Spirits and their motion and impulse into and through the Nerves is obstructed which is the Cause of the Apoplexy Which Physicians hitherto have absurdly affirm'd to happen from the obstruction or streightning of the beginning of the Nerves when it altogether proceeds from the obstruction or compression of the Arteries Which Hippocrates most clearly teaches us where he asserts the Cause of the Apoplexy to be the standing of the Blood more especially in the Arteries of the Neck that is to say the Carotides and others deriv'd from thence such as those which compose the wonderful Net and Choroid Fold Seeing that thereby the Motion and Action of the Spirits is destroy'd which Moâ—…ion being obstructed the body must of necessity rest Let us hear the most acute Fernelius who confirms this Matter most elegantly by Experiments and Reasons Seeing upon a time says he a lusty sane man fall to the ground upon a desperate Blow upon the Left Eye and presently depriv'd of Sence and Motion together with a difficulty of Breathing and Snoaring and other strong Symptoms of an Apoplexy and that he could neither be preserv'd by Blood-letting nor any other way but that he dy'd within twelve hours I thought it worth my while to search into the Cause of his Death To that purpose having dissected and open'd his Brain and finding no Contusion of the Bone or Meninxes or Substance of the Brain but only that the inner Veins of the Eye were broken by the violence of the Contusion I observ'd that from thence about two Spoonfuls of Blood had lighted upon the Basis of the Brain which being clotted together had bound up those Arteries which form the Net-like Contexture and which being thence propagated into the Ventricles of the Brain constitute the other Choroid Fold But the Ventricles of