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
double unity to wit of the matter and of the form The unity of the matter consists in the unity of the parts and temperaments which is to â—e found in the heart onely the unity of the form consisteth â—n the sensitive soul containing in it the vegetive and the parâ—icular forms of each part CHAP. III. â—Why the heart the original of sensation and how it feeleth 2 The brains being cold cannot beget sensative spirits Why the animal spirits most active where is most heat 3. There can be no generation of the animal spirits out of the vitall without the corruption of the vitall which is impossible The animal spirits are not begot of the aire 4. Neither are they concocted or generated in the ventricles of the brain nor are they wasted 5. The brain is not the originall of sense and motion although these fail upon the hurt of the brain 6. Why upon the distemper of the heart there is no failing of sense and motion 7. The nerves are not from the brain though they be like but indeed they are not like the brain 8. Why the nerve of the heart loseth sense and motion beneath the knot not above it 9. The brain is the coldest of all the parts how void of veins and blood how hot and the cause of hairs 10. The blood and spirits alter not the brains temper Why its coldness is not felt the pith in the back bone hot 11. Why the brain and heart at such a distance by the spirits they work on each other 12. Why both the brain and lungs were made for refrigeration 13. The mans brain larger then the womans why man hotter then Lions 14. The testicles ignobler then the heart and brain 15. The heart not the testicles the cause of sensation and generation the testicles not chief because necessary or because they cause an alteration in the body from whence is the distinction of sexes 16. The seed receiveth its specificall form from the heart 17. Why Eunuchs fatter we aker and colder THough the organs offense be in the brain yet the originall of sensation is the heart because it is the originall of the spirits the chief causes of sensation and without which the organs were no organs But the frigidity of the brain is not the cause of sensation nor of the sensitive spirits it only tempers the heat of the heart and vital spirits that they may become animal Neither is softness and hardness any thing to sensation seeing this is no material but a spiritual and perfective quality Now the heart is sensitive not by the animal spirits derived thither from the brain for these spirits in the heart would quickly lose their temper by reason the heat of the heart is a more active quality then the coldness of the brain but it feeleth by its own spirits whether we call them vital or animal or both For the spirits being turned from vital to animall receive only an alteration but not a substantial change For that only is in the aliments which is transubstantiate into our bodies II. The brain being cold and moist useth to convert superfluous vapours into those humours which most resembleth it self in these qualities to wit into watrish Catharrs and cold distillations therefore it is likely that the brain can transform the vital spirits into other more excellent then themselves especially seeing coldness is a quality hurtful to nature which consisteth in heat and moisture and hath no other use in our bodies but to condensat and to temper the activity of our natural heat therefore we finde the animal spirits most active and copious in those creatures that abound most in heat as in Men Lions Birds c. and in young men more then in old men III. If there be a substantial mutation of the vital spirits into the animal the generation of the one must be the corruption of the other and so the vital spirits must die that the animal may receive the essential form But how can the animal spirits subsist without the vital Or how can that be called an animal or sensitive creature whose vital spirits are dead seeing there can be no sense where there is no life nor life where the vital spirits are dead 2. The animal spirits are not generated of the aire which we draw in by breathing for there can be no generation without mixtion nor mixtion but of divers bodies Now the aire is but one simple body which cannot make a perfect mixtion without the other elements If it be objected that the air is impure and not simple I answer Though the aire be not pure yet it is not a mixed body Physically and properly but only by apposition as Wheat and Barley may be said to be mixed when they are joyned together which is no Physical mixtion wherein the elements lose their forms IV. The animal spirits cannot be generated in the â—entricles of the brain because there the excrementitious flegme is concocted Nor can they be said to receive concoction there seeing what is concocted is thickned but the animal spirits are attenuated now the cold brain is not fit to attenuate Again â—eeing there is continual use of the animal spirits they must be continually generated but if they be continually generated and never wasted where will there be room enough for them And that they are not wasted is plain because they are not consumed by nutrition as not being fit to nourish nor by sensation seeing this is a spiritual and perfective not a material or destructive act Nor lastly by transpiration for nothing is exhaled but excrements Lastly how can the brain be without feeling seeing it is full of sensitive spirits by which all other parts of the body feel V. When the brain is hurt and distempered there followes a defect in sensation and motion which is not a sufficient reason to prove that the nerves sense and motion have their original from the brain no more then that the brain should have its beginning from the stomach or other nervous parts for we know that the mouth of the stomach being hurt the brain by consent is made ill affected by reason of the sympathy and union of the nervous parts so motion is hindred upon the ill affection of the brain because of the many nerves united to the brain and back-bone the brain then is not the principal agent of sense and motion but instrumental onely in that by its frigidity it tempers the vital spirits and so makes them apter for sense and motion so upon the defect in the pen followes the faults in writing and yet not the pen but the pen-man is the chief agent in writing VI. The reason why upon the distemper of the heart sensation and motion do not cease as they do upon the distemper of the brain because though the heart be distempered yet it makes spirits which spirits being refrigerate by the brain and conveyed through the nerves cause sensation and motion which could not be if
upper place neither could the eyes be so secure any where as within these concavities of the skull 3. The skull being a bone feeleth not for bones have no other sense but what is in the membrans or Periostium neither can there be sense but where there be nerves but there be none in the bones except in the teeth which therefore feel because the nerves are incorporated in them and communicate the sensitive spirits to all parts of them and the sensitive faculty with them yet they are more sensible of the first then of the second qualities 4. The teeth are still growing because there is continual need of them and are harder then other bones because they were made to bruise hard meats 5. They are more sensible and sooner offended with cold then with heat and yet heat is the more active quality which sheweth that the constitution of the teeth is hot for if they were cold they should not bee so soon troubled with cold being a friendly quality CAP. VI. 1. Two sorts of bloud the heart first liveth and is nourished and the original of bloud not the liver 2. The hearts action on Vena cava the cause of sanguification 3. Bloud caused by the heart 4. How every part draws 5. Heart the first principle of the nerves 6. Nerves how instruments of sense and motion 7. The same nerves serve for sense and motion I. THERE are in our bodies two sorts of blood the one arterial begot in the heart for the exciting of our heat the other venal begot in the liver for nourishing of the body â—o according to Aristotle the heart and according to Galen the liver may be called the fountain of bloud 2. As the heart is the first thing that liveth in us so it must needs be first nourished for life cannot be without nutriment nutriment cannot be without blood therefore there must needs be blood in the heart before there was any in the liver 3. As the heart first liveth so it first operates for life consists in operation but the proper work of the heart is to beget arterial blood and vital spirits therefore the blood was first in the heart 4. Though blood resemble the liver in colour it will not therefore follow that blood hath its first original from the liver but only that it is the receptacle and cystern of blood so the bag in which the gall lieth hath the same colour with the gall and yet this is generated in the liver and onely contained in the bag and it s a question whether the liver coloureth the blood or the blood the liver 5. In fear and sadness the blood retires into the heart which is by means of the spirits recoiling thither with the blood as to their original 6. In the brain we finde four sensible concavities for the animall spirits in the heart two for the blood and vital spirits but in the liver none for the blood in the resticles none for the seed nor in the breast for the milk which makes me doubt whether the blood seed and milk have any concoction in these parts if they have it must be surely in a very small quantity 7. I finde pure blood no where but in the heart and veins by which I gather that there must be a greater commerce between the heart and veins then some doe conceive which appears also by the implantation of the vena cava in the heart which cannot be separated without tearing of the heart or vein and that either the blood is perfected in the heart and prepared in the liver or else prepared in the heart and perfected in the liver besides that the arteries doe all along accompany the veins II. I see no reason why we may not affirm that the heart is continually in its Diastole drawing blood out of the vena cava and in its Systole or contraction refunding blood into the same vein for this continual motion of the blood is no more impossible then the continual motion of the heart and arteries neither is it more absurd for perfect and imperfect blood to bee mingled in this motion then for cholerick melancholick and flegmatick blood to be mingled with pure blood in the veins 2. When the liver is vitiated sanguification faileth and so hydropsies follow which doth not prove that the liver is the sole cause of sanguification but that it is subordinate to the heart so when the Chrystalline humour is vitiated the sight faileth and yet this humour is not the sole cause of fight but is subordinate to the opâ—ick nerve and spirits The heart then by the liver distributes blood to the members 3. The veins have their radication in the liver their office and distribution from the liver and the heart their original from neither in respect of matter but in respect of efficiency from the heart for this first liveth and therefore the fittest place for the formative faculty to reside in III. The Chylus is turned into blood not by the substance of the Liver for the Chylus comes not neer it and there can be no alteration or concoction without contact nor by the veins for their office is to convey and distribute the bloud not to make it So the arteries doe not make the arterial blood which they convey besides thaâ— the form temperament and colour of the blood is far different from that of the veins therfore the blood is made by the power of that celestial heat by which we receive life growth and nutriment for the same heat produceth divers effects in the divers subjects it works upon in the stomach it turns our meat into a white Chylus in the veins into red blood in the â—eminal vessels into seed in the breasts into milk c. IV. The same Meseraick veins which draw the purest pare of the Chylus from the intestins that it might there receive sanguification contain also pure blood which the intestines draw for their nutriment for every part draws that food which it most delights in Thus from the same mass of blood the Spleen draws melancholy the gall choler the kidneys water V. The Peripateticks will have the heart to be the first original of the nerves and of the sensitive motion The Galenists will have the brain but this contention is needless For the heart is the first principle because it is the first that lives and moves whereas the brain moves not but by the heart In a Syncope or swowning fit of the heart all sense and motion suddenly fail which could not be if these had not their original from the heart the brain may be called the secondary or subordinate caus or principle for this by its cold tempers the vital spirits and so they become sensitive or animal Hence it is that in an Apoplexy there is a sudden failing of sense and motion If any say that the body can move after the heart is taken out and that therefore the heart cannot be the first principle of motion I
the superfluous moisture of the body by the natural heat be exhausted and the organs made drier 3. The bodies of other creatures are not capable of mans soul because they are not of that fabrick temper and constitution 4. The faculties of the animal soul have not their originall from the gross and earthy part of the seed but from the aereal by means of its celestial heat 5 The rational soul bringing with it all its perfections the former faculties of sense and vegetation which were in the Embryo give place to it so that now it alone works by its faculties 6. The seed brings with it from the parents it s own heat by which the formative faculty worketh the heat of the matrix is not operative but conservative of the other heat 7. The seed consisting of grosser and aereal parts cannot be called uniform and if it were yet it may have divers operations and faculties ad extra so hath the Sun and other uniform bodies 8. The Embryo is not capable of three specificall forms or souls for so it should be a threefold compound specifically distinct but it is capable of divers generical forms and subordinate the superior being preparatives for reception of the inferior and ultimate specificall form which giveth name and entity as the rational soul doth to the child being perfected CHAP. XV. 1. Why about the fourth month milk is engendred and of what 2. The effects of the Diaphragma inflamed 3. Pericardium 4. The Hearts Flesh Fibres and Ventricles 5. The Heart why hot and dry 6. The vital faculty 7. The vital spirits how ingendred 8. Systole and Diastole 9. The Hearts motion 10. How câ—used AS soon as the child groweth big about the fourth month the menstruous blood flowes upward to the breasts and when the child is born it flowes from thence and being suck'd by the child the veins of the breasts do avoid vacuity draw the blood upward for generation of new milk 2. In the breasts of Virgins and of some men also there is sometimes found a whitish liquor which is not milk because it hath neither the tast nor thickness nor nutritive quality of milk 3. The breasts or paps are glandulous bodies principally ordained for generation of milk and in the second place for reception of excrementitious humors and guarding of the heart 4. The reason why about the fourth month the blood flowes upward into the breasts is that the child growing big and wanting sufficient food might struggle to get out which it would not do having sufficient nutriment 5. It is not fit that the child out of the womb should feed on blood as it did in the womb because then the mouth of the veins being opened the blood would run out and so nature be overthrown neither would God accustom man to blood left he should become cruel and bestial II. Upon the inflammation of the diaphragma follow oftentimes phrensies by reason of the society it hath by the nerves with the brain to which it sendeth fumes and hot vapors which phrensie is known from that of the brain by the shortness of the breath the chief organ of breath being ill-affected so that the breast cannot freely move it self and because the Diaphragma is united to the Pleura and Peritonaeum which containeth all the organs in the inferiour belly hence all these parts are drawn upwards by the motion of the Diaphragma III. The tunicle of the heart called Pericardium hath within it a water for refrigeration and moistning of the heart which is begot of vapours condensate by the coldness of the membrane as some think or else it sweats through the tunicles of the veins and arteries they that have hot hearts have but little of this water and it abounds most where the heart is colder but whether the defect of this water be the cause of the heat in the heart or the heat the cause of this defect it is uncertain as it is with the sea-water which is turned into vapours by the suns heat and these vapours turned into water again by the coldness of the middle Region so the heat of the heart turns this water into vapours and the membrane converts these vapours into water again and so this circulation continues till the heat of the heart be extinguished by death then is found water onely IV. The heart hath a peculiar hard flesh of its own that it might be the better able to undergo its perpetual motion to contain the spirits and life-blood and to resist external injuries 2. This flesh is not musculous because the motion of the muscles is voluntary but the hearts motion is natural 3. The heart hath both straight transverse and circular fibers for attraction and expulsion and oblique fibers also for retension but these fibers are of the same substance with the heart and not of a different as the fibers of the Muscles which are parts of the nerves and Tendons 4. The heart is fed with gross blood answerable to its own gross substance by the vein called Coronaria compassing the Basis of the heart 5. The heart hath two ventricles whereof the right is hottest extensive as Aristotle will have it for it contains the life-blood the left is hottest intensive as containing the vital spirits and so Galen saith 6. If we consider the situation of the right ventricle which is in the right side and the priviledge it hath in living longer then the left we may with Aristotle say that the right ventricle is the more noble of the two but if we consider that the left ventricle contains the vitall spirit which in dignity excels the blood which is in the right we must with Galen give the preheminence to the left and so these two may be reconciled V. The heart is a hot and drie substance that it might be the fitter both to beget and to preserve the vital spirits to attenuate the venal and to procreate the arterial blood And though the spirits be hotter extensively yet the substance of the heart is hotter intensively as burning coles are hotter then flaming straw VI. The vital faculty by which the vital spirits are ingendred for animating the body and preserving the natural heat is an effect of the soul as all faculties are and not of the heart yet here it chiefly resides because of the soul which here exerciseth her chief functions of life 2. This vital faculty differs from the animal because it is not subject to fatigation nor rests in sleep nor doth it accompany the imagination or apprehension of the object as the animal doth 3. It is different from the pulsifick faculty because this is subservient to the vital neither doth the pulsifick beget spirits or is it diffused every where as the vital is 4. The vital differs from the vegitive faculty because the vegitive is in plants and insects but not the vital as it is procreative of spirits for the dull heat of insects is not so soon spent as to need
of Monsters of a woman whose milk did so abound that in the space of two or three days she voided a gallon and an half of which was made very savory Butter and Cheese Though this be rare yet it is no miracle for that woman abounding much in blood must also abound in milk And some Livers are of that constitution and temper that they sanguifie much more then others especially in constitutions that are inclined to cold and moisture for hot and dry bodies have but little blood and therefore little milk and where there is much sweet flegm or rhume it is easily converted into blood III. I read divers stories of women with child who have lusted after and have eat mens flesh and for that end have faln violently upon them and bit them This is also a disâ—ase proceeding of natural causes as that infirmity of eaâ—ing chalk coals dirt tar ashes in maids and some married women called by Physitians Pica or Malacia and is caused by the distemper of the phantasie and soure malignant melancholy humors in the mouth and concavity of the stomach and impacted in the runicles of the ventricle proceeding partly from the suppression of the flowers whereby the appetite is vitiated and the phantasie disturbed and partly from the malignity of the humor coveâ—ing after such things as are like to it in malignity yet contrary to it in some of the prime qualities heat cold humidity and siccity for Nature looks in the contrary quality to finde remedy IV. I read of divers maids one in Colen another in the Palatinate a third in the Diocesse of Spira divers more who have lived without meat and drink two or three years together This indeed may seem strange yet it is not against nature for naturally such bodies as have in them little heat and much humidity can subsist longer without food then hot and dry bodies can as we see in women and old people who can fast longer then men and youths And we know that divers creatures for many moneths together can subsist without food therefore these maids having much adventitious moisture and little heat to waste the radical humidity might continue a long time without food for where there is little deperdition there needs not much reparation besides the moisture of the air is no small help to them V. But that is more strange which Zacutus in his Praxis Admiranda lib. 1. obs 4. mentioneth of a Boy who lived 3 years without a brain if he had brought an example of one who had lived 3 years without an heart I should have subscribed to Galen against Aristotle that the heart in dignity is inferiour to the brain But I suppose that he was not altogether without a brain For that water which was found within the membrans of the skull when his head was dissected was doubtlesse his brain converted into water or else it had some analogy with the brain by which the heat of the heart was for a while â—empered and the animal spirits generated but weakly therefore life could not subsist long in him So I have read in Laurentius or Parry of one who lived many years without a spleen but there were found some kirnels in the place of the spleene which supplied its office As for that woman mentioned by Zacutus Ob. 5. who lived eight years together with the half of a knife in her head between the skull and Dura Mater doâ—btlesse that knife touched not the substance of the brain therefore could be no hindrance to the animal functions VI. It is strange that whereas Anacreon was choaked with a Resin stone yet some as Forestus in his observat recordeth l. 15. obs 24 25 c. have swallowed iron lead long sticks glasse points of knives and of swords and other incredible things without hurt and have voided them by the stool This â—partly impute to the widenesse and capacity of the passages and partly to witchcraft or juggling for the eye in such cases is often deluded although nature sometimes by imposthumes câ—sleth our such stufâ—e for points of knives and pins have been this way ejected and some have perished and have bâ—en choaked whilest they have in their madnesse attempted such things And provident nature hath in some without hurt sent away needles and pinnes by the urine aboâ—t which have been found hard crusty stuffe wâ—ich was the matter or glassy slime that was gathered about these pins and baked by the heat of â—he body VII I have read of a certain Soldier in the Wars of Savoy Anno Dom. â—589 who was shot in the forehead with a Musâ—ueâ— bâ—lleâ— he was cured of the wound but the bullâ—â— remained Afterward falling from a Ladder whilâ—st he was scaling the walls of a Town he was stiffled in the Ditch into which he fell his head being dissected the bullet was found in the hinder part thereof But I believe this removal was by the fall for otherwise it could not have been removed by the heat or spirits of the head CHAP. II. Of one who wanted the pericardium 2. Of hairy hearts 3. Of one that walked and fâ—ught after his heart was wounded 4. Stones found in the heart 5. And worms found there The heart may putrifie white we are alive 6. Worms in the brain COlumbus in his Anatomy l. 16. speaks of a young man in Rome whom he dissected and in this found that his heart had no Pericardium the want of which was doubtlâ—sse the cause of his death and for want of it he fell into divers swouning fiâ—s and was often troubled with the Syncope by reason the heart wanted refrigeration which it hath from the water in the Pericardium For some whose Pericardium hath bâ—â—ne but sleightly touched by the sword in the wound of the breast have fallen into swouning fits cold sweats with a cessation of the pulse so needful is this membran and its water for the heart Yea I have read of some hearts quite dried shrunk to nothing for want of this water such was the heart of Casimire Marquess of Brandenbourge of whom Melancthon speaketh l. 1. de anima II. I have read of divers hairy hearts besâ—des those of Leonidas Aristomenes and Hermogines which is also the work of nature for hairs are produced of â—uliginous and grâ—sser excrements of the humours where the skin is hottest and driest for hairs seldâ—me grow where the skin is cold and moist now if these causâ—s be found in the heart the same effect will be produced there but this is seldome seen and in such onely as are of a fiercâ— truculent and audacious disposition III. Ambrose Parry speaks l. 9. c. 23. of a Gentleman who in a duel being wounded dâ—eply in the very substance of the heart did notwithstanding for a good while lay about him with his sword and walked two hundred paces before he fâ—ll down this is likely enough for though the heart was wounded yet the vital blood and spirits and heat of the heart
which did abound in him did not presently spend so long as they continued he lived when they failed he fell down dead IV. What Wierus records in his work of Impostures l. 4. ca. 16. concerning some stones found in the heart of Maximilian the second is not incredible for the same heat of the body that breeds stones in the bladder kidney and joynts can also produce stones in the heart if there be the same matter and disposition for such a production and this may be the work of nature alone without sorcery V. Nor is it incredible what is recorded by divers of worms found in the heart which cause consumptions and strange distempers in our bodies which oftentimes deceive Physitians For the heart is no more priviledged from worms then other members save onely that its substance is hard and solid and by reason of its spirits and heat it is not so much subject to putrifaction as parts more soft and loose and consequently not so often infested with worms and imposthumes as other members are yet it is not altogether exempted For I have read of one whose heart being opened there was found in it a white worm with a sharp beck which being placed on a table and a circle of the juice of Garlick made about it died being overcome with that strong smell by which it is plain that the use of Garlick is wholesome and needful for such as are subject to worms as being their destroyer VI. Fernelius is deceived when he saith that the heart doth not putrifie in us whilest we are alive because it is of a solid and hard substance and is the last that dieth in us but it is not more hard and solid then the bones which notwithstanding putrifie whilest we are alive and it is true that it is the last thing that dieth in us for it doth not totally putrifie till we be dead because all the heat motions and functions thereof cease not till then VII And not onely in the heart but in the braines also worms are ingendred as Avicenna Hollerius and others doe witnesse And I have read of black and round worms that by sneezing powder of Castoreum and Pepper have been voided by the nose and of ear-worms also CHAP. III. 1. Epilepsie 2. Incubus 3 Vertigo 4. Of a stone in the tongue 5. One of nine years old brought to bed 6. Bodies turned to Stones 7. Sleep-walkers 8. Superfetation Ventriloques 9. A strange stone found in the matrix THe Epilepsie and malignant feavers oftentimes end in deafness and this is held a good signe of recovery the reason is because nature thrusts out the malignant humor from the brain into the next passages which are the ears II. Some take the night-mare or Incubus for a spirit but indeed it is a feculent humor adhering to the vitall parts and with its black or melancholy fume troubling the Diaphragma Lungs and Brain and distempering the imagination with horrid shapes III. Nature is very skilfull and provident in helping her self when art faileth for many diseases have been cured by nature which the Physitians have been forced to give off Zacutus Obs. 15. mentioneth one who being every month vexed with a terrible Vertigo which for a time made him stupid and senseless was cured by a flux of blood gushing out of his eyes without any inflammation at all or redness of the eyes by those veins that fed the eyes nature found out a way to ease her self which veines were opened by the violent motion of the spirits in the head and the aboundance of blood pressing into those veins which made an eruption IV. And it is no less strange what he records Obs. 72. of one upon the tip of whose tongue was found a stone as big as a filbert nut which grew there within a swelling caused by a great flux doubtless of slimy matter into that part and baked into that consistence by a preternatural heat for he was much subject to Catharrs V. That is not incredible which is recorded by Iaubert in his Vulgar Errors l. 2. c. 2. of young women who have been brought to bed at nine or ten years of age for nature is more pregnant and forward in some then in others this we see in some trees and other vegitables but these women give off child-bearing betimes to wit about one or two and twenty for quod cito sit cito perit and as we say soon ripe soon rotten for such hasty and precipitate works of nature are not permanent hence it is that women who sooner attain to their growth then men decay sooner then men VI. For stones to be bred in the Lungs which are oftentimes the causes of drie coughs is no great wonder for divers times such stones have been voided by coughing but for a mans body to be converted into a stone as is Recorded in the memorials of Lyons in France is more strange yet not impossible and therefore the conversion of Lots wife into a Salt Pillar is not incredible although this was the sole work of God Neither is that incredible which is written of the lake that turns the sticks cast into it into stones nor that Cave in Scotland where the water-drops are turned to stones I have kept an apple til it grew to that hardness that no wood could be harder for scarce could a knife cut it I wil not say this was a perfect stone into which this body was thus turned but it might be as hard and drie as a stone for the bodies that are found in the sands of Egypt are very dry and hard VII Horstius and others record divers examples of sleep-walkers who do strange things in their sleep but this is also the work of nature for I finde that they are most subject to this infirmity whose animal spirits are most active subtil and fiery and whose imagination is strong so that by the strength of their fantasie and agility of their spirits the muscles are moved though the Will doth not then concur to this motion nor reason make any opposition which it would do if they were naked and not suffer them to undergo such dangers VIII I have read divers Stories of women who have had seaven children and more at a birth and likewse of superfetation both which are credible and possible in nature as I have shewed in the former book c. 13. sect 5. 7. But that the infant should crie in the mothers womb as some have done is more strange seeing it doth not breath neither is there any air in the matrix without which there can be no sound therefore either this crie was imaginary in the party that heard it for sometimes we think we hear a sound when we hear none or else this sound might proceed from wind in the mothers womb which might resemble the crying of a child or else these mothers might be ventriloque IX That may seem a miracle which is recorded by Monsieur Iohn Alibaux a Physitian of a woman
there be in a dark dungeon where yet a Cat can see The air is not a light body of it self being diaphanous for the celestiall sphears are not light neither is there any luminous body in the dark Dungeon except the Cats eyes which afford light enough to the Cat to see his object He gives us a reason why the limbs on the right side are stronger Because motion is holpen from the liver How the liver should help motion is not known in Anatomy seeing motion and its Organs are from the brain not from the liver He had better have said that motion is holpen from the heart and so might have inferred that the left side limbs are strongest But indeed the true cause why the right side is stronger then the left is because the right limbs are bigger but why Nature made them bigger or stronger no other reason can be given then that the right side is hotter because there is the fountain of blood He saith That all spongie bodies expell the air and draw in liquor This is not so for why should such a body expell the air and draw in liquor but when the liquor enters into a spongie body the air gives place as a void penetration therefore Sugar expels not the air to suck up the Wine but the wine enters into the Sugar and expels the air so that the Sugar is a meer patient He tells us That stone walls are not so wholsom as wood or bricks This assertion stands neither with experience nor reason for they who have lived with their predecessors within stone walls many hundreths of years never found any unwholsomnesse by the stones and it is against reason that dry stones who as he phraseth it are jejune of spirits should afford any vapours or unwholsom damps It 's true that in moyst weather there be some Sea-stones or such as are taken out of Rivers will sweat but I have seen such drops upon brick-walls This proceeds neither from the stone nor brick but from the air which falling upon the hard stone and being resisted for want of pores from penetrating stayeth there and by the coldness of the stone turns to water-drops even upon Marble It is certain saith he that potions incense perfumes an oyntments do naturally work upon the imaginations The contrary rather is certain to wit that the imagination worketh upon these not they upon it for according to the strength of imagination the physick works and not according to the strength of physick doth the imagination work For sometimes the smell or sight of physick have wrought not upon the imagination but upon the body by the power of imagination so that this is the prime cause why the physick worketh which will not work at all in others whose imagination is weak and dull The cramp saith he cometh of contraction of sinews either by cold or drinesse The cramp cometh by distention as well as by contraction by heat and moistnesse as well as by cold and driness A Lute string wil break as soon in moist weather when it swels as in dry weather when it shrinks And Hippocrates tells us that the cramp proceeds as well fromrepletion as from inanition for gluttony drunkennesse and suppressing of accustomed evacuations procure the cramp as well as fasting watching bleeding burning fevers and vomiting chiefly by Hellebor which I can speak to my grief for I never knew what the cramp was till I was let blood and purged with Hellebor by an unskilfull Physician And indeed the cramp is not so much the affection of the sinews as of the muscles for it is the involuntary contraction of the muscle to its originall or beginning because not the nerve but the muscle is the proper instrument of motion which by the cramp is hurt so that this infirmity hath different names from the different muscles in which it is If it be in the muscles of the eye it is called Stratismus in the yard Satyriasis in the muscle of the jaw-bone Trismus in the muscles of the mouth Spasmus Cynicus or the Dog-cramp In the Epilepsie also or falling sicknesse there is a kind of cramp And many times the cramp proceeds from flatulencies in the muscles which though they be the proper organs of convulsions or cramps yet the cause is many times in the nerves which being contracted by the sharpnesse or fulnesse of humors or by malignant vapours draw the muscles with them Because the Hedg-hog putteth forth many prickles therfore he inferres That the juyce af a Hedg-hog must needs be harsh and dry There is no necessity for this because the harsh dry matter is expelled by nature into the prickles The flesh of some fishes whose shells or skins are full of prickles is neither harsh nor dry The Rose sends forth many prickles and yet it is both pleasant odoriferous cooling and moist So are the Respberries He tells us That Mummy hath a great force in stanching of blood But I wish he could tell us where we may find it For the true Mummy which was found in the Tombes of the AEgyptian Kings which were embalmed vvith divers pretious liquors and spices are spent long agoe so that the Mummy now in use is only the substance of dried Karkasses digged out of the sands being overwhelmed there in which there is no more vertue to stanch blood then in a stick He saith All life hath a sympathy with salt In hogges I think its true for as life is the salt of a living hogge so salt is the life of a dead hogge For both life and sâ—lt keep the body from putrifying otherwise I know little or no sympathy that salt hath with life for it destroyeth the life of many creatures But he is mistaken vvhen he saith That salt draweth blood because being laid to a cut finger healeth it For salt is laid to a cut finger not to draw the blood vvhich cometh too fast of it selfe vvithout drawing but to repell the blood and to stop its running It heals them not by drawing the blood but by abstersion exsiccation astriction and resisting putrifaction Thus I have cursorily run over my Lords new Philosophy vvhich he calls a Wood and so it is indeed for here a young Scholar may quickly lose himselfe and shal encounter with many bryers and brambles I find that Phylosophy is like Wine the older the better to the taste new Wine is pleasant and so are new conscripts to the mind but to the intelligent man oldest is wholsomest and lesse flatulent And indeed that which they call new Philosophy is nothing but the old in a new dressing vvhich is neither so handsome nor so usefull as the other They have found out new terms which are neither so proper nor significant as the former They have metamorphosed the elementary qualities both first and second into spirits so that now this word like a nose of wax serves them for all shapes I find in my Lords book much
under water and hardned by the air Viscum or Missletoe how it grows The shade of the Ash-tree pernicious to Serpents CHAP. XXI 1. The existence of the Phoenix proved by divers reasons and thcontrary objections refelled the strange generation of some birds 2. The Ancients cleared concerning the Phoenix and whether the Phoenix be mentioned in Scripture Divers sorts of generation in divers creatures The Conclusion with an Admonition not to sleight the Ancients opinion and Doctrine The fourth Book Containing a Refutation of the Lord BACON Doctor HARVEY and others CHAP. I. 1. Fishes breath not the Reasons thereof and the contrary objections answered 2. Fossil or earth-fishes 3. Fishes delight in the light 4. Fishes of Humane shapes 5. Fishes are cunning and dâ—cible creatures 6. Why some Fishes have Feet and Wings 7. Many monstrous fishes CHAP II. 1. Publick and privat calamities presaged by owles 2. By dogs 3. By ravens and other birds and divers other ways 4. Wishing well in sneezing when and why used 5. Divers strange things in thunderâ—struck people CHAP. III. 1. The Female hath no active seed of generation Doctor Harvies and Fernelius reasons refutaed 2. A Discourse of the Cholick 3. The same soul in a subventaneous and prolificall egge Doctor Harvies reasons to the contrary refuted 4. Blood not the immediate instrument of the Soul Doctor Harvies reasons answered 5. Doctor Harvies way of conception refuted 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 CHAP. V. The Lord Bacons opinions refuted Of holding the breath when wee bearken Of time Of long life Of making gold Of starres Of oyl Of indisposition to motion Of death diseases and putrifaction Of stuttering Of motion after the head is off Of sympathies and antipathies of the Vine and Colewort the Fig-tree and Rew. Of white colour Of the Oke bough in the earth Of transmutation of species Of Incubus Of grain in cold Countries Of determination and figures Of accretion and alimentation Of the period of life Of sugar leaves roots snow and putrifaction CHAP. VI. The Lord Bacons opinions confuted concerning Snow Ephemera gravitie the sperme of Drunkards putrifaction teeth bones and nails thick and thin mediums Nilus hot Iron broin sudden darkness drie and moist bodies fish cornes hunger liquifaction hardness moisture accidents light right side spungy bodies stone-walls imagination the cramp hedghog mummy salt Cominus and others refuted concerning motion qualities colours forms the Epilogue Arcana Microcosmi OR The hid Secrets of MAN's BODY discovered WITH A Refutation of Doctor BROVVNS VULGAR ERRORS My Lord BACON'S Naturall History AND Dr HARVEY's Book De Generatione CHAP. I. 1. The Hearts dignity scituation priority necessity and use 2. The Heart first formed not all the parts together 3. The Galenists Objections answered 4. How the heart is perfect before the other members and how nourished 5. All the temperaments united in the Heart 6. Three ventricles in som Hearts 7. The Heart nervous 8. No parts more spermatical then others 9. The Liver not the first that is formed 10. The Heart the seat of Bloud and nourishment 11. The heat of the Matrix not generative 12. The right Ventricle nobler then the left 13. The vital and nutritive faculties are the same 14. Heat the cause of the Hearts motion 15. The Heart was first formed and informed 16. There is but one principal member in the body not many AS in all States and Kingdomes there have ever been factions and sidings so have there been still oppositions in the Common-wealth of Learning amongst many others there are two great factions concerning the fabrick of Mans Body namely the Peripateticks and Galenists so that in Rome there was not greater emulation between the Pompeians and Caesarians then there is between the Philosophers and Physitians in the points of Anatomy I stood as neuter a long time but at last being evinced by the multitude and strength of Aristotelian reasons am forced to side with them against the Galenists but so that I do what I can to reconcile them in some things and to make peace for Nulla salus bello I. I will therefore briefly set down the reasons that have induced me to side with the Aristotelians And first concerning the Heart I finde that it is the first member that lives and is formed in our bodies and consequently the noblest and chiefest of all our members whatsoever the Galenists say to the contrary For 1. The Heart is placed in the midst of the breast as the Sun in the midst of the world that it might impart its vital heat and motion to all parts So the seed is in the midst of the fruit 2. Where there is a medium there must needs be extreams but we finde in mans body this medium to wit that there are some parts which both give and receive life and motion therefore there must be some that receive but give not and consequently some that give but receive not and this must be the heart or brain or liver for to make more originals then one is needless seeing Nature always tends to and aims at unity Now that the heart is this principal appears by these reasons 3. First that is most likely to be the originall of life sense and motion in other members which is most apt and capable of these and so that had first life and motion which had the greatest inclination and aptitude to receive them but the heart of all other parts is most apt to receive these from the formative faculty Therefore doubtless this faculty in the seed would first produce the heart as being a matter prepared to receive first the impressions of the formative 4. What the heart is in Animals that the root is in Vegitables but the root is the first thing the plant thrusts out therefore the heart is first formed 5. The heart dieth last therefore it lived first for this method Nature observes that the parts which are last made decay first as the eies and teeth and consequently that decayeth last which was framed first 6. They that have been curious by inspection into eggs to observe Natures progress in the generation of the chick have found a red spot the third day which had a motion like palpitation this could be nothing else but the heart 7. The other members cannot live without the heart but the heart can live without the other members as I have seen a Monkeys heart live a great while after it hath been taken out of the body If then the life of the other members depends from
for about tenne years ago when my aged Father was giving up the ghost I came towards his beds side he suddenly cast his eyes upon me and there fixed them so that all the while I stood in his sight he could not die till I went aside and then he departed Doubtless the sympathy of affections and the imagination working upon the vital spirits kept them moving longer then otherwise they would have done so that the heart the seat of affection and the brain the hous of imagination were loth to give off and the spirits in them to rest from their motion so long as they had an object wherein they delighted The like I have read of others And truly the sympathy of affections and strength of imagination is admirable when the mind is able to presage the death or danger of a friend though a great way off This also I found in my self For once I suddenly fell into a passion of weeping upon the apprehension I took that my dear friend was dead whom I exceedingly loved for his vertues and it fell out accordingly as I presaged for he died about the same hour that I fell into that weeping fit and we were at that time 60 miles asunder nor could I tell certainly that he was dead till two days after Thus to some the death of friends is presaged by bleeding at the nose and sudden sadness by dreams and divers other ways which the learned Poet was not ignorant of when he saith Agnovit longe gemitum praesaga mâ—li mens AEn l. 10. So by the Greek Poet the soul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a soothsayer of evil The cause of this the Gentiles ascribed to the Sun which they held to be the Soul and our souls sparks of that great Lamp A Platoâ—â—cal conceit which thought mens souls to bee mâ—terialâ— we were better ascribe this to the information of that Angel which attends us V. That which Herodotus in Thalia c. 3. writes of this difference between the Persian and the AEgyptian skuls may be no fable for in the wars between them such as were killed on either side were buried apart after their bodies were putrified it was found that the Persian skuls were soft but the AEgyptians so hard that you could scarce break them with a stone The reason of this might be because the AEgyptians used from their childhood to cut their hair and to go bareheaded so that by the Sun their skuls were hardned Hence it was that few among them were found bald but the Persians who wore long hair and had their heads always covered must needs have had soft skuls by reason the humidity was kept in and not suffered to evaporate nor the Sun permitted to harden them CHAP. II. 1. The benefits of sleep and reasons why some sleep not 2. Why dead bodies after the ninth day swim Why dead and sleeping men heavier then others why a blown bladder lighter then an empty 3. Strange Epidemical diseases and deaths The force of smels The Roses smell 4. Strange shapes and multitudes of worms in our bodies 5. The French disease and its malignity The diseases of Brasil WHereas Sleep is one of Natures chiefest blessings for refreshing of our wearied spirits repairing of our decayed strength moistning of our feebled limbs as the Poet speaks fessos sopor irrigat artus Virg. AEn 3. 4. for easing of our diurnal cares Positi somno sub nocte silenti lenibant câ—râ—s corda oblita laborum And therefore is as Euripides cals it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remedy of our evils And whereas in sleep the heart is at rest as Aristotle rightly said though Galen who understood him not checks him for it from feeling understanding and inventing though not from life and motion I say whereas by-sleep we have so many benefits it is a wonder that any should bee found to live a long time without sleep Yet I read in Fernelius Pathalog l. 5. ca. 2. of one who lived fourteen moneths without any rest And it is more strange what Heurinus Praxis l. 2. c. 7. records of Nizolius that painful Treasurer of Cicero's words and phrases who lived ten years without sleep Mecaenas was sleeplesse three years saith Pliny Laurentius in his Tract of Melancholy knew some who could not sleep in three moneths the reason of this might be 1. The heat and drinesse of the brain as is usual in decrepit and melancholy men 2. The spareness of 〈◊〉 so that no vapours could be sent up to moisten the brain or nerves 3. The want of exercise and motion for sedentary men are least given to sleep 4. Continual cogitation and intention of the phantasie 5. And adust melancholy humours 6. Accompanied with continual fears horrid and distemperate phantasâ—es representing to the mind unpleasant objects II. Why dead bodies after the ninth day swim upon the water may seem strange seeing till then they lie hid under the water Cardan de subtil l. 8. gives this reason Because between the Peritoneum and Omentum flatulent matter is ingendred as appears by the great swelling of the belly Now this flatulent matter is begot of humidity dissolved by heat which heat is procreated of putrifaction Besides we see that putrified bodies as eggs fruit wood grow light because their solid parts being consumed what remains are porous and full of air for experience teacheth us that the more porous and aereal the body is the lighter it is and lesse apt to sink and perhaps may bee the reason why that body which wants the Spleen swimmeth not being a porous light substance And those men who have capacious lungs to hold much air can dive and live longer in the water then others And surely some people whose bodies are active subtile and quick will not sink so soon as men of duller spirits Such were the Thebii a people which could not sink so that it is a vain way to conclude those to be Witches who do not presently sink Hence also it is plain that dead bodies are heavier then living though Dr. Brown of Errors l. 4. c. 7. contradict this because he found no difference between a Mouse and a Chick being dead and alive in respect of gravity A weak reason to reckon a received truth among his vulgar errors for though there were no sensible difference in such little animals which have but few spirits yet in men which are of a greater bulk in whom do abound vital and animal spirits to say there is no difference of gravity in their life and death is to contradict sense and reason for every woman that attends upon sick men knows that they are more pondrous when dead then when alive being used to lift and turn them Reason also grounded on experience teacheth us that those bodies are lightest in which air is predominant therefore doubtlesse where there is store of such pure and refined air as the spirits are there must be lesse gravity then where they are vvanting his
Error is grounded on a false supposition in thinking there is gravity in the spirits themselves because they participate of corporeity as if gravity vâ—ere an essential property of bodies vvhereas there is no gravity in the pure fire nor in the Stars and Heavens and yet these are bodies Besides if the spirits had any gravity in them it must follow that living bodies are heavier then dead carcasses which is absurd to think Again I would know vvhy inebriated Apoplectical and swouning persons are heavier then others is it not because their spirits fail and they resemble dead men And so in sleep the brother of death the body is heavier every Nurse that carrieth her child in her arms will tell him this Why doth a man fall down in his sleep who stood upright when he was awaked If he be not heavier then he was The Scripture acknowledgeth that even the Apostles eyes vvere heavy vvhen they vvere sleepy And vvhereas he proveth the spirits to add vveight to the body becaus a man that holds his breath is weightier while his lungs are full then upon expiration And a bladder blown is heavier then one empty I answer that I could never find this experiment true though I have made trial 2. It seems to be false because the blown bladder vvill swim vvhen the empty one sinks 3. If I should yeild him this yet his sequel is nought except he can prove the animal spirits in a mans body to be as thick and course as the grosse vapour which is blown into the bladder which is neither air in name nor purity much less to bee compared to those subtil spirits vvhich are so pure and apt to vanish that nature vvas forced to inclose them vvithin the thick walls of the nerves So likewise the air retained in the lungs may perhaps add vveight to the body because the longer it stays there the more it degenerates into a thick vapour by reason of the bodies moisture and so may become ponderous III. God is pleased many times to punish whole Nations by extraordinary epidemical diseases for the sins of the people So vvas England visited vvith a sweating sicknesse so vvas Poland with that disease called Plica of vvhich vve have spoken so vvas Ethiopia as is already said visited vvith the Lousie disease Forestus Observ. medic part 3. records that in Syracusa there vvas an universal disease called the hungry sicknesse in vvhich people did continually desire to eat and vvere never satisfied Of this multitudes died at last it vvas observed that this disease proceeded of Worms vvhich vvere expelled by Bolarmenick and Treacle And Hollerius reports that at Beneventum many died of intolerable pains in the head caused by Worms ingendred there vvho also mentions one Italian who by smelling much to the hearb Basil had a Scorpion which bred in his brain and killed him this is not impossible if vvee consider that according to the disposition of the pâ—trified matter and the preparations made for introduction of the form divers shapes of creatures are begot and it seems there is a great sympathy between the Basil and the Scorpion vvhich did facilitate the generation neither are vve ignorant vvhat force there is in smells both to breed and expel diseases and even to prolong and shorten life as appears in divers Histories of some that have died vvith the smell of coals others of new vvort or ale as those two Monks recorded by Forestus Observ. medic part 1. although I suppose it vvas not so much the smell as the smoak of the coals and vapours of the air that suffocated the spirits yet such is the force of smells that som have been purged by passing by or entring into Apothecaries shops vvhilest they vvere preparing purgative medicaments And divers with the smell of the purges vvhich they carried in their hands have been as much purged as if they had taken the whole substance But this I ascribe not so much to the smell vvhich is a meer accident and cannot passe from one substance to another but is in some subjects wherein it is inherent as to the subtile vapours vvhich from the physick being smelled convey the smell to the body The same reason may be given why some are offended with smells which to others are pleasant so I have read of Francis the firsts Secretary who was forced to stop his nosthrils with bread when there were any apples at table and so offensive was the smell thereof to him that if one had held an apple neer his nose he would fall a bleeding Marcel Danat adm hist. l. 6. c. 4. And Cardinal Carafa did so abhor the smell of roses which of all smells is most delightful to man that during the rose time he durst not go out of his doors for fear of encountring with that smell nor did he suffer any to come within his palace that had a rose about him This I adscribe to the phantasie and naturall antiphathy between him and the rose Such power there is in smells that the Ancients ascribed a Divinity to them and because good smells do so chear the spirits hence they were used in Temples both amongst Jews Gentiles and Christians Homer describes his Iuno by the sweetnesse of her smell and so doth Virgil his Venus Ambrosiaeque comae divinum vertice odorem spiravere the like doth Plutarch his Isis and so doth Ovid Mansit odor possis scire fuisse Deam But for the Rose there may be some manifest causes why its smell may bee offensive for some brains are extraordinary cold some extraordinaâ—y dry and whose olfactive passages are wider then usually to such the smell of Roses may be hurtful because the â—ose hath but a weak heat or rather is refrigerative as Dioscorides thinks which may comfort the hot but not the cold brain And if the brain be dry the passages wide the smel doth too suddenly affect it which may procure an aking but why Hysterical women and such as are troubled with the Mother are apt to swoun at the smell of Roses and Lillies and other sweet odours is because the Matrix delighteth in these smells and therefore riseth toward them to the danger of suffocation whereas it is suppressed by strong and unpleasant odours There are indeed in the rose different parts which have different qualities but the predominant are moistning and coldness whence to cold and moist brains the smell is not proper but to hot brains the rose is comfortable therefore the Ancients in their drinking matches used to wear rose garlands and to lie upon beds of rose-leaves for refrigeration Mitte sectari rosa quo locorum sera moretur Horat. l. 1. IV. It is almost incredible what is written of the multitudes divers shapes and length of worms bred in our bodies if we had not the testimony of so many grave Physitians to prove this Forestus out of Hostim Obs. Med. part 1. Obs. 2. shews that at Beneventum in Italy there was a great mortality
matrix the bad temperature of the seed the perverse inclination of the woman the commixtion of seeds of divers kinds sudden fear bad diet unwholsome air and untimely Venus But we must not think that these Centaurs were men or parts of men for they had not a reasonable soul and therefore not capable of the resurrection Neither must we think that these had two natures and essential forms in one body to wit of a Man and a Horse for as every entity hath but one specifical essence so it hath but one form which giveth that essence so that one and the same thing cannot be under divers species in the predicament of substance And as there cannot be two distinct forms so neither can there be a mixtion of them in the Centaur For the form or essence admits neither intention nor admission Ex duobus entibus per se non fit unum ens per se yet I deny that there were ever a generation of people called Centaurs as they are described by the Poets for by this fiction they understood voluptuous and lascivious men who by Hercules that is men of courage wisdom and strength were subdued and brought to civility as we have shewed elsewhere in Myst. Poetico which fiction was occasioned by the first sight of men on Horseback in Thessaly II. That some men have become speechlesse at the sight of a Wolf is no fable if either we consider the antipathy that is between a Man and a Wolf or the malignity of that vapour which proceeds from the Wolf or the violence of a sudden fear which presently bringeth obmutescency as the Prince of Poets sheweth AEn 2. Obstupui steteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit Camerarius the Father Prob 1. Dec. 7. medit Histor. part 2. Cent. 40. sheweth in his Problems which is confirmed by Philip his son that one who had caught a Wolf in a Gin by comming too neer him was so poisoned by his breath that his hands and face which were naked did swell to a monstrous bigness so that in a long time he could scarce be cured And what wonder is it that the sight of a Wolf should make a man speechlesse when the shadow of the Hyena will make a Dog dumb when a Horse if he smell but the foot-step or the guts of a Wolf will kick and fling as if he were mad and a Mare will cast her Colt as they witness who write the Natures and Histories of beasts therefore the Proverb Lupus in fabula vvas not grounded upon a fable Dr. Brown then did unadvisedly reckon this among his vulgar errors 3 Book c. 8. for I believe he would find this no error if he were suddenly surprised by a Wolf having no means to escape or save himself and yet I do not hold that every one who is seen by a Wolf is dumb becaus some are of undaunted spirits and some have the advantage of the Wolf and some are not apt to be infected by his breath yet it will not follow that it is a vulgar error if I hold a man grows silent at the sight of a Wolf or that he hath an infectious breath For it is no vulgar error to hold the plague an infectious disease and yet all are not infected by it III. That there have been Pigmies in the world that is people of a cubit or two high so called from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cubit and Troglodits from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hole for they dwelt in holes as Aristotle sheweth and Spithamei from their small stature scarce exceeding 2 foot and a quarter I say that there have been such I make no question when I consider the multitude of eminent Authours who have vvrit of them and that no reason vvas ever yet alledged to deny them Nay it stands vvith reason there should be such that Gods wisdome might be seen in all sorts of magnitudes For if there have been Giants why not also Pigmies Nature being as propense to the least as to the greatest magnitude Besides the reasonable soulâ— is not extended in the body of a Giant nor contracted in the body of a Pigmiâ— but can inform the one and the other without augmentation and diminution Nicephorus lib. hist. Eccles. c. 37. affirms that in the time of Theodosius was seen in Egypt a Pigmie so small of body that he resembled a Partridg he exercised all the functions of a man and could sing tunably Pliny lib. 7. c. 16. speaks of Coâ—pas whom Iulia the Neece of Augustus kept still by her he was not much above two foot long He also affirms that under Augustus there lived Pusio and Secundilla whose bodies were preserved as miraculous in a monument within the Salustian Garden they were not much above half a foot Cardâ—n relates de subtil that there was in Italy a Pigmie of a cubit long kept in a Parrets Cage Many more of these Pigmies I could alledg but these shall suffice to shew there have been such And that there have been a Nation of Pigmies Aristotle Pliny Pomponius Mela Aulus Gellus Solinus Albertus magnus and many others will witness It is true that Strabo Scaliger and some others have denied them and therefore Dr. Brown reckons the opinion concerning Pigmies among his Vulgar Errors But if the incredulity of two or three Writers be enough to make a Vulgar Errâ—r what a multitude of Errors will there be For what truth is there in the world which by some or other hath not been doubted or denied But they say that the Assertors of this opinion do not agree about the place of the Pigmies abode some placing them in India some in Ethiopia some in Scythia some in Greenland I answer Circumstantial differences cannot overthrow the substance of a truth Much difference there is about Ophir where it stood some placing it in Sumatra or Aurea Chersinesus some in Africa some in Peru. So men cannot agree about Tharsis some making it a Town in Cilicia others Carthage in Africa some Tartasius in Spain shall we hence infer that there were never any such places I am of opinion that because they differ in the place of the Pigmies and not in the thing it self that there were Pigmies in all the forementioned places Buchanan speaking of the Isles of Scotland amongst the rest sets down the Isle of Pigmies in which there is a Church where are yet digged up divers small skuls and bones answering to the report of the Pigmies little bodies so that the inhabitants and neighbours make no question but that Pigmies of old dwelt there Reâ— Scot. l. 1. Now Aristotle is so confident of his Pigmies that he plainly tels us it is no fiction but a manifest truth Hist. animal l. 8. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it is like that these Pigmies were all one with the Nabae or Nubae a people that dwelt about the Springs of Nilus and so they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both these people are said
sticks and glow-worms or cats eyes are fire or flames and if stars be flames because in colour they are like to flames let us say that the Heaven is water for in colour it is like water IV. It seems saith he Cent. 1.45 that the parts of living creatures that lie more inwards nourish more then the outward flesh except it be the brain which the spirits prey too much upon to leave it any great vertue of nourishment This is not so for experience shews the contrary that the outward flesh of sheep and so of other animals nourish more then the heart lungs liver kidney and spleen Therefore Galen l. de cibis reckoneth these amongst his meats of bad juyce and indeed this stands with reason for that nourisheth most which is easiest of concoction and softest and most abounding in benign and nutritive juyce but such is the outward flesh not the heart kidney c. which are harder and drier and not so apt to be converted into blood It is true the Romans made much of the gooses liver more to please their palate then out of any good nutriment it offorded so they preferred moshromes and such like trash to the best nutrive meates as for the brains they are less nutritive then the flesh not because the spirits prey upon them for the animal spirits in the brain do not prey more upon it then the vital spirits do upon the heart which notwithstanding his lordship acknowledgeth to be more nourishing then the outward flesh because more inward but because the brain is less sanguineal then the flesh for those parts which they call spermatical are less nutritive what is more inward then the Spinalis medulla or pith in the back bone on which the animal spirits do not prey and yet it is little nutritive V. The fift cause of cold saith he Cent. 73. is a quick spirit inclosed in a cold body as in nitre in water colder then oyle which hath a duller spirit so show is colder then water because it hath more spirit so some insects which have the spirit of life as snakes c. are cold to the touch so quick silver is the coldest of all mettals because fullest of spirits Answ. No spirit can be the cause of cold for all spirits in vigitable animals produce heat and are produced of heat therefore we finde that where there are most spirits there is least cold 2. Nitre which is mentioned by the Ancients is hot and not cold and therefore both Dioscorides Pliny and Galen adscribe to it the qualities of heat to cut extennat discuss and purge gross and cold humors and if that nitre which we use at this day be not the same yet it is not much unlike as Mathiolus shews as having divers qualities of the old nitre besides it is a kinde of salt and is begot of hot things as pigeons dung and the urins of animals therefore Brun. Seidelius makres it hot 3. I deny that water is colder then oyl to the outward touching for hot waters as he said before are in this regard cold and if oyl hath a dulâ—er spirit then water how comes it to mount upward and swim above the water sure this ascendant motion cannot produce from the earthy and gross substance but from the quick spirits thereof therefore we finde that water is cold and oyl hot in operation because more full of spirits then water 4. I deny that snow is colder then water because it hath more spirit but because it is more condensed for heat and cold are more active in a dense and solid then in a thin atternated substance so ice is colder then water and yet who will say that there is more spirits in the ice then in water besides the snow is colder then the water because begot of colder winds and in colder clymats 5. I deny that insects are cold to the touch for having in them the spirit of life because they are colder when that spirit is gon as we see in all dead bodies which are colder then when they were alive therefore death is called by the Poets frigida more and gelidum frigus the spirit of life is that which is both begot of heat and begets heat and preserveth it that when that spirit leave suâ— heat also for sakes us caler ossa relinquit saith the Poet It is not therefore the spirit of life but the temperament and constitution of the body of divers earthy and watrish animals which argue cold and we see that for this cause womens bodies are colder then mens and some men of colder constitutions then others because they have fewer spirits and more of earth and water in them We know also how dull and stupid our hands are in cold frosts till the spirits in them be quickned by heat 6. I deny also that quicksilver is the coldest of metals because fullest of spirits for it is much doubted whether Mercury be cold at all for agility proceeds from heat not from cold and such a quality became the messenger of Iupiter by whom all things receive life and vigour Indeed Mercury may be called the Monster of Nature for sometimes it refrigerats sometimes it califieth it cures sometimes cold sometimes hot diseases take it hot it produceth cold take it cold it produceth hot effects and it hath this quality of heat that nothing is more penetrating then it is Christopher Encelius de re metalica makes it hot and moist in the fourth degree Quercitan in his answer to Aubert makes it rather aerial then aquiall we know that heat is one of the qualities of air Renodaeus in Pharmac makes it both hot and cold Keckerman in Sist. Phy. sayth That it is hot as it is full of spirits but cold as these spirits are congealed Croclius in Bas. Cly. prescribes it in defluxions of the head and in hydropsies which shews it is hot And Poterius in Pharm Spagir tells us That by reason of its different operations no man can tell whether heat or cold be most predominant but it is certain saith he that it is both for is known by our senses that it is cold it is known by its effects and operations that it is hot for it cuts atâ—enuates dissolves and purges which are the effects of heat and so his Lordship doth acknowledge in the next following leaf That heat doth attennate and by atenuation sendeth forth the spirit In his following discourses he hath phrases not to be tolerated in Phylosophy as when he saith Cent. 1.80 That tangible bodies have an antipathy with air Belike then the air is no tangible body but experience shews the contrary that air is tangible both actively and passively our bodies are sensible enough of this tangibility both in hot and cold weather Again if by tangible bodies he mean grosse and dense bodies how can air have an antipathy with them seeing air is one of the ingredients of which all mixed bodies are compounded can it â—e contrary or antipatheticall
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
dross mingled with his gold he doth wrong both himself and his reader in undertaking to give the causes or reasons of every thing For Nature is pleased in thousands of things to sport herselfe with variety Who can give the cause of so many different forms in beasts birds and fishes of so many different shapes and colours in herbs trees and plants of so many different streaks and spots in shels stones and other things He that takes upon him to give reasons of all these varieties will take too much upon him But as Scaliger saith It is the part of true wisdom not to be too wise Wheras Aristotle had with infinite pains and industry and not without singular dexterity reduced all entities into certain heads and placed them in ten Classes or Predicaments to avoid confusion and that we might with the more facility find out the true genus and difference of things for our more easie defining describing dividing of things and methodicall arguing upon any subject Which Aristotelian way hath been received and approved by all Universities and the wise men since his time in all ages as being the best easiest most methodical and most consonant to Reason of all the vvayes yet found out These new Philosophers as if they were wiser then all the world besides have like fantastick travellers left the old beaten and known path to find out wayes unknown crooked and unpassable and have reduced his comely order into the old chaos jumbling the Predicaments so together that their Scholars can never find out the true genus of things For example they tell us that the qualities to wit of heat cold c. are spirits consequently substances so somtimes again they will have these to be qualities and sometimetimes to be motions and actions Thus Proteus-like they turn themselves into all shapes so that we know not in what predicament to put their heat or what Genus to give it Comenius in his reformed Physicks gives us some wise reasons to prove that heat is motion because forsooth There is not with us a body that is perpetually hot Besides that this is false for our fire is perpetually hot and never cold water perpetually moist and never dry the air perpetually light and never heavy the earth perpetually heavy and never light so it is ridiculous to think that whatsoever is not either perpetually hot or cold moist or dry c. must be motion for by this reason all sublunary entities must be motions because there is no other permanent quality except in a few But let us examine the Pabsurdities of this conceit 1. If heat cold and other qualities be motions then they are all imperfect entities for motion is such as being in fieri not in facto But this is untrue for all qualities are perfect entities in their own kind 2. Rest is the perfection and end of motion but it is not the end and perfection of heat and cold for the coldnesse of a standing Lake is not more perfect because it rests then of a river because it moves 3. Rest is opposite to motion cold is opposite to heat how then can heat and cold be motions 4. Motion is commune sensibile an object of divers senses for it is perceptible by the eye by the ear in sounds and by the tact also but heat and cold are onely perceptible to the tact 5. Motion addeth weight to a heavy body it is the motion of the Cutter that makes the Ax cut down the tree whereas neither the heat nor coldnesse of the Ax addeth any thing to the action of the Ax. 6. Motion begets heat therefore they cannot be the same except wee will make one and the same entity to work upon and produce it selfe to be both cause and effect agent and patient to it selfe which is an absurd contradiction 7. It is not motion but heat that attenuateth penetrateth openeth ripeneth dissolveth congregateth homogeneous things disgregateth heterogeneous Again they reason thus Comen Phys. c. 4. that heat penetrates and distends cold stoppeth contracteth therfore they are motions They may as well infer that light is a motion because it penetrateth glasse or that wine-vinegar oyles or any substance that penetrates are motions which are childish conceits And no lesse feeble is their third Argument whereby they prove heat to be a motion Because it wasteth and consumeth even the hardest metals Heat preserveth as well as wasteth Is it a motion in both regards Again is there no difference between the agent and the action the mover and the motion the waster and the wasting of a thing As in many other vain conceits they shew their weaknesse so likewise in this when they call colours light and say Comen c. 4 That colours of themselves have no entity but from the light because they are not seen without the light Thus they confound after their maner the object which the mean by which we see We see colours we see not the light but we see by the light This doctrine if there bee no entity in colours but what is given by thelight then in darknesse there must be noneâ—tities and so a Crow is not black nor a Swan white but when the Sun shines on them blood then is not red within the veinsâ— nor milk white within the breasts till they be let out into the light What can be more ridiculous then to think that because the light gives visibility therefore it gives entity to things To a blind man all colours are non-entities which to him that seeth them are entities at the same time so at the same time colours are something and nothing My Lord Bacon saith That the colours of Gems are fine spirits how then can they be be non-entities And surely if whatsoever we see not be non-entities we may conclude that substances are non-entities for they are not visible and if it be the light that giveth being to colours it must needs follow that black hairs turn gray in us not from the constitution of our temperaments but from the light and so it is onely the light that makes some black some red some flaxen and some gray haired Again they say c. 4. Colour diffuseth it selfe through the air as light doth therefore it is light This is untrue for colour doth not diffuse it self through the air as light doth for the colour of a Rose is onely in the Rose and not diffused in the air they should rather say That the smell of the Rose is diffused through the air and that therefore the smell is light or that heat and cold are lights because they are diffused Again they say c. 4. That the light produceth in the Rain-bow different colours What then Will it follow that therefore the light produceth all colours Wil they make no difference between reall and apparent or intentionall colours The colour which is in a green glasse is reall but that which from the glasse is cast on the paper is onely apparent