Sun and the heart the admirable proportion and agreement we haue already declared To the beneuolent and beneficiall Starre Iupiter the Liuer of man the well-spring of most sweete and gratefull humors is fitly compared The fire and fury of Mars the little bladder of the gaul gathers into it selfe The cold and harmfull Starre Saturne that loose and slaggy flesh of the Spleene being the receptacle of melancholike humors dooth liuely resemble And thus in like numbers and equall proportion both Arithmeticall and Geometricall do these Celestiall particles as they are tearmed of either worlde the greater of heauen and the lesser of man answere one another The xii signes of the Zodiake by the Astrologers elegantly depictured in the body of a man I passe ouer with silence for these are thinges ancient and commonly knowne as being sung in the corners of our streets wee choose rather to meditate of more sublime and profound matters and to bend the eye of our minde The comparison of both worlds according vnto the doctrin of the Peripatetikes at a higher marke The Peripatetikes do diuide the world into bodies simple mixt simple they make fiue the heauen and the foure Elements of the mixt bodies they will haue some to be imperfect which they call Meteors and those Fiery Aiery Watry Earthy other some perfect as those things that haue life All which how and after what manner they be in man because it is an excellent and beautifull speculation I pray you marke and obserue with me diligently Of this little world the simple bodies are fiue the spirits and the foure humors The Spirit is the quintessence or sift essence aethereal in proportion as sayth the The simple bodies of Mā Philosopher answering to the element of the starres the foure humors are called the foure sensible elements of the bodie Choler in temper the most hot and raging resembles fire Blood hot and moyst resembles the ayre Flegme cold moyst resembles the water Melancholy cold and dry is fitly compared vnto earth Behold also the wonderfull Analogie of the Meteors of this little world The terrible Lightning and fiery flashes and impressions The Meteorologie of the litle world are shewed in the ruddie suffusions of our eyes when we are in a heate and furie as also by those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or darting beames which we throw from the same The rumbling of the guts their croaking murmurs their rapping escapes and the hudled and redoubled belchings of the stomacke do represent the fashion and manner of all kindes of thunders The violent and gathering rage of blustering windes tempestuous stormes and gustes are not onely exhibited but also foreshewed by exhaled crudities and by the hissing singing and ringing noises of the eares The humor and moistnesse that fals like a Current or streame into the empty spaces of the throate the throtle and the chest resembleth raine and showers Thicke and concocted Flegme that comes vp round and roundly when we Cough carries the likenesse of Hailestones teares do represent the Dew shaking shrinking trembling throbbing motions resemble the Earth-quakes There are also found in our bodies Mines and quarries out of which Mettals and stones are digged not to builde but to pull downe the house so the stones of the Kidneyes and bladder do carry a resemblance of Mines and Mineralles This is the Meteorology of this Little worlde this is the demonstration of those things therein that are imperfectly mixed And if you require in man an example of a bodye perfectly mixed behold and consider the whole body in which there is that concord and agreement of the foure disagreeing qualities and so iust equal a mixture of the elements as that it is the very middle and meane amongst all liuing and animated things This Little World therefore which we call Man is a great miracle and his frame and composition is more to be admired and wondered at then the workemanship of the whole Vniuerse For it is a farre easier thing to depaint out many things in a large and spacious Table such as is the world then to comprehend all things in one so little and narrow as is the compasse of mans body Epicurus Momus Pliny and other the malicious and false detractors from Nature are censured and the Excellency of Man is demonstrated by his Nakednesse Cap. III. LEt that beastly Epicure now lay his hand vpon his mouth keepe silence who was not ashamed to affirme that the bodies of men were made by chance and fortune out of a turbulent concourse forsooth of a number of Atomies or Motes such as we see in the Sunne Let Momus be hissed and exploded but first mark't with a blacke brand of ignorance and infamy who presumptuously blamed in the frame of mans body many things as lame maimed and vnperfect Let Plinie and all the whole rabble of false and counterfet Philosophers be banished out of the Schoole of Nature who cease not to wrong and traduce her for casting foorth man naked and vnarmed on the bare ground vpon his Birth day to begin the world with crying and lamentation For to begin with the Epicure Those things which come by chance O Epicure happen but sildome and of such thinges neither any certaine nor any prosperous euent The error of the Epicures conuinced can constantly be expected or hoped for but if thou doest heedfully obserue ten thousand men thou shalt finde all their bodies made and framed with equall skill and vnmatcheable Art the same structure of bones cartelages ligaments sinewes veines arteries and enterals the same context and composition figure or fashion number and scituation the right side like vnto the left and all the body within one and the same circle and compasse equally poysed so that nothing in the frame of mans body doth thrust it selfe in by chance nothing there is that doth not exhibite and represent vnto vs the maiesty of the highest most heauenly wisedome Galen to conuince the error of this beastly Epicure saide Hee would giue him a hundred yeare to alter or change the scituation figure or composition of any one part and hee did not doubt but it would come to passe in the end that he would be forced to confesse that Galen the same could by no meanes haue bin made after any other or more perfect manner I will speake somewhat more boldly If all the Angels should haue spent a thousand yeares in the framing making of man they could not haue cast him in so curious a mold or made him like to that he is much lesse could they haue set him forth in any better maner Let the Epicure therfore be packing with this false fiction feigned inuention of his own addle brain As for Momus he is to be scorned for his dotage simplicity who wished mens bodies had The slander of Momus cōdemned bin made ful of windowes that the affections of the mind might haue appeared Why Momus Do
is no election choyce or dignotion of one simple thing But there are no differences of Illumination nor Light nor of other thinges which wee haue rehearsed much lesse are there contrarieties For illumination doeth not truely differ from illumination nor Light from Light neyther is illumination contrary to illumination nor Light to Light but there are diuers differences of colours and one colour is contrary to another not those therfore but this to wit colour is the obiect of sight QVEST. XXXIII Whether Colour be Light BEcause Light as wel as Colour doth determine the Sight and hath in it selfe Of one faculty must there be one obiect a cause of visibility hence some thinking that there ought to be but one obiect of one knowing and discerning faculty haue esteemed Colour Light to be of the same Nature But this cannot bee for all Colour is not Light neither is all Light Colour whereas if they had beene of the same Nature they might haue beene conuerted reciprocally But they vrge thus Euery thing which is seene is colour but Light is seene therefore Light is colour I answere to bee seene may bee vnderstoode two wayes first commonly and improperly so as euery thing both colour and that which is proportionable thereunto is sayde to be seene And so Aristotle taketh it in the 2. Booke de anima and his Chapter de visu where in the beginning he sayeth That which is visible is colour and that which is without name as if he should say That which is proportionable vnto colour and after this manner Light is seene and yet is not therefore a colour because that on this manner many things may be seene which are not colour but onely proportionable vnto colour Secondly this word Seeing is taken properly and according to this acception nothing can be seene besides colours But they add yet further that the same effect belongeth to the same cause but whitenesse Obiection and light do performe the same effect for a white colour doeth dissipate the sight and weary the Eyes and the same effect doth the light worke wherefore light and a white colour doe not differ But we deny this argument For though there be great affinitie and likenesse between whitnesse and the light as also betwixt blacknesse and darkenesse yet no Identity nor vnity of the species or kind doth hence ensue for if the case were so two lucid bodyes would produce colours of two kinds in one and the same darke body because they can neuer shine equally and alike but to shine were to send forth a colour Againe when the light faileth that is when darknesse begins to come first a greene colour then a purple and so other intermixed colours must bee induced vppon the darke body till at length it attaine vnto the quite contrary colour to wit blackenesse euen as the light doth mediatly and by degrees degenerate into darkenesse But nothing can be more â—bsurd then this for wee see that a white colour remaineth white vntill the least part of it may bee seene yea it abideth white til it be so dark that we can see nothing all colours are taken away from our eyes Others with more shew of truth haue vndertaken to perswade that colour is Lumen or an That colour is an illumination illumination which opinion they strengthen with no small arguments First because when this illumination is absent colours cannot be present and againe at his arriuall or returne they are generated in the bodyes But this argument is of small force for Lumen or illumination doeth not generate colours in bodies neither when it departeth doeth it take them away but is onely the cause wherefore they are rather sensible when it is present and being absent they are not seene The reason is because without this splendour colours cannot mooue the tralucent bodie and so the night doth not take away the colour but the images of it which are as it were the deputies or instead of the colours but the reall colours which are by themselues visible doe remaine if not actually yet potentially Yet they vrge further that we see by experience that the cloudes by the diuers irtadiation or glittering of the Sunne sometime are of a white and sometime of a red colour as also is the Rainebow for which cause also we see the Sea sometime to waxe purple coloured sometime to become gray and a farre off to shew white and at hand blacke Finally the necks of Doues and the tayles of Peacocks doe wonderfully varry their colours by the diuers aspect of the Light But none of these are thus indeede and in trueth but doe so appeare by reason of the vehement splendor of the Sunne or of the leuity of the coloured bodie whereuppon the Sight is somewhat hindered that it cannot discenrne off and know the reall colours as they are Againe this hapneth not only from the direct or indirect irradiation of the Sunne but also from our beholding of the coloured thing from on the right hand or from on the left forward or backward For it is greatly to be respected whether the shadow of the coloured thing bee on our side or on the opposite and therfore according to the motion of the Peacocke so the colour of her trayne seemeth to be varried which thing Painters when they goe about to Limne any picture doe diligently obserue marking the place wherein the life is placed to wit in what part it doeth receiue the light Moreouer they consider the entraunce into the place where it is that they may resolue on what part they may best behould it well knowing that both our eye and the light should bee well disposed vnto the A good obseruation of Painters right perception and discerning of the reall colour For if a well painted picture be placed in an inconuenient place his forme will not appeare artificial but deformed and disordred not that it is so indeed but that it onely appeareth so by reason of the inconuenience of the place And thus also it is with the colours of Peacocks so that hence wee are taught that the illumination doeth not alter the colours but the disordered scituation of the coloured body and of him which beholdeth it are a great cause of the variation thereof QVEST. XXXIIII That the pure Elements are not coloured of themselues APerspicuum or Tralucent bodie being without all darknesse can neuer be so condensed that a colour should arise therefrom and therefore the simple Elements yea and the heauen it selfe haue absolutely no true colour for though the aire may be so condensed that it may degenerate into Water The pure Elements are not truly coloured yet it will neuer attaine vnto a colour no nor the earth it selfe nor yet that which is more condensed then the earth They therefore bee in an error which ascribe whitenesse vnto three Elements and blacknesse vnto the Earth Indeed perspicuitie and transparencie may be allowed to these three and a
Medium for we can see without it nor yet the Aire because we can see Obiects which are in the water and this is the reason why the other Elements are not fit for this function for a true meane must be in the middest betweene all visible thinges but the Elements are not so no nor the heauen it selfe It followes therefore that none of these may be accounted for the meane of sight Nor Simple Perspicuity is the true mean of Vision It is therefore some accident which we must resolue vpon to be this Medium as appeareth by that which we haue saide and all men do with one consent acknowledge this accident to be Perspicuity or Transparancy so that we need not to doubt thereof But because this Transparancie as it is an abstracte and an accident is not sufficient for the performance of this function for that the obiects doe require a certaine definite affection in Not perspicuity but the perspicuous body is the Obiect of Sight the medium that so they may be carried to the Instrument whereby the consent and agreement may bee preserued and that there may bee a Connexion and knitting of the extreames to wit of the Obiect and Organ by the Meane We must therefore finde out what it is that doth assist and helpe this perspicuity And this is nothing but the subiect of it so that we do not admit simply the perspicuity but the perspicuous bodie as it is transparant for the true Meane of the Sight that is not the abstract onely but the whole concrete as it hath perspicuity in it so that wee are to consider in it both his Matter and his Forme The matter of the transparant body is not one and the same but diuers and manifolde The Etimon of perspicuum I say euery thing which is peruious and may be perceiued without obstacle or resistance for the perspicuum seemeth to be deriued a perspiciendo or perceiuing as a transparant body a transparendo because all things do transpare and appeare through it It is therefore nothing else but a kinde of substance not crasse nor dense but thinne rare and subtle and especially apt and fit to receiue the Ilumination and the colours of other things as are the Aire and Water and also many other solide bodies as Glasse Ice and such like as the Philosopher witnesseth in the 68. Text of his 2. booke De Anima QVEST. XXXVII Whether Light be the Forme of that which is perspicuous WE haue taught before that Illumination is the Forme of the perspicuous body Whether the perspicuum perish with the light but because the light doth very easily recede and goe away so that darkenesse doth succeed and easily returne it may worthily be called in question whether at the departure of the light the perspicuous body doth also perish and cease to be and is againe generated with the returne of the Light or Illumination For my owne part that I may speake ingeniously I am perswaded that it is not corrupted wholy but onely after a sort seemeth to perish for whatsoeuer is depriued of his essentiall forme is saide to perish It seemeth therefore that the perspicuous body may bee saide to perish when at the receding of the light darknesse doth ensue which darknesse is The perspicuum is potential in the darke a priuation of that light which was the essentiall forme of the perspicuum I speake of a body actually perspicuous beecause the action or if I may so say the actuality of it ceaseth when the light fadeth yet notwithstanding it remaineth in potentia or in possibility for the enlightning dooth not induce any subtilty or tenuity of the substance and whatsoeuer is thus perspicuous is also potentially perspicuous in the very darke for sometimes darkenesse sometimes light are in perspicuous bodies as Aristotle saith in the 69. Text of the 2. Booke De Anima where he defineth a potentiall perspicuous body But there is yet another doubt of greater waight For because the Light is an accident to witte a quality proceeding from the lucide body how can it bee the forme of the perspicuous body in regard that to bee a Forme of any thing is peculiar to a Substance A Doubt resolued How then can that giue any essence or being to another which hath no essence at all of it owne for the Light hath no beeing of it selfe but doth perpetually depend vpon the Lucid bodie and therefore how should it giue an essence to the perspicuum I grant indeede that Answere the light may bee called a quality of a lucide body yet I denie that it is nothing but a meere accident For all accidents haue their being in some subiect and out of the same are nothing but Illumination though it doe depend perpetually vpon some lucide body The essence of an accident is in another yet it doth exist out of it and doth onely in respect differ from that Lux which is as it were the fountaine of it as before we haue shewed and wee see that this Illumination is diffused through the whole Hemisphere which could not be if it were a mere accident Light is not a meere accident had no proper Essence of it owne for no accident doth spread so farre from his Originall or Subiect VVe say therefore that Lumen out of the lucide body hath a certaine proper being of his owne and in that regard is sayd to be the forme of the perspicuum or transparant body for which cause some call it The imitation or resemblance of a lucide body in a perspicuous medium How the light is a quality But as it is in the lucide body and doth depend vpon it as vppon his originall it is not without some reason called a quality of the same lucide body But some argue against this on this manner That the light cannot be the forme of the perspicuum because it also receiueth the darknesse into it if therefore illumination be the Obiection forme of it then that which is contrary to it to wit darknes would in like manner supply the place of a forme and so one thing would haue two formes But the consequence is false for though the perspicuous body doeth receiue as well darknes as light yet not after the same manner for it receiues the one as his forme he other Solution as the priuation of that forme Light as his Act and darknes as the priuation of that Act. For darknesse is not contrary to light but a priuation of it and indeede no other thing What darknes is but an absence of Light from a subiect which is fit for illumination But Auicen sayth that the Light is not receiued in a perspicuous but in a darke body and Auicens opinion coloured which body when it is outwardly illustrated then hee thinks that the perspicuous body is illuminated and hee would haue this perspicuity to note nothing else but a priuation of that
VVater being actually compounded of foure Elements those Elements must necessarilie bee in it Actually for that vvhich is potentially cannot make an Actuall Beeing or Existence But we will say if the water be mixed with fire why doth not the fire warme it Surely it doth warme it although it bee not able to remooue all the coldnesse of the water that it Solution should appeare warme vnto the Touchf or if the water were pure and sincere it is certain that it would bee much more cold then our water is And this may bee proued by well water which is somewhat deepe within the Earth for they are hotter in winter then they are in Summer the reason is because in winter the Why Well-water is warm in Winter surface of the earth is condensed or closed vp so that the internall and elementary heate is preserued within the earth which in Sommer when the face of the earth is loosned and relaxed issueth into the Ayre Hence also it is that water after it is once heated ouer the fire would sooner freeze then other which is newly taken out of a Riuer because in boyling ouer the fire the inbred heat of the water vanisheth because the parts are relaxed or disunited but in fresh spring water the natiue heat remaineth which preserueth it from freezing Now these things could not be thus except that fire were actually in the water and did also actually heate it notwithstanding the Phylosophers may in some sort be held excused because The Phylosophets excused the pure elements distinguished seuerally one from another are in compouÌ„d bodies poteÌ„tially for actually pure elements are not in them But you will say that because of the fire which is naturally mixed with the water there is in the water some litle odour and that litle odor Fishes do perceiue But this canot be for man cannot smell in the water if fishes therefore could it would follow that the Sense of Smelling was more perfect in Fishes then in men which is vtterly false Neither is it any answer to say that the water hath odors therein or is odorated in respect of of the Siccity because this Siccity is only potential and vnlesse the humidity which is actually and predominant there be consumed it shall neuer be able to mooue the Sense for actuall odour requireth an actuall Siccity and that actuaally predominant But some man may obiect that the fire which is in the water rayseth vp exhalations aud so odours I grant indeede that in water exhalations may be generated but none such as Aristotle The difference betwixt moyst and dry exhalations vnderstandeth that is odoriferous because those exhalations are meerely vaparous wherein the Siccity is yet actually ouercome by the humiditie But humide exhalations which are the subiects of actuall odours are neuer found in water which also Aristotle confesseth Notwithstanding the same Aristotle prooueth that fishes doe smell because they make choyce of their meat as if he should say that they choose their meate by their Smels But to returne to that wherefrom wee are digressed and at length to determine this controuersie wee say that Fishes may so far foorth Smell as the water wherein they liue doth communicate with the Ayre and Fire for seeing nothing can either bee generated or nourished by a simple element it must needes follow that Fishes being ingendered and Fishes cannot smell in pure water nourished in the water that water partaketh of the vigour and substance of the rest of the Elements And this is also manifested by the reciprocall transmutation or change of one Element into another for no man will deny but that rarified water turneth into Ayre and Ayre rarified into Fire which could not possibly bee if the water were pure and vnmixed for it cannot be imagined how it should receiue or put on a diuers yea a contrary nature wherewith it hath no affinity or familiaritie But if any man shall persist and say that the Sea which is the habitation of Fishes is the pure and sincere Element of water free from the commixtion of other Elements then I say saith Placentinus that Fishes cannot Smell at all My reasons are first because no Sense is mooued but by obiects but in water which is not adulterated with mixture of any heterogeny body cannot produce an obiect of smelling for odours are in that which is dry now what is more moyst and freer from Siccity then pure and simple water Againe if odoriferous things by too plentifull effusion of moysture doe loose their odour how can pure and sincere water haue any odour therein If therefore Fishes doe smell as Aristotle and other classicke authours doe testifie it must needes bee in reguard of the Siccity which commeth from the permixtion of Ayre and Fre. If any man shall obiect that water hath no smell in it because a man cannot perceiue the odour thereof though hee snuffe it into his Nose hauing notwithstanding a greater perfection of this Sense the Fishes haue I answer that Fishes and those creatures Fishes smell without resspiration that liue in the water doe smell without respiration or breathing and without those many helpes of the Organ which are in men Moreouer the water being to Fishes a familiar Element a little odour mixed therewith may mooue and stirre vp their senses whereas in men there must bee a hot steame raysed from that which is odoriferous there must be also Respiration through the Nose to conuay the same steame through the spongie bone vnto the mammillary processes before this Sense in them can be mooued But whereas Aristotle absolutely concludeth that Fishes doe smell because they make choyce of their meate that consequence we cannot so well approue for the choyce or election of their meat may proceede from another cause When wee are to buy any victuals which we may not Taâ—ste weemake choyce by our eyes beleeuing that that which is best coloured is also best tasted why should we not therefore think that Fishes may make choyce of their meat by their sight Againe all creatures by an instinct of Nature doe desire and seeke after that Aliment which is proportionable vnto them for what teacheth the Infant in the wombe to drawe vnto it the mothers blood rather then the rest of her humors Is it the smell of blood Nothing How Fishes choose their meat by their sight By instinct as the infant lesse for the Infant doeth not smell at all yea it draweth the nourishment into the Liuer through the vmbilicall veine by a naturall instinct After the child is borne what maketh it to choose the mothers milke before all other nourishment Is it the odour or smell of the milke No for we see that when an Infant is layde to the breast hee suddenly with a kinde of Naturall force laps his tongue about the head of the breast and suckes very strongly Shall we attribute this work of the Infant to the Smell rather then to an instinct
neither is necessary seeing the Taste which is a kinde of Touch is immediately absolued or perfected as the Touch is That which we Taste we immediately touch with our Tongues neither is there Sensation made till the obiect light vpon the Organe If anie man shall imagine that there must be a Medium I aske the question what he will assigne One of the foure Elements Or some body compounded of them Surely neyther these nor that For if it be an Element it must be Fire or Aire or Water or Earth But not No Element can bee the Medium Not Fire Fire for that is hot and dry which would not conserue but consume the moisture where in especially the obiect of Taste is seated Now the office of a medium is to conserue the Obiect not to destroy it Add heereto that the efficient cause of Sapours is heate but one and the same cannot be the efficient cause and Medium of the same thing Againe if Fire were the Mediâ—â— we might like a Salamander liue in the Fire or champe burning coales and not bee hurt The Aire is not fit for this function for the Sapor recideth in the mixt bodie out oâ— which it neuer yssueth wherefore the Medium that must leade the Sapor vnto the Organ Not Ayre must also transport vnto the organ the mixt body wherein the Sapor is but the Aire being a simple and liquid Element is not fit to carry a solid matter The VVater cannot be the Medium because we do not liue in it and therefore it not contiguous with the Obiect and the Organ Not Water Much lesse the Earth for that is cold and dry both which qualities are contrarie vnto Not Earth Sapors and therefore will rather vtterly destroy them then conserue and maintain theâ— One word might haue serued all There are no pure or simple Elements that which is not cannot be a Medium Is it any compound body No for a compound body woâ—â— There are no pure elements disturbe and hinder the Taste Beside euery mixt body if it haue neuer so little humidâ— in it is of it selfe gustable that is the obiect not the medium of Tast We conclude therefore that tast is made without any outward medium Yet we doe not say that Tast is made without any intermediate Body adioyning or growing to the organ of Tast For as in touching we haue already said in the second Booke that the scarf skin was made by nature to come betweene the obiect and the skin it selfe which was the organ not to be a medium What kind of medium is necessary for that office it doth not performe but a little to dull the quality of the obiect so likewise in Tast which we haue often said is a kind of Touching we holde that the membrance which inuesteth the tongue doth performe the same office to the organ which therefore we may say is as it were a medium though indeed and in truth it be not so QVEST. LXII Of the organ of Tasting HAuing thus said what we could for this present concerning the medium of Tasting we now come vnto the organ Concerning which there is no doubt made all men herein beleeuing their sense that the tongue is it which discerneth the differences of Sapors For not onely reasonable but all vnreasonable creatures when they would taste any thing doe lay it to their tongues or if they cannot doe so they lay their tongues vnto it to distinguish the tast therof Some haue thought that the pallet is the instrument of this sense which wee find false because those men whose pallets are eaten out with the French disease doe yet taste their That the palate is not the organ of Tasting Nor the teeth meate well enough It must therefore be the tongue though I am not ignorant that some haue attributed this faculty to the teeth whose arguments happily we may answer in another place if in the meane time we shall not thinke them vnworthy our resolution But there are some who haue conceiued with better reason that the membrane which inuesteth the tongue is the true organ of Tasting Among whom is Valesius in the foure Nor the membrane of the Tongue Valesius refuted and twentith Chapter of the second booke of his controuersies But he affirmes it onely confirmes it not yet because so worthy a schollar hath affirmed it we will endeauour to make the contrary appeare First therefore the temperament which is common to it which other membrances doth The first argument denie it this priuiledge for it is cold and drie both which qualities are contrary vnto Sapors Now the qualities of the organ must not be at daggers drawing with the qualities of the obiect but rather friends and liue neighbourly together so as the organ may be potentially that which the obiect is indeed and act Againe the same membrane which incompasseth the tongue doth also inuest the nostrills The second argument the pallet and 〈…〉 llet If therefore the membrane were the organ this sense should be made in all these parts which we find by experience not to be so Valesius very vnaduisedly resolueth that this very membrane incompassing the nostrills is the organ of smelling and saith that it 〈◊〉 â—he diuersity of the temperament which maketh it in the tongue the organ of the tasting and in the nose the organ of smelling But he is fowlly deceiued for suppose it had in these places a different temperature we must not thinke that onely the temper is sufficient to distinguish the organs of senses But beside to diuers actions there is required a diuers substance diuerse I say and such as is not else where to be found Now this membrane although the temper doe somewhat differ in seuerall places yet in qualities and substance it is like it selfe appearing so both to the sight and to the touch Finally that is the principall part of the instrument into which a soft nerue doth determine but into this coate no man will say the nerue doth determine who hath but touched The third argument Anotomy with his vpper lip yet Galen in the second Chap of his 16. booke de vsu partium seemeth to affirme the same in these words As the hard nerues are inserted into the muskles Obiection out of Galen so are the soft into their proper Organ as into the membrane of the tongue So that hence it might seem to follow that his membran is the proper instrument of Tasting But this place of Galen is no whit against our opinion For we thinke and confesse that that into which the Galen expounded nerue determines is the true organ But Galen doth not say the nerue determines in the membrane or coate of the tongue he saith it is inserted into it whence we may rather gather yea therefrom it is conuinced that the substance of the tongue is the organ we treat of because into it the nerues do determine
an example propounded by Hippocrates for sayth he if you giue That it is part of our drinke a Pigge that is very dry water mingled with minium or vermilion and presently stick it you shall finde all his winde-pipes along dyed with this coloured drink some would haue it to be generated from moyst vapours and exhalations raysed from the humours of the heart and driuen forth by his perpetuall motion and high heate vnto the Pericardium by whose density they are turned into water and of that opinion are Falopius Laurentius Archangelus who remembreth sixe opinions concerning the matter of it which we shall hereafter make mention of This humour is found not onely in dead bodies as some would but also in liuing but That it is found in liuing bodies But more in dead and why more plentifull after death except in those that die of consumptions in whome it is little and yellowish because the many spirits which are about the heart the body being cold are turned into water euen as those vapors which are raysed from the earth are by the coldnes of the middle region of the ayre conuerted into water wee also affirme that it must of necessity be in liuing bodies and not onely in those that are diseased as they that are troubled with palpitation of the heart but also in all sound bodies yet in some more plentifull in others more sparing but in all moderate because if it bee consumed there followeth a In sound bodies as wel as in diseased consumption if it be aboundant palpitation of the heart and if it bee so much that it hinder the dilatation of the heart then followeth suffocation and death it selfe That it is in liuing bodies may be proued by the testimony of Hippocrates in his Book of the heart where he sayeth there is a little humour like vnto vrine as also by the example of our Sauiour out of whose precious side issued water and bloud It appeareth also by the dissection of liuing The example of our Sauior creatures which euery yeare is performed for further aduertisemēt especially a sheep or such like great with young Vesalius addeth an example of a man whose heart was taken out of his body whilest he liued at Padua in Italy Finally the vse and necessity of it doth euict the same For the vse of it is to keepe moyst the heart and his vessels a hot part it is so as the left The vses of it ventricle will euen scald a mans finger if it be put into it and so continually moued that vnlesse it were thus tempered it would gather a very torrifying heate by cooling it also it keepeth it fresh and flourishing It moystneth also the Pericardium wherein it is conteyned which otherwise by the great heate of the heart would bee exiccated or dried vp By it also the motion of the heart becommeth more facile and easie and this motion spendeth it and resolueth it insensibly by the pores as it is bred but if in the passage it bee stayed then saith Varolius are there many hairs found growing right against it on the brest Finally it taketh away the sense or feeling of the waight of the heart because the heart swimmeth as it The cause of haue vpon the brest were in it euen as we see the infant swimmeth in sweate in the wombe aswell to take away the sense of the waight of so great a burthē from the Mother as also that it might not fal hard to any part in her body you may add to this if you please that it helpeth forward the concretion of the fat about the heart In the cauity also of the Chest there is found such a like water mingled with blood with Another water and blood mingled in the Chest which the parts of the chest are continually moistned and cooled And thus much of these circumstances of the heart Now followe the Vesselles of the chest CHAP. IX Of the ascending trunke of the Hollow veine Tab 5. Fig. 1. sheweth the diuision of the Hollow-vein in the Iugulum or hollow vnder the Patel-bones On the right side is shewed how it is commonly beleeued to bee diuided into two trunkes the one called the Sub-Clauius the other Super-Clauius from whence came that scrupulous choise of the Cephalica and Basilica Veines in Phlebotomy or blood-letting On the right side is shewed how the trunke is but one out of which both the foresaid veines of the arme do proceede Fig. 2. sheweth a portion of the Hollow veine as much as ascendeth out of the right ventricle of the hart vnto the Iugulū wherin is exhibited the nature of the Fibres which are in the bodies of the veines TABVLA V. FIG I. FIG II. The 2. Figure FIG III. Fig. 3. sheweth a rude delineation of the Fibres in the bodies of the veines FIG IV. Fig. 4. sheweth the distribution of the Veine Azygos which we shal shew more distinctly in the 7. Table Before the diuision it sendeth out foure branches Table 6. sheweth the trunk and branches of the hollow vein as they are disseminated through al the three Regions of the body TABVLA VI. Afterward the Hollow-veine perforateth the Pericardium againe and againe groweth round but much lesse then before and riseth vp where the right Lung is parted from the left and so passeth to the Iugulum but aboue the heart in the middest of the bodye it parteth with a notable trunke or branch to be distributed to the Spondels and the spaces betweene the ribs And this is the third branch called Vena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sine pari that is the vn-mated Veyne Vena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we haue before called Non-paril Tab. 5. fig. 1. C. fig. 2 B Fig. 4 B because commonly in a man it is but one as also in Dogges and hath not another on the other side like vnto it Although it shewe the Trunke of the hollowe verne disseminated thorough both the Bellies notwithstanding it serueth especially to exhibit the distribution of the veine Azygos and the coniunction of the branches thereof with the veynes of the Chest which heere is onely shewed on the right side TABVLA VII yyyy The outwarde Veines of the Chest which are vnited with the inner braunches of the Azygos z A branch of the Basilica which is ioyned with the Cephalica A. A branch of the Cephalica which is ioyned with the Basilica z B The veine called Mediana or the middle veine Commonly from the trunke of the veine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tab. 5. fig. 4. B Tab. 6. FF Tab. 7. d out of the backside of it as well on the left hand as on the right but on the right especially branches The branches of Vena sine pari are distributed to the distances sometimes of all but most what of the ten lower ribs Tab. 5. fig. 4 which are called Intercostales rami Tab. 6 GG braunches betweene the ribs This Veine also without his
food in the night season Nowe because the light thus affected with the images of visible thinges must passe through a refraction of his beames it is necessary there should bee diuers translucide bodies First the ayre through which it attayneth to the eye then water in the eye in which this refraction might be made plato indeed who thought that sight was made extramittendo or by an emission of light out of the eye thought that the nature of the eie was fiery Plato thought the eie was firie yet not such a fire as would burne but onely illustrate for sayth he there is a threefould fire one shining and not burning another shining and burning and the third burning and not shining But we are taught by Anatomy by the whole composition of the eye that the A threefold fire instrument of sight is watery and therefore Hip. in his book de locis in homine saith that the sight is nourished that is increased by a moyst brayne And hereto also may we adde reason for it is the property of water to receiue wherefore seeing the formes and images of outward obiects must be receiued it is necessary that there should be water in the eie But because these visible formes should not onely bee receiued but also retained in How the formes are retained the eie it was necessary that the body of the eie should bee made not onely translucid but also dense and fastly compacted wherefore Nature did not only make the eye watery that there might bee a refraction but also that this refraction might bee manifould shee hath created translucid bodies of diuers consistences for the watery humour is indeed translucid and admitteth the light yet the Diaphanum or transparancie thereof differs from the transparancie of the horny membrane that there might bee also a different refraction this refraction is made from a perpendicular and is in the eie foure-foulde The first is from the ayre into the horny membrane which is a faster Diaphanum The second from the horny That there are 4. refractions of the light in the eie membrane into the watey humour which is a thinner Diaphanum in this watery humour the light is vnited and made stronger so that it is able to pierce through the third Diaphanum which is the christaline humour wherein as in a faster substance the light is yet more strongly vnited and so passeth on to the last refraction at the glassy humour of which wee shall speake by and by And as in the eye naturally disposed there are foure refractions so in the spectacles which make the obiect both larger and brighter there are sixe For first 6. in a paire of spectacles of all the light entreth into the spectacle which is a thicker Diaphanum from the ayre which is a thinner from the spectacle before it come to the eye it passeth through the ayre again which is a thinner Diaphanum into the horny membrane which is a thicker from the horny membrane into the watery humour which is a thinner Diaphanum from thence into the chrystaline which is a thicker and finally into the glassy humour so that it proceedeth by course out of a thinner Diaphanum into a thicker Another vse of the watery humour is to fill vp the empty space betwixt the christaline and the forward membranes as also to keepe the horny membrane streatcht or tentered Another vse of the watery humour moyst least if it should grow dry it might be corrugated or wrinkled and so become thicker and hinder the reception of the visible formes Thirdly the watery humour sayth Galen in the sixt Chapter of his tenth Booke de vsu partium keepeth the horny membrane the grapy membrane and the chrystaline from exiccation A third because the moysture thereof keepeth thē transparant without which there could be no vision at all for we see that in compunctions or wounds of the eye when this watery humour is let out and dryed vp the horny membrane which before was turgide and full falleth into it selfe and becommeth darke and rugous The fourth vse of the watery humour is to be a defence vnto the chrystaline least the A fourth horny membrane should touch the chrystaline through the Pupilla and offend it with his hardnesse The fift vse is to restraine the impetuous or violent occursion or confluence of externall colours vnto the chrystaline A fift And finally to eleuate or lift vp the formes of visible things as spectales doe that they A sixt might be more fully and directly perceiued by the sence For when the images of externall thinges are ariued at the narrow hole of the Pupilla they are lifted vp and so exhibited in the watery humour wherein they are made more perspicuous and this indeede was the chiefe reason why Nature placed so pure and neate a humour before the christaline which is the prime instrument of the sight The vse of the chrystaline humour is to be the first and chiefe instrument of the Sight as wherein it is perfected and therefore some haue called it the Idol or image of the sight The vse of the christaline humour and Aristotle calleth it Pupilla haply because we see especially right before vs. That it is the chiefe instrument of sight may thus bee demonstrated The Philosophers say That whatsoeuer is made to receiue any thing must be vtterly free from the Nature of that which it is to receiue because the same thing can neither worke vpon it selfe nor suffer from it selfe VVherfore that which is the proper Organ or instrument of Sight must haue in it no colour at al An axiome in philosophy because it is to receiue all colours And indeed hereby may wee perceiue a thing to bee without colour when if it bee placed against any colour it representeth the same as it is in ayre water chrystall and such like wherefore the instrument of sight must either bee ayrie or watery or chrystaline Ayrie it might not be because the colours that are receiued in the ayre do flow through it making to mutation at all therein but we know that the instrument doth only then perceiue apprehend the obiect when it so suffereth therefrom that it is made the very same seeing therefore that the colours doe passe through the ayre and make no mutation therein it could not be that the instrument of Sight should be airy In the second place it could not be watery for though the species and formes of colours make a deeper impression in the Water then they do in the Ayre yet are not the colours therein so imprinted that a man may behold them in it but they flow through Nor watery it also It remaineth therefore that the instrument of sight must be Cristalline because that onely can receiue and retaine the visible formes And this also may bee proued by Autopsie or ocular inspection for if you take a beade of Cristall and set it opposite
that the Nature of Hearing was aiery Mundinus saith there is an audible spirit in the cauity of the Stony-bone which is the Mundinus instrument of Hearing Carpus thus The implanted aire receyueth the species or formes which are brought Carpus to the Sense of Hearing Varolius The included aiery spirit is the proper instrument of Hearing Varolius Coiter Archangelus Coiter This aire is the first and principall organ of Hearing yea a part of the Soule Archangelus It is the most principall instrument of Hearing which the Faculty vseth in the perception of sounds and voices and in iudging of them Aquapendens The office of this aire is to receiue outward and externall sounds so it is the principall author of Hearing Aquapendens Placentinus It is the matter which receyueth the sound the Medium where-through it is transported For after it hath receyued a sound it doth not conceyue it or iudge of Placentinus it as being a thing inanimated now no action of the soul can be performd by that which is not animated Laurentius This Aire is exceeding necessary to the Sense of Hearing without which I can Laurentius scarcely conceiue how we should heare at all but that it is the principal organ of Hearing I could neuer bee perswaded especially because it is not Animated but rather I beleeue it to be an internall Medium Finally our Authour Bauhine setteth downe the vse of it in these tearmes This Aire the faculty of Hearing vseth as an internal Mediū for the susception and transvection Bauhine or transportation of Soundes and Voyces to the Auditorie nerue by it to bee discerned like as in all the instruments of the other Senses there is required a double Medium the one outward the other inward Inward as in the Sight the watery humour in the Taste the spittle in the Smell the spongie bones in the Touch the skinne is the internall An inward an outward Medium Medium although I know Laurentius would haue it the Cuticle in which the formes or Ideas of things are separated from the things themselues and so naked are transported vnto the first Sensator In like manner the implanted ayre is gathered in the inward eare to receiue the abstracted formes of the Sounds and to transport them or conuey them vnto the Sense Againe as in all the instruments of the Sences the internall Medium is distinct and a That it is not the chiefe organ of hearing differing thing from the principall Organ to which the action particularly belongeth as in the Organ of Sight the waterie humor is thought to be the internall Medium but the chrystaline the principall part receiuing the representations but not iudging of them so in the Hearing the internall Medium is this implanted Aire but the principall part is the Auditorie nerue which yet doth not iudge of the Idea but conducteth it to the braine that is to the first Sensator CHAP. XXV Of the manner of Hearing and of the Nature of Soundes COnsidering that to intreate of the manner of Hearing belongeth rather to a Phylosopher then to Anatomists wee will be but briefe herein yet somthing we thinke good to say because the structure of the eare was for the most part vnknowne to the Ancients The Eare is the instrument of Hearing and the action of the Eare is the Three things required to Sensation Obiect Definition of a Sound Medium Sense of Hearing vnto this Sense there are three thinges required an Obiect a Medium and an Instrument The Obiect is that which is audible that is all Sounds A Sound is a quality yssuing out of the Aire Coiter addeth or the Water beaten by sudden and forcible collision or concurrence of hard and solid bodies and those smooth concauous and large This definition we will labot to explaine in this following discourse The Medium is eyther Externall or Internall The Externall Medium according to Aristotle is Ayre or Water but in water the Sound is but dull as a man may perceiue when his head is vnder water yet they say that Fishes can heare in the water very well as they can assure vs that vse in the night time to fish for Mullets And although the water going into the water doe make a Sound yet this Sound is made in the Aire and by the interposition therof though it be made by the water The Internall Medium is the implanted Ayre concluded within the dennes or cauities of the Eares The Instrument although we may say it is the whole inward eare furnished 3 3. Instrument with his cauities and other particles aboue expressed and although that generally the Philosophers and Physitians doe determine that the inbred Ayre is the especiall and proper Organ of Hearing because as in the Eie the Chrystaline receiueth the Obiect that is the Light so this in-bred ayre receiueth the Sound Yet we are of opinion that not this ayre but the auditorie nerue is the principall instrument For wee thinke with Galen that not onely the alteration or Reception which is made by the in-bred ayre is the Sense of Hearing but also the dignotion or iudgement of that alteration VVherefore Soundes and Voyces are transferred by this ayre to the Auditory nerue as vnto the substance that is apprehensiue and from thence to the common Sense where they are exquisitly iudged off For if they must bee knowne and perceiued then must they touch some substance indued with Sense because all action is by contaction Now the Sensatiue faculty is not transported out of the bodie and therefore it was necessary that the Sound should apply it selfe to the Eare. The Sound is generated of hard bodies mutually striking one another as of the Efficient cause for soft bodies doe easily yeeld not resisting the force that is offered vnto them How sound is made and is receiued in the ayre as in his matter this Aire accompanieth the Sound and carryeth it as it were on his wings for as the ayre is mooued so also is the Sound carried as wee may perceiue by a ring of Belles farre off from vs for when the winde bloweth towards vs we shall heare them very lowd again when the ayre is whiffed another way the sound also of the bels wil be taken from vs. So also when two hard bodyes are smitten the one against the other we see the purcussion before we heare the sound for we do not heare the sound before the ayre that was moued do bring the sound with it to our eares neither is that motion made in a moment but in time and is carryed swifter or slower as the percussion of of the resisting bodyes was more or lesse vehement and quicke for this the Phylosopher requireth in sounds and consequently the repercussion or repulse of the ayre So wee see in a Drumme if the skin or Vellam be moist and laxe either they will not sound at all or they make but a dull noyse The
opinion by this that as the coloured bodie is illuminated eyther rightly or obliquely euen so are the colours thereof changed But hauing disputed this before I now passe it ouer so that it remaineth that we demonstrate and shew that the The Epicures reasons that Light is the forme of Colours Lumen or splendencie cannot be the forme of a colour But first let vs heare the Argument which the Epicures bring in defence of their opinion They say therefore that Seeing the Faculty of Seeing is one and simple therefore all thinges which are iudged there by properlie and by themselues ought to bee referred vnto One primarie genus and beecause Light cannot bee reduced vnto colour it is necessary that colour be reduced vnto light But this reason is so absurd that it seemeth not worthy the time and labour of confutation especially because it no whit aduanceth the certainty of that which is in controuersie For they were to conclude that lumen was the forme of colours yet neuerthelesse their argument will not stand for we graunt indeede that that which is seene ought properly and by it selfe to be reduced vnto one genus or head because the faculty iudging of them is one as we haue proued before but wee denie that illumination can properly be seene or that colour may be referred there-vnto Haue we not conuinced by that which All the Obiects of Sight ought to bee reduced to one head goeth before that whatsoeuer is seene by it selfe is a colour Are not light and translucencie perceiued improperly to wit onely as they are proportioned vnto a colour as wee haue proued sufficiently And haue we not demonstrated that neither light nor splendēcie can be a colour How then shall colour bee brought vnto the nature of light Yea I maintaine the contrary to wit that illumination may and ought to bee reduced vnto colour The light is referred to the colour because it becommeth visible no other way then as it obtayneth some proportion with colour But in the meane time some doe obiect that Colour is said to be actually the extremitie of the transparant body that is not of the transparant body as it is transparant but as it is an illuminated transparant body because without light both the colour and transparant body are only in potentia and possibility Seeing therefore that the light doth enduce an actuall being vpon the colour it will follow that light is the forme of colour because the act of a thing is the forme of it How that of Aristotle namely that colour is the extremity of the transparant body is to be vnderstoode wee haue shewed before but where it is said that light doth actuate colour I answere that light doth not actuate the colour as it is considered in it owne Light is not the forme Nature as a colour for a colour remaineth a colour euen in the darke it is true indeede that it maketh the colour actually visible neither doe we denie it but if it were the forme of the colour it shoulde not onely make it visible but what Effence so euer colour hath it should of necessity haue receiued it from the light but we haue taught already that the whole Essence of colour proceedeth from the foure Elements Moreouer it cannot be that this Light should be the forme of colours First because the forme ioyned with the matter doe constitute one compounded body but light and The reason thereof colours are in diuers subiects Againe who euer said that one accident was the forme of another but light though it be something more then a meere accident yet it sauours most of an Accident and therefore cannot be the forme of a colour Lastly if Illumination were the forme of colour then colours should not differ in Specie for whether the light be strong or remisse whether it be direct or refract and broken it is alwayes of the same Species but we see that colours be not onely diuers but also contrary therefore light cannot be the forme of colours But the Epicures would make vs beleeue that this variety of colours proceedeth from their different originals and beginnings which they esteeme to be their matter Surely an opinion vnbeseeming one which carieth but the name of a Philosopher for can you take All difference is taken from the forme the differences of things from their matter Know you not that the specificall difference of things doth flow from the forme Is it any matter which distinguisheth a man from a beast No but the vnderstanding or reason Now reason is the forme of a man not his matter And this wee may learne by mechanicall Arts for the same workman out of the same matter doth forme both an Altar and an Image and these differ one from the other not because they consist of a diuers matter but because a diuers forme is giuen to either of them To these we will add that Colours are another thing then the light For colours work vpon the light touching the illuminated aire as may appeare in a Looking-glasse receyuing colour brought vnto it through enlightned aire so also the greennesse of Trees and Medowes doth appeare in such bodies as are opposite vnto them which could not be except How a glasse receiueth Images the colour should worke vpon the Light but who euer saide that the things formed did worke vpon the Forme QVEST. XXXVI Of the Medium or Meane of the Sight NO man euer doubted whether the Sight stoode neede of a Meane but all rest vpon experience which no man well in his wits will contradict For A visible Object imposed to the Eyes is not seene if you lay any colour vpon the Eye it will not bee perceiued and if that saying of Aristotle be true in any Sense it is especially true in this Sense of Sight to wit that the sensible thing being laide vpon the Sense doth make no Sensation Therefore wee ought not to doubt that the Sight hath The reasons why it needeth a Medium neede of a Medium especially being here-vnto perswaded by reasons besides experience For Sight is a spirituall Sense and therefore cannot perceiue materiall things as they are materiall but it discerneth their species receiued in the Meane and how could materiall things send forth these species if there were no meane betweene the Obiect and the Organ I say if there were not a Medium which might draw out and receiue the species or formes It remaineth therefore that we make inquiry what that is which is a competent medium in the Sense of Seeing First it cannot be a body for euery bodye is either Simple or No bodi◠is the Meane of Sighr Neither compound Compound A compound body it cannot be because all compound bodies bee coloured and by consequent are an Obiect and not a Meane neither can any of the simple bodies be accounted for a Meane for they bee the foure Elements Fire Aire Water and Earth Fire is no
which hinders the Light then that perspicuū is present when there is nothing to hinder the colour that it might not be illuminated If then the Light bee not receiued in the perspicuous body it cannot by any meanes be the forme thereof But though there bee many learned men of this opinion yet I cannot stay my iudgement Refuted vpon it for some perswasible reasons which mooue mee to thinke contrary For nothing can passe from one extreame vnto another vnlesse it passe by the mean which is betwixt them and it cannot passe through the Medium vnlesse it be first receiued into it Moreouer in a perspicuous Meane there appeare diuers effects of Light for it is attenuated and heated which could not be if the Light were not first receiued into it And by this we may easily gather the insufficiency of Auicens conceite Thus much concerning the difficulties about the Eyes Now let vs come to the Sense of Hearing QVEST. XXXVIII Of the Production of a Sound ARistotle in the first Chapter of the fourth booke and in the sixt Chapter of the sixt booke of his Topicks saith that the knowledge we haue of any species dependeth vpon the knowledge of the Genus Seeing therefore that Why the production of a Sound must goe before the definition the voice is a certaine species of Sound and as it were an ofspring propagated there from it must needes bee that it sauour much of his originall and beginning Wherefore before we come vnto the knowledge of a voyce which is the most particular Obiect of the Sense of Hearing it is very necessary that we praemise somewhat concerning the production of a Sound in generall for by that meanes our knowledge of this Action of the Soule I meane the Sense of Hearing will bee better guided and perfected Wherefore we will first shew you the manner of the production of a Sound Secondly the definition of a Sound Thirdly the differences of Sounds And lastly we will vnfolde some difficulties which may otherwise breede scruple in vs. I know well that in other things the playnest way of teaching is to beginne with a definition but because a Sound is as wee say eus fluxum that is such a being as is then onely existent while it is a doing and in the time of his generation it must needes follow that when the generation or manner of production is sufficiently knowne the nature and definition will bee better vnderstoode Hence it was that Aristotle when hee would deliuer the Nature of a Sound began his treatise at the maner of production so will we insisting in his footsteps which although we cannot attaine vnto yet we will a farre off adore As therefore no sound is made without two bodyes mutually impeaching or offending one against another as euen our Sight and Hearing doe sufficiently teach vs so our 3. Things required to the production of a sound Two bodyes A medium minds also may conceiue that without the mediation of a third thing which should be not onely the medium wherein a concussion is made but also the materiall cause hauing in it a power of sounding materially there can no sound at all by the concussion of those bodyes be produced The necessitie of this medium or third body which must come betweene in the collission of 2. hard bodies which make a sound may be thus demonstrated If two bodies meet one of them must mooue and apply vnto the other Now wee know that motion cannot be made without a medium Againe that this medium or third body must haue the faculty of sounding materially therein is prooued because though two bodyes offend one against another yet if they be sharpe or soft they make little or no sound at all so a Needle against a Needle wooll against wooll doe not sound The reason of the first is because there is no quantity of this intermediate matter to make an impression off the second because though there be a collission yet there is no resistance Moreouer things that are vnequall or rugged doe not sound well neither doth a Many instances to proue that there must be a medium plaine thing make a full sound for the more cauity there is in the body that is beaten so it be proportionable to the violence that is offered the more resonant is the sound Add hereto that sometimes though the collision be with greater violence yet the sound is not so loude for two blockes beaten together will not make so loude a sound as a little bell and when a new peece of cloth is torne a sunder the rash is louder then if two harder bodyes should enterfaire one against another All these instances doe manifestly prooue that there is a third thing requisite vnto the production of a sound which is also the matter thereof This third intermediate body is that wherein the concussion is made be it Ayre or Water or Fire for those three bee not onely fit for the transuection of sound but haue also in them the matter whereof it is formed although not in an equall degree In concussions therefore the faculty of the medium or power of the matter is actuated when it is intercepted and broken betweene two bodyes offending one against another The manner of this interception or fraction is thus when two bodyes strike one against another that which is betwixt them is so vehemently driuen that one part of it cannot orderly The manner of the fraction mooue by succession after another but rather one part preuents another and before the first part hath parted from the place another is driuen vpon the necke of it and so the motion which when it is successiuely made is gentle and easie becommeth now byreason of this inordinate violence tumultuary and troublesome Hence it is that soft acute bodyes make no sound in their collision because the stroke that is betwixt them doth not so disparkle or diuide the intermediate body that there should follow vpō it any interception or fraction whereby the successiue dissipation may be preuented Vnequall bodyes because According to the differences of the former instances in their hollow and depressed parts they diuide the Ayre as it were into parcels doe yeeld a lesser sound Those that are hollow because they gather and close more Ayre which is confusedly shuffled and beaten part vpon part do yeeld a greater and stronger resonance Two blocks beaten one against another do not sound so loud the reasonis because the fraction is not so smart a bell and a clapper because of their hardnesse and polished superficies doe breake the Ayre more suddainly and throughly and so beget a louder and brisker sound A new cloth when it is torne a sunder rasheth louder then the percussion of a harder body because the Ayre which is about it is diuersly distracted into many parts where the manie threds are torne a sunder It remaineth therefore that a sound is made when as two bodyes offending
or iustling one against another the medium wherein they are mooued endureth betwixt them a compression that compression endeth in attrition that attrition in fraction and that fraction kindleth as it were at resonance VVherefore Aristotle sayde well in the 78. text of his second booke de Anima that a sound is alwayes actuated when one thing moues against another in a third That the fraction is not the found But although the ayre thus beaten and broken makes a found yet the very fraction of the ayre is not the sound neither the next and immediate generation thereof and herein all Philosophers doe agree particularly Auicen But what shall wee stand vpon authorities we prooue it thus The fraction of the ayre is a motion but the sound is not a motion First because a Sound is the proper obiect of the Sense of Hearing but Motion is a common obiect not discerned by the sense of Hearing and therefore a Sound is not a Motion Secondly Motion is no quality but reduced vnto other Predicaments as wee say in Schooles that is to Action Passion or Place But Sound is a quality to witte one of the Nor the motion third kind to which the obiects of the Senses are referred Thirdly Sound is made by Motion so we see by experience so wee are taught by all Philosophy the same Philosophy teacheth vs That nothing produceth it selfe Seeing then that motion produceth Sound certainly Sound can be no Motion It may be obiected that Aristotle in the 58. Text of his Booke de sensu sensili and the Obiection Solution sixt Chapter sayth that Sound is a Motion but we answere that he speaketh not in a formall sense but in a casuall that is not indeuouring to giue the definition of a Sound but a casuall production as if he should say when some motion is made with such and such circumstances a Sound will result therefrom VVe will also add another Reason and that very strong which is on this maner Those things which haue a particular existence or being one without the other are in themselues seuerally distinct and diuers Now the sound and the breaking motion of the ayre haue seuerall and particular beings because the sound is diffused and attaineth to those parts of the Aire or water to which parts the motion cannot reach And this Aristotle in his fourth Booke De Historia Animalium prooueth by the example of Anglers who in the time of their disport are as silent as may be and yet the Fishes heare them Now saith Aristotle Aristotles instance it is not like that their whisperings can produce so vehement a motion that the partes of the Aire broken thereby should by succession mooue thorough the whole masse of water vnto the Sense of the Fish Againe that this fraction of the Aire is not the next and immediat generation of the sound may thus be euicted Locall motion of it selfe contendeth or striueth onelie vnto That sound is not imediately generated by motion Place neither of it selfe doth it make impression of any other reall Being vpon that which is mooued as Aristotle teacheth in the eight Booke of his Physicks the 7 chapter and the 59 Text. It followeth therefore that the generation of Sound is another action besides the motion which action I know not how to name yet we may wel conceiue a difference betweene the locall impulsion and the Sound as we may also perceiue that besides locall motion sometimes heate is engendred yet no man will say that motion is the immediate cause of heate After this manner also we may well conceiue how the influences of the Stars may be dispensed in this inferiour would To conclude therefore it is manifest that there must concurre three actions to the production of any Sound and these three do each accompany and succeede other The first action is the affront which is betwixt the two bodies which offend one against another The second is the fraction or breaking of the Medium The third and last is the sounding of the Medium for so you shall giue vs leaue to call it beecause wee can deuise no other name Immediately after this followeth the Sound QVEST. XXXIX The definition of a Sound HAuing as plainly as wee could deliuered the manner of the generation and production of a Sound we will now briefely set downe the definition of it Aristotle in the 65 Text of his second Booke de Anima defines a sound to bee A motion of that which may bee mooued with that motion wherewith those things are mooued which do rebound from the mutual percussion of two bodies Others do define it to be A sensatiue quality striking the hearing and the proper obiect of that Sense But we will thus define it A Sound is a passiue and successiue quality produced from the interception and breaking of the Aire or Water which followeth vpon the The definitiō of a Sound Obiection collision or striking of two sounding bodyes so fit to moue the Sense of Hearing If any should obiect that there is but one onely Nature of one thing as Arist saieth in the 4 chapter of his first Booke of Topickes and that a definition is an oration expressing the nature of a thing as the same Aristotle in the 5 chapter of his first Booke and the sixt chapter of his 5. Booke of Topicks saith There can be but one definition giuen of one and the same thing and therefore a Sound should not consist of one simple but of a threefolde Nature because we haue set downe three definitions one differing from another whereas wee promised but one definition in the Title of this Chapter It is therefore to be considered that three A threefolde definition of Accidents things may be obserued in all Accidents and from the knowledge of these their Nature may be better manifested these are the subiect the genus and the Cause By which three according to the diuers intention and end of the definer such accidentes are defined eyther with the mention of them all or of the subiect and genus onely the cause being lefte out or of the cause alone omitting the other two The first manner of defining satisfies the vnderstanding best the other affoords but a lame defectiue vnderstanding of that which is defined So in this definition of the Ecclipse that It is a priuation of the Light in the Moone by By the ecclips reason of the interposition of the Earth betwixt the Moone and the Sunne all three are contained Likewise the Thunder defined to be a Sound in a Clowd made by the extinction of Fire is a definition consisting of all three But this Thunder is onely defined by the subiect and Aud thunder the Genus if we say that Thunder is a Sound in a Cloud and by the cause alone when we say It is an extinction of the fire Now if the Nature of Accidents be such and so great variety be in their
other body And of this kinde is the sound of those creatures which we call Insecta and of most Fishes The Sound that proceedeth from such organs as are not thereto by Nature deputed is also double First as when two creatures or two hands do strike one against another the second when one body hath life the other hath none as when a man strikes his hand vpon a Table Furthermore the naturall Sound of bodies without life is that which is made by the action of the first qualities as that of the Fire of the Aire of the Water of the Earth or of these mixed for example the thundering of Aire when it is concluded or shut vp in water and violently breaketh foorth through a narrow outlet And thus much of Naturall Sounds I call that Violent which is made by bodies beaten one against another by an Violent sounds extrinsecall or outward principle all which might be nicely parted into seuerall Sections if we did not thinke that any man might out of the order we haue before insisted vppon frame vnto himselfe a multitude of distinctions or differences of Sounds QVEST. XLI Of the manner of Hearing COncerning the manner of Hearing the Phylosophers doe diuersly dissent in their opinions Alcmaeon thought that we doe therefore Heare because our Eares are empty Diuers opinions of hearing Alcmaeon and hollow within for all empty things doe make a resonance Diogenes thought that there was a kind of Ayre within the Braine and that this Ayre was strucken with the voyce this conceit was controuerted in Hippocrates times therfore Diogenes in his booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he inueigheth against it There are saith he some which writing of the Nature of things haue affirmed that the braine doth make a sound which cannot be for the Braine is humide and moyst but no moyst body can cause a sound Plato writeth that Hearing is Hippocrates made by the pulsation and beating of an internall Ayre But we passing by these slippery wayes of opinions will insist vpon the true manner of Plato Hearing and in a short and familiar discourse display the whole Nature thereof For because the Organ of Hearing was vnknowne to the antient Phylosophers and Physitions particularly to Aristotle and Galen in whose dayes Anatomy was but in the infancie and therefore the many small and curious parts of that Organ not found out we cannot therefore collect the perfect nature of Hearing out of their writings and therefore in this disquisition we must trust more vnto our owne experience Aristotle in his second booke de anima and in his booke de sensu sensili saith that three things are required vnto sense How hearing is made The obiect of it The obiect medium and instrument or Organ the obiect of the Hearing is Sound as colour is the obiect of the light but of the Nature of a sound wee haue intreated already as much as is necessary for this place Onely I will call to your remembrance by the way that a Sound is a quality arising from the fraction and breaking of the Ayre which is What sound is made by the percussion of two hard and solide bodyes for soft things doe easily yeeld neither doe they resist the force of that which beates against them The medium or meane of Hearing is the externall Ayre for Aristotle doubted whether The medium of it The Organ of it a voyce could be heard in the water or no and yet he knows very well that Fishes do heare who was euer present at the fishing for Mullets in the night The instrumtnt of the Hearing is not the external Eare but the internall which consisteth of foure cauities and many other particles vnknowne to the Antients The manner therefore of Hearing is thus The externall Ayre beeing strucken by two hard and solid bodyes and affected with the qualitie of a sound doth alter that Ayre The manner of hearing which adioyneth next vnto it and this Ayre mooueth the next to that vntill by this continuation and successiue motion it ariue at the Eare. For euen as if you cast a stone into a pond there will circles bubble vp one ouertaking and moouing another so it is in the percussion of the Ayre there are as it were certaine circles generated vntil by succession they attaine vnto the Organ of Hearing Auicen very wittily calleth this continuation of the strucken Ayre vndam vocalem a vocall waue But this kind of motion is not made in a moment but in succession of Time wherevpon it is that the sound is not presently after the stroke heard from afarre The Ayre endowed with the quality of a sound is through the auditory passage which outwardly is alwayes open first striken against the most drie and sounding membrane which is therefore called Tympanum or the Drumme The membrane being strucken doth mooue the three little bones and in a moment maketh impression of the character of the sound This sound is presently receiued of the inbred Ayre which it carryeth through the windowes of the stony stone before described into the winding burroughs and so into the Labyrinth after into the Snaile-shell and lastly into the Auditory Nerue which conueyeth it thence vnto the common Sense as vnto his Censor and Iudge And this is the true manner of hearing QVEST. XLII Whether the proper and inbred Ayre contayned within the Eare be the primary and principall Instrument of Hearing THE proper and ingenit ayre which the Barbarians call Implanted and Aristotle inaedificated and immoneable is contayned in the second cauity of the Eares which the same Aristotle calleth the Snayle-shell Some doe The names of it call it Immoueable because it is not mooued by any other but alwayes remaines the same in the Eares Others call it immoueable because it hath no naturall sound but can receiue all the differences of Sounds The auntients thought that this ayre was the chiefe and principall organ of Hearing and in respect of this ayre Aristotle in his second booke de Anima and in his booke de Sensu et Sensil saith the nature of the Hearing is ayrie Indeede I esteeme this Ayre to be very necessary vnto Hearing yea so necessary that Hearing can scarsly bee performed without it but I can neuer perswade my selfe that it is the principall organ of Hearing It is an vniuersall Theoreme and generally true that in euery perfect organ there is some certaine particle to which as to the chiefe cause the Action is to be attributed so in the Liuer the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maketh Sanguification In the Eye The inbred ayre is not the principall organ of Hearing the Cristalline humor causeth Sight in the Muscles flesh effecteth motion and the Mamillary processes doe make the Smell But it will be obiected that this inbred ayre is not a Similar part therefore no such Action is due to it Now that it is no part may be thus demonstrated Euery Similar part is
in Sapors or Tasts humidity it would follow that two contraries should bee predominant in one and the same subiect then which what can be more absurd VVe must say therefore that these qualities are in mixte bodies not actually but potentially and that they arise out of the mixture as out of their matter so that when wee Potentialli Odor what it is say that siccity hath the predominance in odours we speake of that odour which exhaleth into acte out of the mixed bodies and so there shall be no contrarietie in that we affirme neither let any man thinke it absurd that we say two contraries may be potentially in the same subiect for water that is tepide or warme that is in a middle temper betwixt colde and hot is potentially both colde and hot at one and the same time for it hath an equall disposition to them both and the reason is because Potentiall contrarietie breedeth no strife in a Real subiect QVEST. XLIX Of the Causes of Odours ALthough the Nature of an odour doth consist in siccity yet it cannot be at He are is the efficient cause of Odours any time without humidity yea it is generated out of humidity eleuated or raised vp into vapours by heate so that there can bee no odour vnlesse the force and efficacie of heate do boile raise vp and attenuate the humiditie And this all Herbalists acknowledge for a rule to wit that all thinges that Smell strongly are hot so that from the vehemencie or remisnesse of the odour they do in Hearbs distinguish the degrees of heate So saith Aristotle in the 12 probleme of the 12 A Rule for Herbalistes Galan Section strong and â—anke-smelling seedes are hotte because the odour proceedeth from Heate The like also Galen affirmeth in the 22. chapter of his fourth Booke de Simplicium MedicameÌ„torum facultatibus Experience also manifesteth the same for perfumes are more fragrant when they are Sweet things smell most when they are hottest Hot then when they are Colde and in hotter seasons yeelde a sweeter smel which is an Argument that the moisture is better boiled away and that there is greater plentie of Odour raised vp in the aboundance of exhalations which cannot bee loosened and freed from the bonds of the matter wherein they are vnlesse it be by heate for cold doth binde and shut them vp neither suffering them to yssue out of their substances nor giuing them way to attaine vnto the organ of sense And after this manner Plutarch in the 25 Chapter Why Hounds cannot hunt in frost of his Booke de Causis Naturalibus assoyleth the question why in a frostie morning Hounds cannot hunt so truly as in open weather But it will be obiected if the odour bee not a fumide exhalation what neede hath it of moisture and heate which are the causes thereof VVe must remember that whereof wee Obiection were admonished before That Odours in mixt bodies are onely potentially cannot Solution be produced into an acte vnlesse they yssue out of them wherefore being an accident it cannot yssue out of his subiect wherein it was potentially vnlesse some other subiect doe accompany it for saith the Philosopher the Being of an accident is to bee in For out of their subiect they are nothing This subiect therefore which produceth the odours into acte is an exhalation An exhalation cannot be raised but by heate out of moysture It followeth therefore that both heate and moisture are necessarie in the production of odors Necessary I say not perse as they are odours but per accidens because they cannot actually exist without an exhalation They vrge further if an odour be of and by it selfe nothing then there can be no knowledge Obiection thereof for there is no knowledge of that which is Non ens or without being Againe a substance perse or by it selfe cannot be knowne and therefore say they we take away euen out of the vniuersall Nature all Science for whatsoeuer is is either a substance Solution or an accident third thing there is none Indeede we grant that of an odour considered by it selfe and separatedly there is no knowledge for so considered it is nothing neither No knowledg of an accident without the substance doth it fall vnder Sense but as it is ioyned with the exhalation it mooueth the Sense and also falleth vnder Science or knowledge In like manner Accidents separated from their substances and substances separated from the Accidents doe not fall vnder Science but each by other is mutually knowne and demonstrated QVEST. L. Concluding that Fishes do not Smell SOme Peripatetian saith Placentinus may obiect on this manner If an Odour haue Actuall existence onely in exhalation so that without it it cannot mooue the sense then what shall wee say to Fishes which liue in the An obiection of the Peripatetiks water where there are no exhalations to be found For Aristotle in the beginning of the fift chapter of his Booke de Sensu sensili saith that there can be no fumid exhalation made in water The reason is because as soone as ayre is engendred in water it riseth vp out of it in a bubble VVe may answere that the Fishes do not liue in the pure and neate element of water but in a water compounded of foure Water consisteth of foure Elements Elements being therefore compounded there is some fire in it Fire alwayes woorketh that worke consumeth moysture and such consumption is absolued by exhalation or eleuation into vapors Seeing therefore that in water there may be found such euaporation it may be haply imagined that by it the Fishes do apprehend Odours But saith my Author it may be this thredde is too hard twisted or too finely spun because first wee must acknowledge that the Fishes smell is wonderfull dull because of the predominance of moysture and colde in the VVater Againe I doubt it is ridiculous to ioyne Fire and Water two contraries in the same subiect which is against the law of contrariety And surely this blame we should worthily deserue if we should make the Fire water equall in their degrees But wee giue the preheminence vnto the water and say that the Fire as also the other Elements do put their qualities vnder his girdle I doe not say that The fire is remitted not lost in the water the qualities of the Fire are extinguished or quenched out by the water but they are remitted or abated for fire worketh perpetually wheresoeuer it is and raiseth vapours although they be neuer so small for this action necessarily followeth the essentiall forme of Fire so that if you separate it from the Fire you take away his whole substance Some Philosophers are of opinion that the foure Elements are onely potentiallie in compound bodyes and therefore haue onely potentiall vertues so that Fire which is Obiection onely potentially in water cannot actually worke vpon it But wee Answere that if the
of Nature By no meanes for if you deceiue a childe with a suckling bottle or any such thing like the nipple of the mothers breast as soone as euer hee tastes that which is therein to differ from the Aliment which he naturally desireth he will presently cry and not be appeased till he haue his mothers breast againe And thus much shall be sufficient to haue spoken of the causes of odours and some difficulties coincident with them Now wee proceed to the differences QVEST. LI. Of the differences of Odours TO distinguish the particular kinds and differences of Odours to giue their proper names is altogether impossible partly because the Sense is but dull and partly because of our owne ignorance which the best Philosophers haue Differences of odours very nice not beene ashamed to confesse Wherefore those that haue written of this part of Philosophy considering how imperfect our Sense is to make fitte distinctions of this obiect seeing wee can smell nothing but that which doeth vehemently goade and affect the Sense they haue thought good to distinguish the kindes of odours improperly and by way of translation by the differences of Sapours and Tastes neither haue they done this without good ground for between Sapours and Sauors as in the name so in the nature there is a great affinity analogy and proportion insomuch that the odour or sauour dependeth vpon the sapour or Taste So sayth Aristotle in the fift chapter of his Booke de sensu sensili there Therefore referred to tast is no bode odoriferous which hath not also a strong taste defining that to be odoriferous or able to moue the sense of smelling which hath in it power to diffuse a sapide siccity a while after he sayth If therefore any man shall esteeme both to wit ayre and water moyst it woulde followe that odour will bee nothing else but the Nature of sapide siccity reciding in moysture The kinds therefore of Odours which fall vnder our Sense are these Biting Sweete Sowre Tart and Fat. As for rotten smelles these sayth Aristotle in the place before quoted The kinds of odours are proportionable with bitter Tasts because as bitter things are hardly swallowed so rotten or stinking smels are not receiued into the Sense without a kind of regret and loathing There are two other differences of odours the first is common to bruite beasts and by accident doeth mooue pleasure or paine as those odours which together with the steame do arise from meat which are pleasant to those that are hungry and vnplesant and offensiue to such as are satisfied The other kinde is of it selfe pleasant or vnpleasant as the smell that breatheth from flowers and this is proper to men alone for they doe not prouoke the appetite more or lesse but rather by another kinde of satisfaction doe dull and appease it Yet wee must not beleeue that all the differences of Tastes may be applyed to odours for who euer said that he felt a salt smell Finally Odours are either Naturall or Artificiall Naturall odours are those which are naturally in the bodies Artificiall are such as Apothecaries vse to make for pleasure or for Physicke of the commixtion of many spices and these we call compound odours the other simple QVEST. LII Of the Medium or Meane of Smelling IT hath not yet been called into question whether the smell standeth in need of a Medium or no. All men taking it for granted that a Medium is required partly The Philosopher opinions subscribing to that Axiome so often before itterated by vs. That the obiect immediatly touching the Instrument maketh no Sensation partly because in the 97j Text of his second booke de anima Aristotle speaking particularly of the Smell hath assigned thereto a determinate Medium or Meane for in that place hee doth not onely take away the doubt whether this Sense be made by a Medium but withall he declareth by what Medium it is absolued and perfected With him therefore as there is great reason we also consent For Odour hauing his residence in a fumide exhalation with which exhalation the Odour exhaleth out of the bodies that vapour cannot accompany the Odour vnto the Confirmed What is the Medium of Smelling Organ especially where the distance is any thing great betwixt the body out of which the odour issueth and the organ of Sense but it must be dissipated vnlesse it were preserued by some Medium yet euen that Medâ—um doth not so preserue it but by degrees it is dissipated and vanisheth away Wee conclude therefore that the Sense of Smelling standeth in neede of a Medium But what this MediuÌ„ should be that saith Plancentinus I am not resolued of although I am not ignorant that all Philosophers with one consent doe agree herein with Aristotle who saith this Medium is double to wit Ayre and Water Concerning the ayre it is without controuersie the Medium of Smelling because when we draw our breath we do at the same time also Smell beside the Odour that exhaleth The ayre approued out of the mixt body is not diffused into all dimentions but only that way which the ayre is diffused A certaine signe that the ayre is both the Medium and the vehickle of Smels Concerning the water Placentinus maketh some doubte although Arist. in his 2 Booke de Anima especially in the 8 chap. of his 4. Booke de Historia animalium doth striue earnestly to proue that to fishes the water is the true Medium of Smelling His foundation is that those creatures which liue in the water do Smell which if it be so it is necessary that there must be also a Medium wherein the Obiect should be transported That Medium The water questioned Aristotle for it cannot be Ayre for ayre as soone as it is generated in water doth exhale or bubble vp as the same Arist. teacheth in the 5 chap. of his Booke de Sens et Sensil from whence he concludeth that for Fishes the water must needs be the Medium And truly the consequence were certainely and vndoubtedly good if the foundation and ground where-vpon he raiseth it be true But we haue called that into question before Now I will adde only one argument and that taken from the Nature of a Medium on this manner All Odom hath his Placentinus against it existence in siccity therefore requireth also a Medium that is dry least the Obiect should loose his odour for it is the office of the Medium to conserue the Obiect but water being moyst is no way fit to conserue the dry Odour in respect of the contrariety betwixt them vnlesse a man will be so debased as to say that one contrary can be the Medium vnto the other which is as much as if he should affirme that contraries doe not mutually impugne but cherish and foster one another Seeing therefore water which is moyst must needes extinguish or dissolue the Odour which
diuulsion sence sence Appetite is called Animall and yet the motion wherby the greedy stomacke sometimes snatcheth vnchewed meate euen out of the mouth is Naturall so the erection of this member because it is with sence and imagination is sayed to bee Animall but the locall motion whereby it is mathematically inlarged is Natural arising from the inbred faculty of the ligaments such is also the motion of the wombe when it draweth seed and of the heart when it draweth into it selfe ayre and bloud Yet it must be confessed that this naturall motion is holpen by the Animal because the foure muscles before mentioned though they be very small yet they helpe to enlarge the distention and doe also for a time keep it so distended If it be obiected that in the running of the Reynes called the venereall Gonorrhaea there Obiection is erection without imagination or pleasure yea with payne I answere with Galen that there is a twofould erection one according to nature another vnnaturall the first is from Solution the ingenit faculty of the hollow ligament the other is symptomaticall the first with pleasure the other without it yea with payne in the first the yarde is first distended and after filled with a vaporous spirite in the latter it is first filled then after distended In a word Comparisons there is the same difference betweene these two distentions which is between the two motions of the heart In the Naturall motion of the heart which is accomplished by the vitall faculty because the heart is dilated it is filled with ayre and bloud and because it is contracted it is emptyed but in the depraued palpitation of the heart the heart is distended because it is filled So smiths bellowes because they are dilated are presently filled with ayre for the auoyding of vacuity but bottles are distended because they are filled with wine or water Wherefore the Naturall erection euer followeth imagination and hath pleasure accompanying it but the vnnaturall which Galen calleth Priapismus is altogether without Priapismus lust or appetite The cause of this is a plenitude of thick crasse wind proued because the motion is so sudden and so violent for all violent and sudden motions are of winde not of The causes of it humor as Galen saith and this wind or vapour is generated either in the hollow nerues and ligaments or is thither brought by the open passages of the arteries But of what Surely of crasse and thicke humours and that is the reason why melancholly men are most troubled with this vnnaturall erection as also are Lepers and therefore the Antients called the Melancholly men subiect to it and why Leprosie satyriasis And thus much concerning the parts of generation in men now it followeth concerning those of women QVEST. VIII How the parts of generation in men and women doe differ COncerning the parts of generation in women it is a great and notable question Whether the parts of generation in men and women do onely differ in scituation whether they differ onely in scituation from those of men For the ancients haue thought that a woman might become a man but not on the contrary side a man become a woman For they say that the parts of generation in womenly hid because the strength of their naturall heate is weaker then in men in whom it thrusteth those parts outward Women haue spermaticall vessels aswell preparing as Leading vessels and Reasons for it testicles which boile the blood and a kinde of yard also which they say is the necke of the wombe if it be inuerted Finally the bottome of the wombe distinguished by the middle line is the very same with the cod or scrotum This Galen often vrgeth in diuers of his works as before is saide so Aegineta Auicen Rhasis and all of the Greeke and Arabian Families Authors with whom all Anatomists do consent For confirmation also heereof there are many stories current among ancient and moderne writers of many woemen turned into men some of which we will not heere thinke much to remember First therefore we reade that at Rome when Licinius Crassus and Cassius Longinus were Consuls the seruant of one Cassinus Examples Cassinus Maid-seruant of a maide became a young man and was thereupon led aside into the desert Island of the Sooth-sayers Mutianus Licinius reporteth that at Argos in Greece he saw a maide named Arescusa who after she was married became a man and had a beard and after married Arescusa another woman by whom she had yssue Pliny also writeth that he saw in Affrica P. Cossitius a Citizen of Tisdetra who of a woman the day before became a man the next day The Hyaena also a cruell and subtle Beast Cossitius The Hyaena doth euery other yeare change her sexe Of whom Ouid in the xv of his Metamorphosis saith Et quae modo foemina tergo Passa marem nunc esse marem miramur Hyaenam The same Hyaena which we saw admit the male before To couer now her female mate we can but wonder sore Pontanus hath the same of Iphis in an elegant verse Iphis. Vota puer soluit quae foemina vouerat Iphis. Iphis her vow benempt a Maide But turned boy her vow she paide Of later times Volateran a Cardinall saith that in the time of Pope Alexander the sixt he A story of Volateran the Cardinall Another in Auscis saw at Rome a virgin who on the day of her mariage had suddenly a virile member grown out of her body We reade also that there was at Auscis in Vasconia a man of aboue sixtie yeares of age grey strong and hairy who had beene before a woman till the age of xv yeares or till within xv yeares of threescore yet at length by accident of a fall the Ligaments saith my Author being broken her priuities came outward and she changed her sex before which change she had neuer had her couses Pontanus witnesseth that a Fishermans A Fishermans wench of Caieta Emilia wench of Caieta of fourteene yeares olde became suddenly a young springall The same happened to Emilia the wise of Antonie Spensa a Citizen of Ebula when she had been twelues yeares a married woman In the time of Ferdinand the first K. of Naples Carlota and Francisca the daughters of Ludouike Carlota and Francisca Amatus Lusitinus his story Hippocrates his Phaetusa Quarna of Salernum when they were 15. years old changed their sex Amatus Lusitanus testifieth in his Centuries that hee saw the same at Conibrica a famous towne of Portugall There standeth vpon record in the eight section of the sixt Booke of Hippocrates his Epidemia an elegant History of one Phaetusa who when her husband was banished was so ouergrown with sorrow that before her time her courses vtterly stopped and her body became manlike hairy all ouer and she had a beard and her voice grew stronger The same also
euacuated is not yet so euident Auerrhoes contendeth that the eiaculation of the Seed into the cauity of the wombe is not alwayes necessaray and that a woman may Conceiue without the embracements of a man And to this purpose he telleth a Tale of a woman who conceiued the seede of a man floating in the water of a bath so strong sayeth hee was the attractiue faculty of the wombe in drawing of seede But it is great wonder that a Philosopher would be so credulous to beleeue the excuse of a light-skirts who to saue her honesty deuised this excuse by looking vpon How finely he was gulled by a light skirts her apron strings for sayth he a neighbour of mine told me this tale of her selfe The woman I cannot but commend for her wit though not for her honesty but Auerrhoes had forgot what his maister Aristotle taught him in his second Booke de Generatione Animalium Auerrhoes disproued Seede sayeth he is altogether aerie frothy and if it be exposed to the ayre it presently melteth groweth waterish and becommeth vnfruitful In the sixt Chapter also of his first Booke de Generatione Animalium he writeth that those creatures which haue long yards or First reason virile members are therefore vnfruitfull because in the length of the way the seede is refrigerated If therfore it may be refrigerated in his first and natural conceptacle much more being exposed to the ayre or lost in the water Those which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose common passage of seede and vrine is turned Second reason aside by reason that the yarde is too hard reined with the bridle cannot generate not because they haue not fruitfull seede but because hanging a little in the contortion of the yard it cannot immediately be conueyed into the wombe whilst it reteineth his heat and spirits as saith Galen in the 3. chapter of his 15. Booke de vsu partium Doth not Hippocrates in his first Booke de Morbis multerum affirme that to be a cause of Third reason sterility and barrennesse in women when the womb is peruerted or distorted because then the seede cannot directly passe without delay vnto the inner orifice of the same It is therefore necessary O Auerrhoes that there be a direct and impetuous or forcible eiaculation of the seede of the man into the wombe of the woman Furthermore because in brute Why Beastes conceiue at the first beasts which couer one the other the eiaculation of the seede into the wombe is more direct it commeth to passe that at once couering for the most part they holde as we vse to say which is not so betwixt reasonable creatures Againe beastes are quiet in that action being so taught by Nature for motion often preuenteth conception Now if at the same time both sexes yeelde their seede then is the conception sooner and also more perfect because the wombe at that time being as it were enraged dooth more greedily draw and more narrowly embrace the seede which is cast vnto it This Hippocrates acknowledgeth in his first Booke de morbis Mulierum in these words If that which proceedeth It is not necessary that the eiaculation of both seeds should be at once from the man doth together and in a right line concurre and meete with that which is auoyded by the woman then doth the woman sooner conceiue he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Metaphor taken from Water-men who together do rise vpon their Rowers together dip them in the water and together driue their stroke And whereas he saith that they sooner conceiue it is an argument that it is not of absolute necessity vnto generation that both sexes shoulde at one and the same time yeeld their seeds but that there may be conception though it bee slower if one come a little before or after another but if the distance of time bee too great between them then the conception succeedeth not because the spirits of the first seede are exhausted and dissipated The same thing hath Aristotle in his tenth Booke De Historia Animalium vppon which Scaliger hath written an excellent Commentary as that mirror of Learning did all things Proued by Aristotles authority excellently There are saith he that think there can be no conception vnlesse the seedes of both sexes do at the same time meete one with another these are deceiued because the better habited body sooner yeeldeth wherefore that seed being the stronger is not corrupted but reteineth his spirits and being drawne by the wombe is reteined for the future permixtion so that to conception simply this concurrence of seeds at one and the same time is not absolutely but to a sooner conception it is necessary It is also demanded whether conception may bee without pleasure On the mans part Whither conception may be without pleasure Dinus opinion there is no question but on the womans for you shall heare many say that they haue no sense or inkling of pleasure at all Dinus is of this minde that conception is not alwaies with pleasure on the womans part but Dina were a better iudge of this controuersy let vs hear his reason because sometimes saith he the seede is immediately eiaculated into the bottome of the wombe which is of a duller sense neuer touching the orifice whose sense is Confuted more exquisite A pretty shift I promise you but the good man was in an error For pleasure is not therefore conceiued because the seede toucheth the orifice of the wombe but because it runneth through the spermaticall vesselles of the woman which are of exquisite sense otherwise women with childe who eiaculate their seede not into the inward orifice but into the middle of the necke of the wombe should haue no pleasure in such eiaculations but it is manifest that they haue greater pleasure after they bee with child then before because their seed passeth a longer course as we shall say more at large in our Discourse of Superfoetation Hippocrates in his Booke de Principijs assoileth this question For after hee hath giuen vs The question assâ—yled by Hippocrates some signes of conception he saith that these do not happen to all women but vnto those onely whose bodyes are pure and cleane but where the body is grosse full of mucous and impure humors there are no such signes That is to say an impure mucous and moyste woman may conceyue without pleasure or any sence of titillation at all Finally some doubt whether the permixtion of the seeds bee requisite to conception Whether the seede of both sexes be mingled Obiections Answered because it is absurd to thinke that species or kinds are mixed againe if they be mixed then should essenties be intended and remitted which in Philosophy is a grosse absurdity because euery essence is impartible Likewise of two beings by themselues one being by it selfe cannot be made But we answere that the Seeds being not actually animated they doe not
that the vse of the inoculations in the wombe is the very same that there is of the rough artery after the infant is borne Now all men acknowledge that the rough artery is ordained for the transuection or transportation of the externall and ambient aer to the Lunges of the infant which prepare it for the heart standeth in neede of aer so altered Wherefore the true vse and office of the inculations which onely haue vse whilst the infant is in the wombe is the transvection or transportation of aer but that internall comming out of the Mothers womb through the Châ—rion and the vmbilicall vessels to the same Lungs of the infant which are to prepare it for his heart The last limit is the eleauenth moneth the times betweene are the ninth and the tenth The 11. moÌ„th the last time This is Rossets opinion wherein he laboureth to establish that both the Anastomoses or inoculations are appoynted onely to leade ayre to the Lungs and that by them the Infant doth respire and the Lungs are moued for the new generation of vitall spirits But our Rossets opinion disproued opinion is that the Infant doth not at al Respire but Transpire only as we shal shew in the next question neither yet doe we thinke that it was necessary there should haue bin made so notable inoculations if only the conueyance of ayre to the Lungs had bin necessary For seeing in perfect creatures and those that haue most vse and strength of voyce there is but one weazon or rough Artery ordayned why should not one inoculation haue serued in the Infant whilest yet he maketh no vse of his Lungs for voice It had bin more probable if he had said that one of the Inoculations was made to leade ayre the other to lead bloud Moreouer if onely ayre be ledde by these inoculations to the vessels of the Lungs why doth there appeare in the venall Artery so redde bloud and in the arteriall veine arteriall bloud full of spirits With what bloud shall the red and thicke Lungs of the Infant be nourished In a tender Infant that Transpiration which is made by the arteries other blind passages is sufficient for the conseruation and refection of his weake heat We conclude therefore that both the inoculations were originally made to generate and nourish the Lungs because whereas the Lungs of an Infant before birth do differ froÌ„ The conclusion his lungs after birth in colour thicknesse and fastnes of flesh they needed also another kind of bloud for their generation and nourishment before then they do after And thus we are come to an end of that admirable worke of Nature in the inoculations of the vessels of the Infants Heart QVEST. XXVI Whether the Infant in the wombe doe respire and stand in need of the labour of his Lungs COncerning the nature of Respiration we shall haue a fitter place to dispute in the next Booke where we treate of the Lungs In this place it shall bee sufficient What respiration is to giue you Galens description thereof in his Commentary vppon the Booke de salubri diaeta where he sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Respiration is when the breath is drawne in and let out by the mouth so that in Respiration it is necessary the Chest should be contracted and againe dilated and the Lungs moued thereafter If therefore I shall prooue that in the infant the Chest is not contracted or dilated nor the Lungs moued it will follow that he doth not Respire but Transpire only The vitall faculty in bloudy and hot Creatures stands neede of two things for the conseruation therof Respiration and Pulsation but those Creatures which are without bloud That the Infant doth transpire only not respire in the wombe and imperfect which haue little heate doe liue contented onely with the Pulsation of the Arteries and transpiration So those we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which liue in holes all winter doe transpire but respire not so likewise Hysterical women that is such as are in fits of the mother the heate of whose heart is languid and weake being dissolued by a venemous breath of corrupted seede do liue a time without respiration and many haue been buried for dead when they were yet aliue The Infant because he hath but a weake heate and is in the wombe before the day of his birth as it were an imperfect creature is contented onely with transpiration and therefore he draweth not his breath by his mouth neither vseth hee the helpe of his Chest or Lungs Moreouer Respiration is onely ordayned for the behoofe thereof that the spirituous substance which is established in the glowing hot left ventricle thereof the might with the ayre be cooled as it were with a fanne and beside purged and refreshed but there is no generation of vitall spirits in the Infant as by and by wee shall demonstrate and therefore there is no neede of respiration for the finall cause fayling which moueth all the rest Nature is too wise to vndertake any labour The infant therefore doth not respire because he The Infant neither ought nor can respire ought not Adde hereto that hee neither can respire for being shut vp in his mothers wombe and compassed about with membranes if he should draw in breath at his mouth with the ayre he should also draw in the water wherein he swimmeth and at the first draught would be so suffocated as they that are drowned in a riuer Again he hath no ayre that he might draw for there is no space in the vvombe that he doth not fill and beside the orifice of the vvomb is so close locked vp that it vvill not admitte a little vvinde to enter into it Again that no ayre is inspirated by the mouth or the nosethrils the substance and colour of the Lungs do sufficiently declare For all creatures which draw aer at their mouths and noses haue white and thin Lungs but the Lungs of the infant as hath beene often saide are red and thicke and are nourished with red and thicke blood brought vnto them by vesselles hauing single coats that is by veines Wherefore the infant doth not respire because neyther ought hee Rossets obiection answered if he could nor can if he ought Rosset Obiects that by both the inoculations there is plenty of aer transported to the infants Lunges because it dilateth and contracteth his Chest But if that were so then should it follow that the Chest is mooued after the motion of the Lungs for the Lungs being puffed vp by the aer inspirated should enlarge the chest and againe falling vpon the expiration of the aer should compresse the same So the lungs should not be filled because the Chest is distended as it is in a paire of bellowes but because the Lungs are filled the Chest should be distended as it is in a bottle or bladder which to say were very absurd as Galen teacheth in a thousand places For
whole packe of the members and moderateth all and singular actions of life of which also it is the next and most immediate cause But because the nature of Fire is such that it hath in it much forme and but a little matter neither can diffuse the beames of his light vnlesse it be receiued into some substance The second principle wherein his power may be vnited therfore it was necessary there should be another Principle not so subtle wherein this aetheriall body might expatiate and disport it selfe according to the diuersity of his functions and that without danger of expence Such a Principle is the mutuall confluence of the seeds of both parents out of whose slimy matter the Plasticall or formatiue faculty of the wombe stirred vp by the vigor of heate diduceth and distinguisheth the confounded power of the parts into their proper actions not without a discerning Iudgement and naturall kinde of discourse This masse of seed irrigated with the power of the whole body according to Hippocrates I call Water not onely because this Element doth delineate nourish and make fruitefull but also because the future siccitie and hardnesse of the spermaticall parts stood in neede of a moist and viscid matter whereby those things which otherwise could hardly be sammed together might receiue their conglutination that so of many dissimilar particles one continued frame might arise This farme thus coagmentated and distinguished for the seruice of the soule we haue How the body is like the world in the beginning of this work compared to the whole world or vniuerse and that not without good ground For as of the world there are three parts the Sublunary which is the basest the Coelestiall wherin there are many glorious bodies the highest Heauen which is the proper seate of the Diety So in the body of man there are three Regions The lower Belly which was framed for the nourishment of the Indiuidium propagation of mankinde The middle Region of the Chest wherein the Heart of man the sunne of this Mycrocosme perpetually moueth and poureth out of his bosome as out of a springing fountain the diuine Nectar of life into the whole body and the vpper Region or the Head wherein the soule hath her Residence of estate guarded by the Sences and assisted by the Intellectuall faculties at whose disposition all the inferior parts are imployed In the lower Region Nature hath placed two parts more excellent then the rest wherof The lower Region one endeuoureth attendeth the conseruation of the Indiuidium the other of the Species or kinde The first is the Liuer which some haue said is the first of all the bowels both in respect of his originall of his nature It is seated in the right Hypocondrium vnder the The Liuer midriffe The figure of it if you except his fissure is continuall but vnderneath vnequall and hollow aboue smooth and gibbous In a man this bowell is proportionably greater then in any other creature and greatest of all in such as are giuen to their bellies The proper parenchyma or flesh of this Liuer which is most like to congealed and adust bloud by a proper inbred power giueth the forme temper and colour of bloud to the Chylus confected in the stomacke deriued into the guts prepared in the meseraick veines and branches of the gate-veine by which also it is transported to the hollow part of the Liuer there as we saide wrought and perfected and so conueyed by the same rootes of the gate-veine and thence exonerated into that which is called the Caua or hollow veine by whose trunks and boughes it floweth into the whole body The temperament of this Liuer is hot and moist for the moderation of which heate and conseruation of the spirits therein contained it receiueth certaine small Arteries which attaine but onely vnto the cauity thereof It is inuested round with a thinne coate wherein two small Nerues belonging to the sixt coniugation of the braine are diuersly dispersed We say moreouer that this same Liuer is the shop or work-house of the venall bloud and the originall of the veines in whose thrummed rootes the more aery portion of the Aliment is conuerted by the in bred and naturall faculty of the Liuer into a vaporous bloud which becommeth a naturall thicke and cloudy spirit the first of all the rest and their proper nourishment which spirit is the vehicle of the naturall faculty and serueth beside to helpe to transport the thicker part of the bloud through the veines into the whole bodye where it needeth but a little ayer and therefore is refreshed and preserued only by Transpiration made by the Anastomoses or inoculations of the Arteries with the veines in their extremities or determinations This Naturall faculty we before mentioned is diuided into The Naturall faculty three faculties the Generatiue the Alteratiue and the Increasing faculty Of the Generatiue we shall speake by and by The action of the Alteratiue faculty is Nutrition which hath many handmaides attending her Attraction Expulsion Retention and Concoction The action of the Increasing Faculty we call Accretion that is when the whole body encreaseth in all his dimensions Finally wee say that Concupiscence as it is a distinct Faculty from Reason and Rage ruleth and beareth sway in the Liuer as in her proper Tribunall and is distinguished into Libidinem Cupediam Lust and Longing But because in all her workes Nature euer intendeth immortality which by reason of The partes of Generation the importunate quarrell and contention of contraries she could not attaine in the indiuiduum or particular she deuised a cunning stratagem to delude the necessity of Destiny The Testicles by an appetite vnto the propagation of the kinde hath sowed the seedes of eternity in the nature of Man For the accomplishing of which propagation shee hath ordained conuenient instruments in both fexes which are for the most part alike but that the instruments of the Male are outward those of the Foemale for want of Naturall heate to driue them foorth are deteyned within The Chiefe of these are the Testicles two Glandulous bodies of an ouall Figure which in men hang out of the Abdomen and are inuested with four Coats whereof two are common the serotum or Cod a thin and rugous skinne and the Darton which hath his originall from the fleshy Panicle The other two are Proper the former is called Erytroides and the latter Epididymis The temperament of these Testicks is hot and moyst and they haue a very great consent with the vpper parts especiallie with the Middle Region as also hath the wombe The manner of the Operation of the Testicles is thus The matter of the seede together with the spirites carrying in them the forme and impression of all the particular parts and their formatiue Faculty falleth from the whole body and is receiued by the Spermaticall Vesselles in whose Labyrinths by an irradiation from the Testicles
because the inner circumference of the whole eye is inuested with this obscute and darke Membrane by whose shadow the cristalline is compassed so that his brightnesse returning backe from the blacknesse and obscurity of the membrane is vnited better into himselfe How the colour of the infide differeth from the colour of the out side And so as Aquapendens hath well obserued that light which is but weake or but moderately strong doth better appeare in the Christalline then that which is much stronger as whereby the inbred light of the humour it selfe is ouercome Againe we say that the darkenesse of the colour of this membrane maketh much to the collection and refection of the spirits For when the Cristalline is too much affected by a vehement light then we close our eyes and the spirits turning themselues vpon those darke colours are refreshed as before hath bene shewed in our Historie of the horny membrane Wherefore also about the pupilla it is thicker because it should cast a greater shadow vpon the Cristalline in that place where the light hath his accesse for on the backeside it is compassed with the thicke and fast horny coate And for this cause betwixt the horny membrane and the Cristalline humour this coate is blacke But this blackenesse on the inside of the coate where it respecteth the humours seemeth to bee bred with the coate it selfe but on the outside where it respecteth the horny membrane I conceiue it is but accidentary because it wold colour a mans finger that toucheth it and may easily be washed of so that the membrane will remaine white but the colour on the inside will not die or taint the finger for if it were so those bright bodies which it respecteth and compasseth would be foyled by that blackenesse and so loose their purity Some are of opinion that this blacknesse is the thick excrement which is separated in the nourishment of the Cristalline humour as also that the watery humor is the thin excrement of the same Now as this blackenesse is perpetuall in all creatures on the outside of this coate so on the inside especially where it respecteth the glassie humour the membrane is sometime browne sometime purple or skie coloured whence it was that Galen in the fourth chapter of his tenth booke de vsu partium called it a skie coloured coate and sometimes greene as in oxen but where it is perforated on the foreside and respecteth the shining or transparent part of the horny Membrane it is not in man of one and the same colour yet so that it is alwayes of that colour which we see in the Rainbow of the eye according wherto we say a man hath blacke or browne or skie coloured or a Goates eye which saith the Phylosopher is an argument of a good disposition so that the same Aristotle in the fifth booke de genaratione Animalium and the first chapter A mans eye is of diuers colours hath well obserued that among all creatures onely man hath eyes of diuers colours for other creatures all of the same kind haue eyes alike excepting horses who somtimes haue wayle eyes The Rainebow called in Greeke and Latine Iris hath his name from the similitude of the Rainebow which appeareth in the clouds because this greater circle of the eye The Rainbow of the eye Tab. 1. fig. 7. 8. f. Tab. 3. fig. 2. 3. f. is distinguished with diuers colours which shine through the horny Membrane Galen in the second chapter of his tenth booke de vsu partium saith that in this Rainebow there are seuen circles one within another all differing A nicite in diffection in thickenesse and colour which proceed from the Membranes But how nice a peece of businesses it were in dissection to offer to shew all these circles distinctly without confusion surely so hard a matter it were to accomplish as vaine whenit were performed Some haue called this Iris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Crowne There are many opinions of the causes of so great variety of colours in this circle of the Diuers opinions of the cause of the Rainbow eye and if you will giue me leaue I will acquaint you with what other men haue conceiued and then deliuer that opinion which I follow my selfe First of all therefore Aristotle in the first chapter of his fifth booke de generatione animalium maketh mention of Empedocles his conceit who compoundeth the eye of fire and water The skie coloured eye saith he is when the fire beareth the sway and the blacke eye when the water exceedeth the fire Empedocles Aristotle Aristotle in the place before quoted refers the variety of the colours to the plenty or scarsity of humours and maketh demonstration of his opinion by the example of aire and water for saith he if you looke vpon a deepe water or a thicke aire they will seeme black and obscure But if there be but a little of either then will their colour appeare blewish bright This conceit of Aristotles Columbus reprehendeth but gratis for he addeth no reason against him Thirdly Galen in Arte medicinali is of opinion that the plenty of splendor and scituation Galen the chrystaline and watery humors is the cause of this variety of colours The eye saith he becommeth skye-coloured either because of the plentie or splendour of the Chrystaline humour or by reason of his prominent scituation whereto hee addeth the paucity and purity of the watery humour The eye is blacke when the Chrystaline is little or scituated somewhat too deepe or because it is not exquisitely bright or because the watery humour is somewhat more plentifull and yet not pure Vesalius reprehendeth Aristotle and Galen in these words which indeed are but bare words This colour sayeth he ariseth not from the plenty defect or tenuity of the humours of the eye neither yet from the collection or dilatation of the Apple and finally not from the depth of the eye or the tenuity thereof Fourthly Auicen referres the cause vnto the colour of the grapy coate which as it is diuersly Auicen depainted so it bringeth forth in the eye diuers colours if it be sky-coloured the eye is also sky-coloured if blacke the eye is blacke And him doth Vesalius follow Fiftly Auerhoes imagines that the whitenesse of the eye proceeded from cold and the Auerhoes blacknes from heat The sixt opinion is that of Varolius who sayth that the cause of the colour is to bee referred Varolius to the vnequall plenty of the spirit and of the watery humor which as it falleth in diuers parts of that place so it representeth diuers colours The colour sayth he which resulteth from the grapy membrane receding or giuing backe from the horny is wont to be called the Rayne-bow from a certaine appearing variety hee calleth it an appearing variety because in very trueth there is not in that place any true diuersity of colours but only in apparition because the
the sides of the head the sound may easily slip by them especially when it commeth from behind vs and we moue forward if it were not caught in these conuolutions â—nd in the guttures of the grystly substance conueyed vnto the hole of hearing And hence it is that euen by instinct of nature we see brute beasts as Dogs and Horses will pricke vp their eares and partly turne them toward any sound or noyse that is made And because the Eare might be thus prominent as well in the parts as in the whole for the whole eare standeth of a certaine distance from the head Nature hath made them of a cartelaginious or gristly substance which out of doubt wold grow farther from the head if Nurses or carefull mothers who haue more respect of comlinesse then of vse did not bind them downe in our infancy If you aske me how the sound of any thing farre off can ariue vnto the eare I will answer by a pregnant example on this manner If a stone be throwne into the midst of a A fit similitude expressing how the sounds come through the aire vnto the eare pond it moueth the water in circles one alwayes succeeding greater then another vntill the motion determine in the brinkes or bounds of the pond so in like manner those bodyes which by their collision do make a sound mooue the ayre into orbes or circles succeeding one another so that the circles which are nearest to the body from whence the sound came are but small the rest which follow them grow greater and greater vntill they come vnto the eare whereat when they beate they are latched in those furrowes wee spake of and by them directed vnto the hole of hearing CHAP. XII Of the parts of the outward Eares THis outward Eare is made of parts some common some proper the common parts are the cuticle the skin the fleshy membrane flesh itselfe and a little fat in the lobe or lap The proper parts are muscles veines Arteries Nerues and a gristle The cuticle or skarfe-skin we haue spoken of before in the second book as also of all the other coÌ„mon parts only of the skin itselfe in this part we may say that it is exceeding thin yet somewhat thicker in the gibbous or backeside of the eare then it is in the concauous or foreside and the nearer it comes to the hole of hearing the thinner it is This skin compasseth the eare round about both without and within and cleaueth very strongly and firmely to a little flesh and to the gristle that the superficies of the eare especially The skin of the outward eare the inner might be smooth and slicke not corrugated or vnequall as well for beauty and comelinesse as also for the better reception of sounds for Aristotle in the seuerth Aristotle Probleme of the eleuenth section enquiring why a house that is new plastered doth sound Why a new house sounds more then an old better then an old house answereth that the reason is because the wals are smooth which smoothnesse procedeth from density or fastnesse It is reasonable therefore to thinke that the smoothnesse of the eare helpeth the sound and therefore the very hole also of hearing is inuested with a thight hard thin and smooth skin which cleaueth very closely to the meÌ„brane there vnder But where the skin incompasseth the lobe or lap of the eare it is so exquisitely mixed with the membrane and the flesh that it cannot be separated from them and therefore we may call that part a fleshy fatty and spongy skin The vessels of the eare are these Veines of the eare Hippocrates tooke knowledge of in his first booke de natura haminis Branches they are dispersed on either side Tab. 4. fig. 1. DDD The veins of the eare Table 6. Figure 1. Sheweth the fore-face of the outward Eare without the skin Figure 2. sheweth a ligament of the outward Eare whereby it is tyed to the Skull Figure 3. The stony processe being broken sheweth the first cauity and the holes thereof Figure 4. 5. shew the Labyrinth the Snayly shell called Cochlea two windowes and three semicircles TABVLA VI. FIG I. FIG II. FIG III. FIG IV. FIG V. Fig. 1. 2. Fig. 3. 4. 5. Arteries it hath from the inner branch of the Carotis or sleepy Artery which passe to The arteriesâ— of the eare the backeside of the Eare Tab. 13. Lib. 6. o that those parts and the in-bred ayre also might be refreshed with vitall bloud and spirits Two small nerues it hath from the backeward and two from the sides of the second coniugation of the marrow of the necke and these are very small sayeth Galen in the sixth Chapter of his 16. Booke de vsu partium in Men and Apes because their temporall muscles bee very small and the substance of their eares is immouable but in other creatures sayth he whose temporall muscles and eares are very large these nerues also are large because of the strength required to those motions The vse of them in men is to bring Sense to the eares and sometimes to mooue the muscles for those muscles are not alwayes found CHAP. XIII Of the Muscles of the outward Eare. MEns Eares are for the most part immouable yet they may be moued as appeareth as well by their muscles as also by the nerues which as we said euen now are founde in some bodies But the muscles are so small and the nerues so threddy that their motion is hardly perceiued and Nature made them small because too much motion would haue vitiated the hearing and therefore the head is rather made to moue speedily on euery side toward the sound or voice which is not so in beastes whose eares are mouable Such as they are Falopius first found them out and therefore the honour of their Inuention belongeth to him They are of two sortes Common and Proper The first is Common to the Eare and both the Lippes and is a portion of that muscle which is accounted the first of those which moue the cheeks and the skinne of the face and is called Quadratus Tabl 7. fig. 1 L The square muscle it is inserted with ascending fibres into the roote of the eare table 6. fig. 1. O. Table 7. Fig. 1. Sheweth the muscles of the Forehead the Eye-lids and the Cheekes Figure 2. sheweth the muscles of the Nose Lips the lower Iaw and of the bone Hyois TABVLA VII FIG I. FIG II. μ 2 the insertion of this muscle into the lower iaw ν 2 A small nerue running to the forehead out of the orbe of the eyes Ï€ 2 a nerue propagated to the face 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 two beginnings of the seauenth muscle of the head T 2 His insertion into the Mammillary processe â— 2 The clauicle or the coller-bone φ 2 A place where the vessels attayning to the head and the nerues of the arme do passe through The second is a proper muscle Table 7.
head of the drum The seurth vse might be secured from breaking for surely it would be in great danger to breake if the Inbred aire had no passage out For when this Inbred ayre is mooued if it could not retire backeward it must presse the membrane outward toward the eare and the outward ayre we know forceth it inward by which two contrary inforcements it could not but be endangered whereas now the inbred ayre hauing an out-let into which it may retyre it leaueth the membrane scope and roome to yeeld to the impulsion of the outward ayre He that would find this passage must take a dryed skull and put a hogs bristle into the hole of hearing and he shall perceiue that it will issue out again in the palat of the mouth How this passageiâ— found in a seull But in a greene head the holes of this canale are very conspicuous in the same palate And thus much of the canale which runneth from the eare vnto the mouth as also of the externall part of the stony bone within the skull with the processe and holes that belong vnto it The other part of the exterior superficies of this stony processe or rocky bone without Of the superficies of this bone without the seull the skul is diuersly exasperated and made vnequall with knubs bosoms or cauities posrosities or small holes and lines running in it So that the ancients did rightly compare it to a craggy rocke The vse of which inequalities is that from them the muskles might better arise and into them be better inserted This bone also hath belonging vnto it a processe and an Appendix The processe is somewhat thicke and because it resembleth the tears of a womans dug it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The mammillary processes of the stony bone mammillaris Tab. 3. lib. 7. fig 8. M. fig. 9. K. This processe is not found in infants but ariseth afterward The appendix is slender long and sharpe and therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coiâ—â— calleth it Os sagittale os clauale os acuale from the resemblance it hath with an arrow with a nayle or with a needle It is also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is like a spurre Tab. 3. lib. 7. fig. 9. ii Of the appeÌ„dix Styloides This appendix in infants new borne is gristly but afterward becommeth bony when the bones grow and the gristles are dryed yet for the most part as it is in other appendices there remaineth in it some remembrance of a gristle But of these we shall speaâ—e more at large in our discourse of the bones of the head In the meane time thus much shal suffise to haue sayd concerning the externall superficies of this stony processe of the Temple bones or of the rocky bone whether you will as well within the skull as without On the inside this stony bone is not solide the reason was that it should not bee too The inside of the stony bone Three cauities heauy but thrilled and perforated with infinite holes dens and scrued passages Tab. 18. lib. 7. fig. 2. ag 3. 2. m n E i. and in a word the greatest part of it is a very sponge wherin the implanted or inbred ayre is laboured or perfected But in the middest of it there are three notable cauities formed especially to help our hearing the smal partitions of which cauities although they be very thin because the bone should be light yet are they very fast and strong bones But because the membrane of the Tympane or head of the drumme is interposed betwixt the hole of hearing and the first of these cauities we will intreat of the Tympane before we come vnto the cauitie CHAP. XVII Of the Membrane of the Tympane or head of the Drumme THe Membrane of the Tympane which Hippocrates first of al men in his book de earnibus made mention of vnder the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of a skin in the hole of hearing is called by Aristotle in the 83. text of his second booke de anima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Galen in the sixth chapter of his eight booke de vsu partium The names of the meÌ„brane of the Tympane calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lid and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a couering Some call it Tympanum because it is stretched ouer the first cauity as a peece of Vellam ouer the head of a Drumme or because as a Drumme being beaten with a sticke maketh a great sound so this membrane being beaten vppon by the ayre communicateth this sound vnto the nerue of sense But it may most properly bee called not the Tympane or drumme but the membrane or head of the drumme because it is stretched vpon the bony circle wee shall speake of afterward and receiuing the impression of the sound returneth the same againe vnto the sense Tab. 10. fig 3. and 4. p. Tab. 11. d. It is scituated betwixt the hole of Situation hearing at whose inward end it is set and the first cauity of the inside of the stony bone which cauity we properly call Tympanum It is extended ouer the cauity obliquely forward The reason thereof The second reason and vpward as if a man should couer the sloping cut of a writing pen with a filme and the reason of this scituation is because it might more directly respect the first cauity which is somewhat higher then the hole of hearing Againe that the violence of the ayre of water or of any such like that might by accident fall into the eare should not directly or by a right line attaine vnto the membrane to offer it violence The figure of it is round Tab. 10. fig 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tab. 11. d curued a little inward in the midst The figure of it like that herbe which we call Pennigrasse or Venus nauell the better to receiue the sound which commeth from without because that which is concauous or hollow doth more perfectly and fully receiue the sound Concerning the substance and originall of this membrane there are almost as many opinions Diuers opinions concerning his originall as there be writers Some think it ariseth from the Brain some froÌ„ the dura meninx some from the periostium some from the pericranium some from the nerues of the fift coniugation some from the Pia mater But if it may bee lawfull for vs to interpose our opinion we perswade our selues saith Bauhine that it ariseth from the seede it selfe as beeing generated in the first conformation as we sayd before the membrane of the Cristalline humour was generated and the reason that perswadeth vs thereto is because the very substance of it differs from the substance of the other membranes in the body But if this opinion should not please we next of all incline to them who produce it from the periostium because if you dissect the head of an infant you shall finde this membrane to cleaue
beare a pulsation which might affect the instrument of Hearing Wherefore Bony it behoued not to be for then the instrument of Sense would haue beene deafe because the in bred Ayre would not haue receiued the Sound and alteration Why not bonie of the externall ayre and if the bone had beene so thin that it could haue transmitted the affection of the ayre then also would it haue bin in danger of breaking It was not fit this couering or instrument should be fleshy because if that which receiued Why not fleshie the sound had beene laxe or loose it would not so well haue transmitted the impression for wee see that the strayter a drumme is braced the shriller sound it yeelds Againe if it had beene fleshy it would haue bin soft and full of moysture and by that meanes would haue admitted of many things to cleaue or sticke vnto it which now doe fall away from it because it is membranous This partition therefore or muniment or couering call it what you will is membranous and thinne withall for if in the first conformation it bee produced a thicke and fast membrane then is the party deafe incurably as Arantius and Laurentius haue well remembred But wee finde sometimes before this membrane on the outside that there groweth a certaine thicke coate beside the intent of Nature of which Aegineta maketh mention in How children become deafe and dumbe the 23. Chapter of his 2. booke and Aquapendens saith he found it twice but Aegineta teacheth also the way how to cure it yet it is much to be doubted that if it grow from the Natiuity such children will become deafe and dumbe Deafe because this coate hindreth the appulsion of the sound vnto the membrane Dumbe because they are not able either to conceiue with their minds or to vtter with their voices that they are altogither ignorāt of And as such a coate or filme before the membrane doth cause deafnesse so it sometime hapneth that immediatly behinde the membrane there is a collection of mucous matter or an affluence of some humour from whence proceedeth a great difficulty of Hearing hard to be cured but if the humour be thinne then the Hearing is not so much impeached as the patient is vexed with ringings singings whistlings and hissing murmures in his Eares Furthermore this membrane is thight and fast hauing in it no conspicuous pores but neruous strong the better to resist outward iniuries violent incusions of the ayre It is also very dry that it might more readily receiue the Sound and more distinctly Why the mēbrane is dry make represetation of the same For we imagine that the image of the Sound is receiued in this membrane without the matter euen as the images of colours are receiued in the horny membrane of the eye Beside Hippocrates sayth that drynesse is a great helpe to the conception or reception of Sounds because that which soundeth shrillest is farthest hard as we haue experience in small bells which are made of thin and fast Lattin plate This membrane is also translucide and pollished like a Looking-glasse both within without sauing that on the inside the processe of the bone cald the Mallet or Hāmer is extended vpward vnto the middest thereof like as we see in the tayle of a drumme there is a chord stretched ouerthwart through the midst The vse of this membrane is to close vp the hole of Hearing in a round compasse like a hedge or wall to distinguish it from the fourth cauity of the Stony-bone and therefore The diuers vses of the membrane Laurentius calleth it septum the partition It serueth also to distinguish the externall from the internall parts of the care but especially to separate the In-bred ayre whose duty it is to receiue the impressions of Sounds from the externall or the ayre that cometh from without for if these two ayres had beene mixed and confounded the outward ayre being oftentimes foggy and thicke must needes haue made the inward ayre also more vnfit for sensation Neither doeth it only keep the inward ayre from permixtion with the outward but also containeth it that it should not vanish of it owne accord or be dispersed and dissipated in vehement noyses or sounds Adde hereto that it keepeth out the externall aire so that neither the cold nor heate thereof can offend the nerues of the braine Finally it defendeth the inward parts from outward wrongs so that if a man be ouer head and eates in the water yet the water cannot passe beyond the Membrane In like maner it keepeth out flies and other such busie creatures dust and whatsoeuer else should happen to fall into the hole of hearing But because the thinnesse of this membrane made it subiect to bee violated or indangered by such outward accidents Nature for more security hath placed on the inside therof three bones a chord or string and two muscles wherby this membrane is made better able to endure the force of the ayre when it is beaten against it CHAP. XVIII Of the small bones of the Organe of hearing and of the Chord THe three bones of the Organe of hearing were not knowne to Anatomists till the age wherein we liue Those two which are knowne by the names of the Anuill or the Stithy and the Mallet or Hammer were inuented or The finders out of these bones found out by that restorer of Anatomie Iohannes Carpus of Bononia and the third Iohannes Phillippus Ingrassias challengeth vnto himselfe so doth also Columbus and Eustachius and well it may be that all these being so oculate Anatomists did find it out by their industry But now we haue them it shall bee more expedient precisely to describe them vnto you then to determine who were the first inuenters of them These bones therefore are scituated in the first cauity of the stony bone which before we called the Tympane that is the drume or Taber and because their figure is diuers they The scituatiō haue also diuers names giuen them partly from the similitude they haue with the things whose names they beare partly also from their vse The first is called Malleus or Malleolus the Mallet or the Hammer The second Incus the Anuill or the Stithy The third Stapes Their nerues the Stirrop Tab. 10. fig. 6. 7. 8. The Hammer or Mallet Tab. 10. fig. 4. r. fig. 5. C. fig. 8. q. Tab. 11. c. l. is seated in The Mallet the beginning of the first cauitie of the stony bone Tab. 10. fig. 2. neere to c. at the end of the hole of hearing This bone saith Coiter hath his name rather from his vse then from his forme because when the membrane is mooued the Mallet also is mooued therewithall or because like a hammer it lies vpon the Anuill and in the motion beates vpon the membrane Others doe liken it to the thigh-bone as Vessalius on this manner As the thigh neere the necke thereof hath two processes
disturbance of the spirit hindreth our hearing whilst it be agayne appeased Againe it was necessary that this implanted aire should be immoouable by it selfe or of it owne nature that it might exactly receiue al the differences of sounds of motions saith Immooueable Aristotle in the eight chapter of his second booke De Aniwa Others saie it is immooueable because it is not mooued by any other but remaineth alwayes the same in the eares Others because it hath no naturall sound but is fit to receiue all differences of sounds saith Laurentius But that the inward aire ought to be quiet and immoouable may bee prooued by the indisposition we haue in our hearing when we are troubled with hissing or singing noyses in our heads Yet is this aire mooueable not of it owne accord but because it is moued How it is mouable with the least impulsion of the outward aire and is stirred with locall motion for whē the outward aire mooueth the membrane of the Drum the internall aire is also mooued that it may receiue a forme like to the forme of the sound which is made It is Plentifull for plenty is required for the full reception of the sound some say that it may be able to receiue many sounds offered vnto it at the same time but Placentinus saith Plentifull it doth not receiue many sounds because of the multiplicity of the partes thereof because each sound is receiued by euery little particle thereof It is separated from the externall aire by the interposition of the membrane of the Tympane Separated from the outward aire least the instrument of hearing should be offended For if the externall ayre shoulde haue gotten into the inward aire if it had bene either too cold or too hot it would haue violated the auditory Nerue and by continuity the After-braine also and the Braine it selfe Moreouer if the externall aire should haue bene imediately ioyned and commixed with the internall seeing the externall is in perpetuall motion thicke impure oftentimes also smoakie and full of small creatures it could not haue bene auoyded but that the Hearing would thereby haue bene impaired if not perished for the inbred aire also woulde haue become thicke smoaky and also filled with those small Animals It would also haue somtimes happened in violent motions of the outward aire that the in-bred aire and with it the Animal spirit must haue bene shouldred out of their proper place and the hole of hearing quite rammed vp Furthermore this benefite wee haue by the membrane that separateth the externall from the implanted aire that if a man be vnder water the water cannot pierce into his head or take away his sense of hearing as those Diuers find by experience who for Fish or Pearle or any such like occasion do vse to Diue into the bottome of the water Neyther is this implanted aire of the same nature that the outward aire is of but hath onely a similitude therewith which we may gather out of these words of Galen Neyther The Nature of the implanted Aire is euery Instrument of sense changed altered or affected by euery sensible obiect but that which is bright and lightsome is altred by colours that which is aiery by sounds that which is vaporous by odours and in a word that which is like is familiar to his like Wherefore we esteeme the nature of this aire to bee the same with the Animal spirite which also is aiery and that there is the same maner of the conseruation and refection of Like the Animall Spirite the one and of the other For this implanted aire is successiuely generated and againe dissipated as the Animall spirit is continually spent in the Animall actions and againe euery day regenerated In like manner this aire that is bred in the eare is at least a parte of it continually dissipated and generated againe for if it should altogether bee exhausted How nourished and restored or spent we should vtterly loose our hearing Now it is strengthned and hath his refection from the aire which we draw in by our nosethrils and through our mouthes especially by that which entreth at the mouth for there is a patent and open passage thorough the Canale which we haue before spoken of out of the mouth into the Eares by which passage also we saide before that the eares were purged Simplicius the Philosopher hath deliuered not that this aire is like the animal spirit Simplicius Coyter but that it is a thing Animated or hauing a life of it owne wherby it subsisteth Coiter calleth it a part of the Soul Archangelus conceiueth that it is norished by blood whose opinion we will heere set downe that those that list may iudge of it A passage out of Archangelus The aiery bodie saith he is nourished by blood brought by the Veines and that per Diadosin that is by Transumption as the Cristalline humour of the eye is nourished by What Diadosis or transumption is the glassie humour by this Diadosis or transumption For there redoundeth out of the glassy humor as much as is sufficient for the nourishment of the Cristalline like as the glassy humor transumeth from the Membrane called Aranea or the Cobweb an Aliment accommodated and proportionable to it selfe And this commeth to passe after this manner In the Coate called Aranea or the Cobweb there are Veines by whose bloud it is nourished After the Cobweb is satisfied that which redoundeth or is superfluous is transumed by the Glassy humor when the Glassy humour is satisfied with norishment that which remaineth is transumed by the Cristalline humor as a fit nourishment for it so that the Cristalline is nourished by an Aliment prepared by the vitrious humor the vitrious or glassy humor is nourished by an aliment prepared by the Cobweb to wit either of the others superfluities or leauings How the Aire is nourished The same happeneth in the aiery instruments of Hearing For the Membrane that inuesteth it receiueth Veines and is nourished with their blood that which aboundeth beside the nourishment of the Membrane being now far altred from the nature of blood is attracted and transumed by that aierie body into his proper nourishment But that this instrument of Hearing might haue not onelie venall nourishment but Arteriall life also and with it al the parts that are subordinate and ministering to it there are certain Arteries which are deriued into the structure of the organ of Hearing Thus far Archan Concerning the vse of this implanted aire our Authors are full of diuersity Aristotle The vse of this Aire in the 10. chapter of his second Booke De partibus Animalium and in the second chapter of his fift Booke De Generatione Animalium cals it audiendi sensorium the verie Sense of Diuers opinions Aristotle Hearing it selfe And truly the Ancients haue all deliuered that it is the chiefe and principall Organ of Hearing and from hence it was that Aristotle saide
Aer being affected with the quality of the sound driueth altereth that ayre that is next it and so by succession till the alterations come to the Ayre that is next to the How the scūd attainerh to the Eare. A fit compatision outward Eare euen as when a stone is cast into the water it stirreth vp circles which driue one the other till the water moueagainst the brinke or if the water bee broade doe of it owne accord determine In like manner by the percussion of the Ayre there are generated certaine circles which mooue one another till by succession they come to the Organ of hearing which continuation of the Ayre thus beaten Auicen and the antient Anatomists call vndam vocalem the vocall waue Vnda vocalis But if the stone be great and violently throwne into the water so that it driueth the circles vehemently to the brimme of the pond then will those circles be repelled againe and so runne doubled and hudling to the first circles In like manner if we hallow or speake alowde against any arched place or against a wood or a mountaine the voyce will bee doubled and an eccho will answer vs. But all ayre doth not alike receiue a sound For a pure thin and cleere ayre which is What Ayre is fittest to receine a sound vehemently and suddainly strucken by two hard bodyes whose superficies is broad will sooner receiue the sound and represent it more smartly then if the Ayre or the bodyes bee not so prepared A Needle strucke against a Needle will not make a sound though they bee hard bodyes because their superficies is narrow and not broad and so in the rest But aboue all that Ayre which is contained in a concauous or hollow place doth best receiue the species of soundes because in the reflexion there are many percussions besides the first for the reuerberation of the Ayre maketh much for the increasing of the sound which we may see in dens caues woods hollow mountaines wels and such like which will not only returne againe the sounds that they receiue but sometimes also the very articulated words And thus much concerning the nature and generation of sounds which is a meere Phylosophicall disquisition and therefore we passe it ouer more briefly Now let vs come to shew how the outward Ayre that is beaten is communicated with the implanted Ayre and the internall parts But before we descend to this it shall not be amisse to let you take a view of the diuers opinions as well of the Antients as of the Moderne writers concerning the manner how 1 Diuets opinions of the manner of hearing 1. Empedocles hearing is made for vpon that very point we now are The first is that of Empedocles who thought that this sense of hearing is made because the Ayre offereth a kind of violence to the inward part of the Eare for because the inward Eare is intorted like a winkle-shell and hangeth as a bell in thee steeple of the body it easily perceiueth all appulsions of the Ayre The second is that of Alcmeon who thought that wee therefore heare because our 2 2. Alcmeon Eares are within empty for all emptie things doe resound if the sound get into them The third is that of Diogenes who saith that in the head there is an Ayre which is 3 3. Diogenes smitten by the voyce and so mooued against whom Hippocrates writeth in his booke de carnibus where he saith that there are some Authours of Naturall Phylosophy who affirme that the Braine yeeldeth a sound which cannot be For the braine it selfe is moist now no moist thing will resound but that onely which is drie The fourth is the opinion of Hippocrates in his booke de locis in homine First of all 4 4. Hippocrates saith he the care is perforated and in that part we heare yet the emptie places about the eares doe heare nothing but a confused noyse but that which entereth through the membranes into the braine that is distinctly heard where there is a perforation through the membrane which inuesteth the Braine And in his booke de carnibus we heare because the holes of our Eares reach vnto the dry and stony bone to which is added a canale or fistulous cauity against which hard bone the sounds do beate and the hollow bone because of his hardnesse yeelds a reasonance Now in the hole of Hearing neere that hard bone there is a thin Filme like a Cobweb the driest of all the Membranes of the body but that which is the driest is fittest to conceiue or receiue a sound as may be prooued by manie arguments When this Membrane therefore yeeldes the greatest resonance then wee heare best The fift is Platoes opinion The aire that is implanted in the eare is beaten that pulsation is transmitted into the principall seate of the soule and so we heare 5 5. Plato The sixt is Aristotles We heare saith he when the aire is mooued by two solid bodies 6 6. Aristotle that which is beaten hath a plaine superficies that from thence the aire might result the concussion of these two bodyes must be vehement that the aire between them may not diffuse it selfe but bee apprehended and smitten before his dissipation for so onely the sound resulteth and filleth the aire by continuation euen to the eare Now in the organ of Hearing there is a certaine implanted Aire Hence it commeth that when the externall aire is mooued the internall receyueth therefrom a motion and agitation which otherwise of it selfe is immoouable so as it exactly perceyueth al the differences of the motion of the externall aire Thus is the Hearing begunne and perfected in the Ayre Seauenthly Galen in the sixt chapter of his eight Booke De vsu partium It was necessarie 7 7. Galen saith he that from the Braine a certaine surcle should be propagated downwarde to the eares which might receiue the sensible obiect comming from without whether it were a voice or a sound made by the percussion of the aire for the motion that is caused by such a percussion diffuseth it selfe like a storme of winde or raine or like a waue of the Sea till it ascend vnto the Braine Thus far the Ancients who most of them if not all were ignorant or at least much to seeke in the exact Anatomy of the Eye Among the later writers Vesalius and his adherents haue it thus 8 8. Vesalius A Nerue of the fift coniugation proceedeth through a torted and writhen passage and extendeth it selfe into a Membrane where-with the hoale of the eare is stopped which Membrane being thin dry and well stretched beaten by the outward aire maketh a sound being assisted by the hardnes of the bone and his turning gyrations much like the shell of a Snaile or Periwinkle Columbus So also we heare by the help of a Nerue of the fift coniugation which at the middle of the Labyrinth becommeth thicker but
not nor can haue any odor or that which hath but a little odor or that which hath an euill or offensiue odor and so much of the Obiect The Medium by which wee Smell is the Aire or VVater For those creatures which The medium of the smell liue in the waters whether they haue bloud or no bloud are yet apprehensiue of odours as also those that liue in the Aire For Fishes and Snayles and those we call insecta do smel their nourishment a farre off and approach thereupon vnto it because of the Alimentarie species of the odour as Bees will flock to Honny and so in the like But man neuer smelleth but when hee draweth in his breath for if hee hould his breath though you put odoriferous things into his Nose he cannot smell thē the reason How a man smelleth is because the instrument of his Smell is not placed in the superficies of the coat of his nostrils but farre within to which there are certaine perforations that leade Againe in inspiration the instruments themselues are dilated which if they were not dilated the ayre could not passe through the pores nor ascend vnto the processes and so vnto the ventricles of the Braine Other creatures euen those that are without blood do smell though they do not respire and they smell because they are able to receiue and perceiue odours And that they do perceiue odours it is manifest because they are stifled with those odors That vnbloody creaturs do smell whereby men are also stifled For saith Aristotle in his booke de sensu sensili as men get a stuffing in their heads yea are sometimes suffocated with the steame of Charcoales so many insectile creatures are driuen away with the smell or vapour of Brimstone or other Bituminous matter because they are annoyed yea killed by them Hence it followeth that the instrument of smelling in men differeth from the instrument of smelling in such creatures as a mans eye differs from the eyes of those creatures A difference of this instrument which haue hard eyes For those creatures that haue soft eyes haue also eye-lids to couer them which lids if they doe not moue and open they cannot see but those that haue hard eyes haue no lids at all nor any thing proportionable thereto but they see immediately that which is to be seene In like maner saith the Phylosopher in those creatures which doe not respire the chiefe instrument or Organ of Smelling hath no couer at all no more then their eyes haue But those creatures which draw in ayre haue their organs of sight and hearing couered yet because in their breathing their veines and passages are distended the instrument is vncouered or it may bee their breath remooueth the couering away but when they doe not respire they cannot smell which is all otherwise in those creatures that doe not respire Hence it is that those creatures that doe respire cannot smell when they are vnder water for they must respire when they smell but in the water they cannot respire Aristotles conceit of the couers refuted by Galen This conceit of Aristotles concerning the couers of the holes of the Nose Galen in his booke de instrumento olfactus refuteth For saith he it is an vncertaine thing which cannot be demonstrated nor made euident that we should assurdly beleeue it to be true beside saith Galen it is of no vse But let vs grant that in the bottome of the Nose there is a couer which is opened by inspiration that the way may be made open for the ayre and vapours to passe in and that when the inspiration is ended it againe closeth It must needs be that the motion of this couer saith Galen must be Animall or Naturall or Violent That it is Animall or voluntary no man will say because there is no neede of a couer or value for Animall motion beside Animall motion followeth our wills but this couer is neuer opened sauing when we draw our breath Againe the instrument of Animall motion is a muscle but in the top of the nose on the inside there are no moscles Neither is this motion Natural as is the motion of the values of the heart because the motion of the Heart is perpetuall and not at our command Violent we cannot say it is for then saith Galen when the Ayre rusheth forcibly in An instance out of Galen the couers should be opened euen without attraction or drawing of our breath but this we are able to disproue For put a man into a chamber fulfilled with some strong odour and moue the Ayre neuer so vehemently or lead the smell into his nosthrils with a reede for so doubtlesse those couers if there were any would bee reserated yet hee will not sent the smell at all vnlesse he draw in his breath Concerning this matter he that desireth further satisfaction let him reade Galen diligently We will proceede vnto the third thing required to sensation which is the Iustrument Concerning the instrument of Smelling we haue before related the opinion of Hippocrates The instrument of Aristotle answered by Galen and also of Galen himselfe But the truth is saith Archangelus that all the antients were ignorant of this Mystery Amongst the latter Anatomists Varolius hath wel described it so hath our Authour Bauhine you shall heare both their conceits Varolius hath it thus Two neruous productions proceed out of the very middest of Varolius the Braine wrought as it were out of the substance thereof these productions shooting forward doe determine at the top of the nostrils and make the chiefe instrument of Smelling to which place when the odoriferous exhalations doe attaine the instrument perceiueth the species of the odor without any matter and into this species is changed the exhalation is dispersed or extended through the substance of the Braine Bauhine hath it thus As the Eye is the instrument of the Sight and the Eare of hearing both of them compounded of many particles so the instrument of the Smell is the Bauhine Nose But because in euery sense there is one principall part it is a great question which is here the principall instrument by which the faculty taketh knowledge of the proper obiects of this sense Some thinke is is the Nose because if we shut our Nose and draw in the The principal instrument breath through the Mouth we doe not smell at all but if we drawe our breath through the Nose the odour presently striketh the sense But because there are some creatures that smell without Noses it followeth that the nose is not the principall Organ but helpeth the Not the Nose perfection of the sense and is an assistant onely to the principall organ We must therefore finde out some other part and that in the Nose or neere vnto it The Bone it cannot be saith Galen in his booke de instrumento olfactus because bones are insensible euery way much lesse can they
Mind with so artificiall a pencill that they seeme to be a second soule what should we say more doth not Galen himselfe so highly extoll this Organ that hee thought the Braine was onely framed The Braine was made for the eye for their sake a part so necessary and excellent that it makes vs verie much resemble the verie diuine Nature And doth he not moreouer write that the whole Head had the highest place in the body onely because of the Eyes A commendation doubtlesse wonderful yet not more admyrable then competent worthily deserued For being a man of great and profound knowledge he considered That it is a little world that the Eye was the true Microcosme or Little world in respect of their exact roundnesse and reuolutions wherein besides the Membranes which I dare boldly call the seauen Spheres of Heauen there be also the foure Elements found The foure Elements in the eie That Fire is there we will prooue in a conuenient time and place That there is Aire who will denie which vnderstands with what plenty of spirits they do abound As for Water who doth not see it in the Eye doth prooue himselfe more blind then a beetle all the other parts we will liken to the Earth If you looke vpon the Pupilla or Apple shall not you see shining Starres yea rather a The Apple Rainbowe of the eie beaming Sun Wherefore thou maist not vnfitly call the eies with the Poet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gates of the Sunne Shall you not perceiue heere the diuers-coloured Rainbow framed with a seuen-fold circle Shall ye not also obserue Haile and infinite other things which do most fully declare the excellencie of this Sense by themselues without any additament of our Oration Agellius But seeing as Agellius saith it is more blame-worthy to praise a thing slightly coldlie then earnestly to dispraise it lest we should seeme to preiudice the worth of so excellent workes of Nature we will heere make stay and addresse the small portion of our capacities vnto a more abstruse contemplation concerning the Nature Manner Number Order Medium Obiect and Organs of all the Senses in Generall afterward we wil descend vnto particulars QVEST. I. What Sense is HAuing by way of Praeface set foorth the Excellencie of the Senses we are to proceede vnto a more full discourse of theÌ„ which that we may the better accomplish before we assay their particular handling we will take a Taste of them in general which may The definitioÌ„ of Sense by Aristotle make way to the particulars and may serue instead of a preamble for the better vnderstanding of the Reader First of all therefore it is to be considered what Sense is Aristotle in the 2. de Anima Texte 12. saieth That Sense is that which can receiue sensible Formes without any matter But he seemeth to define sense in potentia only or power which haply he would insinuate by the word potest or Can especially because this cannot bee a true definition of Sense as it doth indeed and really perceiue for a glasse also dooth receiue Iohn Grammaticus sensible formes without any materiall substance yet that perception is no sense Whence Iohan. Grami vpon the 127 Text of the second Booke De Anima saith To bee able to perceiue is not onely to receiue species or formes without the matter but there is also requisite an Animall faculty which is not in all things that receiue the formes of sensible things without Alex. Aphrodis the matter as if he had saide euen as it is in glasses But the Philosopher would shew what manner of perception was necessary to Sense that it haue the acte of perception and how the obiect ought to be disposed except by the word Perceiue hee vnderstood Discerning which Philosophers doe sometimes promiscuously vse as we may gather out of Alexander Aphrodisaeus who vpon the 3. Booke of the Metaphysicks saith That Sense is an apprehension or discerning of present sensible things which are without the Sensorium or Organ and this is Sense in deede and acte for wee Simplicius definition are then saide to perceiue when we discerne the Obiects which Simplicius vppon the 155. Text of the third Booke De Anima hath wel noted defining Sense to be Aknowledge or discerning stirred vppe in the Organ first receyuing his acte from the sensible obiect so that Aristotle by receyuing vnderstood nothing but the knowledge or discerning of the obiect And the same definition he doth accurately and distâ—nctly declare in the second Chapter and 138 Text of the third Booke De Anima where hee saith That the Instrument of euerte Sense doth receiue the sensible obiect without any matter and therfore the Obiects being remooued there are in the Instruments of the Senses Sensations and Imaginations VVhat can be more euident For how can the Sense of that obiect remaine in the Organ when Al Sense is made with the knowledge of the Obâ—ect the obiect is set aside if it should onely receiue it without any acte of discerning Are we not taught the contrarie in glasses which because they onely receiue but knowe or discerne nothing therefore presently as the obiect is remooued they loose the Image We will therefore out of this which hath bene saide gather a most cleare and absolute definition of Sense on this manner That Sense is a knowledge or discerning of the obiect receyued formally in the Organ QUEST II. What Action is and how Action and vse do differ AVerrhoes verie worthily saieth in the first Booke De Anima and the 51. Text that the first and chiefe consideration of Sense is Whether it bee to be accounted amongest the Actiue or Passiue vertues or Faculties of the soule that is whether it be accomplished by action or passion for he which is ignorant of this can neuer attaine to the perfect knowledge of the manner of Sensation Considering therefore of this matter by the counsell of Auerrhoes I haue heere determined for the more euident clearing of this question to declare what Action is and also what Passion is Action therefore which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a certaine actiue motion proceeding what action is from any thing fit for action for the obtaining of some thing It is called an Actiue motion by Galen in the first chapter of his 17 Booke De vsu partium and in manie other places and that not without good reason seeing that there is as well an Actiue motion as a Passiue motion Manie call that an Actiue motion which is performed by the proper Nature of Why action is called an Actiue Motion the thing and of it selfe alone and that Passiue which is caused by some externall agent As for example the walking of a creature is an Actiue motion in regard that it proceedeth from the proper internall Facultie of the creature But the casting of a Stone vpward What actiue
by Vnderstāding nor reason it be Is it the worke of our vnderstanding or of our Reason No for this action is common to brute Beasts which be destitute of reason For they know when they do not See or Heare or Smell and so in the rest And that they know so much may easily bee gathered by their opening of their eies vvhen they be shut and pricking vp their Eares when they would See or Heare Neither neede we wonder heereat for they are enriched with some Functions that come nerer vnto reason it selfe as I might easily prooue by many instances of diuers creatures out of Aristotle and Pliny and other Historians if I thought it pertinent to this place Seeing therefore vnreasonable creatures do know when they perceiue that is haue vse of their Sences it followeth necessarilie that that knowledge is not a worke of Reason Neyther is it any worke of the Phantasie in regard that it worketh after the act of perceiuing when the obiect is not present but this Sence ought to iudge at least then when It is no worke of the phātisy we haue vse of Sense that we doe vse it and after Sensation to doe nothing whence Aristotle in the 136 Text of the third Booke de anima handling this matter affirmeth that this is done continually in the first Sense And this Sense is the common Sense so called because it is proper to no one Sense but is equally common to all for Nature hath We know that we perceyue by the Common Sense alwayes endeuoured that shee may bring a multitude into an vnity so much as possibly may be wherefore she hath ioyned in one common sence al the outward Senses wherinto as lines going from the circumference into the center they may determine this hath the Philosopher verie elegantly declared in the 30. Text of his third Booke De Anima and calleth this Common Sence the meane or middle betweene the external Senses considering them as the Circumference and this as the Center This is that Sence by which we know that we Heare See and perform the functions of the other Senses this is it which being bound in our sleep maketh vs ignorant of our Sensation this is it which except it be present all the other Senses are vnprofitable this is it which offereth to the Phansie the species which the outward Senses haue perceiued and the phantasmes to the vnderstanding In a word this is it without which neither the externall nor internall Senses nor the principall Faculties of the Soule could consist entire and absolute QVEST. XII Of the Number of the Senses IT is receiued of all men that the Senses be fiue in number but especially of Aristotle in the first chapter and 128 Text of his first Book De Anima who sayth That there be fiue Senses that beside Sight Hearing Smelling Tasting and Touching there can bee no other Sense assigned And this is also confirmed by reason beecause there be onely fiue Obiects Colours Sounds Odors Sapors and Tactile qualities if therefore there can be found no other proper obiect beside these fiue I meane of externall That there be fiue propper Obiects of the Senses obiects it doth necessarily follow that there is no other Sence beside these so also because these fiue mentioned seuerall Obiects are so proper vnto their seuerall Sences that none of them is iudged of but by his owne proper Sence I say it followes hence that there are no fewer Sences then fiue because the Obiects are full out fiue Furthermore this number of fiue Sences is also confirmed by the number of the Elements for Aristotle in the end of the second Chapter of his Booke De Sensu Sensili saith The number of the Senses that euerie organ is assigned to a particular Element namely the Eye to the water the Hearing to the Aire the Smelling to the Fire the Touching to the Earth and Tasting because of his neere affinitie to Touching is resembled vnto the same Element Neither doth that which may be obiected any way infringe or impeach this opinion to Obiection Solution wit because there is one onely Sensatiue Faculty therefore that there should bee but one sense for the reason why the eie discerneth colours the Eare iudgeth of soundes the Nose perceiueth sauours is not from the Facultie but from the temperature of the Organ for the Foote also would see if it were endued with a temperament conuenient for the discerning of colours That they haue Sense the Organs haue it from the Faculty but that the perceiue rather this then that Obiect they obtaine it not from the Faculty but from the temperament of their Organ Wherefore whereas the Eye doth discerne of Colours the Eare of Sounde and the Nose of odours it is not because there is a certaine Visiue an Auditory and odoratorie or Smelling Faculty but because one and the same faculty carrying it selfe in euerie Organ after the same manner doth diuerslie proceede into acte according to the diuers temper of the diuers Organs QVEST. XIII Of the order of the Senses HAuing thus determined the number of the Senses it followeth in the next place that we speake something of the order of them to wit whether wee ought to begin with the sight as Aristotle and almost all Philosophers do or with the Touch which is a contrarie way wherein Physitians Anatomists do walke and these be the two contrary Sects concerning this matter of order for none euer made doubt about the interruption or breaking off the order but how manie Authors soeuer there be they haue either placed Sight in the first place Hearing in the Second Smelling in the third Tasting in the fourth and Touching in the Fift or else on the contrarie haue put Touching in the first ranke Tasting in the second Smelling in the third Hearing in the fourth and Seeing in the fift and last place As concerning the first it is the opinion of the Philosophers and of Aristotle especially Senses to bee placed according to the order of the Elements who both in the second Booke de Anima and in the 2. 3. and 5. chapters of his Booke De Sens Sens doth ranke them in this order Moreouer this assertion seemeth to bee grounded vpon reason because this is the order of the Elements which do concurre for a Meane or other helpe to the Senses so that euerie sense in respect of that Element vnto which it is appropriated ought thus to be placed and according thereto should their order and frame arise Sight is then the first of all the Senses because Fire hath the first place among the Elements The sight is fierie for sight is fiery both in regard of the Sense for it hath an ingenite or inbred fire as also by reason of the sensible thing for except there were light which proceedeth from afiery bodie there would be no vision The Hearing is the second because it is aiery for
aire occupieth the second place and the The Hearing is aiery Hearing is airy both in respect of the Sense because it hath an inbred aire and in respect of the Obiect because the Sound is formed in the aire so that it is of the Essence thereof Smelling is vaporous Smelling is put in the third place because as it is the middle betweene the other Sences so it is appropriated to an Element if I may so say disposed in the middest of the rest For that which is a Meane betweene the Nature of Water and aire as Galen doth well witnesse in the second chapter of his Booke De Odor Instrum falleth vnder the Sence of Smelling because that which is neyther so thin or rare as aire nor so crasse and thicke as water may well be concluded vnder the name of a Vapour Now that Smelling is vaporous both in respect of the Sence it selfe and of the thing sensible wee may haue occasion to prooue heereafter The Tast waterie The Taste deserues the fourth place because Water succeedeth Aire and to water this Sence is referred as wel because of the Communion of the Sences as also in regard of the essence of the obiect The Touch earthy The last place belongs to the Touch because the earth is in the last and lowest place of whose nature and quality this sense of Touching doth participate QVEST. XIIII A conformation of the order of the Senses THat the Senses ought to be thus continuated among themselues and propounded in this order the constitution and conformation of the Organs The order of the senses proued by the constitutions of the organs doe giue vs sufficient proofe for the proper Instrument of sight is vayled with a very dense and thicke couer that of the Hearing is more rare that of the Smell yet thinner then them both which Galen in the 6. Chapter of his 8. booke de vsu partium hath very well obserued where speaking of this Sense hee saith If the couer were so framed that it might be no hinderance to the Sense then it ought to be so much more rare then that of hearing by how much the obiect hereof is of more crasse parts Parts then that of the eare The couer of the Taste is not onely more rare but it is altogether spongie as we haue shewed before in the membrane of the Tongue Lastly the couer of the Touch is most rare of all This order is moreouer confirmed by the qualities of the Obiects for the Obiect of the And by the tenuity crassenes of the obiects Sight is the thinnest finest of all the rest yea after a sort spiritual not corporeal That of the hearing is more crasse and the Obiect of Smell yet more crasse and thicke then either of them where-vpon Galen in the aboue-named place witnesseth that the Obiect of the Smell is of more grosse parts then that of the Hearing for saith hee by how much the ayre is exceeded by the light in the tenuity of their parts by so much is the vapour surpassed by the Ayre The Obiect of Taste is much more crasse then the former But the Touch And by the necessity of the medium or meane being earthie must needes bee the most crasse of all Finally this must needes bee the order of the Senses in respect of the medium or meane for the Sight aboue all hath neede of a meane but Hearing hath lesse neede and the Smell lesse then it Tasting is as some thinke without any meane at all but especially the Touch as wee haue partly prooued already and haply it will againe fall vnder our discourse Lastly the Position of the Instruments are a confirmation of this order for the organ of Sight is placed without but the organ of the Eare is a little more inner and the instrument of Smelling more inward then them both that of the Taste is yet more hidden and the Instrument of Touching is called by Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is existing within By these demonstrations therefore is this continuation and order of the Senses sufficiently confirmed to wit because euery one ought to be placed in this assigned rank The Sight and Touch be the extremes because they are most distant one from another by reason that the obiect of Touch is corporeall and materiall and the obiect of the Sight incorporall and spirituall the Organ of Touch is placed within but the Organ of Sight without the Organ of Touch is couered with a most rare and thin vaile that of the Sight with a most dense and thicke couer because Sight vseth a Meane but Touch none at all Lastly the Touch is earthy and the Sight is fiery The Hearing and Tasting are lesse distant one from another and the Smell is equally affected to all and therefore by good right challengeth the middle place QVEST. XV. The arguments of the Philosophers ALthough those things which are alleadged in the precedent Chapters seeme to proue nothing else but the rank or following order of the Senses and if any thing doe inferre a conclusion it is onely probably yet there be which doe contend for the primacie of the sight with strong arguments And first they say that Sight is the first by Nature as Aristotle witnesseth in the 7. Text of his 2. booke de Gener. et Corrupt Wherefore if wee will obserue the order Sight is by nature before the other senses of Nature we must begin with the Sight Secondly that which is more noble then the rest doth deserue the first place But Sight not only in respect of the Sense but of the Organ also yea of the meane and obiect And more noble doth excell all the other in dignity To these we adde that sight is more liable to our vnderstanding and therefore we are to treate of it in the first place because many things are found in it more facile and easie which also may prepare the minde vnto the knowledge of the other Senses for the Organ thereof is very conspicuous the meane is manifest the obiect is cleare and other things which in the rest of the Senses bee very obscure are perspicuous and knowne in this neither is it a sufficient obiection to say that in respect of the act of perceiuing this Sense is most hard and difficult to be vnderstoode QVEST. XVI The Arguments of the Physitians WE come now vnto the reasons which are brought for the confirmation of this opinion both of Plato of Galen and of the Anatomists and they are taken partly out of Aristotle and partly out of the propriety of order For Why we must begin with those which be most common Aristotle in the 37. Text of his 1. Booke of Physicks teacheth that we must begin with those which bee most common both because as Auerhoes expounds it those things which be most common are best knowne and also because the affections which are to bee declared doe primarily agree vnto
it may hinder the Respiration and hurt the organ yet an odour may bee perceiued without a Meane VVhereupon when we would smell any thing perfectly we hould our noses close to it so that the Smell seemeth to be in the middle betwixt those Senses which neede a Meane and those which are performed without it Taste also though it bee made by contaction yet requireth necessarily an humidity Tasting and Touching none which may bring the Sapors out of Power into act But Touching hath need of nothing saue the contiguity of the tactile body beeing performed without the helpe of any other Meane And thus I thinke it is plaine what we may determine of this question QVEST. XIX What the Medium ought to be and of what kinde AFter we know which of the Senses doe need a Medium it followeth that wee make inquiry to find out what this Medium is how it ought to be affected And herein we must first obserue that the Medium ought alwayes to be present least when all thinges else requisite for Sense bee fitly disposed yet for fault of a Medium we bee made lesse able to performe this act of Sensation VVherefore the Medium by whose interposition wee Perceiue is not Fire for this is not alwayes Fire is not the Medium but Ayre at hand but Ayre for this doeth alwayes encompasse vs about it is alwayes present in it we leade our liues Secondly this medium should alwayes consist in a middle place betwixt the Organ 2. Reason why the Ayre is the Medium and the obiect for hence it hath the name of a medium yet so that it touch both the Organ and the obiect for otherwise it could not performe his office But there is no Element which is continually contiguous with our Organs but the Ayre Thirdly it is necessary that this medium be voyde of all sensible qualities for otherwise it would bring the obiect adulterated or defiled to the Organ and affect the Sense with a proper quality of The conditiō of a Medium his owne VVherefore no compounded body is fit for this function because all compounded things are sensible of themselues If you obiect that there be no Elements exquisitely pure and that therefore none of them can be a fit medium being themselues sensible I grant indeede that no Element agreeth with no element except Ayre that is neere vs is perfectly pure yet that Ayre that is neere vs wherein we liue doth exceed the rest in puritie and is cleare from all qualities except Tactile so that it may be accounted for a medium to all the rest of the Sense except the Touch. And is there then one medium seruing to all the Senses Yea for this is the conclusion which is inferred from the former premises to wit because this alone is most pure and is alwayes present with vs this alone is continually in the middest betweene the Organ and the obiect this is alwayes close adioyning and touching both the Organ and the obiect The Ayre therefore alone serueth for a medium to the Sight as it is Traculent to the Hearing as it is sounding to the Smell as it is capable of odours But it may be obiected that if the Ayre be the onely meane of the Senses then would it follow that Fishes which liue in the water haue no Sense I answer that for their sight the water serueth for a medium but other Senses they haue none saith Placentinus sauing their Tast and Touch and these two haue neede of a medium yet they haue these Senses also but imperfect but if any man will yet more instantly vrge that they haue the Sense of hearing we grant they may heare but most imperfectly and for such imperfect sensation the water serues in steed of a medium but we speak here of perfect Sensation where as the Sensation of Fishes is not simply perfect but only in their owne kind to wit so farre foorth as they haue need of it Lastly this condition of the medium is required to the perfect performance of Sense namely that it bee not too spatious or ample and also that it bee not too narrow or little But what is the limit or extent of this medium that is how farre or wide it ought to extend The termination of the medium is diuers it selfe is impossible to be determined for this limit or extent must almost infinitely be varyed according to the magnitude paruity and vehemency as also according to the vigor strength or imbecillity and weakenesse of the Sense For we doe not discerne Mountains Cities and whole Countryes but a farre off and lesser things wee do not see except they be neere at hand So we doe not perfectly and without offence to the Organ heare a vehement sound except there bee a great distance betwixt the Sence and the obiect nor a low voyce except we be neare vnto it And the same reason is of the rest QVEST. XX. What an Obiect is AN obiect or that which is sensible is a quality which mooueth the Organ and is iudged of by the sensatiue facultie And although that which is sensible bee An obiect is twofold two fold proper or common yet I conceiue this definition to be peculiar to the proper obiect vnlesse haply it may agree to some of the common therfore we will seuerally define them both Proper obiects therefore as Aristotle witnesseth in the 63. text of his second booke de Anima are those which cannot bee What a proper obiect is perceiued with any other sense and about which the senses in discerning are not deceiued And this definition by it selfe agreeth to the thing defined For in that sometimes the Senses erre about their proper obiects it hapneth not of themselues but from some accident to wit from the deprauation of such things as doe concurre to this sensation as for example when all things appeare yellow to those that are sick of the Iaundies this hapneth because the Eye is tainted with the yellow colour of choller and when aguish men do iudge sweet things to be bitter it comes also from choller where with the Tong is affected and that is The Sense is not deceiued about his obiect from euent accident not from the proper condition of the Sense VVherfore seeing that when such impediments or lets are remooued and the obiect medium and Organ are naturally disposed the sense cannot bee deceiued about his proper obiect it is by good right thus absolutely defined For the number of these obiects they are as many as are the Senses for colour is the obiect of Sight Sound of Hearing Odours of Smelling Sapours of Tasting and Tactile qualities How many proper obiects there be of Touching Common obiects are those which are perceiued not of all the Sences as some would haue them but of more sences then one Which Aristotle teacheth very well in his booke de sensu et What a common obiect is
to the Pupilla or Apple They are not stiffe yet this is not because they are firy but as Aristotle teacheth in his Problemes because they are inuironed with aboundance of fat which fat though it Why not stiffe haue for his efficient cause a defect or weakenesse of heate yet not withstanding by his reflexion it doth augment the heate and by his sliminesse doth hinder the ingresse of the ayre which beateth vpon them To these wee ioyne the plenty of animall spirits and the perpetuall motions of the eyes QVEST. XXV Wherefore the Eyes be diuersly coloured ARistotle in the second book de Anima saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 omne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euery Organ must be deuoyde of any quality least all things should sauour of that same quality which is in the Organ but the Eyes are the Organs of Sight they therefore ought not to bee coloured for if they were all things would appeare to bee of the same colour for all things appeare red to those that labour of an inflamation of the Eye or haue the blood collected in them by a blowe or stripe or otherwise In like manner those that are troubled with the Iaundise because their Eyes are coloured with yellow choller doe see all things as if they were yellow On the other side that the Eyes are coloured euen our owne Sense doth teach vs for some men are Wall-eyed some mens eyes blacke some mens skie-coloured and others greenish and so in the rest We answere according to Aristotle that the name of Colour is sometimes A double acceptation of colours vsed more largely sometimes more strictly In this large signification all things which may be seene are sayed to be coloured So translucent things though that cannot limit or determine the sight yet are they coloured Aristotle in his booke of colours cals the ayre white and the fire red But there is another acception of colours more strict whereby it is defined thus A colour is the extremity of a terminated pellucide body In the first signification the whole eye is coloured all his partes are coloured because they are aspectible and may bee seene but in the latter signification onely the coniunctiue How the eie may be said to be coloured and grapy coat are truly coloured for the Adnata is white the grapy is diuersly coloured blacke blew and grasse-greene to recollect the spirites that were before dissipated or dispersed that it might breake the splendor of the externallight and that the chrystaline humor might be as it were refreshed with that colour as with a Looking-glasse But the principall part of Vision which receiueth the species of visible thinges and is changed by the colours is not at all coloured but bright and lucide only Now light and perspicuity or natures common to all visible species which helpe the reception of these species Aristotle hath obserued in lib. 5. chap. 1. de generat Animal which also Pliny repeateth in lib. 2. cap. â—7 of his Natural histories that onely the eyes of a man are of manifold diuers colours in other creatures the eies are all alike according to their kind so the eies of all Oxen are blacke the eyes of Sheepe watery of other creatures redde excepting a Horses which are sometime wall eyed but the eye of a man is diuersly coloured Of the colours of the eye some be extreame some of a middle nature The extreame colours are according to Aristotle Galen and Auicen two namely the whitish or wall coloure The differences of the colours of the eye and the black This wall-colour is somewhat whitish and Aristotle in his 5. book de gener Animal and Galen cap. 27. Artis paruae seeme to oppose this wall-colour to blacke This Caesius or wall-coloured the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a Night-Owle which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose eyes shine with a greenish whitenesse Some do confound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet they are to be distinguished for though either colour do somewhat tend to greene yet this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or wal-coloured doth approch neerer to white 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or tawny vnto Red. Aristotle in his Phisiognomy of the eyes affirmeth this wall-colour in the eie to be a signe of a fearfull man but this Tawny colour of a bold and stout courage therefore the Eyes of Lyons and Eagles are properly said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tawny but the eyes of old men and children to be wall coloured Either colour doth shine but that brightnesse which is in wall eyes is more white like that which is in the scales of Fishes in tawny eies the splendor is fierie as it is in burning coales The intermediate or mixt colours of the eies are diuers according to the diuers mixture of the extreames Concerning the causes of this varietie of colors there are diuers opinions according The cause of the variety of colours Empedocles to the diuersity of men Empedocles composed the eie of Fire and water wherefore hee supposed that the wall-colour proceeded from the predominance of the fire the blacke from the aboundance of water Aristotle in his fift Booke Degeneratione animalium referres the cause of these Colours vnto the plentie or scarsity of humors which he doth illustrate by this example of Aire and water For saith he if we looke into a deepe water or into thick aire they wil both seeme Aristotle blacke and obscure but if either of them be rare and thin the colour will appeare Tawnie and splendent The blacknesse therefore of the eye is from the plentie and aboundance of humors the wall eie is from the paucitie and scarsenesse Auerrhoes thinkes that the whitenesse of the eye proceedes from coldnesse because Auerrhoes for the most part all white things are cold as the Braine the Fat the Marrow the Bones the Membranes and blacknesse from heate Galen in the 27 chapter Artis paruae referres the cause of colours vnto the plenty splendor Galens opinioÌ„ and situation of the Cristalline and watry humors For saith he a wall eie commeth by reason of the plenty or splendor of the Cristalline or because of the prominent bunching situation and also the paucity and purity of the thin and waterie humor But a blacke eye comes either from the scarsitie of the Cristalline or from the ouer-deepe situation of it or because it is not exquisitely splendid and cleare or because the waterie humor is too aboundant and yet not altogether pure Thus farre Galen Auicen referres the cause of the variety of these colours vnto the Grapie coate which as Auicens opinion it is diuersly coloured it selfe so it doth produce diuers colours in the eie a black coat causeth blacke colour as a blewish coate a colour of the same kinde and his opinion dooth Vesalius follow But to the end that we may reconcile the different opinions of so graue Authours wee do acknowledge
kinde of darknesse to the earth but no colour at all Notwithstanding they prooue that colours do agree vnto the Elements Obiection especially simple colours as white and blacke because they be simple and as a mixt bodie is made of the mixture of the Elements so say they from the mixtion of white and black mixt colours are generated And this is their argument That which agreeth to any thing by participation doth also agree to it by essence but both extreme colours and those which be intermixed do agree vnto mixt bodies by the participation of the Elements whence they conclude Resolution that it is necessary that simple colours that is white and blacke do essentially agree vnto the Elements To which we will answere by denying the maior proposition for many things do belong to a bodie by the participation of another which may not bee attributed to that body as it is absolutely considered So to the Elements which are here with vs very turbulent and confused many thinges doe agree which no man of vnderstanding dare assigne vnto the simple and sincere Elements As for example Our fire which is nothing else but a certain kindled and flaming smoke is coloured perspicuous and bright yet the elementary fire we imagine to be pure most subtle from which as from a Fountaine ours dooth flowe yet hath none of these grosse qualities which our fire hath For being exceeding subtle fine it hath no solid substance admixed with it and therfore is not affected with any colour neither is it lucid and transparant For colour consisteth in such a bodie as doth determine the sight but light doth not shine in a subtile and thin body but in a dense or thicke body we grant therefore for the present that in mixt bodies colours do result or arise out of the concursion of the Elements yet it doth not thence follow that elements being pure and not defiled with the staine of other compounded matters should be tainted with such colours as are saide to How the Elements generate colours be in the extremities of bodies as accidents are in the subiects because the second qualities arise from the first which to ascribe to these simple bodies wer very eroneous Wherfore the Elements do not primarily generate colours in mixt bodies but secondarily that is not as they reteine their proper Nature but as they lay it aside and so do conspire into the nature of the mixt bodie For the Elements cannot concurre in one and so make a mixt body vnlesse they suffer an alteration both according to their substance and according to their quality so they do as it were put off their proper being or essence that by this mutuall embracing and coniunction they may produce a compound body If therefore they neither reteine their substance nor their first qualities which the ancients esteemed as their essential forms how should they reserue entire to themselues those colours which are their second qualities that the colour of the mixt bodie should proceede from a confluence of the colours of the simple Elements wherefore colours do belong to mixt bodies primarily and by themselues that is essentially and not by participation and so we will passe by this argument not medling with the sophistry of their Sylogisme which euery one that runneth may perceiue QVEST. XXXVI Of the generation of Colours and of their forme WEe haue determined already that true colours are produced from the Elements mixt among themselues and not from their first qualities to wit the The originall of Colours heate cold humidity and siccity as some haue thought though indeed almost all second qualities do consist of these but colours doe arise from the essentiall forme of the Elements from which forme as it were a proper accident they are deriued that is colour dooth arise out of the perspicuity and opacitie of the elements proportioned together For three of the Elements be perspicuous the Fire the Aire and the Water yet so that the Fire is more transparant then the Aire and the Aire then Water onely the Earth is darke when therfore the Earth is mingled with the three other it doth determine their perspicuity and so induceth a colour into the mixt body for their transparency and perspicuity is condensed and made more crasse and thicke so that they cease to be tralucent and do determine the sight and then colour necessarily That which determines the sight is coloured followeth For to terminate the sight in his superficies is to be coloured because nothing can determine the sight but by some colour A colour therefore ariseth from the condensation of a transparant bodie by that which is darke in the mistion of the Elements for when the transparant body by reason of the darke body ceaseth to be transparant it becommeth coloured and in his superficies doth mooue the sight Colour is generated of the mistion of the darke bodie Hence appeareth their errour who suppose a double nature of colour is signified in that definition which we haue giuen seeing Aristotle cals it The extremity or outside of the transparant body for the extremity of the tralucent body is not a color but that which like an accident doth inhere in the extremity or superficies or if you will the extreame outside of the perspicuum or splendent bodie is not the cause of the colour but the colour produced from elswhere doth by his adumbration or circumscription determine the transparant body For the perspicuum or transparant body is that which by reason of the tenuitie VVhat perspicuum is of his parts doth transmit the light and so appear yet doth not determine the sight where therefore the Sight is determined there the perspicuum must end for except it were so the sight would yet proceede further beyond it but the Sight is terminated onely by colour and therefore colour is rightly called the tearme or bond and extreamitie of the Perspicuum Many are of opinion that there be no colours in the darke but onely a kinde of faculty Of the Forme of Colours and beginning where of colours do arise as it were out of a matter illustrated by illumination which serueth in steade of the forme Of which Sect Epicurus was as Lucretius sayth Praterea quoniam nequeunt sine luce colores Esse nisi in luce existunt primor dia rerum Scire licet quo sunt quaeuis velata colore Qualis enim coecis poterit color esse tenebris Lumine qui mutatur in ipso propterea quod Recta out obliqua percussus Luce refulget Againe because no Colour can without the Light appeare VVho shall discerne what coloured maskes the Elements do weare Vnlesse the Light do vnto him their seuerall hewes bewray And what man can the colours blaze which in blinde darkenesse stay Because in Light all colours change and shine as they are smit With the Oblique or direct Rayes which from the Light do flit And hee maintaineth his
definitions there is no reason but that a sound may be described sometimes one way and sometimes another to wit either perfectly or imperfectly Againe what hindreth that one and the same thing may not sometimes bee defined One absolute definition of one accident absolutely sometime relatiuely the nature of it being as it were changed vnder the same name or appellation as it happeneth to a sound heere It remaineth therefore that there is but one definition of one thing but if there be more there is but one perfect and absolute or else they be all imperfect and defectiue Againe one definition is conceiued or written absolutely another relatiuely Let it not then seeme strange to any man that one and the same thing according to a diuers acception thereof is by Aristotle diuersly defined as also in the first Booke de anima hee defines anger to be an appetite of reuenge and presently after that it is a Feruour or boyling of the blood about the heart Againe hee describes a house to bee a couer and shelter to defend vs from the violence of windes and showres and also hee defines it to be a worke or building made of Clay stone and wood euen so heere when he describes a sound to be a percussion of one body against another it is not formally defined but by the efficient cause so wee say the Ecclipse is an interposition of the earth that is caused by the interposition of the Earth Others defining a Sound say it is a passiue quality striking the Sense of Hearing But we haue added a third saith Placentinus which notwithstanding I will not Discourse of so fully as he hath done because many things will fall into the following Controuersies QVEST. XL. Of the differences of Sounds WEe are to know when we treate of any subiect first what it is and then how manifold it is wherefore hauing set downe the true definition of a Sounde we will now speake of the differences thereof which differences because they be drawne from diuers Fountaines and Originals they are therefore as The diffrence of a Sounde from the Essence Graue diuers and manifold First in respect of their essence they are thus distinguished Some Soundes continue long others endure but a while Both of these may be thus subdiuided the first dooth either by his long continuance much mooue the Sense or else but a little and this is called a graue base or an obtuse sound But that which is of a smal continuance is diuided into that which either in this short continuance doth greatly mooue the Sense or in the Acure same time doth mooue it verie little and this is called an acute or trebble sound it is opposite to a graue or base Sound And both these haue borrowed their Names from tactile qualities which do properly challenge these names to themselues An acute sound hath his name from a sharpe or acute heate or cold for as these qualities do easily penetrate Obtuse any body so this the Sense which in a short time causeth much Sensation An obtuse sound hath his name from obtuse or dull heate and cold because it dooth much resemble them And by these may be gathered a manifest difference betwixt a Sound and the obiects of other Senses for they all doe remaine in the sensible things when the Sensation is past in which things they actually exist both before and after Sensation but the Sound doeth vanish and goe to nothing together with the perception thereof And hence it was that Aristotle sayd some sounding things were onely in potentia or in power and others in Act c. Againe in respect of the Essence some Sounds are Direct others Reflected which is called an Eccho The Eccho According to their existence some Sounds be in power and possibility others in act The formall and inhesiue subiect of potential Sounds is the Aire and Water but the subiect Different sounds from the essence of an actuall Sound is Iron Brasse Siluer Gold Stones VVood and other hard and smooth bodies And hence doth arise another especiall difference betwixt a Sound and the obiects of other Senses for these doe inhere in the sensible thinges actually and subiectiuely both before in and after Sensation but a Sound doth not exist in any sensible thing actually and subiectiuely neither before nor after nor yet in the very perception of the same Againe in respect of the manner of their production Some Soundes are made by Manner of production the fraction of the ayre caused by two solide bodies and these bodies because they concurre vnto the making of a Sound being distinct either indeed or in some respect according to their diuers and manifoulde concursion this kinde of Sound is againe distinguished Some are made by allision as when the ayre moued by a vehement winde doth beate against a solide body and of this kinde is the sound when the Lungs doe deliuer ouer the ayre or breath vnto the hard parts of the rought artery which maketh a kinde of wheezing or whistling There ariseth also another kinde of Sound when the ayre beateth against The sound of winde other ayre as it is when the winde is high for at such time in the open fieldes a man shall heare a whistling noyse There is another kinde of Sound rising from coition coition I meane or coniunction of the ayre as when cloath or paper is torne for then to auoyde vacuity the partes of Of cloath the ayre do sodainly conioyne at the sides of the cloth or paper where the first parts that are driuen are broken by those which follow and so make a sound There is another kinde of Sound made by extention of the ayre as when in hissing it is driuen thorough the teeth Finally another by constriction as in a pipe or a payre Hissing of bellowes or in holes or caues of the earth whereinto the winde driueth the ayre and when it is in shouldreth it as it were into a corner The differences of Sound in respect of the resonant bodies are double according to the difference of those bodies to wit one Naturall the other Violent I call that Naturall which is made by such bodies as are able from a principle within themselues to make an impression or to giue a stroke And this Sound is againe double the first belongeth to Naturall sounds animated bodies the second to those that haue no life That of animated bodies is a sound produced willingly by the moouing faculty of the Soule And it is againe double that is made by such organs as are by Nature principally deputed for the production of sounds or by such organs as are not to that end appointed The first kinde is yet again double One formed by the Glottis of exspirated aire and is called a voyce the other is made of aire which is not receyued by Respiration nor formed by the Glottis but by the action of som The voice
of new aire inspired by the mouth and lastly that by this way a passage may bee open for the externall aire rushing forcibly through the hole Reasons of the former instances of the Eares as it is in the noyse made by Ordinance when wee are neere it The Ayre therefore doth passe freelie out of the mouth into the Eare and againe retireth from the Eare into the mouth VVhence it is that when wee would heare more attentiuelie weeholde our Breath least the Cochlea or Snaile-shell should bee filled with aboundance of inspired Aire and so the Tympane bee stretched But such as yawne doe not heare so well because in this yawning or gaping the Tympane is so stretched and puffed vp that it cannot receyue outward Sounds Lastly by scratching the Eare wee prouoke Spittle because by that compressing there is an expression of Excrements into the Cartilagineous or gristlie passage and so from thence vnto the Tongue And thus much of the Sense of Hearing now we come vnto the Smell QVEST. XLV What Smelling is THat the Nose was by Nature made as well for Respiration as for the Sense of Smelling we haue before declared But what is the Sense of Smelling The desfinitiof smelling that we doe vndertake in this place more precisely to vnfould Smelling therfore is the middle Sense of fiue which perceiueth the odours of thinges drawne in by the Nosthrils for the vse and behoofe of the Creature It is a great question which also we haue a little touched before whether to the action of this Sense the Inspiration of aire together with the odour be of absolute necessity and yet the streame and current of mens opinions as well Philosophers as Physitians run vpon the affirmatiue part For if we desire or bee willing to endeuour ourselues to Smell Whether inspiration be necessary to smelling any thing more curiously we draw the ayre in at our Nostrilles and that is the reason why we cannot smell in the water because the water that is drawne filleth the passages of the Organ Placentinus is of the contrary opinion and alledgeth Aristotle for his authour in the fift Chapter of his Book de Sensu sensili where he sayth that Nature doth but collaterally vse Respiration in the Attraction of odours which Respiration sayth he she destinated primarily to another end If therefore Respiration be necessary to the Smell then it followeth that Nature ordayned it primarily for that end For sayth he this is a rule in Nature that whatsoeuer in our bodies doeth necessarily belong to any function that is primarily appoynted for that function and doth not sort vnto it by error chance or accident Seeing therefore the primary and chiefe vse of Respiration is to refresh and cherish the heart and his spirites it followeth that it is not altogether necessary for Smelling Indeede one and the same thing may haue diuers vses but the principall and primary vse is but one for which onely it is necessary and to the rest accommodated onely secondarily or by accident Againe if an odour of it selfe be fit to ascend vnto his own Organ why should we thinke that Respiration should be so absolutely necessary Now an odout is nothing else but a hot and dry exhalation as we shall proue afterwards and exhalation of their owne Nature doe tend or moue vpward If then they ascend naturally why may it not be that a sweet and pleasing breath may rise into the Nostrilles and passe on vnto the Organ of smelling without any attraction of the ayre Placentinus addeth another argument which hee calleth Inuincible taken from those women that are Hystericall that is haue fits of the Mother For such woemen although they haue no Respiration at all doe yet receiue and perceiue odours and not onely so but Fits of the mother are holpen by smels are almost miraculously redeemed or recouered by them what shall wee say vnto the wombe it selfe doth it not smell yet no man did euer say that the wombe did respire but dayly experience teacheth vs that it taketh so great pleasure in sweete Smels and is so offended The wombe followes sweet sauours with that which is noysome and abhominable that it mooueth and applyeth it selfe manifestly vnto the one and auoydeth the other euen with Locall and Methematicall motion But it may be obiected that if we hold our breath we cannot smell and therefore this Obiection Sense is not accomplished without Inspiration Placentinus answereth that it is not true that if an odour be applyed to the Nose and the breath retayned no Sense will bee made Solution and those who vrge experience are deceiued in their experimenting For the breath cannot bee so retayned that nothing at all should either get in or out If then any thing enter in it helpeth the attraction of the odour if any thing get out it hindreth the same yea it repelleth or driueth it from the Organ And that the breath cannot be so immouably retayned may be conuinced by reason and experience Reason sayth that because such retention of the breath is violent and against nature Nature will likewise with all his force and vigour resist and oppose that violence and beside that all the Organs of Respiration doe by a proper instinct hasten to their Naturall Action Hence it followeth that the Muscles staggering as it were in their worke of sustentation and the Lungs declining downeward by their waight doe betwixt them perpetually expell some small quantity of ayre which is a subtle and fluide Element and wil finde way through insensible passages Now that there is such an instinct in the muscles seruing to Respitation that this instinct may doe much we may easily coniecture because though a muscle is otherwise an instrument of voluntary motion yet euen in sleepe when all election is absent and the wil especially vnto motion is at rest as well as the body yet euen then the intercostall muscles and the midriffe which serue for Respiration doe follow the necessity of Nature and mooue as freely as when we are awake Shall wee therefore conceiue that vpon the same necessity or a greater when wee ourselues doe voluntarily seeke to oppose and frustate the end of Nature shee shall not bee able without our knowledge and against our wills to let out so small a quantity of Ayre as may suffice for this her purpose of Ayre I say which is so subtle fluid a body that it will issue at the least crannie and yeeld vnto the least impulsion or violence Experience confirmeth the same thing for if you burne any thing that is odoriferous vnder the Nose and retaine your breath you shall finde nay you shall see that that fume will be mooued on this side and on that side which no doubt commeth to passe by reason of the Ayre which passeth and repasseth outward and inward but if it get within the nosthrils then it is presently smelt as any man that list to try may
degree contrary repugnaÌ„t to the nature of the Obiect but when sensation is made they must grow to be alike Wherefore if the Organ be so disposed that there is not so great a difference betwixt it the nature of his obiect it coÌ„meth to passe that they consent better together and the Organ yeeldeth more easily toward the Nature of that which doth importune it But we proceede vnto the Nature of an Odour QVEST. XLVII Of the Essence of an Odour HEraclitus as Aristotle remembreth in the fift Chapter of his Booke de Sensuâ—t Heraclitus opinion of Odours Sensili conceiuing that Odours are a fumide exhalation sayeth that if all Beings had beene fumide the Nose would haue discerned of all Aristotle replies vpon him on this manner If that were true which Heraclitus collecteth it would follow that those creatures which liue in the water do not Smell for in the water there can be no fumide or smoaky exhalation generated But that Fishes doe smell may bee proued by the choise of their meate which Aristotle perswades himselfe they make by Smelling We saith Placentinus haue other Reasons against this opinion First because a fumide exhalation is a substance for it subsisteth by it selfe and sustaineth accidents and therefore naturally and by his owne motion we perceiue that it mounteth vpward Now then if an Odour were a fumide exhalation it could not be by it sselfe sensible for no substance doth by it selfe fall vnder any Sense Yet no man will denie but that an Odour doth by it selfe and immediately worke vpon the Organ of Smelling It is true indeede that a fumide exhalation attayning to the nosethrils mooues the Placentinus refutation of Heraclitus Sense of Smelling but it doth not follow that therefore such an exhalation is an odour rather wee should say that the Odour hath his subsistence in the exhalation as in her subiect for accidents neither are nor can be without their subiects Notwithstanding there is a place in Galen neare the end of the second chapter of his booke de edoratus organo which seemeth to prooue this opinion of Heraclitus to bee true A place of Galen expounded the words are these That falleth into the Sense of smelling which is betwixt the Nature of ayre and water to wit such a thing as is neither so thin as ayre nor so thicke as water for that which exhaleth or vapoureth from the hodies of things is the substance of odours which wee may perceiue by roses and the like tender plants whose bodyes doe quickely become lesse crumple and dry vpwhence we may certainely gather that the more humide part of their substance is resolued in toexhalation Thus farre Galen Andanswered We answer that Galen saith that the substance of an odour is an exhalation by substance there meaning the subiect wherein the odour doth consist for it had beene a grosse thing in Galen and vnworthy the edge of so keene a Phylosopher if hee had attributed substance to an odour which hath no existence of it selfe And if any man shall insist vpon the example of Roses we will giue him this satisfaction that Galen doth not conclude that Roses therefore doe become lesser and dryer because their moystest parts are exhaled into odours but he saith that their moyster part turneth into an exhalation and he saith true for an exhalation which is a substance absumeth the humiditie of the body out of which it issueth and diminisheth the same for how can it be but diminished when a substantiall part is taken from the whole But an odour is not a substantial part neither is it made of a part but subsisteth in the whole subiect and is nothing else but an accident or an incorporeall qualitie So that out of these words of Galen wee may gather this excellent point of learning That where he saith That which exhaleth from the bodyes of things is the substance of an odour hee doth wisely signifie the matter out of which the odour doth arise which is the body and the subiect wherein it doth inhere which is the exhalation whereas therefore he saith that the exhalation is the substance of the odour he doth not meane that the odour is a substance but being an accident that it doth subsist in this substane as in his subiect But for the confirmation of this opinion of Heraclitus there are some obiections made to prooue that the odour it selfe is a fumide substance because it performeth many things A story out of Plinie which cannot be done but onely by a substance And first a creature may thereby bee nourished for which they alledge Plinie in the 2. chapter of his seuenth booke where hee saith that in the Easterne India about the fountaine or head of the Riuer Ganges there is a nation without mouths whom he calleth Astomy hairie all ouer ther bodyes and cloathed The Astomy with the leaues of trees They liue of nothing but exhalations and odours which they draw in through their Noses meate they haue none nor drinke onely they vse to smell vppon certaine rootes and flowers and wilde Apples which they carry with them when they traueil farre that they might not want something to smell to These men are easily stifled with a strong odour The like we reade of Democritus who they say sustained his life foure dayes with the smell of honey or hot bread VVe answer with Aristotle in the fifth chapter of his book Democritus desensu sensili where he ascribeth this opinion to the Pythagorians that such strange reports are mere fables vnworthy the credite of a hystory because they abhor so much from reason For those things which do nourish must be conuerted into the substance of the liuing Reasons against Plinie body Now that which is incorporeall cannot possible be conuerted into a corporeall substance wherefore odour being of it selfe an incorporeall accident and therefore not changed into the substance of the creature caÌ„not become a nourishment therto Beside all creatures haue some place in their bellies which receiueth their meate and from whence the body draweth that which sustaineth it But the Organ of odours is seated in the head from whence no member of the creature seeketh for nourishment They vrge further the example Cookes who because they are busie in boyling and roasting viands for other men doe receiue so many odours from them that they scarse Why Cookes haue no good stomackes euer are a hungry or desire meate but rather being satisfied with the smell doe loath the substance and therefore it is commonly thought that these smels doe satisfie and cloy theÌ„ But we deny that this commeth to passe by reason of the odours of meates but the reason why they desire not meate as other men is either because as it is in the prouerbe they can licke their owne fingers that is tasting a little of euery thing they insensibly fill their stomackes or being alwayes about the fire their pores are opened
and the inward heate dissipated which is wont to mooue and solicite the appetite which also is the reason why euery man in winter eats more then he doth in Summer Or we may say that they are dried by the heate of the Fire and so become thirsty and drinke often insomuch that the stomacke being relaxed or loosened by the moysture of drinke becomes languide and so the appetite is broken or we may say further that being very dry they cannot be hungry because Aristotle sayeth it is impossible that at one and the same time a man shoulde vehemently desire both meat and drinke It is further obiected that as Aristotle sayth in the fift Chapter of his Booke de Sens Obiection Sensi which also is prooued true by experience that when we are full wee loath the Smell of meates but delight in the smels of Spices and Roses If therefore the odour of meate did not nourish a full stomacke would no more abhorre the odours of meate then of Roses or Spices Solution But we answere that this saciety hapneth not because of the odours but because of the steame or exhalation wherein the odour is for wee grant that such a steame may in some sort nourish but the odour of Roses which hath for his subiect a more subtle exhalation is better pleasing vnto vs especially because their smell is very fragrant and acceptable whereas the Smell of meates is neuer pleasing but when wee are an hungry VVee conclude therefore with Aristotle in the place before quoted That odours doe not at all nourish Others disputing more probably doe make according to Galen two kindes of nourishments one which is taken by the mouth and nourisheth the solide partes of the body another which is drawne through the Nosthrils which nourisheth the thin ayry Some say that odours nourish the spirits Their reasōs parts as the spirites for Galen affirmeth that the spirites doe feede vppon ayre and odors VVherefore the nourishment of the spirits they attribute vnto odours and the rather are they induced so to think because nasty and abhominable smelles doe make men oftentimes swound yea and such exhalations arising from dead Carkasses or muddy fens doe infect the ayre and breede a pestilence Adde hereto that in the Low Countries the odour that ariseth from the flowers of beanes as they grow in the fieldes doe often driue trauellers into a deliration or light madnesses as Leuinus Lemnius hath obserued And Plutarch sayeth that by the smell of oyntments Cats doe grow mad Moreouer Physitians doe consent that the smell of spices doeth breede 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a payne or dull Answere stupidity and fulnesse in the head Adde hereto that many odours or smels are able to refresh a man when he is ready to swound or faint away they exhilerate or cheare the heart and if we may beleeue Aristotle in the place before quoted they correct the distemper of the brayne All these thinges we confesse are true if they be vnderstoode of that vaporous or aerie exhalation or substance wherein the odour is transported for by that meanes or in that respect onely the odour is sayde to nourish the spirites and Galen in his 8. Booke de compositione medicamentorum secundum locos and the 4. chapter writeth that if with the odours there are also many vapours associated then sayth he such odours haue some faculty to nourish But if we vnderstand by odours the simple obiect of the smell naked and separated from exhalations it is vtterly false that they say for although that vaporous substance wherein the odor is conuayed doe by the helpe of other qualities concommitating or accompanying the odours cherish and refresh the spirites and performe those other good offices which wee haue remembred yet it followeth not from hence that an odour is a substance rather that it is an accident of a substance because it doth inhere in the forenamed qualified vapour But we will come vnto the definition of an odour QVEST. XLVIII The definition of an Odour AN Odour is a quality moouing the smell arising out of a fit mixtion of the foure Elements wherein heate and moysture haue the predominance For wee conceiue What an odour is with Aristotle in the fift Chapter of his Booke de sensu sensili that in the pure and sincere Elements there is no odour at all Aristotle in the beginning of the chapter rendreth the reason because they can haue no Tast vnlesse they be mingled for the Taste and the Smell that is the sapour and the sauour or odour doe arise out of the same matter yet so that in sapours there is more moysture in odours more siccity notwithstanding in odors the siccity is not at any time without some humour for those things that wither and are torrified do loose their odours as may appeare in the ashes of Iuniper for as soone as all the humour is consumed the odour or smell vanisheth also therewithall Againe some that are ouer-dryed recouer their smels by the permixtion of moysture But that in odoriferous things the siccity is predominant may be prooued because such sweete smelling flowres or what else you shall name become without smel if they be too That drought is predomināt in odours much moistened hence it is that Roses gathered in the raine do smell verie litle nothing at all in comparison of the fragrancie of those that are gathered in faire and dry weather That also is the reason why in Egypt the flowers are not sweete because the aire is moyst and cloudy by reason of the waters of Nylus On the contrary the hot Climats of the East as Arabia Syria the Indies do bring forth Spices and other plants of excellent and delicate Why in Egipt the Flowers do not smell Obiection Smels It may be obiected ther are many waters which are verie odoriferous now no man will denie but that in water the moisture exceeds the drought VVee answere that in water the odour is onely potentiall and that the heate eleuateth or raiseth vp from out of them a vapour or exhalation wherein the siccity preuailes ouer the humidity and in this vapour is there an Actuall odour The Reason is because this mooueth the Sense but the other odour which is in the water cannot mooue the sense vnlesse it exhale together Solution with the vapour and attaine vnto the organ The truth of this we may easily admit if we draw into our Nosethrils a little sweete water for so we shall not smell the odour thereof because of necessity a vapour is required to actuate the odour Moreouer that all that odour is potentiall which consisteth not in a vapor but lurketh as yet in mixt bodies may be conuinced by inuincible argument For Aristotle in the 5 chapter of his Booke de sensu et sensili saith the subiect of Sapors and sauours is one and the same If therefore in odours or sauours siccity be predominant
the whole body stability rectitude and forme for they are as it were the carkasse of a Shippe whereto the rest of the parts are fastned whereuppon they are sustayned and the whole mountenance of the body is built and consuinmated From their figure and magnitude we esteeme of the figure and magnitude of The knowledge of the bone necessary the rest of the parts without the knowledge of the bones we must needes bee ignorant of the originals and insertions of Muscles of the courses of the Veines of the distribution of the Arteries and of the partitio is of the Nerues The vniuersall syntax or composition of the Bones from the Head to the Feete the ancient Grecians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were a dryed or arrid carkasse Galen defineth the Bones to be the hardest the dryest most terrestriall part of the creature Galens definitions But this definition doth not please the pallats of the new writers as being not exquisite or Philosophicall but made onely for the ruder and more ignorant sort by way of innitiation Laurentius defineth them more accuratly thus A Bone is a similar part the dryest and coldest of all the rest made of the earthy crassament Laurentius definition and fatnesse of the seede by the formatiue faculty assisted by the strength of heate for the stability rectitude and figure of the whole body And this definition he sayth is Essentiall because it designeth all the causes of Bones the Efficient the Materiall the Formall and the Finall The forme of similar partes according to Physitians is the Temper because it is the first Power whereby and wherewith The explications thereof the forme worketh and suffereth whatsoeuer the similar part woorketh as a similar Siccity therefore and Frigidity dryeth and coldnes doe expresse the forme of a bone It is drye because of the exhaustion of moysture and fatnes made by an intense or high heate Cold it is because the heate vanisheth away for defect of moysture These primary qualities The forme are accompanied with secondary hardnes heauines and whitenes A Bone is hard not by concretion as yee for then it would be dissolued by the fire not by tention as the head of a drum but by siccity as wood Heauy it is because it is earthy as also because the aire and the water in it are extreamly densated and thickned and it is white because it is spermaticall The matter of the Bones is the crassament of the seed that is the thicker and more The matter earthy part Aristotle cals it Seminale excrementum the excrement of the Seede For though the Seede seeme to bee Homogeny yet it hath some parts thicker then others There is in it also something fat and something glutinous or slimy Of the glutinous part because it may best be extended or streatched are made the nerues membranes and the ligaments Of the fatty part are made the bones and this Hippocrates confirmeth where he sayth Where there is more fat then glew or slime there the bones are formed The Efficient cause of a bone is the Formatiue power which some call the Idoll or The efficient the Idea of him that ingendreth this faculty vseth the heat for his architect and the spirit for his chiefe worke-man and to these the Philosopher attributeth Ordination Secretion Concretion Densation and Rarification The heate therefore drinketh vp and dryeth the fatnes whence comes hardnes and solidity So saith Hippocrates Bones are condensated by heat and so grow hard and dry Futhermore this heate although it be moderate for the substance of our natiue heat is well tempered yet because it maketh a longer stay in a more dense and fast matter it bringeth forth the same effects that an intense or high heat doth yea it seemeth to burn whereupon Hippocrates doubted not to say that the generation of bones was made by exustion that is by burning The finall cause of Bones which Galen is wont to call their vse is well expressed in the The end last particle of the definition For the primary and most common vse of bones is to giue the body stability rectiude and figure Stability because they are as it were propugnacles Stability or defences against all violence beside they sustaine the body as the bases or finials of a house sustaine the roofe Rectitude because without bones the creature cannot stand vp Rectitude right but would creepe vpon the ground as a Serpent or a worme Hippocrates secund◠Epidemiωn maketh mention of a childe borne without bones yet were the principal parts of his body separated and fashioned but he was not aboue foure fingers big and dyed soone after he was borne Finally the bones do giue the figure to the body because from them dependeth the procerity or stature and the limitation of the growth For those that haue a great head haue large braines those that are narrow chested their Lungs also and bowels are but short and narrow those that haue small iawes haue also small muscles By reason of this finall cause which being it selfe immoueable mooueth all the rest the bones are of that substance which we see hard solid and insensible hard and solid for so it behooued a pillar or prop to be insensible ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should not bee so apprehensiue of payne for because they sustaine the burthen of the body and are continually moued they could not haue endured so diuers motions without paine if they had beene sensible therof and then the life of the creature should haue beene alwayes sad and quaerulous But this want of sense comes not from their earthly substance for then the teeth which are Why bones are insensible the hardest of all bones should haue no sense but because there are no nerues disseminated through their substance The differences of Bones are to be taken sayth Galen as also the differences of singular parts from those things which follow the essence or happen thereto The differences of bones The essence of a bone that is his cold and dry temper doe the Tactile qualities follow Hardnesse Softnesse Density and Rarity the accidents are Magnitude Figure Situation Motion Sense and the like The first diuision therefore of bones is from their hardnesse Some bones are very From the hardnesse hard as those that are called Stony bones and the Teeth others soft in respect as the spongy bones and those which we call Appendices or Appendants others are simply hard as all the rest From the magnitude some bones are great some little and some moderate There Magnitude are among the Anatomists that account those bones to be great which are of a large bore or very hollow and medullous or marrowy But wee make account of such bones for great as are great in quantity whether their marrow be lesse or more for the hanch-bones and the shoulder-blades which are not hollow nor medullous are yet great bones But because
Face which maketh the lower part of the orbe of the Eye and the sides the cauity of the Nostrils the Cheeks the Pallat containeth The diuision of the face the vpper rowes of the Teeth This vpper Iaw is to bee considered either whole or according to his parts of which he is compounded In the whole Iaw wee consider his conformation and his connexion which is made by sutures In the consideration of the partes wee will examine the bones where of it is compounded The conformation of the whole Iaw is diuers broade aboue and narrow below because of the protuberations perforations and cauities which are therein The prominences or protuberations are aboue in the middle of the face where the Nose is formed tab 8. figure 8. f which is peculiar onely to man for onely a mans Nose The protuberations of the vpper iaw swelleth out or standeth off from his Face At the sides it swelleth on both handes at the Temples to make the lower edge or verge of the Eyes and of the Cheekes table 8. fig. 8 aboue Ρ although it also make the lower cauity of the eyes Below on the outside wher the roots of the teeth are it buncheth circularly vnder Λ within it maketh the anterior and greater part of the pallat which is rough tab 8. fig. 9 t y z and in the circumference it protuberateth for the dens or sockets of the teeth fig 9 u u The perforations are partly small through which the veines arteries and nerues are transmitted as shall be saide in the History of the particular Bones partly great two in the lower cauity of the eyes as in the second bone fig. 8 C through which the rheume The perforations falleth and a small Nerue vnto the nosethrilles and in the fourth through which a little nerue runneth to the outside of the cheekes So also in the foreside of the Plate and in the middest thereof one perforation which admitteth a small veine and a little Artery fig 9 Z and on the backside of the palate two on either hand which run vnto the sides of the nosethrils at V The Cauities are Proper and Common Proper to the fourth bone wherein there is a den closed vp within the bone at the sides of the nosethrils fig. 8 vnder B V the sockets The cauities made to receiue the teeth of which we shall speak in the descriptions of the fourth bone The Common cauity is that of the nosethrils distinguished by the partition and filled aboue with the spongy bones which cauity both outwardly in the nose figu 8 OO and inwardly in the mouth figu 9 at qq is alwayes open that the ayre in expiration may returne backeward and in smelling bee drawne vpwarde and Rheume be that way euacuated This vpper iaw in all creatures is immooueable excepting the water Crocodile of which saith Archangelus there can be no particular reason giuen A common Reason he giueth out of Aristotle where he saith that the Body is the Instrument of the Soule Why the crocodiles vpper iawe is immoueable therefore Nature hath accommodated the body and so furnished it as it wee see for the behoofe of the Soule in Men in Oxen in Horses yea and in the Crocodile too whose soule hath some poure or faculty to vs vnknowne but expressed by the motion of the vpper Iaw but his nether iawe is so vnited with the Temple-bones that it cannot at all bee mooued because it is fastned into 2 bosomes whereas the vpper is articulated on eyther side with a broad head Yet Aristotle saith that his vpper iaw was made mooueable to recompence the defect of his feete because they are little and vnfit either to catch or to reteine his prey In a Parrat or Poppingey both iawes are mooueable and he moueth them either one at once or both together as he listeth In a man the vpper iaw is immoueable first because the motion thereof would haue hindred his sight Againe in receiuing of Odours and inspiration of aire the motion of the vpper iawe would haue made an interruption Thirdly hard mears could not haue bene so well broken for as in a Mill where Corne is ground one stone must rest immoueable the other must run vppon it so in the grinding Why a mans immoueable or breaking of meate it was necessary that one part which is the vpper iaw should be immoueable the other which is the lower iaw moueable Heereto we may add that the immobility of the vpper iaw is a beauty to the face for if it had bene moued then it must necessarily haue bene corrugated or contracted and so the elegancy and forme of the face bene deformed whereas in the frame of mans bodye our Wise Creator had an especiall respect to make the face beautifull because it is the image of the soule wherfore a mans face is not set off from his head as in brute beasts but made short and round for beauty and better forme The vpper iaw is fastned either with the bones that are about it or with the proper bones of which it is compounded which connexion is made by immouable commissure Connexion or coniunction and that partly by sutures or seames partly by Harmony or Caementation Of these Sutures or commissures some are common vnto the scull with the bones of the vpper iaw and those are fiue of which we spake before in the fift chapt Others are proper to the bones of the iaw and are nine in number and ioyne together twelue bones of the iaw some of these that is two are in the cauity of the nosethrils the other seauen are on the outside Againe of these seuen fiue are common to two bones of the iawe ioyning together and two are peculiar to one bone Of these in order The first internall suture we meet withall in the cauity of the nosethrils it is common to the partition and the fift bone His course is short and obliquely downward tab 8. fig 8 vnder f The first internall suture The second is also found thereabout and is common to the partition of the nosethrils and the fourth and sixt bones of the iaw his course is somewhat longer and forward but ouerthwart Tab. 8. fig. 8 g The first externall suture runneth obliquely to the cheeke-bone and of it there are three parts the first runneth through the cauities of the Temple bones outwarde and downward to the lower side of the cheeke the second through the foreside of the cheek The first externall vpward and inward to the middle part of the eye Tab. 8. fig. 8 from ae vnto the lower D The third in the cauity of the eyc it runneth backward and outward From the lower D to Q and determineth at the second suture which is common also to the scull This first externall suture is common to the first bone and the fourth The second externall suture runneth circularly in the orbe of the eye aboue the compasse of his