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
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
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
as Galen thinks CAP. IV. 1. What the spirits are 2. They differ in seven things 3. The Woman is only passive in generation Her Testicles Arteries c. not spermatical parts the males seed evaporates why the child resembles the parents the bloud may be called seed 4. Adeps how generated Of the Lungs they are hot 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 CAP. VI. 1. Two sorts of bloud the heart first liveth and is nourished and the original of bloud not the liver 2 The hearts action on Vena cava the cause of sanguification 3. Bloud caused by the heart 4. How every part draws 5. Heart the first principle of the nerves 6. Nerves how instruments of sense and motion 7. The same nerves serve for sense and motion CHAP. VII 1. How the spirits pass through the nerves their swift and various motions even in sleep motion and sense not still together 2. Sense and motion in phrensies epilepsies leprosies caros 3. Muscles how when and where the causes of voluntary motion 4. How the fibres and tendons move the muscles 5. The muscles of the tongue abdomen diaphragma ribs bladder 6. The organs of tact its medium CHAP. VIII 1. Bloud milk c. No integral parts 2. How the parts draw their aliment 3. And expel things hurtful 4. Of the intestines and faeces 5. The intestines retentive faculty 6. Of the stomach and its appetite or sense 7. Whether the stomach is nourished by Chylus or bloud CHAP. IX 1. The Livers heat inferiour to that of the Stomachs 2. Of the natural Spirits in the Liver and how it is cherished by air 3. Of the Gall and how it is nourished How the Choler is conveyed to it of its two passages and one membrane CHAP. X. 1. The use of the Gall and Spleen its obstructions its Veins and Arteries without concavity 2. Vas venosum 3. How the Spleen purgeth it self 4. The Veins and its humours 5. Why the stone causeth vomiting and numbness in the thigh 6. The bladder its attraction and expulsion CHAP. XI 1. The Heart and Testieles how the noblest parts Generation without Testicles they corroborate the Heart their sympathy with the breast 2. And with the brain 3. Different vessels in the Male and Female 4. The Matrix sympathizeth with the Head Heart Breasts c. 5. Affected with smells It s twofold motion CHAP. XII 1. Distinction of sexes the male hotter then the female 2. The seed no part nor aliment of the body derived from all parts how 3. The menstruous bloud no excrement how it is The cause of the small pox Its evacuaâ—ion 4. The uses of the matrix 5. It s vitiosity the cause of Monsters Mola what CHAP. XIII 1. The Heart liveth first not the Liver 2. The outward membranes first formed by the heat of the matrix 3. Vrachos what 4 The similitudeâ— of the parents on the children 5. Twins how bâ—got and why like each other 6. Infants how fed in the matrix 7. Supersetation 8. No respiration in the matrix 9. The Childs heart moveth in the matrix CHAP. XIV 1. Child-bearing how caused 2. Why the eight months birth not lively 3. The sensitive Soul how derived and the reasonable introduced when it exerciseth its functions it brings with it all its perfections The Embryo not capable of three specifical forms CHAP. XV. 1. Why about the fourth month milk is engendred and of what 2. The effects of the Diaphragma inflamed 3. Pericardium 4. The Hearts Flesh Fibres and Ventricles 5. The Heart why hot and dry 6. The vital faculty 7. The vital spirits how ingendred 8. Systole and Diastole 9. The Hearts motion 10. How caused CHAP. XVI 1. The Lungs how moved the air is not the spirits nutrimeâ—t 2. Respiration not absolutely necessary 3. The Lungs hot and moist 4. Respiration a mixed motion as that of the bladder and intestins 5. No portion of our drink passeth into the Lungs CHAP. XVII 1. All the senses in the brain 2. How made for refrigeration only how hot cold and moist and why its actions 3. How void of sense and motion 4. The animal spirits what and how begot 5. Why more vital then animal spirits where perfected and prepared the ventricles of the brain CHAP. XVIII 1. The eye both watrish and fiery imperfect vision 2. Why the eye is watrish its action spirits and species 3. Spirits of the eye proved two eyes but one motion why the object appears double sometimes no colours in the eye 4. The optick nerves soft where united and why 5. The Chrystalline and glassy humours and white of the eye CHAP. XIX 1. Five things required to hearing 2. Not the real but intentional sound is heard Hearing fails last in drowned men 3. The innate air no organ of hearing no spirit or part of the body 4. The caus of the sympathy between the ear and the mouth CHAP. XX. 1. How wee excell the beasts in smelling Wee smell realâ— odours 2. Smells nourish not 3. The nose not the brain is the organ of smelling CHAP. XXI 1. Wherein consists the organ of tast The tongue potentially moist no external medium of tast 2. How the skin is the medium of taste The prime qualities both objects and agents No creature without tact It is most exquisite in man Tact and taste different CHAP. XXII 1. The use of the common sense It is but one sense The different judgement of this sense and of the soul. How different from other senses It s in the brain and heart 2. Imagination or fantasie what disturbed compoundeth The Estimative It s work and seat 3. Memory how a sense It is twofold Reminiscence what Old men and childrens memories LIB III. A Refutation of Doctor BROÌ„WNS Vulgar Errors CHAP. I. 1. Of Eels voided by a maid and of other strange generations 2. A woman voided in three days six quarts of milk 3 Of women who have eat mens flesh 4. Of women that have lived some years without food 5 Of one that lived some years without a brainâ— another without a Spleen Of one that lived with a knife in her skull 6. Of some that have swallowed knives glasses c. 7. Of some shot in the forehead and the bullet found in the hinder part of the skull CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fought after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie while we are alive 6. Worms in the brain 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
not drawn in by the Kidneys but sent thither by the veins neither is the liquefaction of the solid parts in a Hectick sent by the veins being weakned nor drawn in by the reins being against nature but of it self is conveyed thither thorough the capacious vessels V. Such a sympathy there is between the stomach and the reins by reason of the nerves common to both and of the outward tunicle of the reins arising from the Peritonaeum which is joyned to the bottom of the stomach that in fits of the stone we are troubled with vomiting 2. By reason of the muscle on which the Kidneys lean which muscle is inserted in the inward part of the thigh and by reason of the nerves inserted in that muscle which nerves are pressed by the hardnesse of the stone in the Kidneys we find a stupidity or numbnesse in the thigh in fits of the stone VI. The Bladder draws the urine to it not to be fed by the urine for it is fed by blood as appears by its veins but that it may retain it till by its quantity or quality it grow offensive and then it is sent away which action both of retention and emission is partly natural partly animal as the urine is retained by the oblique fibres of the bladder it is natural as it is retained by the muscle sphincter it is animal so as it is expelled by the faculty of the bladder this action is natural but as it is expelled by the muscles of the Abdomen the action is animal CHAP. XI 1. The Heart and Testicles how the noblest parts Generation wâ—â—hout Testicles they corroborate the Heart their sympathy with the breast 2. And with the brain 3. Different vessels in the Male and Female 4. The Matrix sympathizeth with the Head Heart Breasts c. 5. Affected with smells It s twofold motion ARistotle will have the Heart Galen the Testicles to be the noblest parts of mans body both are in the right for if we consider the individual person the Heart is the noblest part but if the propagation of the Species the Testicles have the prerogative for without them there can be no generation in perfect creatures 2. The Testicles are not of such absolute necessity for propagation of the Species as the Heart is for conservation of the individuum For divers creatures as Fishes do propagate without Testicles 3. The Testicles as Aristotle affirms truly were not made only or principally for generation but for corroboration of the Heart by a secret sympathy and communication of spermatical spirits and heat therefore Eunuchs lose much of their vigour courage and masculine heat 4. By means of the Nerves Veins and Arteries there is a great communication between the breast and the parts contained in it and the testicles for oftentimes the tumor of the testicles end in a cough and so the cough sometimes ends into the Testicles And hence it is that the voice begins to grow big and hoarse in young men as soon as they begin to have puberty and seed because the heat of the Testicles increasing dilates the passages of the brest and wind-pipe II. As there is a great sympathy between the seminal vessels and the brest so there is between them and the brain hence it is that imagination of venereal objects causeth erection and upon the exuberance of seed there arise lascivious imaginations 2. Erection is partly animal in respect of the muscles the imagination and delight and partly natural in respect of flatulency heat and seminal spirits which cause distension and of the natural end which is procreation III. The vessels of generation in the male and female are not the same as some have thought supposing they differ only in scituation the one being inward the other outward which is not so for they differ in figure number and scituation as may be seen in Anatomies Therefore these stories which tell us of maids turned into boyes are false and ridiculous except they mean Hermaphrodites in which are the vessels of both sexes which are not discerned while they are young because of the weakness of heat in them so at first some young boyes have been taken for maids because the yard and testicles for want of heat have not appeared outward IV. Such a sympathy and combination there is between the matrix and the head by reason of the nerves that when the matrix is ill-affected the head and brains are ill-disposed and oftentimes the sensitive animal and motive faculties are overthrown hence convultions stupidities and strange disturbances of the imagination 2. By reason of the arteries such a sympathy there is between the heart and the matrix that swouning fits and suffocation with a cessation of pulse and respiration follow upon the distemper of the matrix 3. Such a consent there is between the matrix and brests of women that sometimes blood hath flowed from the breasts instead of milk and milk hath been voided downward instead of blood 4. By reason of the consent between the liver and the matrix the veins and matrix the bladder and the matrix the evil disposition of this is the cause of distempers and diseases in them V. The matrix is much affected with smels not that the sense of smelling is there which is in the brain but because of the consent that is between the matrix and the membranes of the brain they being both of the same substance and because with the smell the thin vapors are conveyed thither on which the spirits are fed 2. Sometimes abortions are caused by bad smels because the maternal spirits which the child attracteth by the umbilical arteries are infected 3. Sweet smels do cause in some women histerical passions because they stir up the pernitious vapors that lay lurking in the matrix which vapors are conveyed by the arteries to the diaphragma heart and brain whereas by stinking smels nature is stirred up to the expulsion both of them and withall of the naughty humors in the matrix 4. There is a two-fold motion of the matrix the one is natural by its straight and circular fibres so it is moved downward towards the reception of the seed and expulsion of the childe and secundine the other motion is convulsive proceeding from too much inanition or repletion and sometimes of venomous vapours whence are suffocations and want of respiration the diaphragma being pressed CHAP. XII 1. Distinction of sexes the male hotter then the female 2. The seed no part nor aliment of the body derived from all parts how 3. The menstruous bloud no excrement how it is The cause of the small pox Its evacuation 4. The uses of the matrix 5. It s vitiosity the cause of Monsters Mola what I. AS nature hath appointed generation for continuing of the species so it hath appointed distinction of sexes aiming as well at the female as the male and not at the male alone as some think who would make the female an imperfect thing 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
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
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
is not Mandrakes because it is by the Chaldee Paraphrast interpreted in the Canticles Balsam for all Interpreters upon Genesis expound the word Mandrakes Nor 3 Is that sequel good the Mandrakes did not make Rachel fruitful in three years after therefore they did her no good at all in way of secuâ—dity for the best Physick doth not produce the wished effect always in a short space sometimes the contumacy of the disease somtimes the mis application sometimes the difusing of the remedy somtimes bad diet besides other things may hinder the operation Nor 4. Is this consequence valid Many Simples in Scripture are differently interpretâ—d Ergo the word Dudaim may not signifie Mandrakes I answer they may signifie as wel as they may not nay they do signifie Mandrakes as both the Hebrew Greek Latine Italian Spanish French English and other Texts have it besides the general consent of Expositors upon that place except the Genevans who would seem to be singular in this and therefore will have the word Dudaim to signifie any lovely or delightful fruit but then it may signifie Mandrakes which are every way lovely both in smell and colour and lovely they are in that they procure love for they have been used for Philters And what a weak reason is this Dudaim signifieth any pleasant fruit therefore it is a doubt whether it signifieth Mandrakes As if wee should say Pomum signifies any kind of fruits therefore it may be doubted whether it signifieth an Apple To be brief I would know whether it be a greater error in me to affirm that which is doubted by some or in him to deny that which is affirmed by all But to return to our aliments there are in them two things strange first that they are opposite to our natures both privately in that they have not our form and positively in that they have a contrary form as we see in marrow which is the aliment of the bones the one being soft and moist the other hard and dry and if it were not so there could be no action But this is to be understood before assimilation for afterward the same becomes both our aliment in repairing what is lost and a part of our bodies in assuming the form of our substance which is no lesse strange then the other III. Zacuta de Prax. mir l. 3. Obs. 139. reports a strange story of a Maid which fell into convulsion fits upon the pricking of her Image by Witches and their whispering of some magick words to it the Physitians were sent for they supposing these fits to proceed from some malignant vapour or humour in the Matrix gave her physick which made her worse then before hereupon they left her concluding that she was bewitched Afterward she fell to vomiting of black stuffe mingled with hairs thorns and pins and a lump like an egge which being cut was full of Emmets which stunk horribly at last she vomited out a black hairy creature as big as ones fist with a long tail and in shape like a Rat which ran up and down the room a while and then died Upon this a Wizard is called who by whispering some words in the maids ear and by shaving of her head on which she put a piece of white paper having these two letters written on it T.M. did withal lay on her head an Asâ—es hoof half burned and so the Maid recovered I observe here 1. That there might be much â—uggling in this business for there is no relation or sympathy in nature between a man and his effigies that upon the pricking of the one the other should grow sick no more then there is between the sword and the wound that the dressing of the one should be the curing of the other This is a fancy without ground and yet believed by som whose faith is too prodigall I think rather that after the Maid fell sick these Jugglers made her Image and then pricked it so that the wounding of the Image did not make the maid sick but her sicknesse made both the Image and the wounds therein 2. This vomiting also might be an illusion for I have seen in Holland the like forgery It was given out that a maid in Leyden did vomit buttons pins hairs peblestones and such stuffe and I went and saw the materials but it was found out that the parents had first made her swallow these things in meat and then presently forced her to vomit all up again 3. These convulsions and vomited stuffe might be meerly natural without any Witchcraft for we have seen what strange sorts of vermin are bred in mans body and voided by purging vomiting and boils what unshapen and monstrous creatures have been produced by some women Parry tells us l. 25. de monstris of a Monster with an horn on his head two wings a childes face one foot onely like a birds leg with one eye on the knee born at Ravenna 1512. Lemnius speaks of a woman that was his patient l. 1. de mir c. 8. who first was delivered of an unshapen masse of flesh having on both sides two hands like a childs arms and shortly after there fell from her a Monster with a crooked snout a long neck fiery eyes a sharp tail and mans feet which ran up and down the room making an horrible schrieching till it was killed by the women I could speak of that German childe in whose head grew a golden tooth and of many other strange effects of nature but these may suffice to let us see all is not Witchcraft which is so called 4. This imaginary cure of the Wizard was effected after the humours were spent and the malignity of this disease gone at that time a piece of paper or a straw may doâ— more then all the sons of AEsculapius but had the Wizard used this spell in the beginning of the disease it had done the maid no good at all when nature hath mastered a disease that which is last applied be it but a chip carrieth away the honour of the remedy 5. The maids imagination might be a great help towards her recovery the force whereof is powerful both for curing and procuring of diseases Montague in his Essays l. 1. ca. 21. tells us of one with whom the Clyster pipe applied to the fundament would work as well as if he had taken the Clyster it self And he speaks of a woman who imagining she had swallowed a pin as she was eating a piece of bread cried out of a great pain in her throat and a pricking when there was no such thing but her own imagination nor could shee have any rest till she had vomited up all in her stomach then searching the bason she found a pin which the Physitian had conveyed â—hither and so the same conceit that brought the pin removed it IV. In some Regions men live longer then in others because the aire is more temperate the influence of the stars more benigne and the food wholesomer by which
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 tenth of any thing was not counted the greatest but the greatest of any things was called by the name of Tenth because that is the first perfect number as consisting of 1 2 3 and 4. It was also held a sacred number therefore the tenth of spoils was dedicated to Hercules and from him called Herculan the tenth of fruits was paid by the Corinthians to Cyphelus their King by Cyrus to Iupiter by the Arabians to Sabis and long before by Abraham and Iacob to the true God When there was yet no positive law but the law of Nature In the number then of Ten the Ancients conceived there was perfection and excellencie For Nature perfects man and brings him into the world the tenth moneth she hath parted his hands into ten fingers his feet into ten toes she hath given him ten passages for evacuation in three ten dayes the male child is formed in the womb in foure ten dayes the female there be ten Heavens they made up their musick of ten strings their year of ten moneths Apollo with the nine Muses made up the full consort they used to drink but ten times in their Feasts the womans Dowry anciently was ten Sestertia at least and the greatest ordinarily decies Sestertium that is ten hundred thousand pounds of our money 7812. l. 10. s. Many other observations may be made of this number therefore any thing that was greater then another was called Decumanum Porta decumana was the great gate of the Camp Limes decumanus in grounds was from East to West decumana pyra in Pliny are great Pears Decumatio was the calling forth of every tenth delinquent in an Army for punishment And Lipsius thinks that from them the great gate of the Camp out of which they went was called Decumana This number also of Ten is musical in Scripture as may be seen in divers passages thereof Now whereas he saith That the Greeks expresse the greatest wave by the number of three as their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shewes This he hath from Erasm us in his Adagies but I think the word is not from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three but from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I fear so this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the third wave but the most terrible greatest wave Hence the Latin Decumanus should be rendred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. XVI 1. Epicurus a wicked and wanton man impious in his opinions Seneca's judgement of him 2. Twelve of his impious and absurd opinions rehearsed THe Doctor is very prodigall of his pitie when he cries out Who can but pitie the vertuous Epicurus who is commonly conceived to place his chiefe felicity in pleasure and sensual delights c. But these pleasures were of the mind not of the body Gassendus indeed hath taken much needlesse pains to vindicate Epicurus from his errors and impiety but in this he washeth a Brick or Blackmore his chiefe supporter is Diogenes Laertius an obscure Authour in former times for no ancient Writer speaks of him and he cites more Philosophers then it's thought he ever read This Laertius lived 450. years after Epicurus that is in the time of Antonius pius about 150. years after Christ whereas Epicurus lived almost 300. years before our Saviour Now how he should come to know more of Epicurus then those Philosophers who were contemporary with him even his own disciples who writ the life and doctrine of that wanton garden Philosopher is a thing to be questioned and to indifferent men improbable For whatsoever Gassendus out of this Laertius writes of his commendations yet we find in the writings of ancient Philosophers among the Gentiles and primitive Doctors among the Christians that he was a man lewd in his conversation and monstrous in his opinions so that ever since he opened his Schoole till this day a wanton Atheist is called an Epicure Sine vano publica fama Sure there could not be so much smoke without some fire and to say that his contemporary Philosophers chiefly the Stoicks should out of malice write untruths of him is very improbable For to what end should they doe so And why more against him then any other Besides if he was innocent why did he not vindicate his own reputation by writing Why did not his Scholars stand up in his defence how came it that in almost five hundred years he was branded by the tongues and pens of all men and no man all that while stood up to cleare his reputation till Diogines Laertius produced three of his Epistles which wise men may think to be fictitious and the rather because they contradict what his own Scholars and ancient Philosophers have recorded of him For Timecrates his beloved Disciple and one whom he made one of the Executors of his last will writes that with excesse of eating and drinking he used to vomit twice a day And Laertius himself is forced to confesse that he killed himselfe in the Bath with drinking too much sweet wine and so he shewed himselfe to be Epicurus indeed He was so decrepid the later part of his life that for many yeares together he could not rise out of his chaire he had so enervated his body with pleasures wherein he placed his felicity Is this the Doctors vertuous Epicurus who spent every day a Mina vvhich was an hundred Drachma's that is 3. l. 2. s. 6. d. every Drachma being 7. d. ob I confesse onely Seneca among the Stoicks speaks favourably of Epicurus his opinion concerning pleasure as if he meant of mentall delights lib. 1. de vit beat yet withall checks him shewing that his commending of pleasure was pernitious because voluptuous men upon this took occasion to hide their luxury in the bosome of Philosophy and to cover their wantonnesse with the patrociny and mantle of pleasure Therefore elsewhere he calls him The Master of pleasure and one who too much yeelded to the delights of the body Seneca therefore by speaking favourably of Epicurus would keep off voluptuous men from making him their patron of sensual pleasures and was loath that the sacred name of Philosophy should be bespattered by such an impious professor His intention in this was good but yet truth should take place Neither doth the honour of a holy profession depend upon the quality of the professor though wicked Iudas vvas an execrable Apostle yet the Apostolicall function is sacred But perhaps it may be objected That Epicurus did oftentimes use to fast and content himself with bread and water I answer That there is a pleasure sometimes in fasting as well as in feasting the nature of man delights in change if it were not for abstinence sometimes we should not know the delight of fulnesse darknesse commends the pleasure of light and Winter adds to the delights of Summer There is a vvearisomnesse in continuall feasting which takes away pleasure therefore Epicurus to maintain an alternate vicissitude of delights would interchangeably
for him to affirm that which he could never prove For neither doth he shew what these fishes be nor what are these instruments nor though there were such can he prove that they breath by them And though some creatures have an humor in stead of blood yet that humor hath not the properties qualities nor office of the blood Object 7. Fishes gape therefore they breath Answ. Here is no sequell for Oysters gape which breath not and many creatures breath which gape not Again if with their gaping there were any breathing we should see saith Aristotle the breathing parts move but there is no motion at all and it is impossible there should be attraction and emission of the air without motion Besides if Fishes breathed we should see some bubbles on the water when their breath went out as in breathing animals when they die in the water It is true that lunged fishes such as Dolphins Whales Seals and Frogges make bubbles because they breath which will not prove that all fishes do so And yet there be other causes of bubbling besides expiration for rains tempests vapours or any agitation of the water will cause bubbling Object 8. The Moon gives increment to shell-fishes therefore their spirits also do increase Answ. It 's true if they speak of the animall and vitall spirits but what is this to breathing the subject whereof is the air and not those innate spirits and if increment of substance doth suppose respiration then trees must breath as they grow in bignesse And although the Moon causeth humid bodies to swell yet she doth not make the air by which we breath being a part of the Universe Object 9. Fishes doe smell and hear therefore they breath because air is the matter of all three Answ. Air indeed may be called the matter of breathing but not of hearing and smelling it is not the air we smell or hear but we smell the odors and hear the sounds in the air which is therefore properly called by Philosophers the Medium not the matâ—er of hearing and smelling And as the air is to us so the water is to fishes the medium of hearing and smelling And if it be the matter of breathing to fishes then it is not air but water which they breath whereas indeed water cannot be the subject or matter of breathing nor can they breath at all which want the organs of breath Object 10. No animall can live without respiration therefore fishes breath Answ. The antecedent is denied for many animals live without respiration onely by transpiration such are insects so doth the child in the matrix so do women in their histericall passions these breath not yet they live Object 11. Pliny tells us that fishes do sleep therefore they breath Answ. Breathing hath no relation to sleep it is neither the effect nor cause nor quality nor part nor property nor consequent of sleep for some animals sleep which breath not all that time as Dormice in Winter the child in the mothers womb breathes not as having in the matrix or membran within which he lieth no air at all but a watrish humor which if he should suck in by the lungs he would be presently suffocated yet at that time the chid sleepeth There is no community at all in the subject or organ of sleep and respiration nor in their natures the one being a rest or cessation the other a motion the one consisting in the senses within the head the other in the lungs breast and Diaphragma Again respiration consists rather in the actions of life and sense which accompany waking then in sleep which resembles death Respiration is for refrigeration of the heart which is more heated by the motions of the body whilst we are awake then by rest when we are asleep therefore men that walk labour run struggle or whose heart is heated by anger or Feavers breath much faster then in sleep as standing more in need of air for refrigeration So children because of their heat breath faster then old men Therefore we concludeâ—with Aristotle that fishes which want lungs throats have gills breath not for what needed lungs to draw in air seeing Nature hath given them gills to let in water for cooling the fishes hear which is but weak because they have little blood II. That some small fishes have been found on hills farre from the Sea is verified by divers as also that sometimes fishes are digged out of the earth which we may call Fossil to distinguish them from aquatile is recorded by grave and ancient Writers But I believe that these are not true fishes but rather terrestriall creatures resembling fishes in their outward shape for as many fishes resemble terrestriall animals which are not therefore properly terrestriall so many terrestriall creatures may resemble fishes which properly are not such or else where these Fossil fishes are found there are subterraneall waters not farre off by which they are conveyed thither Hence sometimes fishes have been found in deep wells and I have read of some fishes found in springs of sulphury and allum water for otherwise fishes can no more live in the earth then earthy creatures in the water seeing nothing can live out of its own element where it hath its originall food and conservation Or lastly these land fishes have been such as have fallen out of the clouds For I have read in good Authors of divers showers or rains of fishes and of Frogs and Mice and such like animals out of the clouds III. That Fishes in Moon-shine nights chiefly when she is in the full delight to play upon the superficies of the water is plain by fishermen who take greatest quantities of them then The cause of this may be the delight that fishes take in the light or else they finde some moderate heat in the superficies of the water when the Moon is full but I rather think it is the pleasure they take in the Moon light which gives a silver brightnesse to the water and Natâ—re hath given them a quick sight and eminent eyes whereas the senses of smelling and hearing are in them yet the organs are so obscure they cannot be found and albeit they have all the senses yet they are dumb for they make no sound at all because they breath not nor have they the organs of sounding such as the throat windpipe and lungs IV. That some fishes resemble men in their faces hands and other parts is no fable for such are not only recorded by the ancients but also have been seen by late Navigators Lerius saw none of them yet relates that an American fisherman cut off the hand from one of those fishes which did offer to get into his boat the hand had five distinct fingers like ours and in his face he resembled a man Scaliger writes that one of those sea-men or men-fishes was seen by Hierom Lord of Noâ—icum which laid hold on the cable of his ship this story he related as a truth
this Tract the Doctor seemes sometimes to be in earnest and sometimes to speak-problematically or rather doubtfully But however this opinion cannot consist with reason for what can be more unreasonable then that the Noblest Animals should be conceived without any sensible corporeall Agent by meere imagination not of the brain but of the Womb For 1. If this be true that the Female can thus conceive and generate what need was there of the Male they are then uselesse in generation and fathers have no reason to provide for their wives children seeing the woman is the sole parent the man but a Cypher Why should there be any lawes against adultery and fornication seeing there can be no such sins If this doctrine be true what miracle was it for a virgin to conceive and bear a Son without the help of man seeing this is ordinary for the female as the Doctor faith to be prolificall without any sensible corporeall agents for the seed he saith is not received within the matrix But if I should grant him this which cannot be true yet he cannot deny but that the seminal vapour and prolificall spirit is conveyed thither by which the female is made pregnant if he grants this then there is a sensible corporeall agent though not so grosse as the earthy part of the seed If he deny this then it will follow that we are all produced without fathers and that there is no other sensible corporeall agent but the womb and so the fifth Commandement of honoring father should be put out seeing there is no such thing in nature Again if he saith there is no agent then it will follow that the effect can be produced without an efficient and an action without an actor If he he saith there is an agent but not corporeall then that agent must be either a spirit or an accident if a spirit then we are all the children of spirits not of corporeall parents and so man cannot have for his genus a corporeall substance And these spirits if created must be either Angels Demons or Souls which was the dreams of some ancient Hereticks long since condemned by Councels If again he saith that these agents are not spirits but accidents he will make us in a worse condition For man the Noblest of all creatures is the child of an accident therefore Aristotle should have placed man in the Categorie of quality rather then of substance But we know that no accident is operativ◠but in and by the power of the principall agent Neither can an accident be conveyed into the womb without the subject in which it is inherent and therefore Iron touched without the Loadstone cannot draw Iron if the substance of the Loadstone were not imparted to it Hence we see that as the substance of the Loadstone in the Iron decayes so the vertue of attraction decayes likewise Again when he saith that the substance of the womb is like the constitution of the brain he speaks very improperly for neither is the substance of the one like the substance of the other the one being white spermatical and cold the other red sanguineal and hot nor can the substance of the one be like the constitution of the other these being indifferent predicaments between which there is no similitude nor is the constitution of the one like unto the constitution of the other as being of different temperaments and having different uses and suppose they were either of the same substance or constitution it will not follow that therefore they must have the same function The stomach and guts have the same substance and constitution so hath the brain and pith in the back bone yet they have not the same functions Again when he saith that what the fantasm or appetite is in the brain the same or its analogy is excited in the womb for the functions of both are called conceptions He speaks more improperly then before for he seems to make the fantasm and appetite one thing and to be both resident in the brain whereas the appetite is the inclination of the will and hath its residence in the heart the fantasm is the imaginary or fictitious object of the fantasie which this internal sense residing in the brains represents to it self neither of these is excited in the womb nor any thing like it for the womb is neither the seat of the fantasie nor hath it fit organs for it nor is it the seat of appetite except by this word he understands an inclination to conception or generation neither again is this a valid reason that because the functions of the womb and brain are called conceptions therefore they are the same for the conception of the womb is far different from that of the brain neither do they agree but equivocally and in name onely so this word conception is ascribed to the action of understanding Lastly though we can produce upon stone or timber or such like matter some shape or form like that Idea in our brain yet it will not follow that the species of the father in the womb can produce the like brood for I deny that the species or idea of the father is in the womb but in the brain this not that being the proper fea◠of the fantasie which receiveth the species from the common sense and the imagination doth not alwayes work upon the seed or embryo nor doeth it produce any form it onely worketh sometimes and produceth but the accidental form whereas ordinarily both the essential and accidental forms are produced by the formative power of the seed or rather by the soul it self which fabricates its own mansion which soul lay potentially in the seed and is excited by the heat or rather innate property of the matrix To conclude it is as great absurdity to affirm that the female can be made pregnant by conceiving a general immateral idea as it was by some of the ancients to think that the Spanish Mares could as Aristotle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceive or be made pregnant by the Western wind and as the Poets saith Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis Exceptantque leves auras saepe sine ullis Conjugiis vento gravidae mirabile dictu The like fabulous impregnations we read of in Ravens by the north winde and in Partrages by bare imagination CHAP. IV. 1. My Lord Bacon's opinion confuted concerning the French disease 2. Concerning the expulsion of pellets out of guns 3. Of the wax candle burning in spirit of wine 4. Of the parts most nutritive in animals 5. Of the spirits in cold bodies 6. Of air fire water oyl whiteness the hands and feet 7. Of souls and spirits 8. Of visible objects and hearing 9. Of sounds and musick 10. Of singing birds descending species light 11. Ingrate objects and deafness with other passages HAving lighted lately upon two books the one of Doctor Harvie's De generatione animalium wherein he proves that all animals have their
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