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
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
original from eggs which if true then that is no fiction of the Poets concerning Leda's two eggs out of which were procreated Pollux and Helena Castor and Clytemnestra but I conceive the Doctor in this speaks rather tropically then properly for simile non est idem and what may in some sort resemble an egge is not an egge however his book is full of excellent learning and observation yet I have been bold in some thingâ— to dissent from him as may be seen in the former Chapter The other book I lately viewed is my Lord Bacon's Natural History a Piece fraughted with much variety of elegant learning but yet wherein are divers passages that deserve animadversionâ— I never had leasure to run over the book till now though I had seen it before and now my distractions are such that I cannot exactly examine it but onely ut canis è nilo here and there touch a little First then I finde him mistaken in thinking that the French-pox is begot by eating of mans flesh Cent. 1. Sect. 26. His reasons are A story of mans flesh barrelled up like tunny eat at the siege of Naples the other is because the Canibals who feed on mans flesh are subject to that disease 3. Because the blood or fat of mans flesh is mixed with poysons And lastly because Witches feed on mans flesh to aid their imaginations with high and foul vapors Answ. These reasâ—ns are of small validity For 1. it was not the eating of mans flesh at the siege of Naples that brought this disease into Europe but it was procured by some of Columbus his Company who had carnal commerce with soul Indian women which with the pox they brought along with them 2. Mans flesh of all other animals is counted the most temperate therefore cannot produce such a venomous distemper so repugnant to mans body 3. This is a peculiar disease of the Indians both East and West for divers Countries have their divers maladies 4. Neither can this or any disease be counted new in respect of their subjects original causes or seminaries for this disease is as old as mans flesh though in this part of the world it did not break out so generally as of late and who knows but that the ancients had it but under another name being a kind of Leprosie 5. The Canibals among the Indians are not more subject to this disease then others who never tasted of mans flesh for in all ages there have been men eaters yet not tainted mith this malady and millions of latter years among us who are infected with this poyson and yet never eat of mans flesh 6. It is against reason to imagine that the flesh of a man should rather breed this disease then of an ox or a sheep seeing mans flesh is sooner convertible into nutriment then of any other animal because of the greater simpathy and specifical unity 7. Though ignorant Indians do mix mans blood or fat with poyson it will not therefore follow that these are poyâ—â—nable no more then wine can be called poyson because poysonable materials may be mixed with it so we mix sugar and butter with rats bane which we know have no venemous quality in them 8. Witches who are silly fools may eat mans flesh hoping thereby to aid their imaginations but there is no such vetue in mans flesh as they conceive so they use many spels charms and canting words in which there is no more vertue then in a pibble stone or a piece of rotten wood 9. Mans flesh can afford no soul vapors except it befoul it self and putrified and so indeed it may breed loathsome diseases as all other corrupt and putrified meats do which is done as it is corrupted not as it is mans flesh neither can it afford high vapors except it were full of spirits which cannot be in a piece of dead flesh he that will have high vapors must drink sack not eat mans flesh the blood of the vine not of the vein can breed high vapors Indeed the drinking of mans blood and eating of his flesh may inure a man to cruelty which Catelin knew by causing his associates to drink humane blood hence the Judaical law forbids eating of blood at all shewing us hereby how much God abhors cruelty or that which may induce a man to it II. His Lordship calls it A crude and ignorant speculation to make the dilatation of the fire the cause of the expulsion of the pellet out of the Gun but he will have the cause to be the crude and windy spirits of nitre dilated by heat which bloweth abroad the flame as an inward bellows But I would know what difference there is between dilatation and between the flame and spirit of the nitre He affirms dilatation to be the cause of this expulsion therefore his exception against the former opinion was needless and whereas he grants the flame to be the immediate expeller of the pellet he unawares affirms what he rejects neither can I see any difference between the flame of the nitre and the spirit of the nitre inflamed onely he was pleased to make shew of a new reason by altering somewhat the words of the former whereas the sense is one and the same the speculation then is not crude but the spirit of his nitre is crude which without the flame can do nothing 3. From a wax candle burning in a porringer full of spirit of wine set on fire he infers Cent. 1.31 strange conculsions As 1. That the flame of the candle becomes bigger and globular and not in pyramis and consequently that the pyramis of the flame is accidental I answer the flame of the candle becomes bigger and globular accidentally because the air about it is heated by the flame of the wine therefore as in all things like draws to like so one flame dilates it self to enjoy the other as a drop of water will contract it self upon a drie but dilate it self upon a wet table 2. He infers That the flame of itself would be round if it were not for the air that quencheth the sides of it But I say that the air is so far from quenching that it cherisheth and maintaineth the flame without which it would quickly vanish and that the flame would not be round of it self if the air round about were not inflamed for the same cause it rouls and turns not of its own nature but because the ambient flame draws it 3. He â—nfers hence That the celestial bodies are true fires for they are igâ—obular and have rotation and have the colour and splendor of flame These are weak arguments that from common accidents prove specifical identities for if the stars be true fires because globular then we may infer that water drops are fire because round and that every thing which hath rotation is fire and if that be fire which hath the colour of fire or that a flame which hath the splendor of flame we may say that rotten
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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