Reason to believe that it was cultivated with Abundance of Care by all those who did not place the Perfection of Knowledge in the Art of Wrangling about Questions which were either useless or which could not easily be decided Before I enter into Particulars it is necessary to enquire what are the greatest Excellencies of a compleat History of any one sort of Natural Bodies This may soon be determined That History of any Body is certainly the best which by a full and clear Description lays down all the Characteristical Marks of the Body then to be described so as that its Specifical Idea may be perfectly formed and it self certainly and easily distinguished from any other Body though at first View it be never so like it which enumerates all its known Qualities which shews whether there are any more besides those already observed and last of all which enquires into the several Ways whereby that Body may be beneficial or hurtful to Man or any other Body by giving a particular Account of the several Phaenomena which appear upon its Application to or Combination with other Bodies of like or unlike Natures All this is plainly necessary if a Man would write a full History of any single Species of Animals Plants Insects or Minerals whatsoever Or if he would draw up a General History of any one of these Universal Sorts then he ought to examine wherein every Species of this Universal Sort agrees each with other or wherein they are discriminated from any other Universal Sort of Things Thus by degrees descend to Particulars and range every Species not manifestly Anomalus under its own Family or Tribe thereby to help the Memory of Learners and assist the Contemplations of those who with Satisfaction to themselves and others would Philosophize upon this amazing Variety of Things By this Test the Comparison may be made I shall begin with the simplest Bodies first which as they are the commonest so one would think should have been long ago examined with the strictest Care By these I mean Air Water Earth Fire commonly called Elements The Three first are certainly distinct and real Bodies endued with proper and peculiar Qualities and so come under the present Question Of the History of Air the Ancients seemed to know little more than just what might be collected from the Observation of its most obvious Qualities It s Necessity for the immediate Subsistence of Life and the unspeakable Force of Rapid Winds or Air forcibly driven all one Way made it be sufficiently observed by all the World whilst its Internal Texture and very few of its remoter Qualities were scarce so much as dreamt of by all the Philosophers of Antiquity It s Weight only was known to Aristotle or the Author of the Book de Coelo who observed that a full Bladder out-weighed an empty one Yet this was carried no further by any of the Ancients that we know of dis-believed by his own School who seemed not to have attended to his Word opposed and ridiculed when again revived and demonstrably proved by the Philosophers of the present Age. All which are Evidences that anciently it was little examined into since they wanted Proofs to evince that which Ignorance only made disputable But this has been spoken to already I shall therefore only add that besides what Mr. Boyle has written concerning the Air one may consult Otto Guerick's Magdebourg-Experiments the Experiments of the Academy del Cimento Sturmius's Collegium Curiosum Mr. Halley's Discourses concerning Gravity and the Phaenomena of the Baroscope in the Philosophical Transactions From all which one may find not only how little of the Nature of the Air was anciently known but also that there is scarce any one Body whose Theory is now so near being compleated as is that of the Air. The Natural History of Earth and Water come under that of Minerals Fire as it appears to our Senses seems to be a Quality rather than a Substance and to consist in its own Nature in a Rapid Agitation of Bodies put into a quick Motion and divided by this Motion into very small Parts After this had been once asserted by the Corpuscularian Philosophers it was exceedingly strengthned by many Experimental Writers who have taken abundance of Pains to state the whole Doctrine of Qualities clearly and intelligibly that so Men might know the difference between the Existence or Essential Nature of a Body and its being represented to our Senses under such or such an Idea This is the Natural Consequence of proceeding upon clear and intelligible Principles and resolving to admit nothing as conclusive which cannot be manifestly conceived and evidently distinguished from every Thing else Here if in any Thing the old Philosophers were egregiously defective What has been done since will appear by consulting among others the Discourses which Mr. Boyle has written upon most of the considerable Qualities of Bodies which come under our Notice such as his Histories of Fluidity and Firmness of Colours of Cold his Origin of Forms and Qualities Experiments about the Mechanical Production of divers particular Qualities and several others which come under this Head because they are not Notions framed only in a Closet by the help of a lively Fancy but Genuine Histories of the Phaenomena of Natural Bodies which appeared in vast Numbers after such Trials were made upon them as were proper to discover their several Natures And therefore that it may not be thought that I mistake every plausible Notion of a witty Philosopher for a new Discovery of Nature I must desire that my former Distinction between Hypotheses and Theories may be remembred I do not here reckon the several Hypotheses of Des Cartes Gassendi or Hobbes as Acquisitions to real Knowledge since they may only be Chimaera's and amusing Notions fit to entertain working Heads I only alledge such Doctrines as are raised upon faithful Experiments and nice Observations and such Consequences as are the immediate Results of and manifest Corollaries drawn from these Experiments and Observations Which is what is commonly meant by Theories But of this more hereafter That the Natural History of Minerals was anciently very imperfect is evident from what has been said of Chymistry already to which all the Advances that have ever been made in that Art unless when Experiments have been tried upon Vegetable or Animal Substances are properly to be referred I take Minerals here in the largest Sence for all sorts of Earths Sulphurs Salts Stones Metals and Minerals properly so called For Chymistry is not only circumstantially useful but essentially necessary here since a great many Minerals of very differing Natures would never have been known to have belonged to several Families if they had not been examined in the Furnaces of the Chymists But I think this is so clear that I should lose Time if I should say any Thing more about it and therefore I shall rather mention some other Things wherein Discoveries have been made in and by
Heart in the Members Its Colour is Red has the Sound of Laughing its Vicissitudes are Joy and Sorrow the Tongue is its Window its Tast Bitterness its Passion Joy too much Joy hurts the Heart but Fear the Passion of the Reins which are Enemies to the Heart conquers Joy Heat hurts the Spirits but Cold conquers Heat Bitterness hurts the Spirits but Saltness of the Reins conquers Bitterness or Water quenches Fire The Heart is generated the Second in Order and is perfected the Seventh Out of the middle Region ariseth Moisture out of that Earth out of Earth Sweetness from Sweetness cometh the Spleen Flesh from that and the Lungs from Flesh The Spleen governs the Mouth that which is Moisture in the Heaven is Earth in Earth Flesh in the Body and the Spleen in the Members Its Colour is Yellow it has the Sound of Singing its Window is the Mouth its Tast is sweet its Passion is much Thoughtfulness Thoughtfulness hurts the Spleen but Anger conquers Thoughtfulness Moisture hurts Flesh but Wind conquers Moisture Sweetness hurts Flesh but Acidity conquers Sweetness In a Word Wood conquers Earth or the Liver the Spleen The Spleen is generated the Fifth in Order and is perfected the Tenth Out of the Western Region arises Drought Thence come Metals from them comes Sharpness out of that are the Lungs out of the Lungs come Skin and Hair out of Skin and Hair come the Reins the Lungs govern the Nostrils That which is Drought in the Heaven or Air is Metal in the Earth Hair and Skin in the Body and Lungs in the Members Its Colour is Whitish has the Sound of Weeping its Windows are the Nostrils its Tast is sharp its Passion is Sorrow Sorrow hurts the Lungs but Joy conquers Sorrow Heat hurts the Skin and Hair but the Cold of the Reins conquers Heat Sharpness hurts the Skin and Hair but Bitterness conquers Sharpness The Lungs are generated the Fourth in Order and are perfected the Ninth Out of the Northern Region arises Cold out of Cold comes Water thence Saltness thence the Reins thence the Marrow of the Bones thence the Liver The Reins govern the Ears that which is Cold in the Air Water in the Earth Bones in the Body is Reins in the Members Its Colour is Blackish has the Sound of Sobbing its Windows are the Ears its Tast is Saltness its Passion is Fear Fear hurts the Reins but Thoughtfulness conquers Fear Cold hurts the Blood but Drought conquers Cold Saltness hurts the Blood but Sweetness conquers Saltness The Reins are generated the First in Order and perfected the Sixth The Missionary who sent this Account to Cleyer a Physician at Batavia was afraid that it would be thought ridiculous by Europeans which Fear of his seems to have been well grounded Another who lived long in China wrote also an Account of the Chinese Notions of the Nature and Difference of Pulses which he professes that he would not undertake to prove by European Principles One may judge of their Worth by the following Specimen The Chineses divide the Body into Three Regions The First is from the Head to the Diaphragm The Second from thence to the Navel containing Stomach Spleen Liver and Gall and the Third to the Feet containing the Bladder Ureters Reins and Guts To these Three Regions they assign Three sorts of Pulses in each Hand The uppermost Pulse is governed by the radical Heat and is therefore in its own Nature overflowing and great The lowermost is governed by the radical Moisture which lies deeper than the rest and is like a Root to the rest of the Branches the middlemost lies between them both partakes equally of radical Heat and Moisture and answers to the middle Region of the Body as the uppermost and lowermost do to the other Two By these Three Sorts of Pulses they pretend to examine all Sorts of acute Diseases and these also are examined Three several Ways Diseases in the Left-Side are shewn by the Pulses of the Left-Hand and Diseases in the Right-Side by the Pulses of the Right It would be tedious to dwell any longer upon such Notions as these which every Page in Cleyer's Book is full of The Anatomical Figures annexed to the Tracts which also were sent out of China are so very whimsical that a Man would almost believe the whole to be a Banter if these Theories were not agreeable to the occasional Hints that may be found in the Travels of the Missionaries This however does no Prejudice to their Simple Medicines which may perhaps be very admirable and which a long Experience may have taught the Chineses to apply with great Success and it is pâ—ssible that they may sometimes give not unhappy Guesses in ordinary Cases by feeling their Patients Pulses Still this is little to Physick as an Art and however the Chineses may be allowed to be excellent Empiricks as many of the West Indian Salvages are yet it cannot be believed that they can be tolerable Philosophers which in an Enquiry into the Learning of any Nation is the first Question that is to be considered But it is time now to leave those Countries in some of which there seems never to have been any solid Learning originally and in the rest but the Beginnings of it to come to Greece as it stood in the Age of Aristotle Theophrastus Euclid and those other Great Men who about the Time of Alexander the Great and afterwards did such great Things in almost all Parts of real Learning If upon Enquiry it shall be found that a Comparison may be made between these Ancients and the Moderns upon any Heads wherein Learning is principally concerned which will not be to the Disadvantage of the latter then there needs not any Thing to be said further Whether it can or no is now to be enquired CHAP. XIII Of the Logick and Metaphysicks of the Ancient Greeks SInce all that has been said in the Second and Third Chapters concerning the Ethicks Politicks Eloquence and Poesie of the Ancient Grecians belongs to them in their most flourishing Ages a great Part of the Subject Matter of this Enquiry has already been dispatched The remaining Parts of their Knowledge may be reduced to these Four Heads Logick Metaphysicks Mathematicks and Physiology Logick is the Art of Reasoning but by it Men commonly understand the Art of Disputing and making Syllogisms of answering an Adversary's Objections dexterously and making such others as cannot easily be evaded In short of making a plausible Defence or starting probable Objections for or against any Thing As this is taught in the Schools it is certainly owing to the Ancients Aristotle's Organum is the great Text by which Modern Logicians have framed their Systems and nothing perhaps can be devised more subtile in that captious Art than the Sophisms of the Ancient Stoicks But as Logick is truly the Art of Reasoning justly so as not only to be able to explain our own Notions and prove our
themselves that there is a particular Nerve that goes from the Heart to the little Finger of the Left-Hand for which Reason they always wore Rings upon that Finger and the Priests dipped that Finger in their perfumed Ointments this being ridiculed by Conringius Borrichius assures us that he always found something to countenance this Observation upon cutting of his Nails to the quick Pliny in the 37 th Chapter of the 11 th Book of his Natural History and Censorinus in the 17 th Chapter of his little Book De Die Natali give this following Reason from Dioscorides the Astrologer why a Man cannot live above a Hundred Years because the Alexandrian Embalmers observed a constant Increase and Diminution of Weight of the Hearts of those sound Persons whom they opened whereby they judged of their Age. They found that the Hearts of Infants of a Year old weighed two Drachms and this Weight encreased Annually by two Drachms every Year till Men came to the Age of Fifty Years At which Time they as gradually decreased till they came to an Hundred when for want of a Heart they must necessarily die To these two Instances of the Criticalness of Egyptian Anatomy I shall add one of their Curiosities in Natural Enquiries and that is their Knowledge of the Cause of the Annual Overflowing of the Nile This which was the constant Wonder of the Old World was a Phaenomenon seldom over-looked by the Greek Philosophers Seven of whose Opinions are reckoned up by Plutarch in the First Chapter of the Fourth Book of his Opinions of the Philosophers If Curiosity generally attends a Desire of Knowledge and grows along with it then the Egyptian Priests were inexcusably negligent that they did not know that the swelling of the Nile proceeded from the Rains that fell in Ethiopia which raising the River at certain Seasons made that overflowing of the Flats of Egypt One would think that in Sesostris's Time the Egyptian Priests had Access enough into Ethiopia and whoever had once been in that Country could have resolved that Problem without any Philosophy It was known indeed in Plato's Time for then the Priests told it to Eudoxus but Thales Democritus and Herodotus who had all enquired of the Egyptians give such uncouth Reasons as shew that they only spoke by guess Thales thinks that the Etesian Winds blew at that Time of the Year against the Mouths of the River so that the fresh Water finding no Vent was beaten back upon the Land Democritus supposes that the Northern Snows being melted by the Summer Heats are drawn up in Vapours into the Air which Vapours circulating towards the South are by the Coldness of the Etesian Winds condensed into Rain by which the Nile is raised Herodotus thinks that an equal Quantity of Water comes from the Fountains in Summer and Winter only in Summer there are greater Quantities of Water drawn up by the Sun and in Winter less and so by Consequence all that Time it overflowed Democritus's Opinion of the Phaenomenon seems not amiss though his Hypothesis of the Cause of it is wrong in all Probability Yet it is plain That Plutarch did not believe it to be the same with that which the Egyptian Priests gave to Eudoxus which is the only true one because he sets them both down apart The Cause of this wonderful Phaenomenon could not be pretended to be a Secret no Honour could be got by concealing a thing the pretended Ignorance whereof was rather a Disgrace Those Egyptian Priests whose Business it was to gather Knowledge must have had an extraordinary Love for a sedentary Life or have been averse to inform themselves from others more than the rest of Mankind who would not be at the Pains either to learn what Sesostris's Soldiers could have told them or to go about Two Hundred Miles Southward to search for that which they must certainly have often reasoned about if they were such Philosophers as they pretended to be Nay by the Curiosity of the Greeks we are sure they did reason about it they thought it as much a Wonder as we can do now Rather more because they knew of no other Rivers that overflow at periodical Seasons like it as some are now known to do in the East-Indies Upon the whole Matter after a particular Search into the whole Extent of Egyptian Learning there seems to be no Reason to give the Egyptians the Preeminence in point of Knowledge above all Mankind However considering the great Labour which is requisite to form the First Notions of any part of Learning they deserve great Applause for what they discovered and ought to have proportionable Grains of Allowance for what they left unfinished So that when the Holy Scriptures assure us that Moses was skilled in all the Learning of the Egyptians they give him the greatest Character for humane Knowledge that could then be given to any Man The Egyptian Performances in Architecture were very wonderful and the Character which Hadrian the Emperour gives them that they found Employments for all Sorts of Persons the Blind the Lame the Gouty as well as the strong and healthy shews that it was natural to the Egyptians to be always busied about something useful The Art of Brewing Mault-drinks was very anciently ascribed to the Egyptians as the first Inventors for which these Northern Nations are not a little beholding to them Their Laws have by those who have taken the greatest Pains to destroy the Reputation of their Learning in other things been acknowledged to be very wise and worth going so far as Pythagoras Solon and Lycurgus did to fetch them So that if Sir William Temple had extolled their Learning with any other Design than that of disparaging the Knowledge of the present Age there would have been no Reason to oppose his Assertions CHAP. XI Of the Learning of the Ancient Chaldeans and Arabians THE Chaldeans and the Arabs are the People that lie next in Sir William Temple's Road. We may pronounce with some Certainty 1. That the Chaldean Astronomy could not be very valuable since as we know from Vitruvius and others they had not discovered that the Moon is an Opake Body Whether their Astronomical Observations were older than their Monarchy is uncertain If they were not then in Alexander the Great 's Time they could not challenge an Antiquity of above Five or Six Hundred Years I mention Alexander because he is said to have sent vast Numbers of Observations from Babylon to his Master Aristotle The Assyrian Monarchy of which the Chaldean might not improperly be called a Branch pretends indeed to great Antiquity Great Things are told of Ninus and Semiramis who is more than once mentioned by Sir William Temple in these Essays for her Victories and her Skill in Gardening but these Accounts are very probably fabulous for the following Reasons Till the Time of Tiglath-Pileser and Pul we hear no News of any Assyrian Monarchs in the Jewish History In Amraphel's
certainly shew that he did not understand the true Texture of those Parts because where his Anatomy did not fail him his Ratiocinations are generally speaking exact Wherefore in this particular his Mistakes instruct us as effectually in the Ancients Ignorance as his true Notions do in their Knowledge This will appear at large hereafter where it will be of mighty use to prove That the Ancients cannot be supposed to have known many of the most eminent Modern Discoveries since if they had known them they would not have assigned such Uses to those Parts as are not reconcilable to those Discoveries If Galen had known that the Pancreas had been a Heap of small Glands which all emit into one common Canal a particular Juice carried afterwards through that Canal into the Guts which there meeting with the Bile goes forwards and assists it in the making of the Chyle he would never have said that Nature made it for a Pillow to support the Veins which go out of the Liver in that Place where they divide into several Branches lest if they had been without a Rest they should have been hurt by the violent Eruption of the Blood and this too without the assigning any other Use for it By Anatomy there is seldom any thing understood but the Art of laying open the several Parts of the Body with a Knife that so the Relation which they severally bear each to other may be clearly discerned This is generally understood of the containing Parts Skin Flesh Bones Membranes Veins Arteries Muscles Tendons Ligaments Cartilages Glands Bowels wherein only the Ancients busied themselves As for the Examination of the Nature and particular Texture of the contained Parts Blood Chyle Urine Bile Serum Fat Juices of the Pancreas Spleen and Nerves Lympha Spittle Marrow of the Bones Mucilages of the Joints and the like they made very few Experiments and those too for want of Chymistry very imperfect The Discoveries therefore which have been made in that nobler part which are numerous and considerable are in a manner wholly owing to later Ages In the other a great deal was anciently done though a great deal more was left for Posterity to do I shall begin with the Body in general It is certain that all the great Divisions of the Bones Muscles Veins and Arteries most of the visible Cartilages Tendons and Ligaments were very exactly known in Galen's Time the Positions of the Muscles their several Originations the Insertions of their Tendons and investing Membranes were for the most part traced with great Nicety and Truth the more conspicuous pairs of Nerves which arise either from the Brain or Spinal Marrow were very well known and carefully followed most of the great Branches of the Veins and Arteries almost all the Bones and Cartilages with very many Muscles have still old Greek Names imposed upon them by the Old Anatomists or Latin Names translated from the Greek ones So that not only the easie things and such as are discernable at first Sight were throughly known but even several particulars especially in the Anatomy of Nerves were discovered which are not obvious without great Care and a good deal of practical Skill in diffecting So much in general from which it is evident that as far as Anatomy is peculiarly useful to a Chirurgeon to inform him how the Bones Muscles Blood-Vessels Cartilages Tendons Ligaments and Membranes lie in the Limbs and more conspicuous Parts of the Body so far the Ancients went And here there is very little that the Moderns have any Right to pretend to as their own Discoveries though any Man that understands these things must own That these are the first things which offer themselves to an Anatomist's View Here I shall beg Leave to descend to Particulars because I have not seen any Comparison made between Ancient and Modern Anatomy wherein I could acquiesce whilst some as Mr. Glanvile and some others who seem to have copied from him have allowed the Ancients less than was their Due others as Vander Linden and Almeloveen have attributed more to them than came to their Share especially since though perhaps it may be a little tedious yet it cannot be called a Digression Hippocrates took the Brain to be a Gland His Opinion was nearer to the Truth than any of his Successors but he seems to have thought it to be a similar Substance which it evidently is not And therefore when several Parts of it were discovered not to be glandulous his Opinion was rejected Plato took it to be Marrow such as nourishes the Bones but its Weight and Texture soon destroyed his Notion since it sinks in Water wherein Marrow swims and is hardned by Fire by which the other is melted Galen saw a little farther and he asserts it to be of a nervous Substance only something softer than the Nerves in the Body Still they believed that the Brain was an uniform Substance and as long as they did so they were not like to go very far The first Anatomist who discovered the true Texture of the Brain was Archangelus Piccolhomineus an Italian who lived in the last Age. He found that the Brain properly so called and Cerebellum consist of Two distinct Substances an outer Ash-coloured Substance through which the Blood-Vessels which lie under the Pia Mater in innumerable Folds and Windings are disseminated and an inner every where united to it of a nervous Nature that joins this Bark as it is usually called to the Medulla Oblongata which is the Original of all the Pairs of Nerves that issue from the Brain and of the Spinal Marrow and lies under the Brain and Cerebellum After him Dr. Willis was so very exact that he traced this medullar Substance through all its Insertions into the Cortical and the Medulla Oblongata and examined the Rises of all the Nerves and went along with them into every Part of the Body with wonderful Curiosity Hereby not only the Brain was demonstrably proved to be the Fountain of Sense and Motion but also by the Courses of the Nerves the Manner how every Part of the Body conspires with any others to procure any one particular Motion was clearly shewn and thereby it was made plain even to Sense that where-ever many parts joined at once to cause the same Motion that Motion is caused by Nerves that go into every one of those Parts which are all struck together And though Vieussens and du Verney have in many things corrected Dr. Willis's Anatomy of the Nerves yet they have strengthened his general Hypothesis even at the Time when they discovered his Mistakes which is the same thing to our present purpose Galen indeed had a right Notion of this matter but he traced only the larger Pairs of Nerves such as could not escape a good Anatomist But the manner of the forming of the Animal Spirit in the Brain was wholly unknown In Order to the Discovery whereof Malpighius by his