the differences 2. Though the species of colours and sounds are received into the eyes and ears yet real odours are received into the nose for the head heart and spirits are diversly affected with smells some men have been cherished a long time with them some women are suffocated with smells some beasts are driven away some are alluâ—ed by them which could not be if these were not real smells and in that smells are carried to and fro with the windes And that we smell better in hot weather then in cold doe shew that these are not the species but real smells 3. Odours being accidents cannot be conveyed to the organ but in vapours or exhalation which are substances for bare accidents cannot be transported with windes to and fro nor can they affect the brain or comfort it or drive away beasts and vermin II. When Aristotle saith that smells cannot nourish he is in the right for nothing nourisheâ—h but compounded bodies now smels are hare accidents Nutriment have their excrements smels have none nutriment is converted into the substances of the body nourished and hath a peculiar place where it is concocted as the stomach is the place for the Chylus which cannot be said of smels Therefore Galen was in an error when he said that men can he nourished with smels except by smels he understand odoriferous exhalatioâ—s which yet nourish not properly but for a while only recreate the spirits because of the nearness of their substance which spirits being the immediate organs of the soul for a while can perform their functions in the body III. Galen is injurious to Aristotle in upbraiding him for making the nose the organ of smell whereas Galen will have the brain to be the organ which is ridiculous and against his own tenents in affirming that the brain is no ways sensitive neither indeed can it be seeing it is the original of the senses and how can the same member be both the original and organ of the senses Therefore not the brain nor that part thereof which they call processus mamillares reaching to the nose can be the organ of sense but the nose itself for they that want the nose smel not and a short nose smels not so well as a long and if any part of the brain were the organ of smel we should smel the meats in our mouth and the vapours of the stomach which are still mounting up to the brain Yet we never smell them till we belch them out and then we smell them as soon as they ascend into the nose which is indeed the true organ of smell in that nervous membrane thereof And how can the smell be an external sense if it have not as well as the other four an externall organ by which the externall senses are distinguished from the internall 2. Though the real smell is conveyed to the nose and not the species as the species of colours and sounds are to the eyes and ears yet not the real but the intentional smell or species is carried by the nerve into the common sense or fantasie CHAP. XXI 1. Wherein consists the organ of tast The tongue potentially moist no external medium of tast 2. How the skin is the medium of taste The prime qualities both objects and agents No creature without fact It is most exquisite in man Tact and taste different THe organ of taste consisteth partly in the nerves of the tongue palate and throat and partly in the skin thereof except we make the skin the medium for when the skin of the mouth or tongue peeleth the taste faileth and so it doth fail also when the tongue is drie without moisture or spittle therefore the spittle or saliva may be called the medium of taste 2. Because the organ must be potentially what the object is actually therefore the tongue must be potentially moist for moisture not driness is the object of taste I say the tongue must be potentially moist for if it were actually moist it could not judge of moistures for the sense should be void of that which it apprehendeth by sensation therefore there is no moisture nor relish in the tongue for when it abounds with moisture or hath in it any relish it loseth its taste 3. The taste hath no external medium as the other three senses and in this it agreeth with touching 4. Though sapors work materially upon the tongue yet the act of sensation is by reception of the species for real qualities cannot be received into the animal spirits and judged by the common sense and fantasie II. The sense of tact either hath no medium or else we must make the skin the medium and the flesh membranes and nerves the organ but indeed the skin is both the organ of tact as experience shewes and the medium in respect of the flesh and nerves 2. The four prime qualities chiefly heat and cold are not onely the objects of tact but agents upon them by warming and cooling the organs so are not the second qualities to wit hardness softness asperity c. For these are not active at all except levity in a spiritual or intentional way 3. Though there be many particular objects of tact as the first and second qualities yet there is but one general object to wit the tactile quality 4. Though this be true that the sensible object put upon the sense hindreth sensation in these senses that have the air for a medium yet it is not true in the sense of tact which hath no such medium 5. The sensitive creature can subsist without any of the five senses except the tact because this consisteth in the proportion and harmony of the prime qualities which if it fail sense also faileth and consequently animality 6. Of all creatures the sense of tact is most exquisit in man because his body is most temperate but tact consisteth in the temper of the prime qualities 7. Though taste be accompanied with tact yet they are distinct senses both in the organs media and faculties and tact is diffused through all the body whereas taste is only in the mouth CHAP. XXII 1. The use of the common sense It is but one sense The different judgement of this sense and of the soul. How different from other senses It s in the brain and heart 2. Imagination or fantasie what disturbed compoundeth The Estimative It s work and seat 3. Memory how a sense It is twofold Reminiscence what Old men and childrens memories AS there be three actions of the soul to wit dijudication composition and retention so there are three internal senses to wit the common sense the fantasie and the memory The common sense apprehends and judgeth the objects of the outward senses in which as in the Center all these objects do meet the eye cannot put difference between colours and smels but the common sense doth and though the eye see yet it doth not know it self to see that is the work of the common sense therefore mad
men in whom this sense is hurt see but perceive it not nor doe they difference the objects which they fee but either confound them or mistake the one for the other So when the sensitive spirits are imployed by the fantasie though we see oftentimes the object yet we perceive it not 2. Though the common sense apprehends diversity of objects yet it is but one sense because its actions in judging or differencing these objects is but one So the eye hath but one action though it seeth many objects 3. The act of judging in the common sense is not that of the soul which extendeth it self to things also spiritual and universal and belongs only to man not to the beasts as the judging of the common sense doth 4. The external senses apprehend their objects onely present but the internal senses apprehend them being absent 5. The common sense is in the brain subjectively for there are the animal spirits and nerves so saith Galen but in the heart originally and in its cause for from thence are the vital spirits which are the matter of the animal and so is Aristotle to be understood II. The second internal sense is the imagination so called from the images or species which it both receiveth from the common sense and frameth to it self If the brain be sound and undisturbed it receiveth species from the common sense only and judgeth more distinctly of them then the common sense doth it compoundeth also and uniteth and in beasts it serves in stead of reason to direct them to their operations in man it is subservient to the intellect in ministring species to it therfore it is called phantasie from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shine or shew For as the eye discerns its objects by the light so doth the intellect whilest it is in the body work and speculate by the phantasie 2. In disturbed brains by phrensies fevers or inordinate sleep the phantasie makes other objects to its self then were represented to it by the common sense 3. The phantasie compoundeth that which the common sense apprehendeth in a divided way as I see a horse and a man and the common sense apprehendeth the species of both apart but to conceive them united in a Centaure is the work of the phantasie 4. The estimative is not a sense distinct from the phantasie but the very same whose office is to esteem what is good or hurtful to the creature and so to follow or avoid it therefore this sense stirreth up the appetite 5. The common sense doth not work but when the outward senses are working but the fantasie worketh without them to wit in sleep 6. The fore part of the brain in which is the common sense is humid as being fittest for reception which is the common senses work the hinder part is dry as fitâ—est for retention which is the work of the memory but the middle part is temperately humid and dry as fittest for reception and retention both which are performed by the phantasie 7. For a right and orderly phantasie or imagination there are required clear spirits from vapors a temperate organ straight nerves and passages and a moderate heat from the heart if any of these bee deficient the phantasie is disordered III. The third internal sense is the memory not so much to be called a sense as it retaineth the species for in this the nature of sensation consisteth not but as it receiveth them for sensation is properly in reception 2. This sense is the treasury in which are laid up that species of things past which have been apprehended by the external senses For as these consider things present and hope things future so doth the memory things past it is the wax receiving and retaining the stamp of the seal and it is a faculty of the sensitive not of the intellective soul for beasts and birds have memories As for the intellective memory it is all one with the passive intellect which is the keeper of the intelligible species for it belongs to the same faculty to understand and to remember 3. Though in brutes there is memory yet recordaâ—ion or reminiscence is onely in man because it is joined with discourse and deliberation which are operations of the intellect for memory is the retention of the species but reminiscence is a recollecting by discourse and comparing of circumstances the species which he had forgot therefore a nimble wit and reminiscence which consisteth in discourse go together commonly but seldome a good wit and a good memory this requiring a dry organ the other that which is temperately moist 4. Children have bad retentive memories because their brains are moist and old men have had receptive memories because their brains are too dry therefore there is required for memory a brain temperately moist to receive and temperately dry to retain the species Finis Libri Secundi BOOK III. Of mans rare Infirmities or admirable Diseases CHAP. I. 1. Of Eels voided by a maid and of other strange generations 2. A woman voided in three days six quarts of milk 3 Of women who have eat mens flesh 4. Of women that have lived some years without food 5. Of one that lived some years without a brain another without a Spleen Of one that lived with a knife in her skull 6. Of some that have swallowed knives glasses c. 7. Of some shot in the forehead and the bullet found in the hinder part of the skull HAving briefly discoursed upon the fabrick parts and passages of mans body I will as briefly touch some rare and extraordinary infirmities with which the bodies of some men have been molested and will point at such causes as I conceive may stand with the grounds of Divinity and Philosophy As for ordinary diseases with their causes symptomes and cures I leave to Physitians I. I read in Cornelius Gemma in his Divine characterismes l. 2. c. 4. and in Marcel Donatus his admirable Histories l. 2. ca. 1. of a Maid that voided Eels by the stool which I conceive may proceed from a natural cause For if by the heat of the Sun divers forms are educed out of putrified matter as Eels out of mud why may not Eels also be generated in mans body by its heat there being a disposition and preparation in the matter for reception of such a form Thus Bees are begot of Calves flesh Waspes and Hornets of Horses and Asses and divers sorts of Worms in our bodies I have read of a Bird found in an Oyster which was presented to Francis the first of France I will not speak of the Barnecles in the Scottish Seas begot of old rotten planks of ships nor of him that had a golden â—ooth which if it were not perfect gold it might in some qualities resemble it as pins that have been voided in Impostâ—umes For stones begot in the bladder and kidneys and chalk in the joints of gouty bodies are not so rare II. I read in Martin Wienrich in his book
the superfluous moisture of the body by the natural heat be exhausted and the organs made drier 3. The bodies of other creatures are not capable of mans soul because they are not of that fabrick temper and constitution 4. The faculties of the animal soul have not their originall from the gross and earthy part of the seed but from the aereal by means of its celestial heat 5 The rational soul bringing with it all its perfections the former faculties of sense and vegetation which were in the Embryo give place to it so that now it alone works by its faculties 6. The seed brings with it from the parents it s own heat by which the formative faculty worketh the heat of the matrix is not operative but conservative of the other heat 7. The seed consisting of grosser and aereal parts cannot be called uniform and if it were yet it may have divers operations and faculties ad extra so hath the Sun and other uniform bodies 8. The Embryo is not capable of three specificall forms or souls for so it should be a threefold compound specifically distinct but it is capable of divers generical forms and subordinate the superior being preparatives for reception of the inferior and ultimate specificall form which giveth name and entity as the rational soul doth to the child being perfected CHAP. XV. 1. Why about the fourth month milk is engendred and of what 2. The effects of the Diaphragma inflamed 3. Pericardium 4. The Hearts Flesh Fibres and Ventricles 5. The Heart why hot and dry 6. The vital faculty 7. The vital spirits how ingendred 8. Systole and Diastole 9. The Hearts motion 10. How câ—used AS soon as the child groweth big about the fourth month the menstruous blood flowes upward to the breasts and when the child is born it flowes from thence and being suck'd by the child the veins of the breasts do avoid vacuity draw the blood upward for generation of new milk 2. In the breasts of Virgins and of some men also there is sometimes found a whitish liquor which is not milk because it hath neither the tast nor thickness nor nutritive quality of milk 3. The breasts or paps are glandulous bodies principally ordained for generation of milk and in the second place for reception of excrementitious humors and guarding of the heart 4. The reason why about the fourth month the blood flowes upward into the breasts is that the child growing big and wanting sufficient food might struggle to get out which it would not do having sufficient nutriment 5. It is not fit that the child out of the womb should feed on blood as it did in the womb because then the mouth of the veins being opened the blood would run out and so nature be overthrown neither would God accustom man to blood left he should become cruel and bestial II. Upon the inflammation of the diaphragma follow oftentimes phrensies by reason of the society it hath by the nerves with the brain to which it sendeth fumes and hot vapors which phrensie is known from that of the brain by the shortness of the breath the chief organ of breath being ill-affected so that the breast cannot freely move it self and because the Diaphragma is united to the Pleura and Peritonaeum which containeth all the organs in the inferiour belly hence all these parts are drawn upwards by the motion of the Diaphragma III. The tunicle of the heart called Pericardium hath within it a water for refrigeration and moistning of the heart which is begot of vapours condensate by the coldness of the membrane as some think or else it sweats through the tunicles of the veins and arteries they that have hot hearts have but little of this water and it abounds most where the heart is colder but whether the defect of this water be the cause of the heat in the heart or the heat the cause of this defect it is uncertain as it is with the sea-water which is turned into vapours by the suns heat and these vapours turned into water again by the coldness of the middle Region so the heat of the heart turns this water into vapours and the membrane converts these vapours into water again and so this circulation continues till the heat of the heart be extinguished by death then is found water onely IV. The heart hath a peculiar hard flesh of its own that it might be the better able to undergo its perpetual motion to contain the spirits and life-blood and to resist external injuries 2. This flesh is not musculous because the motion of the muscles is voluntary but the hearts motion is natural 3. The heart hath both straight transverse and circular fibers for attraction and expulsion and oblique fibers also for retension but these fibers are of the same substance with the heart and not of a different as the fibers of the Muscles which are parts of the nerves and Tendons 4. The heart is fed with gross blood answerable to its own gross substance by the vein called Coronaria compassing the Basis of the heart 5. The heart hath two ventricles whereof the right is hottest extensive as Aristotle will have it for it contains the life-blood the left is hottest intensive as containing the vital spirits and so Galen saith 6. If we consider the situation of the right ventricle which is in the right side and the priviledge it hath in living longer then the left we may with Aristotle say that the right ventricle is the more noble of the two but if we consider that the left ventricle contains the vitall spirit which in dignity excels the blood which is in the right we must with Galen give the preheminence to the left and so these two may be reconciled V. The heart is a hot and drie substance that it might be the fitter both to beget and to preserve the vital spirits to attenuate the venal and to procreate the arterial blood And though the spirits be hotter extensively yet the substance of the heart is hotter intensively as burning coles are hotter then flaming straw VI. The vital faculty by which the vital spirits are ingendred for animating the body and preserving the natural heat is an effect of the soul as all faculties are and not of the heart yet here it chiefly resides because of the soul which here exerciseth her chief functions of life 2. This vital faculty differs from the animal because it is not subject to fatigation nor rests in sleep nor doth it accompany the imagination or apprehension of the object as the animal doth 3. It is different from the pulsifick faculty because this is subservient to the vital neither doth the pulsifick beget spirits or is it diffused every where as the vital is 4. The vital differs from the vegitive faculty because the vegitive is in plants and insects but not the vital as it is procreative of spirits for the dull heat of insects is not so soon spent as to need
bladder and intestines are So is the motion of coughing for as it is performed by the muscles it is animall but as it is stirred by the expulsive faculty it is naturall and as it proceeds from some morbifick cause it is preternatural So deglutition or swallowing is an animal action as it is performed by the muscles and is some times hindred by imagination for we swallow with much adoe those things of which we have no good conceit It is also natural as it is performed by the attraction of the fibres which are in the external tunicle of Oesophagus Now attraction is subservient to the nutritive faculty which is naturall V. That no portion of our drink can pass into the lungs is plain because we cough if the least drop of rhume fall from the head upon the lungs besides our breath and voice should be presently stopped the light and spongie substance also of the lungs would be hurt and corroded when we drink any sharp or soure liquors or medicamenâ—s Therefore in swallowing the Epiglottis or little tongue of the wind-pipe covers the Laâ—iâ—â— or top of the Aspera arteria that nothing may fall into it yet the siâ—es of Aspera arteria are moistned by syrrups which somewhat ease our coughing CHAP. XVII 1. All the senses in the brain 2. How made for refrigeration only how hot cold and moist and why its actions 3. How void of sense and motion 4. The animal spirits what and how begot 5. Why more vital then animal spirits where perfected and prepared the ventricles of the brain AS the heart is the first remote and mediate originall of motion and sense because the spirits and heat are originally from thence so the brain is the secundarie proximate and immediate organ of the senses which have their particular seats there to wit the â— externall senses and the 4 internal namely the common sense the imagination the discursive and memorative qualities which have their distinct cels The common sense is placed in the substance of the brain the imagination in the fore cel the discursive in the middle the memorative in the back cell the fore cell is softer the back cell somewhat harder the middle is of a middle temper sometimes the one is hurt when the other is sound a good memorie may accompany a bad imagination and contrarily II. When Aristotle saith that the brain was made only for refrigeration of the heart his meaning is not as the Galenists think that the brain was made for no other use but that neither the brain nor heart could be any way useful if the heat of the one were not tempered by the cold of the other for all our frame is out of order when the brain is overheated or inflamed and though the brain be not actually cold yet by its moisture and weak heat it tempers the excessive heat of the heart and vital spirits by means of the arteries which are common to both these organs therefore it is that the brain hath not blood and veins 2. The innate temperament of the brain is cold the adventitious is hot that is iâ— is hot by means of the spirits from the heart but cold in its own substance 3. It was made cold and moist that being the seat of imagination and of the attenuated animal spirits the one might not be distempered with heat nor the others dissipated 4. It is moist that it might be the fitter for generation of the nerves for receiving the images and impressions of things with the more facility and the more apâ— for sensation which consisteth in passion 5. The actions and functions of the brain depend both upon its right fabrick and conformation as also upon its temper for if either of these be hurt the actions of the brain are vitiated III. The brain is void of sense in its own substance but senfitive in its membranes nor was it fit that the brain should feel seeing it is the common receptacle and judge of all the senses and seeing it is in the highest place and receives all exhalations from the inferior parts it should be continually molested if it were sensible of all these vapours 2. As it is void of sense so it is of motion in it self it is indeed moved by the arteries for the feeding purging and tempering of the animal spirits but the brain being the original of motion ought to be immovable in respect of self motion neither are there any fibres in the brain bâ— which it should be moved as there are in the heart neither could ever the motion of the brain be observed other then what is caused by the arteries IV. The animal spirits are so called because they are the chief organs of the soul for her chief actions of sense and motion without the brain of imagination discoursing and remembring within the brain therefore these spirits receive from the senses the images and species of things and convey them to the brain where they retain them for the soul by the phantasie to work upon 2. These animal spirts are begot of the vital but are cherished and refreshed by the external air drawn by the nostrils to the brain so that without air and vital spirits the animal canot long subsist and becaus blood is the remote matter of the animal spirits they grow feeble when much blood is evacuated V. Because there is more need of the vital then of the animal spirits therefore more plenty is required of them then of these for nothing is begot of the animal spirits therefore they waste not so fast as the vitall of which the animal are ingendred besides the vital spirits are perpâ—tually imployed even in sleep so are not the animal but they rest then nor is there any part of the body which hath notlife but divers parts have not sense which is an animal function as the bones and ligaments 2. The animal spirits are prâ—pared in the intricate labyrinth of arteries within thâ— brain but they receive their perfection in the cels therâ—of 3. Though the faculty of sense be an inseparable property of the soul yet it doth not always operate but where there is a fit organ in sleep the soul is in the eye but then seeth not 4. The ventricles of the braine serve not onely for generation of the spirits but for purging out also of superfluous excrements CHAP. XVIII 1. The eye boâ—h watrish and fiery imperfect vision 2. Why the eâ—e is watrish its action spirits and species 3. Spirits of the eâ—e proved two eyes but one motion why the object appears double sometimes no colours in the eye 4. The optick nerves soft where united and why 5. The Chrystalline and glassy humours and white of the eye THough the substance of the eye be watrish as we shewed before yet the visive spirits are fiery as may be seen by their light in the dark their mobility and their resistance to cold for they are not molested with it as other members are 2. When
is inclinable to CAP. II. 1. The Stomach and Lungs not necessary for life 2 How the limbs are moved the spirits are bodies more required for motion then sensation the spirits are light how they are the souls instruments how the Muscles move 3. Seven properties of the brain 4. Twelve properties of the eye 5. It s substance warrish 6. Why but one sight 7. The eye how an agent and patient 8. It s two â—ights and its colours Light gives the second act THough the Stomach and Lights be two noble parts of the body for those that are to live long yet life can consist without them or their action For 1. Some have lived without chilification and respiration the meseraick veins can draw some portion of the clysters to the liver for sanguification by which life can be preserved 2. Divers creatures live all the Winter as Swallows Cuckows Dormise c. without any chilification or action of the stomach 3. Women that are hysterical can live only by transpiration without respiration at all 4. The arteries can draw air to the heart though there were no lungs at all yet not with that conveniency because the lungs temper and qualifie the frigidity of the air before it comes to the heart 5. Fishes breath not at all nor have they any lungs yet they live II. In the motion of our bodies the limbs are moved by the muscles these by the nerves the nerves by the animal spirits and these by the soul which produceth neither sense nor motion in the body without these spirits for if the nerve be cut or obstructed or bound motion ceaseth which sheweth that the soul worketh by these spirits and that in the nerve there is more then a bare faculty of sense and motion required to make it move and feel for in the obstructed nerve there is the faculty still but not the motion because the spirits are intercepted which have their original from the brain as well as the nerves but their action from the soul. 2. These spirits are bodies as appears by their generation fatigation dissipation for when these spirits fail motion ceaseth and we grow weary 3. In the nerve though one and the same animal spirit causeth both sense and motion yet a greater vigour is required for motion then for sensation because the perfection of this consists in reception only but of that in action chiefly Now more force is required for action then for passion 4. In the animal spirits there is a light or splendour because they are a very attenuated substance warmed by a celestial heat This light is perceived in the eye being shut in the other senses it is not seen because their organs are not transparent Now the spirit of the eye is the same with that of the ear c. 5. The spirits are not properly the instruments of the soul because the soul is the form which worketh immediatly upon its matter and the spirits are parts of this matter but they are called instruments becaus they convey to the members the faculties of the soul. 6. Though the will moves the muscles in men and the will moves according to knowledge and election yet in infants the muscles are moved by a natural instinct and so they are in beasts who have not election and reason III. Man hath a larger and more capacious brain then other creatures have because the soul of man being endowed with more faculties required a larger habitation 2. The brain is void of sense and feeling because it is the Judge of all the senses Thus the eye which seeth all colours hath no colour it self nor the tongue and palat any taste which judgeth of all tastes experience sheweth that the wounded brain being cut or pricked feeleth not 3. Though the brain feeleth not yet it hath a natural faculty to expel things hurtful so there are antipathies and sympathies in insensitive things 4. The brain hath no animal motion though it be the original of this motion yet it hath a natural motion of Systote and Diastole for the generation of the spirits and expulsion of noxious things 5. The brain is cold and moist cold naturally but hot accidentally by reason of the spirits and arteries in it cold otherwise the attenuated animal spirits in it would quickly wast and consume with heat and with often study and cogitation it would soon be inflamed and so into phrenzies wee should bee apt to fall 6. Though the brain be cold and the heart hot yet the animal spirits are more attenuated then the vital because these are generated immediatly of the grosse bloud whereas the animal are begot of the vital spirits and are refined by the arteries of the brain 7. The brain is moist 1. That it may the more easily receive impressions 2. That it may the better resist inflamation And 3. That the nerves may by its moisture bee the more pliable which otherwise would be stiffe IV. The Eye is the most noble of all the senses 1. Because its action is quickest apprehending its object in an instant 2. Though the object be never so far distant it is perceived by the eye as the stars are 3. Because light which is the object of the eye is of all accidents the most noble 4. The eye hath more objects then any other sense for besides light and colour of all sorts its particular objects it hath also number magnitude state motion and figure which are common objects 5. None of the senses hath such a curious fabrick for the eye hath six tunicles three humours six muscles two nerves the optick and motory many veins and arteries 6. It is the first and chief organ of knowledge for at first men got their knowledge by observation and the eye though now we have it by instruction and the ear 7. The eye hath the highest place of all the senses in the body 8. And it hath the perfectest figure for it is almost round that it may move the easier and swifter 9. It hath a liberty and command of it self which the other senses have not for it can inclose it self within its casements and open them when it pleaseth 10. It hath a peculiar light within it self besides that light which is in the air and it hath more spirits then any other of the senses and these spirits are more subtle nimble and quick then any other animal spirits are 11. Without the eye no living creature could finde out its food in which consisteth the life of the creature 12. Without the eye men could not have naturally attained to the knowledge of God and of Divinity for by the contemplation of the Heavens and their light and motions men came to have the knowledge of their Maker For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made Rom. 1.20 V. The eye is of a watrish not of a fiery substance as may bee seen 1. By the water that
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
this Tract the Doctor seemes sometimes to be in earnest and sometimes to speak-problematically or rather doubtfully But however this opinion cannot consist with reason for what can be more unreasonable then that the Noblest Animals should be conceived without any sensible corporeall Agent by meere imagination not of the brain but of the Womb For 1. If this be true that the Female can thus conceive and generate what need was there of the Male they are then uselesse in generation and fathers have no reason to provide for their wives children seeing the woman is the sole parent the man but a Cypher Why should there be any lawes against adultery and fornication seeing there can be no such sins If this doctrine be true what miracle was it for a virgin to conceive and bear a Son without the help of man seeing this is ordinary for the female as the Doctor faith to be prolificall without any sensible corporeall agents for the seed he saith is not received within the matrix But if I should grant him this which cannot be true yet he cannot deny but that the seminal vapour and prolificall spirit is conveyed thither by which the female is made pregnant if he grants this then there is a sensible corporeall agent though not so grosse as the earthy part of the seed If he deny this then it will follow that we are all produced without fathers and that there is no other sensible corporeall agent but the womb and so the fifth Commandement of honoring father should be put out seeing there is no such thing in nature Again if he saith there is no agent then it will follow that the effect can be produced without an efficient and an action without an actor If he he saith there is an agent but not corporeall then that agent must be either a spirit or an accident if a spirit then we are all the children of spirits not of corporeall parents and so man cannot have for his genus a corporeall substance And these spirits if created must be either Angels Demons or Souls which was the dreams of some ancient Hereticks long since condemned by Councels If again he saith that these agents are not spirits but accidents he will make us in a worse condition For man the Noblest of all creatures is the child of an accident therefore Aristotle should have placed man in the Categorie of quality rather then of substance But we know that no accident is operativ◠but in and by the power of the principall agent Neither can an accident be conveyed into the womb without the subject in which it is inherent and therefore Iron touched without the Loadstone cannot draw Iron if the substance of the Loadstone were not imparted to it Hence we see that as the substance of the Loadstone in the Iron decayes so the vertue of attraction decayes likewise Again when he saith that the substance of the womb is like the constitution of the brain he speaks very improperly for neither is the substance of the one like the substance of the other the one being white spermatical and cold the other red sanguineal and hot nor can the substance of the one be like the constitution of the other these being indifferent predicaments between which there is no similitude nor is the constitution of the one like unto the constitution of the other as being of different temperaments and having different uses and suppose they were either of the same substance or constitution it will not follow that therefore they must have the same function The stomach and guts have the same substance and constitution so hath the brain and pith in the back bone yet they have not the same functions Again when he saith that what the fantasm or appetite is in the brain the same or its analogy is excited in the womb for the functions of both are called conceptions He speaks more improperly then before for he seems to make the fantasm and appetite one thing and to be both resident in the brain whereas the appetite is the inclination of the will and hath its residence in the heart the fantasm is the imaginary or fictitious object of the fantasie which this internal sense residing in the brains represents to it self neither of these is excited in the womb nor any thing like it for the womb is neither the seat of the fantasie nor hath it fit organs for it nor is it the seat of appetite except by this word he understands an inclination to conception or generation neither again is this a valid reason that because the functions of the womb and brain are called conceptions therefore they are the same for the conception of the womb is far different from that of the brain neither do they agree but equivocally and in name onely so this word conception is ascribed to the action of understanding Lastly though we can produce upon stone or timber or such like matter some shape or form like that Idea in our brain yet it will not follow that the species of the father in the womb can produce the like brood for I deny that the species or idea of the father is in the womb but in the brain this not that being the proper fea◠of the fantasie which receiveth the species from the common sense and the imagination doth not alwayes work upon the seed or embryo nor doeth it produce any form it onely worketh sometimes and produceth but the accidental form whereas ordinarily both the essential and accidental forms are produced by the formative power of the seed or rather by the soul it self which fabricates its own mansion which soul lay potentially in the seed and is excited by the heat or rather innate property of the matrix To conclude it is as great absurdity to affirm that the female can be made pregnant by conceiving a general immateral idea as it was by some of the ancients to think that the Spanish Mares could as Aristotle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceive or be made pregnant by the Western wind and as the Poets saith Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis Exceptantque leves auras saepe sine ullis Conjugiis vento gravidae mirabile dictu The like fabulous impregnations we read of in Ravens by the north winde and in Partrages by bare imagination CHAP. IV. 1. My Lord Bacon's opinion confuted concerning the French disease 2. Concerning the expulsion of pellets out of guns 3. Of the wax candle burning in spirit of wine 4. Of the parts most nutritive in animals 5. Of the spirits in cold bodies 6. Of air fire water oyl whiteness the hands and feet 7. Of souls and spirits 8. Of visible objects and hearing 9. Of sounds and musick 10. Of singing birds descending species light 11. Ingrate objects and deafness with other passages HAving lighted lately upon two books the one of Doctor Harvie's De generatione animalium wherein he proves that all animals have their
to it selfe He saith Sect. 91. That paper or wood oyled last long moist but wet with water dry or putrifie sooner the cause is for that air medleth little with the moisture of oyle Answ. He should have told us the cause of this cause for why doth not air medle with oyle as well as with water The reason is because oyle is a more tenacious and dense substance then water and therefore resisteth the heat of the air longer and cannot be so soon evaporated and indeed it is not the air but the heat in the air that works both on water and oile for the cold air drieth up neither it may well harden them Take then two papers the one moystned with water the other with oyle and hold them near the â—re we shall see the one dried up long before the other so that his saying is erroneous when he inferreth Sect. 91. That fire worketh upon oyle as air upon water For indeed the air doth not work upon water but heat in the air or fire nor doth the fire work so soon upon the oyle as on the water when they are at a distance Again he saith That white is a penurious colour and where moisture is scant Answ. There are many things which want moisture and yet are black as divers dry stones and coals many bodies are not scant of moisture and yet are white as Lilies Milk Snow There is as much moisture in a white Swan as in a black Raven But when he saith Sect. 93 That Birds and Horses by age turn white and the gray hairs of men come by the same reason he is mistaken for it is not want or scant of moisture but want of heat rather that is the cause of whitenesse for old men abound more in watrish moisture then young men and therefore we see that cold climats produce white complexions and skins whereas they are black and swarthy in hot Countries Snow is not bred in hot Summers but in cold Winters and hoar frost is ingendred in cold Scithia not in hot Ethiopia Again he is mistaken when he saith Sect. 96 97. That the soals of the feet have great affinity with the head and mouth of the stomach so the wrists and hands have a sympathy with the heart For there is no more affinity between these parts then any other the feet have as great a sympthy with the heart and the wrists with the head as these with the heart and the other with the head If there be any affinity between the head and the feet it is by reason of the nerves and so the same affinity may be to the hands If there be any sympathy between the heart and the wrists it is because of the arteries and so the sympathy may be to the feet It 's true that the heart is affected in Agues by things applied to the wrists not because there is any sympathy between the skin muscles nerves and bones of the wrists with the heart but because the arteries which have their originall from the heart lie more open and are more tangible there then in many other parts of the body and yet in the temples and divers other parts of the body you shall find the pulse as well as in the wrists and things applied to these parts will work as powerfully on the heart as if applied to the wrists His Lordship is angry Sect. 98. Because we call the spirits of Plants and living Creatures Soules such superficiall speculations saith he they have But he should for the same reason be angry with the Scriptures which ordinarily calls the spirits of beasts birds and fishes Souls He must also be angry with all wise Nomenclators which have called living and sensitive creatures Animals because they have animal soules For animal is from anima Again I would know if this word likes him not how he will call these spirits of animals If he call them nothing but spirits then he makes no difference between them and all other tangible bodies For according to his doctrine there are spirits in stocks and stones as well as in plants and animals but I hope the spirits of these deserve another name then of the others which indeed according to the old and true Philosophy are meer qualities which word also he rejects as Logicall as though forsooth Logick or Logicall terms were needlesse whereas no knowledge is more usefull and necessary as being the hand-maid to all Sciences the want of which hath occasioned multitudes of whimzicall conceits and Chimera's in mens brains Again if he will not have these chiefe acts agents or movers in animals to be called souls or spirits but air or vapour or wind he will find that all these three are called by the word Anima 1. Aire is Anima in the Prince of Poets Eclog. 6. Namque canebat uti magnum pir inaâ—e coacta Semina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent 2. Vapour is called anima too in the same Poet AEn 8. Quantum ignes animaeque valent 3. The wind is anima also in Horace Impellunt animae lintea Thracie and animus in the Poet AEn 1. Mollitque animos temperat iras So then call the Spirits of animals what you will air vapour wind or spirit you will still find anima or soul is the term most proper for them and that this is no superficiall speculation My Lord in his second Century sect 11. Makes pictures and shapes but secondary objects to the eye but colours and order the things that are pleasing to the sight If he had said That colours are the chief objects of the eye he had spoken more properly then to say they are pleasing to the eye for some colours are very displeasing to some eyes As for order that is not at all the object of the sight for it is a relation and relations incurre not into the senses Again he saith sect 114. That the sense of hearing striketh the spirits more immediatly then the other senses This is a very improper saying for the senses are patients in receiving the species of their objects not agents upon their objects If there be any action of dijudication that is the work of the phantasie rather then of the outward sense and though I should yeeld that there were some actions of the eye yet the sense of hearing is meerly passive and therefore it is not the sense of hearing that striketh the spirits but the species of the sound which is received by the spirit in the auditory nerve and so conveyed into the phantasie so it is not the smelling as he saith that worketh on the spirits but the object that worketh on the sense of smelling Again when he saith sect 117. That dores in fair weather give no sound he speakes by contraries for if by fair weather he means dry weather then dores give the greatest sound I know not what kind of dores his were but mine sound much in dry Summers and but little in moist weather And this stands
spread it selfe so soon on a dry board as on a wet upon a dry board a drop of vvater vvill contract it self into a globular form and rise into some height rather then joyn itselfe to its enemy whereas upon a vvet board it presently spreads it selfe So dry things will rather swim upon then sink in the vvater except their vveight force them downward He also contradicteth experience when he saith That Fish hating the dry will not approach the air till it grow moist For vve see that fish play most upon the top of the vvaters in hot and dry Summers and in the hottest and driest time of the day when the Sun is in his Meâ—idian So when he saith That Aches and Corns engrieve most towards rain or frost This is not as if they were sensible of future rain but because the extremity of heat and cold doe exasperate these infirmities For the same reason Moals vvork and Fleas bite more eagerly He tells That hunger is an emptinesse But this is not so for there is sometimes hunger without emptinesse and sometimes emptinesse without hunger It is therefore not emptinesse but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher tells us a desire or appetite of hot and dry things caused by the corrugation and sucking in the mouth of the stomach His Lordship is pleased to call the received opinion That putrifaction is caused by cold or preternaturall heat but nugation But if cold be not the cause of putrifaction how comes it that Apples and Cabbages doe rot in frosty vveather And if peregrine heat be not the cause how comes it that in hot and moist years and places pestilentiall Feavers and other putrid diseases doe reigne Besides abundance of vermin doubtlesse these are procreated of putrifaction and this of heat except we will forfeit our senses and reason of which he being afraid confesseth at last that such a heat tendeth to dissolution He will not have liquifaction to proceed from any of the foure prime qualities that he calls an inutile speculation but from his own phantomes For bodies saith he that are more turgid of spirit or that have their spirits more straitly imprisoned as metals or that hold them better pleased and content as butter are liquifiable How happy then are those spirits which dwell in butter where they have pleasure and content in comparison of those vvretched spirits vvhich are imprisoned in Irons and other metals and yet how these spirits should make the metall turgid I know not Surely these are but crasie fansies vvhereas it is apparent to all ntelligible men that these things are most liquifiable which aboundeth most with congealed moisture whether it be aeriall and oily as in pitch butter wax and grease or watrish alone as in Ice or of a middle nature between both or peculiar as the moisture of metals And to tell us That wood clay free-stone c. are not liquifiable because they are bodies jejune of spirits is ridiculous for there are more spirits in vegitables then in metals and it is plain that clay and stones melt not because they want moysture which is in metals So it is not the dilatation of the spirits as he saith by heat which causeth wax to melt at the fire but the rarefaction of the moysture by heat which was before contracted by the cold For this cause dry wood is more fragile then green stone then metall and fictile earth then crude because there is no moisture in the one comparable to the moisture of the other He tels us that the hardnes of body is caused chiefly by the jejuness of the spirits Indeed this Philosophy is somwhat jejun for I would fain know whether there be not more spirits and less jejune in the hard bodies of Cloves Nutmegs and Cinnamon then in the soft bodies of Wooll Silk and Cotton According to his Philosophy there is a greater quantity of Spirits in a pellet of butter because softer then in a Nutmeg which is harder he that beleeves this let him when he is troubled with flatulencies in his stomack use butter and not hard spices He saith That Moisture doth chiefly colour hair but driness turneth them gray and white In his Philosophy then gray and white are not colours nor indeed blacknes which he saith afterwards is but a privative and consequently hath no entity Aristotle indeed sometimes calls black a privation but there he useth the words in a large sense for if it were properly privative how could other colours be made of black and white seeing of habits and privations nothing can be made He saith That some fishes be greater then any beasts because these have not their moisture drawn by the air and sun-beams Also they rest always in a manner and are supported by the water If these be the reasons of fishes greatness then why are Smelts and other lesser fishes smaller then the beasts Or why are they not as big as Whales seeing neither air nor sun-beams draw away their moisture and are also supported by the water The true cause then of the bigness of fishes above the beasts is the predominance of moisture in them which is easily extendible And indeed it is a frivolous thing to give reasons for the different magnitudes of the creatures seeing Nature hath given to each creature a determinate magnitude and period of duration And whereas he thinks that fish doe rest in a manner when they swim because they are supported by the water he may as well say That beasts and men rest when they walk and run because supported by the earth they that swim find there is no rest but labour and motion Before my Lord told us That by heat in putrifaction the spirits are emitted suppressed and suffocated But now he saith That the spirits in putrifaction gather heat How the spirits at the same time should be destroyed by the heat and yet gather heat is so sublime a fansie that no fansie but his own can reach it Water saith he being contiguous with air cooleth it but moystneth it not except it vapour because heat cold have a virtuall transaction without communication of substance but moysture not He takes it for granted which no Philosophy will grant him to wit that accidents can passe from one subject to another without their substance which is to make accidents subsist by themselves and to be all one with the substance which is repugnant to sense and reason therefore without vapours neither can the water moysten nor cool the air He saith Air is not without some secret degree of heat He needs make no secret of it for it is manifest that the air is hot and moist as the fire is hot and dry but for any secret degree of light in the air I deny For though as he saith Cats and Owles see in the night this is not because there is any degree of light in the air for what light can