absolutly necessary besides the Member or part of the Animal to be moved three things which according to the Order of their Succession are 1. The Object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle Lib. de communi Animalium motu cap. 7. terms it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which Invites or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which Offends 2. The Efficient call it what you please the Soul Mind or Intellect in Man the Imagination Phantasie or Brain in Brutes or Locomotive Animal Faculty in both which being invited or offended by the Object moves the whole Body or some Member of it in pursuance or avoidance thereof and 3. the Instrument used by the Efficient which seems to be double viz. Mediatum that by the mediation or intervention of which the Appetite Soul or Imagination doth as it were dispense its Command and Communicate Virtue motive to the Organ to be used and Immediatum that by which immediately the Command given is executed and the intended Motion performed As for the Necessity of the first and second of these three requisites to animal or voluntary Motion I think it needless for me to insist upon the explication thereof because it is most evident and on all Hands confessed that the Soul whether Rational or Irrational is the primary Agent in all voluntary Motions and that the same is thereunto incited by the good or evil appearing in the Object But as for the Instrumentum mediatum sive primum that upon which the Soul or Appetite immediately acting doth by the help thereof produce a Motion first in the ultimate Instrument which undoubtedly is the Muscle and then in the Member whose Motion conduces to the attainment of its end it is a Question and a great one too whether there be in truth a necessity of any such thing or not The Antients t is well known unanimously taught that the Soul effects Motion in the Muscles at pleasure by transmitting from the Brain by the Nerves into them a certain most thin most subtil and most agil Substance which they call therefore Animal Spirits by whose swift and copiose Influx the Muscles to be moved being in an Instant as it were inflated and distended Secundum latitudinem they are forced to contract or shorten themselves Secundam longitudinem and by that Contraction to pull and move the Members to which they are fastned And this Opinion hath been without any dispute embraced and asserted through a long train of Ages down to this in which we live But in this our more illuminate Age Fate has brought forth some Physicians of this Nation and Colledge of most profound Learning and admirable sagacity of Spirit who laying aside that so antique Hypothesis of Animal Spirits as both improbable and unnecessary hold it to be sufficient to solve all the Phaenomena of voluntary Motion if it be supposed that the dictates of the Soul are transmitted from the Brain to the Nerve and Muscle to be used not by emission of any Substance whatsoever but by a mere contraction of such Fibres of the Brain as are continued to that Nerve For the Nerve say they having its origin from the Fibres of the Brain and being at one end continued to them at the other inserted into the Head of the Muscle so as to make one continued Cord all along if a Motion be excited ad nutum animae in the Fibres of the Brain the same must be at the same time excited in the Nerve also and in the Muscle by reason of their Continuity Betwixt these two so different and irreconcileable Opinions I am forced to suspend my Judgment not yet able to discern which hath the advantage above the other in point of Verisimilitude To reject either of them as Erroneous would hardly consist with the modesty of a Philosopher who cannot but be conscious and ought to confess how abstruse a thing the nature of a Soul is how imperfect and confused the Notions are that Men have formed of their own Mind and how extremely difficult it is for human Reason to compose a congruous and satisfactory Discourse concerning the Oeconomy of the Brain in a living Creature which is as obscure to our understanding as the Effects of it are manifest to our Senses To reject Both because they are both embroyled with many Difficulties some of which seem to me to be insuperable were to make my slender Capacity the Measure of Probability to prefer the horrid darkness of Midnight to the hopeful dawning of Light in the Morning and to oblige my self to excogitate some third Hypothesis less liable to incongruities and Objections which is above my Power What then remains for me to do in this perplexity of Thoughts Only this to bring the whole Cause to the tribunal of your Judgment Most wise and most equal Arbiters there to be finally decided I resolve therefore by your Leave to handle this weighty controversie tanquam problema utrinque disputatum and while ye hold the Beam of the Balance to put into the Scales the principal Arguments alleaged on both Sides together with their respective difficulties not yet sufficiently solved to the end that ye may afer due perpension give Sentence which of the two Opinions is the more probable I begin from the FORMER out of respect to the Antients assuming to myself pro tempore the Person of a Defendant of Animal Spirits as the immediate instrument of the Soul in voluntary Motion in Man In the first place therefore I say That seeing every Instrument ought to be accommodate both to the nature of the Agent that is to use it so as to hold some proportion to the Energie of the one and to the Conditions of the other and seeing that voluntary Motion is commanded and executed in one and the same moment of Time with Velocity equal to that of Lightning considering this I say it seems necessary that the Instrument upon which the Soul immediately impresses her Power motive should be such as is naturally fit to convey the same from the Brain by the Nerves into the Muscles tanquam in instanti and most easily But in the whole Body nothing is found so easily and swiftly moveable as that most subtile and meteoriz'd Substance of which the Spirits Animal are supposed to consist and therefore it is consentaneous that they are the immediate Instrument of the Soul in voluntary Motion Here I foresee it will be Objected that although these Spirits be supposed to consist of Matter the most refined and most agil imaginable more subtil than the Particles of Light or Cartes's subtilis materia yet still they must be Bodies and therefore can hold no conceivable proportion to the Soul which is believed to be Incorporeal Nor indeed am I so vain as to hope ever to hear this Objection fully Selved Nevertheless I take liberty to observe that it lies as heavy upon the other Hypoth sis of the Muscles being moved by the Nerves excited or invigorated at their original
the Soul as the Body is by all Philosophers granted to be formed of the seminal matter and because otherwise Brutes cannot be properly said to generate their like in Specie and by consequence the Power to that end entailed upon them by the first and universal command of God increscite ac multiplicamini would be rendr'd of no effect I farther suppose that this Embryon Soul after this manner newly formed or as it were kindled is dayly augmented by accession and assimilation of like Particles as the Body is augmented out of the grosser and less fugitive Parts of the Aliment till both Soul and Body have attain'd to the standard of Maturity or perfection of growth thenceforth slowly declining in Vigor by degrees answerable to those of their ascent till they arrive at their final Period Death which dissolving the system or contexture of the Soul leaves the Particles of which it was composed to fly away and vanish into Aire and the Body to be resolved into its first Principles by slower corruption For Nutrition and Augmentation are as yesterday I proved Operations of the Plastic Virtue continually reforming the whole Animal and the duration or subsistence of the Soul is the Vinculum of the whole composition or concretion So that the Soul may be by an apposite Metaphor called the Salt or Condiment that preserves the fleshy parts of the Body from putrefaction as the Spirits of Wine preserve the whole Mass of Liquor through which they are diffused from losing its Vigor and generose quality and according to that oraculous saying of Hippocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Soul is always generated anew till Death Which very thing is argument enough to evince that if it be not really a most thin Flame finer and more gentle than that arising from the purest Spirit of Wine burning within a paper Lantern it is at least very like to Flame For as this so that is every moment regenerated at once perishing and reviving perishing by continual dissipation of some Particles and reviving by continual accension of others out of its proper aliment the more subtile and sulphureous Particles of the Blood serving to repair the decays of the Soul as the grosser Particles of the succus nutritius are convenient to recruit the exhausted substance of the Body So that it was not without reason that Democritus Epicurus Lucretius and Hippocrates among the Antients and among the Moderns Fernelius Heurnius Cartesius Hogelandus Honoratus Faber and Dr. Willis held the Soul of a Brute to be of a firy substance and that Aristotle himself called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that the Ld. Chancellor Bacon natural Hist. centur 7. makes one of the two radical differences between Plants and Animals to consist in this that the Spirits of living Creatures hold more of Flame Finally I conceive that this sensitive Soul however it be a thing mixt or composed of Particles among themselves in Magnitude Figure Position and Motion somwhat various is notwithstanding by admirable Artifice so constituted and the parts of it so contemperate and context that it is made one most thin and yet continued and coherent substance diffused through the whole Body Nor can its component Particles while it subsists in the Body be dissociated otherwise than by their own evolation which is instantly supplied by the accession and unition of others no more than the natural smell colour or tast can be separated from an Apple Peach or any other Fruit. This universal diffusion of it through the Body is what the Ld. Chancellor Bacon calls Branching of the Spirits in Nat. Hist. Cent. 7. Paragraph 1 where he saith the Spirits of things Animate are all continued with themselves and branched in Veins and secret Canales as Blood is and what Dr. Willis calls Coextension of the Soul to all parts of the Body Granting then that this most thin continued and diffused Substance is conteined in the Body and as it were coherent with the same thereby sustained and bounded we may with the more probability conceive that it is to the Body the cause of all the Faculties Actions Passions and Motions belonging to its Nature as the Organ of such a Soul that it keeps the Body together at once both conserving actuating managing and governing it and that it can be no more separated from the Body without the dissolution thereof than the Odor can be separated from Frankincense without destroying the nature of it And this I think sufficient to explain what I conceive of the first quaestion proposed viz. of what Substance the Soul of a Brute is and of what Particles composed As to the Second viz. wherein the Life of such a Soul doth consist it seems to me probable that since Life according to the general notion of it is nothing but Usura quaedam vigoris mobilitatisque facultatum activarum ejus rei cui inest the Life of a sensitive Soul is immediately founded in a certain Motion of the active and spirituose Particles of which it is composed as the Life of an Animal consisteth in the continuation of the same determinate Motion of those Spirits by which it was at first kindled and of the actual exercise of the Faculties that emerge or result from the union of the Soul with its Body by the Fabrick of the various Organs thereof adapted to perform all the various Functions Offices and Actions requisite to consummate the nature of such an Animal in Specie What kind of Motion that is in which as in its Origine I conceive this Life to be founded I shall by and by declare when I come to enquire what is the immediate Subject or Seat of Life having first endeavor'd to solve the Third Question proposed viz. what are the principal Faculties and Operations of a sensitive Soul These then are as ye well know all comprehended in Life Sense and motion Animal of which I shall here consider only the Second reserving the First till by and by and the Last till the Clew of my method hath brought me to treat of it in its proper place As to the Faculty of Sense therefore which constitutes the chief difference between living Creatures and things inanimate which Lucretius elegantly call's animam ipsius animae and the extinction or total privation of which is Death since I have supposed a sensitive Soul to be Material or Corporeal I must seek for this noble Power whereby she is qualified not only to perceive external Objects but to be also conscious of all her Perceptions in Matter after a certain peculiar manner so or so disposed or modified and in nothing else lest I recede from that supposition But in what matter is it most likely to be found whatsoever the determinate modification requisite to create such a Power shall at length be imagined to be in the Matter of the Soul herself or in that of the Body she animates Truly if we distinctly examine either the Soul or Body of a Brute as
not conjoyned and united into one Compositum we shall have a hard task of it to find in either of them or indeed in any other material Subject whatsoever any thing to which we may reasonably attribute such a Power of perceiving and self-moving But if we consider the whole Brute as a Body animated and by Divine Art of an infinite Wisdom designed framed and qualified for certain actions Uses and ends then we may safely conclude that a Brute is by the law of the Creation or institute of Almighty God so made and comparated as that from such a Soul and Body united such a confluence of Faculties should result as are necessary and convenient to the uses and ends for which it was designed Do but convert your thoughts awhile upon Mechanic Engines and seriously contemplate the motions powers and effects of them Composed they are all indeed of gross solid and ponderose Materials and yet such is the designe contrivance and artifice of their various parts as that merely from their Figures positions and motions of them conjoyn'd into one complex Machine there do necessarily result certain and constant operations answerable to the intent and scope of the Artists and far transcending the forces of their divided ingredients Before the invention of Clocks and Watches who could expect that of Iron and Brass dul and heavy Metalls a Machine should be framed which consisting of a few Wheels indented in the circumference and a Spring commodiously disposed should in its motions rival the Celestial Orbs and without the help or direction of any external mover by repeted revolutions measure the successive spaces of Time even to Minutes and Seconds as exactly almost as the revolutions of the Terrestial Globe it self And yet now such Machines are commonly made even by some Black-Smiths and Mens admiration of their pretty artifice long since ceased If then in vulgar Mechanics the contrivance and advantagious dispositions of matter be more noble and efficacious than matter it self certainly in a living Automaton or Animal consisting of an active Soul and organic Body intimately united the Powers emergent from the force of such a Soul and from a conspiracy and cooperation of so many and so various Organs all so admirably formed ought to be esteemed incomparably more noble more Energetic If the art of Man weak and ignorant Man can give to Bodies of themselves weighty sluggish and unactive figure order connexion and motion fit to produce effects above the capacity of their single Natures What ought we to think of the Divine art of the Creator whose Power is infinite because his Wisdom is so Cùm magnes cui Thales propterea animam attribuit ferrum ad se attrahit domitrixque illa rerum omnium materia ut ait Plinius l. 36. c. 16. ad inane nescio quid currit acus ferrea eidem affricta mundi cardines perpetuò respicit cùm horologia nostra singulos diei noctisque hor as constanter indicant an non corpus aliud praeter elementa idque divinius participare videntur Quòd si ex artis ' dominio gubernatione tam praeclara quotidie supra rerum ipsarum vires efficiantur quid ex Naturae praecepto ac regimine fieri putabimus cujus ars solùm imitatrix est Et si hominibus serviendo tam admiranda perficiant quid quaeso ab iis expectabimus ubi instrumenta fuerint in manu Dei Harv in lib. de generat Animal exercit 70. Could not He think ye who by the voice of his Will call'd the World out of Chaos and made so many myriads of distinct beings out of one and the same universal Matter could not He I say when he created Brutes so fashion and organize the various Parts and Members of their Bodies thereto adjust the finer and more active contexture of their Souls and impress such motions upon them as that from the union and cooperation of both a syndrome or confederacy of Faculties should arise by which they might be qualified and inabled to live to perceive to know their perceptions to move and act respectively to the proper ends and uses of their Creation Undoubtedly He could and 't is an Article of my belief that He did When ye hear a Church Organ is it not as delightful to your Mind as the Musick is to your Ear to consider how so many grateful Notes and Consonances that compose the charming Harmony do all arise only from Wind blown into a set of Pipes gradually different in length and bore and successively let into them by the apertures of their Valves and do ye not then observe the effect of this artificial instrument highly to excell both the Materials of it and the Hand of the Organist that play 's upon it The like Harmony perhaps ye have sometimes heard from a musical Water-Work that plaid of its self without the Fingers of a Musician to press down the Jacks merely by the force of a Stream of Water opening and shutting the Valves by turns and in an order predesign'd to produce the harmonical Sounds Consonances and Modes requisite to the composition to which it had been set Now to this Hydraulic Organ ye may compare a Beast whose Soul being indeed by reason of a certain modification of her matter qualified to perceive the various impressions made by objects upon the Nerves of the instruments of the Senses and to perform many trains of Actions thereupon is yet so limited in her Energy that she can perform no other actions but such as are like the various parts of an harmonical Composition regularly prescribed as the Notes of a Tune are prict down on the tumbrell of our Instrument by the Law of her Nature and determined for the most part to the same scope the Conservation of herself and the Body she animates So that she seems qualified only to produce a Harmony of Life Sense and Motion and this only from a certain contexture of the spirituose Particles of the matter of which she is made and from the respective Organization of the Body in which she acts But from what kind of texture or modification of the supposed Particles doth the faculty of Perceiving or discerning Objects arise For what I have hitherto said is too general to explain the particular reason of the thing here inquired viz. qua ratione fiat ut res sentiens creetur ex rebus insensilibus whence it is that a corporeal Soul composed of matter in it self wholly void of Sense acquires the power of Sensation I say therefore that this is indeed the difficulty that remain's here to be solved but such a difficulty that I dare not attempt to solve having much more reason to believe that it will to the end of the World remain indissoluble For to comprehend what particular Mode of composition or contexture of insensil Matter that is that gives to it the nature of essence and faculties of a sensitive Soul seems to me far to transcend the capacity of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quos duo ducebant Medicorum principe nati Praestantes Medici Podalirius atque Machaon So that if we compute from the second King in the first Dynastie of the Aegyptians down to the fifty third year precedent to the Excidium Trojae we shall find the intervenient space of time to amount to about a thousand years Of so much greater antiquity is the first Inventor of Medicine among the Aegyptians than that Aesculapius to whom the Graecs erroneously or arrogantly ascribe it and of whom Lactantius saith quid fecit aliud divinis honoribus dignum nisi quòd sanavit Hippolytum This I have noted only to shew the great Antiquity of my Profession not to detract from the renown of the Graecian Aesculapius who being also excellent in the Art of Medicine augmented the honor of it in his own Nation and therefore deserves from me the incense of a little breath in sacrifice to his memory Give me leave then I pray to speak a few words concerning him toward the satisfaction of those among my Auditors who perhaps have been less conversant in Books At Epidaurus a City in Argolis or Argia at this day call'd by some Saconia and Romania Moreae by others situate near the Aegean sea he was worship'd as a Divine Numen having there erected to him a magnific Temple in which the Sick after due oblations were lay'd to sleep and said to be secretly taught by the God himself in their dreams by what remedy they might certainly be heal'd This is more fully deliver'd by Pausanias and Strabo reports farther that among many others in that place and manner restor'd to health one Archias son of Aristaechmus of Pergamus was freed from dreadful Convulsions in all his limbs only by following the counsel of his dream and that returning to Pergamus in gratitude he brought with him the religion and worship of the Epidaurian Temple building another in imitation of it De quo templo etiam Corn. Tacitus Annal. 3. in asylorum apud Graecas civitates antiquitùs constitutorum origines inquirens haec habet Consules apud Pergamum Aesculapii compertum asylum retulerunt caeteros obscuris ob vetustatem initiis niti From Pergamus the same Superstition was in process of time transferr'd also to Smyrna and a third Temple rais'd there in which one C. Claudius Valerius Licinnianus was Chief Priest as appears from a Marble not long since brought from Smyrna and now extant in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxon. in number the forty sixth Marble The testimonies I have brought are you see authentic nor can you longer doubt that among the few reliques of the younger world that have escap'd the jaws of Oblivion some are yet extant to attest the great Age and honor of this pair of Noble Sisters Medicine and Anatomy So solid were their Principles so durable have been their Constitutions so illustrious their Propagators so sacred their Records and if I may be permitted to speak as a Platonist so powerful a Genius has preserv'd them ¶ Was Anatomy then taught by the Founder of Memphis Is it by a whole Age at least elder than the eldest of those mountains of brick or as Diodorus Siculus vainly calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternal Habitations the Aegyptian Pyramids And has it from that time to this day continued in use and esteem among wise men wheresoever Letters and Civility have flourish'd This certainly is alone sufficient to evince the great UTILITY of it were all other arguments wanting For Human Inventions however subtil and grateful at first to the Curious are never long-liv'd unless afterward they be found useful also and beneficial to Mankind But in what do's the Utility of it consist In so many things I want time to enumerate them and must therefore content my self to touch only two or three such as lye most open and obvious even to vulgar observation I say then that the study of Anatomy is singularly profitable to a Man in respect of Himself in respect to God in respect of the Divine Art of Healing each of which requires to be singly consider'd 1. In respect of Ones-self That Apollo when from his Delphic Oracle as Plato in his Alcibiades relates he deliver'd that most wise precept 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self thereby implicitly injoyn'd the study of Anatomy is more than I shall venture to avouch but this I dare boldly affirm that no Mortal can attain to any profound knowledge of Himself without long and strict scrutiny into the mysterious Oeconomy of Human nature which can be no otherwise made than by the helps and light of Anatomy Of the simple essence of the Rational Soul we seem in this umbratil life uncapable to know much For She being as Wise men teach and most of us believe a pure Spirit we can have of her no idea or image in our Phantasie and consequently no Notion all our Cognition being built upon Idols or Images stamp'd in the mint of Imagination and all our Reasonings or Discourses nothing but connection of many of those Images into chains sometimes of more sometimes of fewer links We cannot therefore deny our ignorance of the nature of that noblest part of our selves from which we derive all our little Science and must be content to entertain our irrequiet Curiosity with the faint glimmerings of light that shine through the acts and operations of that Celestial Ghest in our frail and darksom Tabernacles of flesh What then remains to be known by us of our selves Nothing I think but the Divine Architecture of the Body the fabrique of the various Organs by which the Soul acts while she sojourns in it and these ye know are not to be understood but by dissecting and distinctly contemplating the several parts of each Organ so as to investigate the Mechanical reason of its aptitude to its proper motions actions and uses Doth any man here conceive that the Oracle is to be expounded only of the Passions of the Mind and the Art of moderating them by the dictates of Prudence and rules of Virtue I say that neither is the knowledge of the Passions to be acquir'd without frequenting the Scholes of Anatomists For the Passions seem to be in the general only certain Commotions of the Spirits and bloud begun in the seat of the Imagination propagated through the Pathetic nerves to the heart and thence transmitted up again to the brain and therefore whosoever would duly enquire into their nature their first sources and resorts their most remarkable differences tides forces symptoms c. will soon find himself under a necessity to begin at Anatomy thence to learn the course of the bloud the structure of the brain the origin and productions of the nerves the fabric of the heart with its pulses and the wayes by which a reciprocal communication or mutual commerce is so swiftly effected so continually maintain'd betwixt the Animal and Vital machines Otherwise how highly soever he might think of
the parts of sacred Aedisices or Temples by the like proportions and in lib. 4. cap. 1. treating of the Columns of the three Orders expresly derives the dimensions of those of the Tuscan Order with their bases diminutions pedestals capitals c. all from the proportions observ'd by Nature in the feet leggs and thighs of man pursuing the same Analogie upon all occasions throughout his whole work and after to Albert Durers excellent Book de Symmetria corporis humani To these may be added Spigelius who in his first Book of Anatomy from the seventh Chapter to the end of the Book hath with singular diligence describ'd the proportions of the exterior parts For Painting I recommend to them the incomparable Lionardo Da Vinci della Pittura not only because he was eminently skill'd in all parts of Anatomy as appears by the accurate Figures that illustrate and adorn Vesalius ' s noble Volume De Corporis humani fabrica all which were drawn and cut by Da Vinci ' s own hands and the original Draughts of which are yet extant in a large Manuscript of his in Folio in the Italian language but written from the right hand to the left carefully preserv'd in His Majesties Cabinet at White-Hall where I have had the good fortune sometimes to contemplate them but also because in his Treatise Della Pittura just now mention'd he seems to me to have describ'd the figures motions forces and symmetry of the limbs their Articulations and Muscles in various postures more clearly than any other Writer I have hitherto read ¶ Having thus compendiously enquir'd into the Antiquity and recounted some of the principal Uses of Anatomy 't is now opportune for us to explain what notion we have and what are the most remarkable DIFFERENCES of the same Be it known therefore that by Anatomy according to the strict use and proper signification of the Graec word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I with all Learned Physicians and Chirurgeons understand a diligent accurate and artificial dissection of the body of any Animal chiefly of a Man in order to acquiring knowledge of the substance magnitude figure site structure connexion action and use of all and every part thereof In the true notion of Anatomy then two acts are comprehended a work of the hands Dissection and an exercise of the Mind or Intellect Speculation Of these the first is call'd by Galen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Administratio anatomica manual operation the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mental contemplation And hence arises the first Difference of Anatomy viz. the discrimination of it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into Practic and Theoretic The former of these is to be acquir'd by long use and experience and natural dexterity the later by reason and sagacity by hearing the Lectures reading the Writings of Learned men concerning that subject and by intent Meditation Again the former may for distinction sake be named Historical the later 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scientific To Anatomic Administration are requir'd not only many instruments of various kinds too well known to be here singly named much less described but various manual Operations also besides meer dissection all subordinate thereto viz. exact commensurations and ponderations of parts inquir'd into injections of divers liquors by syringes inflations extensions ligations excarnation application of Microscopes and many others and all to one general End the attaining to perfect knowledge of the subject and every the most minute part thereof at least as much Knowledge as the narrow limits of Human Wit can comprehend To the Theorical or Speculative part it is requisite that the Anatomist accurately observe 1. the Universal Structure of the whole and all its proportions beauties and general defects also it s general Communities and Differences with other Animals and above all with other individuals of the same species 2. the Conformation and Texture of every part with their Similar particles or visible Elements also the Symmetrie or proportion the parts hold both among themselves and compared with the whole the Communities and Differences of one and the same parts in various Animals and in other individuals of the same kind the comparison and disparity of any one part with the rest of the same individual and finally the various Sympathies and Antipathies of every single organical part 3. the various Faculties Actions and Uses of every part Of both the most proper SUBJECT is the body of Man extinct consider'd as an Universal Organ adaequately accommodate to all Faculties of the Soul and compos'd of a great multitude of less Organs the retexture or unweaving of which so as to find out the Mechanical reason of their motions and actions is the grand scope of the Anatomist I say the most proper Subject not to exclude the bodies of Brute Animals the dissection of which also though less properly belongs to the Art of Anatomy as being subservient to the principal End thereof nor a little helping to the more facil investigation of what is sought for in the most proper subject For which reason Zootomie or the dissection of Brutes of various kinds hath been commended and diligently practis'd by many as well Antient as Modern Physicians as a thing of good use toward the advancement of the History of Nature Nor is Dendranatomia or the Anatomy of Plants and Trees begun as it seems many hundred years past by Theophrastus and very lately with happy success cultivated by Malpighius and our Dr. Grew to be neglected forasmuch as from thence may be learned the admirable Analogy betwixt Plants and Animals chiefly as to their Generation Nutrition and Augmentation and how far that Resemblance holds I say also the body of Man extinct to intimate my just abhorrence and detestation of dissecting Men alive a cruelty condemn'd by Celsus forbidden even by Humanity it self nor ever for ought I have hitherto read publickly permitted by any Nation how barbarous and sanguinary soever no not in the most flagitious of Criminals I am not ignorant either that Herophilus hath been by some accused of inhumanly raking in the bowels of condemn'd Malefactors while they lay roaring under his knife or that Fabius Quintilianus that excellent Orator in his eighth Declamation intitled Gemini Languentes introduces the Wife impeaching the Husband Malae Tractationis for that he had given leave to an Empiric for I cannot vouchsafe him a better title nor easily find a worse to dissect one of her Twinns while yet alive that he might find out the way to preserve the other who languish'd of the same sickness and yet notwithstanding I think my self free to choose whether I will believe or doubt the verity of these Accusations For the Works of Herophilus being lost and nothing of his Memoirs remaining but what hath been transmitted to us by such as either impugned his doctrine or aemulated his glory 't is not improbable but his frequent dissections of Living Beasts might give occasion to
oblivio obruet CUTLERUS posteritati narratus traditus aeternum superstes erit ¶ Would I were equally secure of Your good acceptance I dare not say Approbation of the mite I am about to contribute toward the accomplishment of his so gloriose Design But alas this is a wish without hope so destitute I know my self to be of all the Faculties of Mind requisite to so difficult an Atchievement my Zeal for the promotion of Anatomy only excepted and much more reason there is why I should apologize for my insufficiency before I farther expose it Notwithstanding this discouragement considering with my self that profound Erudition and great Humanity are like Love and Compassion inseparable I think it much safer to confide in Your Candor and Benignity for pardon of my Defects than to attempt to palliate them by Excuses however just and evident Not to be conscious of my faileurs and lapses in my following Lectures would argue me of invincible ignorance not freely to acknowledge them would be tacitly to defend them to seek by speciose praetences of hast of frequent diversions of natural impatience of long meditation of bodily indispositions intervenient and other the like vulgarly alleged impediments to extenuate them were the most certain way to aggravate them and to conceal them from your sight is in this place and occasion impossible Having then no other Refuge but in Your Grace and Favor I fly to that alone to secure me from the danger of malignant Censures which I am more than likely to incurr nor will I fore-arm my self with any other defense but this If the Matters of my subsequent discourses shall appear to be neither Select nor of importance enough to compensate Your time and patience be pleas'd to remember that saying of Aristotle Metaphys lib. 2. cap. 1. Non solùm illis agendae sunt gratiae quorum opinionibus quis acquiescet sed iis etiam qui superficie tenus dixerunt Conferunt enim aliquid etiam isti habitum namque nostrum exercuorunt Si enim Timotheus non fuisset multum melodiae nequaquam habuissemus Si tamen Phrynis non fuisset nè Timotheus quidem extitisset c. If my Stile shall sound somewhat harsh and ungrateful many times to Ears unatcustomed to any but their Mother tongue as coming too near to the Latin I intreat you to consider this is either no indecency in this place or such a one at worst which I could not otherwise avoid than by involving my sense in the obscurity of words less proper and significant the nature and quality of the Subjects treated of being such as cannot be fully expressed in our yet imperfect Language So that I have a clear right to that honest plea of Lucretius Abstrahit invitum patrii sermonis egestas ¶ PRAELECTIO I. Of Nutrition MAN being consider'd ut Animal Rationale as a living Creature naturally endow'd with Reason and compos'd of two principal parts a Soul and a Body each of which hath various Faculties or Powers the summe of Human Nature must be comprehended in those Powers conjoyn'd Of these Powers some are peculiar to the Soul or Mind others belong to the Body as Organical and animated by the Soul To the Former sort are referr'd the Faculties of thinking knowing judging reasoning or inferring concluding electing and willing all commonly signified by Understanding and Will All which being remote from the Province of Anatomists I leave them to be handled by Philosophers inquiring into the nature of the Soul Of the Later some are requisite to the complement of Man as single or individual viz. the Faculties of Nutrition of Life of Sense and of Voluntary Motion and there is one that respects the Procreation of Mankind namely the Power Generative And these are the natural Faculties to which as principal Heads the Learned Anatomist is to referr all his Disquisitions that at length he may if it be possible attain to more certain knowledge of the Mechanic frame of the Organs in which they are founded But being more than can be tho' but perfunctorily enquir'd into in so few hours as are assign'd to this publick Exercise I have therefore chosen to treat of only some of them at this time viz. Nutrition Life and voluntary Motion not as more worthy to be explain'd than the rest but as more comprehensive or of larger extent I have chose also to begin from NUTRITION not only because the Stomach Gutts and other parts principally inservient thereto being by reason of impurities contain'd in them more prone to putrefaction ought therefore first to be taken out of the cavity of the Abdomen to prevent noisomnes but because Nutrition seems to be if not one and the same thing with yet at least equal or contemporany to Generation it self and that both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of Time and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect of Nature For tho' the operation of the Power Gen rative or Formative Virtue may seem to precede that of the Nutritive yet in truth the Stamina or first rudiments of an Embryo are scarcely delineated when they begin to be augmented also by nutrition so that 't is consentaneous as well to the observions of Dr. Harvey and others since as to reason that Formation and Nutrition are but different names of one and the same act of the Plastic power Again Generation and Accretion are not perform'd without Nutrition nor Nutrition or Augmentation without Generation To nourish what is it but to substitute such and so much of matter as is by reason of exhaustion wanting to the solid parts of the body namely flesh nerves veins arteries c. and what is that in reality but to generate flesh nerves veins arteries c. In like manner Accretion is not effected without Generation for all natural bodies capable of Nutrition are by accession of new parts augmented and these new parts must be such as those of which the bodies were at first composed and this is done according to all their dimensions So that in verity the parts of an Animal are increas'd distinguish'd and organiz'd all at the same time by the same Formative power Moreover if we reflect upon the Efficient cause of Formation and Nutrition and upon the Matter it uses we shall on both sides find it necessary that those two works if ye will have them to be distinct be carried on together On the part of the Efficient because idem esse principium efficiens nutriens conservans in singulis Animalibus necesse est nisi aliam formam in puero aliam in adolescente in sene aliam constituamus quod absurdum est On the part of the Matter ex qua because all Animals such as are produced per Epigenesin of which alone is our discourse not of such Infects that are generated per Metamorphôsin are made of one part of the Matter prepar'd by the Formative Spirit and nourish'd and augmented out of the remainder not out of a divers
the same Natural Perception may be and often is by various degrees changed into Sense Now therefore that I may draw all the lines of this Digression quite home to the Centre of my praesent scope that there is such a thing as Natural Feeling or Perception I acknowledge that the name of Natural Perception is more distinctive and therefore more proper I confess I grant also that this discerning faculty is by the immense bounty of the Omnipotent Creator conferr'd upon all the sensile parts of the body and among these upon the stomach in a high degree I farther grant that by virtue of the same the Retentive Faculty of the Stomach may be in some cases much aided and promoved All these things I hold my self obliged to concede What then remains to be the subject of my doubting and suspense Two things there are which yet I can not bring my weak reason to admit though they have been and with strong arguments too asserted expresly by a Man whose doctrin I often follow and whose autority I venerate The First is that not only the sensile parts of Animals but this inanimate yea every single particle of Matter in the Universe is from the Creation endowed with this faculty of Natural Sense or Perception call it what ye please and with its inseparable Adjuncts natural Appetite and Motion For who can believe that any part of this dead body hath a perception of the knife of the Dissector and that the fibres of the flesh suffer as much of irritation from the solution of their continuity now as when the body was animated by a soul and they were invigorated by the heat of the arterial bloud and the influence of the vital spirits Who can be persuaded that a marble pillar when knock'd with a mallet feels as much pain as the limbs of an Animal that is beaten with a cudgel And yet both these things must be true if the supposition of Natural Sense or Perception be so What then shall I do to extricate my thoughts from the perplexing difficulties of this Aenigmatic Paradox My Curiosity urges me to examine them my Understanding is unable to solve them and the Theorem is most noble in it self Wherefore my desire of Knowledge will be alone sufficient to excuse me if despairing of satisfaction from my self I humbly seek it from the Oracle of your more discerning judgement The Other more neerly touching the point in quaestion is this I do not perceive any necessity why Natural Perception should be brought in to concurre with the two newly explain'd Organical Constitutions of the Stomach in which the Retentive Faculty thereof seems to me to be wholly founded For 1 that placid quiet which the Stomach is observ'd to enjoy when satiated with good and wholsom food may arise only from the cessation of the anxiety and trouble it suffer'd from the vellication or gnawing of Hunger the biting Acidity of the Fermentum Esurinum being now blunted by the benign juice of the Aliment newly receiv'd After which the fibres that before were irritated gently and placidly restore themselves to their natural posture as all other Tensil bodies also do and therein attain to quiet and ease So that the Complacency of which the stomach is then sensible seems referrible to the Sense of Touching common to all sensile parts of the body For if Hunger be an ungrateful Sense of emptiness or want of food why should not Satiety be a grateful sensation of the supply of that want since contraries are ever comprehended sub eodem genere 2 But were the Complacency transferr'd from Sense to Natural Perception yet would it not be necessarily consequent that therefore the same is required to consummate the Retentive faculty because usually the meat is retain'd in the stomach a good while some hours after the complacency ceaseth and therefore the Retention seems not to depend upon it And this may be confirm'd from hence that it is observed that by how much more delicate and grateful to the stomach the meat receiv'd is by so much the less while it is therein retain'd Now these are the reasons that withhold me from assenting to that opinion which placeth the Retentive power of the stomach chiefly in the Natural Perception of it But whether they be of weight enough to justifie my suspense or not I leave to your determination and here turn over leaf to a new lesson viz. The CONCOCTIVE Faculty of the Ventricle WHICH according to the order of Nature is next to be consider'd for all food is swallow'd receiv'd and then retain'd by the stomach in order to its concoction or conversion into Chyle That this operation is not organic as we have shewn all the praecedent to be but wholly Similar is sufficiently evident from hence that the Chyle it self when confected is similar and all the Actions by which it is made Chyle are so too nor dos the Cavity of the Stomach contribute more to this work than a pot doth to the boyling of the flesh that is put in it over the fire Most true it is nevertheless that the Organ in which the work of Chylification is perform'd is principally the Ventricle in which the Concoctive power is most vigorose and to which Nature hath committed the most difficult part of the whole operation I say Principally the Ventricle because I would not wholly deprive the Gutts of their right to the like power of changing aliments into Chyle though they do it less efficaciously than the stomach and as it were at second hand that is if any part of the Chyle happen to descend into them not perfectly elaborate they farther concoct it finishing the work the stomach had begun Hence it is worthy our observation that the Chyle taken in by Venae Lacteae immediately from the stomach is thinner and more spirituose than that imbibed from the Gutts and that receiv'd from the superior Gutts thinner than that exported out of the inferior and in fine the thickest is convey'd out of the Colon and intestinum rectum So that we may conclude the stomach is the primary seat or place of Chylification and the Gutts the secondary Having thus easily found what kind of operation the conversion of meat and drink into Chyle is and where it is performed we are in the next place diligently to inquire 1. What are the capital Differences of Aliments to be concocted in the stomach 2. What various Mutations or Alterations the food ought to undergo before it can be brought to the requisite perfection of Chyle and 3. What are the Causes by which those Mutations are effected And these are the three general heads of this our disquisition As for the FIRST viz. the differences of Aliments to be digested 't is well known that all our food is either Meat or Drink solid or liquid and all our drink either spirituose or watery That all Potulent liquors require less coction in the stomach than solid meats is not to be
Theologues if I take the innocent liberty of believing that this admirable act of Vivification done by the Omnipotent Creator upon Adam was done by way of Inspiration by which according to the genuine and proper Sense of the word is to be understood a blowing in of some subtil and energetic substance into a place where before it was not viz. into the Nostrils of the human Body newly formed of the Dust of the Earth Which will perhaps be found somewhat the more reasonable if the manner and circumstances of the miraculous Revivification of the good Shunamites Son by the Prophet Elisha Kings 2. Cap. 4. be well considered For we read that after the Prophet had layn some time and much bestirred himself upon the Body of the dead Child putting his Mouth upon his Mouth and his Eyes upon his Eyes and his Hands upon his Hands and stretched himself again and again upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Flesh of the Child waxed warm and he Neesed seven times and opened his Eyes So that from thence it seems inferrible that as the first Man was inlivened so this Child was revived by Inspiration Both acts doubtless were done miraculously because by the same divine Agent God yet with this difference that the former was performed immediately by God himself the latter mediately by his Instrument the Prophet to whose Breath blown into the Childs Mouth and to whose Heat communicated to the Childs Flesh and consequently to his Blood the Author of Life was pleased to give a Virtue so Efficacious as to restore and renovate the Vital motions of the Blood Heart Lungs and Diaphragm of the Child that had been stopped by the cold Hand of Death and those Motions being recommenced and the Brain reinvigorated by a fresh influx of arterial Blood replete with vital Spirits by strong contraction of its Membranes as it were by a Critical Motion expell'd the material and conjunct cause of the Disease by Sternutation seven times repeted before the Child opened his Eyes For that the Seat of that most acute Disease was in the Brain is manifest even from the Childs complaint to his Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Head my Head I am not ignorant there are some who expresly affirm that the word inspiration is in sacred Scriptures used only Metaphoricaly whether truly or not let Divines dispute Meanwhile I am certain the word Spirit upon which inspiration depends is in many places of the holy Bible used to express Life In Job c. 27. v. 3 quamdiu spiritus Dei est in naribus meis signifies so long as I shall live or have Life And in Ezech c. 1. v. 20. Spiritus vitae erat in rotis seems to me to say the Wheels were living Other Instances I might easily collect if these were not sufficient to my Scope and if I were not obliged to hasten to other appellations and Characters of Life less liable to controversy and used by Philosophers By Hippocrates Life is per periphrasin call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignis ingenitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accensio animae in corde by Aristotle The Hebrews express it sometimes by nephesch sometimes by neschama both which words indifferently signifie Soul or Life The Graecians whose Language is more copiose name it either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to Breath or refrigerate by blowing nor unfitly because to Breath or respire is proper to living Creatures or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliàs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which Hesychius addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Latines commonly Vita which is deflected from the Graec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by cutting off the Vowel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and changing b into v as is usually done and sometimes Anima whch is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Wind an Etymology owned by Horace himself in this odd exprssion of his Impellunt animae lintea Thraciae in Carmin lib. 4. Ode 12. and before him by Lucretius lib. 6. in these Words Ventus ubi atque animae subitò vis maxima quaedam Aut extrinsecus aut ipsa ab tellure coorta Who often calls the Soul Ventum Vitalem FROM the various Names we come to some few Notions that eminent Philosophers have formed to themselves of Life such as among many others seem to me more memorable than the rest as well for the credit they have obtained in the Schools as for the great renown of their Authors Cardanus a man of admirable Subtility of Wit in his lucid intervalls defines Life to be the Operation or action of the Soul and as Iul. Scaliger in Exercit. 102 Sect. 5. not without Signs of envy observes hath therein many Followers In the number of whom I must not list my self 1 because if Life be an action of the Soul the Body cannot be truly said to live 2 if Life be an action there must be an action of an action for the actions of Life in Man are as Arist 2. de anima truly teaches to understand to have Sense to move voluntarily to be nourished to speak c. and to suppose an action of an action is manifestly absurd In this point therefore I declare my self to be no disciple of Cardans Fernelius equal to Cardan both in time and fame nor inferior in Sagacity of Spirit defines life thus Est Animantium vita facultatum actionumque omnium conservatio But this definition is too narrow for the thing as taking no notice of the Body which yet is participant of Life and upon whose Organs the exercise of all the faculties and actions of the Soul depends Ludovicus Vives describes Life to be Conservatio instrumentorum quibus anima in corpore utitur because saith he when the instruments are corrupted life ceaseth But neither in this description is it safe to acquiesce 1 because Life is conserved not so much by the integrity of the Instruments as by the Faculties which are before the Instruments and upon which all the Functions proximly depend 2 The conservation of the Instruments doth not make or constitute Life but rather follow it as an effect 3 if Life were only the conservation of the Instruments then would it necessarily follow that part of Life is lost or destroyed when any of the Instruments are corrupted or cut off which is absurd life being indivisible and daily experience attesting that one or more of the Organs of the Body as Hands Feet c may be cut off without diminution of Life Which even Lucretius himself acknowledged in these elegant Verses At manet in vita cui mens animusque remansit Quamvis est circum-caesis lacer undique membris Truncus ademptâ animâ circum membrisque remotis Vivit aetherias vitaleis suscipit auras c. Lib. 3. Neither of these three Select Definitions proving in all points absolute and Scientific some here perhaps expect that I who am so bold
as to reject them should dare also to substitute in the room of them some new one of my own excogitation if not more perfect yet at least less culpable To these expecting Gentelmen therefore I say that much less of skill and strength being required to demolish than to build a Pigmy may be able to pull down what Giants have raised and that to form a true and complete definition of any the most obvious thing in Nature much more of Life which is extremly abstruse would puzzel a much stronger Brain than mine Well then may I be excused if conscious of my imparity to a task so desperate I forbear farther to expose my weakness by attempting it and choose rather to leave them to collect what my sentiments are of the nature of Life from my following discourse WHICH being designed only as a modest disquisition of the natural causes of Human Life I professedly pass by what that over-curiose nation of Scholemen impensly addicted to notions abstracted from all commerce with the Senses and to Speculations Metaphysical have delivered of the Life of Spirits of Angells Daemon's and other Beings of that kind subject neither to the Laws of Nature nor to the Empire of Fate And this I do because some of their Doctrines far transcend the capacity of my narrow Wit others seem more fine than useful and all are remote from my present institute I omit also what our equaly acute Dr. Glisson hath with admirable subtility of Wit and immense Labour of Meditation excogitated and not many Years before his Death divulged of the Energetic Life of Nature and its Faculties by virtue of which he supposed that even the most minute particles of this aspectable World do naturally perceive desire move themselves with Counsel and what is yet more wonderful frame Bodies for themselves to inhabit animate or inform them and perform other most noble operations Which I do not only because this opinion how favorable soever hath not yet been received as canonical by common assent of Philosophers but also because I humbly conceive it to be in all things the Name only excepted the same with that antique Dogma first delivered by Plato and after asserted by his Followers that all things in the Universe are Animate that is are naturally endowed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Sense and Self-motion which hath been sufficiently impugned by Aristotle Lucretius Gassendus and all others who have refuted Plato's Doctrine de Anima mundi upon which it is grounded Not that I reject this opinion of natural Sense or Perception attributed to all things but that I am not yet convinced of the truth of it Insipientis est aliis dogmata illa aut commendare aut convellere de quorum veritate ipsemet adhuc dubitat And well may I suspend my assent to this opinion which gives to things inanimate such Faculties which my Philosophy will not grant to any but rational Creatures Nor indeed would either Lucretius or Des Cartes For the former though according to the Epicurean Hypothesis which he in all things followed he attributes to Atoms or as he calls them Solida Primordia rerum a Spontaneous Mobility nevertheless denies that they are naturally moved with Knowledg or Design in these Verses Lib. 2. Nam neque consilio debent tardata morari Nec perscrutari primordia singula quaeque Ut videant qua quidque geratur cum ratione And the Later in one of his Epistles to Mersennus Epistol parte 2. epist. 44. where he strictly examines the Doctrine of a certain Monk that ascribed to even the most minute particles of Matter a Power of moving themselves and other ingenite propensions the very same I guess with those supposed to be inseparably conjoyn'd with Natural Perception plainly declares his Judgment of the unreasonableness thereof in these Words Non probo indivisibilia ista neque naturales quas illis tribuit propensiones istiusmodi enim propensiones absque intellectu concipere nequeo ne irrationalibus quidem animalibus tale quidquam tribuo Sed quicquid in illis appetitus aut propensiones vocamus per solas Mechanicae regulas explico These two praeliminary Advertisements premised I come into the direct way of my intended disquisition That the Life of Man doth both originally spring and perpetually depend from the intimate conjunction and union of his Reasonable Soul with his Body is one of those few Assertions in which all Divines and natural Philosophers unanimously agree And they have reason For while the rational Soul continues in the Body so long Life continues and when the same is separated from the Body in that very moment of Time Death succeeds Now this rational Soul being by most wise Men granted to be a pure Spirit or substance merely Spiritual it is from thence necessarily consequent that the Life of it is Substantial that is the very substance of it considered as Metaphysicians love to speak non in ordine ad esse per se sed in ordine ad operationes For we dull-brain'd Mortals to whom it is not granted to be able to conceive the nature of Beings purely Spiritual by notions adaequate to it according to the Module of our understanding distinguish even in Angels their subsistence Fundamental from their Energetic Nature although in reality both are the same substance but diversly considered For this substantial Life though it may be as to its Operations by the same Divine Power that gave it suspended cannot yet be wholly taken away so as that it should after continue to be a Spirit Because if a Spirit be supposed to be deprived of Life the very substance of it must also be supposed to be at the same time annihilated For who can conceive so gross a contradiction as a dead Angel The same may be as truly said also of a Rational Soul which is allowed to be a Spirit too Wherefore the Life of it is as I affirmed Substantial and Essential and consequently incapable to be taken away unless the Soul or Spirit it self be at the same time annihilated Which the Omnipotent Creator can indeed when he shall so please do but it doth not appear from any place of holy Scripture that he either hath done or ever will do it and therefore let no man doubt of the Immortality of his Soul Sic etenim lethi praeclusa ' st janua menti From this our fundamental position then that the Life of a Man is in his rational Soul essentially it follows of necessity that the same Life cannot be in his Body too essentially but by way of Participation or Communication Nor is it difficult to conceive in our mind that the Life of the Body being separable from it is only communicated to it or derived from another thing of a different Nature For if a substance essentially living be intimately united to another substance of its own nature void of Life the thing composed of those two substances so united must have Life but
so that the first part live substantially or by virtue of its Essence the other only by participation of that essential Life Certain therefore it is and evident that the Life of a Man comes immediately from and depends upon the Presence of his rational Soul in his Body Which is the Truth we sought after I say immediately because the Life of the Soul is originally from God who created it a living Substance Of the Souls of Brute Animals the same may not be affirmed For though it be true indeed that their Souls also are the Principle or Fountain whence Life is communicated to the Bodies they inform yet 't is equally true that these Souls being Material or Corporeal their Life cannot be essential to the matter of which they are composed but flows from and depends upon the determinate Modification of that matter from which their Souls Result So that in Brutes as it is the Mode or manner of the disposition of the Matter not simply the matter it self that constitutes the Soul So it is the Hypostasis or subsistence of the same Mode upon which alone the Life that is the Act Energy and Vigor of the Soul depends No wonder then if we believe the Souls of all Brutes to be by their nature Mortal and to be actually dissolved together with their Bodies by Death That I may explain what I understand by the Modification of the matter which is here supposed to constitute the Soul of a Brute give me leave in this place to make a short halt for it is not a digression while I briefly declare what my sentiments are concerning the Souls of Brutes I humbly and with Submission to wiser Heads conceive 1 That the diversity of kinds observed among Brutes proceeds immediately from the divers Modifications of the common matter of their Souls and the respectively divers Organizations of their Bodies from both which by admirable artifice conjoyned and united into one complex System or Machine various faculties and proprieties must of necessity result by which those several kinds are among themselves distinguished 2 That the Specific or determinate Modification of the Soul and respective Organization of the Body in every distinct kind is to be wholly attributed to the Plastic virtue or formative Power innate and affixed to the Seed of the Generants 3 That this Plastic virtue is originally founded in the still efficacious Fiat pronounced in the act of Creation by the Divine Architect of all things who commanding all Animals to increase and multiply gave them at the same time power to fulfill that Command by endowing their Seed with an active Principle to form and impressing upon that Agent a certain idea or exemplar according to which it is obliged and directed how to form and not otherwise provided the Matter upon which it operates be obedient and susceptible of that Idea So that the Idea first conceived in the Divine Intellect and then prescribed as a Pattern to the Plastic Spirit with which the genital matter is impregnated being not in all kinds nay not in any two kinds of Animals one and the same but a peculiar Idea assigned to each kind it comes to pass that the Plastic Spirit thus directed regulated and confined by the Law of Nature doth out of that genital matter form the Soul and Organize the Body of every Brute Animal of any one of those numerous kinds exactly according to the prototype of that kind And by this means I conceive all Brutes to be generated both Soul and Body and their distinct Species without confusion or innovation conserved throughout all ages If I conceive amiss be pleased to consider that many excellent Wits treating of the same Subject have done so before me and that the Theorem it self is so abstruse that as Cicero 2. Tusculan said of the various Opinions of Philosophers about the nature of a Soul Harum Sententiarum quae verasit Deus aliquis viderit quae verisimillima magna quaestio est so may I say Man may dispute what is most probable but God alone knows what is true concerning the Souls of Beasts and their production Notwithstanding this darkness of my way I must adventure to go a little farther in it and endevor to explain 1 What the Substance of a Sensitive Soul is or of what Particles it is contexed 2 In what the Life or Act and Vigor of it consisteth and 3 What are the primary Functions and Operations of it As to the First then it seems highly probable that a Sensitive Soul is not a pure Spirit such as the rational Soul of Man is but a meer Body yet a most subtile and extremely thin one as being context of most minute and most subtile Corpuscules or Particles For if it were Incorporeal it could neither act nor suffer in the Body which it animate's or informs not Act because it could not touch any part not Suffer because it could not be touch't by any part of the Body But that it doth both act and suffer in the Body is most evident from its Sensations of external Objects from its affects or Passions consequent to those Sensations from the motions it causeth in the Members respective to those Passions and from its Union and consension with the Body in all things I call it therefore a Body and say that it is composed or by an admirable contexture made up of most thin and most subtile Particles such perhaps as are most smooth and most round like those of Flame or Heat because otherwise it could not diffuse it self so swiftly through nor cohere within with the whole Body and all parts of it and because when it departs out of the Body the Body is not perceived to lose any the least thing of its former Bulk Figure or Weight no more than a Vessel of Wine loses by the exhalation of its Spirits or a piece of Amber-Grise loses by emission of its Odor So that we may imagine that if the whole sensitive Soul of an Elephant were conglomerated or condensed it might be contained in a place no bigger than a Cherry-stone These constituent particles or Elements of a Sensitive Soul I suppose to be for the most part analogous to the nature of Fire because the natural heat of all Animals comes from the Soul and their Life consisteth in that Heat I also suppose them to be at first conteined in the genital matter the most spirituose or active particles of which are in the act of formation by the Plastic Virtue Selected Disposed Formed and as it were contexed into a little Soul and the grosser or less agil framed by degrees into an organical Body of competent dimensions and of Figure answerable to the Specific Idea by the Divine Creator pre-ordained and assigned to that Species to which the Generants belong And this I suppose because the brisk vigorous and swift motions of the Soul in the Body require it to be composed of particles most subtile and active and because as well
and deep Vallies where it is kept in on both sides and wheel'd about into eddies or Whirle-Winds 5 In the very manner of Ustion or burning which is always transacted through the minute Pores of the Body burnt so that Ustion doth always undermine and penetrate and prick as if it were done by the points of a great many Needles Thence it seems to come also that Aqua Fortis Chrysulca and other dissolving Liquors if proportionate to the Body on which they act do the work of Fire by their penetrating pungent and corroding Motions PROPOS IV. That this expansive repuls'd alternative and penetrating Motion requisite to the generation of Heat ought to be also rapid and to be made by Particles minute indeed but not reduced to extreme subtilty THe verity of this proposition may be collected 1 From a comparation of the works of Fire with the works of Time or Age. For Age dries consumes undermines and incinerates no less than Fire yea far more subtilly but because the motion that causes these effects is both very slow and performed by Particles extremely minute therefore no sensible Heat is thereby produced 2 from comparing the dissolution of Gold with that of Iron the first in Aqua Regis the other in Aqua Fortis For Gold is dissolved calmly without tumult or effervescence raised in the dissolvent Iron not without vehement excitation of Heat probably because in Gold the ingress of the Water of Separation is slow mild and subtilly insinuating and the yeilding of the parts of the Gold easy but in Iron the ingress is rough difficult and with conflict the parts of the Iron with greater obstinacy resisting the motion of the dissolvent 3 From Gangrens and Mortifications which invade and spread without inducing much either of heat or pain by reason the motion of putrefaction is both slow and performed by Particles extremely subtil otherwise it would certainly cause Pain in the part affected Now from these Propositions the three latter of which are certain necessary Limitations of the first we may deduce this genuine conclusion That Heat is a certain Motion expansive checkt or repuls'd striving quickned or incited by opposition perform'd by minute Particles and with conflict and some impetuosity Which to me I declare seems to be so perspicuous and convincing that I dare promise that if any man be able to excite a Motion tending to dilatation or expansion of the Movent and then to repress that motion so as the dilatation may not proceed equally and uniformly but prevail and be repulsed alternately he shall thereby most certainly generate Heat in the Body whose parts are so moved of what kind or constitution soever the Body shall be For whether it be a Body Elementary as they speak or luminose or opaque rare or dense locally expansed or contein'd within the bounds of its first dimensions tending to dissolution or remaining in its stare whether it be Animal Vegetable or Mineral Water or Oyl or Aire or any other substance susceptive of the Motion described it will make no difference as to the effect aimed at the production of actual Heat Why then should I not believe that Nature hath instituted such an actual Motion or Heat in the Blood of Animals that Life Original might be therein perpetually generated since to make that actual Heat also Vital nothing more is required as I said before but that it arise from an internal Principle or Mover viz. the vital Spirits ingenite in the Blood and that it be amicable benign and placid as in the State of Health it always is and since both those requisite conditions or qualifications are found in the motion of the Blood If in the assertion of the precedent Propositions or in the deduction of my conclusion from them I have from weakness of Judgment admitted any Paralogism I shall receive the discovery thereof as a singular favor from any man of greater perspicacity and more skilful in the art of reasoning rightly and will ingenuously acknowledg and retract my error Meanwhile I acquiesce in this perswasion that the vital Heat of Animals is an expansive Motion of the Spirits of the Blood somewhat checkt or repulsed but still endevoring with sufficient force and alternately prevailing which I owe partly to the Ld. Chancellor Bacon in novo Organo ubi agit de praerogativis instantiarum in vindemiatione 1. partly to his equal sectator Dr. Glisson who had the felicity to improve whatsoever he had borrowed and to raise illustrous Theories from obscure hints But hold a little and give me space to reflect upon what I have lately said Have I not in this place incurred the danger of being accused of contradicting myself 'T is not half an Hour since I declared my assent to that common Doctrine of all Theologs and most Philosophers that the Life of a Man doth originally spring from and perpetually depend upon the union of his rational Soul with his Body And now I affirm that the Life of all Animals Man himself not excepted consists in the expansive motion of the Spirits in their Blood Are not these two assertions to be numbred among 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things inconsistent yea manifestly repugnant each to the other If either of them be true is not the other necessarily false To obviate this formidable accusation I say that these two positions though seemingly opposite are yet really capable of reconciliation each to the other and by consequence both may be true For 1 well known it is to all versed in the Jewish Commentaries upon the Pentateuch that the most learned Rabbins interpreting these words in the History of Mans Creation Deus inspiravit in faciem hominis spiraculum vitae to shew the excellency of Man above all his fellow Creatures give this Paraphrase upon them Homini Deus in creatione imaginem suam indidit inspiravit halitum vitae duplicis mortalis immortalis So that according to the Sense of this Paraphrase at least if I understand it rightly God was pleased to give to Man a double Life not two lives successive one before Death the other after but two conjoyn'd in the Body one Immortal which can be no other but that which is essential to the rational Soul and communicated to the Body by virtue of the intimate union of those two so different substances the other Mortal common to Brutes also and extinguishable by death which I deduce from the expansive motion of the Spirits of the Blood Nor hath this interpretation of the Iewish Doctors been for ought I know rejected by the Christian Scholes as unsound much less as Heretical and therefore I humbly conceive it is not unlawful for me to embrace it 2 That in this Life every individual Man hath also two distinct Souls one Rational by which he is made a reasonable Creature the other Sensitive by virtue of which he becomes a Sensitive Animal and that these are coexistent conjunct and cooperating in him untill death which
delivers the first into a free injoyment of her essential immortality but dissolves the latter into the Elements or matter of which it was composed is an opinion very antient highly consentaneous to reason and defended not only by many eminent Philosophers as well antique as modern but even by some Divines of great learning Piety and Fame among whom I need name only Gassendus of the Roman and Dr. Hammond of our Church The former of which hath professedly asserted it in Physiologia Epituri cap. de Animae sede the other in Notes on the 23. Verse of the 5 Chap. of St. Pauls first Epist. ad Thess. Where interpreting these Words of the divinely inspir'd Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 integer vester spiritus anima corpus he conceived that the Apostle divides the whole Man into his three constituent parts viz. the Body which comprehends the Flesh and Members the Sensitive or Vital Soul which is common also to Brutes and the Spirit by which is denoted the reasonable Soul originally created by God infused into the Body and from thence after death to return to God and this his exposition he confirms by agreeing Testimonies of many Ethnic Philosophers and some antient Fathers Much more I should here have said in defence of this opinion had I not thought it less labour to direct the unsatisfied to a little Treatise intitled a Natural History of the Passions publish'd about three Years past where the Author professedly handles it Now if either of these two recited opinions be granted to be true and 't is no easy task to refute either of them then both my positions that occasioned my recital of them may be also true and so the supposed inconsistency of them solved Presuming then that what I have said concerning the First Act of the Blood or the Generation of Original Life in the Blood and the manner how it is performed is probable and sufficient to explicate the Theorem I here conclude my discourse of it ¶ The SECOND Act of the Blood in the race of Life is the Excitation of the Motion or Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries which seems to be done in this manner The Blood descended partly out of the Trunc of the Vena Cava partly from the Arteria Venosa into the Ears or Portals of the Heart and there beginning its expansive motion fills them even to distention and by that distention irritates or incites their Fibres which are numerose and strong to contract themselves by the motion of Restitution By this constriction of the Fibres on all sides the cavities of the Ears of the Heart are necessarily closed or streightned and by consequence the Blood newly admitted into them is sequeez'd out into the two Ventricles of the Heart forcing the Valves called Tricuspides or Trisulcae which are seated at the Gates or Mouths of the Ventricles and open from without inward to open themselves and give way The Blood thus propuls'd into the Ventricles of the Heart and somewhat increasing or intending its expansive Motion fills them even to distention and to the shutting of the Valves which it so lately open'd so that at that time no more Blood can be admitted nor what is admitted recoyl or return by the Wicket through which it enter'd The Ventricles of the Heart being thus filled and distended and by virtue of their Fibres spontaneously contracting themselves into a much narrower compass strongly compress the Blood contained in them and force it to thrust back three other Valves call'd Sigmoides which open outwards and to rush forth partly into the Venae Arteriosa leading it into the Lungs from the right Ventricle partly into the Aorta or great artery from the left By this constriction of the two Ventricles of the Heart which is their proper and natural Motion the Circulation as they call it of the Blood is chiefly effected that Blood which is out of the right Ventricle express't through the Vena Arteriosa into the Lungs being impell'd forward till it arrive in the Arteria Venosa that brings it into the left Ventricle and that which is expell'd from the left Ventricle into the great Artery being by the Branches thereof distributed into all the parts of the Body The Blood being in this manner squirted out and the irritation ceasing the Ventricles instantly restore themselves to their middle position and make way for the reception of more Blood from the Ears of the Heart as before and then being by the Influx and expansive Motion thereof again distended and irritated repeat their Constriction and thereby eject it and this reciprocation or alternate dilatation and constriction or Diastole and Systole of the two Ventricles of the Heart together with the Arteries continued to them is what we call their Pulsation and the grand cause of the perpetual Circuition of the Blood as the alternate expansion and repression of the Spirits during that pulsation is that motion which Dr. Glisson first named the Mication of the Blood comprehending the double motion in that single appellation The Blood then it is that alone excites the Pulsation of the Heart and Arteries by distending them not by reason of any actual Ebullition or any considerable Rarifaction it undergoes in either of the Ventricles or in their avenues but as I humbly conceive merely by its quantity rushing in Not by Ebullition or Effervescence as Aristotle who gave it the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believ'd 1 Because no ebullition of any Liquor whatsoever proceeding either from external Heat or from intestine Fermentation is constantly equal or uniform whereas the Pulse of the Heart and Arteries and consequently the motion of the Blood that causeth it is in Men healthy temperate and undisturbed by Passion constantly equal or of the same tenor and rhythm 2 Because the greater the Ebullition of the Blood the greater would be the pulsation of the Heart but in burning Fevers though there be a very great effervescence of the Blood arising from an extraordinary effort of the vital Spirits contending against oppression by the putrefactive or febrile Ferment yet the Pulse most frequently is low and weak as Galen himself observed 3 Because in living dissections if either of the Ventricles of the Heart or the great Artery be pierced with a lancet pure and florid Blood indeed will spring from the Wound in every Systole but not frothy not boyling nor meteorized nay not to be by any sign of difference distinguished from Blood at the same time emitted from the Vena Cava of the same Animal An Argument certainly of itself sufficient to subvert the Ebullition of the Blood in the Ventricles of the Heart excogitated by Aristotle at least if he were Author of the Book de Respiratione vulgarly ascribed to him to solve the Phaenomenon of the Pulse and to this day obstinately defended by many learned men seduced by the Authority of his great name 4 If the Blood suffer'd any such Ebullition an immersion or
opposite muscles acteth an Obtuse which being greater than a right is consequently subtended by a greater side and an Acute which being less than a right requires a less subtending Line Taking it then for granted that in the middle Figure no motion can be made because therein both the opposite Muscles are equally contracted by their Nixus or natural contraction It remains to be inquired how motion is effected in each of the extreme Figures Now certainly this is done when one of the two Antagonist Muscles is more contracted by the animal virtue or invigoration derived from the Brain than the other is by its natural tendency to restitution whence it necessarily comes to pass that the Figure of the prevailing muscle is at the same time altered and the Angle of Articulation made more or less acute by that animal contraction and the segment detracted from the line is in proportion to the space comprehended by the member moved To explain this by an Example Figure VI Page 540 Imagine the upper half of the Arm from the shoulder to the Elbow to be C A and the Cubit or lower half from the Elbow to the Hand to be A B the Muscle bending the Arm to be C F and its Antagonist extending the Arm to be C G and the Object to be apprehended by the Hand at D. Now I say while these two opposite Muscles C F and C G remain equally contracted the Appetite must continue unsatisfied i. e. the Hand cannot be brought up to lay hold of the Object desired because the Figure of the Arm or Angle of Articulation is kept unchanged But that the Hand may be raised to the object at D it is necessary that Angle be made more acute by a farther contraction of the Muscle C F and an extension of its Antagonist C G in proportion to the motion of the Line B D and because that Angle is less than the former right Angle therefore is the side subtending it also proportionately less or shorter according to the Sixth Proposition of the First Book of Euclid Again Since the Line or Arch E F is in proportion to the Arch D B it follows that just so much is detracted from the length of the Muscle bending the Arm Not that so much is really defalk'd from the body of the Muscle because then the Muscle would be uncapable of Motion ever after but only that by the animal contraction of its Fibres it is made so much shorter the Line C F that was before straight being now changed into the Arch C H which is what I proposed to my self to prove In the Fourth and last place I observe that notwithstanding this alteration of the Figure of a Muscle by its contraction yet is not the belly of it swell'd or augmented in bulk as hath been believed by all who held the Muscles when they act to be inflated as it were by a Gale of Animal Spirits immitted into them from the Brain But on the contrary rather lessened as may appear from the Experiment described by Dr. Glisson de Ventric Intestin cap. 8. numer 9. which is this Let there be provided a Tube of Glass in length and bore capacious enough to hold a mans Arm and to the upper Orifice of it on the outside affix another Tube of Glass of about an Inch Diameter in the Bore shaped like a common Weather-glass only with a wide mouth like a Tunnel so as the lower end may open into the greater Tube whose bottom is firmly stopp'd Then having erected both Tubes let a Man of strong and brawny Muscles thrust his whole naked Arm into the greater Tube up to the very Shoulder about which the Orifice of the Glass must be closely luted that no water may flow out that way This done let as much water be poured in by the Tunnel as both Glasses will receive leaving only a little space at the top of the lesser empty In fine let the man strongly vigorate all the Muscles of his Arm by clinching his Fist and relax them again by turns and you shall observe that when he vigorates his Muscles the water in the less Tube will sink somewhat lower but rise again when he relaxes them Whence it is evident that the Muscles do not swell up nor are inflated at the time of their invigoration or acting but rather are minorated and contracted in all their three dimensions otherwise the water would at that time not descend but ascend in the Neck of the Tunnel Good reason then had Dr. Lower to affirm lib. de corde c. 2. pag. 76. Musculum in omni motu voluntario admodum arctè in sese introrsum constringi minorari durescere adebque motu instationi prorsus contrario moveri There is then it seems no necessity of any influx of Animal or Vital Spirits to puff up the Muscles when they act but that their Fibres invigorated by motion begun in the Brain perform their work by simple abbreviation But how this abbreviation can be made without augmentation of the Muscles either secundum latitudinem or secundum profunditatem or secundum utramque in proportion thereunto seeing that all tensile Bodies have somewhat more of depth or breadth or both when they are contracted than when they suffer extension in length This I confess I do no more comprehend than I do how the Soul causeth the Abbreviation it self To say with Dr. Glisson Musculorum Fibres proprio vitali motu se abbreviare seems to me rather to farther intangle than untie the Gordian knot amusing us with the Hypothesis of Natural Perception and yet not solving the difficulty here pressing us viz. how the Fibres lose somewhat of all their dimensions in the act of their Contraction or Abbreviation Leaving therefore this Problem to the consideration of wiser Heads than mine and sitting down content with my Ignorance lest I should farther expose it I hast to a Conclusion Reflecting upon what hath been said we may easily understand why most Muscles have their proper Antagonists there being contrary motions to be successively performed by every Member and it being impossible that one and the same Instrument should serve to both Of these Antagonists one bends the member by being it self contracted the other extends it again by being in like manner contracted successively and both extend each other alternately The contracted Muscle always acteth the extended always suffers and is transferred with the part moved Some Muscles there are that have no Antagonists because they need none such are all circular Muscles the reason of whose motion is very obvious For having circular Fibres and all contraction being necessarily made secundum continuitatem lineae 't is most evident that all Muscles of that figure close or draw together the parts to which they are affixt by contraction of their Fibres toward their Centre as is exemplified in the sphincters of the Bladder and Fundament and in the shutter of the Eyelids Nevertheless it may be inquired why the