answer so can the body move after the head is off as wee see in Poultry This motion then excludes neither the head nor heart from being originals for it is caused by the remainder of the spirits which are left in the nerves and arteries As for the Apoplexy I take it to bee an affection not of the brains alone but of the nerves also VI. The common opinion is that the nerves are the instruments of sense and motion and yet we see sense and motion where there are no nerves for in every part of the body there are not nerves and yet every part feels and moves this sense and motion must needs proceed from the spirits in the blood which is in every part of the flesh and skin where there are no veins If it be replyed that upon the obstruction or binding of the nerve sense and motion fail I answer the like failing there is of sense and motion when the arteries called Carotides are bound up for as the animal spirits will not work without the vital neither will the spirits in the blood and flesh work if they fail which are in the nâ—rves such is the union amongst them that this failing all action ceaseth VII Seeing the sensitive and motive Spirits differ not specifically there is no need why wee should assign different nerves to sense and motion for the same neve serves to both it is true that there be some hard some soft nerves because some have their original from the soft brain and some from the harder pith of the baek bone and that the soft nerve is fittest fâ—r sense which consisteth in reception for soft things are aptest to receive impressions as the hard nerve is fittest for motion which consisteth in action therefore the same nerve conveyeth sense to all parts capable of sense and motion to the parts apt to be moved Hence the nerves inserted in the muscles move them but the nerves inserted into the mouth of the stomach moves it not bâ—cause the stomach hath no muscles yet it communicates to it an exquisite sense 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 I. ALTHOUGH the nerves are not sensibly pervious as the Veines and Arteries are which were purposely made hollow for the passage of the venal and arterial blood yet the animall spirits being subtil and sublimated bodies can freely passe through the soft and spungy substance thereof as wel as sweat through the pores of the skin 2. Though in the Palsie the animal spirits cannot passe through the thick clammy and glassy flegme which by reson of its coldnesse deads the spirits which without the natural heat have no vigour or motion yet they can freely passe through the nerves by help of the native heat 3. Though the spirits by reason of their specifical form or aeriâ—l nature should only move upward yet as they are instruments of the soul they move which way the soul will have them move 4. Though no grosse body can move in an instant yet their spirits can being moved by the soul immediatly and being such sublimate and subtil bodies that they come neer to the nature of spirits 5. Though in sleep the senses are tied up yet there is ofteâ—times motion as we see in those that walk and talk in their sleep and yet feel not because the fore ventricles of the brain are affected in which is the common sense so is not the pith in the back from which the most of the motory nerves have their original 6. In one and the same nerve oft-times motion faileth and the sense remaineth because more spirits are required and greater force for motion being an action then for sense which consisteth in reception or passion 7. Sense doth sometimes fail the motion remaining sound when the nervous branches which are inserted into the skin are hurt or ill-affected at the same time the nerves inserted into the muscles may be sound II. In phrensies the motion is strong but the sense weak because the braines being inflamed the nerves are heated and dried therefore fitter for motion but the lesse apt for sense which requireth a soft nerve 2. In the falling sickness sense faileth but not motion because the fore ventricles of the brain being ill-affected the common sense is intercepted but the pith of the back bone from whence the most nerves are derived is not hurt therefore motion not hindred 3. In leprosies the sense is dulled but not the motion because the nerves and skin are dried by which sense is hindred but not motion 4. In a deep sleep or Caros there is respiration without sense because the fore-part of the brain is hurt but not the nerves and muscles of the breast 5. Oftentimes the eye loseth its sight but not its motion because the optick nerve by which we see is not the same with the nerves by which the eye is moved III. All spontaneous motions are caused by the spirits in the brains nerves and muscles in the creatures that have them but where these organs are not the animal spirits move the body without them as we see in worms 2. All muscles are not the organs of voluntary motion for the three little muscles within the ears move them not to hear when we please for many times wee hear what wee would not 3. In those parts where there be nerves without muscles there is no voluntary motion because the nerves convey only the spirits which the muscles receive and by them immediately move the body 4. Respiration in sleep is a natural not a voluntary motion caused notwithstanding by the muscles of the breast 5. Sleep-walkers are moved by the muscles which motion then cannot be voluntary for the walker hath not knowledge of his walking or of the end thereof 6. Beasts are moved by their muscles which motion in them cannot be called voluntary but spontaneous onely IV. All muscles have not tendones but such as are appointed for a strong and continual motion hence the muscles of the tongue bladder and anus have no tendones 2. The muscle is moved not onely by the nerves and tendones but also by the fibres within its own fleshy substance and indeed the fibrous flesh is the chief instrument of spontaneous motion and where they are wanting there is no such motion Hence it is that beasts can move their skins which men cannot because beasts skins adhere close to a fibrous substance whereas that of mans is nervous onely the skin of the face in us is movable because musculous and fibrous V. Though the substance of the tongue be not a musculous or fibrous flesh yet it receiveth its divers
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
fire truly black brimstone causeth blackness 4. Philoxenus a glutton and his wish not absurd How long necks conduce to modulation THe Inundation of Nilus saith the Doctor proceeds from the rains in AEthiopia This I deny not because averred by Diodorus Seneca Strab◠Herodotus Pliny Solinus and others both ancient and modern Writers and it stands with reason for the Springs of Nilus are neere the Tropick of Capricorn where it is winter when the Sun is with us in Cancer then doth it rain abundantly in that Southern climat for though within the Tropicks the Suns vicinity causeth rains yet without his distance is the occasion thereof His melting of snow upon the Hils of AEthopia is a cause of this inundation But Scaliger denies that there is any snow at all yet I doe not think the high mountains there should be lesse subject to snow then in Peru under the line although the people in the low Countries thereof be black and the windes in the vallies warm The third cause of Nilus overflowing are the Etesiae or northerly windes which blow there every yeare when the Sunne is in Cancer This winde blowing into the mouth of Nile keeps it from running into the Mediterranean sea Scaliger refutes this reason because at the same time the river Nigir which runs into the Western Ocean overflows his banks but to this I can easily answer That at the same time there be different Etesi◠or constant windes in different regions of the world so that whilst the North wind blows against Nilus the West or Southwest which also as Acosta saith is predominant upon the coast of Peru blowes against Nigir As for the original of Nilus it hath been still held uncertain Pliny writes that King Iubia found out the springs thereof in the Mauritanian Mountains but since this river hath been found as far as the lake Zaire which is in ten degrees of Southerly latitude The AEgyptian Sultan did spare neither for men nor cost to search out these springs but could not find them therefore Virgil calls these streams of Nilus Latebrosa flumina Herodotus witnesseth that neither AEgyptian Grecian nor African could resolve him any thing of Nilus springs Hence in Homer Nilus is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is falling or descending from Iupiter because God onely knew the original of this river The Doctor book 7. c. 11. will not question the metamorphosis of Lots wife whether she were transformed into a reall statue of salt though some conceive that expression metaphoricall That the expression is not metaphorical but the transformation real is manifest by the testimonies of the Rabbins by the Thargum of Jerusalem by the best expositers by Iosephus and Borchardus in whose times that statue of Salt was yet extant besides divers reasons doe evince the same For it was as easie for God to turn her body into a salt Pillar as to turn Moses rod into a Serpent Nilus into blood Nebuchadnezzar into a beast 2. We see daily transformations in generation and in our own nutrition 3. Nature can transform mens flesh into Worms Calves flesh into Bees Horses and Asses flesh into Wasps and Hornets We read also of Birds procreation out of old Timber of Iaponian dogges transformed into fishes of water turned into stones and of an Oyster metamorphosed into a Bird which was presented to Francis the first of France 4. The Magicians of Egypt trans formed divers substances and the Devil by Gods permission hath often done the like examples of which may be seen in Spuedanus Camerarius Peucerus and others 5. The Gentiles who laugh at this transformation are convinced by their own stories or Fables of Ulysses and his fellowes transformed into beasts and of Diomedes his companions metamorphosed into birds if they can believe these changes why should they doubt of Lots wifes transmutation III. To conceive a general blacknesse in hell and yet therein the material flames of sulphur is no Philosophical conception nor will it consist with the real effects of its nature Answ. What though this were no Philosophical conceptions nor consisting with the effects of Nature is it therefore untrue God is not subject to Philosophical conceptions nor to the lawes of nature who could make fire to burn but not consume the bush and make the fiery furnace burn the Chaldeans and yet not sindge a haire of the three childrens cloathes the same power can make blacknesse and the flames of sulphur dwel together in hell and which is more he can make fire which naturally is accompanied with light to be the subject of darkness in Hell But the Doctor is deceived by his experiments who thinks that sulphur affords no blacking smoak for I know the contrary by blacking paper with the smoak thereof Besides both Philosophers and experience tell us that the sulphurous vapours which in thundring and lightning break through the clouds do make black the things touched with them so saith Aristotle Pliny and others And though Brimstone make red Roses and Tiffany white it wil not therfore follow that it will make any thing white the Sun beams which whiteneth the Linnen tawns the skin and if the whitning of things by sulphur proceeds as he saith from its drying and penetrating quality much more would all things be whitened by the Sun and fire whose heat is more penetrating and drying but we see how many things by them are blackned and the very heat of the fire will induce blacknesse upon paper though there come no smoke at all to it He therefore who long since destroyed Sodom with fire and brimstone will with the same materials punish the wicked in hell where shall be in stead of light blackness and darkness IV. Philoxenus the Musician desired a Crains neck not for any pleasure at meat but fancying thereby an advantage in singing Book 7. c. 14. Answ. That this Philoxenus was a glutton ancient Historians do affirme and that he wished a Cranes neck to enjoy the longer pleasure of meat and drink is asserted by Aristotle Athenaeus Machon the Comick AElian and others Machon sayes that he wished a neck of three cubits long He was a great Fish eater therefore was nick-named Phylichthys and Solenista from Solenes a kind of Oysters which he delighted in Being one day at Table with Dionysius the tyrant he had a small mullet set before him which he takes up in his hand and holds to his eare Dionysius asks what he meant by that He answers that he had asked advice of Galataea but she sayd that she was too young to advise him and that he were best to consult with the old Galataea in Dionysius his dish At which the Tyrant laughing gave him the great Mullet that he had before him which was very pleasing to the glutton This story is recorded by Caelius Rhodiginus and doubtless that proverb Collaria cadavera that is long necked carcasses which Erasmus borrowes from Aristophanes hath relation to this wish of Philoxenus for by it are
the brain were hurt this being the immediate agent and instrument without which the heart doth not operate in sensation VII To conclude the nerves to have their originall from the brain becauseâ—of their similitude is a weak argument For 1. Many children are not like their parents from whom they have their originall but like strangers many times to whom they have no relation 2. There is no similitude between the brain and nerves for that is soft and moist these hard and dry 3. Nor is the nerve in its medullary part like the brain for this is cold the marrow is hot 4. If the nerves are from the brain because their inward parts are soft and marrowy then the bones should be derived also from the brain for they have much more marrow in them 5. If the nerves are from the brain because they have two tuniclesâ— as it hath by the same reason let the Arteries also have their beginning from thence for these also are double tunicled 6. All nerves have not this medâ—llary substance within them VIII Though the heart hath but one little nerve which being tied looseth its sense beneath the knot but above retains it though this I say be so yet from hence it cannot be proved that the brain is the originall of the nerves or of sensation but rather the heart for the upper part of the nerve is sensible because it is joyned with other nerves whereas the lower part is joyned to none 2. The spirits in the upper part are tempered by the frigidity of the brain whereas the lower part hath no refrigeration and though the faculty or power of sense is from the heart yet the act of sensation is not exercised without a temperate heat or refrigeration 3. I think this is rather a conjecture of the Galenists then an experiment for who did ever find this nerve in a living creature IX Aristotles reasons for the coldnesse of the brain are to me not improbable or easie to be answered for if the brain were hot we should never sleep seeing coldness causeth sleep 2. There are more moist humors and flegme ingendred in the brain then any where else 3. There is not blood in the brains as in other parts of the body for it is the blood that warms the body I say there are not veins incorporating themselves into the substance of the brain and terminating there as they do in the flesh and skin which is the cause that every part of the flesh or skin being pricked bleeds so doth not the brain whose substance is white and bloodless therefore though there be veins in the brain yet they are distinct from the substance of the brain and not ending in them neither is that heat which is in the brain it s own but adventitious and externall to wit of the arteries and veins as also of fumes and vapours so then the brain is the coldest of all the parts of mans body yea colder then the bones because the bones are dry the brain moist but cold with moisture is greater effectively then with siccity so the water is colder then the earth If it be objected that the brain is hot because the head is more hairy then any other part of the body and because the brain stands continually in need of ventilation by the nostrils and transpiration by the seams of the skul I answer That hairs are ingendred by the adventitious heat of the brain out of the excrementitious humors of the head and fumes which ascend thither and therefore the brain stands in need of ventilation â—ecause of the many hot fumes and vapours continually ascenâ—ing thither X. The blood and spirits which are in the brain alter not â—ts natural temperament which is cold especially seeing the â—lood is sent thither for nutrition but nourishment is to cheâ—â—sh the part nourished being converted into its substance â—nd not to alter its temperament Now the reason why we â—eel the moisture of the brain but not its frigidity is because â—here is nothing to hinder the tact from discerning its moisture â—eing in a soft substance for where the substance is hard there â—he tact is hindred from feeling the moisture though it be â—oist as when we touch ice but the tact is hindred from dicerning the frigidity of the brain because of the veins and â—rteries within it containing warm blood and spirits yet â—hough the brain be cold the pith in the back-bone which is â—oyned to the brain is hot because we finde no flegme aâ—out it as about the brain it is harder then the brain thereâ—ore more apt to receive and to retain heat it is begot of blood which is hot and it was fit that this warm pith should be joyned to the cold brain for moderating the brains frigidity XI The brain was made cold to temper and moderate the â—eat of the heart but not to diminish or destroy it and for the same cause the heart was made hot to temper but not to destroy the brains frigidity therefore nature hath placed them at a proportionable distance for had they been nearer their actions upon each other had been more violent 2. Though the organs of the sense be in the brain yet the original of senâ—ation is not there but in the heart for the brain with its organs are helps and instruments not the efficient causes of sensation 3. The mutuall action of the heart and brain upon each other is not done immediately but by the intercourse of the spirits XII Though nature doth not make two members specifically different in the same body for the same operation therefore fishes want Lungs because they have gills for refrigeration yet she hath made both the brain and lungs too in our bodies for the same end and work namely to refrigerate the heart and yet in this she is not superfluous because the heart stood in need of a double refrigeration as being subject to a double heat the one is natural for tempering of this the brain was made that so the animal spirits might be generated the other is adventitious caused by hot fumes for cleaâ—â— of these and of cooling the heart the lungs were made aâ—â— so were the arteries too As for the two eyes and two ears and other double organs in our bodies they are not specificallâ— different XIII As the male hath a hotter heart then the female 〈◊〉 he hath a larger brain for the most part that there may be the more refrigeration I say for the most part because the work of nature admit divers times exceptions so Lions though hoâ—ter then men yet have lesser brains then men but that heat iâ— the Lion is more terrestriall â— and therefore needs lesseâ— refrigeration then that which is more aerial yet it may be supposed that man abounds more in heat then Lions because he hath a strait body which is caused by the abundance of hot bloud and spirits in mans body more then in other creatures XIV That the testicles are not
upper place neither could the eyes be so secure any where as within these concavities of the skull 3. The skull being a bone feeleth not for bones have no other sense but what is in the membrans or Periostium neither can there be sense but where there be nerves but there be none in the bones except in the teeth which therefore feel because the nerves are incorporated in them and communicate the sensitive spirits to all parts of them and the sensitive faculty with them yet they are more sensible of the first then of the second qualities 4. The teeth are still growing because there is continual need of them and are harder then other bones because they were made to bruise hard meats 5. They are more sensible and sooner offended with cold then with heat and yet heat is the more active quality which sheweth that the constitution of the teeth is hot for if they were cold they should not bee so soon troubled with cold being a friendly quality 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 I. THERE are in our bodies two sorts of blood the one arterial begot in the heart for the exciting of our heat the other venal begot in the liver for nourishing of the body â—o according to Aristotle the heart and according to Galen the liver may be called the fountain of bloud 2. As the heart is the first thing that liveth in us so it must needs be first nourished for life cannot be without nutriment nutriment cannot be without blood therefore there must needs be blood in the heart before there was any in the liver 3. As the heart first liveth so it first operates for life consists in operation but the proper work of the heart is to beget arterial blood and vital spirits therefore the blood was first in the heart 4. Though blood resemble the liver in colour it will not therefore follow that blood hath its first original from the liver but only that it is the receptacle and cystern of blood so the bag in which the gall lieth hath the same colour with the gall and yet this is generated in the liver and onely contained in the bag and it s a question whether the liver coloureth the blood or the blood the liver 5. In fear and sadness the blood retires into the heart which is by means of the spirits recoiling thither with the blood as to their original 6. In the brain we finde four sensible concavities for the animall spirits in the heart two for the blood and vital spirits but in the liver none for the blood in the resticles none for the seed nor in the breast for the milk which makes me doubt whether the blood seed and milk have any concoction in these parts if they have it must be surely in a very small quantity 7. I finde pure blood no where but in the heart and veins by which I gather that there must be a greater commerce between the heart and veins then some doe conceive which appears also by the implantation of the vena cava in the heart which cannot be separated without tearing of the heart or vein and that either the blood is perfected in the heart and prepared in the liver or else prepared in the heart and perfected in the liver besides that the arteries doe all along accompany the veins II. I see no reason why we may not affirm that the heart is continually in its Diastole drawing blood out of the vena cava and in its Systole or contraction refunding blood into the same vein for this continual motion of the blood is no more impossible then the continual motion of the heart and arteries neither is it more absurd for perfect and imperfect blood to bee mingled in this motion then for cholerick melancholick and flegmatick blood to be mingled with pure blood in the veins 2. When the liver is vitiated sanguification faileth and so hydropsies follow which doth not prove that the liver is the sole cause of sanguification but that it is subordinate to the heart so when the Chrystalline humour is vitiated the sight faileth and yet this humour is not the sole cause of fight but is subordinate to the opâ—ick nerve and spirits The heart then by the liver distributes blood to the members 3. The veins have their radication in the liver their office and distribution from the liver and the heart their original from neither in respect of matter but in respect of efficiency from the heart for this first liveth and therefore the fittest place for the formative faculty to reside in III. The Chylus is turned into blood not by the substance of the Liver for the Chylus comes not neer it and there can be no alteration or concoction without contact nor by the veins for their office is to convey and distribute the bloud not to make it So the arteries doe not make the arterial blood which they convey besides thaâ— the form temperament and colour of the blood is far different from that of the veins therfore the blood is made by the power of that celestial heat by which we receive life growth and nutriment for the same heat produceth divers effects in the divers subjects it works upon in the stomach it turns our meat into a white Chylus in the veins into red blood in the â—eminal vessels into seed in the breasts into milk c. IV. The same Meseraick veins which draw the purest pare of the Chylus from the intestins that it might there receive sanguification contain also pure blood which the intestines draw for their nutriment for every part draws that food which it most delights in Thus from the same mass of blood the Spleen draws melancholy the gall choler the kidneys water V. The Peripateticks will have the heart to be the first original of the nerves and of the sensitive motion The Galenists will have the brain but this contention is needless For the heart is the first principle because it is the first that lives and moves whereas the brain moves not but by the heart In a Syncope or swowning fit of the heart all sense and motion suddenly fail which could not be if these had not their original from the heart the brain may be called the secondary or subordinate caus or principle for this by its cold tempers the vital spirits and so they become sensitive or animal Hence it is that in an Apoplexy there is a sudden failing of sense and motion If any say that the body can move after the heart is taken out and that therefore the heart cannot be the first principle of motion I
motions from divers muscles 2. The muscles of the abdomen are chiefly made for pressing of the same when nature desires to expel the excrements and in the next place to move the breast with the other muscles appointed for respiration 3. The muscle of the bladder called Sphincter was made partly for opening a passage for the urine to passe away which it doth by dilating and extending it self and partly for shutting up of the bladder by contracting it self lest the urine should passe from us in sleep or against our wills whilest we are awaked 4. The muscle called diaphragma or the midriff was made for exspiration and inspiration in inspiration it dilateth it self but in expiration it is contracted upward as we see in dead bodies 6. The muscles of the ribs called Intercostals are some of them external which distend the breast for inspiration some internal which contract the breast for exspiration VI. Aristotelians will have the flesh Galenists the skin to be the organ of tact but I think both are for I take the skin to be nothing else but the outward superficies of the flesh a little dried and hardned and differing no other way from the flesh then the outward skin of the apple from the softer substance thereof so then the flesh both as it is a soft substance and as it is hardned in its outward superficies is the organ of tact by means of the nerves and fibres diffused into it and whereas vision hearing and smelling have the air for their medium tact and taste which are the two absolutely needfull senses without which we cannot live whereas without the other three we may have no medium at all 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 I BLOOD Milk Fat Marrow are not properly integral parts of our bodies for the body is perfect in its limbs and members without these and these in time of hunger nourish the body whereas one part cannot be the aliment of another besides every part hath its figure and shape but these have none yet in a large sense they may bee called parts as they help to make up the whole II. As the Loadstone draweth Iron and Plants nutriment from the earth so doth every part of our bodies draw that aliment which is most proper for it some by the help of the fibres as the heart in its Diastole draws blood from Vena cava into its right ventricle by the help of the fibres some without their help as bones grissles and ligaments So the Intestines draw without fibers the Chylus from the Ventricle with which they are delighted and they draw blood from the Meseraick veins with which they are nourished and the same veines draw the purer part of the Chylus from the Intestines for sanguification III. The same part that draws things needful expels the same things when they grow superfluous or hurtful thus the ventricles expel the Chylus into the Intestines and these expel their grosâ—er and excrementitious parts out of the body so the heart expels by its transverse fibers blood and spirits and hurtful vapours too And indeed nature is more solicitous in expelling of things hurtful then in attracting of things needful Thus we see in dying people that expiration is stronger then inspiration nature being more willing to be rid of hurtful vapours then to receive fresh aire so when the intestines are affected with inflammations obstructions or ulcerations that they cannot send the excrement downward they force it upward into the stomach again and so expel it by the mouth as in the Iliaca passio IV. The expulsion of the Foeces is partly the natural or peristaltick motion of the intestines and partly the voluntary motion of the muscles of the Abdomen which muscles being contracted presse the intestine 2. There are straight Fibeâ—s in the intestine called Rectum not so much for attraction as for strengthning the circular Fiberâ— 3. The Colon is sâ—ated uppermost neer to the bottome of the stomach and hollownesse of the liver thaâ— by the touch of these parts the remainders of the meat which are in the cels of the Colon might be better concocted 4. The stink of the foeces proceed partly from the superfluous humidity which is the mother of putrefaction and partly from the heat of the intestin which though it be natural to the aliment which it concocts yet it is external to the excrement which it expels 5. The length of the intestins which are seven times as long as the body and â—he many windingâ— or folds of them besides the Valâ—ula or shutter in the end of the Coecum do shew that the injections by the fundament can ascend no higher then the blind intestine except there be any of those three distempers in the guts which I mentioned but now or else the stomach be distempered by Bulimia for in such a case it will draw the foeces to it 6. Clysters are sometimes carried to the liver by means of the meseraick veins which suck some part of it from the intestins V. The substance temper and colour of the intestines and ventricles is the same therefore the Chylus is not only concocted in the ventricle but in the intestins also and as the one of these members is affected so is the other 2. As in the intestines there is an attractive concoctive and expulsive faculty so there is also a retentive for all these affections are in the ventricle which is of the same substance with the intestines To what end are stiptick or restringent medicaments used in Fluxes but to corroborate the retentive faculty of the intestins in the lientery the meat passeth away without concoction because the reâ—â—ntive faculâ—y both of the ventricle and intestins is hurt VI. The mouth of the stomach being united to the Diaphragma and this to the breast-bone is the cause that we find much pain about this bone when the mouth of the stomach is ill-affected 2. In the mouth of the stomach is the â—eaâ— of appetite by reason of the two stomachical nerves thâ—re which when they are refrigerated or obstruâ—tâ—d the appetite is dissolved as in Bâ—limia where there is a continual attraction from the stomach but no sense or appetite but when the stomach is molested with cold and sâ—wre humours there is a continuall sense or appetite though there be no inanition of the part as in the disease called the Dogs appetite 3. By reason of the sympathy that is between the mouth of the stomach and the heart they had of old the same name and they have the same symptomes 4. The appetite being an animal faculty â—ath its seat in the braine originally in the stomach subjectively the faculty is in both but the action onely in the stomach VII
reparation by generation of spirits 5. It differs from the animal motive faculty because it is necessary and perpetual the animal is voluntary and sometimes ceaseth VII The vital spirits are ingendred in the left ventricle of the heart partly of aire prepared in the lungs and conveyed to the heart by the Arteria venosa and partly of the purest blood powred out of the mouth of Vena cava into the right ventricle where it is prepared and attenuated a part whereof is conveyed for nourishing of the lungs by the Vena arteriosa the other part sweats through the partition that divides the heart and in the left ventricle is mingled with the aire and turned into spirits by its excessive heat VIII The Diastole and Systole that is the dilatation and contraction of the heart and arteries is all one and at the same time for the heart and arteries are so united that they make but one body so there is but one pulsifick vertue in both and the end of their motion is the same to wit the vegitation and life of the body the suddenness of the motion in the remotest arteries from the heart and the strong beating of the pulse and heart in Feavers and anger do shew the identity of motion in both 2. The arteries are moved by the spirits of the heart conveyed by their tunicles rather then their cavity for upon the pressing of the tunicles the pulse ceaseth but not when the cavity is stuffed or stopped They are not then moved by their heat and blood but by the heart as may be seen by binding the arteries whose motion beneath the binding saileth the commerce between it and the heart being intercepted 3. The heart is first dilated by receiving the aire then it is contracted by expelling the fuliginous vapours 4. The heart strikes the breast in its dilatation not in its contraction or Systole because the left ventricle which is the originall of the Arteries is distended in the Diastole and so toucheth the breast about the left pap IX The motion of the heart is not voluntary because we cannot command it nor sensitive because it is not performed by the nerves and muscles nor simple because there are two motions nor compounded because they are contrary and of contrary motions can be no compositions nor is it violent because it is not repugnant to its nature nor is it caused by an externall agent as the trembling of the heart is by distempers vapours or humours but the hearts motion is natural yet not caused by the elementary form for so there should be more agents in our bodies then one and its motion should be â—itâ—eâ— upward or downward but it is natural in respect of the soul which is the chief nature that works in animal bodies and in respect of the fibers heat and spirits of the heart which are natural organs and in respect of the natural use or end of this motion for the heart dilates it self to receive aire and blood it contracts it self to be emptied of its fumes and to communicate its spirits to the nerves which ends are naturall X. When Aristotle saith that the motion of the heart is caused by heat and cold he contradicts not the Physitians in affirming the soul or its vital faculty to be the cause of this motion for heat and cold are subordinate instruments to the soul which by the heat of the blood and spirits dilates the heart and by the attraction of the cold air contracteth it as we see water by the heat of the fire swel and dilate it self but upon the breathing of cold air to contract and fall down again CHAP. XVI 1. The Lungs how moved the air is not the spirits nutriment 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 ARistotle differs from the Galenists about the motion of the Lungs he will have them moved by the heart whose heat listeth up the Lungs upon which motion the air enters for avoiding vacuity which being entred the Lungs fall The Galenists will have their motion to depend on the motion of the breast but both are in the right For the motion of the Lungs is partly voluntary and so it depends on the moving of the muscles of the breast and partly natural and so it is moved by the heart 2. When Aristotle denies that the air is the nutriment of the spirits which the Galenists affirm his meaning is that the air doth not properly nourish the spirits as meat doth our bodies for there is no assimilation or conversion of the substance of the air into our spirits which are properly nourished by blood but only a commixtion of the air and spirits for refrigeration And indeed if the spirits were properly fed by the air there would not come out the same air that went in For the spirits would not part from their food the air then nourisheth the spirits as it doth the fire by refrigeration and preserving it from suffocation II. Respiration is not so necessary for preservation of life as the motion of the heart for histerical women can live without that but they cannot live without this Neither is the motion of the arteries of absolute necessity for the member is not deprived of life though the arterie be stopped or tied and deprived of its motion 2. The motion of respiration is more noble then the motion of the heart because this is meerly natural that is also animal and voluntary yet as the motion of the Lungs is subservient to the motion of the heart that is more noble then this for the end excels the means III. The Lungs are hot and moist hot that they mighâ— temper and alter the cold air therefore the substance is fleshy light and spongy and fed with hot and spirituous blood from the right ventricle of the heart It is also moist as appears by its soft and loose substance It is also moist accidentally by receiving the flegme and rhumes that fall from the brain 2. The Lungs refrigerate the heart not because their substance is cold but because the air is cold which they attract IV. Respiration is a motion partly voluntary as it is performed by the muscles nerves and diaphragma which are the organs of voluntary motion and as it is in our power to breath or not to breath to hasten or retard it And it is partly natural as it is performed by the Lungs which are organs of natural motion as it is not subject to fatigation as it is performed in our sleep when we have no command over our selves and the sensitive faculties then cease as it is not performed by election or apprehension of the object as voluntary motions are And lastly as in Apoplexies when the senses fail the brains and nerves are hurt yet respiration continues it is then a mixt action as the expulsive actions of the
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
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
the skin which heat is also perceived by its bitterness but cold is most predominant or else we may say that it exâ—ites venery accidentally by temperating the excessive heat of the body which is an enemy to Venus The like effect is wrought by Mandrakes which perhaps was the cause that Rachel so much desired them Nor must we think it strange that the Opium produceth contrary effects for we know that the same Rose in some part of it hath a stiptick in other parts a laxative quality IX The plague to which our bodies are subject is an occult poyson killing us by the breath or touch and not an Hectick Feaver becaâ—se this drieth and burneth up the heart by degrees the plague kils suddâ—nly 2. The Hectick is not infectious as this 3. In a confirmed Hectick there is no recovery in the Plague divers recover nor is the pestilence a putrid Feaver because 1. the pulse is more remiss the urine clearer the head ach thirst and agitation of the body less in the plague then in a putrid Feaver 2. Because a pestilential feaver followes upon a 〈…〉 this is â—on that begins X. Epidemical diseases whereof pestilential are the most perhitious are conveyed to us by the air which we are continually attracting to the heart and brains 1. either when the air is infected with the impression of malignant and occult qualities from the influence of the Stars or 2. when it is poysoned with putrified corrupt and pernitious vapours exhaled out of pits caves ditches putrified lakes c. Or 3. When the prime qualities of the air to wit heat cold c. are intensive beyond ordinary but we must not think that the substance of the air is at any time putrified for being a simple body it is not subject to putrifaction CHAP. VI. 1. Antipathies to some meats 2. The force of Fear 3. Blood voided by the Gums and Navil 4. Black hairs suddenly gray 5. Violence of passions 6. Defects in nature recoÌ„mpensed 7. A Fly voided by Vrine 8. Monethly bloud in men 9. The causes of Monsters 10. Horns on mens heads and heels AS there are divers temperaments of men so there are divers sympathies and antipathies to certain meats and drinks some cannot indure the sight or smel of Cheese others abhor eggs others flesh others bread some cannot abide wine others abhor piggs and all kinde of swines flesh many cannot endure the smel of apples others detest all kind of sweet meats and which is most strange thaâ— the smel of Roses so pleasing to most men is odious and deadly to others Cardinal Carafa during the time of Roses used to inclose himself in a Chamber not permitting any to come near him that had Roses as Wierus Valerian shews in his Hieroglyphicks the smell of a Rose would cause a certain Jacobin swoun and be like a dead man as Amatus Lusitanus recordeth in his second Centurie the like is written of divers others This must either proceed from an occult quality or from the distemper of the phantasie and prejudicate opinion that some have of such things that they are hurtful to them or else it is in some an hereditary infirmity proceeding from the parents for Forestus writes that in a certain family the sons could not ear Cheâ—se but the daughters could eat it with a good appetite becauâ—â— the mother did love Cheese but the father could not abide it See his Annotations on the fifth Observation lib. 4. II. Fear is more powerfull in curing of diseases then any Physitians in the world for Zacutus l. 2. Obs. 86. speaks of a woman whose matrix had fallen and hung out of its place two years together neither could any Physick or Art replace it again till a sudden fear attracted it she feeling the mice running up her thighes which she had purposely holding them by a thread let run towards the part the matrix suddenly slipt into its own place again III. Nature is more skilfull then any Physitian to cure her self and if she cannot finde a way for evacuation of her superfluities she will with Hannibal make a way though it be through Rocks for he shewes that the ordinary passage of the menstruous blood being stopped in a certain woman Nature made her a passage through the gums out of which monthly for two days together great store of blood was voided He speaks of another who on the like occasion had a vent for the blood through the navel lib. 2. Obs. 91 92. IV. That black hairs should become suddenly white may to some seem incredible yet we have stories of this sudden change Scaliger Exercit. 212. tells us of one Francis Gonzaga who being imprisoned upon suspition of treason in one night his black hair turned white Vives in his Preface on Scipio's Dream and Hadrian Iunius in Comment de Coma. c. 10. speaks of a young Spanish Gentleman who in a night became as white as one of 80 years old Caelius Rodiginus in his 13 Book Antiq. lect speaks of another who searched after young Hawkes upon a high steep Rock and fearing the rope would break with which he was held became instantly white Divers other examples I could alledg but these are sufficient to let us see that the change of our hairs which is perform'd by nature in space of time ordinarily is upon an extraordinary fear effected suddenly in some the roots of the hairs being deprived of that heat and radical moisture between the flesh and skin of the head by which they were fed the spirits and blood flying suddenly to the heart leave the other parts destitute This we see in trees when blasted with a piercing cold wind their leaves suddenly change colour and of green become yellow their naturall heat and moysture being extinguished and dried up V. There is no passion in our bodies more violent then fear which distempers the fantasie troubles the other senses causeth our hairs to stand an end makes us dumb all which the Prince of Poets expressed in one verse Obstupui steteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit and indeed the fear of death hath upon some brought sudden death the spirits heat and blood flying suddenly to the heart by which this is oppressed and the senses left destitute Others by sudden fear have lost their judgement and become distracted strange effects also are produced in us by excessive anger and joy â—o that some have suddenly died with immediate anger and excessive joy the spirits and heat flying suddenly from the heart into the exterior parts by which means syncopes swoundings and death follow As I could instance in many examples VI. I observe that where Nature is defective in one part there is a recompence made for they who are born blind exceed us in memory and they who are born deaf and dumb excell us in apprehension they who are born without hands or arms perform with their feet what we do by our hands Phil. Camerarius in his Historical meditations c. 37. speaks
absolutely necessary Strange operations of some stomachs The Ostrich eats and digests Iron 4. How Bees Gnats c. make a sound Of Glow-worms and Grains bit by Pismires the vegitable Lamb and other strange plants 5. The Tygers swiftnesse The Remora stays ships THAT divers animals even men and women can subsist without food is plain by these examples A certain maid in the Diocesse of Spire anno 1542. lived three years without meat or drink In the year 1582. in the Palatinat there lived a maid nine years together without food who afterward married and had children Rondeletius l. 1. de pis c. 13. writes of a maid in France and of another in Germany who lived divers years without food and of another whom hee saw that had no other food but air ten years together Ficinus saw a man who had no other food but what the air and Sun afforded him In the year 1595. a maid lived at Colen three years without food another at Bern lived eighteen years on the air alone anno 1604. Other examples I could alledge out of Citesius Physitian of Padua Lentulus of Bern Ioubertus and others but these may suffice to let us see that nutrition doth not consist meerly in meat and drink I will not here alledge examples of miraculous fasts or of Diabolical and Magical but such as are meerly natural as these which I have named for in them the natural heat was weak and not able to master the humidity with which they abounded So then where there is a weak heat and much sweet phlegm which is imperfect blood as Physitians call it there the life may bee prolonged without food I have read Mendoza in Flor. phil of a Venetian who fasted forty six years being of a cold constitution and abounding with thick phlegme we see this in the hearb Semper-vivum which many years together liveth and is green without earth or water having much natural humidity within it So the Camelion is onely fed by air as is said which appears to be true however Dr. Brown Book 3. c. 21. writes to the contrary by these reasons 1. The testimonies both of ancient and modern Writers except a few and the witnesses of some yet living who have kept Camelions a long time and never saw them feed but on air 2. To what end hath Nature given it such large Lungs beyond its proportion Sure not for refrigeration lesse Lungs would serve for this use seeing their heat is weak it must be then for nutrition 3. There is so little blood in it that we may easily see it doth not feed on solid meat The Doctor saith That Frogs and divers Fishes have little blood and yet their nutriment is solid But he doth not prove the nutriment to be solid Besides they have more blood then is in the Camelion 4. To what end should it contnually gape more then other animals but that it stands more in need of air then they towit for nutrition as well as refrigeration The Doctor imputeth this gaping to the largenesse of his Lungs This is but a shift for other animals whose Lungs doe exceed both the Lungs and whole bodies of many Camelions do not gape as this doth and yet they stand more in need of refrigeration as having more blood and heat then ten thousand Camelions 5. He that kept the Camelion which I saw never perceived it to void excrements backwards an argument it had no solid food and what wonder is it for the Camelion to live on air when Hay a beast of Brasil as big as a Dog was never seen to feed on any thing else as Lerius witnesseth The Doctor concludes That the Camelion is abstenious a long time but not still because divers other animals are so He may as well infer that the Camelion is cornuted because divers other animals are so Each species hath its property which is not communicable to other species otherwise it were no property II. That water is the aliment of divers creatures is plain 1. By the vegetables for hearbs trees and plants are nourished by it 2. By animals for it is the food of many fishes as was shewed by that fish which Rondeletius his wife kept three years in a glasse Grashoppers feed upon dew which is water I have read Mendoza Prob. 23. of Worms in Armenia which feed only on Snow and of some birds whose aliment is only water 3. By men for Albertus Magnus speaks of one who lived seven weeks together only upon water I know Aristotle l. 7. de anim Galen and Averroes are against this opinion But we must understand they speak of the pure element of water which is not nutritive not of that which is impure mixed or compounded for such may nourish Doctor Brown will not have water an aliment 1. Because some creatures drink not at all Answ. To such water indeed can be no aliment and so indeed his argument is good but to say that water is no creatures aliment because some creatures do not drink at all is as much as if he should infer that no man eats bread because some men never ate any 2. He saith That water serves for refrigeration and dilution therefore it is no aliment Answ. Why may not the same thing serve both Doe we not many times eat cooling hearbs which both refrigerate and feed us 3. If the ancients saith he had thought water nutritive they would not have commended the Limpid water for the best but rather turbid streams where there may be some nutriment Answ. If the Ancients had spoken of Waters fittest to feed Eels Frogs and such as live on mud they would have commended the turbid streams but they spake of such Waters as are fittest for our bodies and therefore they commended the Limpid for the best and yet he confesseth in the purest water there is much terreous residence and consequently some nutriment III. Chilification is an action of the stomach but not absolutely necessary because many creatures in the Winter live without it And this act is not to be ascribed to the heat of the stomach for though heat as heat doth concoct yet it doth not chilifie for neither fiery nor feverish nor any other heat of the body can perform this but that of the stomach therefore this action must proceed from the specifical form and proper quality of the stomach which turns all it receives into a white creamy substance but cannot produce several substances as the Liver doth because it is not so hot as the Liver or rather it hath not that specifical form which the Liver hath Besides that the stomachs work is to master the aliment to concoct it and to prepare it for the Liver But besides this quality of the stomach there is another more strange when som can eat and digest coals sand lime pitch ashes and such like trash This is called by Physitians a disease under the name of Pica Citta Malacia but I think it proceeds not only from a
never comes nor heat converteth water-drops into stones and the cold of some waters metamorphise stickes leaves and trees pieces of lether nut-shels and such like stuffe into stones why then may not cold convert Ice into a higher degree of hardnesse and prepare it for reception of a new forme which gives it the essence and name of Crystall 2. A liquation in Crystal may be effected but not without some difficulty but Ice may dissolve in any way of heat Answ. The difficult melting of the one and easie liquation of the other wil not prove that Crystal was not Ice but that it is notice For as Scaliger saith Valde à seipso differt quod fit dum sit cum est Ice before it attains the hardnesse of a stone or Crystall is yet water formally and Crystal onely materially or in the way of preparation But when it ceaseth to be ice it assumes the form of crystal and wil not deny its original that it was once Ice which now is a stone The matter then of crystal is water and it is made of Ice because it was water by which â—â—e it hath stept up to the forme of a stone 3. They are differenced by supernatation or floating upon water for crystal will sink but ice will swim in water Answ. It s no wonder to see a stone sink and ice swim for crystal when it was ice swimmed being now a stone sinks as being a body more compact hard solid and ponderous so a stick will swim but when it is converted to a stone it sinks The argument therefore is good thus Crystal sinks Ice swims therefore crystal is not ice but it will not follow therfore crystal was not ice 4. They are distinguished in substance of parts and the accidents thereof that is in colour and figure for ice is a fimilary body but the body of crystal is mixed and containeth in it sulphure for being struck with steel it sends forth sparks which are not caused by collision of two hard bodies but they are inflamable effluences discharged from the bodies collided for a steel and flint being both met will not readily strike fire Answ. Crystal is not so much distinguished either in substance or accidents from ice as a chick is from an egge and yet the chick was an egg What wonder is it if crystal having received a new form be distinguished from ice whereas we see greater distinctions daily in our own nutrition our bloud flesh and bones have neither the colour figure or substance of corn fruits hearbs roots and other meats we feed upon In the same rose-leaf there be distinct qualities and operations one part being restringent the other laxative the same Rhubarb as it is differently prepared differently worketh one way by loosning another way by binding the belly Let us not deny that distinction to a natural which we give to an artificial preparation there are distinct colours in one and the same leaf of a gillyflower or tulip Again when he saith That Ice is a similary body but Crystal is mixed Here is no opposition for similary and dissimilary are opposite not similary and mixed for a similary body may be mixed so is flesh so is bloud so is ice except he will make it a pure element And when he saith Crystal containeth sulphure in it This is very unlikely for sulphure is hot and inflamable it is also viscous and fat it is of a piercing quality and of an ungrateful smel none of which qualities we finde in crystal In fiery mountains there is most sulphure in snowy mountains most crystal but his reason to prove there is sulphure in crystal is invalid because saith he being struck with steel it sends forth sparks by this reason he may prove there is sulphure in every hard thing even in wood and sticks for by attrition or any other violent motion they are inslamable as the Americans know who use no other way to kindle their fires but the attrition of sticks Arrows will burn in the air their Lead will melt bels mil-stones and cart-wheels will grow extream hot with motion and so wil water is there sulphure in all these And here he contradicts himself when he saith That the sparks are not sent forth by collision of two hard bodies but they are inflamable effluences discharged from the bodies collided I would know how these effluences can be discharged if the bodies be not collided and how they can bee collided without collision These sparks then are doubtlesse the accension of the aire and aerial parts of these hard bodies by motion and collision being no way hindered by wetting the Steele and Flint for I have tried the contrary by wetting both and yet the Sparks fly out as readily as if both had been dried so they will out of Flints taken out of Rivers where they have been perpetually moist so that the sparks are not quenched at their eruption because the air is not wet though the Steel and Flint be 5. They are saith he differenced in the places of their generation For Crystall is found in Regions where Ice is seldom seen Answ. It is sufficient that in those Regions where Crystall is found Ice is sometimes seen and as Ice is there but seldome seen so Crystal is there but seldome found The best and greatest quantities are found in cold and snowy Countries Again though in those hotter Countries the air above is warm yet in the bowels of the earth it is as cold or rather colder then elsewhere by antiperistasis and that is sufficient to prove Crystal may be there generated 6. They have contrary qualities elementall and uses medicinall Answ. It is true Ice is moist and Crystall dry so water is moist and salt is dry will it therefore follow that salt is not generated of water Allum Salt-peter Vitriol are all hard and dry so are the bones in our flesh the teeth in our gums the stones in fruits yet all are begot of soft and moist materials As for their contrary medicinall uses I question not whereas there are in one and the same simple as I shewed but now contrary effects II. In the 2 3 and 4 Chapters of the second book the Doctor hath divers pretty and pleasant Discourses of the Loadstone and Amber yet to some passages I cannot assent as 1. when he saith There is coition syndrome and concourse of the Load-stone and Iron to each other For I doe not think that the stone is moved at all to the Iron for every naturall motion hath its reason and end the end of attraction in animals and vegitables is for aliment the motion oâ— stones and other heavy bodies downward is to enjoy their Matrix or Center but no end can be assigned why the Loadstone should draw or move towards the Iron the motion therefore is in the Iron and other metals which are moved to the Loadstone as to their Matrix saith Scaliger therefore it is no more wonder for Iron to move to
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
Arcana Microcosmi OR The hid Secrets of MAN's Body discovered In an Anatomical Duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the Parts thereof As also By a Discovery of the strange and marveilous Diseases Symptomes Accidents of MAN's BODY WITH A Refutation of Doctor Brown's VULGAR ERRORS The Lord BACON's NATURAL HISTORY And Doctor Harvy's Book DE GENERATIONE COMENIVS and Others Whereto is annexed a Letter from Doctor Pr. to the Author and his Answer thereto touching Doctor Harvy's Book de Genetatione By A. R. London Printed by Tho. Newcomb and are to bee sold by Iohn Clark entring into Mercers-Chappel at the lower end of Cheapside 1652. TO THE WORSHIPFUL and my much honored FRIEND EDWARD WATSON ESQUIRE Son and Heir to the Right Honorable the Lord ROCKINGHAME SIR WHen I consider your proficiency in the Schoole of Wisdome your daily exercises in the Temple of Vertue for which you may in time deserve a Shrine in the Temple of Honor your hearty affection to true and solid Philosophy not that which the Apostle calls Vain and deceiving and lastly your sincere love to me I thought good not in way of retaliation but of a thankfull recognition of your favours to present this piece to you wherein you may perceive how many strange wonders and secrets are couched up within the Microcosme of our body and with what admirable artifice the base and infirm materials of this our earthly Tabernacle are united and composed Likewise you may see how much the Dictates and Opinions of the ancient Champions of Learning are sleighted and misconstrued by some modern Innovators whereas we are but children in understanding and ought to be directed by those Fathers of Knowledge we are but Dwarfs and Pigmies compared to those Giants of Wisdom on whose shoulders we stand yet we cannot see so far as they without them I deny not but we may and ought to strive for further knowledge which we shall hardly reach without their supportation I disswade no man from inventing new but I â—ould not have him therefore to forget the old nor to lose the substance whilst he catches the shadow Women and Children love new wine because pleasant to the palat but wise men chuse the old because wholsomer for the stomach As I abridge no man of his liberty to invent new wayes so I hope they will not debar me of the like liberty to keep the old paths so long as I find â—hem more easie and compendious for attaining the end of my journey Sir I will not trouble you with any larger Discourse on this subject I wish an accumulation of all vertueâ— and happinesse on you and withall the continuation of your love to him who professeth himself Your humble servant Alexander Ross. The Contents of each Chapter in these foure Books CHAP. I. 1. The Hearts dignity scituation priority necessity and use 2. The Heart first formed not all the parts together 3. The Galenists Objections answered 4. How the heart is perfect before the other members and how nourished 5. All the temperaments united in the Heart 6. Three â—entricles in som Hearts 7. The Heart nervous 8. No parts more spermatical then others 9. The Liver not the first that is formed 10. The Heart the seat of Bloud and nourishment 11. The heat of the Matrix not generative 12. The right Ventricle nobler then the left 13. The vital and nutritive faculties are the same 14. Heat the cause of the Hearts motion 15. The Heart was first formed and informed 16. There is but one principal member in the body not many CHAP. II. Blood begot in the Heart not in the Liver why 2. The Heart is the original of the Veins and Nerves of nutrition and sense and motion 3. Why the nerves and veins do not beat and the cause of Hydropsies 4. All blood is not elaborated in the heart how it is the original of the veins 5. The arterial blood must waste or else it would infinitely increase 6. Why the blood thickneth not in â—the heart till death 7. The heart is the seat of passion 8. Why the heart a fitter seat for the soul then the liver 9. A double unity to wit of the matter and of the form CHAP. III. 1 Why the heart the originall of sensation and how it feeleth 2 The brains being cold cannot beget sensitive spirits Why the animal spirits most active where is most heat 3. There can be no generation of the animal spirits out of the vitall without the corruption of the vitall which is impossible The animal spirits are not begot of the aire 4. Neither are they concoâ—ted or generated in the ventricles of the brain nor are they wasted 5. The brain is not the originall of sense and motion although these fail upon the hurt of the brain 6. Why upon the distemper of the heart there is no failing of sense and motion 7. The nerves are not from the brain though they be like but indeed they are not like the brain 8. Why the nerve of the heart loseth sense and motion beneath the knot not above it 9. The brain is the coldest of all the parts how void of veins and blood how hot and the cause of hairs 10. The blood and spirits alter not the brains temper Why its coldness is not felâ— the pith in the back bone hor. 11. Why the brain and heart at such aâ—d stance by the spirits they work on each other 12. Why both the brain and lungs were made for refrigeration 13. The mans brain larger then the womans why man hotter then Lions 14. The testicles ignobler then the heart and brain 15. The heart not the testicles the cause of sensation and generation the testicles not chief because necessary or becausâ— they cause an alteration in the body from wheâ—ce is the distinctioâ— of sexes 16. The seed receiveth its specificall form from the heart 17. Why Eunuchs fatter weaker and colder Lib. II. CAP. I. 1. Mans Body fitted onely for mans Soul Tritons are not men 2. How Mans body is more excellent then all others 3. How the Soul is most in the Brain and Heart 4. A twofold heat in us 5. What Creatures nourish most 6. The Womans imagination cannot alter the form CAP. II. 1. The Stomach and Lungs not necessary for life 2 How the limbs are moved the spirits are bodies more required for motion then sensation the spirits are light how they are the souls instruments how the Muscles move 3. Seven properties of the brain 4. Twelve properties of the eye 5. It s substance warrish 6. Why but one sight 7. The eye how an agent and patient 8. It s two lights and its colours Light gives the second act CAP. III. 1. A twofold Heat in living things 2. The Primitive Heat where and how tempered 3. Our spirits are not celestial several Reasons 4. Our natural heat what it is no substance in six Reasons 5. Many excellencies of mans body 6. The Head why the noblest part and highest
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
minus CHAP. II. Blood begot in the Heart not in the Liver why 2. The Heart is the original of the Veins and Nerves of nutrition and sense and motion 3. Why the nerves and veins do not beat and the cause of Hydropsies 4. All blood is not elaborated in the heart how it is the original of the veins 5. The arterial blood must waste or else it would infinitely increase 6. Why the blood thickneth not in the heart till death 7. The heart is the seat of passion 8. Why the heart a fitter seat for the soul then the liver 9. A double unity to wit of the matter and of the form I. IF blood were begot in the liver there should be some Cavity in it that the blood there might be concocted and receive its form for in the stomack Heart Gall bladder c. there are sensible cavities for generation and reception of the Chylus vital blood choler urine c. but in the liver there is no such receptacle and to say that the blood is begot in the substance of the liver is to make penetration of bodies Therefore it is more likely according to Aristotle's Doctrin That blood is begot in the heart If it be objected that if blood were not begot in the liver to what end did Nature fasten the gall-bagg to the liver if it were not to purge the blood and receive its excrementitious ' choler as the spleen doth its melancholy I answer The gall and spleen do not purge the blood made by the liver but that matter which was to be prepared by the liver for the heart the heart then makes the blood which was prepared by the liver and purged by the gall and spleen that the matter might be the fitter to receive the form of blood in the heart being purged before from its gross humors II. Because the heart is the original of the nutritive and â—uctive faculties it must also be the original of the veins â—hrough which these faculties are conveyed through the whole body The liver then hath not so much heat as is requisite for â—utrition auction and generation Therefore the original of these must be in the heart which is the fountain of heat â— And because the heart is the seat of Passions it must be also the original of sense and motion without which there can be no passion and consequently it must be the first organ of the nerves 3. The heart and veins have the same essential form which is nutritive or vitall the same essential work and end also which is to nourish the body or to give it life and vegetation The like may be said of the nerves therefore it must follow that the matter of the heart veins and nerves is the same and that from the heart they have their beginning III. The Galenists will not have the heart the originall of the nerves and vâ—ins because they do not beat as the arteries do which they grant proceeded from thence but rather will have the liver to be the original of them as also of blood because when the liver is corrupted sanguification fails and so arises Hydropsies I answer though the nerves and veins arise from the heart yet they beat not as the arteries do because the blood in the veins is grosser less hot and spirituous then that in the arteries and the nerves beat not because they have not those â—umes which by the motion of the arteries must be expelled their heat also is tempered by the frigidity of the brain and if there were any motion in the nerves it could not be so easily discerned because of the thickness of the nerves and their lying deeper within the body as for Hydropsies they are caused not because the liver doth not sanguisie but because it doth not prepare fit matter for the heart to sanguifie And indeed if the liver did sanguisie the Hydropick would presently die upon the cessation of that action for life cannot subsist without nutrition nor this without sanguification Therefore doubtless in Hydropsies the heart being found converts some part of that inconcocted matter into blood which the corrupted liver could not prepare and by this means the hydropick lives a while IV. All the blood in the veins is not elaborated in the heart but only that portion which is by the arteries distributed into al parts of the body and hath a formative power over the veinal blood The heart blood then is not conveyed by the Vena cava into the body but by the arteries 2. When the heart is called the original of the veins we do not mean the efficient cause for that is the formative power joyned to the heart but the place in which they are formed And there is no place so fit for this generation both of blood veins and other parts as the heart because it is the fountain of heat whose action is the first and the most common of all actions in the body for without the action of heat there can be neither nutrition motion sensation nor understanding as it works by the phantasie V. If the arterial blood were not the nutriment of the body and so wasted being converted into the substance of the body what becomes of it all it must infinitely increase being it is continually generated and not wasted neither can the veinal blood nourish but as it is perfected and receives its form by and from the arterial blood VI. That the heart is the proper seat of the blood appears by this that the blood never thickneth in the heart as it doth in other places being out of the veins But whereas the blood is found curdled in the heart of dead bodies and thin in the veins of the liver it is plain that the blood had received its full concoction and perfection in the heart but not in the liver as being not so fibrous and therefore more thin and watrish VII Because the heart is the seat of passions and appetite it follows that it must be also the seat of sensation for without this there can be no appetite in the sensitive creature and if of sensation then also of nutriment for the sensitive includes the nutritive faculty and if it be the original of the nutritive it must be also of blood by which we are nourished and consequently of the veins which conveyeth the blood chiefly of Vena Cava which ariseth from the superficies of the heart and so fastned to it as to its principle that it cannot be parted from it VIII Because the heart is an organical body being distinct into divers dissimular parts it is a fitter place for the soul then the liver which is altogether simular seeing the soul is the act of an organicall body and therefore the nutritive faculty must be rather in the heart then the liver and though sensation be by the simular parts yet motion requires dissimular and organicall parts because divers bendings and turnings require divers organs IX All sensitive creatures have a
and menstruous bloud as Galen thought For 1. In Trees and Herbs there is this naturall héat yet no menstruous bloud in insects begot of putrified matter there is this heat but neither seed nor the foresaid bloud 2. This heat must diffuse it self through all the least parts of the body without which they cannot live but if it be a body there must be penetration of bodies if there bee this diffusion if there be only an agglutination of this heat to the parts of the body then these parts have not life in themselves and consequently neither nutrition or attraction which are the effects of life and by which it is preserved and so the Fibres which are given for attraction are in these parts in vain 3. If this body of our natural heat did live before it was articulated and distinguished into membeâ—s then the heart is not the first thing that liveth besides it will follow that the soul may be the act of an inorganical body which is against the definition of the soul. 4. Nor can the bloud in the veins be this body because this bloud is the effect of concoction and nutrition and it is bloud only but that body of Galens is the effect of generation and the mixture of seed and bloud 5. If this natural heat hath no life in it then it will follow that the chief part of the living creature is without life 6. This heat then is a quality in children more vigorous and intense then in men because its work in these is only to concoct and nourish but in those to extend the body also which is a greater work and therefore requires more heat Besides children cannot endure hunger so well as men because their heat being greater wastes the bodie sooner where it hath not food to work upon children then are more hot intensively but men extensively because their bodies are larger according to the dimension of which their heat is diffused And although they can eat harder and more solid meats then children it argues not that their heat is greater then that of childrens but that their instruments of mastication which is the first concoction are better and stronger V. That mans body might be a fit habitation for the Soul it was made of all bodies the most 1 temperate and 2 proportionable 3 the most copious of organs so that it may well be called a Microcosm containing as in an epitome the parts of the great world 4. It was also made naked as needing no other arms or defence then what man was by his reason tongue and hands able to furnish himself with 5. It was made not of an heavenly but of an elementary substance because man was made for knowledge this is got by the senses these are grounded on the proportion of the 4 prime qualities of which the Heavens are not capable 7. It was made strait that 1 man may be put in minde of his original that he came from heaven in respect of his soul 2 That he might affect and seek after the things above not here below 3. He abounds more in spirits and heat then other creatures and the heat and spirits raise the body upwards towards their own proper place 4. If man had not been of a strait body his hands which were made for many excellent uses must have been hindred and employed with the feet for motion and supporting of his body 6. Hee was made with long feet that his body might be the more steddy and strongly supported with feet forward because all his actions and motions tend that way 7. He was not made with wings to fly because he had hands to make him fly on the water in ships and he had knowledg to make him fly to Heaven in contemplation with the wings of Faith we can fly swifter farther then David could have don with the wings of a Dove VI. Mans head is of all parts in the body the noblest therefore it is placed in the highest Region and nearest Heaven which it resembleth both in figure and use it is almost round 1. That it may be the more capacious of spirits and of brain of which is more in man then in any other creature because in him is more variety and perfection of animal spirits then in other creatures 2. That it may bee the fitter for motion 3. That it might be the stronger and more able to resist injuries Again for use It is like Heaven for this is the seat of the Angels or Intelligences and that is the seat of the Intellect so far forth as it is the seat of the phantasie by which the intellect worketh and of the senses by which the phantasie is informed And as all sublunary bodies receive life sense or motion from the Heavens so do all our members from the Head so that if our brain be wounded sense and motion in the body presently cease The head is that by which man is Lord over the beasts therefore deserved to have the highest place in the body it is the Citadel of this little world in the safety of which consisteth the safety of the body therefore hands feet arms and all are ready to protect the head when it is in danger Hence anciently the head and brains were honored above the other members they used to swear by the head per caput hoc juro per quod pater ante solebat When any sneezed they were wont to blesse them with a prayer because the brain is affected in sneezing Men use to uncover their heads to their superiours intimating that they discover and present to their service the noblest part of their bodies and for honours sake the Priest abstained from eating of the brains 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 THE Animal and Vital Spirits are so called not only because we have sense and life by them but also because they first have life and animation in themselves for otherwise how could the soul give life and sense to the body by these which are not as some think capable of either 2. These spirits are parts of our bodies parts I say not solid and containing but fluxil and contained 3. They are one with the vessels members to which they do adhere one not specifically but quantitatively so the grisle is one with the bone that ends in the grisle 4. These spirits are not the same with the vapours that are in our bodies For the vapours are excrements and hurtful to us therefore nature strives to expel them but the spirits are parts helpful to us therfore nature labors to retain them 5. These spirits somtimes are extinguished by violence somtimes are wasted for defect of food and maintenance he that is
drowned hath his spirits extinguished he that dieth of sicknesse hath his spirits wasted Thus the flame in the candle by the wind is extinguished by the defect of wax it is wasted the quantity remains in that it is lost in this II. The Animal Vital and Natural spirits are distinct in their originals for the animals are from the brain the vital from the heart the natural from the liver 2. In their Vessels for the animal are in the nerves the vital in the arteries the natural in the veins 3. In their operations from the animal we have sense and motion from the vital life from the natural auction and nutrition 4. The vital spirits remain when the animal and natural are gone In a Palsie there is neither sense nor motion in an Atrophy there is neither auction nor nutritition and consequently neither animal nor natural spirits and yet there is life and vital spirits 5. The Natural spirits are in every part of the body so are not the Animal and Vital but in their proper vessels 6. The motion of the Animal spirits is voluntary and in our power so is not the motion of the other spirits 7. The Animal spirits rest in sleep the Vital and Natural are then most active 8. The Animal spirits are subject to fatigation and cessation the others not 9. In Vegitables there are Natural and Vital spirits but not Animal in imperfect Animals there are all three but grosser and colder therefore not so apt to be dissipated III. That there is no active seed in the female for generation but that she is meerly passive in furnishing only the Matter or Menstruous bloud with the place of conception is according to Aristotle manifest because if the females seed were active she may conceive of her self without the help of the male seeing she hath an active and a passive principle to wit seed and bloud and where these principles are there will be action and passion If the Galenists object that the females seed is colder then the males and therefore not procreative without it I answer That though it be colder then the males yet it is hotter then the bloud and therefore active the bloud being meerly passive Again the heat of the males seed is but an accident no ways concurring essentially to generation but only by way of fomenting and cherishing the females seed as the heat of the Hen doth to the generation or production of the Partridg wheras the whole power and faculty of generation was in the Egg not in the Hen so by this opinion the males seed affords nothing but heat or fomentation 2. If the females seed bee active and the males too it will follow that two efficients numerically different and having no subordination to each other do produce one effect which is absurd 3. It will follow that there are three material causes to wit the males seed the females and the bloud and therefore must be three forms for one form hath but one matter 4. It will follow that the female is perfecter then the male as having more principles of generation to wit the seed the bloud and the place or matrix 5. And in this respect that the male will stand more in need of the female then she of him he being more indigent of these principles of generation then she and having a greater desire to perpetrate the species then she 6. The Galenists are mistaken in thinking those glandulous substances in the female to bee testicles containing seed whereas they are kernels to receive the superfluous moisture of the matrix 7. The arteries nerves and veins are not spermatical parts for of the seed no parts are procreated but they are sanguineal as the flesh differing from the flesh in this that being cut they do not unite again as the flesh because of their hardnesse and drinesse and want of that moisture which is in the flesh 8. The males seed being received into the menstruous bloud doth evaporate and turn into spirits animating the informed masse 9. The child sometimes resembleth the Father sometimes the Mother according to the predominancy of the seed or the bloud 10. As the bloud nourisheth the nerves veins c. so it may be transformed into them 11. The bloud may be called seed because the seed is begot of it and as in Vegitables Hearbs and Trees are begot of seed so in animals procreation is of the bloud Hence Christ is called the Seed of the Woman IV. The Adeps or fat in our bodies is generated not by heat for heat dissolves and melts it 2. Coldest temperaments are fattest as Women are fatter commonly then men in Winter creatures are fatter then in Summer in cold more then in hot Climats men are fatter English and Dutch are fatter then Italians or Spaniards 3. Fat adheres only to the colder parts as the membranes Nor is it generated by cold For 1. No part of our body is actually cold but hot 2. The Kidneys and heart which are very hot have far adhering to them 3. Melancholy men and old men who are cold have little or no fat It remains then that the Adeps is begot of a temperate heat which in respect of a greater heat may be called cold as the brain in respect of the heart And nature hath placed the fat next to the cold membranous parts for cherishing of them so the far of the Cawle was chiefly ordained for fomenting of the stomach which is oftentimes wasted by the excessive heat of the liver Hence it is that a hot liver is accompanied with a cold stomach for the hot liver like a cupping glafse sucks and draws the heat of the neighbouring parts to it V. When we consider the cold flegm with which the lungs are still infested 2. The office of them which is to refrigerate the heart 3. Their colour which is whitish we would think that they were of a cold constitution On the other side when we 1. look upon their light and spongy substance 2 on their office which is to temper and warm the cold air that it may not offend the heart 3. On their nutriment which is the cholerick or bilious bloud we would think they were hot of constitution and indeed so they are and cold only by accident by reason of the external air and water from the brain and other parts CAP. V. 1. The prerogative of the heart 2. The actions of our members 3. There are no spermatical parts 4. The bones nerves veins c. why not easily reunited 5. The spermatical parts hotter then the sanguineal 6. The brains and scull bones and teeth compared THE Heart hath divers prerogatives above other members 1. It is the Fountain of our natural heat 2. Of the Vital spirits from whence the Animal have their Original 3. It is placed in the midst of the breast 4. It is the first that lives and the last that dies 5. It is of that absolute necessity that the welfare of the sensitive
Though the stomach be delighted and satisfied with the meat it receiveth yet it is not thereby immediately and properly nourished but by the blood therefore nature hath furnished it with divers veins neither can the Chylus be fiâ— nutriment till it be turned into blood the cholerick melancholy watrish excrements be separated from it Besides how can the stomach be nourished with Chylus when the body is red only by Clysters which the liver sanguifies or how are those creatures fed with Chylus which eat not but sleep all the Winter Thâ— animal or sensitive hunger therefore of the ventricle is satisfied upon the receiving of meat but its natural hunger is not satisfied till the blood be converted into its substance 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 THough sanguification and the separation of the three excrementitious humours from the blood bee the work of the Liver not of the Stomach yet it will not follow that the Liver is hotter then the Stomach for this work is done not so much by heat as by the temper and constitution of the Liver although I deny not but heat hath in this its action which cannot be so great in separating the parts of the blood which is a liquid substance as that of the stomach and intestins concocting hard and solid substances into liquid and separating the earâ—â—hy excrâ—ments from the purer parts II. The Liver sends by the Veins into all parts of the body these spirits which they call natural for to send up the force of the innate spirits which are in every part of the body these natural spirits are grosser then the vital and animal therfore contained within the thin walls of the veins and they are begot of blood and thin vapours therefore are preserved and cherished by the blood and air which air cannot come to the Liver by inspiration but only by transpiration which is performed in the hollow of the Liver by arteries in the convex or gibbous part of the Liver by the continual motion of the Diaphragma III. Nature hath fastned a little vessel to the Liver for recâ—ption of the choler which because it is noxious to the Liver it is thrust out by it and because of the sympathy it hath with that little vessel it is drawn in by that by a secret instinct as Iron by the Load-stone with which notwithstanding it is not fed being a pure excrement the Lungs indeed are fed with cholerick blood the Spleâ—n with melancholick blood the Kidneys with watrish but not with pure excrementitious choler melancholy and water That Vessel then is fed by blood communicated to it by its two veins called Cisticae which were not placed there in vain And though this humour be pernicious to other parts of the body yet it doth no way hurt this little vessel which argues the great sympathy and familiarity that is between them 2. The obliquity of the passage by which the choler is carried from the Liver to the Gall is no hindrance to its motion seeing this motion follows not its Elementary form but the attractive faculty of this vessel thus the waâ—rish blood which is heavy is drawn upward by the brain 3. The Gall hath two passages one from the Liver by which it draws the choler the other from the DuodenuÌ„ by which it thrufts out the choler into the intestins when it becomes offensive either by its quantity or by its acrimony which it may contract with long stay in each of these 2 passages there is a Valvula or shutter the one is to keep the reflux of the choler from the gall to the Liver the other that it may not recoil from the intestine into the gall 4. They in whom the passage of the gall reacheth to thâ— bottom of the stomach are troubled with often vomiting of choler but they in whom this passage reacheth below the Duâ—denum are troubled with cholerick dejections 5. The Gall as also the Bladder have but one membrane whereas the stomach and inâ—estins have two because these were appointed for concoction whereas the Gall and Bladder were only made to contain for a time the choler and urine 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 AS nature hath made the Gall to receive the â—holer that the blood may not be there with infected as sometimes it is when the Gall is obstructed whence comes the yellow â—aundise so it hath ordained the Spleen to receive the grosse and melancholy blood that the purer blood may not bee infected with it as it is in the black Jaundise 2. There is no member so much subject to obstructions as the spleen which cannot proceed from its vessels for they are capacious nor yet from its substance for that is spungy therefore it must be caused by the feculency and thicknesse of blood 3. It was fitting that the Spleen should abound in arteries that the grosse blood thereof might receive the vital faculty and that it might bee the more attenuated and purged and the languishing heat ther of excited 4. It was not requisite that there should bee any sensible capacity in the Spleen as there is in the Gall and Kidneys because the melancholy humour is much lesse then the choler or watrish neither was it to be sent away in that plenty as the other are Besides in stead of cavity it abounds in Veins and Arteries II. There is a short vessell called Vas venosum reaching from the Spleen to the bottom of the Stomach and conveying some part of the melancholy blood thither for exciting the appetite and binding of the bottom of the stomach the closer for helping of concoction which it doth being of a cold sowre and stipick quality III. The Spleen oftentimes purgeth it self by the internal Hemorrhoids which arise from the Splenetical vein and somtimes by the urine not through the emulgent veins which are far distant from the Splenetical these having their originall from Vena porta the emulgent from Vena cava but through certain arteries made purposely large not so much for carrying of the spirits as of this humour which is still accompanied with much water for attenuating the thick humour therefore melancholy men are much given to spitting sweating and urine chiefly in a quartan Fever Hence melancholy is called water sometimes IV. The Kidneys were made to draw and contain for some time the serous â—r watrish excrement of the blood which by the Uriters it sends away to the bladder but the crude humours which critically are evacuated by urine are
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
the superfluous moisture of the body by the natural heat be exhausted and the organs made drier 3. The bodies of other creatures are not capable of mans soul because they are not of that fabrick temper and constitution 4. The faculties of the animal soul have not their originall from the gross and earthy part of the seed but from the aereal by means of its celestial heat 5 The rational soul bringing with it all its perfections the former faculties of sense and vegetation which were in the Embryo give place to it so that now it alone works by its faculties 6. The seed brings with it from the parents it s own heat by which the formative faculty worketh the heat of the matrix is not operative but conservative of the other heat 7. The seed consisting of grosser and aereal parts cannot be called uniform and if it were yet it may have divers operations and faculties ad extra so hath the Sun and other uniform bodies 8. The Embryo is not capable of three specificall forms or souls for so it should be a threefold compound specifically distinct but it is capable of divers generical forms and subordinate the superior being preparatives for reception of the inferior and ultimate specificall form which giveth name and entity as the rational soul doth to the child being perfected 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 câ—used AS soon as the child groweth big about the fourth month the menstruous blood flowes upward to the breasts and when the child is born it flowes from thence and being suck'd by the child the veins of the breasts do avoid vacuity draw the blood upward for generation of new milk 2. In the breasts of Virgins and of some men also there is sometimes found a whitish liquor which is not milk because it hath neither the tast nor thickness nor nutritive quality of milk 3. The breasts or paps are glandulous bodies principally ordained for generation of milk and in the second place for reception of excrementitious humors and guarding of the heart 4. The reason why about the fourth month the blood flowes upward into the breasts is that the child growing big and wanting sufficient food might struggle to get out which it would not do having sufficient nutriment 5. It is not fit that the child out of the womb should feed on blood as it did in the womb because then the mouth of the veins being opened the blood would run out and so nature be overthrown neither would God accustom man to blood left he should become cruel and bestial II. Upon the inflammation of the diaphragma follow oftentimes phrensies by reason of the society it hath by the nerves with the brain to which it sendeth fumes and hot vapors which phrensie is known from that of the brain by the shortness of the breath the chief organ of breath being ill-affected so that the breast cannot freely move it self and because the Diaphragma is united to the Pleura and Peritonaeum which containeth all the organs in the inferiour belly hence all these parts are drawn upwards by the motion of the Diaphragma III. The tunicle of the heart called Pericardium hath within it a water for refrigeration and moistning of the heart which is begot of vapours condensate by the coldness of the membrane as some think or else it sweats through the tunicles of the veins and arteries they that have hot hearts have but little of this water and it abounds most where the heart is colder but whether the defect of this water be the cause of the heat in the heart or the heat the cause of this defect it is uncertain as it is with the sea-water which is turned into vapours by the suns heat and these vapours turned into water again by the coldness of the middle Region so the heat of the heart turns this water into vapours and the membrane converts these vapours into water again and so this circulation continues till the heat of the heart be extinguished by death then is found water onely IV. The heart hath a peculiar hard flesh of its own that it might be the better able to undergo its perpetual motion to contain the spirits and life-blood and to resist external injuries 2. This flesh is not musculous because the motion of the muscles is voluntary but the hearts motion is natural 3. The heart hath both straight transverse and circular fibers for attraction and expulsion and oblique fibers also for retension but these fibers are of the same substance with the heart and not of a different as the fibers of the Muscles which are parts of the nerves and Tendons 4. The heart is fed with gross blood answerable to its own gross substance by the vein called Coronaria compassing the Basis of the heart 5. The heart hath two ventricles whereof the right is hottest extensive as Aristotle will have it for it contains the life-blood the left is hottest intensive as containing the vital spirits and so Galen saith 6. If we consider the situation of the right ventricle which is in the right side and the priviledge it hath in living longer then the left we may with Aristotle say that the right ventricle is the more noble of the two but if we consider that the left ventricle contains the vitall spirit which in dignity excels the blood which is in the right we must with Galen give the preheminence to the left and so these two may be reconciled V. The heart is a hot and drie substance that it might be the fitter both to beget and to preserve the vital spirits to attenuate the venal and to procreate the arterial blood And though the spirits be hotter extensively yet the substance of the heart is hotter intensively as burning coles are hotter then flaming straw VI. The vital faculty by which the vital spirits are ingendred for animating the body and preserving the natural heat is an effect of the soul as all faculties are and not of the heart yet here it chiefly resides because of the soul which here exerciseth her chief functions of life 2. This vital faculty differs from the animal because it is not subject to fatigation nor rests in sleep nor doth it accompany the imagination or apprehension of the object as the animal doth 3. It is different from the pulsifick faculty because this is subservient to the vital neither doth the pulsifick beget spirits or is it diffused every where as the vital is 4. The vital differs from the vegitive faculty because the vegitive is in plants and insects but not the vital as it is procreative of spirits for the dull heat of insects is not so soon spent as to need
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
of one who could make pens and write with his toes cut carve and feed himself as well as we with our hands but his toes were longer then ordinaryâ— and proportioned like our fingers Montague in his Essays l. 1. c. 22. writes of another who with his toes could discharge a Pistol take off his hat play at cards and dice and handle his sword as well as we with our hands by which we see how custom becomes another nature VII Though it be rare yet it is natural for a fly to be ingendred in mans body the mater being disposed to receive that form for Zacutus Obse 101. writes of one who being pained in his yard at last voided a sly by his urine VIII As there be some masculin women so there are some feminate men such was he who from twenty to forty five had his monthly vacuation of blood as women have by which it seems his constitution was altogether feminine moist and cold therefore was smooth skinned having no Beard nor hair at all on his body Zacut. Obs. 102. l. 2. prax mir IX Of the many moustrnous shapes which are begot of women We may read in Winrichius Parrie Rumelinus Levinús Lemnius and divers other Physitians Phylosophers and Historians whose Testimonies and Examples I alledge not because I would be brief the cause of these Monsters cannot be the mothers imagination as most think for the imagination makes not impression on the Embryo but of such things as the mother earnestly desires as she that lusted earnestly for a rose which having with much difficulty got for it was not rose time she greedily smelled to it and laid it up in her bosome upon which the impression of a rose was made in the childs skin But what mother will lust to have a child with a dogs head or of any other monstruous shape seeing they abhor such conceptions Therefore such monstruous shapes are the effects of the formative faculty in the seed which if it be peccant either in quantity or quality or if there be any fault in the place of conception or in the menstruous blood of the mother then the formative aiming at the specifical shape but missing of it by reason of these impediments rather then it should be idle and do nothing it brings in the generical form of an animal either perfect or imperfect as the matter is disposed though I denie not the influence of the heavens but this is only a remote and universal cause X. I have read of one who had a horn grew upon his heel a foot long which being cut off did grow again and doubtless would have still renued if the tough and viscous matter which fed it had not been diverted and evacuated by issues purges and phlebotomy for when Nature hath found a passage for evacuation thither she sends the supersluities But more strange it is that children should be born with horns on their heads Of such I have read Hildanus writes that he saw a man on whose head grew a horn crooked like a rams horn in his Chirurgical observations Gent. 2. Obs. 25. The story therefore of Iupiter Amon may not be incredible CHAP. VII 1. The effects of bloud being drunk 2. Some strange diseases 3. Plica Polonica 4. Some eat poison without hurt 5. Stones in the Intestines 6. Old men become young 7. Some strange monsters I Have read of one who was poysoned with drinking bulls blood of another who grew mad by drinking of mans blood of a third who by drinking of his wiâ—es monâ—hly blood was so enamoured with his own wise that he hated in respect of her all other women some from hence have concluded that there is poyson in these creatures blood but I am not of their minde for doubtlesse if the flesh of these creatures be found and wholesome the blood out of which the flesh is made cannot be venomous 2. The blood of a Bull is grosse fibrous stopping and hard of concoction and so to weak stomacks may prove accidentally hurtful or deadly but not to a strong stomack 3. It may kill even a strong body if it be taken in too great a quantity and so may any meat and the best wines in this respect prove poisonable 4. If mans blood were poisonable then Catalin and his companions had been poisoned when they dranke mans blood at the taking of their solemne Covenant against the State as Salust shews Then Polyphemus had been poisoned by Vlisse's fellows Dum visceribus miserorum sanguine vescitur atro What will become of the Canibals 5. The menstruous blood of women is as sound as any other blood in the veins if the body be found but if it be imperfect or corrupted with malignant humours it may be poisonable but I deny that there is any such vertue in blood as to procure love this may be an illusion of Satan who delights in blood II. Strange are the diseases that some bodies are subject too I have heard of one who being troubled with a burning feaver had his veins opened out of which with the blood there slipt out a worm of a foot long another had a red spot which did rise in his foot the bredth and colour of a red rose which did now and then remove from one place to another and in what place soever it was caused an intolerable burning which could be nothing els but a scalding blood carried up and down by hot and fiery spirits of these two Zacutus speaks l. 3. and of a third whose skin grew as hard and rugged as the bark of a Tree III. Some uncouth and strange diseases have appeared in this latter age of the world not heard of heretofore one is mentioned by Rodoric Fonseca cons. 1. in his consultations called Plica Polonica because in Poland it rageth most this diseas suddenly weakneth the body curleth the hairs of the head and intangleth them so that they represent the shape of snakes and being pricked drop with blood and swarm with lice and make a loathsome smell This disease proceeds doubtless from the corruption of the aire the grosseness of the diet their frequenting of close stoves the infection of the blood and the abundance of viscous humours and grosse vapours which nature sends to the skin of the head and to the hairs I will not speak here of the Scurvy the French disease the English sweat and others too well known among us IV. Strange is the variety of tempers and constitutions among men Arnoldus de villa nova in specula c. 77 speaks of a maid who familiarly did eat spiders which sheweth that either spiders are not venomous or else her body was of the same temper that Monkies are who eat spiders But that is more strange which is mentioned by Galen l. 3. c. 18. Simpl. Of an old woman that ate Henbane plentifully without hurt it seems she had the stomach of swallows which feed upon this poisonable weed I have read of some that have
eaten Scammony others Opium others Hellebor and of some that without hurt have swallowed quick-silver that must be attributed to their particular tempers and strength of heat by which they mastered these poisons V. As stones are ingendred in the kidneys bladder and other parts so are they also sometimes bred in our intestins for there are some that void stones familiarly by the stool and I have read of one who was killed by a stone that grew stuck fast to his colon the bignesse of a ches-nut this sure must proceed from the extraordinary heat of the intestins and viscous matter impacted there for the heat baked the matter to the consistence and hardnesse of a stone by drying up the watrish moisture thereof VI. I have read of some old men and women that have becom young again that is to say after they had lost their teeth strength and beauty have recovered all at 80 or 100 years of age their veins filled with blood new teeth a fresh colour their white haires turned black and in women their monethly flowers fresh and orderly This is not unlikely for if after a fever or other great sicknesse nature recovers her lost beauty vigour colour and decayed spirits and senses why may not she doe the like in some people seeing there is not in old age a total privation of these perfections there but a decay and we may observe that many who are old weak and sickly when they are young are young lusty and healthy when they grow old VII I have read of men that have had milk in their brests which is likely if they were of a cold moist and feminine complexion abounding in blood of women also who have had four breasts all full of milk which is probable seeing there be many monsters that have superfluous members according to the superabundance of the parents seed and prolifical blood but of all monsters that which is mentioned by Buchanan in his History of Scotland is most wonderful which had beneath the navel one body but above two bodies when it was hurt beneath the navel both bodies felt the pain if hurt above the body felt only that was hurt These two would sometimes differ in opinions and quarrel the one dying before the other this pined away by degrees it lived 28 years could speak divers languages and were by the Kings command taught Musick Doubtlesse nature aimed at twins but failed in the lower part Neither was this one Individuum but two because they were two souls as appears by their different wills and it is the form not the matter that is the cause of individuation CHAP. VIII 1. Of divers and strange spleens 2. Black urine 3. One lived without sleep 4. The Tarentula's effects and cure The force of Musick 5. Serpents begot of dead brains 6. Of Tiberius his sight Alexanders sweat Strabo's eyes FAllopius in his Anatomical Observations l. 1.6 writes that he hath found three Spleens in one man Gemma in his Cosmocritick speaks of two Spleens that he found and hee writes of one who had the Spleen in the right side and the Liver in the left in l. 1. Cyclognomonick p. 75. Some have Spleens of incredible bignesse and weight others have them fastned to their breasts others loose and swimming up and down others again have had no Spleen at all and such have died of the black jaundice for the blood and skin could not but bee infected with that melancholy humour wanting the Spleen which is the proper receptacle of it II. For a man in a burning fever or one that is oppressed with melancholy humours to void black urine is no wonder but for one that is sound all the days of his life to pisse black urine as Petraeus sheweth is somewhat strange Disput. 5. de urinis num 22. But doubtless the constitution of that man was melancholick for the black colour in any thing is caused by the predominancy of earth therefore ater quasi à terra And earth is most predominant in melancholick tempers besides the watrinesse of natural heat may be the cause of black Urine III. Whereas the animal spirits and strength of our bodies are wasted by watching therefore sleep is ordained to repair and refresh the decayed strength and spirits Yet Fernelius in his Pathology lib. 5. c. 2. speaks of one who lived without sleep 14 moneths But this man was possessed with madnesse whose brain being heated with adust melancholy did beget animal spirits without much wasting of them Thus we see that hot and cholerick constitutions can endure longer without sleep then cold and moist complexions IV. The effects of the Tarentula in mens bodies are strange and various and no lesse strange is the cure for their sting and poison cause some to laugh some to weep some drowsie and stupid and some jovial and merry These divers effects must proceed from the diversities of poison that is in them for it seems these venomous creatures are not all of one kind or els these doe proceed from the different constitutions and tempers of those men that are stung with them Thus we see what different effects drunkennesse doth cause in men and so doth musick but whether this poisonable humour be cured by the musick or by their dancing and labour by which the pores are opened and the poison by sweat expelled is questionable but I think by both for even in musick there is great power over the minde and affections and consequently over the diseases and humours which are mitigated or exasperated according to the minde and affections This we see in Sauls melancholy which was cured by Davids Harp Such force there was in Timothy the Milesian that when he pleased he could by the power of his musick make Alexander take up and lay downe Arms. Not to speak of that Dane who by his musick could make men mild sad and merry at his pleasure V. That a Serpent should bee in gendred of a dead mans brain is no more impossible then for Snakes or Eels to be begot of Horse hairs or for divers sorts of beasts to breed in women upon depraved conceptions And doubtlesse as Satan in the form of a Serpent brought mortality upon mankind so he doth sometimes triumph in that shape over mans mortality God in his judgement permitting sometimes that dead brain to be turned into a Serpent which when it was alive did hatch so many Serpentine plots and imaginations VI. I read in Suetonius that Tiberius the Emperour could see perfectly in the dark And Curtius writes that Alexander did smell sweetly when he sweat I have read of men and women who can fascinate and hurt others with their eyes Pliny and Solinus write of one Strabo who from a Promontory in Sicily could see the ships that went out of the Harbour at Carthage which is 55 Leagues These are strange and rare priviledges in which God doth manifest his power and shâ—weth that he is not tied to the Laws of nature Yet
but a natural antipathy and that Fascination is caused by a contagious breath infecting the aire is plain by the story of the Basilisk killing with his look or breath rather at a distance There is also a Fascination by words which the Poet mentions Ecl. 11. Qui ne ultra placitum laudarit Bacâ—â—are frontem Cingite ne vati noceat mala lingua futuro We know there is great efficacy in words to move the affections upon which the spirits and humours of the body are disturbed which causeth oftentimes diseases CHAP. IV. 1. Strange stones bred in mens bodies 2. Children nourished by Wolves and other Beasts 3. Poison taken without hurt Poison eaters may infect how How Grapes and other Plants may bee poisoned 4. Of strange Mola's Bears by lieking form their Cubs the Plastick faculty still working THERE is nothing more strange in mans body then the generation of stones whereof there be so many and diversly shaped in the joints stones are bred by the gout called therefore Lapidosa Chiragra stones are bred ordinarily in the kidneys and bladder of slimy matter by the heat of these parts some are ingendred in the Liver and Spleen some also in the heart Hollerius speaks Com. 1. in lib. 6. Sect. 2. Aphor. 4. of a woman which died of an imposthume in the heart wherein were found two stones in the heart of Maximilian the second Emperour were found three stones which afflicted him very much with a trembling of the heart as Wyerus witnesses l. 4. c. 16. In the intestins also sometimes stones have beene found Zacutus speaks lib. 3. de prax ad obs 124. of a young man disordered in his diet who used to void by the seed divers stones and at last died of a stone that was found in his Colon in form like a Chesnut and as big this could not bee voided whilest the party lived neither by Glysters nor Purges nor any other physick some have thought that these stones in the intestins are hardned by cold which cannot be for though intense cold doth harden as well as heat which we may see in frosts hardning water and dirt in the generation of chrystal and though we should yeild to Galen that the intestins being membranous and spermatical parts are colder then the sanguineal yet we cannot yeild that in a living body there is actual cold for all parts are hot yet some more some lesse therefore these stones are not ingendred by cold but by a preâ—ernatural heat in the body The same Zacutus Obs. 135. l. 3. speaks of a strange stone found in a mans bladder it was round like a Ball but had issuing from it divers pyramids and between each of them a sharp prickle like a needle l. 1. Obs. 96. I have read of some who with coughing have voided stoneâ— out of their Lungs One l. â— Obs. 95. by coughing voided a stone out of his Lungs hard and long like a Date stone so heavy that it weighed almost twenty one grains But no stone so much to be admired was ever known as that which was found in the matrix of a dead mother of which we spake before to wit a dead childe that had continued there twenty eight years and was turned to a stone II. That some children have been nourished by wild beasts many histories do assure us Plutarch Cicero and others tell us of Romulus and Remus who were nourished by a shee Wolf Iustin assures us that Cyrus suckt the duggs of a Bitch Pausanias in his Corinthiacks writes that AEsculapius was educated by a Hinde AElian in his various Histories speaks of a Bear which gave suck to Atalanta being exposed of a Mare that nursed Pelias of a she-goat whose duggs AEgystus sucked and of Telephus that sucked a Hinde Divers others I could alledg but these are sufficient to let us see the cruelty of some parents and the kindnesse of some beasts far more merciful then man Besides the special care and providence of God towards tender and impotent infants Yet I know Livy contradicts the story of the Wolf that nursed Romulus and so doth Dr. Brown having no other inducement but that of Livies authority whereas the other Historians and Monuments of Rome affirm it Besides it is no more incredible for a Wolf to nurse a child then for a Raven every day to feed Elijah But besides ancient stories there be divers late Records of some children who have been nourished by Wolvs within these few years in our neighbour Countries In the Lantgrave of Hesse his Countrey was found a Boy who had been lost by his parents when he was a childe who was bred among Wolves and ran up and down with them upon all four for his prey This Boy was at last in Hunting taken and brought to the Landgrave who much wondring at the sight caused him to be bred among his servants who in time left his Wolvish conditions learned to walk upright like a man and to speak who confessed that the Wolves bred him and taught him to hunt for prey with them This story is rehearsed by Dresserus in his Book of new and ancient Discipline Hist. Med. part 1. c. 75. The like story hath Camerarius of two children which had been bred among Wolves and taken in the year 1544. I have read of a man bred among Wolves and presented to Charls the ninth of France And a strange story is extant written by Lewis Guyon Sieur de la Nauche l. 2. Divers Lection c. 34. of a childe that was carried away in the Forest of Ardenne by Wolves and nourished by them This child having conversed with them divers years was at last apprehended but could neither speak nor walk upright nor cat any thing except raw flesh till by a new education among other children his bestial nature was quite abolished We see then it is not incredible for children to be nursed by Wolves of which perhaps the old Irish were not ignorant when they prayed for Wolves used them kindly as if they had been their own sons as wee may read in Cambden Hist. Hiber out of Goade III. That some can take poison without hurt is plain by the story of Mithridates who could not be poisoned Profecit poto Mithridates saepe veneno Toxica nè possint saeva nocere sibi This story is confirmed by Pliny Gellius Caelius and others There is a story of the King of Cambaia's son who by constant eating of poison he had so invenomed his body that the Flies which suckt his blood swelled and died Solinus speaks of a people called Ophyophagi because they fed on serpents Avicenna speaks of one in his time whose body was so venomous that whatsoever touched it died I have read also in Aristotle of a Maid who was nourished with poison The like story is mentioned by Avicen Alb. Magnus speaks of a Maid who delighted to eat Spiders S. Augustine de morib Mon. S. 2. c. 8. speaks of a woman who drank poison without hurt
formed till it be excluded no Error will arise hence for the plastick faculty which hath its original fâ—om the sperm ceaseth not to operate after the generation of the young animal but continueth working so long as it lives For what else is nutrition but a continual generation of the lost substance though not in whole yet in part and consequently it introduceth still a new form by changing the aliment into flesh As the same Mason can build an house and repair it when decayed so can the same plastick faculty produce the animal by generation and repair it by nutrition I confesse it is not called the Plastick but Omoiastick or assimilating faculty in nutrition yet it is the same still though under different names nay it doth not cease to produce those parts after generation out of the matrix which it could not doe within it as may be seen in the production of teeth in children even in the seventh year of their age which can be nothing else but the effect of the formative faculty We see also how new flesh is generated in wounds not to speak of the nails and hairs which are produced by the same faculty not being properly parts Besides the faculty cannot perish so long as the soul is in the body being an essential property which cannot be separated from the soul. Moreover we see in some creatures that this faculty doth not work at all in the matrix but without For the Chick is not formed of the Egg whilest it is within the Hen but when it is excluded Hence then it appears that if the Ancients had held the young Bears to bee ejected without form which afterward they received by the Plastick faculty had been no Error and though some young Bears have been found perfectly formed in the womb of the Dam it is a question whether all be formed and shaped so CHAP. V. 1 Divers priviledges of Eunuchs The Fibers Testicles 2. Diversities of Aliments and Medicaments the vertuâ— of Peaches Mandrakes the nature of our aliments 3. A strange story of a â—ick Maid discussed and of strange vomitings and Monsters and Imaginations 4. Men long lived the Deers long life asserted 5. That old men may become young again proved THE Testicles were made for propagation of the Species not for conservation of the Individuum for Eunuchs or such as are emasculate have divers priviledges which others want First they are longer lived because they have more radical moisture which is not wasted by Venery Secondly they have taller bodies for the same reason Thirdly they are not troubled with so much hair because they have not much siccity and consequently not so much heat which begets siccity Fourthly they are not subject to baldnesse because their brain is not dried with Venery as others Fifthly they are not afflicted with the Gout which is the daughter of Venus who begets crude humours weaknesse of joints and of them the Gout But Capons are more gouty then Cocks because they have lesse heat and are more voracious saith Scatiger Sixthly they are fitter for spiritual exercises therefore some saith Christ have made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of Heaven which words were mis-construed by Origen such as emasculated themselves against whom are both the Canon and Civil Laws Seventhly they are fitter to be Councellors and Chamberlains to Princes for they are wise therefore Eunuchs is as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Scaliger hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they had care of the Princes bed-chamber Eightly the flesh of castrated animals is more delicate because there is in them more benigne juice neither is their flesh infected with the ungrateful and rankish relish of the Testicles Ninthly but the greatest priviledge of all is that they are not infected with the venomous vapours of that cave neer Alepo or Hierapolis which as Dio sheweth in the place of Trajan poisons all creatures except Eunuchs Scaliger gives no reason of this nor can I but that it is a secret in nature or else because the Eunuchs bodies have very few bad humours are the lesse apt to be infected with ill vapours Tenthly that as among men so among beasts there be some which castrate themselvs such is the Fibâ—r called Castor á castrandâ— and the Pontick Dog for thâ—re be store of them who makes himself an Eunuch saith Iuvenal Dr. Brown sect 12. checks the Ancients for this opinion but without cause for all agree that they bite off the two bags or bladders which hang from the groin in the same place where the Testicles of most animals are If these bee the true Testicles or not is doubtedâ— bâ—cause there is no passage from them to the yard and that the true Testicles are less and lâ—e inwards towards the back However this can bee no Error because they are a kinde of Testicles both in form and situation and so they are called Testicles by Dióscorides and the best Physitians if then this be an error it is nominal not real II. As our bodies are still decaying and subject to many infirmities so God hath provided for us all sorts of remedies partly by aliments partly by medicaments some whereof are hot some cold some moist some dry some restringent some laâ—ative some diuretick some hypnotick some spâ—rmatick some increasing or diminishing the â—oure humours of our bodies blood choler flegme and melancholy Now those aliments are called Spermatick which either increase blood for of this the Sperm is begot or which convey the Spermatick matter to the Seminal vessels or which adde vigour to the languishing Seminall Spirits such are sharp biting salt aromatick and â—â—atulent meats or lastly such as cause secundity by bringing the matrix and Seminall parts to a temperature by their contrary quality So cooling things correct the heat and hot things the coldnesse of those parts among such the Mandrakes are to be recâ—â—â—ed called by Plutarch Anthropomorphoi and Semihomines by Coluâ—ella because the forked root represents the lower parts of man the upper parts are commonly carved out by circumforaneous Medacasters These Mandrakes are of a narcotick quality therefore a dull heavy or melancholick man of old was said proverbially to have eaten Mandrakes These procure secundity by correcting the hot matrix with their frigidity Now if we say that Rachel finding her barrenneâ—â—e to proceed from excessive heat did coveâ— these Mandrakes to cool 〈◊〉 and make her â—râ—itful this can neither be thought immodesty in her nor an error in us to think so seeing the best and most Interpreters are of this opinion and the Text seems to intimate so much Dr. Browns reasons are not sufficient to prove this a vulgar error Book 7. c. 7. For 1. Though our Mandrakes have not so pleasant a smell as those of Iudea it will not follow they are not the same for plants according to the climat alter their qualities and yet Lemnius saith they have a pleasant smell in Belgium 2. Nor will it follow that Dudaim
Marius The Leprosie called Elephantiasis appeaâ—ed first in Italy in the time of Pompey He speaks also of other diseases which not long before his time sprung up in Italy A kind of Fever called Coqueluche by the French invaded their country anno 1510. England was plagued with a new sweating sicknesse anno 1529 The French malady appeared first at Naples anno 1492. The Scorbutus is but a new disease in those parts Many strange kinds of vermin have been bred in mens bodies in this last Age not known before in this part of the world Of these and many more new diseases Fernelius Fracostorius Sebizius and others do write Now it is no wonder that there are new diseases seeing there are new sins 2. New sorts of foods and gluttony devised 3. New influences of the Stars 4. New Earthquakes and pestiferous exhalations out of the Earth 5. New temperaments of mens bodies 6 Infections of waters malignant meteors and divers other causes may be alledged for new diseases but none more prevalent then the food which is converted into our substance therefore in eating and drinking wee should regard the quantity quality and seasons II. It is strange to consider the diversitie of colours caused in the same Individual body of man by the same heat the chylus milk sperm and bones are white the blood and liver red the choler yellow the melancholy green the spleen blew a part of the eye black the hairs of divers colours and yet none blew or green And as strange it is that in some the skin is tauny in others white and in others black all which is effected by one and the same Sun which as it produceth all things by its heat so it giveth colour to all things for what giveth the essence giveth also the consequences yet Dr. Brown Book 6. c. 10. will not have the Sun to be the caus of the Negro's blacknesse 1. Because the people on the South-side of the River Senaga are black on the other only tauny 2. Other animals retain their own colours in that clime 3. In Asia and America men are not so black I answer that it will not follow that the Sun is not the cause of blacknesse for he doth work upon each Subject according as it is disposed to receive his impression and accordingly produceth diversity of colours Hence in the same hot climat men are black Parrets and leaves of trees are green the Emmets as some report are white the Gold is yellow and every thing there hath its own peculiar colour and yet all are produced by the same Sun nay the same man that hath a black skin hath white teeth the same Sun at the same time in the same Garden doth cloath the Lily in white the Rose and Cherry in red and divers fruits in black it is observed that the Sun whiteneth those things which are inclined to be hard and blackneth soft things so he makes the Ethiopians teeth white the skin black he makes the green corn turn white and hard with his heat and at the same time makes the plumb black and soft women that blanch or whiten their linnen in the Sun know that he can â—an their skins but whiten their cloth â—gain the air may be more temperate and greater store of refreshing windes and exhalations on the one side of the river Niger then on the other and so the Suns operation may bee hindred which is the cause that in America and Asia under the same parallel men are not so black as in Africk where there is more heat and greater drought For it wants those fresh Winds and great Lakes and Rivers which are in Asia and America The Suns heat then is the cause of blacknesse in such as are capable of it whether the clime be torrid or frigid Hence in cold countries we finde black crowes and in hot white Swans Besides this narration is suspicious for on both sides of the River men have been seâ—n equally black and there be some in Asia as black as in Affrica He objects again That Nigro's transplanted into cold countries continue their hue therefore the Sun is not the sole cause of this blacknesse Ans. The question is not if the Sun be the sole cause but whether a cause at all which the Doctor in his former objections seemed to deny 2. I say that the Sun is the sole primary cause if there be any other causes they are secâ—ndary and subordinate to the Suns heat and influence 3. Hee may as well infer the Sun is not the cause of greennâ—sse in leaves grasse or plants in the Torrid Zone because these being transplanted into cold climats retain their hues Book 6. c. 12 And indeed he seems to make the spirit of Salt peter in the Earth the cause of viridity because in a glasse these spirits project orient greens I should like his reasons well if the verdure of the plant were not more real then that of Salt-peter in the glasse but what will he say to that Earth where is no Salt-peter at all and yet the â—earbs are green Or is there Salt-peter in a glasse of pure water where I have seen green leaves bud out of the stem of an hearb Besides I finde urine out of which Salt-peter is made to spoil the greennesse of the hearbs 4. If the impression of black which the Sun causeth in a hot clime must alter in a cold then may the other qualities also which the Sun by his heat procureth be lost in a cold countrey and so what is hard in Ethiopia must bee soft in England and the heat of Indian spices must here grow cold He objects again that there are Negroes under the Southern Tropick and beyond which are colder countries I answer that these Negroes were colonies out of hotter countries and not Aborigines or Natives at first And he confesseth there be Plantations of Negroes in Asia all which retain their original blacknesse Lastly he objecteth That in the parts where the Negroes possesse there be rivers to moisten the air and in Lybia there are such dry and sandy desarts as there is no water at all but what is brought on camels backs and yet there are no Negroes therefore drinesse cannot cause blacknesse I answer 1. It cannot be proved that the Neâ— groes who dwell neere rivers had their originall there 2. Though there may be some moist exhalations yet it seems they are not so abundant as to qualifie the Suns heat 3. Though the desarts of Lybia be dry yet they are not so hot as under the Line It is the excesse of heat and siccity together that causeth blacknesse and not one of these alone 4. We see men grow tauny here by conversing much in the Sun And further South more tauny and still as the heat increases the degrees of blacknesse increase also to deny this were to deny our senses and we see dead bodies hung in the Sun grow black the same would befall to living bodies if they continued
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
foreshewed by a skirmish between the magpies and jackdaws I have read also of skirmishes between wild-ducks and wild-geese likewise between water and land serpents premonstrating future calamities among men In this land of late years our present miseries and unnatural wars have been forewarned by armies of swallows martins and other birds fighting against one another And that privat men have been forewarned of their death by ravens I have not only heard and read but have likewise observed divers times a late example I have of a young gentleman Mr. Draper my intimate friend who about five or six years ago being then in the flower of his age had on a sudden one or two ravens in his chamber which had been quarrelling upon the top of the chimney these he apprehended as messengers of his death and so they were for he died shortly after There is then no superstition in the observation of such things for God is pleased sometimes to give men warning of their ends by such means so we finde in the life of Cicero who was forewarned by the noise and fluttering of the ravens about him that his end was near which proved true for the murtherers sent by Mark Antonie slew him presently after in his Sedan Why may not God forewarn men of their future death and calamities by birds as well as by generation of monsters apparition of comets strange showres of frogs blood stones and such like I saw a little before these last troubles of Germany divers Parseleons or Moors with crosses in the air not long before the appearing of the last blazing star Why is it less superstitious to observe such uncouth meteors then uncouth actions of birds and beasts or why is there less credit to be given to the one then the other seeing God can make use of all his creatures as he pleaseth therefore he that imployed a raven to be a feeder of Elias may employ the same bird as a messenger of death to others Camerarius out of Dietmarus and Erasinus Stella Writes of a certain fountain near the river Albis or Elbe in Germany which presageth Wars by turning red and bloudy coloured Of another which portendeth death if the water which before was limpid becomes troubled and thick so caused by an unknown Worm There is a noble Family in Bohemia vvhich is forevvarned of death by a spectrum or ghost appearing like a Woman cloathed in mourning Such an apparition had Mr. Nicholas Smith my dear friend immediatly before he fell sick of that feaver vvhich killed him having been late abroad in London as he vvas going up the stairs into his chamber he vvas embraced as he thought by a Woman all in vvhite at vvhich he cried out nothing appearing he presently sickneth goeth to bed and vvithin a vveek or ten days died Novv vvhether these things be true and real or only imaginary in the phantasie I vvill not here dispute it is sufficient that by such means many are forevvarned of their ends as Brutus was in his Tent to whom his evill Genius appeared the night before he died And why may nor our tutelary Angel by these and such like means give us warning of our dissolution We read in Histories of a Crow in Trâ—jans time that in the Capitoll spoke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things shall be well And St. Hierom tels us that the Ravens fed the two Eremites Paul and Anthony many yeares together with bread The same God that imployed these birds as Stewards to feed his servants may also use them as messengers to warn them of their migration And yet in this I doe not patromize the heathen augurations who in all their actions depended superstitiously upon the chattering flying and feeding of birds then the which nothing could be more vain seeing they cannot naturally foreknow the death of others who cannot fore see their own as that Roman Commander made appeare to his Army who shot the bird dead by whose chattering the Augur would have hindered the Armies march Yet from hence it will not follow that all observations of meteors or animals are superstitious or that they do not fore-warn at all death and future calamities seeing Historie and experience teach the contrary and Christ sheweth that before the destruction of Ierusalem there shall be signes from heaven in the Sun Moon and Starres and Sea which Iosephus confirmes Obsequeus tells us That at Rome was extraordinary thundring immediatly before Catilines conspircy the like was before the Pharsalick battel as the Roman Stories inform us in which also we find that before the invasion of Italy by the Goths under Alaricus by the Huns under Attila and by the Lombards there was more then usuall thundring and lightning presaging the calamities that were to fall on that Countrey And this very houre that I am writing this discourse Aug. 23. anno 1651. I observe that it hath continued thundring and lightning almost 14 hours with some short interruptions whereas usually thunder lasteth not above an houre or two By which I fear me God is forwarning this Land of the horrible bloodshed and calamities which are suddenly like to fall out among us which we beseech God in his mercy to avert and to give us all repenting and relenting hearts IV. That sneezing or sternutation was superstitiously abused by the Centiles in divination is manifest by their writings who used to fore-tell good or bad events by sneezing they held that propitious which was in the afternoon and towards the right hand but to sneeze in the morning or towards the left hand was counted unlucky as Aristotle sheweth So superstitious they were that if they sneezed whilst they were rising in the morning they would to bed again and if any sneezed at Table whilst the meat was taking away they would set down the meat again If the Generall of an Army did sneeze when he was going to fight he would forbeare fighting that day such an ominous thing they held sneezing to be On the other side at Monopotama sternutation was of such high esteem that when the King sneezed all the people would fall down and worship him and proclamations were sent abroad to give notice to all the Kings subjects of his sneezing to the end they might rejoyce and worship Among the rest of the Gentiles ridiculous opinions this was one That Prometheus was the first that wisht wel to the sneezer when the man which he had made of clay sell into a fit of Sternutation upon the approach of that celestiall fire which he stole from the Sun This gave originall to that custome among the Gentiles in saluting the sneezer They used also to worship the head in sternutation as being a divine part and seat of the senses and cogitation They held also sternutation one of their gods because their chiefest soothsayings and divination was by Birds hence sternutation was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bird by them by reason it is the action of the brain which is
perfect in this respect an infant and a man may be called different entities and they have their different operations yet they have the same soule If then we conclude diversities of things from diversities of operations we must inferre that every animall is different from it self because it produceth different operations and that Peter hath not the same soule when he doth different things How many different entities must there be in the Sunne who produceth so many different effects Neither do I allow of the Doctors Assertion in saying The chick is begot of the egges corruption for indeed it is begot of the egges perfection For then is the egge perfected when the chick is procreated If by corruption he understand the abolition of the form of the egge I assent to him that according to the old Peripatetick Maxime The corruption of one thing is the generation of another But if by corruption he understand putrifaction as he seems to doe I say that then a chick is not nor cannot be procreated of a putrified egge which is fitter to breed worms then a Chick IV. Because the soule is a pure and celestiall substance and our bodies are grosse and earthy on which so sublimate an entity cannot operate without a medium that may in some sort participate of both natures therefore God in his wisdom hath interposed the animall and vital spirits as the immediate instruments of the soul to work upon the body But Dr. Harvy Exercit. 70 will have the blood to be this immediat instrument of the soul because it is every where present and runs to and fro with great celerity Answ. Neither can the blood be the immediat instrument of the soul because the spirits being of a purer essence come nearer to the nature of the soule and therefore must be more immediat neither is there any ubiquitary presence or celerity of motion in the blood but by the reason of the spirits which drive it to and fro Besides all animals have not blood some being exanguious yet they have spirits by which they are moved Again he saith That the blood works above the power of the elements being the part first begot and the innate heat doth fabricate the other parts of the body Answ. The blood works not at all much lesse above the elementary powers but by vertue of the spirits which the Doctor immediatly after seems to acknowledg when he faith It is made the immediate instrument of life by the gift of the formative faculty and vegetive soule Now this formative faculty consisteth immediatly in the spirits and so doth the vegitive soule which are even in those parts where there is no blood at all to wit in the spermaticall parts according to the doctrine of Hippocrates and Galen To say then that the blood is the immediat instrument of life by means of the plastick faculty is in effect to say It is not the immediat because there is one more immediat to vvit the plastick faculty in the spirits Neither is the blood the part first begot as the Doctor saith if we will believe the Galenists but the spermatick parts are first begot if we speak of the formation of the child neither can the blood fabricate any part at all being a dull thing in it selfe but the spirits or the plastick faculty in them doe fabricate the blood is onely the materiall cause of the flesh and sanguineall parts as the Galenists affirm And whereas the Doctor saith That the blood is a spirit because Virgil saith Una cademque viâ sanguisque animusque sequuntur He speaks very improperly for blood and a spirit are specifically different and if the Poet had meant that blood and a spirit were the same thing he had used a meer tautologie which is far from his elegancie and therefore his words intimate the contrary that they are different things because he saith Sanguisque animusque though then they had but one passage or vent yet they are not one thing And whereas he saith That the blood is celestiall because the soule lodgeth in it he may say the whole body is celestiall being the house and tabernacle of the soule which lodgeth in each part thereof even where there is no blood as in the bones grisles c. But indeed the spirits are rather to be called celestiall because in them the soul immediatly resides and by them in the blood and other parts The blood then is not celestial at all but by the spirits nor these in respect of their originall but because of theiâ— celestial qualities and operations Again when he distinguisheth the principall agent from the instrumentall in this That the one can never work above its own strength whereas the other doth I say this distinction is needlesse for no agent can work above its own strength much lesse the instrumentall which worketh not at all but as it is moved by the principall agent The instrument then doth not worke above its own strength but the prime agent worketh by it above the strength of the instrument Besides when hee saith That the blood deserves the name of Spirit because it abounds more with radicall moisture then other parts by which it feeds all other parts I answer That the seed deserves rather to be called a Spirit for though in the blood there is more moisture extensively yet in the seed there is more radicall moistureâ— And if that which feeds us immediatly be a spirit then the blood is no spirit for it is not that but a roscid and benigne juice extracted from thence which immediatly nourisheth us Lastly when he saith That the soule with the blood performes all things in us If he understand here as he seemes to doe in all his discourse collaterall efficient causes I deny his saying for the soule by the spirits is the sole efficient cause of all that is acted within us the blood is onely a materiall cause having no more efficiency in it then Bricks and Mortar have towards the building of an house Doctor Harvy de Conciptione will have the Female conceive and be prolificall without any sensible corporeall Agent as Iron touched with the Loadstone draweth other Iron to it Again hee saith That the substance of the womb being ready for conception is very like the constitution of the brain Why then should not their function be alike And what the phantasme or appetite is in the brain the very same or its analogy is excited after copulation in the womb â—for the functions of both are called conceptions And shortly after As when we have conceived a form or Idaea in the brain wee produce the like in our workmanship even so the Idea or species of the Father being existant in the womb by the help of the formative faculty produceth the lik brood Then after divers amplifications to the same purpose he concludes That it is no absurdity if the female that is made pregnant by conceiving the generall Idaea without matter doth generate Answ. In
there be in a dark dungeon where yet a Cat can see The air is not a light body of it self being diaphanous for the celestiall sphears are not light neither is there any luminous body in the dark Dungeon except the Cats eyes which afford light enough to the Cat to see his object He gives us a reason why the limbs on the right side are stronger Because motion is holpen from the liver How the liver should help motion is not known in Anatomy seeing motion and its Organs are from the brain not from the liver He had better have said that motion is holpen from the heart and so might have inferred that the left side limbs are strongest But indeed the true cause why the right side is stronger then the left is because the right limbs are bigger but why Nature made them bigger or stronger no other reason can be given then that the right side is hotter because there is the fountain of blood He saith That all spongie bodies expell the air and draw in liquor This is not so for why should such a body expell the air and draw in liquor but when the liquor enters into a spongie body the air gives place as a void penetration therefore Sugar expels not the air to suck up the Wine but the wine enters into the Sugar and expels the air so that the Sugar is a meer patient He tells us That stone walls are not so wholsom as wood or bricks This assertion stands neither with experience nor reason for they who have lived with their predecessors within stone walls many hundreths of years never found any unwholsomnesse by the stones and it is against reason that dry stones who as he phraseth it are jejune of spirits should afford any vapours or unwholsom damps It 's true that in moyst weather there be some Sea-stones or such as are taken out of Rivers will sweat but I have seen such drops upon brick-walls This proceeds neither from the stone nor brick but from the air which falling upon the hard stone and being resisted for want of pores from penetrating stayeth there and by the coldness of the stone turns to water-drops even upon Marble It is certain saith he that potions incense perfumes an oyntments do naturally work upon the imaginations The contrary rather is certain to wit that the imagination worketh upon these not they upon it for according to the strength of imagination the physick works and not according to the strength of physick doth the imagination work For sometimes the smell or sight of physick have wrought not upon the imagination but upon the body by the power of imagination so that this is the prime cause why the physick worketh which will not work at all in others whose imagination is weak and dull The cramp saith he cometh of contraction of sinews either by cold or drinesse The cramp cometh by distention as well as by contraction by heat and moistnesse as well as by cold and driness A Lute string wil break as soon in moist weather when it swels as in dry weather when it shrinks And Hippocrates tells us that the cramp proceeds as well fromrepletion as from inanition for gluttony drunkennesse and suppressing of accustomed evacuations procure the cramp as well as fasting watching bleeding burning fevers and vomiting chiefly by Hellebor which I can speak to my grief for I never knew what the cramp was till I was let blood and purged with Hellebor by an unskilfull Physician And indeed the cramp is not so much the affection of the sinews as of the muscles for it is the involuntary contraction of the muscle to its originall or beginning because not the nerve but the muscle is the proper instrument of motion which by the cramp is hurt so that this infirmity hath different names from the different muscles in which it is If it be in the muscles of the eye it is called Stratismus in the yard Satyriasis in the muscle of the jaw-bone Trismus in the muscles of the mouth Spasmus Cynicus or the Dog-cramp In the Epilepsie also or falling sicknesse there is a kind of cramp And many times the cramp proceeds from flatulencies in the muscles which though they be the proper organs of convulsions or cramps yet the cause is many times in the nerves which being contracted by the sharpnesse or fulnesse of humors or by malignant vapours draw the muscles with them Because the Hedg-hog putteth forth many prickles therfore he inferres That the juyce af a Hedg-hog must needs be harsh and dry There is no necessity for this because the harsh dry matter is expelled by nature into the prickles The flesh of some fishes whose shells or skins are full of prickles is neither harsh nor dry The Rose sends forth many prickles and yet it is both pleasant odoriferous cooling and moist So are the Respberries He tells us That Mummy hath a great force in stanching of blood But I wish he could tell us where we may find it For the true Mummy which was found in the Tombes of the AEgyptian Kings which were embalmed vvith divers pretious liquors and spices are spent long agoe so that the Mummy now in use is only the substance of dried Karkasses digged out of the sands being overwhelmed there in which there is no more vertue to stanch blood then in a stick He saith All life hath a sympathy with salt In hogges I think its true for as life is the salt of a living hogge so salt is the life of a dead hogge For both life and sâ—lt keep the body from putrifying otherwise I know little or no sympathy that salt hath with life for it destroyeth the life of many creatures But he is mistaken vvhen he saith That salt draweth blood because being laid to a cut finger healeth it For salt is laid to a cut finger not to draw the blood vvhich cometh too fast of it selfe vvithout drawing but to repell the blood and to stop its running It heals them not by drawing the blood but by abstersion exsiccation astriction and resisting putrifaction Thus I have cursorily run over my Lords new Philosophy vvhich he calls a Wood and so it is indeed for here a young Scholar may quickly lose himselfe and shal encounter with many bryers and brambles I find that Phylosophy is like Wine the older the better to the taste new Wine is pleasant and so are new conscripts to the mind but to the intelligent man oldest is wholsomest and lesse flatulent And indeed that which they call new Philosophy is nothing but the old in a new dressing vvhich is neither so handsome nor so usefull as the other They have found out new terms which are neither so proper nor significant as the former They have metamorphosed the elementary qualities both first and second into spirits so that now this word like a nose of wax serves them for all shapes I find in my Lords book much
flowes from it when it is hurt 2. By the fat which is about it this would consume if the eye were fiery 3. By the watrish humour which is in the cavities of the face in the new formed Embryo 4. By the reception and conservation of the species for the fire can neither receive nor confer any image or species as the water doth VI. Though there be two eyes there is but one sight or one object seen 1. Because the optick nerves are united in one before they reach to the eyes 2. Because there is but one fantasie and one common sens which judgeth of the external object VII The eye in respect of its grosse and solid parts is a patient in seeing by receiving the species or shape not the substance into the chrystalline humor but in respect of the spirits in the eye it is an agent by perception of the species and partly a patient for there is some impression in the spirits or else by them the species could not be conveyed into the common sense and phantasie The spirits then are agents not outwardly upon the object but inwardly upon the spirits received from the object and when they are employed about som other thing in the phantasie the eye seeth not its object though the species be impressed in the chrystalline because there is required for sight not only the impression in the chrystalline but also a perception and apprehension in the spirits in which action properly and formally vision consisteth And though the spirits be no part of the eye as it is a solid substance yet they are part as the eye is the instrument of sight VIII There are in the eye when it seeth two lights the one from without whereof there is greatest quantity in the white of the eye the other from within which is most prevalent in the chrystalline disposing it to receive the species as the outward light disposeth the air The outward light if it bee not proportionable to the inward makes this unfit for vision not by extinguishing or destroying it for one light cannot destroy another but by too much extending or destroying the mean and proportion of the inward light There is besides these two a third light in the eies of owls cats such creatures as live by preying in the dark which light is not immanent in the eye but transient into the air that the medium being illuminate the species of the object might be raised IX The eye hath not such colours as are made by the mixture of the four elements or prime qualities but such only as are made by the mixture of the light and the diaphanous or perspicuous body The first sort of colours are in the dark in respect of their existence or quality the second sort hath no existence at all in the dark And though the light give not the first act or beeing to colours yet it giveth the second act in making them visible and actuating them to work upon the eye by sending their species thither CAP. III. 1. A twofold Heat in living things 2. The Primitive Heat where and how tempered 3. Our spirits are not celestial several Reasons 4. Our natural heat what it is no substance in six Reasons 5. Many excellencies of mans body 6. The Head why the noblest part and highest as Galen thinks THAT there is in living creatures besides the elementary heat another called celestial is manifest because the fire or elementary heat neither in part nor in whole is the cause of generation 2. Because the elementary heat remains after the celestial is gone as may be seen in spices which retain or rather increase their elementary heat as they grow drier being separate from the Tree and yet they want that celestial heat by which they did live and had vegetation for now being dead nutrition attraction vegetation growth and other functions of life cease which were the effects of the celestial heat 3. Because in Mandrakes and other cold herbs there is this celestial heat by which they live and yet no elementary heat at all for they are cold both actually and vertually II. As in living creatures there be divers dissimular parts so there be temperaments and diversity of heat all which are united in the heart the fountain of heat which it communicates to all parts by the bloud and spirits this primitive heat is in perfect creatures compacted within the heart in Trees and Plants within the root in Insects it is diffus'd through all the body without any union in one part more then another which is the cause that when snakes and worms are cut in pieces every piece moves which is not so in the hand or foot of perfect animals if they be cut off so wee see in some twigs of Trees that being set in the ground grow and take root which shews That the original heat and substance of the root is in every part of the Tree and that the primitive heat of the creature might bee brought to a temper refrigeration is required which in terrestrial animals is performed by the air in fishes by the water in herbs by the earth moistned by which they are nourished and refreshed III. The animal and vital spirits in our bodies are not a celestial substance as some have thought For 1. The Heavens are not subject to generation and corruption as these are 2. The Heavens are a quintessence but these are elementary or aerial 3. The Heavens cannot be diminished which they must needs be if our spirits be heavenly bodies for they are as they say pieces of that great body which at last will be quite spent except they be repaired either by a new addition or by the reuniting of the same spirits to it again 4. Seeing the Heavens have but one motion which is circular how can any part therof come down into our bodies except it hath also a strait motion 5. Gravity and levity are elementary qualities whereof the Heaven is not capable and therefore cannot descend 6. Our spirits must either be united to the bodies of the Heavens and so continuated bodies with them or else separated and divided both which are absurdities 7. These spirits did either move them selves downward or else they had some other mover the first we cannot grant except wee make the celestial bodies living creatures for only such move themselves neither can we grant the second except we know what this mover should be it cannot be natural for the motion is violent nor can the mover be violent for the work of generation is natural it remains then that these spirits are aerial in their nature and substance but the instruments of the soul in regard of their function in which regard only we consider them as they are in our bodies for many actions proceed from them as they are the souls instruments which cannot be effected by the air as air IV. The natural or primogenial heat in living creatures is not a substance made up of seed