of Sens in Bourgundie which went 28 years with a dead child in her womb this woman being dead and her belly opened there was found a stone having all the limbs and proportion of a child of 9 months old This was no miracle but an extraordinary work of nature for the child being dead and the slimie matter of its body having an aptitude by the extraordinary heat of the matrix to be hardned might retain the same lineaments which it had before If any wonder how within the soft and liquid humors of the matrix such a hard substance should be ingendred let him as well wonder at the generation of hard bones within soft flesh of hard stones within soft plums Peaches and other fruits of stones and hard thunder-bolts within watrish clouds CHAP. IV. 1. Some without Lungs 2. Impostumes voided in Vrine 3. Worms the cause of many diseases 4. No change of sexes 5. Giants 6. Some without livers 7. Fleshy bladders 8. Stones haires worms c. Begot in our Vrine 9. A woman without a matrix I Have read of divers bodies of men without lungs and I believe it for oftentimes the lungs are putrified and corroded with corrupt and acrimonious matter and wasted with burning heat but hence it will not follow that a man can live without lungs any time seeing the heart stands in need continually of refrigeration yet some do live a great while with half of the lungs after the other half is putrified and spit out II. I finde that when impostumations and corrupted matter in the breast cannot be evacuated by spitting or coughing or vomiting or by Phlebotomy or the stool it is notwithstanding purged out by urine naturally without the help of art by which we see how cunning and industrious nature is to help her self and that she is more carefull to thrust out noxious then to draw in profitable things hence sick mens expiration is stronger then their inspiration and hence also we see that there are many porous and pervious passages unknown to us which doubtless are in our bodies being alive which cannot be found being dead because shut by the cold III. I finde that many Physitians are mistaken in the causes of divers diseases and therefore their remedies prove oftentimes fruitless or hurtfull For I have known Apâ—plexies Convulsions Coughs Consumptions Feavers Cholicks and other Diseases proceed from Wormes which when they have beene voided either dead or alive the sick partys have recovered Nay I have read of some who have had worms crawle out at their navels and some whose organs of voice and speech having been assaulted and hurt by worms have become speechless how carefull then should we be of our diets not to delight so much as we do in sweet meats sauces and drinks or in such food as breeds slâ—my matter whereof worms are ingendred and Physitians should be as carefull to prescribe such things to their patients as may kill and evacuate these enemies of our health and life IV. That maids have become boyes I have read in divers Stories but I have shewed in the former Book that there is no such change in nature because the organs of generation in the two sexes differ both in number form and situation and that therefore such transformations are meant of Hermaphrodites or of such boyes in whom the vessels of generation have not at first appeared outwardly for want of heat and strength which afterwards have thrust them out Dr. Brown admits the change and yet shews that the vessels are different both in form and situation which is a contradiction V. That there have been Giants and men of stupendious stature in all ages is not to be doubted seeing there are so many witnesses extant and the reason of their bigness can be none else but the aboundance of seed and menstruous blood of which they are begot the quality and pliableness of the matter â—apt to be extended the strength also of the heat and formative power and that these men should have rapacious stomachs to devour incredible quantities of meat and drink is not to be wondred at if we consider the bulk of their bodies the capacity of their stomachs and rapacity of their heat VI. Nature is not deficient in necessaries nor abundant in superfluities there is not any one member in our bodies that can be spared for if there be any one defective our life proves short and miserable I have read of some who have been found without Livers but such had a fleshy lump in stead thereof which not being able to sanguifie or turn the Chylus into blood the parties lived but a short while and died of Tympanies or Hydropsies and others whose Livers have been found full of stones have died of the same disease and so have those whose spleen hath been found stony A woman who died of an Hydropsie I saw dissected whose spleen was full of stones of a blewish and green colour VII Not onely are stones of great bigness bred in the bladder by which the passage of the urine is intercepted and so death and many tortures are procured but also there have been found in some bladders great lumps of flesh yea all the internal side of the bladder filled up with fleshy excrescences that there could be no room for the urine but I doubt whether this were true flesh or not seeing no flesh is begot but of blood I think therefore that this was an excrementitious substance resâ—mbling flesh in colour and shape VIII It is manifest that some with their urine evacuate stones gravel matter hairs little crawling creatures of divers shapes which doubtless are begotten of putrifaction according to the disposition of the matter and heat of the bladder or kidneys if the matter be adust and bâ—rned hairs are begot sometimes as big as hogs brissles and sometimes the stones of the kidneys are so big that they stick in the yard and cannot be evacuated without incision upon the stoppage of the urine by these stones malignant vapours ascend from the corrupted urine into the noble parts that convulsions syncopes and other dangerous effects are procreated IX As a man can live without testicles so can a woman without the matrix these being members given by naturâ— not for conversation of the individuals but for continuation of the species Therefore Zacuâ—uâ— speaks of a woman who lived thirty years after her matrix was cut out which by a fall that she had from a high tree had slipt out of its place and could never be again replaced Obs. 76. l. 2. CHAP. V. 1. Strange but not miraculous births 2. Strange and strong imaginations 3. Poison inward and outward 4. Poison of mad Dogs 5. Câ—ntharides 6. Poison how it worketh 7. Why birds not poisoned as men 8. Amphiam Opium Mandrakes 9. The Plague no Hectick nor putrid Fever 10. Epidemical diseases THat a boy of nine years old should beget a child is rarâ— but much morâ— strange it is that a child should be
no intentions nor remissions the form then being simple and indivisible cannot be made up of two so that two seeds cannot concurre as two efficient causes to make up a third entity For Ex ' duobus entibus per se non fit unum ens per se. Again wee see that trees and plants are generated of one seed without copulation for the earth concurres not by affording another seed to propagate but as the matrix to cherish and foment So in fishes which have no distinct sex there is generation notwithstanding because in them there is seed which is the onely active principle of generation Again that outward shape or form which the Mule hath was not induced by the formative faculty of the females seed for there is none as we have shewed much lesse of the blood for the plastick vertue resideth not in the blood but in the Males seed which of its own particular nature endeavours to form a Horse but finding the Asses blood being united now and coagulated with and by the Horses seed uncapable to receive that form of the Horse is retreated by the superior and generall formative faculty which aiming at the production of a new species for the perfection of the Universe generates a Mule Hence we may inferre that Mules were not the invention of Ana except we will conclude that the world was imperfect till that time which were an injury to God who made the world perfect but perfect it could not be till the production of this species for Perfectum est cui nihil deest The Doctors second Argument Exercit. 34 is taken from the production of the egge which Aristotle holds is generated by the Hen and which hath also vegitation from her Hence he inferres That according to Aristotles mind the Hen is an active principle in generation Answ. From hence it will not follow That the Hen is an active principle in the generation of the Chick because she furnisheth the Egge which is the materials of the chick for so in other animals the female furnisheth blood which is the matter of which the Embryo is made and yet she is not as we have said an efficient cause of generation but the male onely by his seed neither will it follow that vegitation doth still presuppose generation for in many individuals there is a vegitive soul and yet no generation so there is in some species as in Mules in adianthum or capillus veneris which we call Maiden-hair and divers other hearhs which generate not though they have vegitation But when Aristotle saith The egge is generated in the Hen or that the female generates in her self he takes generation in a large sense for any way of production so we say water is generated of air and worms of purrid matter and yet neither the one nor the other is the efficient but the materiall cause onely of generation And though we should yeeld that the Hen were the efficient cause of the egge yet it will not therefore follow that she is the efficient cause of the Chick for that is onely the Cock as Aristotle holds though in the woman there is a working faculty of her blood yet there is no working faculty in her of the child or Embryo that is meerly from the plastick power of the fathers seed II. Now let us see Fernelius his Arguments l. 6. de hom prâ—creat the first whereof is this The womans seed hath no other originall from the testicles and vessels then the males seed hath therefore in her seed there is a procreative faculty Answ. 1. We deny that there is seed in the woman properly so called 2. If it were so that she had seed yet it will not follow that it is prolificall for it must be concocted spirituous because the spirits are the prime instruments of Nature in generation but the the womans seed is crude because that Sex by nature is cold being compared to the man as both Aristotle and Galen affirm and experience doth evince for the woman is much weaker and slower then the man whereas strength and agility argues plenty of spirits and calidity The mans hairs also are more curled stiffe and strong then the womans which shews more heat The womans voyce is weaker and smaller which argues the narrownesse of the vessels and consequently defect of heat and because the woman is lesse hot and dry then the man Hence it is that she abounds much more in blood which in man is dried up Besides the woman is the more imperfect Sex her seed therefore must be imperfect and consequently not fit to be the principall or efficient cause of so noble an animall as man Aristotle observeth that boyes in the mothers womb are more lively and nimbler then maids that they are sooner formed in the matrix and that the woman sooner groweth to her height and sooner decayeth her strength quickly fails her and old age assaults her soonest Secondly he proves That the child drawes 〈◊〉 Gout Stone Epilepsie and other hereditary diseases from the mother who was subject to these her selfe Answ. This will not prove that the mother is an active cause in generation or that the formative faculty â—â— the cause of diseases which rather are to be attributed to the matter of which the similar parts are formed then to the active principle of generation whereas then the woman â—â—rnisâ—â—th blood of which our bodies are made up it is no marvell if with the blood she imparts to the child whatsoever infirmitie is in it and not onely doth the mother by her blood but the father also by his seed communicate diseases to the child for the same seed which is the efficient cause of generation is also the materiall cause of infirmities and diseases Hence many times gowry fathers beget gowty children His third Argument is The child oftentimes resembleth the mother therefore her seed must needs be active Answ. That the child for the most resembleth the mother proceedeth not from any agencie of her seed but from the strength of her imagination for otherwise the child would still resemble the father in whose seed alone resideth the formative faculty which because it is a naturall power depending from the generative and consequently inferior to the imagination which is an animall faculty that giveth place to this This force of the mothers imagination is plain by the divers impressions made on the tender Embryo upon her depraved imaginations by the stories of those women who have conceived children resembling the pictures hanging in their bed-chambers and by the practise of Iacob Gen. 30. in causing his Ewes to bring forth streaked Lambs according to the streaked rods put in their troughes when they drank II. There is no disease that more molests and tortures man then the Cholick which is so called from Colon the great intestine the torment of which hath made some to kil themselvs nor is there any malady that proceeds from more causes or hath more strange and
aberration of nature for the one sex is no less needfull for procreation then the other 2. The male is hotter then the female because begot of hotter seed and in a hotter place to wit the right side and because the male hath larger vessels and members stronger limbs a more porie skin a more active body a stronger concoction a more couragious minde and for the most part a longer life all which are effects of heat Besides that the bodies of males are sooner articulated and conformed to wit by 10 days in the womb then the females are the motions of the male in the womb are quicker and stronger then of the female The fatness softness and laxaâ—ie of the womans body besides the abundance of blood which cannot be concocted and exhaled for want of heat argue that she is of a dol'der temper then the man She indeed hath a swifter pulse because of the narrowness of the arteries and her proneness to anger and venery argue imbecility of minde and strength of imagination not heat 3. The male groweth flower then the female because he was to live longer therefore nature proceeds the flower as we see in trees and plants a Cherry-Tree groweth up sooner then an Oak and decayeth far sooner Besides the soft and loose flesh of the female is sooner extended then the solid and harder flesh of the male We may then conclude that the male is hotter intensively but the female by reason she hath more blood is hotter extensively II. The seed is no part of the body because the body is not more perfect by its presence nor malmed by its loss or absence nor is it the aliment of the body because then the body would not part with it nor is it properly an excrement peccant in the qualitie but it is the purer part of the blood or quintessence of it unuseful for the body when it is peccant in the quantity 2. Because the blood is in every part of the body and the seed is the quintessence of the blood therefore the seed may be said to be derived from all parts of the body for all parts of the body consume upon much evacuation of seed and as it is from all parts in respect of its material and grosseâ— substance so it is principally from the head heart and liver in regard of its more aerial parts III. Though the menstruous blood may receive corruption by its long suppression or by the moisture of some bad humors yet in sound women it is as pure as any other blood in the body For it is appointed by nature for nutriment of the infant whilst it is in the womb and after birth it is converted into milk neither doth it differ from other blood in its material and efficient causes besides that it is as red and coagulates as soon as the purest blood of the body Neither doth nature send it away because it is peccant in the quality but because it is exuberant in the quantity 2. By reason the menstruous blood is infected with ill humours on which the child in the womb feeds hence it is that there are few or none but one time or other are infected with the small pox which as divers other poisons doth not presently shew it self but lieth a long time lurking in the body And if at the first time the venome of this disease is not thoroughly purged out it returns Hence it is that some have this disease divers times 3. The menstruous blood is not the cause of the small pox whilst it remains in the vessels but when it is converted into the substance of the body hence it is that women whose moneths are stopped are not infected with this malady 4. This blood is evacuated once in a moneth ordinarily at such time as the Moon which hath dominion over humid bodies is most prevalent Nature also observes her own periods and times of evacuation of which we can give no reason But this is certain that if the evacuation of this blood were as frequent as of other excrements there would be no conception IV. The chief uses of the matrix are to draw the seed to it to mingle it with the blood to contain it to excite its faculties and spirits for it is not actually animated till now and so the seed by its spirits is made capable of animation and shortly after being incorporated with the blood of articulation These fore-named functions of the matrix are performed not so much by its heat as by its natural temper V. Oftentimes the vitiosity of the matrix is the cause of monstrous births so likewise is the imagination the defect or exuberance of seed the unlawful permistion of seeds the heat of the body and the formative faculty 2. The false conception called Mola is begot when the seed is faulty weak or deficient and the blood predominant which is known from a true conception because there is no milk in the breasts when there is a false conception neither doth it move after the fourth moneth as the child doth sometimes it is moved by the matrix but not by it self as the child besides it remains after the eleventh moneth which is the time prefixed for the birth of the child CHAP. XIII 1. The Heart liveth first not the Liver 2. The outward membrans first formed by the heat of the matrix 3. Vrachos what 4. The similitude of the parents on the children 5. Twins how begot and why like each other 6. Infants how fed in the matrix 7. Superfetation 8. No respiration in the matrix 9. The childs heart moveth in the matrix I. ARISTOTLE will have the heart to be the first member that lives in us Galen the liver but indeed Aristotle is in the right for how can any thing live till the heart which is the fountain of heat and spirits live and how can the soul frame to her self a fit habitation for exercising of her functions â—ill first she hath framed the heart by whose heat and spirits she may work If it be objected that the heart cannot live without nutrition but nutrition is by blood and this by the liver therefore the liver must first live I answer that there needs no nutrition till the body be compleat and perfected for wee see imperfect creatures can live long without food I have kept a Spider nine moneths alive in a glass without food Again there needs no nutriment but when there is deperdition and wasture of the substance which cannot bee of the heart before the body be perfected And although the body live at first the life of a plant it will not therefore follow that the heart is not first framed for even in plants there is a principle of life which is the root and nature worketh methodically by quickning that first which must quicken the rest II. As the heart is the first member that is framed by the formative faculty so the outward membranes are first formed by the heat or natural temperament
which did abound in him did not presently spend so long as they continued he lived when they failed he fell down dead IV. What Wierus records in his work of Impostures l. 4. ca. 16. concerning some stones found in the heart of Maximilian the second is not incredible for the same heat of the body that breeds stones in the bladder kidney and joynts can also produce stones in the heart if there be the same matter and disposition for such a production and this may be the work of nature alone without sorcery V. Nor is it incredible what is recorded by divers of worms found in the heart which cause consumptions and strange distempers in our bodies which oftentimes deceive Physitians For the heart is no more priviledged from worms then other members save onely that its substance is hard and solid and by reason of its spirits and heat it is not so much subject to putrifaction as parts more soft and loose and consequently not so often infested with worms and imposthumes as other members are yet it is not altogether exempted For I have read of one whose heart being opened there was found in it a white worm with a sharp beck which being placed on a table and a circle of the juice of Garlick made about it died being overcome with that strong smell by which it is plain that the use of Garlick is wholesome and needful for such as are subject to worms as being their destroyer VI. Fernelius is deceived when he saith that the heart doth not putrifie in us whilest we are alive because it is of a solid and hard substance and is the last that dieth in us but it is not more hard and solid then the bones which notwithstanding putrifie whilest we are alive and it is true that it is the last thing that dieth in us for it doth not totally putrifie till we be dead because all the heat motions and functions thereof cease not till then VII And not onely in the heart but in the braines also worms are ingendred as Avicenna Hollerius and others doe witnesse And I have read of black and round worms that by sneezing powder of Castoreum and Pepper have been voided by the nose and of ear-worms also CHAP. III. 1. Epilepsie 2. Incubus 3 Vertigo 4. Of a stone in the tongue 5. One of nine years old brought to bed 6. Bodies turned to Stones 7. Sleep-walkers 8. Superfetation Ventriloques 9. A strange stone found in the matrix THe Epilepsie and malignant feavers oftentimes end in deafness and this is held a good signe of recovery the reason is because nature thrusts out the malignant humor from the brain into the next passages which are the ears II. Some take the night-mare or Incubus for a spirit but indeed it is a feculent humor adhering to the vitall parts and with its black or melancholy fume troubling the Diaphragma Lungs and Brain and distempering the imagination with horrid shapes III. Nature is very skilfull and provident in helping her self when art faileth for many diseases have been cured by nature which the Physitians have been forced to give off Zacutus Obs. 15. mentioneth one who being every month vexed with a terrible Vertigo which for a time made him stupid and senseless was cured by a flux of blood gushing out of his eyes without any inflammation at all or redness of the eyes by those veins that fed the eyes nature found out a way to ease her self which veines were opened by the violent motion of the spirits in the head and the aboundance of blood pressing into those veins which made an eruption IV. And it is no less strange what he records Obs. 72. of one upon the tip of whose tongue was found a stone as big as a filbert nut which grew there within a swelling caused by a great flux doubtless of slimy matter into that part and baked into that consistence by a preternatural heat for he was much subject to Catharrs V. That is not incredible which is recorded by Iaubert in his Vulgar Errors l. 2. c. 2. of young women who have been brought to bed at nine or ten years of age for nature is more pregnant and forward in some then in others this we see in some trees and other vegitables but these women give off child-bearing betimes to wit about one or two and twenty for quod cito sit cito perit and as we say soon ripe soon rotten for such hasty and precipitate works of nature are not permanent hence it is that women who sooner attain to their growth then men decay sooner then men VI. For stones to be bred in the Lungs which are oftentimes the causes of drie coughs is no great wonder for divers times such stones have been voided by coughing but for a mans body to be converted into a stone as is Recorded in the memorials of Lyons in France is more strange yet not impossible and therefore the conversion of Lots wife into a Salt Pillar is not incredible although this was the sole work of God Neither is that incredible which is written of the lake that turns the sticks cast into it into stones nor that Cave in Scotland where the water-drops are turned to stones I have kept an apple til it grew to that hardness that no wood could be harder for scarce could a knife cut it I wil not say this was a perfect stone into which this body was thus turned but it might be as hard and drie as a stone for the bodies that are found in the sands of Egypt are very dry and hard VII Horstius and others record divers examples of sleep-walkers who do strange things in their sleep but this is also the work of nature for I finde that they are most subject to this infirmity whose animal spirits are most active subtil and fiery and whose imagination is strong so that by the strength of their fantasie and agility of their spirits the muscles are moved though the Will doth not then concur to this motion nor reason make any opposition which it would do if they were naked and not suffer them to undergo such dangers VIII I have read divers Stories of women who have had seaven children and more at a birth and likewse of superfetation both which are credible and possible in nature as I have shewed in the former book c. 13. sect 5. 7. But that the infant should crie in the mothers womb as some have done is more strange seeing it doth not breath neither is there any air in the matrix without which there can be no sound therefore either this crie was imaginary in the party that heard it for sometimes we think we hear a sound when we hear none or else this sound might proceed from wind in the mothers womb which might resemble the crying of a child or else these mothers might be ventriloque IX That may seem a miracle which is recorded by Monsieur Iohn Alibaux a Physitian of a woman
born with all his teeth and another with a long beard yet such have been and these are but the effects of nature which though in her ordinary course â—he observes a timâ— for the growth perfection and decay of things yet sometimes she is furthered and hindred according as the matter is disposed the heat proportioned and her instruments fitted Why should not Nature have the same priviledge that Art hath but we see that hearbs and fruits can be produced and perfected before their time by the Art of man therefore such works are meerly natural not miraculous for sublunary bodies are not like the â—elestial which are not suâ—ject to alteration but â—till keep the same constant tenor II. What force the imagination hath in women to make impressions of the things imagined on the tender infant in the womb is known by many Stories and daily Examples Hence it is that so many children are born with such variety of strange shapes and marks Besides we know how forcible the phantasie is both in curing and procuring of diseases yea oftentimes of death Thus one having eat of a Rabbit pie imagining she had eat of a cat fel a vomiting and died Another having passed over a dangerous bridg in the dark and returning the next day to look upon the place was struck with such an horror that he went home and died A third being in jest made believe that he must lose his head swouned and fel down dead Multitudes of such Examples thâ—re are but the imaginatioâ—s which proceed from hypochondriacal melancholy are most strange whereby one supposeth himself to be dead therefore will not eat Another is perswaded that he hath never a head A third that his breech is made of glass therefore will not fit down for fear of breaking Anothâ—r thinks the heaven will fall upon him therefore must have a Target born over him Another wil not piss for fear he should drown the world And many more such strange conceits are some men troubled with by reason of their imaginations which are distorted by the black and malignant fumes that disturb the animal spirits subservient to the phantasie Such are the imaginations of those who think themselves wolves and therefore run into the woods and bite men and cattel they meet with I have read of one who thought himself to be a cock and therefore fel to crowing And doubtless the Lycanthropie so much spoken of is nothing else but the strength of a distemper'd imagination whatsoe'r Bodin writes to the contrary III. The cause of many extraordinary distempers in us is poyson whether inteâ—nal bred within our selves by the corruption or putrefaction of the seed blood or humors of our bodies by which pestilent and venemous fumes assault the heart and brains or external as the biting of mad dogs or cats or other creatures For I have read of some that never were bitten and yet have beene subject to the same kinde of raging and fury that they arâ— who are bit by mad dogâ— but their fits were milder because the constitution of dogs is more melancholy then that of mans therefore their venom more dangerous and who would think there were such poyson in a mad cock who being angred struck one in the hâ—nd with his beck upon which blow the man fell distracted and died neither could any physick cure him IV. The madness that is caused by the biting of mad dogs is not in all men alike buâ— upon some the poyson worketh sooner upon some later â—ccording to the degree of madness in the dog or the deepness of the wound or disposition of the body wounded for foul bodies melancholick and cholerick constitutions are aptest to receive the venom therefore in some the poyson appeareth quickly in others not in a long time to wit not in a year or more for the malignity doth not presently assault the sâ—irits heart and brains And Capivacceus observes that this poyson is of a fiery quality and hot in the fourth degree as he sheweth by one who was thus bit his body being opened there was found no water in his Pericardium but a part of it was burned up and being touched fell into ashes the ventricles also were dried up and had no blood at all V. It is strange that some do piss blood upon the applying of the Flyes called Cantharides to the neck hands or feet so remoâ—e from the bladder by this we see that the malignant vertue of these flies hath a particular influence upon that member This action of the bladder cannot be by the first or second qualities of the Caâ—tharides â—or then they should work first uâ—on the next members therefore this action must be performed by an occult quality of the specifical form of the flie And much more strange is it that the body of this â—lie should be poyson and the wings thereof a counterpoyson which in the living fly are aâ— concord by reason of the specifical form or soul of the fly ruling all the parts and keeping them in unity but when that is gon in the dead fly the one part destroys the other Who can give exact reasons of Natures secrets VI. And no less stranâ—e is it that Euphorbium and Mustard are equally hot to wit in the fourth degree and yet the one is poyson not the other and Treacle which is hot in the first degree heats more then Pepper which is hot in the fourth degree this shews that the form of the one is not so aâ—â—ive as the form of the other and therefore four times so much heat in the one is not so prevalent as one degree of heat in the other which shewes that poysons do not work by their temper which consist of elementary qualities but by their substance or form whose qualities are occult to us VII Why Napelius or Wolfe-bane Hyosciamus or Henbane and other hearbs which are poyson to man are nutriment to birds can have no other reason but that birds have a greater heat in their stomachs to subdue the malignity of these hearbs to send away the noxious and excrementitious part and to convert the rest into their own substance which substance notwithstanding is not poysonable to man because the poyson was consumed by the heat of the bird Now the heat of mans stomack is more temperate and therefore less able to master such malignant hearbs yet Scaliger Exerc. 175.1 speaks of a man who was fed with poyson from his infancy whose flesh at last became so venomous that the flies which sucked his blood swelled and died VIII That Amphiam or Opium should stir up venery and cause a tickling in the skin and yet stupifie the members and cast them into a dead sleep is not without admiration but doubtless either the Amphiam or Opium are different that being made of the white this of the black Poppies or else in the Opium there be different substances the one being very câ—ld which causeth stupidity the other very hot by causing a tickling in
women oftentimes Nature is wiser in her productions then we are in our conceits and imaginations 2. It overthrowes saith he Gods benediction Be fruitfull and multiply Answ. Gods benediction of multiplication was not pronounced to the beasts and creeping things but the birds and fishes 2. It 's a question whether Vipers and some other poysonous creatures were created before the fall 3. The viper multiplieth fast enough when at one birth she bringeth forth twenty young ones as Aristotle and others affirm there is then no cause to complain when twenty are produced by the losse of one neither is it a greater curse in the Viper to die then in all otheâ— living creatures for all are morrall in their individuals though immortal in their species 4. If the viper had been created before the Fall yet this punishment was not inflicted on her till after for all creatures doe fare the worse by reason of Adams sin who hath made them all subject to vanity Rom. 8.3 To bring forth in sorrow saith he is proper to the woman therefore not to be translated on the Viper Answ. I deny that painfull births are proper to the woman for all animals have some pain more or lesse in their productions I have seen a Hen which with the pain of excluding her Egge fell down gasping for breath as if the pangs of death had bin on her and so she continued till the Egge was excluded Many Bitches and other females have died with pain at the time of their littering Painfull productions then is a punishment of the woman and yet no translation to the Viper for her pain is not thereby eased because the Viper in such a case is killed nor are all women alike tortured some are lesse pained then many other creatures 4. This overthrowes saith he Natures parentall provision for the Dam being destroyed the younglingâ— are left to their own protection Answ. No they are left to the protection of him who is by David called the Saviour both of man and beast and by the same is said to seed the young Ravens when they call upon him And God in Iob long before David sheweth That he fills the appetite of the young Lions and provideth food for the young Ravens when they cry unto God For the Naturalists tell us the old Ravens quite forsake their young ones but God feeds them with Flies and Wormes he sends into their nests The like improvidence and cruelty we find in Ostridges who exclude their Eggs in the sand and so leave them without further care to his providence in whom all things live and move and have their being Therefore God complains in Iob Chap. 39.14 15 16. of the Ostridges astorgie and cruelty in leaving her Eggs in the earth forgetting that the foot may crush them or that the wild beast may break them shee is hardned saith he against her young ones as though they were none of hers The Câ—â—kow also wanteth parentall provision for she layeth her Egge in another birds nest and so leaves it to the mercy of a stranger And no lesse cruelty is there in this young nursling then in the viper for he both destroyeth his Foster-brothers and the mother that brought forth and fed him I read also in AElian of Scorpions begot sometimes in Crocodiles Egges which sting to death the Dam that gave them life The young Scorpions doe use to devour the old I have also read of women who have brought forth monsters to the destruction both of the mother and of the child in her womb therefore what the Ancients have written of the vipers cruelty is not a matter so incredible as the Doctor makes it As for the experiments of some Neotericks who have observed the young vipers excluded without hurt to the parent I answer 1. There is great odds between the Vipers of Africk or other hot Countries and those in cold Climats and so there is in poysonable herbs and Serpents which lose their venome upon transplantation in cold Countries the most fierce cruell and poysonable animals lose these hurtfull qualities 2. The works of Nature in sublunary things are not universally the same but as the â—Philosopher saith◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the most part there is no Ruleso generall but hath some exceptions ordinarily the child comes out with the head forward yet sometimes otherwise ordinarily the child is born at the end of the ninth moneth yet sometimes sooner sometimes later Therefore though ordinarily the young Vipers burst the belly of the Dam yet sometimes they may be excluded without that rupture 3. Education and food doe much alter the nature of creatures these vipers mentioned by Scaliger and others which excluded their young ones or viperels by the passage of generation were kept in bran within boxes or glasses and fed with milk bran and cheese which is not the food of those wild vipers in hot Countries It is no wonder then if the younglings staied out their time in the womb being well sed and tamed by the coldnesse of the climat 4. All the Ancients doe not write that the vipers burst the belly but only the membrans and matrix of the Dam which oftentimes causes theâ—losse of her life and they wanted not reason besides experience for this assertion to wit the fiercenesse of their nature the heat of the countrey and the numerousnesse of their young ones being twenty at a time besides the goodnesse of God who by this means doth not suffer so dangerous a creature to multiply too fast for which cause also he pinches them so in the Winter that they lie hid and benumbed within the earth besides he will let us see his justice in suffering the murther of the Sire to be revenged by his young ones upon the Dam. As for the Doctors exception against Nicanders word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not material for it is a Poeticall expression and what is it to the purpose whether the head be bit or cut off if so be the bite be mortall CHAP. X. 1. Moles see not and the contrary objections answered 2. The opinions of the Ancients concerning divers animals maintained 3. The right and left side defended 4. The true cause of the erection of mans body and the benefit we have thereby 5. Mice and other vermin bred of putrefaction even in mens bodies 6. How men swim naturally the Indian swimmers COncerning Moles the Doctor proves they are not blind Book 3. cap. 8. because they have eyes for we must not assigne the Organ and deny the Office Answ. Scaliger tells us they have not eyes but the form of eyes Pliny lib. 11. cap. 37. saith They have the effigies of eyes under the membrane but no sight being condemned to perpetuall darknesse Aristotle lib. 3. de Animal saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it seems they have eyes under a thin skin and a place for eyes The Prince of Poets calls them Oculis captos Geor. 1. Scaliger Exer. 243. saith They are
the heart and not the heart from them the heart must needs be the first that liveth 8. The heart imparts the vitall heat to the other parts it must therefore have existence before the other parts for operation follows the existence 9. The formative power of the seed doth not operate but by the vital heat of the heart therefore this must be first before that can operate 10. The matter cannot be disposed to receive the form of the members nor can the parts be distinguished one from another without the heat and motion of the heart 11. Nature in her operations aims at an end but where there is an end there is order and where there is order there is priority and something that was first II. There are some who hold that the heart is not first generated but that all the members are at the same time begot and formed together But this cannot be so for in the Embryo we see that all the parts are not equally articulated and figured but some sooner some later 2. We see this in art which imitates Nature for the artificer carves and figures one part before another 3. We see the teeth are begot long after the other parts for nature produceth the members as there is 〈◊〉 of them the infant needs no teeth whilst it feeds on milk 4. If all the parts are at the same time framed and articulated then all the body is at the same time perfected but this is not Natures work which proceeds by degrees to perfection having imperfect beginnings III. The Galenists object that Nature had to no purpose made the heart before the rest of the body seeing there is no use of the heart till the body be formed I answer there is a two-fold use namely of Animation and of preparation the heart could not animate the body before it was but it could prepare the matter by its vital heat and motion to receive the impression and influence of the formative power working by the heart on the matter the heart then is usefull not only to the body after it is generated but also whilst it is in Fieri and in generation the heart is the foundation of the whole corporeal Fabrick we cannot say the foundation is needless because it is laid before the house is built for though it doth not support the superstructure before it be yet it is ready and sitted to support it when it shal be Neither will it follow that because the house before it is built needs no foundation therefore the foundation must not be first laid There is need of priority and order the building needs it when it shall be and the builder needs it before it be though the body not yet formed needs not the heart yet the formative power needs it Secondly they object that the formative power is common to all the parts alike having no more relation to one then to another and therefore works upon them all alike and produceth them together I answer God is the common and universal cause of all his creatures yet he did not create them all in one day the universality of the cause excludes not the order of casuality nor is the common relation it hath to the effects any reason of producing them all at one time Again though the formative power hath an equal relation to all parts as they are parts yet it hath a nearer relation to the heart as being its organ by which it works on the other parts IV. If it be asked whether the heart be perfect or imperfect before the other members be articulated I answer It is perfect if it be compared with any other member but imperfect if compared with the whole compositum Again it is imperfect to what it shal be when it shall be fitted with all necessary Organs for animation 2. If again it be asked how the heart can live without nutriment seeing the liver by blood feeds it I answer though the liver be not yet formed yet the heart is nourished by some adjacent matter as the chick is by the yeolk of the egg and this nourishment sufficeth the heart till blood a perfect nutriment be prepared Again the nutritive faculty doth not flow from the liver as the vitall from he heart but it is inherent and implanted into every part as well in the heart as in the liver whereas the vitall is implanted only in the heart and from thence flowing into every member Lastly we may say that the heart needs no food till there be a dependition or wasting of its substance V. The unity of the vegetive soul cannot be preserved in so many different temperaments or the body for there are as many as there are parts if it were not for the common temperament of the heart in which all the others are united receiving from thence heat and spirits It was needfull then that the heart should be first formed as being the common originall of all the other parts all which may be said to have but one common temperament and one soul because there is but one heart VI. Though the Galenists affirm that the heart hath but two ventricles yet the Aristotelians in affirming three in bigger creatures seem to speak more reason For if in bigger animals there is greater store of spirits and a greater elaboration of them then in the lesser it stands with reason that their hearts being bigger should have also more receptacles for containing the vitall blood and spirits then the lesse VII It stands also with reason that the substance of the heart is nervous that it might be the more firm and solid 2. Because the heart is the original of motion which is performed by the nerves 3. Because the substance of the veins and arteries whereof the heart is the originall is nervous VIII The parts which the Galenists call Spermaticall are not made of the Sperma or Seed more then any other parts are but of the dryer and more solid parts of the blood as the Sanguineall are of the thinner parts thereof 2 The males seed is onely active the woman hath no other seed then the menstruous blood which is meerly passive in both which seeds there is a power or potentiality of generation the active in the male the passive in the female both which are from the heart In this also I subscribe to Aristotle IX I cannot assent to the Galenists in affirming the liver rather then the heart to be the first that lives in us and therefore the original of other parts because it is bigger and nearer to the matrix then the heart for the Aristotelians say well that the original of things consisteth not in bulk but in vertue the seeds of trees and plants are least in bulk and yet are the originals of great bodies 2. The vicinity to the matrix is not the cause of priority for the matrix is the place of but not an agent in generation the agent is only the formative faculty in the seed
drowned hath his spirits extinguished he that dieth of sicknesse hath his spirits wasted Thus the flame in the candle by the wind is extinguished by the defect of wax it is wasted the quantity remains in that it is lost in this II. The Animal Vital and Natural spirits are distinct in their originals for the animals are from the brain the vital from the heart the natural from the liver 2. In their Vessels for the animal are in the nerves the vital in the arteries the natural in the veins 3. In their operations from the animal we have sense and motion from the vital life from the natural auction and nutrition 4. The vital spirits remain when the animal and natural are gone In a Palsie there is neither sense nor motion in an Atrophy there is neither auction nor nutritition and consequently neither animal nor natural spirits and yet there is life and vital spirits 5. The Natural spirits are in every part of the body so are not the Animal and Vital but in their proper vessels 6. The motion of the Animal spirits is voluntary and in our power so is not the motion of the other spirits 7. The Animal spirits rest in sleep the Vital and Natural are then most active 8. The Animal spirits are subject to fatigation and cessation the others not 9. In Vegitables there are Natural and Vital spirits but not Animal in imperfect Animals there are all three but grosser and colder therefore not so apt to be dissipated III. That there is no active seed in the female for generation but that she is meerly passive in furnishing only the Matter or Menstruous bloud with the place of conception is according to Aristotle manifest because if the females seed were active she may conceive of her self without the help of the male seeing she hath an active and a passive principle to wit seed and bloud and where these principles are there will be action and passion If the Galenists object that the females seed is colder then the males and therefore not procreative without it I answer That though it be colder then the males yet it is hotter then the bloud and therefore active the bloud being meerly passive Again the heat of the males seed is but an accident no ways concurring essentially to generation but only by way of fomenting and cherishing the females seed as the heat of the Hen doth to the generation or production of the Partridg wheras the whole power and faculty of generation was in the Egg not in the Hen so by this opinion the males seed affords nothing but heat or fomentation 2. If the females seed bee active and the males too it will follow that two efficients numerically different and having no subordination to each other do produce one effect which is absurd 3. It will follow that there are three material causes to wit the males seed the females and the bloud and therefore must be three forms for one form hath but one matter 4. It will follow that the female is perfecter then the male as having more principles of generation to wit the seed the bloud and the place or matrix 5. And in this respect that the male will stand more in need of the female then she of him he being more indigent of these principles of generation then she and having a greater desire to perpetrate the species then she 6. The Galenists are mistaken in thinking those glandulous substances in the female to bee testicles containing seed whereas they are kernels to receive the superfluous moisture of the matrix 7. The arteries nerves and veins are not spermatical parts for of the seed no parts are procreated but they are sanguineal as the flesh differing from the flesh in this that being cut they do not unite again as the flesh because of their hardnesse and drinesse and want of that moisture which is in the flesh 8. The males seed being received into the menstruous bloud doth evaporate and turn into spirits animating the informed masse 9. The child sometimes resembleth the Father sometimes the Mother according to the predominancy of the seed or the bloud 10. As the bloud nourisheth the nerves veins c. so it may be transformed into them 11. The bloud may be called seed because the seed is begot of it and as in Vegitables Hearbs and Trees are begot of seed so in animals procreation is of the bloud Hence Christ is called the Seed of the Woman IV. The Adeps or fat in our bodies is generated not by heat for heat dissolves and melts it 2. Coldest temperaments are fattest as Women are fatter commonly then men in Winter creatures are fatter then in Summer in cold more then in hot Climats men are fatter English and Dutch are fatter then Italians or Spaniards 3. Fat adheres only to the colder parts as the membranes Nor is it generated by cold For 1. No part of our body is actually cold but hot 2. The Kidneys and heart which are very hot have far adhering to them 3. Melancholy men and old men who are cold have little or no fat It remains then that the Adeps is begot of a temperate heat which in respect of a greater heat may be called cold as the brain in respect of the heart And nature hath placed the fat next to the cold membranous parts for cherishing of them so the far of the Cawle was chiefly ordained for fomenting of the stomach which is oftentimes wasted by the excessive heat of the liver Hence it is that a hot liver is accompanied with a cold stomach for the hot liver like a cupping glafse sucks and draws the heat of the neighbouring parts to it V. When we consider the cold flegm with which the lungs are still infested 2. The office of them which is to refrigerate the heart 3. Their colour which is whitish we would think that they were of a cold constitution On the other side when we 1. look upon their light and spongy substance 2 on their office which is to temper and warm the cold air that it may not offend the heart 3. On their nutriment which is the cholerick or bilious bloud we would think they were hot of constitution and indeed so they are and cold only by accident by reason of the external air and water from the brain and other parts CAP. V. 1. The prerogative of the heart 2. The actions of our members 3. There are no spermatical parts 4. The bones nerves veins c. why not easily reunited 5. The spermatical parts hotter then the sanguineal 6. The brains and scull bones and teeth compared THE Heart hath divers prerogatives above other members 1. It is the Fountain of our natural heat 2. Of the Vital spirits from whence the Animal have their Original 3. It is placed in the midst of the breast 4. It is the first that lives and the last that dies 5. It is of that absolute necessity that the welfare of the sensitive
of Monsters of a woman whose milk did so abound that in the space of two or three days she voided a gallon and an half of which was made very savory Butter and Cheese Though this be rare yet it is no miracle for that woman abounding much in blood must also abound in milk And some Livers are of that constitution and temper that they sanguifie much more then others especially in constitutions that are inclined to cold and moisture for hot and dry bodies have but little blood and therefore little milk and where there is much sweet flegm or rhume it is easily converted into blood III. I read divers stories of women with child who have lusted after and have eat mens flesh and for that end have faln violently upon them and bit them This is also a disâ—ase proceeding of natural causes as that infirmity of eaâ—ing chalk coals dirt tar ashes in maids and some married women called by Physitians Pica or Malacia and is caused by the distemper of the phantasie and soure malignant melancholy humors in the mouth and concavity of the stomach and impacted in the runicles of the ventricle proceeding partly from the suppression of the flowers whereby the appetite is vitiated and the phantasie disturbed and partly from the malignity of the humor coveâ—ing after such things as are like to it in malignity yet contrary to it in some of the prime qualities heat cold humidity and siccity for Nature looks in the contrary quality to finde remedy IV. I read of divers maids one in Colen another in the Palatinate a third in the Diocesse of Spira divers more who have lived without meat and drink two or three years together This indeed may seem strange yet it is not against nature for naturally such bodies as have in them little heat and much humidity can subsist longer without food then hot and dry bodies can as we see in women and old people who can fast longer then men and youths And we know that divers creatures for many moneths together can subsist without food therefore these maids having much adventitious moisture and little heat to waste the radical humidity might continue a long time without food for where there is little deperdition there needs not much reparation besides the moisture of the air is no small help to them V. But that is more strange which Zacutus in his Praxis Admiranda lib. 1. obs 4. mentioneth of a Boy who lived 3 years without a brain if he had brought an example of one who had lived 3 years without an heart I should have subscribed to Galen against Aristotle that the heart in dignity is inferiour to the brain But I suppose that he was not altogether without a brain For that water which was found within the membrans of the skull when his head was dissected was doubtlesse his brain converted into water or else it had some analogy with the brain by which the heat of the heart was for a while â—empered and the animal spirits generated but weakly therefore life could not subsist long in him So I have read in Laurentius or Parry of one who lived many years without a spleen but there were found some kirnels in the place of the spleene which supplied its office As for that woman mentioned by Zacutus Ob. 5. who lived eight years together with the half of a knife in her head between the skull and Dura Mater doâ—btlesse that knife touched not the substance of the brain therefore could be no hindrance to the animal functions VI. It is strange that whereas Anacreon was choaked with a Resin stone yet some as Forestus in his observat recordeth l. 15. obs 24 25 c. have swallowed iron lead long sticks glasse points of knives and of swords and other incredible things without hurt and have voided them by the stool This â—partly impute to the widenesse and capacity of the passages and partly to witchcraft or juggling for the eye in such cases is often deluded although nature sometimes by imposthumes câ—sleth our such stufâ—e for points of knives and pins have been this way ejected and some have perished and have bâ—en choaked whilest they have in their madnesse attempted such things And provident nature hath in some without hurt sent away needles and pinnes by the urine aboâ—t which have been found hard crusty stuffe wâ—ich was the matter or glassy slime that was gathered about these pins and baked by the heat of â—he body VII I have read of a certain Soldier in the Wars of Savoy Anno Dom. â—589 who was shot in the forehead with a Musâ—ueâ— bâ—lleâ— he was cured of the wound but the bullâ—â— remained Afterward falling from a Ladder whilâ—st he was scaling the walls of a Town he was stiffled in the Ditch into which he fell his head being dissected the bullet was found in the hinder part thereof But I believe this removal was by the fall for otherwise it could not have been removed by the heat or spirits of the head CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fâ—ught after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie white we are alive 6. Worms in the brain COlumbus in his Anatomy l. 16. speaks of a young man in Rome whom he dissected and in this found that his heart had no Pericardium the want of which was doubtlâ—sse the cause of his death and for want of it he fell into divers swouning fiâ—s and was often troubled with the Syncope by reason the heart wanted refrigeration which it hath from the water in the Pericardium For some whose Pericardium hath bâ—â—ne but sleightly touched by the sword in the wound of the breast have fallen into swouning fits cold sweats with a cessation of the pulse so needful is this membran and its water for the heart Yea I have read of some hearts quite dried shrunk to nothing for want of this water such was the heart of Casimire Marquess of Brandenbourge of whom Melancthon speaketh l. 1. de anima II. I have read of divers hairy hearts besâ—des those of Leonidas Aristomenes and Hermogines which is also the work of nature for hairs are produced of â—uliginous and grâ—sser excrements of the humours where the skin is hottest and driest for hairs seldâ—me grow where the skin is cold and moist now if these causâ—s be found in the heart the same effect will be produced there but this is seldome seen and in such onely as are of a fiercâ— truculent and audacious disposition III. Ambrose Parry speaks l. 9. c. 23. of a Gentleman who in a duel being wounded dâ—eply in the very substance of the heart did notwithstanding for a good while lay about him with his sword and walked two hundred paces before he fâ—ll down this is likely enough for though the heart was wounded yet the vital blood and spirits and heat of the heart
the skin which heat is also perceived by its bitterness but cold is most predominant or else we may say that it exâ—ites venery accidentally by temperating the excessive heat of the body which is an enemy to Venus The like effect is wrought by Mandrakes which perhaps was the cause that Rachel so much desired them Nor must we think it strange that the Opium produceth contrary effects for we know that the same Rose in some part of it hath a stiptick in other parts a laxative quality IX The plague to which our bodies are subject is an occult poyson killing us by the breath or touch and not an Hectick Feaver becaâ—se this drieth and burneth up the heart by degrees the plague kils suddâ—nly 2. The Hectick is not infectious as this 3. In a confirmed Hectick there is no recovery in the Plague divers recover nor is the pestilence a putrid Feaver because 1. the pulse is more remiss the urine clearer the head ach thirst and agitation of the body less in the plague then in a putrid Feaver 2. Because a pestilential feaver followes upon a 〈…〉 this is â—on that begins X. Epidemical diseases whereof pestilential are the most perhitious are conveyed to us by the air which we are continually attracting to the heart and brains 1. either when the air is infected with the impression of malignant and occult qualities from the influence of the Stars or 2. when it is poysoned with putrified corrupt and pernitious vapours exhaled out of pits caves ditches putrified lakes c. Or 3. When the prime qualities of the air to wit heat cold c. are intensive beyond ordinary but we must not think that the substance of the air is at any time putrified for being a simple body it is not subject to putrifaction CHAP. VI. 1. Antipathies to some meats 2. The force of Fear 3. Blood voided by the Gums and Navil 4. Black hairs suddenly gray 5. Violence of passions 6. Defects in nature recoÌ„mpensed 7. A Fly voided by Vrine 8. Monethly bloud in men 9. The causes of Monsters 10. Horns on mens heads and heels AS there are divers temperaments of men so there are divers sympathies and antipathies to certain meats and drinks some cannot indure the sight or smel of Cheese others abhor eggs others flesh others bread some cannot abide wine others abhor piggs and all kinde of swines flesh many cannot endure the smel of apples others detest all kind of sweet meats and which is most strange thaâ— the smel of Roses so pleasing to most men is odious and deadly to others Cardinal Carafa during the time of Roses used to inclose himself in a Chamber not permitting any to come near him that had Roses as Wierus Valerian shews in his Hieroglyphicks the smell of a Rose would cause a certain Jacobin swoun and be like a dead man as Amatus Lusitanus recordeth in his second Centurie the like is written of divers others This must either proceed from an occult quality or from the distemper of the phantasie and prejudicate opinion that some have of such things that they are hurtful to them or else it is in some an hereditary infirmity proceeding from the parents for Forestus writes that in a certain family the sons could not ear Cheâ—se but the daughters could eat it with a good appetite becauâ—â— the mother did love Cheese but the father could not abide it See his Annotations on the fifth Observation lib. 4. II. Fear is more powerfull in curing of diseases then any Physitians in the world for Zacutus l. 2. Obs. 86. speaks of a woman whose matrix had fallen and hung out of its place two years together neither could any Physick or Art replace it again till a sudden fear attracted it she feeling the mice running up her thighes which she had purposely holding them by a thread let run towards the part the matrix suddenly slipt into its own place again III. Nature is more skilfull then any Physitian to cure her self and if she cannot finde a way for evacuation of her superfluities she will with Hannibal make a way though it be through Rocks for he shewes that the ordinary passage of the menstruous blood being stopped in a certain woman Nature made her a passage through the gums out of which monthly for two days together great store of blood was voided He speaks of another who on the like occasion had a vent for the blood through the navel lib. 2. Obs. 91 92. IV. That black hairs should become suddenly white may to some seem incredible yet we have stories of this sudden change Scaliger Exercit. 212. tells us of one Francis Gonzaga who being imprisoned upon suspition of treason in one night his black hair turned white Vives in his Preface on Scipio's Dream and Hadrian Iunius in Comment de Coma. c. 10. speaks of a young Spanish Gentleman who in a night became as white as one of 80 years old Caelius Rodiginus in his 13 Book Antiq. lect speaks of another who searched after young Hawkes upon a high steep Rock and fearing the rope would break with which he was held became instantly white Divers other examples I could alledg but these are sufficient to let us see that the change of our hairs which is perform'd by nature in space of time ordinarily is upon an extraordinary fear effected suddenly in some the roots of the hairs being deprived of that heat and radical moisture between the flesh and skin of the head by which they were fed the spirits and blood flying suddenly to the heart leave the other parts destitute This we see in trees when blasted with a piercing cold wind their leaves suddenly change colour and of green become yellow their naturall heat and moysture being extinguished and dried up V. There is no passion in our bodies more violent then fear which distempers the fantasie troubles the other senses causeth our hairs to stand an end makes us dumb all which the Prince of Poets expressed in one verse Obstupui steteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit and indeed the fear of death hath upon some brought sudden death the spirits heat and blood flying suddenly to the heart by which this is oppressed and the senses left destitute Others by sudden fear have lost their judgement and become distracted strange effects also are produced in us by excessive anger and joy â—o that some have suddenly died with immediate anger and excessive joy the spirits and heat flying suddenly from the heart into the exterior parts by which means syncopes swoundings and death follow As I could instance in many examples VI. I observe that where Nature is defective in one part there is a recompence made for they who are born blind exceed us in memory and they who are born deaf and dumb excell us in apprehension they who are born without hands or arms perform with their feet what we do by our hands Phil. Camerarius in his Historical meditations c. 37. speaks
of one who could make pens and write with his toes cut carve and feed himself as well as we with our hands but his toes were longer then ordinaryâ— and proportioned like our fingers Montague in his Essays l. 1. c. 22. writes of another who with his toes could discharge a Pistol take off his hat play at cards and dice and handle his sword as well as we with our hands by which we see how custom becomes another nature VII Though it be rare yet it is natural for a fly to be ingendred in mans body the mater being disposed to receive that form for Zacutus Obse 101. writes of one who being pained in his yard at last voided a sly by his urine VIII As there be some masculin women so there are some feminate men such was he who from twenty to forty five had his monthly vacuation of blood as women have by which it seems his constitution was altogether feminine moist and cold therefore was smooth skinned having no Beard nor hair at all on his body Zacut. Obs. 102. l. 2. prax mir IX Of the many moustrnous shapes which are begot of women We may read in Winrichius Parrie Rumelinus Levinús Lemnius and divers other Physitians Phylosophers and Historians whose Testimonies and Examples I alledge not because I would be brief the cause of these Monsters cannot be the mothers imagination as most think for the imagination makes not impression on the Embryo but of such things as the mother earnestly desires as she that lusted earnestly for a rose which having with much difficulty got for it was not rose time she greedily smelled to it and laid it up in her bosome upon which the impression of a rose was made in the childs skin But what mother will lust to have a child with a dogs head or of any other monstruous shape seeing they abhor such conceptions Therefore such monstruous shapes are the effects of the formative faculty in the seed which if it be peccant either in quantity or quality or if there be any fault in the place of conception or in the menstruous blood of the mother then the formative aiming at the specifical shape but missing of it by reason of these impediments rather then it should be idle and do nothing it brings in the generical form of an animal either perfect or imperfect as the matter is disposed though I denie not the influence of the heavens but this is only a remote and universal cause X. I have read of one who had a horn grew upon his heel a foot long which being cut off did grow again and doubtless would have still renued if the tough and viscous matter which fed it had not been diverted and evacuated by issues purges and phlebotomy for when Nature hath found a passage for evacuation thither she sends the supersluities But more strange it is that children should be born with horns on their heads Of such I have read Hildanus writes that he saw a man on whose head grew a horn crooked like a rams horn in his Chirurgical observations Gent. 2. Obs. 25. The story therefore of Iupiter Amon may not be incredible CHAP. VII 1. The effects of bloud being drunk 2. Some strange diseases 3. Plica Polonica 4. Some eat poison without hurt 5. Stones in the Intestines 6. Old men become young 7. Some strange monsters I Have read of one who was poysoned with drinking bulls blood of another who grew mad by drinking of mans blood of a third who by drinking of his wiâ—es monâ—hly blood was so enamoured with his own wise that he hated in respect of her all other women some from hence have concluded that there is poyson in these creatures blood but I am not of their minde for doubtlesse if the flesh of these creatures be found and wholesome the blood out of which the flesh is made cannot be venomous 2. The blood of a Bull is grosse fibrous stopping and hard of concoction and so to weak stomacks may prove accidentally hurtful or deadly but not to a strong stomack 3. It may kill even a strong body if it be taken in too great a quantity and so may any meat and the best wines in this respect prove poisonable 4. If mans blood were poisonable then Catalin and his companions had been poisoned when they dranke mans blood at the taking of their solemne Covenant against the State as Salust shews Then Polyphemus had been poisoned by Vlisse's fellows Dum visceribus miserorum sanguine vescitur atro What will become of the Canibals 5. The menstruous blood of women is as sound as any other blood in the veins if the body be found but if it be imperfect or corrupted with malignant humours it may be poisonable but I deny that there is any such vertue in blood as to procure love this may be an illusion of Satan who delights in blood II. Strange are the diseases that some bodies are subject too I have heard of one who being troubled with a burning feaver had his veins opened out of which with the blood there slipt out a worm of a foot long another had a red spot which did rise in his foot the bredth and colour of a red rose which did now and then remove from one place to another and in what place soever it was caused an intolerable burning which could be nothing els but a scalding blood carried up and down by hot and fiery spirits of these two Zacutus speaks l. 3. and of a third whose skin grew as hard and rugged as the bark of a Tree III. Some uncouth and strange diseases have appeared in this latter age of the world not heard of heretofore one is mentioned by Rodoric Fonseca cons. 1. in his consultations called Plica Polonica because in Poland it rageth most this diseas suddenly weakneth the body curleth the hairs of the head and intangleth them so that they represent the shape of snakes and being pricked drop with blood and swarm with lice and make a loathsome smell This disease proceeds doubtless from the corruption of the aire the grosseness of the diet their frequenting of close stoves the infection of the blood and the abundance of viscous humours and grosse vapours which nature sends to the skin of the head and to the hairs I will not speak here of the Scurvy the French disease the English sweat and others too well known among us IV. Strange is the variety of tempers and constitutions among men Arnoldus de villa nova in specula c. 77 speaks of a maid who familiarly did eat spiders which sheweth that either spiders are not venomous or else her body was of the same temper that Monkies are who eat spiders But that is more strange which is mentioned by Galen l. 3. c. 18. Simpl. Of an old woman that ate Henbane plentifully without hurt it seems she had the stomach of swallows which feed upon this poisonable weed I have read of some that have
eaten Scammony others Opium others Hellebor and of some that without hurt have swallowed quick-silver that must be attributed to their particular tempers and strength of heat by which they mastered these poisons V. As stones are ingendred in the kidneys bladder and other parts so are they also sometimes bred in our intestins for there are some that void stones familiarly by the stool and I have read of one who was killed by a stone that grew stuck fast to his colon the bignesse of a ches-nut this sure must proceed from the extraordinary heat of the intestins and viscous matter impacted there for the heat baked the matter to the consistence and hardnesse of a stone by drying up the watrish moisture thereof VI. I have read of some old men and women that have becom young again that is to say after they had lost their teeth strength and beauty have recovered all at 80 or 100 years of age their veins filled with blood new teeth a fresh colour their white haires turned black and in women their monethly flowers fresh and orderly This is not unlikely for if after a fever or other great sicknesse nature recovers her lost beauty vigour colour and decayed spirits and senses why may not she doe the like in some people seeing there is not in old age a total privation of these perfections there but a decay and we may observe that many who are old weak and sickly when they are young are young lusty and healthy when they grow old VII I have read of men that have had milk in their brests which is likely if they were of a cold moist and feminine complexion abounding in blood of women also who have had four breasts all full of milk which is probable seeing there be many monsters that have superfluous members according to the superabundance of the parents seed and prolifical blood but of all monsters that which is mentioned by Buchanan in his History of Scotland is most wonderful which had beneath the navel one body but above two bodies when it was hurt beneath the navel both bodies felt the pain if hurt above the body felt only that was hurt These two would sometimes differ in opinions and quarrel the one dying before the other this pined away by degrees it lived 28 years could speak divers languages and were by the Kings command taught Musick Doubtlesse nature aimed at twins but failed in the lower part Neither was this one Individuum but two because they were two souls as appears by their different wills and it is the form not the matter that is the cause of individuation CHAP. VIII 1. Of divers and strange spleens 2. Black urine 3. One lived without sleep 4. The Tarentula's effects and cure The force of Musick 5. Serpents begot of dead brains 6. Of Tiberius his sight Alexanders sweat Strabo's eyes FAllopius in his Anatomical Observations l. 1.6 writes that he hath found three Spleens in one man Gemma in his Cosmocritick speaks of two Spleens that he found and hee writes of one who had the Spleen in the right side and the Liver in the left in l. 1. Cyclognomonick p. 75. Some have Spleens of incredible bignesse and weight others have them fastned to their breasts others loose and swimming up and down others again have had no Spleen at all and such have died of the black jaundice for the blood and skin could not but bee infected with that melancholy humour wanting the Spleen which is the proper receptacle of it II. For a man in a burning fever or one that is oppressed with melancholy humours to void black urine is no wonder but for one that is sound all the days of his life to pisse black urine as Petraeus sheweth is somewhat strange Disput. 5. de urinis num 22. But doubtless the constitution of that man was melancholick for the black colour in any thing is caused by the predominancy of earth therefore ater quasi à terra And earth is most predominant in melancholick tempers besides the watrinesse of natural heat may be the cause of black Urine III. Whereas the animal spirits and strength of our bodies are wasted by watching therefore sleep is ordained to repair and refresh the decayed strength and spirits Yet Fernelius in his Pathology lib. 5. c. 2. speaks of one who lived without sleep 14 moneths But this man was possessed with madnesse whose brain being heated with adust melancholy did beget animal spirits without much wasting of them Thus we see that hot and cholerick constitutions can endure longer without sleep then cold and moist complexions IV. The effects of the Tarentula in mens bodies are strange and various and no lesse strange is the cure for their sting and poison cause some to laugh some to weep some drowsie and stupid and some jovial and merry These divers effects must proceed from the diversities of poison that is in them for it seems these venomous creatures are not all of one kind or els these doe proceed from the different constitutions and tempers of those men that are stung with them Thus we see what different effects drunkennesse doth cause in men and so doth musick but whether this poisonable humour be cured by the musick or by their dancing and labour by which the pores are opened and the poison by sweat expelled is questionable but I think by both for even in musick there is great power over the minde and affections and consequently over the diseases and humours which are mitigated or exasperated according to the minde and affections This we see in Sauls melancholy which was cured by Davids Harp Such force there was in Timothy the Milesian that when he pleased he could by the power of his musick make Alexander take up and lay downe Arms. Not to speak of that Dane who by his musick could make men mild sad and merry at his pleasure V. That a Serpent should bee in gendred of a dead mans brain is no more impossible then for Snakes or Eels to be begot of Horse hairs or for divers sorts of beasts to breed in women upon depraved conceptions And doubtlesse as Satan in the form of a Serpent brought mortality upon mankind so he doth sometimes triumph in that shape over mans mortality God in his judgement permitting sometimes that dead brain to be turned into a Serpent which when it was alive did hatch so many Serpentine plots and imaginations VI. I read in Suetonius that Tiberius the Emperour could see perfectly in the dark And Curtius writes that Alexander did smell sweetly when he sweat I have read of men and women who can fascinate and hurt others with their eyes Pliny and Solinus write of one Strabo who from a Promontory in Sicily could see the ships that went out of the Harbour at Carthage which is 55 Leagues These are strange and rare priviledges in which God doth manifest his power and shâ—weth that he is not tied to the Laws of nature Yet
various cures sometimes it proceeds of intemperance in eating and drinking sometimes from the quality of the meat and drink we use sometimes also from the malignity of the medicament we take In some it is caused by choler in the intestine in others by flegme in others by statulency In some upon costivenesse and retention of the seces in others upon fluxes and too much evacuation In others again it is procured by the rupture of the Peritonaeum and lapse of the intestine into the Scrotum Sometimes this disease is procured by the distemper of some adjacent part sometime by stones bred in the intestines sometimes by wormes generated there sometimes by congealed blood in the same place sometimes by a wind in many it is caused by drinking cold water in others by sitting on a cold stone and in some by impure venery sometimes the malady is in the cavitiâ—s of the Colon sometimes in the tunicles and sometimes it iâ— bred by the infection of the air and sometimes by the contraction and shrinking of the intestines Thus wee see of what brittle meterials we are composed how careful we should be of our diet and how many wayes God hath to punish us for sin Like to this disease is the Iliaca passio so called from the Ilium a smaller intestine which is sometimes so violent and the obstructionâ— below so great that the excrements for want of passage downward recoil upward by vomiting Many likewise are the ways by which the Cholick is cured For besides the ordinary ways of curing by purging vomits clysters phlebotomy and outward somentations there be divers extraordinary wayes some are cured by the smoke of Tobacco used downward some have been eased by blowing of wind out of a paire of bellows into the intestine for dilatation thereof some are cured by drinking of urine some by the Wolses excrement dried and powdred and mixt with white Wine some by the Wolfs gut dried powdred and drunk with Canary or Malago others have been cured preserved by carrying about them the Wolfs excrement the flesh of a Lark either boyled or burned into ashes and so taken in three spoonfuls of warm water hath cured some The Thracians used to cure themselves of this disease by carrying about them the heart of a Lark being taken out whilst he was alive A Goats liver is commended by some for a present remedy if it be burned powdred and drunk in wine Some commend the infants navel-string being cut off salted carried in a Box. Others have found good by a hogges blind gut worn about them the decoction of Mints by some and of Horehound by others are held singular remedies so are snakes if they be burned powdred and drunk in wine Some have been eased by drinking snow and suger and by applying of cold snow to the part that was pained A Bulls pizle is commended by some for a present â—â—â—p if it be powdred a scruple whereof in Malago wine will give ease Some have been cured by drinking down quick-silver and experience shews us that swallowing of goldenor leaden bullets are present helps because with their weight they open the passages and make way I have eased my selfe of that pain by drinking white Wine in which onions have been steeped all night Thus as God hath divers ways to punish us so he hath as many wayes to ease us that very strangely for who can give a reason of those occult qualities or antipipathies which are between this malady and most of these remedies now mentioned But of this see Fracastorius Forestus Fernelius Fonseca Zacuta Rondeletius and other Physicians III. That there is the same soule in a subventaneous egge which is in a prolificall may appear by the same properties and effects in both because in both is accretion nutrition attraction retention concoction c. which are the effects of the vegetive soul yet Doctor Harvy Exercit. 25. denies this Because faith he If there were the same soule in the subventaneous which was in the prolificall egge they would both equally produce Chickins Answ. This will not follow except he could prove that the vegitive soule produceth the sensitive soule or the sensitive creature which cannot be for no soule can produce another neither can an inferior faculty produce a superior by reason the effect cannot be more noble then the cause The reason then why the subventaneous egge is not prolificall is not the want of a vegive soule which we know it hath by the effects thereof but because that egge was not animated or fecundated by the prolificall sperm feminall spirit or spermatick vapour of the Cock So the blood in a married woman and a maid hath the same vegitation though both be not prolifical for want of the mans improlificating sperm But the Doctor tells us Exercit 25. That from the male proceeds onely the plastick or formative vertue which fecundateth the egge because the seed or geniture cannot penetrate into the Hens matrix or inward receptacles Answ. The formative vertue being an accident cannot be derived or conveyed from the Cock to the Hens matrix without its proper iubject in which it is inherent And though in a dead Hen those passages or conveyances cannot appear yet in the living Hen they are open for the seminall vapour to passe For this cause in the closure of the Cocks treading there is a nimble and almost imperceptible touch of both their fundaments by which then the seminall spirit is conveyed Again the Doctor faith Exersit 25. That whereas the soule is the act of an organicall body having life potentially it is in credible that it should be in a Chick before any part â— of its body be-organized Answ. The egge is not altogether a body inorganicall actually seeing it hath different parts Besides it is organicall potentially as containing in it all the parts and members the Chick that shall bee So the seed of other animals contains potentially the animall that shall be with all its members therefore the common opinion is that seed is drawn from all parts of the body because it contains in it all the parts As the soul then is in that body which hath life potentially that is a possibility to exercise the functions of life so it is in the body that hath organs potentially or the faculty of producing organs Hence the soule cannot be in a stone which hath not this possibility Of this opinion is the Doctor Exer. 71 when he saith That in the primogeniall humidity of the egge all the parts of the chick are potentially but none actually Again he saith Exer. 25. That in the egge and chick there cannot be the same soule because they are different entities produce different yea contrary operations so that the one may seem to be begot of the others corruption Ans. I deny that the egg chick are different entities otherwise then secundum magis minus as an imperfect thing differs from it selfe when it becomes more
read in the first degree of light which is from darknesse but in the other degree which is from lesse light to more I can see to read therefore this degree of lesse light to more light as far greater then the other which was from the privative to the active He tells us 270 That in visibles there are not found objects soÌ„ odious and ingrate to the sense as in audibles thus the grating of a Saw sets the teeth on edge That there are visible objects more ingrate to the eye then audible to the ear is plan by experience in such as have swounded and fallen suddenly dead at the sight of some objects some will sweat and fall into strange passions at the sight of a Cat others at other sights Pompey's wife fell into a swound when she saw her husbands coat be sprinkled with blood Mark Antonies speech did not so forcibly work upon the Romans as the sight of Caesars bloody garment to prosecute his murtherers The phantasie is much more affected by the eye then by the ear As for the grating of a Saw by which some mens teeth are set on edge will not prove what he aimes at but onely that the teeth are thus affected by reason of that nerve of the fifth conjugation which sendeth one branch to the ear and another to the larinx and tongue as likewise there is a cartaligenous passage between the ear and palat by which the air received by the mouth is communicated to the ear Hence we stop our breath when we will hear attentively and violent sounds are evacuated by that passage which are received by the ear But when he saith 276 That there is no effect of deafnesse found in Canoniers and such like he is again mistaken For it is known that divers have lost their hearing by the noyse of Cannous and other violent sounds I knew one who grew deaf by being present at a Muster where many Muskets were discharged Again hee saith 277. That when a Skreen is put between the candle and the eye the light is seen on the paper whereon one writeth where the body of the flame is not seen But indeed neither the flame is seen because of the Skreen nor the light on the paper but the paper by the light for light is not the object which we see but by which we see it actuates the medium and makes the object visible CHAP. V. The Lord Bacons opinions refuted Of holding the breath when wee hearken Of time Of long life Of making gold Of starres Of oyl Of indisposition to motion Of death diseases and putrifaction Of stuttering Of motion after the head is off Of sympathies and antipathies of the Vine and â—olewort the Fig-tree and Rew. Of white colour Of the Oke bough in the earth Of transinutation of species Of Incubus Of grain in cold Countries Of determination and figures Of accretion and alimentation Of the period of life Of sugar leaves roots snow and putrifaction WE have shewed out of Anatomy why we hold our breath when we hearken attentively but my Lord gives a reason no way satisfactory For saith he the cause is for that in all expiration the motion is outward and therefore rather driveth away the voyce then draweth it His Lordship sayes well if we did hear by the mouth but withall he should have considered that in breathing there is inspiration as well as expiration and we hold our breath in hearing attentively that there may be no inspiration as well as expiration And indeed it must be a very weak voyce that our breath in expiration drives away The true cause then as we have shewed is the free passage of the air between the mouth and ear by means of the pipe or chanell we mentioned therefore we stay our breath rather from inspiration then expiration lest the drum in the ear be extended too much with air He saith It conduceth to long life that mens actions be free and voluntary If this were so the absolute Monarchs of the world whose words and commands are laws and who have none to controll them should be longer lived then their subjects who are forced to doe many things against their liking though not against their will for all mens actions otherwise are free and voluntary because they are men but many times we see slaves live longer then Princes He tells us That time and heat are fellows in many effects for they both are airy and liquifie Time and heat cannot be fellows in effects because time is no agent it doth not operate at all quantities work not though all things are produced in time so hony and sugar grow liquid clay and roots grow dry in time but not by time These effects are produced by the heat drinesse and moisture of the aire so that sugar waxeth not more liquid by age but by the air for keep it twenty years it will harden or soften according to the weather So it is not time that hardeneth the crum of bread but the heat of the air by drawing in insensibly its humidity and therfore it is rather Poetically spoken then Philosophically to say that time hardeneth or softnâ—th produceth or destroyeth This indeed is to put the syth into Saturns hand and to make him the father and devourer of his own children He alledgeth one cause why women live longer then men because they stir lesse But I say that men live longer then women because they stir more For by exercise the blood is warmed the pores are opened vapours are expelled concoction is helped the limbs and joynts are strengthened the naturall heat is excited the spirits and humours are refined All ages shew us that no women have ever reached to the age of some men and it stands with reason that men should be longer lived because they abound more in naturall heat which is the cause why the Northern people are longer lived then the Southern And I have observed that in the Northern parts women are more given to exercise then in the countries farther South and therefore are longer lived there then here And my Lord himselfe acknowledgeth That exercise hindreth putrifaction and rest furthers it Therefore it follows that men who exercise live longest because they are furthest from putrifaction He judgeth the work of making gold possible So have all they who have made shipwrack of their estates upon that stone which hath proved no lesse dangerous then the rocks of Malea It is not enough to judge the possibility but it must be proved either by reason or experience neither of which hath been yet done For that factitious or rather fictitious gold the Chymists brag of is as far from true gold as a painted fire is from a reall for neither can it endure the fire nor comfort the heart nor hath it any of the qualities or essentiall properties of true gold I am of Scaligers opinion that it is as easie to change a beast into a man as to