CHAP. I. Of Anatomy, and Man's Body, its Division and Parts in general.

I. ANatomy is an Art which Definition of Anatomy teaches the Artificial dis­section of the Parts of the Body of Man, that what things in them can be known by Sense, may truly appear.

The primary subject of Anatomy is Subject. the Body of Man, partly because it is the perfectest; partly because the know­ledge of a Man's self is very necessary, a great share whereof consists in the know­ledge of his own Body. Besides, Anatomi­cal exercises are very necessary for Physi­cians, and were chiefly instituted for their sakes, whose Studies are directed to the cure of Diseases only in humane Bodies, and not to the cure of Brutes, as being unworthy of their noble Speculations, and therefore left to [...]arriers and other Ple­beians. So that in this regard the Arti­ficial Dissection of humane Bodies must be preferred before the Dissection of any Brute whatever; since Physicians may this way far better attain the perfect know­ledge of the subject of their Art, than if they should search the Bodies of Brutes. In the mean time, however, because humane bodies cannot always conveni­ently be had, neither will Law nor Piety at any time allow the cutting of them up alive, yet nevertheless it is necessary that we should get the perfect knowledge, of the site, connexion, shape, use, &c. of the Parts by many Dissections and Inspections; for which purpose men use, in defect of humane Bodies, to dissect se­veral Brutes, sometimes alive, but usually dead, especially such, whose Inwards and most of their Parts are likest in form, site, and use to the humane body; that by the knowledge of them the parts of a humane body may the easilier be known, when afterwards they are once or twice shown in a humane body.

II. A humane body is considered ge­nerally Different considera­tion of the Body. Generally. or particularly.

III. Considered generally, or in the whole, the chief differences are observed in relation both to the shape, stature and colour.

What the shape is in the known Difference of shape. World, every one knows, and dayly sees. But they that have seen the East and West Indies, and that have Tra­velled other strange and remote Coun­tries, describe many uncouth and un­known shapes to us. For some tell, how they have found Men without heads, whose eyes were in their breasts: Others, men with square heads: Others, men all hairy: Others, Salvages, whose shoul­ders were higher than their heads; they write, such were found in Guajana: O­thers, men with Tails: And others, men otherwise shaped.

Difference of stature consists herein, Difference of Stature. that some are thick, others slender; some short, others tall. Upper France breeds short and slender men, and very few tall people are found there. Nor­thern Countries breed tall and strong men: And the Germans come nigh them. England and Holland breed a middle sort. Nevertheless, some very tall peo­ple, though few, are found in the Low Countries. Ten years agone at Utrecht Very tall People. I saw a Maid Seventeen years of Age, so tall, that a proper man could scarce reach to the top of her head with his fingers ends. Neer Schoonhoven, in the Village Leckerkerck, a few years agone, there lived a Country fellow, a Fisher, commonly called the great Clown, a very strong man, I have often seen him, when he stretched out his arm, the tallest of ordinary men might go under it and not touch it. Anno 1665. at Utrecht-Fair, in the Month of Iuly, I saw a very strong man, and very tall, and witty enough, (which is a rarity in such great bodies) above eight feet and an half high, all his Limbs were pro­portionable, and he was married to a very little woman, whom, when he Travelled, he could without any trouble carry in a Pouch along with him: he was born at Schoonhoven of Parents of an ordinary size. At the same time a Country wench was shewn, Eighteen years of age, who was nigh as tall as the said man, her whole body was well shaped, but she was of a dull capacity. Yet these rare instances of a vast stature which I have seen (like unto which Pla­terus Observat. l. 3. describes four more) are nothing, compared with some, which are described by Historians. The body of Orestes, which by command of the Oracle was dug out of the Earth, is said to have been seven Cubits long: which Cubits, according to Aulus Gellius, a­mong the Romans amounted to twelve [Page 3] feet and a quarter. William Schouten in his Journal reports, that in the Port, cal­led Desire, neer the Straits of Magellan, he found men of ten and eleven Cubits. Fazellus, decad. 1. lib. 1. cap. 6. mentions several bodies, found in divers places, some of which were seventeen, others eighteen, others twenty, others two and twenty Cubits long, and one of their Teeth weighed five ounces. Pliny writes, that in Crete a Mountain was broke by an Earthquake, and on that occasion a body of forty seven Cubits was found, which some thought Orion's, others Oetius's. So likewise Camerarius relates divers stories of such Giants, Meditat. Histor. cent. 1. cap. 82.

And on the other hand likewise Dwarfs. sometimes men are [...]ound of a very low stature, viz. three or four feet long. We call such Dwarfs. Formerly I have seen three or four of them. Platerus Observ. l. 3. in principio, describes three such, which he saw. Aristotle lib. 8. histor. animal. cap. 12. writes for a certain truth, that Pigmies dwell about those place, where the Nile runs into Egypt, and they are such short dwergens, that they are not above an ell high. But this People could never yet be found by the modern Seamen, who have sailed the World over (perhaps, because they could not get with their Ships to that peoples Country) and therefore one might very well question the truth of the story, had not Aristotle, who ought to be trusted a great way, writ it. Nevertheless Spigelius does not believe Aristotle, but reckons his story of the Pigmies a fable, being so perswaded, 1. From the authority of Strabo, lib. 1. Geograph. 2. From the experience of Francis Alvarez a Portugueze, who himself Travelled those parts, wherea­bout Aristotle writes, the Pigmies are, namely where the Nile runs into Egypt; yet he could no where see or find that little Nation, but says, that those parts were inhabited by middle statured people.

The difference of colour is great, Difference of colour. according to the difference of Coun­tries: For in Europe and Christendom people are white, in Aethiopia and Brasile black, in divers parts of India tawny, in some places almost red, in o­thers brown, in others whitish.

IV. A humane body considered Particular considera­tion of the body. particularly, or according to each part, affords for consideration the neat figure of each part, the most convenient con­nexion, the admirable structure, the necessary action, and lastly, the great, yet harmonous diversity of all and each function and use.

V. The part of the Body is any bodily Definition of a part. Substance joyned to the whole in con­tinuity, having its own proper circum­scription, and with other parts making up the whole, is fitted for some functi­on or use. What con­tinuity is.

This is an exquisite definition.

For First, the part of a humane body must be a bodily substance, and such as is joyned to the whole in continuity ( a thing is said to be continued, whose least particles stick one to another in rest) not in contiguity: For contiguous bodies must of necessity be diverse, and one may be separated from the other without hurt­ing either, both remaining entire. For as Wine contained in a vessel cannot be called a part of the vessel, nor the ves­sel a part of the wine, because there is no continuity between them two; so likewise blood contained in an Artery, cannot he called a part of the Artery, nor of a humane body, since it is not joyned thereto in any continuity.

Secondly, A part must with others make up the whole; for whatever things are above the complement, are not reckoned parts of one body, but are bodies subsisting by themselves, which often adhere to the whole, that they may be nourished by the whole. Thus a child or mole in the womb are not parts of a womans body, but subsist by themselves, and yet by means of the placenta uterina and umbilical vessels, they are joyned to the womb, that they may receive nourishment from it; ne­vertheless the woman, when she is de­livered, remains entire. So likewise Sarcomata or fleshy excrescences, and such things, are not reckoned among the parts of a humane body, because they neither make up the complement of the whole, nor are designed for re­quisite functions and uses, but adhere to the whole, that thereby they may be nourished.

VI. Thirdly, A part must be made for some function or use,

VII. A Function, or Action, is a cer­tain What a function is. effective motion made by an Organ, through its own proper disposition to it.

This is either private, whereby the parts provide for themselves; or publick whereby the whole is provided for; for instance; The stomach by a private acti­on, or coction, converts the blood brought to it by the Arteries into a sub­stance like it self, and so is nourished: But it performs another action besides, [Page 4] whereby it provides for the whole Ani­mal, to wit, chylification.

VIII. The use of a part is a certain What vse [...]. aptiude to some proper intention of na­ture, to wit.

Such as not only turns to the benefit of the part, whence it proceeds, but also respects the good of some other part, or of the whole. It is doubly distin­guished from action. First, because acti­on is only competible to parts that operate, but use is often competible to things that do nothing at all, that is to such as help an acting part, so that it may act better. Thus the cuticle acts nothing; but its use is to moderate the sense of the skin, to cover it and the extremities of the vessels, and to defend it from external injuries: Fat acts nothing, it only cherishes and moistens the parts and makes their mo­tion easier: Hair acts nothing; but its use is to cover and adorn the head, and to defend it from external cold. Secondly, Because action is competible to the whole operating Organ, but use to e­very part of the Organ; for instance; The action of a Muscle is to contract; but the use of the Musculous Membrane is to contain its fibres, and to seperate it from other Muscles; of the Artery, to bring blood to it; as of the nerves, ani­mal spirits, to support the fibres of the flesh. Yet oftentimes use, action and function are promiscously used by Ana­tomists: And the action of a part, be­cause it tends to some end or other, is often called use: And also use, because it excludes not action, is called action. But use is of greater latitude then action.

Hippocrates divided things that make Things that make up the whole. up the whole into things containing, things contained, and things that move or have in themselves the power of motion. Galen calls these three things Solid parts Humors and Spirits. In this di­vision the threefold parts of the body are not comprehended, but only three things, without which a man cannot con­tinue entire, that is, alive. For only the containing or solid parts are true parts of the body. Yet these parts cannot continue alive, except they be continual­ly nourished by the humors. Not Where the humors & spirits be parts of the Body. that humors are parts of the body, but the proximate matter, which by coction is changed into the substance of the parts, into which till they are changed, they cannot be called parts; and when they are changed, they cannot be called humors: for a bone is not blood, and blood is not bone, though the one be bred of the other. The same must be understood of spirits, which being made of the subtilest and hottest part of the blood, do very much contribute to the nutrition of the body. Therefore though a man cannot continue alive without these three, yet it does not follow, that all these three must necessarily be parts of the body. A Vine consists of solid woody parts, and a Juyce whereby it is nourished, and yet it is evident, this Juice is no part of the Vine, because if a Vine be unseasonably cut, abundance of it runs out, the Vine remaining en­tire: wherefore a blind man may see, that it is no part if the Vine, but only liqour, which by further coction would be turned into a Vine. Thus also when there is a Flux of blood by the Haemor­rhoids, Menses or any other part; or when one makes water or sweats, no man in his wits will say, that then the parts of a mans body are voided, al­though a man cannot live without blood and serum. But if pieces of the Lungs be brought up in coughing, or if pieces [...] of the Kidneys be voided in Urine, as it sometimes happens in their exculcera­tion, then it is certain that the true parts of the body are voided.

Besides, these are parts of the body, Actions proceed from So­lids. whence actions immediately proceed, and they proceed not from the hu­mors and spirits, but from solids. For the humors and spirits move not the Heart, Brain, and other parts, but they both breed and move the humors and spirits: for when the Heart, Brain, and other parts are quiet, humors and spirits are neither bred nor moved (this appears in a deep swoon) and though there is abundance of them in the body, and those very hot and fit for motion, as in such as dye of a burning Fever; yet as soon as the Heart is quiet, they neither move through the Arteries, Veins and Nerves, nor are able to move the Heart, or any part else, which is a certain Ar­gument that they are Passive, and that no Action can proceed from them. And that the humors and spirits are moved by the Heart, and bred in it and other parts, will more plainly appear, lib. 2. cap. 11. and lib. 3. cap. 10, 11. and in several other places.

And now though solids cannot act Solids [...] not without the humors. without the humors and spirits, and by them their Actions (in as much as by their quantity, or quality, as their heat, cold, &c. they are able to cause this or that mutation or temper in Solids) are made quicker, slower, stronger, weaker, better or worse; yet they are [Page 5] without air; yet air is no part of the body, neither does the Action of respi­ration proceed from it, but from the muscles of the breast forcing it out, though in the mean time air by giving way to the motion of the muscles, and passing in and out through the Aspera Arteria, affords such an aptitude for respi­ration, as without it no respiration could be performed; though also by its heat or cold it may make respiration quicker, slower, longer or rarer, according as by these mutations the heat of the parts is augmented or diminished, and there­upon necessity obliges one to breath quicker or slower. So the Heart and o­ther solid Parts are not mov'd by the hu­mors and spirits, but act upon the hu­mors and spirits, they move, attenuate and concoct them till at length they turn their apt particles into a substance like themselves, and so apply and unite them to themselves, and make them parts of the body, which they were not before they were applied and assimilated. For one part of the body is not nourished with another part of its whole, a bone is not nourished with flesh, nor a vein with a nerve, &c. Neither can that which nourishes the parts, by any means be called a part, for otherwise there would be no difference between a part and its nutriment: With which Nou­rishment, unless the Parts be daily che­rished, and their consumed particles re­stored, their strength and substance would quickly waste and fail, and by that failure at length their Action would be lost.

So that Man of necessity must have both Blood and Spirits for the support of Life (hence saith the Text in Levit. 17. 11. the Soul (that is the Life) of the Flesh is in its Blood) as being the near­est Support of the Body, without which neither the Parts of the Body can act, nor the Man himself live. Yet it does not follow from thence that the Blood and Spirits are part of the Body: For the same might be said of the external Air, without which no Man can live. For take away from a Man the use of external Air either by suffocation or drowning, or any other way, you pre­sently deprive him of Life, as surely as if you took from him his Blood and Spirits. Yet no man of Judgment will say that the external Air is a part of the Body: Seeing that most certainly, if that without which Life cannot subsist were to be accounted a Part, the exter­nal Air must of necessity be said to be a Part of our Body, as well as the Blood and Spirits. Moreover it is to be con­sidered, that if the Humors and Spirits have contracted any Foulness or Distem­per, they are by the Physicians numbred among the Causes of Diseases, not a­mong the diseased Parts. Besides, that if they were Parts, they ought to be si­milar, yet never any Anatomist that I ever yet heard of, recken'd 'em among similar Parts. For most of the Organic Parts are composed out of the Similar. And yet among those Similar Parts which compose the Organic, never did any one reck'n the Blood or Spirits, as Similar Parts. For all the Organs ought to derive their Composition from those things which are proper and fixed, not from those things which are common to all, and fluid, continually wasted and continually renewed.

IX. Therefore the Body of Man may exist intire in its Parts without Blood, Spirits, and Air; but it cannot act, nor live without 'em.

And thus a Man cannot be said to live without a rational Soul, and to be a perfect and entire Man; yet every one knows that the Soul is not to be reck'n'd among the parts of the corruptible Bo­dy, as being incorruptible, subsisting of it self, and separable from the rest of the Body; since, that being incorrupti­ble, it cannot proceed from any incor­ruptible Body, but derives it self from a divine and heavenly Original, and is infused from above into the corruptible Body, to the end it may act therein so long as the Health and Strength of those corruptible Instruments will permit Acti­ons to be perform'd. To which we may add, that an Anatomist, when he en­quires into the parts of human Body, considers 'em as such, not as endu'd with Life, nor as the parts of a Ratio­nal Creature. Neither does he accompt the Causes of Life and Actions, by any manner of Continuity or Unity adhe­ring to the Body, to be Parts; nor is it possible for him so to do.

And thus it is manifest from what has been said, That the Spirits and Blood, and other Humors neither are nor can be said to be Parts of our Body. Yet all these Arguments will not satisfy the most Eminent I. C. Scaliger, who in his Book, de Subtil. Exercit. 280. Sect. 6. pretends with one Argument, as with a strong battering Ram, to have ruin'd all the Foundations of our Opinion.

If the Spirit (saith he, and he con­cludes the same Thing of the Blood and Spirits) be the Instrument of the Soul, and the Soul is the beginning of Motion, and the Body be the Thing moved, there must of Necessity be a Difference between [Page 6] the thing moved, and that which moves the Instrument. Therefore if the Spirits are not animated, there will be something between the thing enlivening and en­liven'd, forming and form'd; which is neither form'd nor enliven'd. But the Body is mov'd because it is enliven'd. Yet is it not mov'd by an external but an internal Principle. Now it is manifest, that the Spirits are also internal, and that the internal Principle of Motion is in them, therefore it follows that they must be part of the Member.

But this Argument of the most acute Scaliger, tho' it seems fair to the Eye at first sight, yet (thoroughly considered) will appear to be without Force, as not concluding any thing of Solidity against our Opinion. For the Spirit is no more an Instrument that moves the Body, than the Air is the Instrument that moves the Sight or Hearing. So neither are the Spirits the Instrument of the Soul, but only the necessary Medium, by which the active Soul moves the in­strumental Body; and also perceives and judges of that Motion so made in that Body. So that it is no such Ab­surditie (as Scaliger would have it to be) but a Necessity, that there should be something inanimate between the en­livening Soul, and the instrumental Body enliven'd, which is part of neither, but the Medium, by which the Action of the enliven'd instrumental Body may be perform'd by the enlivening Soul. But, saies Scaliger, the Body is moved, because it is enlivened, and that not by an external, but an internal Principle. We grant the whole; yet we deny the Spirits to be the internal Principle, when it is most apparent that the Soul is the internal Principle which operates by the assistance of the Spirits.

So that it cannot from hence be proved that the Spirits live or are Parts of the Body, but only that they are the Medium, by which the Soul moves the Body. But because that Scaliger spy'd at a distance a most difficult Objection, viz. How the Spirits could be a Part of any corporeal Body, when they are always flowing and never in any constant Rest, but continually in Motion through all the Parts of the Body indifferently, to avoid this Stroak, he says that the Spi­rit's a quarter of that part of the Body where they are at the present time, and when they flow out of that part then they become a part of that Body into which they next infuse themselves; and so onward. But this way of concluding of Arguments is certainly very insipid, and unbeseeming so great a Man, when it is plain from the Definition of a Part, that a part of our Body, is not any fluid and transient Substance but as it is joyned to the Body by Continuity and Rest.

X. The Parts of the Body are two­fold. Division▪ the [...].

• 1. In respect of their Substance.
• 2. In respect of their Functions.

XI. In respect of their Substance, they are divided into Similar, and Dissimilar.

XII. Similar Parts are those which are divided into Parts like themselves. So that all the Particles are of the same Nature and Substance. And thus every part of a Bone is a Bone; of a Fiber, a Fiber. Which Spigelius calls Consimiles, or altogether alike: the Greeks [...], or of like Parts.

They are commonly reckoned to be ten: Bones, Gristles, Ligaments, Mem­branes, Fibers, Nerves, Arteries, Veins, Flesh, and Skin. To these by others are added the Scarf-Skin, Tendons and Fat. By others, the two Humors in the Eyes, the Glassie and the Crystal­line; by others the Marrow, the Brain, and Back-Bone: And lastly by others, the Hair, and Nails.

Of these some are simply Similar, as the Bones, Gristles, Fibres, &c. wherein there is no difference of Particles to the Sight. I say, manifest to the Sight, for that in respect of the several smallest Elements, not to be perceived by the Eyes, but by the Mind, of which they are composed, no part of 'em can be said to be really and simply Similar. Others are only Similar as to the Sen­ses, wherein there is a difference of Par­ticles manifest to the Sight, as a Vein, Arterie, Nerve, &c. For a Vein con­sists of the most subtile Fibers, and a Membrane: An Arterie of Fibers, and a double different Tunicle. A Nerve consists of the Dura and Pia Mater, or Membrane, little Fibers and Marrow. Nevertheless to a slight and careless Sight they seem to be Similar, because they are every where composed after the same manner, and so are like to themselves, as not having any other Substance or Composition in the Brain, than in the Foot or any other Parts.

Of the several similar Parts we shall af­terwards discourse in their proper Places.

Now all the similar and solid parts, in the first forming of the Birth are drawn like the Lines of a rough Draught in Painting, out of the Seed; to which the Blood and milkie Juice contain▪d in the Amnion, and Membrane that wraps a­bout [Page 7] the Birth soon after joyning, nou­rish the Parts delineated, and encrease and enlarge their Bulk.

'Till of late, it was believed that the Blood of the Mother in the first forming of the Parts did concur with the Seed, not only as a material but effective Principle (which Opinion was after­wards exploded by all the most eminent Philosophers) and that some Parts sha­red of more Seed, others of more Blood, and others received an equal Share of both. And hence proceeded that old Division, which divided the Parts, in respect of this Principle of Generation into Spermatic, which in their Spermatic, Sanguine, and Mixt. Forming were thought to partake of more Seed than Blood, as the former eight Similar Parts. Others, into San­guine, in the forming of which the Blood seemed to predominate, as in the Flesh. Others mixt, which were thought to be form'd of equal Parts of Blood and Seed, as the Skin. But this Diver­sity of the Parts, does not proceed from the first forming, but from the Nourish­ment, in respect of which some receiv'd more, others less Blood for the Increase of their Substance: Also others are more and more swiftly, others less, and more slowly encreased in their Bulk.

Those Parts which are called Sperma­tic being cut off, never grow again, or be­ing broken or separated, never grow again but by the assistance of a Heterogeneous Body. Thus a Bone cut off can never be restored; but it being broken, it unites to­gether again by means of the Callus, or glutinous Substance, that gathers about the Fracture; but Parts made of Blood are soon restored, as is apparent when the Flesh is wounded or cut off.

Those that are mixed, are in the mid­dle, between both. Nevertheless as to the Spermatic Parts, when broken or se­parated, some question whether they may not be united again without the help of a Heterogeneous Medium: and they believe that in Infants and Children, whose Spermatic Parts, as the Bones, are very tender may be united again by Vertue of a Homogeneous Medium. But seeing we find that even in Children and Infants, wounds of the Skin never unite without a Scar, nor fractures of the Bone without the assistance of the Callous Matter, 'tis most probable that in no Age the Spermatic Parts unite with­out a Heterogeneous Medium; though it be not so conspicuous by reason of the extraordinary Moisture of the Parts in new Born Children, and young Peo­ple.

XIII. Dissimilar Parts are those Dissimilar Parts. which are divided into Parts, unlike in Nature and Substance, but not in­to Parts like themselves. Thus a Hand is not divided into several Hands, but into Bones, Flesh, Nerves and Ar­teries, &c.

XIV. In respect of their Functions, the Parts are distinguished two ways.

• 1. Into Organic, and not Organic;
• 2. Into Principal and Subservient.

XV. Organical Parts are such as Organical Parts. are design'd for the performing of Acti­ons, and to that end have received a certain, determinate and sensible Con­formation and Fashion.

Now that they may have an aptness for the Duties imposed, there are re­quired in these Parts, Continuity, fit Situation and Number, proper Figure, and Magnitude.

Which Parts are not only Dissimilar, as was formerly thought, but also Si­milar. For Example, a Nerve, tho' it be a Similar Part, yet because it is en­trusted with the office of Conveighing and distributing the animal Spirits; for this reason it is no less an Organical Part than a Muscle, or a Hand: and the same thing is also to be understood of a Bone, an Arterie, and a Vein. So that it is a frivolous distinction of Caspar Bau­hinus, and some others, who while they endeavour to exclude Similar Parts, out of the number of Organic, distinguish be­tween Instruments, and Instrumental Parts; whereas indeed there is no more difference between 'em, than between an Old Woman, and a very Old Woman.

XVI. Parts not Organic are those Parts not Organic. which have a bare Use, but perform no Action, as the Gristles, the Fat, the Hair.

XVII. Principal Parts are those Principal Parts. which perform the Noblest and Prin­cipal Action.

By these the Motions of several other Parts are promoted, and from them proceed. And they are reckoned to be three in Number; two, in respect of the Individual; and one in respect of the Species. 1. The Heart, the Foun­tain of Vivific Heat, and the Primum Mobile of our Body, from whence the vital and Natural Actions proceed. 2. The Brain, the immediate Organ of Sense, Motion, and Cogitation in Man, by means of which all the Animal Acti­ons are perform'd. 3. The Parts of Ge­neration; [Page 8] upon which the Preservation of the Species depends.

XVIII. Subservient Parts, are all Subservi­ent parts. those that are useful and subservient to the Principal: As the Stomach, Liver, Spleen, Lungs, Kidneys, Hands, &c.

And these, as necessary to Life, are Noble. to be called either Noble, without which a Man cannot live, as the Lungs, Stomach, Guts, Liver, and the like. O­thers as not being necessary for Life, but are proper for some use or action, which renders Life more Comfortable, are to Ignoble. be called Ignoble, as an Arm, a Finger, a Foot, a Hand, Ear, Nose, Teeth, &c. which we may want and yet Live.

To these may be added, those whose Office is more mean and hardly mani­fest, as Fat, Hair, Nails, and the like.

Now that the Demonstration of these Parts may be the more conveniently made plain, and described in their Or­der, we shall divide the Body of Man, according to the modern Anatomists in­to the three Ventricles, and Limbs.

XIX. The Venters are certain re­markable Cavities, containing one or more of the Noble Bowels.

In this Place the words Cavity and Venter are not to be strictly taken for the Cavities themselves only, but lest the Members of this Division should be too Numerous, we would have com­prehended under 'em at large, as well the containing Parts that form those Ca­vities, as also the Parts contain'd within 'em: together with the Neck, or if there be any other parts annexed to 'em, which may be reckoned to the Members. Afterwards in the following Chapters, when we come to discourse particularly of the several Venters, we shall more at large subdivide 'em into Parts Containing, Contained, and such as are adjoining to them.

XX. These three Venters are the uppermost, the middle, and the lower­most.

XXI. The uppermost Venter or Ca­vity The upper­most Venter or Cavity. is the Head, wherein are con­tained the Brain, the Eyes, the Ears, and other Parts.

Now there was a necessity that this same Tower of the principal Faculties should be seated in the highest Place, to the end that being at a further distance from the places where the Nourishment is drest, the most noble Animal Functi­ons should not be disturb'd by its Steams and thick Exhalations: partly for the convenience of the Senses of Hearing, Seeing and Smelling, whose Objects more easily dart themselves from a higher than a lower place into the Or­gans of the Senses, and by that means become more perceptible. The middle Venter.

XXII. The second or middle Ven­ter or Cavity is the Breast, the Mansion of the Heart, Lungs, rough Arterie or Windpipe, and the Oesophagus or Gullet. This the great Creator placed in the middle, that as a King resides in the mid'st of his Kingdom, so the Heart the most noble and principal Habitacu­lum of Life should inhabit this middle­most Palace of the Microcosmical King­dom, and there sit as in its Throne, from thence with more convenience to water the several Regions of the Little World with its Rivulets of enlivening Nectar and Heat.

XXIII. The third Venter which is The lower­most Ven­ter. generally called the lowermost, and concludes with the Abdomen or Paunch, as the seat of the Liver, Stomach, Guts, Reins, Womb, and many other parts, serving for the Concoction of Nourish­ment, Evacuation of Excrements, and Generation of Off-spring: therefore necessarily to be placed lowermost, lest the manifold disturbances and abomina­ble filth of this Kitchin should annoy the superiour principal Viscera in their Fun­ctions.

XXIV. Limbs are the Members Limbs. adjoyning to the Venters, and distin­guish'd with Ioynts.

These being granted to Man for the better accommodation of Life, are two­fold, Arms and Legs.

XXV. The Arms in Man, are di­vided into the Shoulders, Elbows, and Hands: The Legg is divided into the Thigh, the Shin, and Foot.

According to which Division we have A Division of the Work. divided this our Anatomy into ten Books. In the first four of which shall be ex­plain'd the History of those things which are contain'd in the several Cavities and Limbs. In the six latter we shall dis­course of those things which are com­mon to the whole Body, the Muscles, Membranes, Fibers, Arteries, Veins, Nerves, Bones, Gristles, and Ligaments.

CHAP. II. Of the lowermost Venter in ge­neral.

I. IN regard the lowermost Venter contains in it several moist Parts which are liable to putrefaction, the sink of many Dregs, therefore A­natomists begin their Dissections from thence, to avoid the effects of swift pu­trefaction, and to remove those Bowels first out of the way, which might soon­est infect the whole Body, and so pre­vent a requisite consideration of the rest.

II. This Venter Aristotle (Hist. Nomina. Anim. lib. 1. c. 13.) properly calls [...]: the Common People simply the Belly, in a more reserved signification: which Celsus willing to distinguish from the superiour Venter, calls Imum Ventrem, the lower Belly.

III. The lower Venter is all that Ca­vity, The lower Venter. bounded above by the Sword­like Cartilage and the Diaphragma or Transverse Muscle; on each side by the lower Ribs, behind by the Ioynts of the Loyns; and below, by the Bones of the Hip, the Os Sacrum and Share-bone, or Os Pubis.

IV. The fore parts of this Cavity ad­joyning to the lower Cartilages of the Ribs, and comprehended under 'em, were by the Ancients call'd Hypo­chondria and Praecordia; being two, a Right and a Left.

V. All that which falls upon the Epigastri­um. middle Ventricle of the Hypochon­dria, and the Gutts next to it, for more clear distinctions sake, with Ves­lingius, is call'd Epigastrium, tho' Riolanus will have it to be the Region of the Stomach: But the Ancients gave the name of Epigastrium to the whole Paunch; which the Arabians call'd Myrach. In the upper part of this Epigastrium is a certain Cavity, by the Greeks call'd [...] and [...]; by the La­tins Scrobiculus Cordis.

VI. The middle Region is the Re­gion The Region of the Na­vel. of the Navel, lying equally from the Navel three fingers above and below, whose sideling Parts are by the Greeks call'd [...], by the Latins Ilia, because the Gut Ilium lies chiefly conceal'd un­der those places. Hypoga­strium.

VII. That part which is compre­hended between this Region and the space of the Share, is call'd the Hypo­gastrium, Imus Venter, and Aqua­liculus. Whose lateral Parts from the bending of the Hip to the Share, are call'd Inguina, or the Groyns.

VIII. The Share▪ by the Greeks The Share. [...], is that part next above the Pri­vities covered with hair in persons grown to full Age. Of each side of which are the [...], which the Latins call Inguina, or the Groyns. Perinae­um.

IX. The lower part between the Root of the Yard and the Fundament, is call'd the Perinaeum.

X. The hinder parts of the Paunch Loyns. or Abdomen above, are fill'd up by the Loyns or Lumbi, below by the Buttocks or Clunes, which the Greeks call [...] and [...].

The Cleft dividing the Buttocks by Buttocks. Hierophilus is call'd [...], where the hole of the right Intestine breaks forth, vulgarly call'd the Podex or Funda­ment.

XI. This Venter consists of parts containing or external, or of parts contain'd or internal.

XII. The Containing, which they Abdomen. properly call the Abdomen or Paunch, are either common or proper.

XIII. The parts contain'd are adap­ted either for Nourishment, Evacuati­on of Excrements, or Generation.

The Physiognomists affirm that no­table Conjectures may be made con­cerning the Disposition of Men from the form and bigness of this Belly. Thus Aristotle affirms that a little Belly is one of the principal Parts from whence Wis­dom appears in man. Among others, a [...]lat and hollow Belly denotes a man envi­ous and covetous. A round Belly beto­kens sobriety. A swag-Belly marks out a sleepy, slothful, stupid Fellow. A Navel swelling out very much, is a sign of a person given to Venery.

CHAP. III. Of the common Containing Parts; and first of the Cuticle and Skin.

I. THose are said to be the Com­mon containing Parts, that infold not only this Belly, but cover all the rest of the Body except the Yard, the Scrotum, or Cod, the Eye­lids, and some other parts that want Fat.

II. These are, the Cuticle, the Skin, The con­taining parts. the Fat, the fleshy Pannicle, the Mem­brane common to the Muscles.

III. The Cuticle, or Scarf-skin, which the Cuticle. Greeks call [...] (as it were a thing spread over the Skin) is a thin, fast, insensible little Skin spread over the Cutis, and so closely sticking to it, that it cannot be parted from it, but by the raising of little Blisters by the force of Fire or Vesicatories.

Aquapendens observed it sometimes Sometimes double. double under the Vesicatory, divided into two very thin Skins, an outermost somewhat closer, and an innermost much thinner, and sticking so close to the Skin, that it cannot be taken off with a Pen­knife; which was so provided by Nature, that seeing the Skin is subject to outward violence, that if one Skin should perish, the other might remain entire, and sup­ply the uses to which the other was de­sign'd.

IV. It is said to grow from the Original. moisture of the Flesh condens'd by the dryness of the ambient Air; but er­roneously, in regard it appears to have a Seminal Principle as well as the Skin, or any solid Parts.

It covers the Skin, and shuts up the The Use. Mouths of the Vessels that extend to the Skin, and moderates its exquisite Sense, and prevents the overmuch run­ning out of the moisture.

Iulius Castor of Placentia, and several other Anatomists, will not allow it to be a part of Human Body, for four Rea­sons.

1. Because it was not produc'd out of the Seed in the first forming of the Parts; but afterwards arises from the Excre­ments of the third Concoction condens'd and dry'd by the Cold, like the film that grows upon Porridge. Which they say is apparent from hence, that when it is taken away or scrap'd off, it easily grows again, which the Spermatic parts never do.

2. Because it is void of Sense; nor is it wasted, as the other parts are, by Di­seases.

3. Because it does not live.

4. Because it performs no action.

But all these Arguments are of no force, as being full of manifest contra­diction. For by the unanimous consent of all Anatomists, even of those that propose these Arguments; it is allow'd to be the first and outermost of all the containing Parts; in which particular they had all very grosly err'd, were it not a part of Human Body. But let us see what weight their Arguments car­ry.

To the first we say, That the smallest Threds or Fibres of it were form'd out of the Seed, in the first delineation of the Parts. Which is apparent in all A­bortions covered with a Skin, where there is always a Scarf-skin to be seen; which could not be generated by the ex­ternal Cold, for there can be no such thing in the clos'd Womb; nor by the driness of any ambient Substance, there being no such thing that can touch the Birth swimming in a moist milkie Li­quor; and therefore proceeds from some small portion of the Seed. Which is apparent in Ethiopian Infants, as well brought forth in due season, as ejected by Abortion, who bring the external blackness along with 'em out of the Womb. Which Colour only dyes the Scarf-skin, and not the Skin (as Riolanus observ'd in the Dissection of an Ethio­pian, whose Scarf-skin or Cuticle was only black, the Skin it self being whiter than Snow.) If now they receive that blackness from their first Formation in the Womb, then the Cuticle into which that Colour is incorporated in the very first forming of the Body, had its Ori­ginal with the rest of the Parts out of the Seed; not from any Excrements, or Viscous Exhalations, in regard that no such things can be at the beginning of Formation. As for its growing again when cut away or rub'd off, it has that quality common also to the Teeth, which are daily worn by Mastication, yet grow again (concerning which see lib. 9. cap. 10. following.) Nay we find, that in the change of Teeth, the greatest part of 'em shed themselves, and afterwards come again. The same quality also is com­mon to the Sanguin Parts; which are not excluded however out of the num­ber [Page 11] of Parts, because they grow again when taken away: seeing they have such a copious nourishment of Blood, that easily admits of such a Restoration. And thus from the ends of the Vessels of the Skin, which it covers and shuts, certain Exhalations breath continually forth like a kind of Dew from the Blood to the Cuticle, for its nourishment, which is sufficient easi [...]y to restore its decay'd and wasted Particles.

Then if it be generated, as they say, like a Film growing over Milk thickned with flower, that prove; it to be a part of the Body, proceeding from the same Principle with the rest. For that same cream or film in Milk, is not the Excre­ment of the Milk condens'd, nor any thing extraneous to the Milk, but the thicker part of the Milk, and therefore the Milk.

To the second, we say, that though it be not sensible, nor wasted manifestly in Diseases, yet is it no less a part of the Body than the Bone, which is neither sensible, nor does seem to be wasted.

To the third, we say, 'Tis a false Assertion, that it does not live; for it increases and grows with the rest of the Body, (which Parts not living never do) and is nourished with Alimentary Juices, like the rest of the Parts. Which Juices, though they cannot be manifestly percei­ved by the sight, that signifies nothing, for that happens to those Juices that nourish many Bones, and the Periostea or Membranes that enclose the Bones, the Teeth and many other parts. Be­sides, it is subject to its Diseases proceed­ing from bad Humours and Blood, as is apparent in the Leprosie, the Meazles, and many other disaffections. In some it is thinner and softer, in others thicker and harder. But such differences de­prive the Cuticle of Life, no more than the Skin, which is subject to the same variety. Lastly, who can be so sottish to believe that our whole living Bodies should be covered and born with a dead substance or matter round about it.

To the fourth we say, That though it do not act, yet the use of it is absolutely necessary; and consequently that it is no less a part of the Body than a Cartilage or Gristle, the Fat, many Membranes, Flesh, and other Parts which are very useful, but perform no action at all.

Therefore we must conclude it a true part of Human Body: 1. Because it is one of those things that fill up the space; for a man without a Cuticle is not a com­pleat whole man: 2. Because it adheres in Continuity to the Body: 3. Because it is appropriated as aforesaid to a certain necessary use.

V. The Skin, Cutis, [...], as The Skin. it were [...], a Band tying together the parts of the Body; in Brutes P [...]l­lis and Corium, the Pelt or Hide is a covering Membranous, thick, genera­ted act of the Seed, and cloathing the External Body, as well to measure the excesses and differences of tactible Qua­lities, as to preserve it against the as­saults of accidental Violences.

VI. It consists of a Substance proper Its Sub­stance. to it self, being of a middle Nature, between a Nerve, a Membrane, and Flesh. For it is not without Blood, nor so quick of feeling as a Nerve; not so thin as a Membrane; nor so full of Blood as the Flesh; but it is indued with Blood, and as it were a Membrane some­what sinewy and somewhat fleshy, which by vertue of its fleshiness, enjoys a great­er thickness than any Membrane; and by vertue of its Nervosity has an acute and quick sense.

Aristotle seems to allow it a Substance plainly fleshy; for (in the 29th Problem, & l. 2. de generat. Animal. c. 6.) he af­firms the Cutis or Skin to be produced of the Flesh growing dry. In which sence also Columbus (l. de Spir. c. 5. & 8.) calls the Skin the Exiccation or drying up of the Flesh. With whom Galen, 3. Me­thod, and Ferne [...]ius l. 5. Pathog. c. 8.) seem to consent, saying, That the Skin is the dryer part of the Flesh that lyes underneath it. But seeing there is so great a difference between the Substance of the Skin, and the Flesh that lies un­der it; and for that the Skin is almost e­very where separated from the Flesh by the Fat that runs between, and the fleshy Pannicle, it is apparent that the Skin can be no part of the dry'd up Flesh. I say almost every where, for in the Forehead it sticks so fast to the Muscles under it, that it follows their Motion, and seems to be united to 'em, though in truth it be a part subsisting of it self, and not ge­nerated by the Flesh of the Muscles, but only most closely fixed to it. Whence we must conclude that the Skin owes its Original to no other part; but that it was produced in the first forming the Parts no less immediately from the Seed, and obtained a Nature no less proper to it self, than any other of the Parts.

Lindanus affirms the Substance of it to be twofold; the outward Part, ner­vous; the inward part fleshy. For he likens the Skin to the rind or peel of an Orange; [Page 12] whose exterior yellow Substance is thin­ner, harder, thicker, and more porous. The inner white part thicker, softer, loos­er and more spungy: and so he believes the Skin to be. And Massa is of the same Opinion, who writes that the Skin consists of two little Skins, and that they may be divided by the edge of a Ra­zor.

VII. In respect of the Substaace the The Diffe­rence. Skin differs in thickness, fineness, thin­ness, and hardness, according to the variety of Temperament, Age, Sex, Re­gions, and Parts.

Here Spigelius proposes a Question, Whether the Instru­ment of Feeling? Whether the Skin be the Instrument of Feeling? Which Aristotle and Avicen seem to deny, but Galen and his Disci­ples affirm to be true. For the Solution of the Question, this is briefly to be said: That the Membrane is properly the In­strument of feeling; and hence the Skin, as it is a Membrane, may be said to feel. But because that other thicker Parts not feeling of themselves are intermixed with the Sensitive Particles, hence it comes to pass, that its feeling Faculty is in some measure moderated, that it might be neither too dull, nor too quick.

VIII. It is temperate in the first The Tem­per. Qualities, and enjoys a moderate Sense of Feeling. For in regard it is subservi­ent to the Sense of Feeling, to the end it may be able the sooner, and with less de­triment, to feel External Injuries, before the Inward Parts receive any Dammage, it ought to have a mean temper between the tactible Qualities; by means of which it might be able to perceive all Ex­tremities. And because the Constituti­on of tactible Qualities is generally felt and examined by the Hands, therefore the innermost Skin of the Hands is most exactly temperate, and of a moderate sensibility, so it be not become brawny by laborious Exercise.

VIII. The Figure of it is plain and The Fi­gure. Flat; nor has it any other Properties peculiar to it self, but such as it bor­rows from the Parts subjected to it; according to whose Shape it is either Level or Unequal, Prominent on Ex [...]uberant, Contracted or Depres­sed.

In many Parts it has various Lines and Wrinkles according to the variety of its Motions; from the Inspection of which in the Hand the Art of Chiromancy pro­mises Wonders.

IX. It never moves of it self b [...]t Motion. when it is mov'd, and then it is mov'd either by the Part which it invests, or by the Muscles annexed to it, as in the Forehead and hinder part of the Head.

X. It is nourished by the Blood in­fused Nourish­ment and Vessels. into it through innumerable lit­tle Arteries. It has innumerable little▪ Veins, of which several discharge them­selves into the Iugulars, the Axillars, or Armhole-Veins, the Epigastric's, Veins of the Loynes, and Saphaenae or Cru­ral Veins. Innumerable other Veins al­so return their Blood to the Heart in­vincibly through some other greater Veins. It receives the Animal Spirits through the Nerves, of which the num­berless small Branches, and little Fibers terminate in the Skin from the parts be­neath it; and contribute to the quick­ness of its Feeling.

XI. It is of a continuous or con­nexed The Pores. Substance, except only in those places where there is a necessary Per­foration for the Entrance and Egress of things necessary, as the Mouth, the Nostrils, the Eyes, the Fundament, the Womb, the Pores, &c.

XII. In many places it is hairie, Hair. as upon the Head, the Share, the Chin, the Lips, the Armpits; more­over, but especially in Men, upon the Breast, the Armes, Thighs, and Leggs.

But as for the Quantity, Colour, Length, Thickness, and fineness of Hair, there is a very great Variety according to the Temperament and Constitution of the Body.

XIII. The Colour of the Skin is Colour. various. 1. According to the diver­sity of Regions. Hence some are deep Yellow, like the Scythians: Others bright Yellow, as the Persians, ac­cording to Hippocrates. Others Black, as the Ethiopians, Brasilians, and Nigrites. Others between Yellow and Black, as many of the Indians. Others between a deep Yellow, Red, and Black, as the Mauritanians. Others White, as the Europeans. 2. According to the Variety of Temperaments and Humors therein contained. Hence the Flegma­tick are Pale, the Choleric Yel­low, the Melancholy Swarthy, and the Sanguine Fresh and Lively. 3. Ac­cording to the Variety of the parts of the Body: For if it stick to the Flesh, as in the Cheeks, it is more ruddy, if too [Page 13] much Fat, it looks pale; if to a dry and wrinkled part, brown and dull; if it lye over great Veins, it looks blue.

XIV. Whether Action or Use be to be The Use. attributed to the Skin is disputed. Galen will allow it no Action. li. de Caus. Morb. c. 6. And therefore affirms it to be form'd by Nature particularly for Use. On the other side Iulius Casser of Placentia l. de tact. org. sect. 2. c. 1. besides Use ascribes to it a certain pub­lick Action, so far as it performs the Act of Touching or Feeling, and dis­cerns and judges of Qualities. Aristo­tle agrees with Galen; and many Argu­ments uphold Casser, which he rehear­ses and weighs in a long Discourse. l. Citat. à cap. 1. ad 9. And there also at the same time disputes of the Organ of Feeling, from Chap. the 10. to the 19. of the Book even now cited.

CHAP. IV. Of the Fat, the fleshy Pannicle and Membrane of the Mus­cles.

I. FAT, is an unctuous or oylie Fat. Substance, condens'd by Cold to the thinnest Membrane lying upon the fleshy Pannicle, and closely joyn'd to it, produced out of an oylie and sulphureous part of the Blood, which b [...]ing spread under the Skin, excludes no less the penetrating Injuries of Cold, than it hinders the immoderate Dissipa­tion of the natural Heat, moistning the in­ward Parts, and facilitating their Motion.

When I say it is condensed by Cold, then by Cold I mean a lesser Heat, not an absolute Frigidity void of all Heat. Which is explain'd at large by Andr. Laurentius▪ Anat. l. 6. c. 6. Where by many Reasons and Similitudes he clear­ly demonstrates, how a lesser Heat may make a Condensation. Valesius also weighs and decides all the Arguments brought to and agen upon this Subject. Controvers. Med. & Philos. l. 1. c. 10.

II. The Matter of Fat is Blood: Hence it comes to pass that where The Sub­stance. Blood is wanting, there is never any Fat or Grease. And that not every sort of Blood, but such as is prefectly concocted, Oyly and Sulphureous, made by Concoction out of the most airie and best part of the Nourishment. Hence it comes to pass, that such Persons whose Blood is not Oyly (tho' plentiful) but hot, Melancholic, Choleric, ill Concoct­ed, Serous, Salt, or which way soever sharp as in Scorbutics and Hypochondri­acs, never become Fat. For that through the vehement and sharp Fermentation, occasioned by the acrimonious Particles, the oylie Sulphureous Particles in the Blood either are not generated in suffi­cient Quantity; or being generated or consum'd, before they can be separated from the sanguine Mass, and grow to the Membranes. Hence it is manifest wherefore Children are tenderly plump, but never Fat, because their Blood is very Serous, and the more thick and oyly parts of it, are wasted in the Nou­rishment and Growth. Therefore Ari­stotle in his History of Animals l. 3. c. 13. writes, That all Creatures of riper Age sooner grow Fat than such as are young and tender, especially when they are arri­ved at their full Growth of Length and Breadth, then they come to augment in Profundity.

III. The Primarie efficient Cause is moderate Heat (not too fierce, as The effici­ent Causes that which dissipates overmuch, nor too little, which neither concocts well, nor dissolves the concurring Vapors) the secondary Cause is the Condensa­tion of those Vapors raised by that Heat to the colder Membranes. Nor is it a Wonder that Condensation should be made, when those Vapors light upon the Membranes not absolutely cold (tho' they are said to be cold in respect of other Parts that are hotter) but mo­derately hot as is before said. As we see melted Lead, when it is remov'd from the Fire condenses again tho' the place be very warm, however not so hot as the Fire.

Nevertheless those oyly sulphureous Vapors do not only light upon, neither are they always condensed upon the Su­perficies of the Membranes, but if the Members are sufficiently Porous, they insinuate themselves into their Pores, and spread over the whole Membranes, where they embody together, and be­come a part of 'em; and by that means the Fat is dispersed through those uni­versal Membranes, as it is done in that Membrane which lyes next under the Skin. But if the Membranes are more firm and thicker, then the Fat ad­heres only to their Superficies, as we find in the Intestines, the Heart and some other Parts that are fortify'd with a [Page 14] firmer and more compacted Mem­brane.

IV. The learned Malpighius ( ex­ercit. Fat Ker­n [...], [...] [...] th [...] de Om. Ping. & Adip.) makes an Enquiry what that is, by means of which, the Oyly and Fat Particles are separated from the Sanguine Mass, seeing that Heat alone (which can raise indifferently any Vapors from the Blood, but not particularly separate the oyly Vapors from the rest) is not sufficient to do it. Whence he con­jectures [...] that Separation is made by the means of certain Kernels, appropri­ated only to that Duty, and that by o­thers the oy [...]y Particles are infused into certain Channels or Passages, which he calls Ductus Adiposos, or Channels for the Fat, and through which they are spread up and down upon the Mem­branes. In which place he brings seve­ral Arguments to support this new Spe­culation of his. Which new Discovery of so great a Man, is not to be despised, nor to be rashly rejected; but to be more seriously considered; in regard the following Reasons render it somewhat Doubtful. 1. Because the Kernels ne­ver appear to sight, nor can be any where demonstrated. 2. Because the certain­ty of the Passages of the Fat and their Cavity, is a thing as much to be dispu­ted. 3. Because the Fat or oyly Matter is somewhat Viscous, and therefore not so lvable to be separated from the Blood by invisible Kernels; or to pass through the imaginary Cavities of invisible Chan­nels, when the most subtle Animal Spirits which are liquid and not viscous at all, cannot pass through the invisible Pores of the Nerves, but that they are stopp'd by every slight Obstacle, more especially by the least quantity of viscous Humor, as we find in Palsies. 4. For that a fat Sweat breaths forth from the Bodies of many People, when it is a thing not to be believed, that these sort of Kernels are every where inwardly annexed to the Skin of the whole Bo­dy.

V. Whence it is apparent, what is The Tem­perament. to be thought of the Temperament; that is to say, that Fat is moderately hot, tho' it condense in the Cold, and be less hot than Blood. Which Tem­perament appears, 1. From the Mat­ter of it, which is Blood concocted, airie and sulphu [...]ie. 2. From the effi­cient Cause, which is Heat. 3. From the Form, which is Ovliness. 4. From the End, which is to help the Concocti­on of the Parts; and by its temperate Heat to defend against the external Cold. 5. For that it is easy to be set in a Flame. Of which Galen thus writes, l. 4. de usu part. c. 9. That Fat is hot, is known to the Sense it self, by those that use it in­stead of Oyle. And this also more espe­cially manifests it to be true, because it's easily set on a light Flame, as approach­ing nearest the nature of Flame; for no­thing cold is suddenly kindl'd.

VI. Picolominus has asserted that Whether it has any pe­culiar Mem­brane? Fat grows to a proper Solid but most thin Membrane (as we have already affirm'd) for that in Living Creatures the oylie Vapors of the refin'd Blood, would breath out in great Quantitie through the Pores of the Skin, unless some thick and cold Membrane (which Malpigius calls the Adipous Mem­brane) should restrain and curdle 'em together. But Riolanus in his Anthro­pogr▪ believes there is no need of any particular Membrane for that work, in regard that Condensation may be well enough performed between the thick­ness of the Skin, and the fleshy Mem­brane (perhaps as it grows outwardly to the Intestines and Membranes of the Kidneys: Which he proves from hence, for that in fat Bodies, especially in Wo­men, the fleshie Membrane lyes wrapt up in Fat, as it were in the middle of it. And the same thing is prov'd by others by this Experiment, that if Fat be mel­ted at the Fire, there does not remain any Membrane proper to it but only the fleshie Membrane. Hence Riolanus be­lieves that Fat is not to be taken for any peculiar Part, since it seems to con­stitute but one only part with the fleshie Membrane. Yet the same Riolanus (in Enchirid. Anatom. l. 2. c. 7.) re­claiming his former Opinion, attributes a peculiar Membrane to Fat. And this is that which we also believe. For if the Fat which lies under the Skin be pull'd off with the Fingers, you may easily perceive its more close and fast sticking by means of the Membrane; and tho the fleshie Membrane be sometimes o­verspread with Fat, as sometimes it hap­pens to the Intestines and other Mem­branous Parts, this does not prove, but that the Fat it self, which is extended over the whole Body under the Skin, has its own proper Membrane.

VII. But here some will object, This Membrane then at the first forming of the Birth ought to have been form'd out of the Seed with the [Page 15] rest of the solid Parts. But neither in Abortives, nor in Infants newly born, any Flesh is observ'd to lie un­der the Skin, therefore there can be no such Membrane there as that to which the Fat is said to adhere.

I answer, That that Membrane in all new born Infants is most certainly form'd, but by reason of its extraordi­nary close sticking to the fleshy Panni­cle, it is not so easily to be discovered. I remember once that in a certain large and fleshy Infant, that was Still-born, I found something of a small peice of Fat, like a kind of Froth, sticking to the Membrane, and as a Rarity not usually to be seen so soon, I shew'd it to all the Lovers of Physick that were by. Pe­ter Laurembergius also seems to agree with us in this particular; as he, who in his Anat. l. 1. c. 8 demonstrates, That the Fat (he should have said, rather, the Membrane to which the Fat will af­terwards grow) is form'd in the Womb, and that there never was any Child born without Fat (that is, without the Membrane) surrounding the Body and the Caul.

VIII. As the Fat which incompasses The Fatty Membrane. the Body grows to its own Membrane, so the same thing happens in the Fat of other Parts. For whereever Fat is to be found, as in the Intervals of the Muscles, the Heart, the Kidneys and other parts, there are to be found many thin Membranes, like little Baggs or hollow Lappets, hanging at the Ends of the Vessels, which adhere to another thicker Membrane spread underneath as it were a Base and Foundation. In these the Fat or oyly Matters of the little Bagg being separated from the Blood are condensed and col­lected; and so out of several little Baggs filled with oyly Matter, being mutual­ly clapt together, at length are made huge Portions of Fat. Malpighius also, by the help of his Microscopes, has ob­serv'd that the said little Sacks are va­riously formed, some being flat, others oval, others of another Shape, and that they are knit together partly by the Membranes of which they are for­med, partly by the little Net of the Vessels. Nevertheless it is to be obser­ved, that these little membranous Baggs do not grow to all the thick Mem­branes, which is the reason that Fat does not grow to all Membranes; as in the Lights, Bladder, the Meninges, or Membranes of the Brain, the Liver and Spleen, &c. in regard that no such membranous Baggs do grow or hang to the Membranes that cloath and invest 'em. Then, as for the Bones it may be questioned in some measure, whether their own Cavities do not supply the place of membranous Baggs, (which Cavities in the larger Bones are bigger, in the lesser Bones lesser and Spungy) or whether any membranous Baggs may be contained in those Cavities, in which the fat Marrow is collected. Which latter seems to be therefore so much the more probable, for that the Marrowy Fat seems to be in a manner interwoven with little Fibres and Membranes.

IX. Others there are who farther Whether a­ny part of the Body. extend the foresaid Doubt concerning the Membrane of the Fat, and do not put the Question, whether the Fat en­compassing the Body, either alone, or together with the Membrane to which it sticks, be a Part of the Body it Con­stitutes; but whether it be any man­ner of way to be reckoned among the Parts of the Body? They who main­tain the Negative affirm, 1. That it is not a spermatic Part engendered out of the Seed. 2. That it is not endued with Life like the rest of the Parts, be­cause it sometimes grows and sometimes wastes Insensibly. 3. For that in case of Hunger and Famine it turns into the Nourishment of the other Parts, where­as one Part cannot nourish another. 4. Because it performs no Action. 5. Be­cause it is not restrain'd within any pecu­liar Circumscription. But because the Affirmative seems to me the more fit to be embraced as the truer, I answer, to the First; that the first and least Deli­neaments of the spermatic Parts, are on­ly engendered out of the Seed, which at the first are so thin, that they can hard­ly be discern'd by the Eye, or else lye hid, as in the Teeth and several other Parts, which do not appear till long af­ter, when enlarged and encreased by the Nourishment which is daily afforded 'em: And so also it is with Fat. To the Second, That as the Muscles through Diseases insensibly decay, and yet it cannot be said that they are not endued like the rest of the Vessels with Life, thus also the Increase or Decrease of the Fat is no Proof that the Fat is not also endued with Life like the rest of the Parts. To the Third, I answer, That it is not true, that the Fat turns to the Nourishment of the rest of the Parts in [Page 16] case of Famine; but rather that is most certain, That the Fat is wasted also by long abstinence, like the other Parts, when depriv'd of its Nourishment. To the Fourth, I say, that Galen (l. 6. de placit. c. 8.) allows Action to Fat, by understanding Use, as he also in many other places confounds Action and Use, tho' in reality there be a great diffe­rence between 'em. Besides that the Cu­ticle, the spungy Bones of the Nostrils, the various Membranes, the Hair and other Parts, tho' they perform no Action, but only serve to several Uses, are therefore not excluded out of the number of the Parts; for which Rea­son there is as little cause for the exclu­sion of Fat from the same Number. To the Fifth, I affirm, That it is restrain'd within its own Circumscription, tho' not contracted to a Point, in like man­ner as the Flesh, which has no Circum­scription exactly determined; besides we know that the Figure makes nothing to the Essence of the Part.

X. The Colour of Fat in Men, as Colour. well as in brute Beasts, differs some­thing according to Age. For in Youth it is of a yellowish, or rather rosie kind of Colour; in elderly Peo­ple somewhat enclining to White; but in decrepit People altogether White. Tho' these Rules are not so general in a­ny Age, but that there may be sometimes an Exception, and the Sport of Nature may be observ'd. Laurembergius attri­butes this Diversity of Colours to the Qualities of the Blood: Not without reason. Others would rather deduce it from external Causes. But these will agree with Laurembergius, if we will al­low the Qualities of the Blood to be changed by external Causes: And so the Blood may be said to be changed by the Variety of Causes.

XI. Fat is either internally thic­kened in the internal Parts or ex­ternal, spread next under the Skin, of which we chiefly speak in this place. This is circumfused over all the Body, except the Lips, upper part of the Ear, the Eye-brows, the Cods, and the Yard, to which it would be but a Burthen.

XII. It differs also in Quantity The Plenty of it. several Ways. 1. In respect of Age: For in florid Age, it is more plen­tiful than in Childhood and Old-age. 2. In respect of Sex: For in Wo­men it is more plentiful than in Men. 3. In respect of the Temperament, Region, and Time of the Year: For it less abounds in hot and dry than in cold and moist Tempers. 4. In respect of Motion and Rest: For sedentary and lazy People are more subject to be fat, than they who are given to Exercise, or constrained to hard Labor. 5. In respect of Dyet: For they that feed upon costly Dyet, and indulge their Appetites, and make use of Nourishment of plentiful and good Iuice, are more subject to be fat, than they that live sparingly. 6. In respect of the Parts themselves: For it is more plentiful in those Parts where it is of most use, as the Abdo­men, Breasts, Buttocks; more spa­ring in those Parts where it is of lit­tle Use, as the Hands and Feet; but none at all where it is unprofita­ble and burthensome. 7. In respect of Health: For healthy People are fuller than sickly and diseased.

XIII. Suet grows to the internal A [...]eps or Suet. Parts, being the same with Pingue­do or Fat in a large Sense. But to speak specifically, it differs from Fat, for that this is softer and more moist, easily melted, and being melted, does not so easily congeal. Whereas Suet is harder and dryer, is much longer in melting, and being melted, more difficultly hardens again. This is cer­tain however, that several Physicians use the Word promiscuously, and call any oily Substance of any Creature Fat, Grease, or Suet, as they please themselves; which is also to be found in Galen: who is frequently carelesly neg­lectful of making any Distinction or Property between these Words; and l. 2. Sympt. de pingued. thus writes; If thou wilt call every oily and fat Sub­stance in Animals Grease; but Fat may be taken for the whole Genus of that sort of Substance.

XIV. The fleshy Pannicle, fleshy The [...] Pannicle. Membrane, and membranous Muscle, by the Greeks [...], is a strong Membrane full of fleshy Fibres, espe­cially about the Forehead, Neck, hinder part of the Head, and Regi­on of the Ears, spread over the whole Body, as well for Covering as De­fence, endued with an exquisite Sence, so that being assail'd with sharp Ra­pers, [Page 17] it causes a quivering and sha­king over the whole Body.

XV. This Pannicle in Man lyes Situation. next under the Fat, and extends it self to those parts that want Fat, as the Eye-lids, the Lips, the Cods and Yard. In most Brutes it is spread under the Skin, to which it sticks very close, and has the Fat lying under it. By the benefit of which, many Creatures have a Skin that is easily moveable, by means whereof they shake off Flies and other troublesome Insects, as we find in Cows, Harts, and Elephants.

XVI. It sticks most closely to the Connexion. Back, and is there thickest, and there­fore is vulgarly said to derive its Ori­ginal from thence.

In the Neck, the Forehead, and the hairy part of the Head it can hardly be separated from the Muscles that ly under it, and it is so firmly knit to the broad Muscle, that it seems to compose it.

XVII. It is somewhat of a ruddy Colour. Colour in new-born Infants, in People of riper years it is somewhat white. Which Colour however varies somewhat according to the Fat, the Vessels and Fi­bres annexed to it; so that it is some­times more pale, and sometimes between both.

XVIII. The inner part is smear'd Zas's ab­surd Opini­on of the vse. over with a slimy Humour, to make the Muscles slippery, and render their Mo­tion more easie.

N. Zas in his little Dutch Treatise of the Dew of Animals, ascribes a most un­heard of Use to this Membrane. For he affirms that it attracts to it self the serous Humours from all parts, and that it is the real Receptacle or common Seat of the Serum or Dew. Which serous Hu­mour flows from thence into all the Spermatic parts, and washes away all their Impurities. That it is the Spring and Source of all our Sweat; and that in all Distempers of the Joynts, it poures forth an incredible quantity of gravelly water, vulgarly call'd Aqua Articularis, or Joynt-water, with many other fanta­stical Dreams (as he was taught by his illiterate Master Lodowic de Bils) con­cerning this Membrane, which he frivo­lously indeavours to impose upon others; altogether ignorant that there is no at­tractive virtue in this Membrane at all, nor any receptacle or place where such a manifest quantity of the serous Humour or Dew, much less any great quantity, sufficient to be sent to all the Spermatic Vessels, and to be emitted by Sweat; nei­ther are there Pores sufficient to receive so great a quantity in so compact and thin a Membrane: Moreover, in the Dissections of Bodies, as well living as dead, that Membrane never is to be seen turgid or swelling with any serous or o­ther dewy Humour, as he calls it.

XIX. The Membrane common to The Mem­brane of the Mus­cles. the Muscles, is a thin Membrane cloathing all and every one of the Mus­cles, and separating them from them­selves, and the adjacent parts.

Riolanus, animadvert. in Bauhin. finds fault with Bauhinus for reckoning this Part in the number of the common Con­taining Parts; and yet in the mean time calls it a Membrane proper to the Mus­cles. But Bauhinus's meaning may be easily interpreted for the best; That he reckon'd that Membrane among the com­mon Containing Coverings, as it is pro­per only to the Muscles, but common nevertheless to all the Muscles, that is to say such a one as infolds, covers, and contains such and such Muscles only, but in the mean time is common to all the Muscles.

CHAP. V. Of the Proper Containing Parts.

I. THe Containing Parts proper The Bones. to the lower Belly, are the Bones, Muscles of the Abdomen, and Peritonaeum, or Membrane of the Paunch.

II. The Bones are few and large, that is, the Vertebers of the Loyns, the Os Sacrum, with the Crupper-bone adjoyn'd, the Huckle-bone, Hip-bone, and Share-bone; of which more l. 9. c. 12.

III. The Muscles of the Paunch or Muscles. Abdomen are ten, (sometimes eight, seldom nine) distinguish'd by their pro­per Membranes, and the running along or situation of the Fibres; on both sides equally opposite one to another.

IV. The first Pair, which is Exter­nal, Oblique de­scending. is fram'd by the Oblique descend­ing Muscles, full of obliquely descend­ing Fibres also.

These arise from the lower part of the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and [Page 18] eleventh Ribs, before they end in Gri­stles folded among the Spires of the greater Saw-shap'd Muscle, and the trans­verse Processes of the Vertebers of the Loyns; sticking also to the side of the Hip-bone, and end with a broad Ten­don in the middle of the Paunch at the Linea Alba. Which Tendon sticks so close to the Tendon of the next ascend­ing Muscle, that it is almost inseparable from it, nor can be parted from it with­out being torn and dilacerated. Now its membranous Tendon begins at the Linea Alba, which Spigelius calls the Similunar or Halfmoon Line. These Tendons in Men (which also happens to the two other lower Pairs, the Ascending and Transverse) are crossed on both sides by the Processes of the Peritonaeum, ex­tending themselves to the Testicles; but in Women by the Vermiform Ligaments of the Womb; which Passage being o­vermuch widen'd or broken, if the Call or Intestines fall upon the Groin or Cod, it is the cause of Burstenness.

They derive Nerves, Arteries and Veins from the Intercostal Branches at the upper part:

V. The Linea Alba is a whitish The Linea Alba. part running from the Cartilago Mu­cronata through the middle of the Paunch and Navil, to the Os Pubis, or Share-bone.

It has the firm Substance of a Ten­don, through the Concourse of the Ends of the Tendons of the Descending, As­cending, Transverse, and Pyramidical Muscles of the Abdomen.

It is broader above the Navil, nar­rower below it; and in Women with Child many times it appears of a blewish Colour; which Colour it has been known to keep till the third Month after Deli­very.

Riolanus animad. in Bauhin. seems to believe it to be a peculiar Membrane running out from the Cartilago Mucro­nata of the Breast, through the Navil, to the Commissure or joyning of the Share-bone, and receiving the Tendons of the Share-bone. In the same Ani­mad. in Bauhin. he affirms the Linea Al­ba to be imaginary; perhaps because that being blind through Age, he could no longer discern it.

VI. The second Pair is constituted Obliquely Ascending. by the Muscles obliquely Ascending, furnish'd with Ascending Fibres, which as they ascend, cross the Descending in form of a Letter X.

They arise from the Transverse Pro­cesses of the Vertebers of the Loyns (from whence they receive the Nerves) and the Apophyses or going forth of the Os Sacrum, (but membranous both,) and the outward fleshy part of the Hip-bone▪ Hence the fleshy Ascending are joyn'd at the top to the Cartilages of the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh Ribs, and terminate in the Linea Alba with a broad nervous Tendon crossing the right Muscles; and are nourish'd by the little Branches of the Arteries growing from the musculous Artery near the Loyns, and casting forth Veins to the musculous Vein.

Some Anatomists vulgarly hold, that these Muscles with a double Tendon en­fold the right Muscles. Which is not very probable. For above, the Tendons of the Ascending Muscles rest upon the right Muscles, and are so fast interwoven with their Tendony Intersections, that they can hardly be separated whole from 'em. But in the lower or inner part of the Muscles those Tendons cannot be discover'd, and therefore they are de­servedly rejected by Vesalius, and Riola­nus; and Lawrentius is justly blam'd by Riolanus, for taking notice of 'em in his Sculptures.

VII. The third Pair is that of the Musculi Recti. Musculi recti, so call'd because of the streight Course of the Fibres.

They are very strong, three or four fingers broad, and about a finger thick.

They arise fleshy from each side of the Cartilago Macronata, the Breast-bone, and the Cartilages of the Ribs, (where they receive three or four Nerves from the Intercostal parts) and so descending directly down; and being united almost near the Navil, and distinguish'd with two, three, sometimes four Impressions, as it were into several Muscles, end at length with a strong, thick Tendon in the Share-bones. Some Anatomists de­scribe their beginning from the Share­bones, and make 'em to end in the Car­tilages of the Ribs. Others believe that they consist of several Muscles, and place their beginnings partly in the Car­tilages of the Ribs, partly in the Share­bones, and make 'em to end at their In­tersections, and affirm the several parts contained between the Tendon-like In­scriptions to be so many Muscles. To which Opinion, not improbable, Spige­lius gives his consent, induc'd thereto by this Argument, Because they not only receive Nerves from the Intercostals a­bove, but also below from the first Pair of the Loyns. For it is a perpetual Rule, [Page 19] that every Muscle moves toward its be­ginning. But where the Nerve is in­serted, there, as Galen testifies, is the be­ginning of the Muscle, (See the Reason l. 5. c. 1.) but here several Nerves are inserted into their Parts, not only above and below, but also those which are in­terspac'd with separate Interfections; and therefore there are many beginnings of these Muscles; which in regard they cannot be many in one Muscle, therefore all the Musculi Recti do not consist of one, but of several Muscles. Moreover if we consider their primary use, which is strongly to press down the Belly for the Expulsion of Ordure and the Birth; which Compression and Expulsion does not require that either the Breast-bone should be drawn downward, or the Os Pubis upward; but that those Bones should remain in their places, and that all and every the parts of these Muscles should swell together; that so the upper parts of every one should draw upward some parts that are nearest to 'em at the first Intersections; the lower parts other parts which are nearest to 'em, down­wards; and that the middle parts, lying between the Intersections, should draw to themselves the parts that are next 'em on both sides.

Which Contractions being made by distinct and several Parts to several parts, (which cannot be done in one Muscle) it follows that every single Musculus Rectus must consist not of one, but of several Muscles.

VIII. As they receive large Arte­ries from the Epigastrics ascending, and the Mammillary Arteries descending, so they send forth a larger sort of Veins to the Epigastric and Mammil­lary Veins.

IX. These Arteries and Veins at their Ends in the inner part, are vul­garly said to joyn together about the middle by Anastomoses one into ano­ther. So that the Ends of the Epiga­stricks open into the Ends of the Mam­millary Veins, whence many derive the Consent and Sympathy of the Dugs▪ with the Womb. But I have always obser­ved these Anastomoses or Openings of one Vein into another, to be wanting; nor did I ever yet meet with any Body wherein these Ends were not distant one from another, the breadth either of a Thumb or a little Finger, so that I am certain the Cause of that Consent can by no means proceed from hence.

Thus Vesalius likwise, in Exam. Obs. Fallop. writes; that he has observed that those Vessels are never so united, that it may be said, there is any Communica­tion between 'em. Bartholin also in dub. anat. de lact. Thorac. c. 1. writes that he sought for these Anastomoses in a sound young Woman, kill'd six weeks after her Delivery, but could find none: rather that the Branches ascending and descend­ing were about a fingers breadth distant one from another: yet Riolanus defends those Anastomoses most stiffly, Anthropog. l. 2. c. 8. and asserts that he had shewn 'em to a hundred of his Scholars. But for all that, I do not give so much credit to his words, as I do to my own eyes. Perhaps old Riolanus might be dimm-sighted at that time, and so per­haps might think he saw what was not to be seen. Of these Anastomoses see more l. 6. c. 3. & l. 7. c. 7.

X. The fourth pair resting in the The Pyra­midal Muscles. lower Place upon the Musculi Recti, are the Pyramidal Muscles, so call'd from their figure which is Pyramidal; but from their use Succenturiati, be­cause they are thought to assist the Mus­culi Recti in their duty.

They arise small and fleshy from the Share-bones, where they also receive the Nerves. From this larger foundation they rise smaller and smaller, and scarce four fingers bread, ascending the Ends of the Musculi Recti, yet somewhat unequal in length, the left being both shorter and narrower, they thrust their sharp Tendon into the Linea Alba, and sometimes ex­tend it to the Navel with a slender End.

Vesalius▪ Andern [...]cus, and Columbus describe those Ends erroneously for the beginning of the Musc li Recti, seeing that the interceding Membrane, and al­so the Separation which may be made without any prejudice to the Musculi Recti, also the Obliquity of the Fibres quite different from the strait Muscles, and lastly a peculiar way of thrusting themselves into the Linea Alba, clearly demonstrate that they are several and di­stinct Muscles.

XI. Fallopius and Riolanus as­cribe Their Of­fice. to these Muscles the Office or A­ction of compressing the Bladder, and promoting the Excretion of Urine, or the Act of making Water.

Nevertheless sometimes' both these Muscles are wanting; sometimes the one, and sometimes the other, is lacking; but more frequently the Left than the Right, and then the broader and more fleshy End of the [Page 20] Right supplies their place. We have several times shewn as well when they have been both to be seen, as when they have been defective, both in Publick and Private Exercises.

XII. The fifth Pair consists of the Transverse Muscles. Transverse Muscles, fasten'd to the Peritonaeum underneath, and full of Transverse Fibres.

They begin from the Ligament rising from the Transverse Processes of the Vertebers of the Loyns, the Huckle-bone, and the Cartilaginous Neighbourhood of the six inferiour Ribs. And being furnish'd with Arteries, Veins and Nerves obliquely ascending, they end with a large Tendon in the Linea Alba. To these the Peritonaeum sticks so close, that it cannot be separated from 'em without Dilacerati [...]n.

XIII. The common Opinion is, that The Action of the Mus­cles of the Abdomen. all the foremention'd Muscles compress the lower Belly, and by that means promote the dispersing of the Nourish­ment through the Vessels and Bowels, as also the expulsion of super abundant Ex­crements, and the mature Birth, also that they assist the Breast in strong Re­spiration, and Expectoration, or forci­ble throwing off what is offensive to the Lungs, fasten the Contain'd Bow­els, and defend 'em from External Injuries, and cherish 'em with their Heat. But I think this, that it is con­venient to discourse somewhat more par­ticularly of their Actions. For if ge­nerally they all serve to compress the Belly; which are they that raise the Con­taining Parts of this Belly? For their E­levation and Depression is Alternate, and both are equally necessary to the pushing and squeezing forward of the Nourish­ment and Humours through the Con­tain'd Parts, which I admire no Person has hitherto taken notice of. And there­fore there is a notable Distinction to be made of the Operations of these Mus­cles.

XIV. In the first place the two ob­lique Pair raise the Abdomen. For in regard they swell at their beginnings or fleshy Part, then the Tendons with the Linea Alba draw outward and raise upward; and that same swelling usual­ly concurs with the swelling of the Dila­ting Muscles of the Breast; and there­fore in breathing, the Abdomen is also e­levated together with the Breast▪ which every man may find in himself. Then again that Elevation may be made with­out breathing, when the Animal Spirits, especially more copious, are determin'd to these Oblique Muscles, and very few flow into the dilating Muscles of the Breast. This Operation also, among o­ther things, their Oblique Situation teaches us; (which is not so convenient for pressing forth;) as also their Origi­nal, and the length of their Tendous. But the other three Pairs manifestly serve for Compression. For the Muscu­li. Recti, with the Pyramidal, when they swell, cannot but very forcibly depress the Belly; and the transverse Muscles swelling, because they rise from the Loyns, cannot but very strongly con­tract the Belly, by drawing the Linea Alba backward.

Spigelius l. 4. anat. c. 10. ascribes ano­ther Use to the Muscles of the Abdomen, that is, to move the Trunk of the Body at the Sides Circularly and Obliquely, and to bend the Body forward. Of which two Offices, the one is to be as­cribed to the Oblique, the other to the Streight Muscles.

Besides the foresaid Muscles, those Muscles seated in the Region of the Loyns and Ossa Sacra, may be reckon'd among the Muscles of the Inferiour Bel­ly: But because that they are chiefly serviceable to the Action of other Parts, they are not muster'd in the Order of the Muscles of this Belly.

XV. The most inward Containing The Peri­tonaeum. Part of the Abdomen is the Perito­naeum, by the Arabians call'd Zip­hach, because it is spread over all the Bowels of this Belly, and not only contains and restrains 'em, but clothes them with a Common Tunicle.

Vesalius and Bauhinus, following the Opinion of Galen, de [...]su part. lib. 4. cap. 9. ascribe to it the Office of compressing the Intestines, and to the Exclusion of the Birth. But in regard that Action or Compression is Voluntary, it is neces­sarily perform'd by the Muscles, the In­struments of voluntary Motion, by which means the compress'd Peritonae [...]m pushes forward, and so presses forth only by Accident.

XVI. It is a thin and soft Mem­brane, interwoven with Spermatic Fi­bres, smooth within-side, and as it were besmear'd over with Moisture, without fibrous and somewhat rough.

XVII. It is improperly said to de­rive its Original from the first and se­cond Vertebrae of the Loyns, because [Page 21] the thickness of it is more in that place, and its Connexion firmer. I say improperly, because no one Sper­matic Part derives it self from another, but all take their Original from the Seed. Fallopius is of Opinion that it has its beginning from the beginning of the Mesentery. Lindan, agreeing with Rio­lanus, deduces its beginning from the Membrane outwardly infolding the Ves­sels and the Bowels. But in regard this Membrane is rather to be taken from the Peritonaeum that spreads it self over all the lower Belly, the Peritoneum can never derive its beginning from that.

XVIII. Jacobus Sylvius observes it Its Dupli­city. in men, to be thicker and stronger in the upper part of the Belly, in women to­ward the lower part of the Belly. Which Bauhinus believes so order'd by Na­ture in the one, as being more addicted to Gluttony; in the other, for the sake of the Womb, and the Birth to be there­in conceived. But Spigelius affirms it to be thicker in both Sexes always in the lower part, and never in the upper. Which he believes was so ordain'd by Nature with great Prudence, as being the Part which is most obnoxious to Ruptures; in regard that whether we sit, walk, or stand, the Bowels always weigh downwards; and therefore that the Pe­ritonaeum may be better enabled to sustain their weight, she thought it necessary to strengthen and fortifie that part.

XIX. It has very small Nerves that Its Vessels. arise from the Vertebra's of the Breast and Loyns. Arteries and Veins that spring from the Diaphragmatic, Mam­mary, and Epigastric Vessels.

XXI. It is bor'd thorough at the passage of the Gullet and Vessels above and below, and proceeding outward in the Birth, as also of the Vermiform Ligaments of the Womb. Moreover, its outward Membrane forms in men, two Oblong Processes, like more loose sort of Chanels descending toward the Scrotum, for the defence of the Testicles and Spermatic Vessels descending and turning again.

XXII. This Membrane is call'd Vaginalis, the Sheath-Membrane, be­cause it comprehends the Stones as it were in a Sheath. But in Women, whose Stones are not pendulous without, it extends it self on both sides to the end of the Round Ligaments of the Womb; and proceeding forward, together with it, without the Abdomen, extends it self above the Share-bones to the Clitores. But its inner Membrane sticks fast, and grows to the Spermatic Vessels, or the foresaid Ligaments of the Womb, pas­sing forward, and together with the Vagi­nal Membrane, extending without the Cavity of the Abdomen. For that Mem­brane being either dilated or broken in that place causes Bitterness; so that the Intestine and Caul in Men falls into the Scrotum; in Women down upon their Groyns. Which Rupture or Dilation of the Peritonaeum, if it happen in the Navel, is call'd Hernia Umbilicalis, or the Navel-Rupture.

CHAP. VI. Of the Parts Contain'd; and first of the Caul.

I. THE Parts Contain'd in the Abdomen, either perform the publick Concoctions; or serve for the distribution of the Nourishment and Blood; or expel the Exerements, or serve for Generation.

The Stomach, small Guts, Sweet­bread, Liver, Spleen, and Caul (which is serviceable to them) perform the pub­lick Duties of Concoction.

The Arteries, Veins, Milky and Lymphatic Vessels serve for the distri­bution of the Nourishment and Blood.

The thick Intestine, the Gall-bladder, the Porus Biliarius, the Kidneys, and the Urinary Bladder, expell the Ex­crements.

The Spermatic Vessels, the Stones, the Parastatae or crooked Vessels at the back of the Testicles; the Prostatae or Glandules under the Seminal Bladders, the Seminary Vessels, the Womans Pri­vities, her Womb and Neck of the Womb contribute to Generation. But tho' in Men the Yard and Testicles are excluded out of the Abdomen, yet are they by Anatomists reckon'd among the Parts contain'd▪ because the Spermatic Vessels go forth toward the Testicles from the Internal Parts, and the diffe­rent Vessels proceed from the Testicles toward the inner Vessels; and for that the Seed which is collected together in the inner Prostatae and Seminary Vessels, flows out of the Yard.

Of all which we are to treat in the fol­lowing Chapters according to their order.

[Page 22]II. The Peritonaeum being open'd, presently appear the Navel Vessels. Of which in the 32. Chapter.

III. Those being remov'd, the Caul The Caul. offers it self; in Latin Omentum, as it were Operimentum, because it covers the Bowels. The Greeks call it Epiploon, for that it does, as it were, swim over the Guts; sometime Garga­mon, sometimes Sagena, that is, a Net, or little Net; for that by reason of the stragling Course of its Vessels, it resem­bles a Fisher-man's Net: the Arabians call it Zirbus. It covers all the Sangui­neous Parts; tho' it appears fatter over some, and more membranous over others.

IV. It is a thin and double Mem­brane The De­scription. rumpled like a Purse, arising from the Peritonaeum that infolds the out­side of the Stomach and Colon. Riolanus derives its Original from the Mesentery: Which Opinion differs not from the first, when the Mesentery has its Membranes from the Peritonaeum; of which it is a certain sort of Production.

V. It consists of a thin Membrane Its Sub­stance and Connexion. interwoven with several folds, and small thred-like Fibres, growing in the forepart to the bottom of the Sto­mach and the Spleen, and sometime also to the round Lobb of the Liver, at the hinder part growing to the Co­lon, and so folded like a Sack; as also of several Vessels, and a soft kind of Fat, which is chiefly spread about the Vessels, and is very plentiful in fat People.

VI. It has a world of Veins, which Its Vessels. it transmits to those which run toward the Liver from the Stomach and Spleen, and so to the Vena Porta, or great Vein of the Abdomen. With which are intermix'd several Arteries from the Branches of the Ramus Coe­liacus and Mesenterick Artery, and some few Nerves that proceed from the Plexures of the Intercostal Nerves of the sixth Pair.

VII. The Roots of the Blood-con­veighing Its Inter­weaving. Vessels, meet one another here and there with an Anastomoses, leaving conspicuous Spaces between each other, which are also fill'd themselves with smaller Branches; springing side­long from the larger Roots, by means of whose frequent Conjunction an ap­parent Net is form'd, whose middle Spaces exhibit various Figures fram'd with wonderful Art and Workmanship. Many of these lesser Branches also run out into the Fat, and not only thrust themselves slightly into the outermost Lumps, but also penetrate farther in, and are fasten'd to the Lumps or little Globes of Fat: and sometimes they are hid with a small thin Membrane spread over 'em, so that they are imperceptible. Malpigius Exercit. de Oment. ping. & Adip. exactly describes the Structure of the Caul, in an Ox, a Sheep, a Hart, a Dog, and some other Animals.

VIII. Veslingius asserts, that se­veral The Gla­dules. little Kernels, plain to be seen, sometimes more, sometimes fewer, are scattered up and down in the said Vessels. But Riolanus animad. in Vesling. & Barthol. affirms that he never ob­served any such Kernels. But through Age he seems to have forgot a truer As­sertion in Anthropogr. where he ac­knowledges some few. And indeed they are very few, and those only under the lower and deeper Part, under the Py­lorus, or right Orifice of the Ventricle, and the Spleen.

In like manner Wharton, in his Ade­nographia makes mention of but very few. For c. 12. he writes, That he only found two little Kernels, but those always in the Caul. One bigger in the place where it joyns with the Pylorus; which he observ'd receiv'd some few milkie Vessels running from the bottom of the Stomach toward the length of the Caul (but he is in an Error, for there are not any milkie Veins that derive themselves from the bottom of the Stomach, but as far as I could find by three or four Obser­vations, these Vessels do not seem to be milkie, and advancing to the Kernel, but rather Lymphatic, and proceeding out of the Kernel.) These Vessels, the same Author says that afterwards, viz. from the length of the Caul they run with an oblique Course toward the right Extremitie of the Sweetbread, which they partly seem to creep under, and partly glide by, tending toward the common Receptacle of the Chylus, into which they disburthen themselves. The other Kernel he asserts to be a little less, which he affirms to have found sometimes double, sometimes treble, sometimes consisting of more Bodies. But if many Kernels are found in any Body that was sickly, at his Death, he calls those Kernels Adventitious, because they are not to be found in healthy Bo­dys.

[Page 23]IX. The learned Malpigius, be­sides Corpora adiposa. the aforesaid Vessels, observes o­ther very thin and slender Bodies, ex­tended like small Threads, among the Vessels that shoot sorth, which he calls Corpora adiposa, or fat Bodys: and he believes 'em to be certain pecu­liar hollow Vessels, carrying the mate­rials of Fat for the Generation of Fat, tho' it be impossible to observe their Original, by reason of their extream Slenderness. In the mean time he is of Opinion that these Materials of Fat are separated from the Blood by the means of certain invisible adipous Kernels, and are so sent to these Vessels, and thro' those conveighed into the Membranes, rhere to be coagulated into Fat. For as there are certain peculiar Kernels appointed for the separation of Acid, Salt, Bitter, Lympid, &c. Humors, from the Blood (for this shall be made out in the following Chapter) so he believes that there must be certain peculiar Kernels (which he calls A lipous) of necessity appointed of oily and fat Par­ticles from the Blood; and that those oily Particles being separated, are to be carried through certain peculiar adipous Vessels, in the same manner as the Blood, the Animal Spirits, the Chylus, and lympid Humor, called Lympha, are carryed through peculiar Vessels; upon which he introduces many ingeni­ous and probable Conjectures. But what it is that makes me question the Truth of these Kernels and Adipous Vessels, I have already set down in the fourth Chapter preceding; where I have made mention of these Kernels.

X. The Caul is seated about the Its Situ­ation. Intestines, into whose Windings and Turnings it insinuates it self, and spreads a great part of its self be­tween the Spleen and the Stomach.

XI. In many Persons it scarcely The Big­ness. extends it self below the Region of the Navel, in some farther, reach­ing even to the Bladder, and some­times in fat Women compressing the Mouth of the Womb (to the bottom of which it rarely grows) it occasions Barrenness, as Hippocrates testifies: And in Men if it fall down through the torn Peritonaeum into the Scrotum, it causes that Rupture which is called E­piploce, when the Caul falls into the outward Skin of the Cods. It appears in more Folds and Doubles toward the Spleen than in any other Parts. Some­times in Women after Delivery; re­maining all rumpled about the middle of the Belly, it occasions terrible and frequently returning Pains.

XII. For the most part, in Men The Weight. grown up, it hardly exceeds the weight of half a Pound; and yet sometimes it has bin known to weigh several Pounds. Thus it is found to be won­derfully encreased in some Diseases: And Wharton relates that in a Virgin that dy'd of a Cachexie, he saw a Caul that was fleshy, or rather Glandulous; about half a Thumb thick. Sometimes also in fat and tun belly'd People that are sound, it is covered over with a great quantity of Fat, which encreases its weight. Thus Vesalius l. 5. c. 4. saw a Caul, which being augmented to the weight of four or five Pounds, drew down the Stomach with its Ponderosity, and was the Occasion of the Parties Death by its weight.

XIII. By cherishing the Heat of the Its vse. Stomach and Guts, it causes more successful and speedier Concoctions. It supports the splenick Branch, and other Vessels tending to the Stomach, Co­lon, and Duodenum. Moreover it many times receives the Impurities and Dreggs of the Liver, as appears out of Hippocrates, l. 7. 55. also out of his 4. lib. de Morb. & lib. 1. de Morb. Mulier. As also from the Observations of Rio­lanus, Rossetus, and other Physicians.

CHAP. VII. Of the Ventricle, Hunger, and the Chylus.

I. TAke off the Caul, and pre­sently The Sto­mach. the Ventricle or Sto­mach appears; as it were a little Bel­ly, call'd by the Greeks [...], as also Gaster.

II. It is an organic Part of the Definition. lower Belly, seated in the Epigastri­on, next under the Diaphragma, which receives the Nourishment ta­ken, prepared by Mastication, and let down through the Gullet, and there concocts it; and dissolving the best part of the Nutritive Substance, con­verts it into a Chylus or whitish kind of Substance, like to Cream.

[Page 24]III. It consists of a triple Mem­brane; Mem­branes. the outermost thick and com­mon, springing from the Peritonaeum, the middle, fleshy, the innermost, full of Wrinkles, and covered over with a viscous Crustiness, to preserve it from the Injuries of Acid Iuices.

IV. In the middle and innermost Fibres. Membrane, in the first place, there is to be seen great Variety of Fibres ex­tended, some obliquely, some streight, and some Circular: For the strength­ning of the Bowels, and more easy Retention and Expulsion.

V. The innermost Tunicle is vul­garly The inner Tunicle. said to be common to the Gullet and Oesophagus; whereas it is of a far different Nature and Structure, and in regard of its Temper and Com­position, contains a most admirable fermenting Quality, which the Mem­brane of the Mouth of the Stomach and Oesophagus is not indued withal; and hence it engenders and stores up within it self a peculiar Fermentative Humor; which being in a sound Con­dition, the Concoctions of the Stomach are rightly perform'd, but being vitia­ted by the Mixture of Choler, or any other depraved Humors, occasion a bad Concoction. And therefore it would be better to say that this Tunicle is not common with, but continuous to the Oesophagus and Mouth of the Stomach. For there is a great Difference between Continuitie and Communitie. For the one denotes only the inseparable Adhesion of the Substance alone; but the other sig­nifys the Equality both of Faculties and Uses. For Example, the great Arterie, is continuous to the Heart, but not com­mon, as not having such Qualities and Actions as the Heart has.

VI. The Temperament of the Sto­mach Tempera­ment. is moderately Hot, not so hot as the Heart, Liver, and many other Parts. Which moderate Heat is aug­mented and cherished by the Heat of the Parts that lie round about it: To the end the Concoction of the Chylus may be the better accomplished; which otherwise is greatly endammaged by the Excesses of these Parts either in Heat or Cold.

VII. In a Man there is but one The Num­ber. Stomach: It being a rare thing to find two Stomachs in any Body: Of which I never read but three Observati­ons; of which one concerning a Sto­mach divided into two, is cited out of Ioselinus by Theod Schenkius, in Anat. The other is cited by the same Person out of the Observations of Salmuthus: And the Third is set down by Riolanus, Anthropogr. l. 2. c. 20. in these Words. Once I saw a double Stomach continu'd, but distinguished with a narrow Mouth in a Woman publickly dissected in the Year 1624. In this Woman the Stomach was oblong, narrow in the Middle, equalling the Gut Colon in Breadth and Largeness. Which being dissected, I found that nar­row Part, being like the Pylorus, to end in another large Cavity, which afterwards terminated in a thicker Orifice, which was the real Pylorus, from whence, as an Ecphysis, the first Intestine took its begin­ning. Beside these three Examples, I do not remember that ever I read any thing farther upon this Subject. But there are two Stomachs in Animals that chew the Cud, and many other Animals, that feed upon harder and raw Nourish­ment; also in Birds that cast up their Meat out of their Stomachs to feed their Young ones. And then the First by the Latins was called Ingluvies, or the Crap: Which is more Membrany and Thinner, the other more Thick and Fleshy. And in the First the Matter seems to be prepared for concocting, the Second to be perfectly Concocted. It is said that in some Creatures three Sto­machs have bin found; and Riolanus testifys, that four have bin found in those Creatures, which chewing the Cud have Teeth only in one Jaw.

VIII. The Shape of the Stomach is Figure. Oblong, Gibbous toward the right Part, and slenderer toward the Right.

IX. It rests upon the Back-Bone Situati [...]. near the first Verteber of the Loyns, and with the left Part, which is rounder and bigger, giving way to the Liver, it hangs forward toward the left Side: The left Side being the slenderer, and covered with the left Lobe of the Liver, and supported by the Sweetbread, is joyned to the Du­odenum, or first of the small Guts.

X. The Bigness varies according to The Big­ness. the Diversity of Ages and bigness of Bodys; to the Proportion of which it ought to answer; tho' that be no certain and perpetual Rule. For I have dissected several tall Men, who have had very small Stomachs, and se­veral Men of a short Stature, that have [Page 25] had large Ventricles. Gluttons, Vora­cious, or Greedy People, have general­ly large Stomachs. Such was that, which Schenkius anat. l. 1. Sect. 2. c. 14. affirms that he saw in a great Glutton that held ten Quarts of Wine. That was also a large one, mentioned by Spigelius Anat. l. 8. c. 8. that contain'd fourteen Pints of Liquor: Which was found in a Man that had a large Mouth. Whence Bau­hinus Anat. l. 1. c. 46. believes that a Man may judge of the bigness of the Stomach from the largeness of the Mouth: And that such as have a wide Mouth▪ have a large Stomach, and are Voracious: Which is also the Opinion of Spigelius. But neither is that Rule without Exception: For I remember that Falcoburgi [...]s, a certain famous Ana­tomist of Leiden, cut up before us, in the publick Theater, the Body of a very tall strong Man, who in his Life time had bin a stout drinker, and a great Eater, and always Healthy until he came to be hanged against his Will, in whom we saw so small a Stomach, that it hardly amounted to half the bigness of an ordinary Mans Stomach: But trebly exceeded other Ventricles in thickness.

XI. It is distinguished into the The Bot­tom. Bottom or Cavity (the one the lower or greatest Part, inclining to the left Side, with its chiefest and largest Part, where the first Concoction is finished) and two Orifices, the Right and Left.

XII. The left Orifice, commonly The Sto­mach. called the upper Orifice, is that which is properly the Stomach, and Conti­nuous to the Gullet and Diaphrag­ma, about the eleventh Verteber of the Breast, over against the Cartilago Mucronata, admits the swallowed Nourishment. This, exceeding the o­ther in Bigness, thickness, and Large­ness, is interwoven with many orbicular Fibres, somewhat fleshy (which cause its more firm Contraction, and in the various Postures of the Body lying down, hinders the Nourishment from falling back into the Mouth) and Nerves from the sixth Pair; and in that is the natural Heat of the Appe­tite, according to the vulgar Opinion: Not that the Act of Desiring is there performed, which is only in the Brain, but that through the Intervals there is such a Cause in it, the Trouble of which being perceiv'd in the Brain, stirs up such an Act of Desiring.

XIII. The other Orisice, which is The Pylo­rus. the Lower, properly called Pylorus, or the Door-keeper, is narrower than the other, somewhat bow'd toward the Back Bone, on the left Side, full of Fibres thwarting one another, having a thicker Circle, and shap'd like an Orbicular Muscle (by means of which it detains the Nourishment for some time, lest it should slip away too soon, and undigested) and continuous to the Duodenum Gut, send the concocted Nourishment to the Bowels. Which Nourishment does not pass by a steep Fall, as lying equally high with the Stomach, but ascends before Expul­sion.

XIV. The Ventricle receives Nerves, The Ves­sels. Arteries, and Veins.

XV. It receives Nerves from the Its Nerves. sixth Pair. For that both the Trunks of the wandering Pair, be­low the Ramus pneumonicus, de­scending along the Sides of the Oe­sophagus, is divided into two Bran­ches, the External and Internal. Of these, the External by and by joyn together again, and embody into one Nerve, and spreads it self over the up­per part of the Ventricle with many Shoots. The Internal also running to­gether, make one Nerve, which de­scending along the Oesophagus, and the external part of the Stomach, encom­pass the bottom of the Ventricle, and sends into it a great number of Fibres. Through these Nerves the Animal Spi­rits flow in great Quantity into the Ven­tricle, contributing to it a quick Sense of Feeling: Which because of the lar­ger Quantity of Nerves dispersed into the Stomach, becomes more sensible in the upper Part than the lower, which is thought to be the cause of Hunger. Through these Nerves of the wandering Pair is infused into the Fibres of the Ventricle, a natural Power of Contract­ing themselves, in all Expulsions, of what ever is contained in the Ventricle: And by means of them also is that great Consent between the Ventricle and the Brain.

XVI. It receives its Arteries from Its Arte­ries. the Coeliac Arterie, which serve to carry the Alimentary Blood with which it is nourished.

XVII. It is sprinkl'd with several Its Veins. Branches of small Veins sculking a­mong its Tunicles, many of which [Page 26] meeting here and there, and closing to­gether, they form at length four more remarkable Veins, which run to the Porta Vein, that is the 1. Gastrick, which is bigger than the rest, 2. and 3. the right and left Gastroëpiploid, 4. and the Pyloric Branch: Also another Vein, Vas breve. called the Vas breve, or Vas Venosum (which issues forth from the Ventricle sometimes with one, sometimes with two, sometimes three, and sometimes more Branches, to be inserted into the Spleen Branch. By these the remainder of the Blood, which is left after the Nourishment of the Stomach is con­veighed to the Liver.

XVIII. Formerly Physicians asser­ted It carrys nothing from the Spleen to the Ventri­cle. that there was a certain acid Iuice or Blood, which ascended into the Ventricle through the Vas breve, for the Nourishment of it, as also to create an Appetite, and stir up Hun­ger in the Ventricle. But the very Sight it self demonstrates the False­hood of this Doctrine in the Dissecti­ons of living Animals, in which it is apparent that there is nothing flows from the Spleen to the Ventricle; but that the Blood continually flows from the Ventricle to the splenic Branch: For upon tying the Vas breve, there will presently appear a Swelling between the Ventricle and the Ligature; but a shrinking of the Vessels between the Li­gature and the splenetic Branch. Which is a certain Sign that the Blood flows as we have said; and that it hardly reach­es the Spleen (for the Entrance of the Vas breve into the splenetic Vein, for the most part, is somwhat distant from the Spleen) nor does it enter into the Spleen, but is poured forth into the splenetic Branch, and flows from thence directly to the Porta. More of this Matter may be seen in the following 16. Chapter.

XIX. Here we are to note by the The Trian­gular Space. way, that some learned Men are very trivial in their Exposition of the 54. Aphorism of Hippocrates l. 7. where he says, They who have any Flegm included between the Ventricle and Diaphragma, are troubled with Pain, because the Flegm has no Passage to either Belly, &c. Induc'd by these Words, they assert, That between the lest Sde of the Ventricle and the Dia­phragma, there is a large Triangular Cavitie, fenc'd about with Membranes proceeding as well from the Ventricle, as from the Diaphragma and Caul, which nevertheless is a gross Mistake: For that there are no Membranes sent from those Parts that meet in that place, neither is there any such Cavity form'd there. In­deed sometimes a Portion of the Caul insinuates it self between the Diaphrag­ma and the hinder part of the Ventricle, so that sometimes it counterfeits the swel­ling of the Spleen. And this is that without all doubt, which has deceived the Patrons of the said Opinion, not be­ing well versed in Anatomie.

XX. The Ventricle, tho' it be not a It is mo­veable. principal Part, yet is it an assistant and serviceable Part; To which we are c [...]iefly beholding for the Preparati­on of the Nourishment (whence Quin­tus Serenus, a Sammic Poet, calls it the King of the Body.

And therefore all Diseases that assault Wounds of the Sto­mach m [...] ­tal. it are to be accounted very dangerous; and the Wounds which it receives are by Hippocrates, 6. Aphor. 17. deservedly accounted Mortal; because the mem­branous Vessels are hard to be cur'd in that part: and if they happen about the Stomach, by reason of the great num­ber of Nerves intermingled in those pla­ces, they kill the Patient with continual Convulsions and Hichups: but if they light upon the lower part, the swallow'd Nourishment presently falls through the Holes into the Cavity of the Abdomen, where in a short time they rot the other Bowels with their Corruption and Pu­trefaction. However tho' Use and Rea­son confirms that saying of Hippocrates, yet this Rule sometimes, tho' not fre­quently, admits an Exception; for it has been known that some Wounds of the Ventricle have been cur'd. And of such Cures we find Examples set down by Fallopius de cap. Vuln. c. 12. Cornax in Epist. Iulius Alexandrinus Annot. ad l. 6. c. 4. Therapeut. Galen. Schenkius also collects other Stories from others, Obser­vat. A rare Ob­servation. l. 3. Such a Cure I observ'd in the Month of December 1641. in a Country [...]ad, who in upper Holland was wound­ed with the Stab of a Penknife in the right side of the Ventricle; the wound being of an indifferent size, so that for eight days together we saw all his Meat [Page 27] and Drink came out again at the Orifice, especially if you did but press the lower part of the Ventricle with your hand: Which Efflux of his Nourishment stop­ped for seven days, but then return'd a­gain for three days, and no more; nor did the Nourishment discharge it self so much as it did before. Afterwards be­ing ordered to lye upon his right side day and night, nothing more flow'd out; so that no other Disease happening, and the Surgeon following his Cure, the Pa­tient, beyond mine and the Expectation of all Men, within six or seven weeks was perfectly cur'd. Nor did he after­wards feel the effect of any detriment which the wound had left behind, nor any hurt done to his Stomach. But,

More miraculous are those Accidents concerning two Knife-swallowers, of which the first is related by Bernard. Sue­v [...]s, Tract. de Inspect. Vulner. Crollius in Praefat. Basilic. Sennertus Prax. lib. 1. part. 1. Sect. 1. c. 15. and several others, of a Bohemian Country-man, who in the Year 1602. at Prague, swallowed a Knife nine Inches long; which Knife, after it had lain seven weeks, was at length cut out of his Stomach, and the Patient perfectly cur'd.

The other Accident George Lothus and Roger Hempsing relate, as seen by themselves, in a particular part of Ger­many, of a young Man of two and twenty years of Age, who at Regiomont in Prussia, in the Month of May 1635. swallowed a Knife by chance, the breadth of two hands in length, the smooth Haft slipping down unawares. Which Knife was cut out of his Stomach six weeks after, and the Patient perfectly cur'd in a Month. This Knife was af­terwards given by Daniel Becker, a Phy­sician of Dantzick, to Otho Heurnius then Professor of Physic and Anatomy at Ley­den, where it is still preserved among other Rarities in the Anatomy-Thea­tre.

XXI. That Stones do grow in the That Stones grow in the Ventricle. Kidneys and Bladder, is a thing fre­quently known, and sadly experienced; and that Stones have been also found in the Liver, Lungs, and several o­ther parts, is that which the Observa­tions of Physicians testifie: but that they should breed in the Stomach, is a thing hardly ever heard of; and yet Bauschius gives us four Examples of it. Ephemerid. Med. Phys. Tom. 2. Observ. 181. The first out of Iames Dobie Zen [...]ki, who reports, That a certain Woman, after long Pains in her Stomach, vomited up two Stones about the bigness each of an Almond, and was presently freed from her Gripes. The second out of Laurentius Scholtzius, who writes, That a certain Person, long tormented with cruel pain in his Sto­mach, at length vomited up a very large, oblong, and hard Stone, upon which his pain ceased. The third out of the same Author, of a Woman who at forty years of Age was troubled with a Pain and Swelling of her Stomach, want of Appetite, and continual Reaching; In whose Stomach, after she was dead, were found as many Stones as a man could well hold in the hollow of his hand, which being long kept, moul­der'd away, and crumbl'd into a kind of yellow Salt: He adds a fourth Exam­ple of Count George of Oppendorf, in whose Stomach were also found several little Stones.

XXII. The Action of the Stomach Its Action. is to make the Chylus, that is, to ex­tract a Milkie Iuice by peculiar Con­coction out of the several Nourish­ments, which is call'd the Chyle.

XXIII. The Chyle is a Milkie The Chyle. Iuice like the Cream of a Ptisan, pre­par'd and concocted out of the Nou­rishment received into the Sto­mach.

XXIV. The Nourishment or Food The manner of Conco­ction. is concocted in the Stomach by way of Fermentation; by which means they dissolve, and so the Iuice is extracted out of 'em.

XXV. Fermentation is twofold. Fermenta­tion two­fold. One whereby the Particles of the Mix­ture are stirr'd about of themselves, grow warm, and are rarify'd; and by dissolving the Salt which binds 'em together, they are so separated, that they become more full of Spirits: and are then for the greatest part mixed together again, and tho' more full of Spirits, yet remain mix'd. The o­ther, which is by many call'd Effer­vescency, is that by which the Acid Particles of the Salt, for the greatest part, boyling together with some Wa­try and Tartarous Matter, are con­center'd by Coagulation, and so are separated from other Particles of the Mixture, that they never return to an exact Union and Mixture with 'em again.

[Page 28]XXVI. After the first Manner Fermentation causes Chylification: tho' in our following Discourses, when we design to express a vehement Fer­mentation, we shall make use of the word Effervescency.

XXVII. This Fermentation is made The man­ner of Fer­mentation. when the Salt parts of the swallow'd Food, are by the heat of the Stomach, and the acid Iuice, dissolv'd, melted, and become full of Spirits, and withal corrode and move about the Sulphu­rous Particles, and so after a kind of Combat forsaking the strict Chains of their Mixture, are expanded and sha­ken somewhat sowre and sharper as they are, through the thicker Mass, together with the sulphury spiritous Particles jogg'd together in like manner, and be­cause of their passage deny'd, and mix­ture of the thicker Matter not yet fully dissolv'd, being driven back again, they assail that Mass with motion upon mo­tion, and divide and expand the smallest Particles of it one from another, and dispose 'em to a more easie separation, and to receive the form of another Pap­like and Milkie Mixture. But as for what Particles cannot be sufficiently dis­solv'd by this Fermentation, or reduc'd to a Milkie Substance, they become Ex­crement, whose separation from the Milkie Juice is wrought in the Guts.

XXVIII. This fermentative Conco­ction The force of Fermen­tation. (which is finish'd without any vehement Motion upward or down­ward, or any tumultuous Agitation through the Cavity of the Ventricle, as happens in Water boyling over the Fire) is so violent, that by the force of it the hardest Meats, which can hardly be mollified with a whole days boyling over a Kitchin-fire, in a few hours are not only soften'd, but so dissolv'd and melted, that the Particles being forc'd from their friendly Union, and torn one from another, and mix'd with the Liquor either inherent or in­fus'd into the Stomach, they are turn'd into a Pap-like Consistency, not unlike to the Cream of a Ptisan.

XXIX. Now that the Food is ra­ther The reason of Chylifi­cation. turn'd into Chyle, than into Choler, Blood, or any other Humour, that is to be attributed to the peculiar Quality of the Substance of the Ventri­cle, or to the Specific Temper and pe­culiar Structure, and consequently to the Specific Ferment and manner of Fermentation; as the peculiar Quality of the Liver and Spleen produces ano­ther Ferment, and as Blood is made in the Heart. However it is not done by the fermentative Particles alive, which are mix'd with the swallow'd Food, nor by a moderate Heat, as some are of O­pinion. For they only conduce to the dissolution of the Nourishment, but the moderate Heat to promote the said Con­coction or Fermentation, and excite the absconding Power to Action. But why that Concoction and Dissolution pro­duces the Chylus, rather than any other Humour, that is to be attributed to the peculiar Quality of the Substance, there is no other Reason to be given for that, but only the peculiar Quality of the Substance, in respect of which, the Heat operates otherwise in the Stomach, than in the Heart or any other part; and there disposes of the Ferment after ano­ther manner than in any other Bowel. Thus as the Kitchin-fire mollifies one way by Boyling, another way by Roast­ing, another way, that which is Fry'd in Butter, or otherwise, that which is pre­par'd in Vinegar or Pickle, and that by reason of the Substances by which, and upon which that soft'ning is to be brought to pass: Thus the Heat of our Body, by reason of the proper dispositi­on of the Ventricle, and the Juices there­in contain'd and bred, therefore other­wise soften and dissolve the Nourishment in the Stomach than the other parts, and disposes the Ferment after another manner, to inable that Ferment to dis­solve and concoct the swallow'd Nou­rishment, in a distinct manner from the Reconcoction in other parts of the Nou­rishment already melted and dissolv'd for second Concoction. So that by reason of this peculiar Quality, while the Stomach is sane, and acts accord­ing to Nature, there can be no other Juice there made than a white Chyle.

XXX. Paracelsus writes that Ar­chaeus with his Mechanic Spirits could perfect Chylification in the Stomach: but by Archaeus he means the innate Heat. To this Opinion Riolanus seems to adhere in Not. ad Epist. Wallaei. Ne­vertheless he admits something of a sha­dow of a peculiar Quality, in these words: I attribute the Cause to the diversity of the innate Heat, in the manner of the Substance, that is, saith he, the pro­perty of the innate Heat. Not that the innate Heat differs of it self in [Page 29] Substance. But when it cannot subsist without a Body or Substance without it self, it must operate variously accord­ing to the diversity of that Substance in the several parts.

XXXI. Hence it is apparent, how frivolous that is which some assert, That the Ventricle does not make the Chyle, but is only an Instrument and Receptacle where the Chyle is made; and that it no otherwise makes the Chyle than the Pot wherein the Meat is boyl'd makes the Broth. But I would fain know who is so blind as not to see, that when Chylification is attribu­ted to the Stomach, we do not mean the bare Membranes of the Ventricle, but a live and sound Ventricle that is furnish'd with its own Spirit and Heat, and a Con­venient proper Ferment generated out of the peculiar Quality of its own Substance, with none of which things a Porridge Pot can be said to be endued.

XXXII. The Colour of the Chyle The Colour of the Chyle. is Milkie and somewhat white, by reason of the sulphury Particles, dis­solv'd with the salt ones, and mix'd with the acid Ferment of the Stomach. For every Liquor impregnated with Sulphur and a Volatile Salt, or a Salt admirably well dissolv'd, presently turns to a kind of Milk, if any thing of acid Moisture be pour'd upon it. Which is prov'd sufficiently by the preparations of Sulphur, and the Extracts of Vegetable Rosins. Also Spirit of Hartshorn or Soot, being sprinkled with any liquid Juice, or only fair Water, presently turns to a kind of Milk.

XXXIII. Plempius and Walaeus Whether it may be red. are of Opinion that the Chylus is not always white; but that from red Nou­rishment it becomes red, from green, green. But herein they mistake; for were it not white of it self, it never would be found always white in the Milky Ves­sels of the Mesentery and Breast; but we should also meet with red, green, or any other Colour, which was never yet observ'd by any Person. True it is, that frequently it appears sometimes more, sometimes less serous and thin, in the pectoral Chanel of the Chylus, according as there is more or less of the Lymphatic Juice, which flows in great quantity from all parts into the Chyle­bearing Bag; which Limpid Juice, when there is no Chyle, continually and lei­surely flows alone through that Chanel; nevertheless the Chyle that appears in those Milky ways, is never seen to be of any other Colour than white.

XXXIV. Therefore tho' the whi­tish Colour of it may be something darken'd in the Ventricle and Intestins by many other thick Particles of the Nourishment tinctur'd with green, red, or any other Colour, and inter­mix'd with it, in such a manner that the Mixture cannot be discern'd, it does not thence follow, that the Chy­lus of it self has any other Colour than white. For tho' in green Herbs the white, or rather pellucid Colour of the spirituous and watery Parts be not appa­rent to the sight, it follows not from thence, that the spiritous and watry part of those Herbs is of a green Co­lour; for if the separation be made by distillation, it presently appears pellucid. And so it is with the Chylus, for being separated from the Mass which is tin­ctur'd with any more cloudy Colour, mix'd with the acid Ferment of the Pancr [...]as or Sweetbread, it never appears of an [...] other Colour than white.

XXXV. But because Chylification cannot go forward unless the Nou­rishment be swallowed into the Sto­mach, it will not be amiss, before we prosecute any farther the History of Chylification, first to inquire into the cause of Hunger, that so we may more easily attain to the more perfect know­ledge of Chylification.

XXXVI. What Hunger is there is What i [...] Hunger. no man but can readily give an ac­count, that is to say, a desire of Food.

But what it is that provokes that de­sire, and is the occasion of it, has been variously disputed among the Philoso­phers.

XXXVII. Anciently they held that Whether from suck­ing. it proceeded from the attraction or sucking of the emptied Parts; and that the first emptied Parts suck'd it from the Veins, the Veins from the Liver, the Liver from the Stomach en­du'd with a peculiar sucking Quality; which act of sucking they thought occa­sioned that trouble which we call Hun­ger. But this Opinion is now adays utterly exploded. First, for that ac­cording to this Opinion plethoric Persons would never be hungry: Secondly, be­cause there can be no such att [...]action by the emptied Parts through the Veins [Page 30] from the Liver, by reason of the little Lappets or Folding-doors that hinder it.

XXXVIII. Others observing that Whether from an a­cid Iuice. acid things create Hunger, believ'd it to be occasion'd by the acid Iuices, carried from the Spleen through the Vas breve to the Ventricle. But this Opinion Modern Anatomy more curious has utterly destroy'd, demonstrating in living Animals, that the Blood descends through that Vessel from the Stomach toward the Spleen, and so empties it self into the Splenic Branch, but that nothing flows a contrary Course from the Spleen to the Stomach.

XXXIX. Many there are, of which Whether from the Iuices of the Arte­ries. number Regius, who affirms that Hunger is occasion'd by the biting of the emptied Ventricle, by certain sharp and hot Iuices, continually forc'd through the Arteries into the Ventricle or its Tunicles, which after the Expul­sion of the Chylus, not knowing what to gnaw upon, prick the Ventricle, whereby the Nerve of the sixth Pair, being mov'd within it after a certain manner, excites an Imagination of taking Nourishment for the relief of that pricking. But this Opinion is from hence confuted, for that the Blood of the Arteries, by reason of the Domini­on of the Sulphury Particles, is by no means sowre, but smooth, soft and sweet; so that it neither does, nor can cause any troublesome pricking or corrosion, neither in the Tunicles of the Ventricle, nor of any other Parts, tho' of most exquisite Sense (as the Adnate or Conjunctive Tunicle of the Eye, the Nut of the Yard, &c.) Besides, it would hence fol­low, That by how much the more of this Arterious Blood is thrust forward to the emptied Stomach, so much the more hungry a man would be: but the Contrary is apparent in burn­ing Fevers, that such as in health have fasted two days together, are no more a hungry, whereas their Stomach is clearly emptied, and the Blood con­tinually flowing through the Arteries into the Stomach. Then if Hunger should be provok'd by that Corrosion, why does not that hungry Corrosion happen in such People?

We were about forty of us one time A Story. travelling together, in our Return out of France, at what time being becalm'd at Sea, so that there was a necessity for us to tarry longer than we expected, all our Provision, Water and other Drink being near spent, so that at length we were constrain'd to fast the third day, not having a crumb of Bread nor a draught of Drink to help our selves: but after we had fasted half a day, or a little more, there was not one that perceiv'd himself a hungry; so that the third day was no other way troublesome to us, but that it weak'ned us, and made us faint: Neither did the Arterious. Blood occasion any hungry Corrosion in our empty Stomachs. And thus not only Reason, but also Experience, utterly overthrows the a­foresaid Opinion. And therefore Ludo­vicus de la Forge vainly invents a way for this Arterious fermentative Liquor from the Arteries to the Stomach, in Annot. ad Cartesii lib. de Hom▪ where, saith he, It may be here question'd, why that Liquor (i. e. the Fermentative) is carried through the Arteries to the Sto­mach and Ventricle, rather than to other Parts. To which I answer, That the Arteries conveigh it equally to all Parts, but the Pores of all the Membranes are not so convenient to give it passage, as the Pores of the Ventricle. Now that this feign'd Subterfuge is of no moment, ap­pears from hence, That in the Mem­brances of the Brain, and many others, whose Pores are so convenient, that the Blood may be able to flow in greater quantity through them, than is convey'd to the Stomach; yet there is neither any Corrosion or Vellication of the Part. Some, that they may de­fend this Corrosion the better, say That the Blood which is conveighed, or flows to the Stomach, is sharper than that which is conveighed to any other Part. But this no way coheres with Truth, because all the Blood is one and the same which is sent out of the Heart to all the Parts of the whole Body; nor is there any thing to sepa­rate the sharp from the milder Particles, or thrusts 'em forward to these, rather than to those Parts.

XL. Others lastly, to whose Opini­on The tru [...] Cause. we think fit to subscribe, assert that Hunger is occasioned by certain acid fermentative Particles, bred out of the Spittle swallowed down, and some others somewhat Salt or indi­gested Acids, adhering to the Tuni­cles of the Ventricle, and by that drawn to some kind of Acidity; or remain­ing in it after the Expulsion of the Chylus, stitching to the inner [Page 31] wrinkl'd Membrane (especially about the upper Orifice) and a Vellication, trouble­some to the Stomach, which being communicated by the Nerves of the sixth Pair to the Brain, thereby an Imagination of Eating is excited, to appease the troublesom Corrosion.

XLI. This Acrimonie is infused into those fermentative Particles by the Stomach, when the sulphurous Parts are jumbl'd in the Iuices that stick to the inner Tunicle, and the Salts are melted by the convenient Heat of the Ventricle to a degree of Fusion, and so they turn Acid after a Specific Man­ner. To which purpose the swallowed Spittle descending to the Stomach may be very prevalent (for this hath a fer­mentative Quality in it self, as we shall shew ye l. 3. c. 24.) and to the same effect may also conduce the subacid Pancreatic, or Sweetbread Juice being infused into the Duodenum, if any Part of it shall rise toward the Stomach, or shall transmit any acid Vapors or Exha­lations from the Intestin to it.

XLII. Here some Object, and say, An Ob­jection. if this be the Cause of Hunger, then when the Stomach is full, and Con­coction and Fermentation are both busily employ'd, Men would be most Hungry; for then many more acid and fermentaceous Particles are called forth to their Work, which must of Necessity pull and tear the Ventricle much more than the few before men­tioned. 'Tis deny'd. For the Parti­cles to be fermented and fermented, that is dissolv'd, will be more; but not the Fermentaceous, or Particles dissolving. Of which we have an Example in Le­ven'd Bread, whose single Parts have no power to ferment another Mass of Flower; because the acid Particles are no longer predominant, but the Sulphu­reous, as appears by the sweetness of the tast: And so long as that prevalency of the sulphury Particles continues in the dissolv'd Particles, so long they cannot become Acid or Fermentaceous (for Sul­phur is Sweet.) As appears in Fevers, wherein acid Medicins are generally most plentifully prescrib'd, for the subduing of the sulphury Predominancy: And restoring the convenient fermentaceous Quality. For when the Prevalency of the sulphureous Particles is overpowered by the Force of the salt Acids, then comes the fermentaceous Acidity to be introdu [...]d. So that there are not more acid, sharp, and corroding Particles in the full Ventricle concocting the Food▪ or if there be, they are so stain'd by the copious Liquor intermixt, so that they can occasion no troublesom Vellication to the Stomach; by which means the Hunger cannot be greater at that time, but rather ceases altogether. But when the Ghylus, and with that the dissolv'd sulphureous Particles intermixt with the salt are gone off to the Intestins, then the Remainder that sticks to the inner Tunicle of the Ventricle, or is carried thither with the spittly Juice, as being freed for the most part from the redun­dancy of sulphurous Particles, grows sowre through the heat of the Ventricle, and so begins to tear again, and renews the Appetite, which ceases again, when that Acidity comes to be retemper'd by the Meat and Drink thrown into the Stomach, and its Acrimony comes to be mitigated and blunted.

XLIII. But if these fermentaceous Iuices are not only not moderated in the Stomach, but that through some defect of the Liver, Sweetbread, or other Parts, over sharp Humors are too abundantly bred in the Body; or flow from the Head, or some inferior Parts, into the Stomach, in so great a Quantity, that their Acrimonie can­not be sufficiently tam'd and temper'd by the swallowed Food, then happens that preternatural Hunger which we Canine Appe [...]ite call Canine; with which they who are troubl'd, often vomit up undigested Meat together with sowre Iuices like the Iuice of Limon (as they them­selves confess) and by reason of the gnawing Acrimony, occasioned by the extream viscousness of the Humors remaining in the Ventricle, presently become hungry again and fall to eat. But if the fermentaceous Particles are in themselves very viscous, or thicker, and of a slower Motion, then they require a longer time to elevate them­selves and excite Hunger; which chiefly happens when the acid Spirits less a­bound in the whole Body, and conse­quently in the Spittle, and that viscous Humor that sticks to the inner Tunicle of the Stomach.

XLIV. Sometimes also it happens that Hunger is frequently diminished, when bitter Choler ascends in too great Quantity into the Stomach (as [Page 32] in cholerick Men, in the Iaundise, and several sorts of Fevers) and there­in by its Mixture corrupts not only the fermentaceous Relicks of the Nou­rishment remaining in the Stomach after the Expulsion of the Chyle, but al­so the Spittle that flows to it. The more remote Causes of lessening the Appetite are various, as excess of Sleep and La­ziness, excess of Care, and looseness of the Belly, &c. Overmuch Sleep, and too much sitting still, for that for want of sufficient Exercise of the Body, the Humors also are not sufficiently stirr'd; nor are the acid Particles conveniently separated from the Viscous, so that they cannot be sufficiently roused up to Acti­on. In extraordinary Cares of the Mind hunger is not perceiv'd, because the Thoughts are otherwise employ'd. And as for loosness of the Belly, 'tis a certain Truth that the Ferment is vitiated.

XLV. Now these fermentaceous The Fer­ment. Particles that excite Hunger, as ap­pears by what has bin said, are acid, or somewhat acid, and are the same that promote the Conoction of the Stomach, and ferment and dissolve the swallowed Nourishment. Hence it is, that Acids moderately taken in­crease the Appetite, and cause a better Concoction of the Stomach. Of which we have an Experiment (besides our daily Experience in our Seamen, who make long Voyages to the Indies. For having fed upon thick and hard Meats for a long time, hence it comes to pass that their Appetites are deprav'd, and their Concoctions but weak; which breeds a Scorbutic ill Habit of Body. But when they come to Islands or Coun­tries where they meet with plenty of Limons, and other acid Fruits, present­ly their Appetite is restored, and all the concoctive Faculties, that languished be­fore, are renewed, together with their Strength, through the said acidity, and so in a short time they recover their for­mer Health. Therefore to keep the Seamen in Health in those long and te­dious Voyages, the Masters of Vessels are wont to carry along with 'em a cer­tain Quantity of Citron Juice, which they distribute now and then among the Mariners, when they find their Sto­machs begin to fail 'em.

XLVI. Acid therefore are those fermentaceous Particles which excite Hunger; which if they be wanting in the Stomach, the Appetite fails, nor can the Chylification be perfected, but the Meat is thrown off into the Bowels raw and unconcocted as when it was first swallowed down: But they being again restored to the Stomach, the Con­coction returns, and the Appetite is re­stored. Hence says Hippocrates 6. Aph. 1. In long Fluxes of the Belly, if sowre Belches happen, it is a good Sign.

XLVII. Now how it comes to pass that the fermentaceous Particles ob­tain that embased Acrimony, has bin already said, by an apt Heat melting those salt Particles to a degree of being Liquid and ready to flow. I say, Apt. For as Bread becomes well leavened in a luke warm Place by the Ferment mix­ed with it, in a cold Place in great dif­ficulty, but in a hot Oven can never be fermented: So this Acidity which will not be excited but by a moderate Heat of the Stomach, will not be stirr'd by too small a Heat, and is scattered and dispelled by too great a Heat; and thereby those Juices that should make the Ferment will be quite consum'd. Hence Flegmatic People that are troubled with a cold Distemper of the Stomach, have neither good Appetites nor good Concoctions; and Choleric Persons, who are infested with an over-hot Temper of the Stomach, have none at all. How­ever it does not follow from this, that the greater the Heat of the Stomach is, the quicker must be the Appetite, and the stronger and better the Concoction: For the contrary appears in burning Feavers, and an Inflammation of the Stomach: As also in a Lyon, whether he be accounted the hottest of all Creatures, yet can he not digest Iron, Gold, Brass, or the like; which however are easily digested in the Stomach of an Estriche, as being endued with a sharper Ferment, tho' not with so fervent a Heat. As Langius relates that he saw at the Duke of Ferrara's Court an Estriche both swallow and digest those Metals, l. 1. Epist. 12.

XLVIII. Therefore it is not the Heat but the Ferment, which in some is more sharp and acid, in others more moderate, which is the next Cause of the Appetite and Digestion of the Stomach: But moderate Heat is the Cause which disposes the Matter which begets that Ferment that elevates and ex­cites to Action.

XLIX. But whereas this Power What is the chylifying Heat. and Vertue in the Stomach of making [Page 33] this Ferment, and of Chylifying by its Assistance, cannot be excited into Action but by an apt and moderate Heat, some there are who question what, or rather where this Heat lies that produces this Action. Whether it be the Heat of the Membranes of the Ventricle, or the Parts that ly round it, or of any Humor, or any Spirits. Cer­tainly there is no difference of this Heat in the diversity of Subjects, in relation to self; for all Heat is excited by the Motion and Agitation of the least Parti­cles and subtil Matter (for because the Heat is fiercer in red hot Iron, slacker in the Flame of Straw; this does not ar­gue the difference of the Heat it self, but of the Quantity, proceeding from the diversity of the Subject to which it is inherent) But the Diversity of Operations proceeds from the diversity of the things themselves, upon which, and by virtue of which the Heat acts. For the same Heat melts Wax, hardens Clay, wasts the Meat upon the Spit, bakes it in the Oven, and boyls in the Pot, putrifys in a Dunghil, and hatch­es Eggs in a Stove, without the assistance of a Hen. In like manner to promote the Act of Chylification, it is required that the moderate Heat (which is no more than one and the same, should be proportionably adapted in the Stomach; that is, both in its Membranes, its Hu­mours and Spirits, and that it should be cherished and foster'd in like manner by the Heat of the Parts that lie round a­bout it; for so being truly and aptly proportion'd, it is impossible but the Ventricle must act properly and natu­rally toward the Chylification of proper Matter, by dissolving and extracting a Chylus out of it.

L. The Preparation of Nourish­ment The man­ner of Chy­lification. for Chylification proceeds gradu­ally after a certain kind of Method. For first the Spittle is mixed with the Meat which is chewed and masticated in the Mouth, not only softning them, but infusing into them, a fermentative Quality (of which Quality see l. 3. c. 6. & 24.) then comes Drink, Ale, Wine, or any other Liquor, which for the most part contains in it self acid Particles and fermentaceous Spirits. This Nourish­ment the Stomach strictly embraces, and squeezes it self round about it by the help of its Fibres, and mingles with it the Specific fermentaceous Juices, as well those bred in the interior Tunicle, as those that are affused upon the Spit­tle. Then by an apt and proper Heat there is a Mixture and Liquation or Melting of the whole Substance of the Nourishment together. For that the fermentaceous Particles sliding into the Pores of the Nourishment, withal get into their very Particles themselves, stir about, melt and dissolve the more pure from the thick, and render 'em more fluid, to the end they may be able to endure another form of Mixture; and be united among themselves into the form of a milky Cream. Which be­ing done, by the squeezing of the Ven­tricle they fall down to the Intestins to­gether with the thicker Mass with which they are intermixt; in them to be separated by the mixture of Choler and the pancreatick or Juice, after ano­ther manner of Fermentation, and so to be thrust down to the milky Ves­sels.

LI. The certain Time for the fi­nishing The time for Chylifi­cation. of Chylification cannot be de­termined. For here is great Variety observed proceeding from the variety of the Temperament of the Stomach, Age, Sex, Position, and Disposition of the Parts adjoyning, and the Nature of the Nourishment themselves.

LII. But why some Meats are di­gested sooner, some later; the Reason is to be given from the variety of the Meats themselves in Substance, Hard­ness, Solidness, Thickness, Thinness, Heat, Cold, &c. For which reason some are dissolved with more case and sooner, some with more Difficulty and later in the Stomach. But then again, why the same Meats are in others sooner in others later concocted; and where­fore some Stomachs will easily concoct raw Fish, hard Flesh, half boyl'd, or tho' it be raw, but the Stomachs of o­thers will with great Difficulty the ten­derest and best prepared Dyet; this pro­ceeds from the various Constitution of the Stomach, the Ferment, and the pro­portion of Heat.

LIII. What I speak of Meats, the same is to be understood of Drinks: Which for the same Reasons, and be­cause of the same Varieties, are di­gested in others well, in others ill, in others sooner, in others later; and render the Digestions of the Stomach, in others better, in others worse. For Example, if Wine or any other Liquor be drank plentifully, that is ei­ther quickly digested, by reason of the [Page 34] great Plenty, Thinness, and Spirituosi­ty of acid Particles, and so flows down to the Intestines; or else by reason of the extraordinary Quantity, being very hea­vy and troublesome to the Stomach, is thrust forth raw and undigested; of which Crudity the signs are sowre Belches, Vomiting, Rumbling in the Guts, and Crude Urines.

LIV. If fair Water be drank which contains no acid Particles, in a hot­ter Stomach, or where sharp and hot Humours abound, there it uses to temper, and somewhat to suppress an excessive and stinking Fermentation: but in a colder Stomach, and full of cold Iuices, it hinders Digestion. For that by its cold Moisture it dulls the sharp fermentaceous Particles contain'd in the Stomach, and the Meat receiv'd; that is, by its intermix'd and plentiful Aquosity it breaks to pieces and separates the least Particles of the active Princi­ples at too great a distance one from a­nother, so that they cannot act with a mutual and sufficient activity one upon another, so that then there happens a lesser Motion, and for want of that the more cold arises, so that the fermentace­ous Particles cannot be sufficiently atte­nuated by the heat of the Stomach, nor elevated to a just degree of Effervescen­cy; and then they become unable to act upon the Particles that are to be fermen­ted.

LV. Note also that fat Meats too Fat things abate hun­ger. plentifully eaten abate hunger, and render the Chylifying Concoction more difficult; because they dull the Acri­mony of the fermentaceous Particles: or rather because they so involve the chiefest part of the Particles of the Nou­rishment receiv'd, that the sharp fer­mentaceous Particles cannot act with conveniency upon 'em; which efficacy of Fat is to be seen in External Things. For Silver or Pewter Vessels being smear'd over with Fat, are not to be corroded by sharp Vinegar infus'd, tho' the Vinegar retain all its Acrimony. Nei­ther will Aqua fortis corrode the Skin if well greas'd over. Thus the sharp fer­mentaceous Matter acts with very great difficulty upon Meats that are over fat; which is the reason that the eating of too much Fat occasions vomiting. See more of Ferment, c. 17. & l. 2. c. 12.

LVI. Ludovicus de Bills; a kind of a paradoxical Anatomist is said to have observ'd the Time of Chylification in the dissection of Dogs, after this manner, according to the Report of N. Zas. If a Dog be fed with only sweet Milk, then the Chylification will be perfected about two hours after: Mix white Bread with that Milk, it will be three hours, or somewhat less, before the Chylification will be perfected. If the Milk be thicken'd with Barly Meal, and so eaten by the Dog, it will be four hours before the Chylus will appear in the Stomach: But feed the Dog with white Bread only, and it will require six hours to perfect the Chylus.

But these Observations of Bills are ve­ry uncertain; for that all the Stomachs of Dogs are not of the same Constituti­on, nor in the same Condition of Sani­ty, nor digest their Meat in an equal space of Time; thence it will come to pass, that Digestion which shall be ac­complish'd in the Ventricle of one with­in an hour, shall not be finish'd in ano­ther in two or three hours, though it be of the same Meat. Moreover, un­less these Observations be meant of all sorts of Concoctions of Nourishment re­ceived by the Stomach, they will con­tradict both Reason and Experience, which will teach us that neither in Men nor Dogs, all Meats that are swallow'd into the Stomach, are digested together, nor are all their apt and agreeing Parti­cles turn'd into Chyle; all at a time, the thinner first, the thicker afterwards, so that there can be no certain time pre­fix'd for Chylification. For Milk being eaten with Bread, tho' perhaps it re­quires three hours, before all the apt Particles shall be turn'd into Chylus; yet will it not be three hours before some Chyle be produced out of it; for the thinner Particles of the Milk will be sooner turn'd into Chyle, which will be conspicuous after one, sometimes in half an hour, and sometimes sooner, while the Bread and thicker Particles of the Milk shall remain to the third hour in the Ventricle. He then who affirms that the Chylification is not perfected be­fore the end of the third hour, is in an Errour, for the very first hour a good part of it was perfected and finish'd.

LVII. Bernard Swalve in querel. & opprob. Ventric. elegantly describes the time of Chylification, and the Ob­stacles that may happen to hinder it. Where he introduces the Stomach thus The [...] diments and [...] of [...]. speaking:

All things that are receiv'd do not equally resist my Labour. One gives way sooner than another. Upon Milk meats I spend [Page 35] but an hour; not full two upon Pot-herbs: Nor does the softness of Fish require that time. Food made of Flower, as Bread and Crust, I can hardly dissolve into Cream in four hours; and the harder the Flesh is, the longer and more diligently must I labour. Mutton and Beef require seven hours to tame their Contumacy. Here I stand in need of a greater quantity of A­cids, and a greater resort and assistance of Spirits. Now my Substance operates more strongly, and then all these things are fre­quently weaken'd and dispoil'd of their force. I omit to mention many things that disturb my Office, and hinder me in my du­ty, now this, now that, which puts me in­to a languishing Condition. For this is my misery, hence my tears, that I cannot resist the Invasion of External Injuries, and that I am expos'd to so many and so great Errours and Mistakes that obstruct me in my Employment. These Mischiefs are so fruitful, that I cannot always obtain my End in Digestion.

LVIII. Assuredly these things are ve­ry The Order of Chyli [...]i­cation. well and succinctly described by Swalve, for that many and several sorts of Food being eaten at one Meal, do not all together, and at one equal distance of time, suddenly part with their Milkie Iuice; but according to the greater or lesser force of the Sto­mach, and the fermenting acid Iuice, and the difference of Food in Sub­stance, Quantity, Quality, Hardness, Viscosity, Thinness, Solidity, &c. The more spirituous and thinner Parts in some are sooner, in others later dis­solv'd, and turn into Chyle; and they which are first digested, pass first through the Pylore or Orifice, the other remain­ing a longer time in the Stomach, till a more accurate dissolution. This pro­ceeding is manifest from the Refreshment after the Meal; For the strength of Na­ture is soon repair'd, whereas the Meat is easily perceiv'd to remain in the Sto­mach. Which first Refreshment is caused by the thinner Particles of the Nourishment first dissolv'd and concoct­ed, and already discharg'd by the Sto­mach. Which, should they remain in the Stomach till the absolute Concoction of the harder Masses, by that over-long stay they would be too much digested, and so become corrupted, or vitiated at least. And this Method is evident in the dissection of Dogs, kill'd presently after they have fill'd their Bellies. For generally in their Bowels and chyliferous or milkie Vessels, there is found a thin­ner sort of Chyle, which we have many times shewn to the Spectators in a suffici­ent Quantity, scarce an hour or two af­ter they had eaten: especially if they fed upon a more juicy fort of Meats, when the chiefest part of the Food, not being yet turn'd into Chyle, still remain'd in the Ventricle.

LIX. Hence appears the mistake of The Order of Meats; many Physicians, who thought that the Nourishment which was first eaten was first discharg'd out of the Stomach; those things which were last eaten were last parted with. And hence they have been very careful to prescribe an Order in Feeding; as, to eat those things which are of easie Concoction first, and those things which are hard of Digestion last, for fear of begetting Crudities through a preposterous Order in Feeding; accord­ing to the Admonitions of Fernelius 3. de Sympt. Caus. c. 1. 5. Pathol. c. 3. Mercu­rialis 3. Prax. c. 12. Sennertus 3. Prax. part. 1. Sect. 2. c. 9. and of many others. Certainly whatever Variety is received into the Stomach is confus'd, mix'd, and jumbled together, and that by Fermen­tation, by which the spiritous and thin Particles spread themselves, and free themselves from the dissolv'd thicker Substances, and so the thick being stirr'd and agitated together with the thin; by that motion there is made a Mixture of all together; of all which Mass, that which is sufficiently digested passes through the Pylorus, that which requires farther Concoction, remains of a harder Substance in the Stomach.

LX. Here three hard Questions are to be examined in their Order. First, Whether if Hunger be occasion'd by the acid fermentaceous Particles, crea­ting a troublesome Vellication in the Stomach, what is the Cause of that which is call'd Pica, or a deprav'd Ap­petite (as when People long for Chalk, Oatmeal, Lime, and the like.) Se­condly, Whether in a Dyspepsie (or dif­ficulty of Digestion and Fermentation in the Guts) Choler can be bred in the Stomach, such as is evacuated upward and downward in the Disease call'd Cho­lera. Thirdly, Whether the whole Chyle, when concocted on the Stomach, fall in­to the Intestines.

LXI. As to the first, The Cause of a deprav'd Appetite (call'd Pica and Malacia) seems to us not to have been by any person sufficiently explain'd; when as the affect it self is a thing to be admir'd, in regard the force of it [Page 36] is such, especially in Virgins and Wo­men (for men are seldom troubled with it) that they will often with a wonderful desire covet Meal, Chalk, Tobacco-pipes, Dirt, Coals, Lime, Tarr, raw Flesh, Fruits, and other strange things altogether unfit for Nou­rishment; as live Fish, the fleshy and brawny part of the Members of a living Man, and Stones, (as Sennertus reports that he knew a Woman that swallowed every day two pound of a Grindstone, till she had at length devour'd it all) be­sides several other Precedents cited by Physicians, and what daily occurs to our Observation. Now they generally af­firm the Cause of this Mischief to be the deprav'd Humours contain'd in the Ventricle, which, according to their va­rious Natures, excite in some a various Appetite to this, in others to that, whe­ther bad or good: in some, to dissimilar noxious things, in others to similar, as the vitious Humours according to their diffe­rent qualifications variously tear & move the little Fibres of the Nerves of the Ven­tritle, by the peculiar Motion of which communicated to the Brain, there arises the same Motion in an instant in the Brain, by which a peculiar Appetite is stirred up to this or that thing. Francis de le Boe Sylvius Prax. l. 1. c. 2. as also in the Dictates of the Private Colledge assembled in the Year 1660. going about to explain this thing more particularly, asserts that the Cause of this deprav'd Appetite is a vitious Ferment of the Sto­mach, corrupted either by the vitious Nourishment, Physic, or Poyson, swal­low'd down; or by several Diseases, especially such as are incident to Wo­men, infecting the whole Mass of Blood, then the Spittle, and lastly the Ferment of the Ventricle, and disposing 'em to an ill habit. But if this formal Reason be of any force, let us from thence also ask this Question, Why such an Appe­tite, coveting this unusual Dyet, is also to be found in those who are troubled with no vitious Humours in the Sto­mach, as I have sometimes found by Experience; tho' I cannot deny but that there may be now and then for all that some ill Humours in the Stomach? Wherefore in a Man, whose Ferment and Ventricle are without fault, meerly upon the wistful looking upon some Pi­cture, sometimes of Fish, sometimes of Fruits, or other things not fit for Dyet, shall find himself to have a strong Sto­mach for these things? in the same man­ner as the looking upon the Picture of a naked Venus excites many Men to Vene­ry? What, and of what sort must be the Nature and admirable Quality that must so move the little Fibres of the Nerves and the Brain, that by reason of that special Motion there must be an Appe­tite to Grindstones, Tobacco-pipes, Coals, &c. which there is no body but knows can never be desir'd as a remedy against that troublesome gnawing, or as neces­sary for Nourishment.

LXII. And therefore these things must proceed from some other Cause, that is to say, from the Mistake of the Imagination, and thence a deprav'd Iudgment arising from an ill habit of the Brain, and a vitious Motion of the Spirits; and not from the pravity of the Humours in the Stomach. For according as the vitious Humours aug­ment or diminish the Vellication of the Fibres more or less intensly, it may in­crease or abate the Appetite, but not di­rect it to a particular choice of Dyet, especially such a one as is unnatural. For Hunger is a natural [...]nstinct, by which Nature is barely excited to receive Nou­rishment, as a remedy for the gnawing, but not more especially to this o [...] that Food, or to this or that Dyet, if it may be so call'd, as being altogether unnatural.

LXIII. Then as for that which is said, That sound healthy People being a hungry, covet sometimes Fish, some­times Flesh, sometimes Fruit, now roasted, now boyl'd, &c. This pro­ceeds not from any peculiar Vellication or Gnawing, but from an Animal Ap­petite, which judges that sometimes such sort of Meats, sometimes another, sometimes sweet, sometimes sowre, will be more grateful and proper for the Stomach; and therefore sometimes they covet more eagerly Wormwood-wine, raw Herrings, and several other things of themselves ungrateful, than others more pleasing to the Palate, and more wholesome.

LXIV. Now since the Choice or Re­fusal of Meat, or of any thing else, depends upon the Iudgment, and Iudg­ment proceeds from the Brain, cer­tainly the Cause of coveting this or that peculiar thing, is not to be sought for in the Stomach but in the Brain; which if it be out of order, through bad Humours, and ill Vapours arising from any filth gathered together in the Womb, Spleen, or Sweetbread, and hence as­scending [Page 37] up to the Brain, easily occasions deprav'd Imaginations, whence follows a deep deprav'd [...] Judgment, and through the mistake of that Judgment, noxious and absurd things are covered, rather than the best and most wholsome, as Chalk, Coals, & c. (A thing well known to happen to melancholly People, who many times doat upon one particular thing, tho' in other things their Judg­ment is sound enough.) For how far Intent and frequent Cogitation upon a thing avails to increase such a deprav'd Appetite, is apparent in Women with Child, who many times long to that degree, that if they cannot get what they desire, the Child shall carry the Mark of the thing long'd for. Which impression cannot be said to preceed from any deprav'd Humours of the Sto­mach, but from the Brain; for that the Imagination being intense upon those things, and Judgment made upon their use, and Benefit proceeds from thence, and the Ideas of those things are con­veigh'd from thence, and imprinted up­on the Birth by the Animal Spirits. Besides, they that are troubled with a deprav'd Appetite, do not always long for one and the same thing, but some­times for one thing, sometimes another, as their Fancies are fix'd more upon one thing than another, which cannot be imputed to any ill Humour adhering to the Ventricle; for that then the longing for variety of things must proceed from the variety of Humours. Besides, these sort of Patients are troubled with a de­prav'd Appetite when they are a hungry, and then they most eagerly long for those things which they have thought of before, whether good or bad; and be­lieve 'em then not to be bad or hurtful, but pleasing and wholesom. Which Depravation of the Appetite I have cur'd more by Cunning than by Physic; en­joyning the People of the House never to mention in the hearing of the Pati­ents those hurtful things, and to remove all sorts of Pictures out of their sight; and in the mean time to feed 'em with wholesom Dyet, and that often in the Day, to prevent their being much an hungry.

LXV. There is one Objection re-mains, An Obje­ction. that is to say, If a deprav'd Appetite were not caus'd by the ill ha­bit of the Stomach, the Patients would be sick upon the eating such kind of noxious Dyet, neither would such things be digested in the Stomach; but on the other side, it appears that few or none suffer any harm by it, with­out doubt because there are those de­prav'd Iuices in the Stomach, which are able to digest that preternatural Dyet, which the Stomach seems to have particularly requir'd, as a remedy for that peculiar Vellication or Twitch­ing of the Nerves. But the force of this Objection is easily answer'd, when it is consider'd that it is not absolutely true, that such Patients receive no Dam­mage from such incongruous and pre­ternatural Dyet, and that it is only true in very few, and that only once, twice, or thrice, but that afterwards they are cruelly afflicted by it, contracting Oppi­lations of the Bowels, the Dropsie, the wild Scab or Maunge, call'd Psora; and several other Distempers. But the rea­son why they receive no Dammage at first, is twofold.

First, Because upon the eager devou­ring of these things the Animal Spirits flow in great Plenty to the Stomach (as upon Venereal thoughts they flow in great abundance to the Generating Parts; together with a great quantity of Arteri­ous Blood. Now how effectually these Natural Spirits operate in nourishing the Body, we shall explain more at large, l. 3. c. 11. and how far they conduce to the Concoctions of the Stomach, if they flow into it more plentifully than is usu­al, is apparent in those Slaves to their Bellies, that waste whole days and nights in thinking what they shall eat, and are always stuffing their Guts. For they, by reason of the plentiful Spirits design'd for the Stomach, have much swifter and better Concoctions, than such as are al­ways busi'd at their Studies, whose Ani­mal Spirits are call'd another way; and therefore are frequently troubled with Crudities, and hardly are able to digest the lightest Food.

Secondly, Because they that are trou­bled with a deprav'd Appetite, are for the most part melancholy; or such as breed more sowre fermentaceous Juices, are more sharp and copious than usual, in the Spleen, Sweatbread and Ventricle; whence when they begin to be a hungry, they have a sharper Stomach, and far more easily digest whatever they eat, than others; nay, than they themselves can do at another time. Thus I have known a Woman with Child, that long­ing for ripe Cherries, has at one time eaten up six or seven pound together; another that has eaten thirty Cheesecakes; and another that would eat raw salt Herrings and digest 'em well, when [Page 36] [...] [Page 37] [...] [Page 38] at other times they did not use to be so greedy. And hence it comes to pass, that at sueh a time they will digest a large quantity of Meat, or those preter­natural Things (as Oatemeal, Chalk, and Coals) or at least the Stomach dis­charges 'em without any harm. But if they continue that immoderate Course of Dyet, that sharper Juice at length failing, it becomes such a Di­sturbance to the Bowels and Stomach, that their Concoctions are thereby plain­ly interrupted and deprav'd, to the breeding of copious bad Juices, that in­crease a great quantity of ill Humors, which is the cause of several Di­stempers. From all which I think it is sufficiently manifest, that a deprav'd Appetite does not primarily proceed from any deprav'd Humors bred in the Stomach, or sticking to it, but from some defect of the Brain, and mistake of the Imagination.

LXVI. The second Problem is af­firm'd Whether Choler be generated in the Sto­mach. by Regius, and several other Physicians, altho' it be far from being true. For in a crazy Condition of Health, the Humors in the Stomach may be corrupted several ways, and many bad ones may be gathered to­gether, and yet never any Choler bred therein. And for that which is exone­rated upwards and downwards in the Disease called Cholera, that is not bred in the Stomach but in the Liver, col­lected and amassed together in the Blad­der of the Gall, the Porus Biliarius, and other places adjoyning; from whence, sharply or sowerly fermenting and boy­ling, it bursts forth at last, with great Violence, into the Duodenum, and by virtue of that Motion is discharged and thrust out partly upward, through the Stomach, partly downward through the rest of the Intestines. Which is suffici­ently apparent from hence, in regard that the Invasions of Choler are subitane, no Signs preceeding of any ill Affection of the Ventricle, or of any Choler bred or gathered togethet within it; and for that often when People have made a good Meal, not feeling any Disturbance either in the Appetite, or in Digestion, it overflows in their Sleep at Midnight, and sometimes in the day time, with­out any foregoing Notice; which cer­tainly could not but precede, if a copi­ous quantity of Choler, the Cause of the Disaster, were bred in the Stomach, or gathered there together. Neither will Reason permit us to believe, that Nature has constituted various and se­veral Organs to perform one and the same Office, such as is the Generation of Choler. For to ob [...]ain that End, she makes use only of one sort of Means; and thus the Stomach alone Chylifys, the Liver alone breeds Choler, To wi [...] that serous or lympha­tick Iuice, of which Choler, by means of the Fer­mentum in the Gall. Bladder i [...] bred. See more here­of in▪ Sy­nopsis Me­dicinae, l▪ 4. c. 8. Sect. 10. § 14. ad 36. Salmon. the Heart only breeds Blood, &c. Nor does the usual Subterfuge avail in this place; that Choler generated in the Stomach, is not natural, but preternatural Choler. For to this I answer, that that Choler, which the Distemper, call'd Cholera, (which Choler, they say, is bred in the Stomach) and in the Loosenesses of many Infants is discharged in great quantity, is a sharp, and for the most part eruginous or green Choler; I have found it to be such in the dissected Bodys of many that have dy'd of this Distemper, heap­ed up together in great Quantity in the Gall-Bladder, and the ductus Cholodi­chus; but little or none in the Stomach. Which is a certain Sign, that this Cho­ler, when it is in a boyling Condition, breaks forth into the Stomach and In­testines, but that it is not bred there.

LXVII. In Infants that have dy'd of such a green choleric Loosness, I have observ'd, and that frequently, the Gall-bladders full of very green Choler, and swell'd to the bigness of a large Hens Egg. So that it is most certain that where the natural, there the preternatural Choler is bred; that is to say, on the Liver. This is to be un­derstood [...] the [...] before [...] ­pressed, [...] we have hinted i [...] the M [...]r­gin of the former P [...] ­ragraph, Salmon. But some will say, that it is impossible that so great a quantity of green Choler should be so suddenly bred in the Liver, or be col­lected and stir'd up from any other Part within it, as uses to be evacuated in the Disease called Cholera, in a few Hours: For in the space of four and twenty Hours, several Pints of that Matter are evacuated, to the filling of some Chamberpots, and therefore of necessity it must be true, that that Cho­ler is at that time bred in the Stomach. To which I answer, That this Choler being gathered together from all Parts to fill the Gall Bladder, for the most part is of a dark green Color, and very sharp, and when this, being in a boyling Condition, breaks forth into the Inte­stines and Ventricle, then it vexes and tears those Parts, and like a violently pricking Medicin, causes the Serous, and various other Humors, to flow from all Parts to the Intestines. Which being tinctur'd by a small quantity of green Choler infused into the Ventricle and Intestins, become all of a green Colour and so are discharged green out of the [Page 39] Body: Which Redundancy of flowing Humors being sometimes very great, the Ignorant believe that it is only meer Choler that is expel'd the Body in such a great Quantity, when they are only other Humors coloured by the Choler. Now that this Choler causes such a Tincture by its Intermixture, I know by Experience; for that with half a Spoonful of that Juice taken out of the Gall-bagg; I have, in the sight of seve­ral People, tinctured a whole Pint of Water.

LXVIII. The affirmative Patrons Whether part of the Chylus be carried to the Spleen? of the third Problem, with whom Regius consents, assure us that all the Chylus does not flow from the Stomach to the Intestins, but that some Part of it is conveighed to the Spleen, through the Vas venosum breve, and other neighbouring Ga­stric Veins. For Proof of which they give a two sold Reason. The first is, because the Birth in the Womb is nou­rished first of all with the milky Juice that swims at the top of it, and through the Navel-vein sticking to it, and not as yet extended to the Placenta, conveigh­ed to the Liver and Heart of the Infant. Now if this happen to the Embryo; 'tis no wonder that when a Man is born, that part of the Chylus should pass thro' the Gastric Veins to the Spleen. The other Reason is, that after a Man has fed heartily, there follows such a sud­den Refection, that so great and so sud­den could never happen, if the whole Chylus were first to pass through all the milky Vessels; and that some part of it did not rather get to the Spleen by a shorter Cut, and thence reach to the Heart more speedily.

LXIX. To the first Reason, I an­swer, That the Embryo is not at that time nourished with the milky Iuice, but with the remainder of the seminal Liquor, poured upon it by reason of its vicinity to it, entring the Pores, and soon after received into the Mouth: And that the Navel▪ vein, be­ing at length fastened to the uterine Pla­centa, can neither receive or attract any more milky Juice; So that an Agree­ment with it and the Gastric Veins, was ill contriv'd from hence. Moreover, supposing that any thing of the alimen­tary Juice were carried at that time to the Liver of the Birth through the Na­vel Vein; I say, it does not follow from thence, that the Chylus in Men born, passes also out of the Ventricle through the Gastric Veins, and out of the Intestins through the Mesaraics: That Compari­son being altogether lame, seeing that several Parts are in such a manner ser­viceable to the Birth, which they can­not pretend to in Men born. Of which, all the Navel Vessels afford us an Ex­ample, the Foramen Ovale in the Heart; the Closure of the Arteria Pulmonaris with the Aorta, &c. besides that seve­ral Parts have no use as yet in the Birth, that come to be serviceable in Men born, as the Lungs, the Liver, the Spleen, the genital Parts, the Eyes, the Nose, the Ears. So that from the use of any Part in the Birth▪ there can be concluded no use of any Part in a Man born; as we cannot conclude any use of the Gastric and Mes [...]raic Veins from the use of the Umbilical.

LXX. As to the second Reason, it seems to infer a very plausible Argu­ment from sudden Refreshment, that follows after Eating and Drinking, which is thought to be occasioned from hence, because that the more subtil Part of the Chyle, passing by a shor­ter Cut from the Ventricle to the Spleen, gets far sooner to the Heart, and refreshes it, than if it were first to pass to the Intestins, thence thro' several milkie Vessels to the Vein cal­led Subclavia, and so through the Vena cava to the Heart. Nay, I have sometimes heard that for a farther Proof of this Assertion, that an Exam­ple was cited by Regius out of Ferneli­us, of a certain Female Patient, whose Pylorus or Orifice of the Stomach was wholly obstructed, yet did she cat every Day, tho' she threw what she cat up again, and in that manner liv'd a long time. Which could never have bin, says Regius, unless something of the Chylus had bin conveighed out of the Stomach through the Gastric Veins to the Spleen. 1. Because the Chyle enters no other but the milky Vessels. 2. Be­cause there are no milky Vessels at all, that are carried to the Stomach, or from the Stomach (as Deusingius pretends to assert Institut. Anat. tho' I do not be­lieve that ever any Deusingian will pre­sume to make out) so that if the Chyle should pass from thence to the Spleen, it ought to be conveighed through the Vas breve, and other Blood conveigh­ing Veins; whereas they neither admit the Chylus, nor can receive it, for the Reasons brought concerning the Mesa­raicks [Page 40] l. 7. c. 2. 3. Because the Chyle is not separated from the thicker Mass, nor enters the milky Vessels, unless Choler be first mixed with it, together with the pancreatic Juice, which doth separate and attenuat [...] it by a peculiar Fermen­tation or Effervescency from the thicker matter that involves it; which Choler is poured forth into the Guts, and not into the Stomach, and if it should be carried to the Ventricle by Chance, that is, contrary to the usual Motion of Na­ture, and then Chylification is disturb'd. Now that the Chyle cannot be separa­ted from the thicker Matter, or atte­nuated by Fermentation without the In­termixture of Choler, so that it may be able to enter the milky Vessels, is apparent in those People that are trou­bled with the yellow Jaundice; in whom, by reas [...]n that the Choler cannot flow into the Duodenum, by reason of some Obstruction of the Cholodochus, or any other Cause whatever, that Distemper happens, because the Choler being de­ny'd Passage into the Duodenum, the Patients cannot go so often to the Stool, and when they do, the Excrement is for the most part Chylous and white, col­lected together in the Guts, and cannot be fermented and distributed for want of Choler. How true this Passage is, I leave to those who have read what I have for­merly [...]it in my Synophs Medicinae l 4. c. 8. sect. 10. § 14. ad 36: but be­sides what we have there spoken we have had several I [...]cterical Patients, in whom none of this has bin true, but their Stools have bin as nu­merous as before, and in some more nu­merous, and in most of them of as good a co­lour as for­merly: Moreover, I have near a hundred times seen the Excre­ments Chy­lous, white, and some­times like Clay, void of all man­ner of red­dish or yel­lowish Co­lour, & yet the Person not only free from the yellow Iaundice, but also in good Health. Salmon. As to the suddain Re­freshment after Meals, that comes not to pass by reason of any shorter Cut from the Stomach to the Spleen, and from thence through the Liver and Ve­na Cava to the Heart (which however is not a shorter way neither, than when it is carried from the Ventricle to the Intestines) but because the subtil Va­pors of the Nourishment, penetrate through the Pores of the Ventricle to the Heart (For the whole Body, as Hip­pocrates testifies, is [...], or full of Streams) and likewise all together gent­ly tickle the Nerves of the Sixth Pair, common to the Heart and Ventricle; which is apparent from hence, because not only Nourishment, but all fragrant Smells, and cordial Epithemes or Ap­plications, refresh those that are subject to swooning, and recover 'em out of their Fits; when as neither the Odors nor those things from whence the O­dors exhale, reach either the Spleen or the Heart, but only the most subtil Vapors make their Passage through the Pores. And moreover 'tis wonder­ful to think how soon the thin Particles of the Nourishment, which require but little Digestion, pierce through the mil­ky Vessels to the Vein Subclavia, and the Heart. I have given to Doggs, empty'd with long Fasting, liquid Nou­rishment of easy Digestion, and within three quarters of an Hour after having dissected 'em, I found in that short space of time a watery Chyle, very plentiful in all the lacteous or milky Vessels, car­ried from the Ventricle and the Inte­stines, tho' the Food seem'd to be all en­tire in the Stomach. The History cited out of Fernelius seems not to be very rightly quoted. For I do not remem­ber that ever Fernelius wrote any thing of Obstruction of the Pylore. In­deed in his L. 6. Patholog. c. 1. he relates a Story of a Woman with Child, that had a hard swelling in her Stomach, so that no Nourishment could descend in­to her Stomach, but presently upon touching that Orifice they returned to­wards the Throat again, which Woman in two Months time, with all the Art and Endeavours that were used, could get nothing into her Stomach. But what is this Story to the Proof of the Opinion forementioned? He tells us the Nourishment could not descend into the Stomach, therefore no Chyle could there be made out of it; neither could the Chyle flow from the Stomach to the Spleen. The Story of Philip Salmuth Cent. 1. Obs. 20. might have bin cited and objected much more to the Pur­pose, of a certain Person who was troubl'd with continual Vomiting, and was forc'd to throw back all the Meat he swallowed, by reason the Passage was stopp'd by a Scirrhous or hard Swel­ling at the Mouth of the Pylore, as was found after he was dead. Another Sto­ry like this is recorded by Benivenius observat. 36. and another by Riverius cent. 1. Obser. 60. and another by Schen­kius exerc. l. 1. Sect. 2. c. 33. not unlike the Story which Io. Vander Meer rela­ted to me of an Accident seen as well by himself as by several of the Physici­ons in Delph, of a certain Woman that for half a Year lay very ill at Delf, and vomited up all the Meat she eat after some few Hours, the first well con­cocted, the next loathsome and smel­ling very badly: After which her E­vacuations by Stool began to cease by degrees; so that for the first Week she did not go to Stool above twice or thrice, then once a week, and then hardly once in a Month, which brought her to nothing but Skin and Bone, till at length she dy'd: In whose Body, being opened, was found a Py­lore all Cartilaginous, with an Orifice so small, that it would only give Passage to a little Needle. But seeing it appears [Page 41] by these Histories, that the Pylore can never be suddenly nor long so streight­ned, but by degrees, so the passage of the Chylus is obstructed by degrees, from whence it comes to pass, that for want of sufficient Nourishment, the strength is wasted insensibly, and the Body emacia­ted by degrees: Seeing also that by their going to stool, tho' it were but very sel­dom, and for that the Pylore would ad­mit the passage of a little Needle, that it would not admit a greater Body, it appear'd that the Pylore in those Per­sons was not totally obstructed, or if it were wholly clos'd up, yet that they did not live long by reason of that Ob­struction, but dy'd in a short time, it cannot thence be prov'd that the Chylus passes from thence to the Spleen. For if this were true, the Patients strength would not have fail'd so soon through the Obstruction of the Pylore, nor have yielded so easie an Access to Death.

LXXI. Bernard Swalve consider­ing Whether the Chylus enters the Gastric Veins. these Difficulties, Lib. de Querel▪ & Approb. Ventric. p. 63, 64. dares not assert that Refreshment is occasion'd by the Chylus coming a shorter way than through the Intestins, but writes that supposing a case of necessity, the little Orifices of the Gastric Veins in the Tunicles of the Ventricle gape a little, and that into them, it is not the Chylus, which is too thick, but a more Liquid Iuice is speedily in­fus'd presently, to be intermix'd with the Blood flowing back to the Heart. But according to this Assertion Swalve seems to offer a most cruel Violence to the Gastric Veins, and to force 'em to confirm his Speculation, as if by agree­ment he would, at his own pleasure shut 'em up, but upon this Condition, that they should not gape, but in a time of necessity, or being open, should not emp­ty their Blood into the Cavity of the Ventricle (which otherwise might easily happen, and so occasion Vomiting of Blood,) and that they should not take the Chylus it self, but only sup up a Liquid Humour out of the Stomach, and so carry it in a hurry to the Heart.

LXXII. The use of the Chylus is [...]he use of [...] Chylus. A second [...]igression. Whether a­ [...] parts are [...] by the Chylus. to breed good Blood out of it: But whether any parts are nourished at the first hand by the Chylus, before it be chang'd into Blood, is a Controversie.

This Galen most plainly writes con­cerning the Ventricle, l. 3. de Natural. Fa­cult. c. 6. in these words▪ Moreover this is the end (that is of the Concoction of the Stomach) that so much as is apt and agree­ing in Quality, should take some part to its self. And therefore that which is the best in the nourishment, that it draws to it self in the nature of a Vapour, and by degrees, stores up in its Tunicles, and fixes it to 'em. When it is fully satisfied, whatever of Nourishment remains, that it throws off as burdensome. The same thing he also asserts, c. 12, 13. of the same Book. Val­lesius confirms this Opinion of Galen by many Arguments, Controvers. Med. & Philos. l. 1. c. 14. That the Ventricle is nourish'd by the Chylus, the shape of its Substance, and these Reasons over and a­bove, te [...]us. If the Ventricle were not nourish▪d by the Chylus, neither would it digest the Food. For why does it generate the Chylus? Is it not to send it to the Liver? Therefore 'tis the Care of the Ventricle to nourish the Liver; and there­fore it is not guided by Nature, but by Intellect. For those things that operate by Nature, are never concern'd with the care of other things. Moreover, either the Ventricle retains some part of the Chylus, and sends some part to the Liver, or it retains nothing at all of it. If it retain'd nothing, it would presently covet more, since only Nourishment seems to be that which can protect it from Hunger; and therefore the Blood alone is not proper to nourish the Mem­bers. Endi [...]s Parisanus is also of the same Opinion with Galen, l. 5. Subtil. Exercit. 3. c. 2. as likewise Hen▪ Regius Medic. l. 1. c. 4. neither do Peramatus and Montaltus differ from the rest. A­ristotle contradicts Galen, who shews by many Reasons, l. 2. de part. Animal. c. [...] ▪ that the Blood is the last Aliment, and that all the Parts are immediately [...]ou­rish'd by that, and not by the Chylus. Plempius l. 2. Fund. Med. c. 8. tho' he thinks that both Pa [...]ts may be easily maintain'd by reason of the weakness of the Arguments; nevertheless he asserts with Aristotle, That the Ventricle, and all the Parts, are at first hand nourish'd with the Blood, and supports this Opi­nion by many Arguments. Of the same Opinion is Bernard Swalve in que­rel. & Opprob. Ventric. we are also enclin'd to approve the Opinion of Aristotle, That the Blood is the last Nourishment▪ But I would have this added, That the Chylus contributes a certain Irrigation necessary▪ to moisten the Stomach and Milkie Vessels, without which they could not continue sound, tho' they may be nourished by the Blood. In the same manner, as many Herbs being ex­pos'd [Page 42] to the heat of the Sun▪ tho' they receive sufficient Nourishment from the Earth, yet languish and wither, unless they be often water'd; the moisture of the Water contributing new vigour to 'em; as loosning again the Particles too much dry'd and contracted by the heat of the Sun, and by that means giving a freer ingress to the Nourishment. In like manner the Tunicles of the Ventri­cle and Milkie Vessels, unless moysten'd by the Chylus, would grow too dry, and so the Pores of the Substance being con­tracted, would not so readily admit the nutritive Blood flowing into 'em, and for that reason would be much weak­ned, and at length quite fa [...]l in their Of­fice. Which is the reason that by long fasting the Milkie Vessels are many times so dry'd up, that they can never be o­pen'd again, which afterwards obstruct­ing the Distribution of the Chylus, causes an Atro [...]hie that consumes the Patient. But when there is a defect of that moi­sture in the Brain, then the troublesom contraction of its Tunicles causes Thirst, and the Vellication occasion'd by the fermentaceous Juice that sticks to 'em, begets Hunger, neither of which a new Chylus pacifies by its Nutrition, but the Humid Moistures swallow'd produce that effect, and the Chylus extracted out of those by their moist'ning, by which the contraction of the Tunicles is releas'd; and the Acrimony of the Juice yet twitches, is temper'd and mitigated. And that this is done only by Humecta­tion, is mani [...]est from hence; for that all moist'ning things, as Ale, Water, Ptisan, and the like, being plentifully drank, presently allay and abate the thirst and hunger for the time.

LXXIII. But what shall we say of the Child in the Womb, which seems to be nourish'd by the Milkie Iuice a­lone of the Amnion or Membrane that enfolds the Birth, at what time there is no Blood that flows as yet through the Navel Vessels? To which I answer, That the Birth is nourish'd by the thicker Particles of the Seed re­maining after the forming of the Body of the said Seed, first partly chang'd into Blood in the Beating Bladder, or Bubble; partly clos'd together by Proxi­mity a [...]d some kind of Concoction: not that it is nourish'd by the Chylus or any Milkie Juice of the Amnion Membrane: but then the remaining Particles of the Seed being consum'd, then it is nourish'd by Blood made of the Lacteous Liquor of the Amnium. By which nevertheless it could not be nourish'd, were it desti­tute of that Moisture with which it is water'd by the Lacteous Liquor. See more of this c. 29. of this Book.

LXXIV. If any one shall acknow­ledge, That the Stomach, which be­cause it is manifestly furnish'd with se­veral Veins and Arteries, is therefore nourish'd with Blood, but deny that the Milkie Vessels were to be nourish'd with it, when they receive into 'em no Blood conveighing Arteries. I answer, That there are innumerable Parts in our Body, wherein the Arteries are not to be discern'd, tho' it be certain they enter into those Parts. And to which we can perceive no way through which the Blood should be conveigh'd; which Parts nevertheless are nourish'd by the Blood, and not by the Chyl [...]s. Of which sort are the Corneo [...]s Tuni [...]e, the U [...]eters, the Membrane of the Tympanum or Drum of the Ear, sundry Ligaments and Bones, ma [...]y Gristles, &c In which number the Milkie and Lymphatic Ves­sels may be reckon'd. For tho' En­tra [...]ce of the Blood into 'em be not so perceptible, yet can it not be thence con­cluded, that the Blood does not find a way into those Vessels, when in many other Parts the Entrance of the Blood is not discernable, and yet their being nou­rish'd proves the Access and Entrance of the Blood.

CHAP. VIII. Of the Guts.

I. FRom the right Orifice of the Ventricle, call▪d the Pylore, the Guts are continu'd; by the Greeks [...], because they are placed within the Body; and henco by the Latins call'd also Interanea.

II. They are Oblong Bodies, Mem­branous, The [...]. Concave, Round, variously wreath'd about, reaching from the Ventricle to the Podex, serving to re­ceive the Chylus, and to contain and Whether they d [...] [...] [...] to the r [...] ­king the Chyle. make way for the Excrements. I say for receiving the Chyle, &c. But it is a thing much controverted, whether they do not also contribute to the making the Chyle. For this seems to have been the Opinion of Galen, who l. 4. de us [...] part. [Page 43] has these words; The Guts, though they were not fram'd for the Concoction of the Chylus, but only to contain and distribute it, yet because Nature is sometimes sloth­ful and idle, in its passage through the Guts, it comes to be perfectly elaborated. Aretaeus and Aretius follow the Opinion of Galen, and among the more modern Authors Spigelius; and the very Simi­litude of the Structure of the Ventricle, the Guts seem to make for him; as well in the Substance, Temper, Colour, and Contexture of the Tunicles. And Plempius, sway'd by these Authorities, l. 2. Fund. Med. c. 8. assumes the Affir­mative; and affirms that the same Con­coction which is perform'd in the Sto­mach, may be perform'd in the Guts (which Regius also inculcates) and hence concludes, the Clysters made of Liquid Nourishments, given at the Fundament, may nourish, in regard there is a thick Chylus concocted out of 'em in the Guts, and carry'd away through the Milkie Vessels, and so communicated to the whole Body. But we rather approve the Negative; for that seeing all man­ner of Crudity proceeds from a cold and moist Distemper of the Stomach, (as in a Lientery) the Meat is evacuated without any alteration, or without any manner of Concoction, which however, were there any chylifying virtue in the Guts running a long way through their crooked Windings and Meanders, would at least gain some kind of Alteration in­to a Chylus. Moreover, the Choler flows continually together with the Sweetbread Juice into the Guts, and in them indeed ferments the concocted Nourishment, but by the virtue of that peculiar Effervescency, and its Bitterness, it rather hinders than promotes chylific Concoction, as is apparent when it sticks in too great quantity to the Stomach. And then who can believe, that Clysters mixt with the Excrement in the thick Gut, can be chang'd into a Chylus, and consequently nourish the Body. The stinking Place, and the feculent Ordure therein intermix'd, plainly teach us, that there can be no alteration into Chyle made there. Perchance they may so far repair the strength of the Body, as some more subtil and benign Vapours may ascend through the Pores and Ves­sels to some superiour Bowels, and some­what refresh 'em, in the same manner as the Odor of Wine, hot Bread, Ho­ney, Aqua vitae, and roast Meat, re­ceiv'd thorough the Nostrils, refresh the fainting Spirits, tho' they be not turn'd into a Chylus.

III. The length of the Guts exceeds The length. or equals the length of the Person whose they are, six times more, or less, (others who also measure in the Stomach and Gullet, say seven times, or somewhat less.) Hippocrates stretches 'em out to twelve or thirteen Cubits. Vesalius to fourteen Italian Ells and a half. We commonly measure 'em at fourteen of our Dutch Ells, or very near. Only in the Year 1668. in November, once at a Public Dissection we found the Guts of one Person to be sixteen Ells and a half; and hence, that they might lye in a little room, placed in the Ab­domen with several windings and crooked Circumvolutions, and joyned to the Mesentery, by means of which they were ty'd to the Back, and sustain'd by the Cavities, the Os Ilium.

IV. There was a necessity for such a The reason of the length. length and circumvolution, that the concocted Nourishment falling down from the Stomach, might stay the long­er in the Guts, be more conveniently fermented by the mixture of the yel­low Choler, and the Pancreatic Iuice, and by that means the more subtil Parts of the Chyle being separated from the thicker Mass, might with more ease be thrust forward into the narrow Orifices of the Milkie Vessels, partly by the proper Peristaltic Motion of the Entrals, partly, and that chief­ly, by the impulse of the Muscles of the Abdomen, mov'd by the force of Respiration: And to that end, because the Separation ought to be made in the small Guts, Nature leads about, and forces the thinner Substances through several windings and turnings as through so many Stops and Remora's, whereas she carries the thicker Substances tho­rough a Circular and Oblique Passage only. Moreover, she has form'd cer­tain little Folding-doors to open and shut, which hinder the over rapid course of those things that flow downward. For had the Chylus flow'd down through the short Guts, either before a due and con­venient Fermentation, or could pass from 'em, whereby the Body had been deceiv'd of its due and convenient. Nou­rishment, she had constrain'd Man to eat often for the support of himself, and to supply that defect by continual fil­ling. Of this Cabrolius and Riolan [...]s give us several Examples, that is to say of Men most voracious, in whom, after [Page 44] their decease, one Gut has been found, and that wonderfully short, in the shape of a great Roman S. Add to this, that the Excrements had flow'd down much more speedily, and had thereby expos'd Man to the more frequent duty of Eva­cuation.

V. Their Circumference is round, Their Cir­cumference to the end they may be more capacious, and for the more easie descent of those things that pass through 'em.

VI. Their Substance is Membra­nous, Their Sub­stance and Tunicles. like the Stomach, having also a triple Tunicle. The Exterior common, and overcast with Fat, arising from the Membranes of the Mesentery, springing from the Peritonaeum. The Middlemost fleshy; interwoven with several thinner Fibres, especially the transverse and streight Fibres. The Innermost nervous, which in the slender Guts is wrinkl'd, to stop the Chylus, and overspread with a kind of fleshy spongy Crust, but very thin, (which some call the Peristoma, others the Silken Covering, others the Woolly Moss) through which Fallopius believes the Chylus to be transmitted and strain'd, as it were, through a Sponge; and to prevent the Injuries of the sharp Humours, and for the better defence slippery, by reason of a slimy Clammi­ness, generated cut of the Excrements of the third Concoction; but in the thick­er Guts dilated into little Cells. Riolanus l. 2. Anthrop. c. 12. writes; tho' without any ground, that the Carneous and Fleshy Tunicle, which is the middlemost in the Stomach, is the innermost in the Guts, and that the innermost is thick, but how­ever more nervous, and not much diffe­rent from the inner Tunicle of the Ven­tricle.

VII. Now in regard the Guts are Whether they have an attra­ctive force. furnish'd with Fibres of all sorts; the Question is, Whether they have an attractive Force, by which they may draw the Chylus out of the Ventricle. Many maintain the Affirmative, induc'd thereto by the Authority of Avicen, and many other Arguments; but erroneous­ly; seeing there is in 'em no such attra­ctive Force. In like manner there is also another Question started concerning their Retentive Faculty. Both Questi­ons are learnedly and at large discussed by Andrew Laurence l. 6. Anat. c. 15. Quaest. 10, 11.

VIII. They draw their Nerves from Nerves and Arteries. the sixth Pair; their Arteries from the Mesenteric Branch, both upper and lower, and some from the Intestinal Branch of the Coeliac Artery.

IX. Innumerable Roots of small Veins. Veins dispers'd between their Tunicles, meeting together about the knitting of the Mesentery, form many Veins, from the Ingress of the Mesentery, which they ascend together, call'd the Mesa­raics; which at the upper part of the Mesentery, a little before its Ingress into the Vena Porta, close together into two greater Branches, and so con­stitute the right and left Mesaraic Vein.

X. Into these Vessels are ingrafted The Milly Vessels. the Mesenteric Milkie Vessels, gaping with their Orifices toward the inner Guts, and receiving the Chyle from 'em, and conveighing it to the Grand Receptacle of the Chyle.

XI. The Temperament of the Guts Tempera­ment. is said to be cold and dry; that is to say, speaking comparatively, as they are less hot and dry than many other Parts.

XII. The Use of the Guts appears Their [...]. by what has been said already, not on­ly to receive the Nourishment concocted in the Stomach, but also that a Sepa­ration may be made there in them, of what is useful, from what is unprofita­ble; and from them to send what is profitable into the Milkie Vessels, and exonerate what is unprofitable at the Fundament.

XIII. Now the act of Propulsion Their Mo­tion. and Expulsion, is perform'd by the Compressure of the Muscles of the Ab­domen, which is very much assisted by the proper Motion of the small Guts, proceeding from the Contraction of the Fibres, resting in their proper Tunicles, which is very conspicuous in living Cats and Coneys dissected. And it is most certain, that this Motion of the Fibres is perform'd by the Oblique, but chiefly by the Transverse Fibres, and by them the Things contain'd are thrust down from the upper Parts to the lower. Which Motion, if it happen to be irre­gular, which rarely happens, and that the Fibres by their Contraction move the things contain'd in the Guts, begin­ning from the lower Parts to the superi­our, then the Ordure carried up from the thick Intestines, ascends into the Sto­mach, [Page 45] and is thence vomited out at the Mouth. Thus I remember I hand­led An Obser­vation. a young Lad that lay sick at Nim­meghen, who, besides many other nasty 1. things, vomited up a Suppository that was given him at the Fundament. And here at Utrecht, in the Year 1658. in 2. April, I had prescrib'd a Clyster to the most prudent and grave Consul Wede, who then lay very ill, which being in­jected at the Fundament, in a little time he vomited up again, from which ex­travagant Motion I concluded a Prog­nostic of Death, which ensued some few hours after.

XIV. Tho' there be but one Gut The Divi­sion. from the Pylore to the Fundament, yet in regard of the thickness of the Substance, the Magnitude, Shape, and variety of Function, it is distinguish'd by Anatomists, into the thin or slender Guts, and into the thick.

XV. The thin or small Gut, so call'd The thin Gut. from the thinness of its Substance, possesses all the Navel-Region, and the Hypogastrium. And this, according to the shape, situation, length, and plenty of Lacteous Vessels, is by the Ancients said to be threefold. The Duodenum, Iejunum, and Ilium.

XVI. The first is continuous to the The Duo­denum. Pylore, by Galen call'd [...], the springing, or proceedings forth: by the ancient Greeks, and Hierophylus, [...], and thence commonly by the Latins call'd Duodenum, from the measure of two Transverse Fingers; tho' most Modern Anatomists will hardly allow it the measure of four Fingers. But if you reckon from the Pylorus to the Inflexion of the Iejunum, where it rises upward athwart, lying un­der the Sweetbread, then it will be found to be twelve Fingers in length.

XVII. This Duodenum contigu­ous The Sub­stance. to the Pylore upon the right side, nor wreath'd with Circumvolutions, tho' it be narrower than the rest of the Guts, yet is of a thicker Substance than all the rest of the small or thin Guts, and is bor'd thorough, about the breadth of four or five Fingers from the Pylore (but seldom about the middle of the Jejunum, though Plempius says he has seen it) in the wrinkle of its Flexure, where sticks out a little Teat, sometimes with one hole common to the Cholidochus; and that other found out by Wirtzungius, sometimes perforated with two several holes proper to both Chanels. Which holes, if they be two, the one transmits into the Duct [...]m [...], the other into the [...]. But if there be b [...]t one Chanel at the Ingress, (which is frequent in Men, very seldom in Dogs) then the Point thrust into that Gut to­ward the upper Parts, enters the Ductus Biliartus; if toward the lower Parts, it enters the Ductus Pancreaticus. Veslingi­us reports, and daily Dissections teach us, that this Gut is found to be of an extraordinary laxity and largeness, and then seems to be joyn'd as a lesser Ven­tricle to the larger Ventricle. Which Laxity happens from the sharp fermen­taceous and vitlous Humours sliding into it; which occasions vehement fermenta­ceous Ebullitions, by which the Gut is not only very much distended, but often times fill'd with troublesome Rumb­lings, great Pains, sharp Prickings, and extraordinary Anguish which thence a­rise.

XVIII. It begins, as has been said, Situation. from the Pylore, and by and by go­ing down backwards under the Ventri­cle, it is reflex'd toward the right Kidney, and adhering to the broader end of the Pancreas or Sweetbread, is fasten'd to the Vertebers of the Loyns and the left Kidney by membranous Ligaments, and then extending it self downward to the beginning of its windings, ends under the Colon▪

XIX. The second is call'd by the The Jeju­num. Greeks [...], by the Latins Jejunum, because it is found empty for the most part, as well for the great quantity of the Milkie Vessels that enter into it, as also because of the more speedy Ebul­lition of the Chylus, by reason of the Choler and Pancreatick Iuice flowing at first hand through its proper Chanels, or its separation from the Dregs, and passage into the Milkie Vessels.

XX. It is in length about twelve or Situation and bigness thirteen Palms, and about a Fingers breadth wrinkled with many windings; and seated under the Pancreas, near the Back-bone, in the Region of the Navel, chiefly toward the left side, be­ginning from the first Circumvolution of the Intestines, and ending where it ceases to look black and bluish, [Page 46] and to be empty. Theodore Kerckringius Observ. 39. takes notice in this Gut of some little Valves or Folding-doors, as it were, for that they do not so shut up the Gut, as to fill up all its Cavity: But about the middle of its Cavity so shut it up, that being each of 'em broader at one end than another, they grow narrow­er by degrees, and then a little lower are received by another, which being broader in that part where the other is narrower, so frame and constitute the Gut, that those things which fall down from the upper Parts may slip down, but not be precipitated as it were at one fall. The same Kerckringius was the first also that discover'd and observ'd Valves or little Trap-doors like to these in the Colon Gut, which he has plainly shewn me in a thick and blown Gut, and then dry'd, which is the best way to discern 'em most perspicuously. And therefore he deservedly merits the Applause of this first Invention, seeing that never any Person before ever made mention of these Fol [...]ing Docrs or Valves, that I know of.

XXI. The third proceeding from The Ilium Gut. the foremention'd, is call'd Ilium, by the Greeks [...], from its being twisted and twirl'd; and Volvulus by the Latins, by reason of its Circum­volution, and the multitude of its Twistings.

XXII. This being seated under the Situation and bigness. Navel, next the Lateral Parts of the Abdomen and the Ribs, equals the breadth of a transverse Finger; and in length exceeding the other two Measures one or two and twenty Palms.

XXIII. The Original of it is where the Intestine begins to grow narrower, and being somewhat ruddy, ends at Bauhinus's Valve, where the Colon begins.

XXIV. That which follows is call'd The thick Guts. Intestinum Crassum, the thick Gut, as being of a more fleshy and thick Substance; and that is also divided into three Parts, the Blind, the Co­lon, and Intestinum Rectum, or the Right Gut.

XXV. The first is that which the The blind Gut. Greeks call [...], the Latins Caecum, so call'd from its obscure use; or else because it is not passible or penetrable at the other end; whence it is also call'd [...], Mesocolon. And therefore it is a small Appendix, like a long Worm, sticking to the beginning of the Colon, in length about four Fin­gers transverse, having a small Cavity in People grown up altogether empty, but in the Birth full of Excrements. Spigelius has sometimes found a round Worm within it. In fourfooted Beasts it contains some Excrements for the most part.

XXVI. It is not fasten'd to the Connexi­on. Mesentery, but by the help of the Peritonaeum is joyn'd to the Right Kidney.

XXVII. The Use of this Gut was The Use. unknown till of late; tho' some there were that attributed to it this Use, others that, tho' all were but vain con­jectures, with which they thought fit­ting rather to expose, than confess their own Ignorance.

XXVIII. The second of the thick Guts is called Colon, as much as to say [...], or hollow, as being the most hollow of all the Guts; or as o­thers will have it, from [...] to hinder, because the Excrements are Stops in its little Cells. This is larger and broader than the rest, as being eight or nine Palms in length.

XXIX. It begins about the Os Situatir. Ilium, knitting it self to the next Kidney; hence it ascends upward, and then being turned toward the Liver, it proceeds athwart under the bottom of the Stomach, to which, by the help of the Caul, it is joyned, and on the left Hand is joyned to the Spleen and left Kidney with thin Membranes, and then winding a­bout the left Os Ilium, weaves to the beginning of the Intestinum Rectum.

It possesses the upper Part of the Bel­ly. 1. To the end the Excrements that are gathered within it, may be rowl'd down by their Weight, and so the more easily exonerated. 2. To as­sist in some measure the Concoction of the Stomach by the heat of the Excre­ments; in regard the Chymists believe no Digestion to be so natural as that which is perfected by the heat of Dung. 3. Secondly, to prevent the middle Mesentery from being compressed by the weight of the Excrements: Which would very much straiten the milkie and Lymphatic Vessels, and Mesaraic Veins and Arteries.

[Page 47]XXX. It has a proper Ligament, Its Liga­ment. about the breadth of the middle Fin­ger, according to its length extended at the upper Part from the Caecum to the Intestinum Rectum, wherein the Row of little Cells is contain'd.

XXXI. It is ty'd to the upper and Connexi­on. lower Parts by the Assistance of the Peritonaeum. Veslingius ascribes to it two peculiar suspensorie Ligaments that never appear. But the Extremity of it, which below the left Kidney extends it self to the beginning of the Intesti­nam Rectum, is ty'd to no part, but re­mains free from any manner of Band, and is overspread with a good quanti­ty of Fat.

XXXII. At the Ingress of the thin Bauhi­nus's Valves. Gut, it has an orbicular Valve, or little solding Door, looking upwards, which prevents the Ascension of the Excrements and Vapors, which from the first Finder, is now called Bau­hinus's Valve, tho' others rather as­cribe the first Discovery to Varolius, and Salomon Albertus: But Riolanus raises a bitter Contest concerning it.

XXXIII. Anatomists do not agree in the Description of this Valve. 1. Some say, that it is a Membrane sticking to the Gut on one side, and drawing before it a Curtain. 2. O­thers say, it consists of two Mem­branes opposite one to another, placed toward the inner Parts of the Colon, which closing together, shut up the thin Gut. 3. Others believe there is no true Valve in that place, but a fleshy Circle, wrapt over the thin Gut, where it enters the thick one, and contracting it like the sphincter Mus­cle. 4. We our selves formerly, as has bin said in the Preliminaries, could not think it to be any other than a loose circular Membrane, or some little Lappet of the Ilium Gut, where it enters the Colon: Which when any thing ascends out of the Ili­um into the Colon, gives way and opens: But when the quagmiry Excrements or Vapors descend from the Colon to the Ilium, falls and folds down, and so by ob­structing the way, hinders the passage towards the thin Guts; in the same man­ner as in the little long Gutters of Lea­ther hanging out at the sides of Ships, through which the Water that falls up­on▪ the Decks, readily flows out again. But tho' the Waves dash upon those; Gutters, yet because they do not mix with the Water, therefore the Water coming not into them, does not flow back. Now that we might be assur'd in this our last Opinion, I thought it convenient to fish out the Truth a little farther by some Experiment. And therefore having taken the Colon out of a Body, with a part of the Ilium, and ty'd it at both ends with a Pack thread, and blew into it with a strong Breath, through a small Pipe, and kept the Wind within with a small Thread, and then dry'd the Gut, so distended, in the Air, till it became hard: And then we could clearly discern, not only those half opening Valves of the Colon sound out by Kerckringius, but we also ob­serv'd the aforesaid Valve of Bauhinus, to be a Membrane spread athwart over the Ingress of the thin Gut, and hang­ing somewhat over toward the inner Parts of the Colon, and bo [...]'d through in the middle from one side to the other with a right or straight Hole, as if slit with a Penknife. And so we observ'd also, that the Lips of both those Open­ings closing, the Ingress of the Ilium into the Colon was so guarded by these Valves that nothing could fly back again▪ And by this View we found, that of the foresaid four Opinions, the second was the most probable, but that the first, third, and fourth, which was our own, was a Deviation from the Truth. Only that the third rightly and truly asserts, that there is a certain fleshy Circle which laps the Ingress of the Ilium into the Colon.

XXXIV. In this Colon, the The Use. thicker sort of Excrements are ga­thered together, and contain'd till the time of Exoneration, whereas it would be a great Shame and Trouble to have his Excrements continually dropping from him. For which rea­son it is very large and capacious, and has little closing Valves, to stop and re­tard the Excrements. And by reason it encompasses almost the whole Abdo­men, sometimes ascending, sometimes descending, hence it happens that the Dregs and Excrements to be expell'd, pass down more slowly, requiring two or three times of compressing it self for their Expulsion.

XXXV. The third and last of the The Inte­stinum Rectum▪ thick Guts, is the Intestinum Re­ctum, which descending in a streight Line into the hollow of the Hips, ends [Page 48] in the Fundament. Call'd by the Greeks [...], because it runs on without any Excrescencies or Windings; also [...], because it is the Beginning; or [...], because it constrains us as it were by a kind of Command, to quit our selves of the Burthen that oppres­ses us.

XXXVI. It is far inferior to the The Big­ness. Colon in Length and Br [...]dth, as not being above one Palme and a half in Length, and about three Fingers broad; but in Thickness and Carno­sity exceeds all the Guts: Being out­wardly covered with fat Appurtenan­ces.

XXXVII. It is ty'd to the Os Sa­crum; Connexi­on. and Coccyx, by means of the Peritonaeum, and in Men is fastned to the Root of the Penis, in Women to the Womb by a musculous Substance, whence springs the great Consent of these Parts.

XXXVIII. The End of it is the The Fun­dament. Fundament, called Anus, and Po­dex, which has three Muscles: The First, which is called Sphincter, and is fasten'd to the lowest Parts of the Os Sacrum, embraces and purses up the Fundament orbicularly, to keep in the Excrements. To this, there are some who add another, but of a thinner Substance for the same Use, inseparably joyn'd to the former, and as it were riveted into the Skin, at the Extremity of the Fundament. But this the greatest part of Ana­tomists confound with the first, and make but one of both. The other two are called Levatores, or Funda­ment-Lifters, which rising from the Ligaments of the Coxendix, and Os Sacrum, descend distinct to the Sphincter, and intermix their Inser­tions with it, to the end they may draw the Fundament back again, brought down by the Force of strain­ing, in Evacuation. Tho' Riolanus derives their Original from the Bones themselves, yet he divides 'em errone­ously into four Muscles, whereas such a Division cannot be made without Di­laceration, as de Marchettis well ob­serves, Anat. c. 3. These Muscles being loosened by any Accident, cause a fal­ling of the Fundament, or rather a sinking down of the Gut.

XXXIX. Into the Fundament are Haemor­rhoid Veins. ingrafted the Roots of the Haemor­rhoid Veins, which are two fold. Of which, the Internal ascending some­times to the Right, sometimes to the Left Mesenteric Veins, and sometimes to the Splenic Branch, empty their Blood into the Vena Porta; but the Ex­ternal enter into the Hypogastric Branch.

XL. Arteries accompany the Veins, Arteries. proceeding partly from the lower Me­senteric Branch, and partly from the Hypogastric Arterie.

XLI. To these, three or four little Nerves. Veins joyn themselves, deriv'd from the extream parts of the pith of the Back, which make this Gut very sen­sible, and infuse Spirits into the Muscles to enable their Contraction.

CHAP. IX. Of the Mesenterie.

I. THE Mesenterie, or [...], is so called from its Situa­tion, as being placed in the middle of the Bowels.

II. It is a membranous Part sea­ted Situati [...] and vse. in the middle of the lower Belly; destin'd not only to bring the Vessels safe to the Intestins, and carry 'em back again, but also to be a common Band of all the Guts themselves, lest their manifest Windings and Turn­ings should be confounded and intangl'd to the manifest hazard of Life and Health.

III. Which tho' it be but one, is The Divi­sion. divided by some into the Mesaraeum, or Mesenterie, and the Mesocolon, while the thin Guts stick to the first, the thick Guts to the latter.

IV. It consists of a double strong Mem­branes. Membrane, continuous to the Perito­naeum, and every where stuft with Fat. Besides which, Wharton writes Adenograph. c. 7. That he has found out and demonstrated a Third Middle­most and proper to it, somewhat thin­ner than the former, and propping up the Vessels and Kernels within it.

V. From the Center to the Circum­ference Bigness [...] Shape. it is about the bigness of a Span. But the Shape of it is Circu­lar, [Page 49] whose Circumference is contract­ed into innumerable Folds, to streigh­ten the length and widness of the Guts, and to contain their proper Situation and Order. In the Middle it is large, Oblong in the Sides, especi­ally on the left Side, where it descends to the right Gut. But it is of an extra­ordinary thickness in fat People, the bulk of Fat being largely augmented: In others it is much more thin.

VI. It rises about the uppermost [...]ts Rise. and third Vertebra of the Loyns, to which it is ty'd with a very firm Connexion. Fallopius believes it to de­rive its Original at the Nervous Plexa­re, or Knitting, from whence it takes its Beginning; of which more c. 18. & l. 3. c. 8.

VII. It has several very small and Its Ker­nels. soft Glandules, inserted among the Membranes; and in the middle, one great one, all which it is most certain do manifestly conduce to the attenu­ation and greater Perfection of the Chylus. And of these Glandules there is great Difference found in the num­ber, not only in several sorts of Animals, but in many Individuals of the same Species: However this is observ'd in Man, where they are sewer in number, their bigness compensates that Defect. Now that they conduce to the Attenua­tion and perfecting the Chylus hence ap­pears, for that innumerable milkie Ves­sels run through 'em (after what man­ner is to be seen Cap. 11.) and pour the Chylus into 'em, to imbibe in it something of a slight subacid Quality, for its grea­ter Perfection; which Vessels procee­ding from 'em, meet together at length in the middlemost great Glandule, and thence in a direct and short Channel are carry'd to the Receptacle of the Chylus, into which they empty their milkie Juice. This Glandule Fallopius and Asellus erroneously call the Pancre­as or Sweetbread, and many at this day, the Pancreas Mesenterii; but very far different from the real Pancreas seated under the Stomach.

VIII. This both Experience and The use of the Ker­nels. our own Eyes do teach us. For if these Glandules come to be obstructed by any Accident, or that the Liquor bred in 'em (concerning which see something in the preceding Chapter, & l. 2. c. 2.) and which is to be of necessity, mix'd with the milkie Iuice, has by any accident acquir'd an over acid Sharpness, then the milkie Iuice within 'em becomes coagulated in the Form of a Cheese, and by reason of its abundant Overflowing swells very much: By which means the Passage is obstructed to the Chylus that comes next, whence such People as are troubled with this Distempet (by reason of the Di­stribution of the Chylus is obstructed) are troubled with the Coeliac Flux, and grip'd with Pains in the Belly, and by reason of Passage deny'd to the Nourishment, labour under an Atrophie, and by degrees are wasted to death. Of which I have already given three Ex­amples.

IX. The first was of a Scotch Soul­dier, Observ. [...] ▪ who during his stay in India, and a long tedious Voyage upon his return, having fed upon unwholesom Dyet all the while, fell into a languish­ing Sickness, and labouring under a Coeliac Flux with Gripings of the Guts, tho' his Appetite was still in­different good, was brought to our Hospital, where after he had lain three or four Months, and that all this had been try'd in vain to cure his Coeliac Flux, at length he dy'd as lean as a Rake. The Body be­ing opened, first there was to be seen an overgrowing Spleen hard and black; a Pancreas extreamly swell'd, hard and of an Ash-Colour; we also found the innumerable Glandules in the Mesente­rie (which in some Persons are hardly discernable) to be very tumid, and somewhat hard, insomuch that some were as big as a Bean, but most of 'em as big as a Filberd, and some few as big as a Nutmeg. But when they came to be dissected, there was nothing in 'em, but a certain white Cream coagu­lated into a milkie Substance.

X. The second Example was of a Observ. [...] ▪ poor Girl of about eleven Years of Age, who dying of such a Flux of the Belly, accompanied with rumbling and Pain in the Belly, was reduced to nothing but Skin and Bone. I o­pen'd her Body in November 1656. at the request of her Parents, who be­lieved her to have been bewitch'd and kill'd by diabolical Arts, and by the murmuring and hissing in her Guts, be­liev'd Snakes, Toads, and other Crea­tures to have bin bred in her Bowels. But when she came to be open'd, we [Page 50] found, as in the former innumerable Glandules of the Mesenterie, very tu­mid and somewhat hard, of which ma­ny were as big as a Filbert, and some somewhat bigger. Their outward Co­lour in some was white, in others speck­led like black and white Marble: But within fide, as well in these as in all the rest, was contained a very white milkie Juice, curdl'd into the form of a Cheese. The Spleen and Pancreas somewhat exceeded their due Proportion.

XI. The third Example was of a Observ. 3. noble Danish Child, called Nicholas Retz, between seven and eight Years of Age, who having lain under a great Atrophie for several Months, accompanied with griping in the Guts, at length reduced to Skin and Bone, dy'd in June 1662. Whereupon be­ing desired by his Friends and others, who had the Care of him, to examine the cause of the Child's Death for the Satisfaction of his Parents, I opened the Body in the Presence of several Specta­tors; and there I shew'd the Liver, Spleen, Heart, Lungs, Kidneys, Ven­tricle, and Guts, all in good Order and well Condition: Only the Pancreas was somewhat swell'd and ill coloured: But in the Mesenterie appear'd the certain Cause of his Death: For that the in­numerable Glandules of the Mesenterie, were swell'd to such a wonderful degree, with an extraordinary hardness, some as big as a Filberd, others somewhat bigger, and many as big as a Bean: They were all of a white Colour, and contained in 'em a white Cream coa­gulated to the hardness of a dryer sort of Cheese, which hindring the Passage of the succeding Chylus, was the cause of the Atrophie, and consequently of the Death of the Child that ensu'd.

XII. From whence it is sufficient­ly apparent that the Coeliac Flux, and Atrophie, is occasioned by the Obstruction of those Glandules or Kernels. Nor is that their Use, which Anatomists commonly ascribe to 'em, that is to say to prop the Veins and Arteries carried through the Mesenterie, but in them, as in all Glandules, there is something of a particular fermentaceous Liquor bred, to be mix'd with the milkie Chylus; and for that Reason they be­come serviceable to the milkie Vessels (not the Sanguiferous) and hence by reason of their Obstruction, or some­thing else amiss (such as is occasioned by a vitious Ferment mingled with the Duodenum) many times the Membranes of the Mesenterium are stuft with a world of ill Humors, the occasion of lan­guishing Fevers, and several obstinate and diuturnal Distempers.

XIII. Riolanus has conceiv'd a The Opini­on of Ri­olanus. strange Opinion of these Glandules, Anthropog c. 15. while he asserts, that by reason of them, the Root and Foundation of all Strumas is in the Mesenterie: And that never any Strumas appeared without the Body, unless the Mesenterie were strumous; Which he says, was also the Opinion of Guido and Iulius Pollux, with whom it seems he rather chose to mistake, than to understand by physical Practice and Philosophy, that Strumas have no Af­finity at all with the Glandules of the Mesentery, being only design'd for the farther Preparation of the Chylus alone. Neither can those Strumas that break out on the outside of the Body, pre­tend in any manner to any Cause or Ori­ginal in the Mesenterie: Since daily Ex­perience tells us, that most People who are troubled with Struma's, are sound in all other Parts of their Bodys; nor do they complain of any Distemper in the lower part of the Belly, whereas the Diseases of the Mesenterie are usual­ly very fatal to the Patient. And the very Cure it self instructs us in the con­trary, which is chiefly perform'd by Topics, that would never prevail, if the original Cause of the Distemper lay concealed in the Mesenterie. Lastly in the Dissections of Persons troubled with Strumas, the same thing manifestly ap­pears, who are for the most part seen to have a sound Mesenterie.

XIV. The Mesenterie derives its Its Nerves. Nerves from the Plexure of the in­ner Nerves of the sixth Pair; and the Nerves proceeding from the Mar­row of the Loyns; which causes it to be so sensible in its membranous Part, tho' it be more dull of Feeling in its Fat and glandulous Part, for which Rea­son Apostemes ly long conceal'd in it be­fore they be discern'd as they should be, either by the Patient or Physician.

XV. Its Arteries proceed from the Its Arte­ries. mesenterie Branch of the great Arte­rie, the Right and Left, or the Up­per and Lower.

XVI. It has several Veins running It [...] Veins. between its Membranes, call'd the [Page 51] Mesaraic, which rising with very small roots from the Tunicles of the Guts, and mutually opening one into another, as they frequently meet in the Mesentery, at length meet altogether in the two greater Branches, that is, the right and left Mesenteric continues to the Vena Porta. These infuse the Blood, forc'd through the Arteries to the Mesentery and Guts, being the re­mainder of the Nourishment of these Parts, into the Porta Vein, thence to be conveigh'd to the Liver. Of the Use of the Porta and Mesaraic Veins, see more l. 7. c. 2.

XVII. Besides the Arteries and Milkie Vessels. Mesaraic Veins, an innumerable Com­pany of Milkie Veins, and many Lym­phatic Vessels run through it, of which we shall discourse c. 11. & 13.

CHAP. X. Of the Pancreas or Sweetbread.

I. THE Pancreas or Sweetbread so call'd in Latin, as being all Flesh, is also call'd by another name [...], and by the Latins Lactes, from its inner white and milkie co­lour.

II. It is a glandulous, loose and The defini­tion and si­tuation. shapeless Body, situated at the first Vertebra's of the Loyns, under the hinder part and bottom of the Sto­mach, cloath'd with a thin Membrane from the Peritonaeum, and as it were hanging at it.

III. The shape of it is oblong and Shape. flat.

IV. With its broader part adjoyn­ing Connexion. to the Confines of the Liver, it lyes under the Stomach near the first Verteber of the Loyns; and including the Meatus Biliarius and Trunk of the Porta is joyned to the Duodenum: Hence it extends it self toward the Spleen, and sharpens by degrees, but is not fasten'd to it.

V. The Substance of it is altogether Its Sub­stance. glandulous, and consists of many as it were little Knots or Knobs, cohe­ring together by means of the Vasa Intercidentia, or interpassing Vessels, and many small Fibres, and included in the common Membrane taken from the Peritonaeum. From whence it is that Francis de le Boe Sylvius describes the Sweetbread to be a conglomerated Glandule, compos'd as it were of many small Kernels gather'd in a cluster toge­ther, and cloath'd with their own pro­per little Membrane. These little Knobs make a shew of being hard, but taken together, seem to be very soft, by reason of their loose Connexion.

VI. The colour of it is pale, hardly Its Colour. shewing the least tincture of any Blood; neither does it agree in colour with any of the fleshy parts. And hence proceeds the wonder, that by the ancient Anatomists it should be call'd [...], that is, all fleshy; whereas it should have been rather nam'd [...], or all kernelly.

VII. The bigness is not the same Its bigness. in all Persons; for sometimes you shall find it to equal the length of six, seven, or more cross Fingers, seldom so short as three or four. Its greatest breadth is generally two Fingers and a half; its thickness the breadth of one Finger.

VIII. The weight of it is various, Its weight. according to the weight and difference of the Body. Wharton has observ'd it in Men of full-grown Age to weigh four or five Ounces for the most part. Regner de Graef has observ'd it in Hor­ses to weigh eleven Ounces. In sickly People it exceeds the usual bigness, and is often full of Corruption (of which Riolanus, Hildan, R. de Graef, Horsti­us, Tulpius, Blasius, and others, give us several Examples,) and sometimes also little Stones breed within it, as were found to the number of seven or eight, at Pa­ris, in the Body of a certain deceas'd Nobleman, by the Report of R. de Graef, lib. de Succ. Pancreat. who also adds in the same place another Example out of Sennertus, of a Pancreas harden'd to a Gristly Substance.

IX. It is furnish'd with small Its Nerves Nerves from the sixth Pair, more e­specially from the upper Plexure of the Abdomen.

X. It receives its Arteries from the Arteries. left Branch of the Coeliac Artery, leaning toward the Back; and some­times from the Splenic Artery.

XI. It sends forth its Veins to the Veins. Splenic Branch near the Porta: Fur­thermore, it transmits a Trunk of the [Page 52] Vein, which in some measure it em­braces.

XII. It is also stor'd with many Lymphatic Vessels. Lymphatic Vessels: In the middle part of it, according to its length, a pe­culiar Chanel extends it self, indiffe­rently capacious, and consisting of a thin and strong Membrane, call'd from the first Discoverer Ductus Wirt­zungianus.

XIII. This one Chanel runs through the middle of the Bowels, and re­ceives an innumerable Company of little and small Vessels, open into it from all parts of the Bowels. Among which there is one somewhat bigger than the rest, which it admits in its lower part, not far from its Ingress into the Intestin. Sometimes there are two Chanels to be found, but not equal in their length, of which the one keeps its wonted Station; the other remains a little lower; but both are joyned to­gether for the most part, and make one Orifice: Sometimes also the other enters the Ductus Cholidochus near the Duode­num, while t'other perforates the Inte­stine a little below. Frederic Ruisch, Ob­servat. Anat. 12. writes, That he has often observ'd two Pancreatic Chanels in Human Carkases, of which neither had any Communication with the Du­ctus Cholidochus: also that he rarely found this Chanel single in Dogs. For that in reference to this Chanel the Sport of Nature is various, even in the same Creatures sometimes, but more especial­ly according to the diversity of Animals. For that some have one, which is most frequent in Men: Others two, others three, which being often joyn'd toge­ther, before their Exit out of the Pan­creas, sometimes enter the Intestine se­parately. In some, they are inserted into the Ductus Biliarius; in others, part­ly into the Intestine, in some few, they are inserted into the Stomach; which happens most frequently in some sort of Fish.

XIV. The Chanel call'd the Wirt­zungian, tho' it be easily discover'd in Men, yet is not so soon found out in Dogs; because their Pancreas is not contracted, as in Men; but thin and extended in length; and sometimes as it were divided into certain Parts. But if the Instrument be thrust into its Orifice, where it opens into the D [...]ode­num, the Chanel is presently to be found.

XV. The Orifice of the said Cha­nel The Exit of the Cha­nel. discharges it self into the Duode­num, having an opening sufficiently large, sometimes the breadth of four, sometimes five or six Fingers from the Pylorus, in a remarkable wrinkle of the Flexure of the Duodenum, (where there is a very small extuberancy, de­noting its Exit) next to the going forth of the Biliary Pore in Men, in Dogs about two Fingers breadth below the Exit of the Meatus Biliarius, and not unfre­quently opening into the very Biliary Chanel it self, (as is familiarly observ'd in Sheep) and some affirm that there is a Valve belonging to it, looking outward, and obstructing the Ingress of any thing out of the Intestine into the Chanel. But because the Chanel from part of the Intestine easily admits the Instrument, and for that this Valve did never mani­festly appear to us, we are apt to believe, that an Oblique Insertion into the Inte­stine is sufficient to exclude the Hu­mours, as shall be said concerning the Ductus Biliarius, c. 15. In another part being extended toward the Spleen; it grows slenderer and slenderer, till it quite vanishes, before it reach the ex­tream Part of the Pancreas, so that it never touches the Spleen, nor enters it, which is that which some have endea­vour'd to perswade us.

How Nicolas Steno found this Chanel call'd Wirtzungian in Birds, he most ele­gantly describes Lib. de Musc. & Glandul. in these words:

XVI. There is, saith he, an Ob­servation made upon Birds, that is of very great use for the Explanation of the Wirtzungian Duct. For in seve­ral sorts of Birds, I have seen a dou­ble Pancreatic Chanel, meeting also with a double Ductus Biliarius (of which the one comes from the Vessel of the Gall, where it does not lye upon the Liver, the other from the Liver it self) the Insertion of which four Ves­sels varies three manner of ways. For either they all meet together in one Mouth, or every Pancreatic Chanel, with its Bilary, enters into a common Mouth, so that the Intestine is only pervious at two holes; or else every Chanel having its own particular Cha­nel, is the occasion that there are four ways into the Intestines. Lately I saw the Hepatic Ductus in a Turky-Hen, where it went forth out of the [Page 53] Liver single, but then being divided in its progress, it ran to the Intestine with two little Chanels, so that the In­testine by that means receiv'd the Cho­ler out of three little Vessels.

XVII. Into this Wirtzungian Duct, out of all those little Knots, of which the Pancreas consists in Men, certain little Branches like small Rivulets run abroad, and pour out the Pancreatic Humour, prepar'd and concocted in the little Knots of the said Pancreas, to be thence carried to the Duodenum. But in that Chanel there is never any Pancreatic Iuice to be found, because it flows with a steep Current into the Duo­denum, and never stays in the Chanel: In like manner as the Urine flowing from the Reins through the Ureters, by reason of its rapid Passage, is never to be found in them.

XVIII. I admire at Lindanus Med. Whether the Chanel be an Ar­tery. Physiol. c. 16. Art. 16. vers. 244▪ where he asserts this Chanel to be an Artery; but that it is uncertain from whence it springs, whether from the Aorta, or the Coeliac, before its Splenetic Emission. Assuredly it has no similitude with the Artery, neither in Substance nor in Use, neither is it any where continuous with the Arteries: nei­ther does it beat, or contain any Blood as the Arteries, but without any Blood car­ries in it a certain peculiar Liquor; nei­ther does it discharge it self into the Veins, as the Arteries do, but into the Cavity of the Intestine. Neither is it true which Lindanus adds, that is to say, That from this Chanel (which he calls an Artery) several little forked Branches are extended into that Bowel, whereas indeed several little forked Branches run out from the little Knobs of the Bowel into the Chanel, as has been said. There­fore less erroneous were they, who affirm­ed this Chanel to be a Vein, as resem­bling a Vein in the Structure and Spe­cies of its Substance, whereas indeed it is no Vein, nor carries any Blood, but is another sort of Membranous Vessel, appointed for the Conveyance of a pecu­liar Humour.

XIX. As to the Office of this Bow­el The Office of the Sweetbread (and I hope no Body will be offend­ed, that by virtue of a peculiar Philo­sophical Licence, we call this noble Glandulous Body a Bowel) there have arisen sharp Contests; while some af­firm'd that it did only support the Divi­sions and Separations of the Vessels, and lay under the Stomach like a Pillow; others asserted that it fed upon the cru­der Portion of the Blood; others that it assisted the Heart in Sanguification; o­thers that it drew Melancholy from the Spleen, or furnish'd the Stomach with fermentaceous Juice, or supply'd the place of the distemper'd Spleen. Others that it receiv'd the Chylus, and concocted it to a greater perfection, and separated the Choleric Excrement from it. All which Opinions, when I found 'em to be meerly Conjectural▪ and altogether uncertain, nor supported by any solid Reasons or Experience, I thought fit to be a little more diligent than ordinary in the Examination of this almost neg­lected part of Anatomy: and at length, after many Experiments (of which some succeeded ill, some well; for that besides the Pancreatic Iuice; there flow'd for the most part great store of Choler by the Ductus Cholidochus into the Duodenum, ty'd both above and below, and then slit long-ways; which Choler spoil'd both the Colour and Taste of the Pan­creatic Juice) I found by the Dissections, as well of Living as of newly strangled Creatures, a certain Sublimpid and Sa­livatick, or Spittly sort of Liquor flow from the Ductus Pancreaticus, somewhat sowre, and slightly Acid (tho' Needham, contrary to all Experience, denies its A­cidity.) And sometimes having some­thing of Saltness mix'd with it (and the same in mangy Dogs I have observ'd to stink, and to be of a very ill taste) I say I observ'd this clear and salivous or spittly sort of Liquor to flow from the Ductus Pancreaticns into the Duodenum, and that sometimes to a very considera­ble quantity; but never any of the Vasa Chylifera extended to this Bowel, nor e­ver was any Chyle found in it.

XX. Whence I judg'd, that tho' A Digres­sion. several Anatomists have describ'd se­veral Vasa Chylifera running out of this Bowel, and caus'd 'em to be de­lineated in their Tables; nay tho' Schenckius himself deriv'd the Vasa Chylifera from hence, and were di­stributed from hence toward the Me­sentery, tho' Veslingius and Baccius affirm that the Chylus flow'd out of it being wounded, and tho' Dominicus de Marchettis fancy'd that he had observ'd several Chanels running out toward the Liver, and distributed from it to the Guts, yet that all they [Page 54] were deceiv'd by some preconceiv'd O­pinion; The use of the Sweet­bread Iuice. and that neither the Vasa Chylifera do run out of it, neither is the Chylus emptied forth into it, but that there is in it a peculiar Humour concocted in it, bred out of the serous and saltish part of the Arterious Blood which is carried into it, mixt with some Animal Spirits brought and con­veigh'd through the small and scarce discernable Nerves. Which Humour flowing into the Duodenum, and be­ing there mixt with the Choler flowing also thither, and the Nourishment digested in the Stomach, and falling down through the Pylore into the Sto­mach, raises a peculiar Effervescency in those Aliments, by virtue whereof the profitable Chylous Particles are se­parated from the Excrementitious, at­tenuated, and made more fit for Li­quation and Distribution. And this Operation is apparent from the Diversi­ty of the Substance of the Aliments con­cocted in the Stomach, and still contain'd there, from the Substance of those which are already fall'n down into the Guts. For those are more viscous and thicker, and retain the Colours of the various sorts of Food; These more fluid, less slimy, and more white. Which aptness for Liquation is prepar'd, to the end that by the Peristaltic Motion of the Intestines the Chylous Particles may be forc'd through their innermost mucous Tu­nicle into the Milkie Vessels, while the rest that are more thick fall down by de­grees into the thick Guts, there to be kept till the time of Evacuation. Now this Effervescency is occasion'd by the Volatil Salt of the Choler, and the sulphu­rous Oyl meeting with the Acidness of the Pancreatic Iuice, as in Chymistry we find in like manner the same Efferve­scencies occasion'd by the meeting toge­ther of the like Mixtures.

XXI. These things being more seri­ously consider'd, I was confirm'd in my self, that the Pancreas or Sweet­bread is no such useless Bowel, as it is by many describ'd to be; nor that the Iuice which is prepar'd within it is so small, that it can scarcely be di­scern'd, nor that it is unprofitable or excrementitious, as many have hither­to thought; but that it is a Iuice of which there is a moderate Quantity, and by reason of its specific subacid Quality very necessary to raise a new Effervescency in the Guts, together with the Choler that is mixed with it, of the Nourishment concocted and fall'n already down from the Sto­mach, and by that means a separation of the profitable from the unprofitable Particles, and that therefore a sound Constitution of Health depends in good part upon a sound Pancreas or Sweet­bread, and that through the unsound­ness of the Sweet-bread many Diseases proceed, hitherto ascrib'd to Distem­pers of the Spleen, Liver, Mesentery, and other parts. And it may be easily observ'd, that upon its Juice being out of order, that is either too plentiful or too sharp (especially if there be too co­pious a mixture of sharp Choler) there is occasion'd an Effervescency too vio­lent and disorderly in the Guts, which is the cause of sowre Vomits, Belchings, Wind, distension of the Bowels, Diar­rhea's, Dysenteries, Colick Passions, and several other Diseases▪ tho' it is as certain, that most of these Diseases may proceed from a vitiousness in the Choler only.

XXII. On the other side, if the Sweetbread Iuice be two scanty, too mild and insipid, it causes but a weak Effervescency, Obstructions, Atrophie, and extraordinary binding of the Bo­dy. Or being too Salt and Acid, and rising toward the Stomach, it occasions Canine Hunger, Reaching, sowre Belch­es, &c. but falling down into the Guts, extraordinary Gripings, Corrodings, Loosness, &c. Ascending toward the Head, together with the Blood, Epi­leptic Convulsions, and as it were Hy­steric Passions, and Melancholy Ra­vings. Therefore Highmore out of Aubertus, relates, That in a noble Wo­man, long troubled with an Epilepsie, and as it were an Hysteric Passion, and at length dying of those Distempers, there was nothing found defective but her Sweetbread.

XXIII. Ascending toward the Sto­mach or the Heart, it causes Palpita­tions of the Heart, Swooning Fits, to­gether with an inequality and weak­ness of the Pulses, &c. Thus High­more relates from the same Aubertus, That a Merchant of Leyden could not sleep, or if he did, he swooned away, and at length went away in one of those [Page 55] Fits; in whose Carkass, all other parts being safe, only the Sweetbread was found putrified with an Aposteme. And thus according as this Juice is variously affect­ed, it occasions various Distempers, as are to be seen in those that are troubled with Hypochondriacal Diseases, of which a great part are to be attributed to the bad disposition of this Juice. Which Impurities it contracts, partly through ill Dyet, as salt Meats, smoak'd Meats, Sowre, Acid Food, and such like; or through the bad Concoctions of the o­ther Bowels, especially of the Spleen: For that from these Causes, by reason of the vitious Ferment of the Blood, many Particles of the Blood in the Heart being render'd less spiritous, and some­what acid and salt, and remaining prone to Coagulation, and so being carried through this Bowel to the Arteries, can­not be sufficiently concocted therein, nor chang'd into a Ferment convenient and proper for the concocted Aliments already slid down to the Guts.

XXIV. Two years after I had made these Examinations, and committed 'em to writing, there was brought me a Disputation of the Learned Regner de Graef, once my Scholar, held in the Academy of Leyden, under the Presidentship of the famous Professor Fr. de le Boe Sylvius, concerning the Pancreas or Sweetbread, and its Iuice, which confirm'd me much more in my Opinion. For at length, among many other Experiments, after several Endeavours and Inventions to little or no purpose, he found out an ingenious way, whereby this Juice might be ga­thered together in a living Dog; which he afterwards very liberally shewed to Us, and several other Spectators, in the Month of March, 1665. He took a fasting Dog, and having ty'd his Mouth that he should not bite, and opened his Aspera Arteria with a Pen-knife, that he might breath through that hole, pre­sently he ript open his Abdomen, and then binds the Gut, as well under the Pylore, as under the Egress of the Pan­creatic Ductus, and then dissects and opens it between those two Ligatures in the Ex­ternal Part, which is free from the Me­sentery; and with a Sponge wipes away the Choler, Flegm, and other Stuff which he found there. Then taking a small Quill of a wild Duck, at the one end of which he had fitted a small Glass Bottle close stop'd round about, he thrust the other end into the Ductus Pan­creaticus, which in Dogs is two Inches broad below the Egress of the Ductus Biliarius; and then with a needle and a double Thred, sew'd the Gut and the Ductus to the Quill and the Bottle, so that the Quill with the Glass Bottle, hanging without the Abdomen, should not stir either from the Gut or the Du­ctus. This done, he put back the Guts that hung out before into the inner Parts, and sews up the slit of the Abdomen with a strong Thread, and so keeps the Dog alive as long as he could, that is, for eight or ten Hours. In this manner, within the space of seven or eight hours, he received into his Bottle an indifferent quantity of this Limpid Juice that di­still'd into the Bottle thorough the Quill, sometimes half an Ounce, sometimes six Drams, sometimes a whole Ounce; of which we tasted, and found the taste to be the same as I had tasted in several of my Experiments before mentioned, that is, a little sowre, somewhat saltish, and somewhat Subacid. The whole O­peration De Graef relates more at large in his Disputation, and describes in his Tables annexed; and farther testifies, That in some Dogs, that perhaps were not so sound, he has observ'd that Juice to be very impure, that it yielded some­times a stinking, sometimes a nauseous, sometimes a very austere and astringent taste; in so much that they who tasted it were all that day troubled with an uneasie Suffocation, sometimes with stinking Belches, and Reaching of the Stomach. The same De Graef, in a lit­tle French Book which he published in the Year 1666. upon the same Subject, writes, That at Anjou, in a Man that dy'd suddenly, and was dissected before he was cold, he collecttd together the Pan­creatic Juice, and found the Acidity of it to be so very pleasant to the taste, that he never tasted the like in Dogs. And in the same Book, and more at large in Lib. de Suc. Pancreat. Edit. An. 1671. c. 7, 8, 9, 11. he discourses of the Qualities of this Juice, how being mix­ed with the Choler, it promotes Effer­vescency, and causes the Chyle to be white; and what Distempers it causes, if vitious; all which would be too long here to repeat. Most certainly a most ingenious Invention, and for which the Industrious and Learned Discoverer de­serves a high Applause, who by this Industry of his has lighted us a Candle to the better and clearer knowledge of most Diseases.

[Page 56]XXV. But by the way we are to ob­serve, That as the first Discoverers of new Inventions are generally giv'n to err in this, that they have such a ten­der affection for their new-born Em­bryo's, tho' yet but weak and imperfect, that they will observe no Deficiency or Error in 'em, but with an extraordi­nary Pride, loathsome to all Company, endeavour to extoll'em above others, more mature and perfected by Age and Experience; So does Regner de Gra­ef in this part shew himself a little faulty, while he following the most fa­mous Francis de le Boe Sylvius, from this one discovered Cause of many Dis­eases, endeavours to deduce the Cau­ses and Originals of all Distempers; believing that Diarrheas, Dysente­ries, Colic, Epilepsies, Syncopes, Hysterical Suffocations, Fluxes of the Terms, Agues, and I know not how many other Diseases, proceed from this one Cause; as if no other vitious Humours, bred by the ill Habits of the other Parts, could ever occasion such Diseases. Whereas a thousand Disse­ctions of Bodies, that have dy'd of those Diseases, plainly demonstrated that those Diseases were occasion'd by the viticus habit of the other Parts, in regard the Pancreas in them was absolutely sound.

XXVI. We have also in the sight of many Spectators demonstrated, that when the Sweetbread has been safe and untouch'd, Diarrheas, Dysenteries and Colicks have proceeded from some Corruption of the Liver and Cho­ler; Epilepsies from the depravation of the Brain and Meninx's, or by some stinking Ulcer in the Ear: also that several Fevers are occasion'd by vitious Humours bred in the Body through the bad Temper, ill Concocti­on, Corruption, Ulceration or In­flammation of the other Bowels and Parts, as in Pleurisies, Inflammati­ons of the Lungs, Squinancies, Phrensies, &c. Also that many times deadly Symptomes and most terrible Hysteric Passions and Fits are occasi­on'd only by the Distemper of the Testicles preternaturally swell'd, and containing a virulent, yellow, livid Iuice, sending up virulent Exhalati­ons to the upper Parts. Which Dis­eases have been many times cur'd by the Evacuation of that vitious Matter, without applying any Medicins to the Pancreas or Sweetbread, that was altoge­ther Innocent of the Distemper.

XXVII. In the Year 1667. No­vemb. 16. I dissected in our Hospital a Carkass of a young Maid of four and twenty years of Age, which had lain sick for three years together, some­times troubled with immoderate de­fluxions of her Courses, sometimes with Gripes of the Colick, sometimes with Diarrhea's, and want of Appetite; lastly an▪ Anasacra or Hydropsical swelling of the whole Body; and toward her latter end oppress'd with a tedious Cough, accompanied with filthy Spittle; in which Body we found the Sweet­bread almost entire, and without any Dammage; but the Liver was in a very bad Condition, not dy'd with a red, but with a black and bluish Co­lour, and the Lungs full of many little Ulcers. Which being seen, many Per­sons, as well Physicians as Students in Physic, renounc'd the Opinion of Sylvi­us, and Regner de Graef.

XXVIII. On the other side Whar­ton has started a new Opinion con­cerning the Use of the Sweetbread, be­lieving the Excrementitious Iuices of the Nerves to be purified therein, and chiefly of that Complication which lies under the Nerves. Which from the sweet Taste of the Substance of the Sweetbread, he judges not to be bitter or sharp, but sweet and insipid. But in many other Places of his Adenogra­phy, he discourses after another manner of the other Glandules; and affirms 'em to prepare the Alimentary Juice for the nourishment of the Nerves. But who can believe that there should be a redun­dancy of Excrements in the most pure Animal Spirits, and that they should flow from all parts of the Body through invisible Pores to the Pancreas only, there to be separated from the Animal Spirits? Or who is not able to see that the thicker Juices prepared in the Glandules, can never pass thorough the thick Substance of the Nerves, but they must occasion Obstructions and Palsies. But more of these things l. 8. c. 1.

XXIX. By what has been said, it is apparent how far the Ancients, and [Page 57] many of the Moderns were mistaken in their Opinions concerning the Use of the Sweet-bread; and among the rest Fernelius, who asserts that most of the superfluous and unprofitable Moistures are heaped up together in the Sweet-bread as in a Sink, and thence flow into the Guts. But in regard this Bowel it self is covered with a thicker Membrane, and all the parti­cular Glandules are covered by them­selves with a thin little Membrane, nor has it any other Vessels that enter into it, unless some very small Arteries and Veins, and very slender Nerves, there does not appear any way for the super­fluous and excrementitious Moistures of other Parts to enter the Sweet-bread: Besides that there is no Reason why they should be forced more to this Part than to the Kidneys, Guts, or other evacuating Parts.

XXX. Seeing then it is apparent by what has bin said, what the Con­stitution and Use of the Sweet-bread, and Sweet-bread Iuice is. We will only add two Things by way of Co­rollary. 1. How that particular Juice is generated in the Sweet-bread? 2. How Great, and what sort of Effervescency it raises in the Guts.

XXXI As to the First, our mo­dern The Gene­ration of the panore­atic Iuice. Philosophers teach us, that the Blood contains in it all manner of Humors, Acid, Bitter, Salt, Sweet, Insipid, Thick, Thin, &c. And that, of these, certain particular Parts of the Body admit of such and such particularly, which by reason of cer­tain Disposition of Magnitude and Figure, have an extraordinary Ana­logy with their little Pores; but ex­clude others by reason of their Dis­proportion: And so by reason of that specific Constitution of the Pores, the cholerick Humors are most properly separated in the Liver; the Serous in the Reins, and the pancreatic Iuice in the Sweet-bread. But tho' it must be granted, that in the Nourishment of the singular Parts by reason of the cer­tain and peculiar Disposition of the Pores in each, some Particles of the Blood stick to these, others better and more closely to those, till they are changed into their Substance: Yet this is not to be granted in the Generation of Humors, from whence at length, that general Nourishment, the Blood, proceeds. For in the Blood is contain­ed a Matter, out of which Humors of all sorts may be form'd, as it is fermen­ted, mingl'd, and reconcocted in these or those various Bowels, and several Parts, yet is there not in the Blood a­ny Pancreatic, Splenetic, Choleric Juice, &c. (as in Wheat and Bread there is not really any Chylus, Choler, or Blood) but it is a Heterogeneous Mat­ter containing such and such different Particles, which being after a peculiar manner mingled and concocted in the proper Vessels, become Humors Sweet, Bitter, Acid, &c. Not by reason of a­ny Analogy with the Pores, but because of the specific Nature, Temper, and Structure of the specific Parts. And thus the matter is contained in the Earth, out of which, according to the Variety of Mixture and Concoction, a thousand sorts of Herbs, Trees, Flowers, Shrubs, and other things are generated: And thus in like manner several Forms of things are shap'd by the Hands of the Artificer: While one makes Statues, another Bricks, another earthen Ves­sels of all sorts, tho' such things were never in the Earth before, nor could be said to have bin. The Blood there­fore, which is sweet, flowing through the splenic Arterie into the Spleen, is there depriv'd of the greatest part of its Sweetness, and gains a subacid Quality somewhat saltish; not by reason of the Pores of the Spleen, but by reason of the natural subacid Quality of the Spleen, which it infuses in the Blood and certain other Humors that accompany it. Sweet Wine thus grows sowre, being poured into a Vinegar-Vessel; not by reason of the Pores of the Vessel, ha­ving some kind of Analogie either be­tween the Wine it self and the Particles of the Vinegar, or else because there was an Acidity in the Wine before, and its acid Particles were only mix'd with the Vinegar, and the sweet not mixed; but because the sowre Acidity of the Vinegar, contained in the Ves­sel, might there fix the sweet sulphury Spirits of the Wine, and exalting the Salt and Acid above 'em, altogether de­prive it of its Sweetness. For in that manner is Choler bred in the Liver: not that it was really praeexistent in the Blood, or for that the Pores of the Li­ver have any Analogie, with the chole­ric Particles of the Blood, were the occa­sion of its being separated from it; but because the sweet Blood, flowing in great Quantity through the splenic Branch [Page 58] to the Porta out of the mesaraic Veins, with a mixture of the splenetic Juice, becomes so altered, that it is fermented and concocted after a new Manner in the Liver (which proceeds from the peculiar Temper, Structure, and Fer­ment prepared in it) by which means many Particles of it are made Choler, which were not so before that new Mix­ture and Concoction: Concerning which see the following 15th. Chap. de Genera­tione Bilis. And thus it is in the Pan­creas, wherein some part of the Blood flowing into it through the small Ar­teries, is changed into Sweet-bread Juice (the rest proceeding forward to its Fountain the Heart) not by reason of the Analogy of the Pores of the Sweet-bread with that Juice; but by rea­son of the new Alteration which the Blood undergoes in it, occasioned by the particular Property or Nature of the Part, together with the new Mix­ture and Concoction.

XXXII. As to the second we have The Effer­vescency of the Choler, [...] [...] [...] [...].] affirm'd, that the pancreatic Iuice being mix'd with the Choler that flows to it, causes a new Effervescen­cie in the Duodenum. Which is ap­parent in the Dissection of living Dogs; in whom generally there is a spumous Humour boyling in the said Intestine, which is raised by the Aci­dity of the pancreatic Iuice, and the mixture of Choler, abounding in Volatile and fixed Salt. Which is that very thing which Chymical Ope­ration teaches us; viz. That acid Spi­rits meeting with the lixivious Salt, al­ways fall a boyling if there be nothing in­termix'd to prevent the Operation. Now that in Choler there is contained a lixi­vious Salt besides the oily sulphury Parts, is hence apparent, for that both may be separated from it by chymical Art. And then the Tast discovers the moderately sharp Acidity of the pan­creatic Juice; and moreover for that being put into sweet Milk, it presently curdles it, even as Vinegar and other sharp Juices do. Lastly, for a farther Proof of that Effervescency occasioned by the mixture of Choler with the pan­creatic Juice, we will add the twice re­peated Experiment of D. Schuylius, Tract. de Vet. Medicin. The Abdomen of a live Dog, saith he, being opened, I ty'd the Duodenum with a String, not far from the Pylorus; and with another String a little below the Insertion of the pancreatic Ductus, and so left the Dog, having sow'd up the Abdomen again. Three Hours after, the Dog being still a­live, and strong, for he had lost very lit­tle Blood, the Abdomen being opened a­gain, we found the Space between the two Ligat [...]res so extreamly distended, that it would not yield to the Compression of the Fingers, but threaten'd a Rupture, nor did we find the Dogs Gall-bag less di­stended. A most intense and burning Heat also scalded that intercepted Part of the Duodenum; in which, when I had made a little Wound with a Lancet, together with the Humors contained there­in, great store of Wind brake out with the usual Noise and ratling of breaking Wind; from whence also, a sowre kind of Smell offended the Noses of the standers by; which when the Gut was more opened, none of the Spectators could endure. Which was a manifest Argument, that there had not only flow'd thither such a Quantity of Choler, and pancreatic Iuice, but that there was an Effervescency raised in 'em, not a mild and moderate one as in sound People, but extreamly vehement. For not only that part of the Intestin was full, but distended extraordinarily by a violent force and rushing of the Blood and Spirits. Nor was it probable that that part of the Duodenum could have bin so distended, nor that the Vapors, Exhalations, Humors, and Wind, could have bin dissipated with so great a Force, but by the Effervescency and Agitation of Particles quite contrary to those Humors. Some few days after I repeated the same Experiment, in the presence of several Students; and within two Hours or little more, that Portion of the Intestin swell'd very much, but did not burn so violent­ly: But having opened that swell'd Por­tion of the Intestin, which I had ty'd before, frothy Bubbles brake out with a loud noise, with which that Space of the Gut was distended. So that it is not for Impudence it self to raise any more Doubts concerning the Truth of this Ef­fervescency.

CHAP. XI. Of the Mesenteric Milkie Vessels.

I. THE milkie Vessels conveigh­ing the white Chylus from the Guts through the Mesentery, were first discovered in our Age; [Page 59] And in the Yeor 1622, by Gaspar Asellius, Anatomist of Padua. I say in our Age, for that Hippocra­tes and others had some obscure Knowledg of 'em. Galen also saw 'em and observ'd 'em; but he believ'd 'em to be Arteries, and sway'd by that Er­ror, assirm'd that the Orifices of the Arteries reaching to the Intestines, re­ceiv'd some small Quantity of Nourish­ment, appears l. 4. de Off. Part. c. 17. & l. 3. de natural. Facult. c. 13. & lib. an Sang. in Art. content. c. 5.

II. Asellius was the first that gave The Name. em the Name of milkie Veins. But in regard they carry no Blood, and for that their Substance is far diffe­rent from that of the Veins, as being much more transparent and thinner, we thought it more proper to call 'em milkie Vessels for better distincti­ons Sake.

III. They are thin transparent The De­scription. Vessels covered with a single Tuni­cle, scattered through the Mesentery, infinite in number, appointed for con­veighing the Chylus.

IV. They take their Original from The Ori­ginal. the Guts (the chiefest Part from the Iejunum and other small Guts, a­mong whose Tunicles, with several small and slender ends of Roots they open into the inner Hollowness of the Intostines, their Orifices lying hid, under a spungy kind of Slime, into which the Chylus is squeezed by Com­pression of the said Guts, and from whence it is received by the gaping Vessels.) From hence, with an oblique Passage, they ascend the Mesentery, by the way interwoven one among ano­ther, and variously confused, and so proceed forward between and thorough many little Glandules, chiefly those that are placed at the Separation of these Vessels, toward the great or middlemost Glandule of the Mesen­tery, into which a very great number enter, and a many cross over the Su­perficies of it, and afterwards end at the great Receptacle of the Chylus, absconded under that great Glandule. But they never enter the Liver, as some with Waleus and [...] endeavour to persuade us. Neither do any of 'em open into the Vena Porta, the Vena Ca­va, or Mesenteric Vein; tho' Lindanus, fol­lowing Waleus ( l. 2. Physiolog. c. 5.) asserts that Mistake. Nor are they ever continued with the Mesaraic Veins, as being Slips of them, which was a Fig­ment of Deusiagius. Nor ever were a­ny seen to proceed from the Stomach.

V. Wharton observes in his Ade­nographia, How they pass the Glandules. that those Vessels in their Entrance into the Glandules, or a little before, are divided and subdi­vided into several little Branches, and so are quite obscur'd in the very Substance of the Glandules, and after they have so in a manner disappear'd in the very middle of the Glandules, presently new Strings of the said Ves­sels spring out again, from the very Body of the said Glandules, which meeting together form a Trunck as be­fore, and being carried toward the Beginning of the Mesentry, associates to it self other Branches of the same kind meeting with it, and is by them enlarged. Thus without doubt, those Vessels that enter the great Glandule, spring out of it again as from a new Root, and into the Receptacle of the Chylus.

VI. They have many Valves which Their Valves. admit the Entrance of the Chylus from the Guts, and hinder its Return, which tho' they cannot be easily de­monstrated to the Sight, by reason of their extraordinary smallness, yet thus are they easily apprehended; that is to say, if these milkie Vessels are pressed toward the great Glandule, they presently grow empty: And Fre­d [...]ric R [...]isch, a Physician formerly at the [...], now at A [...]sterdam, and a famous Dissecter, had publickly shewn 'em, and caused 'em to be engraven in his Plates: But if the same Com­pressure be made from the Kernel to­ward the Guts, the Chylus stops, neither can it be thrust forward. Which is the reason that in Dogs and other Crea­tures well fed, that are dissected alive, or hang'd three hours after they have fed, these milke Vessels appear soon af­ter very numerous and full of Juice in the Mesentery: But while the Guts are stirr'd and mov'd up and down by the Anatomists, together with the Mesen­tery annexed for Demonstration sake, that milky Juice is squeezed out of 'em by that Motion, and flows to the Re­ceptacle of the Chylus; and so these [Page 60] small Vessels in the Mesentery vanish as it were from between your Fingers, and escape the Sight, when being empty'd, by reason of their thinness and transpa­rency, as has bin already said, they can no longer be discern'd.

VII. The use of these milkie Vessels, Their Use. is to conveigh not the Blood, but the Chylus from the Guts to the great Glandule of the Mesentery, and thence to the Receptacle of the Chyle. And this the whitish Colour of the contain'd Juice teaches us, which in a Creature kill'd three or four hours after feeding, is like the Cream of Milk, and disap­pears when the Distribution of the Chy­lus is at an end, nor does the Blood ever succeed into its Place, and so the Chylus being evacuated, these pellucid and small Cobweb-lawn Vessels, for want of that milkie Colour almost escape the Sight, which is the Reason why they have lavn undiscovered for so many Ages. I say almost, in regard that to these that look narrowly, they remain conspicuous in the form of little Fibres. Which deceiv'd Galen and some others, who took these little Fibres for Nerves or very small Arteries.

VIII. Now that the Chylus is A Proof. carried through these Vessels from the Guts to the Receptacle, is appa­rent from hence, for that if in a living Animal well fed, and sud­dainly dissected three hours after, they be ty'd in the middle, there will happen a swelling between the Liga­ture and the Gut, and a lankness in the other Part. And the same is also manifest from the Situation of the Valves, of which we have already spoken.

IX. The cause why the Chylus en­ters The impul­sive Cause. the milkie Vessels, and is forced through those, is twofold. The one more feeble: a kind of rowling Con­traction perform'd by the Fibres of the Guts themselves, which Con­traction is conspicuous in Cats and Rabbets dissected alive. The other is stronger, powerfully assisting the for­mer, an Impulse of the Muscles of the Abdomen mov'd upwards and downwards by the Act of Breathing: By which the Chylous, and consequent­ly the thin and most spirituous Parts of the Nourishment concocted in the Sto­mach, and fermented by the mixture of Choler, and the Pancreatic or Sweet­bread Juice in the Guts, being separa­ted from the grosser and more crude Mass, are forc'd out of the Guts into the gaping Orifices of the milkie Ves­sels. Which Orifices, by reason of their extream Narrowness, will not however admit the grosser Parts; and hence it comes to pass, that being separated from the thin Chylous Parts, and forced to the thick Guts, they are exonerated through the Fundament as unprofitable Excre­ments.

X. From what has bin said, it appears that these Chyle-bearing Ves­sels, do not always conveigh the Chy­lus (for they are often found emp­ty) but only by Intervals: That is, so soon as the Chylus is perfected in the Stomach, and descends from thence to the Intestines.

XI. Deusingius in his Treatise de Whether [...] Chylus [...]e attracted. motu Chyli, believes that Expulsi­on only is not sufficient; and there­fore he adds to it Sucking or Attracti­on, the necessity of which he endea­vours to prove by these Reasons. If there be no Attraction (says he) but that all Motion must be referr'd to Impulsions, how shall we think that the Nourishment enters from the Mo­ther into the Umbilical Veins, or by what Cause can it be forc'd thither? Or how does the Alimentary matter in an Egg reach to the Heart of the Chicken? Unless by Attraction, by means of the Motion of Rarefaction, and the Reciprocal Distension and Contraction of the Heart. But these Reasons are not of Force enough to de­fend and establish the said Opinion. I answer therefore to both, That no Nourishment enters immediately from the Mother into the umbilical Veins; but that as well the Blood, as the milkie Juice, by the Impulse of the Mo­ther is forced from the Womb only in­to the Uterine Placenta (as shall be de­monstrated more at large c. 30. of this Book) and thence by the Impulse which is caused by the umbilical Arteries from the Heart of the Birth toward the said Placenta, the Blood of the Mother that lies therein, being rarify'd and concocted by the arterious Blood of the Embryo, is forc'd into the umbili­cal Vein, and the Chylus also is forc'd along into the Vasa Chylifera, that tend to the Concavity of the Amnion, or Membrane that enfolds the Birth. If [Page 61] any one enquires how the rarify'd Juice enters the Embryo, before the Navel be grown to its just Magnitude, and how such a Motion of the Heart is caus'd by its Arteries? I answer, That that In­gress is caus'd by a kind of sliding or slipping into it; but there is a great dif­ference between attraction and slipping into a thing. For a hard, heavy, dry, or any other such kind of Substance is attracted, that cannot follow of it self, and sticks to the thing that draws it: but a soft and fluid thing slides or slips in; which finding a lower evacuated place, can neither contain it self, nor subsist in its place, but slides in of it self without attraction. As for Example; If the Wa­ter next the Mill is cast upward by the Water-Mill, the subsequent Water can­not be said to be drawn by the Mill, which is sufficiently distant from it, nor is any way joyn'd with it, but not being a­ble to support it self, slides voluntarily down to the empty space. And in this manner the Liquation of the Chylus slips into the Embryo. For while the Heart continually makes Blood of the Matter that daily offers it self, and forces it a­way from it, presently the Particles of the adjoyning Liquation or dissolv'd Nou­rishment, slip of their own accords into the empty Pores, and supply the Vacuum. So that there is no attraction of the Nourishment in the Embryo. And the same is to be said of the Chicken in an Egg, into which the Alimentary Nou­rishment enters, partly by slipping, part­ly by the Impulse of the Heart of the Chicken.

CHAP. XII. Of the Ductus Chyliferus of the Breast, and the Receptacle of the Chyle.

I. THis Chyliferos Ductus of The De­scription. the Thorax, is a Vessel ex­tended from the Region of the Loyns all the length of the Back-bone, to the Subclavial Vein, lying under the short Ribs; through which the Chylus being pour'd into it, out of the Milkie Mesenterics, together with the Lym­pha or pellucid Water, is carried to the Subclavial Vein. But because the Passage of the Chylus through it is not continual, hence some, not without rea­son, have thought that this Vessel ought to be more properly call'd Ductum Lym­phaticum The Great Lymphatic Chanel. Magnum, the Great Lympha­tic Chanel; for that as soon as the Chylus vanishes, it is found to be re-supply'd by the Lymphatic Water.

II. The first Discovery of this is a­scribed The Disco­verers. to John Pecquet of Diep▪ John van Horn, a famous Anato­mist of Leyden, both which disco­ver'd it in the Years 1650. and 1652. neither being private to what the other had done; and in our Time publickly shew'd it, and caus'd it to be engraven in their Plates.

But altho' we are much beholding to 'em for their Diligence for restoring to the great Benefit of Physic, the know­ledge of this Vessel, which had lain bu­ry'd in darkness for almost a whole Age, through the negligence and unskilfulness of Anatomists, for rendring the know­ledge of it more perfect, and making it apparent by publick demonstration; and all this without any Information before­hand; yet are they not to assume to themselves the whole honour of the first Invention. For above a hundred years ago this very Passage was first observ'd and taken notice of in the Dissection of Horses, by the most famous Anatomist Bartholomew Eustachius, who Lib. de Ve­na sine pari, Antigram. 13. writes thus: In those Creatures, (says he) speaking of Horses) from the great sinister Iugal Trunk, where the hinder seat of the Root of the Internal Iugular Vein appears, (he believes it to be the Subclavial, where the Jugular enters it above) a great Root springs forth, which, besides that it hath a Semicircular Orifice at its beginning, (clearly designing a Valve;) there is also another Root, full of a watery Humour; and not far from its Original, divided in­to two parts, which meeting in one stock again that spreads no Branches, near the sinister side of the Vertebra's, penetrating the Diaphragma, is carried downward to­ward the middle of the Loyns, where be­coming broader, and embracing the great Artery, it concludes in an obscure ending, which I have not as yet so well▪ found out. From which words it is apparent, that this Passage was first discover'd and ob­serv'd by Eustachius, but the use of it was not rightly understood. For he de­scribes the Beginning of it from the Sub­clavial Vein, where the End is: and the End in the Loyns where the Beginning is: So that we are beholding to Eusta­chius for the first, but ruder detection; [Page 62] but to Van Horn and Pecquet for the more accurate and perfect knowledge and demonstration of it.

III. But tho' there may be one con­tinued Chanel from the Loyns to the Subclavial Vein, yet because it has a broad capaciousness at the beginning, like a little Bag, first receiving the Chylus out of the Mesenteric Vessels, it is excellently well distinguish'd into the Receptacle of the Chylus, and the Ductus Chyliferus.

IV. The Receptacle of the Chy­lus The Recep­tacle of the Chyle. is the Original of this Chanel, more capacious than the Chanel it self, and is a kind of a little Cell, seated in the Loyns, into which the Chylus first flows out of the Mesaraic Milkie Veins, and is collected into that as into a Common Receptacle, which was the reason that Pecquet first call'd this little Cell by the name of the Re­ceptacle of the Chyle. Which ne­vertheless Van Horn would rather have call'd by the name of the Little Milkie Bag. This Bartholinus calls the Milkie Lumbar Glandule, but erroneously, in regard the Substance of it has no Re­semblance with the Substance of the Glandules. Walter Charleton calls it by the name of the Pecquetian Conceptacle, from the Discoverer. But in regard it receives as well the Lymphatic Water poured forth from the Glandules of the adjacent Parts, as the Chylus it self (for in a live Creature, if you squeeze out the Chylus with your Thumb, it is pre­sently fill'd with Lymphatic Water) it may be no less properly call'd the Re­ceptacle of the Lympha, as well as the Chylus, and so much the rather because the Chylus only flows into it at such and such Intervals, but the Lympha fills it continually.

V. The Seat of this Receptacle is The Recep­tacle of the Lympha. under the Coeliac and Emulgent Veins, almost in the middle Region, between the Muscles Psoas, the Kidneys and the Renal Glandules, which, together with the Kidneys, it touches by im­mediate Contract, so that there can hardly be separated with a Penknife certain little Branches running be­tween. Yet in all Creatures it does not exactly keep the middle place of the Loyns, but in Beasts most commonly inclines toward the left side, near the hollow Vein descending, close to the left Kidney, seldom turns to the right side, or keeps directly in the midst of the Lum­bal Muscles.

VI. In Brute Beasts this Vessel is The Num­ber. generally single, with one Cavity; sometimes twofold; that is, one in each side. Sometimes one, with a little Membrane going between, as it were distinguish'd into two Cells. Moreover, sometimes three of these Vessels have been said to have been found, two in one, and one in the other side; which is more than we have ever met with as yet. Bartholinus has ob­serv'd three in a Man; two of a bigger size, set one upon another, but con­ioyn'd with mutual milkie little Branch­es, seated between the Cava descending, and the Aorta Veins, in an Angle, which the Emulgents make meet with the Ve­na C [...]va. The third somewhat higher, and nearer to the Diaphragma, and lo­sing it self in its Nervous beginning under the Appendix.

VII. The shape of this Receptacle is The Shape. for the most part round, and some­what compress'd; but many times O­val.

VIII. It varies in Bigness: Fre­quently The Big­ness. it fills the space between the Lumbar Muscles, extending it self to the Kidneys and their Kernels. In Brutes we find it sometimes a little big­ger, somewhat extended toward the lower parts.

IX. The inner Cavity, the Chyle The Wi [...] ­ness. being taken out, sometimes equals two Ioynts of the Fore-fingers, sometimes only one of those Ioynts; sometimes it will hardly admit the top of the Finger. In Men the Cavity is less than in Beasts; But the Substance of the little Bladder is much more solid, as being very thin, smooth and soft in Brutes, in Men thicker.

X. From the upper part of the Re­ceptacle Ductus Chylife­rus of the Breast. rises a Branch somewhat broad, call'd the Ductus Chiliferus of the Breast, or the Great Lympha­tic, consisting of a thin and pellucid small Membrane, like the Receptacle, leaning upon the Back-bone about the middle below the great Artery, covered with the thin skin that covers the Ribs, and winding somewhat toward the right side of the Artery, where it is more conspicuous in its lower part, the Guts being remov'd to the right side, [Page 63] with the Mesentery and the Dia­phragma cut off. Hence proceeding farther upward under the Great Ar­tery, about the fifth and sixth Verteber of the Breast, it turns a little without the Great Artery toward the left side, and so between the Intercostal Arte­ries and Veins, ascends to the sinister Subclavial, into which it opens in the lower part or side, in that part where the sinister Iugular enters into it in the upper place. But at the entrance it does not open into it with a wide Gaping, but with six or seven little small Holes, covered over together with a little broad Valve in the inner Concavity of the Subclavial Vein, which Valve looks from the Shoulder towards the Vena Cava, where is appointed the Ingress of the Chylus and Lymphatic Iuice out of the Ductus Chyliferus into the Subclavial Vein; but the Return of the same Juice, and of the Blood also into the said Cha­nel out of the Subclavial Vein, is pre­vented.

XI. Sometimes two Branches, some­what Two Cha­nels. swelling, ascend from the Recep­tacle, which nevertheless we find uni­ted below in the middle under the Great Artery, as if there were but one Chanel only in the upper part.

XII. In Human Bodies sometimes, Two or more Re­ceptacles of the Chyle. tho' very seldom, there are to be found two or three Receptacles of the Chylus, and from each arise particular Ductus's, which being united in their Progress, at length with one Ductus proceed to the left Subclavial Vein.

XIII. Their usual Insertion is into The Inser­tion. the left Subclavial Vein, as well in Men as in Beasts; but very rarely do Anatomists observe the Insertion into both Subclavial Veins. Whence I judge that it is scarce to be found in one Beast of an hundred. Thus Bar­tholinus reports that he found the Inser­tion of the Ductus Chyliferus into the left Subclavial Vein in the Dissections of six Men and several Beasts, and once only in a Dog its Ingress into the right Subclavi­al also. Pecquet observ'd two Branches ascending upwards, joyn'd here and there together in the Mid-way, with several parallel little Branches, and meeting to­gether at the third Verteber of the Breast, and then divided again, of which one entred the right, the other the left Sub­clavial.

XIV. In the inner part, this Chanel Its Valves. has many Valves, preventing the Re­turn of the Chylus and ascending Lymphatic Juice, sufficiently mani­fest from hence, because the Chylus contain'd in it may be easily forc'd up­ward by the Finger, but by no means downward; and for that the Ductus being bor'd thorough in any part, the Milkie Juice tending upward from the lower part, flows out; but in the upper part, above the little wound, stays with­in the Valves, nor will descend to the wound made in the Chanel. Moreover, for that the Breath blown into it, through a small Pipe thrust into it; or Liquor injected into it through a Syringe, easi­ly ascends upward, but cannot be forc'd downward.

XV. The Discovery of this Ductus The way to discover it. Chyliferus belonging to the Breast, is not always equally to be made with the same easiness, for that because its Tunicle is pellucid, and lyes under the inner cloathing of the Ribs, it is not so easily obvious to the sight, espe­cially if it be empty of Chyle, as fre­quently it is some hours after Meals, or after Fasting: but it presently ap­pears when it swells with a whitish Chylus. And therefore it presently shews it self in live Dogs, or strangled three or four hours after a full Meal. And then also the Ingress of the Milkie Mesenteric Veins into the Receptacle of the Chyle, from the great Glandule of the Mesentery, manifestly displays it self. Bartholinus writes that he readily found this Chanel with the Receptacle in the Bodies of two men newly hang'd, that had fed heartily before their deaths. In such as lye sick, and dye of the Disease, it is hard to be discover'd, as being emp­ty of Chylus, for that sick People eat very little, especially when Death ap­proaches, and that their Stomach makes hardly any Chylus out of the Nourish­ment receiv'd. Nevertheless in the Year 1654. I found it in two Persons that dy'd through the Violence of the Dis­ease, and shew'd it to some Students in Physick. First in April, in the Body of a Woman emaciated by a long Dis­ease, but while she liv'd, very thirsty. In which Body, the next day after the Woman dy'd, I found it swell'd with Serous and Lymphatic Humour, and shew'd it to the Spectators that were pre­sent. The second time was in May, in the Body of a Woman that dy'd of a [Page 64] Pleurisie, in her right side, and in her life time, provok'd by continual thirst, had drank very much: and for that reason, both the Receptacle and this Ductus were very much swell'd with Se­rous Humours. But in both Bodies I found the Situation of the Chanel to be such, as it us'd to be in Dogs, and that its Insertion was into the sinister Subcla­vial. Only in the first Body the Re­ceptacle of the Chylus was small, in the latter more large, as admitting into it the whole Joynt of the Thumb. After­wards we have search'd for, and found this Ductus in several Human Bodies, tho' we have found some variety as to the Receptacle, as sometimes that there was but only one, sometimes that one distinguish'd or divided with a small Membrane in the middle; sometimes by reason of a double protuberancy, they seem'd to be two distinct Recepta­cles: and sometimes that out of this one Ductus very seldom two arose; which afterwards clos'd together in one. But hitherto we never found in Men the In­sertion of this Ductus into the right Subclavial, but always into the left.

XVI. But whether the Ductus Chyliferus sends any Branches to the Breasts and Womb, we shall inquire in our Discourse of the Womb and Teats.

While we were writing this, came Lewis de Bill's Cir­cle. forth in Print a small Dutch Treatise of Lewis de Bills, wherein he boasts to have found out a much further Propagation of the Lactiferous and Chyliferous Ves­sels. For he writes, and gives you the draught of it in a Plate annexed, that the Ductus Chyliferus belonging to the Breast, makes a wreath'd Circle to the Division of the Jugular Veins (which afterwards some rather chuse to call the Labyrinth, others the Twisted Turning) and that two little Branches ran from it to the Glandules of the Teats, and two ascended further upwards to the Glan­dules of the Neck. For my part, I have several times search'd for the Con­tinuation of this Contorted Circle with the Chyliferous Duct of the Breast, but could never bring or follow this Chanel farther than the Subclavial Vein. Never­theless, understanding by report of o­thers, that the said Circle could not of­ten be found, yet that it was sometimes discover'd by Steno and others, I order'd my Dissections of Dogs after another manner, that is, from the upper part of the Throat to the Sternum or Breast­bone, and upon several diligent Inquisi­tions after this Circle, sometimes I found it manifestly conspicuous, especially if it were blown up; for so it became most obvious to the View of the Spectators. At other times I found nothing else, but only a various Concourse of several Lymphatic Vessels, taking their Rise out of the Jugular Glandules, the Glan­dules behind the Ears, and others adja­cent thereto, and thence running out to several Veins, and then discharging it self into them. In the mean time I ob­serv'd this also very accurately, That this Concourse of small Lymphatic Vessels, was not continu'd with the Chyliferous Duct of the Breast, nor receiv'd the Chy­lus from, or carried it farther to the Glan­dules that lye round it, as Lewis de Bills erroneously asserts; but quite the con­trary, that that Lymphatic Juice was carried from the said Glandules to that Lymphatic Circle or various Concourse of several Vessels (I say various, because it is not always the same in all Bodies) and thence by means of several little Branches spreading farther, is emptied into several Veins, as the Glandules of the Armpits and Groins, by means of their Lymphatic Vessels, exonerate their Lymphatic Juice for the most part into the Milkie Vessels.

XVII. But tho' this Circle has ap­pear'd to us now and then, and other times not at all; yet it is manifest that some could never discover it. For of late their came to our hands, the Anatome of the Bilsian Anatome, by Ia­cob Henry Paulus Royal Professor in the Academy of Hoppenhaghen, wherein that Learned Person utterly explodes the said Bilsian Labyrinth, as a meer Fable, because he could never find it, but only some kind of Concourse of small Lym­phatic Vessels, as aforesaid. His words are these, L. 6. of the said Book: The new Chylifer Chanel, says he, which D. John van Horn has first divulg'd, (he means the Pectoral Chanel) when it leaves the Breast, does not again ascend toward the Throat, or come to be taken notice of again: And the wreathed Receptacle of Bilsius, with its Windings, Turnings, Pipes, Branches and small Twigs, is nothing else but the Propagations and Excurrencies of the Lymphatic Iugular Vessels from the upper Glandules to the Glandules of the Armpits, and this on both sides. Wherein Nature sports her self after a wonderful manner, in the same manner as in the Veins of the Hands and Feet, and which have been obvious to me at several times in several varieties. But generally they kept this Order, that the Ductus proceeds alone by it self from the Oblong Glandule [Page 65] of the Iaw, where it lyes between the hud­dle of the Parotides, and Wharton's Glandules at the lower Seat of the Larynx, call'd Thyroidae, accompanied sometimes with three or four small Branches, which often close with another Branch, proceed­ing from the lesser Glandules, which ad­joyns to the Caro idal Artery, and the In­ternal Iugular Vein, tho'▪ not always. This Ductus then forsaking the Gullet, over which it is spread, associates it self to the External Iugular Vein, and creeping un­der it, sometimes crosses over, sometimes passes by two other Lymphatic Vessels, which proceeding from the Glandules of the Neck, in the middle of the Neck mutually embrace and bind each other, and are the occasion of many Branches, but no proper Circle, unless a man will fancy it so to be. And therefore that famous Circle is a meer La­byrinth, and an inextricable Errour. But all those Propagations of Vessels, when they have once reach'd and pass'd the Branch of the External Iugular (to which frequently adjoyns a small Glandule also) proceeding from the Muscle that bends the Head or Mastoides, fall into a common Ductus like a Glass Viol, with a wide Belly, and as it were blown like a bladder, so that it might not improperly be call'd a Recepta­cle by Bilsius. From which, at length, double Appendixes extend themselves, of which the one enters the Armpit Vein, near the Pipe of the rough Artery, in the place where the Carotidal Arteries arise from the Trunk: the other at a little distance enters the External Iugular: To which another Lymphatick Vessel (which hitherto Anato­mists have deriv'd originally from the Ioynts) joyns it self from the Subaxillary Glandules. So that there happens a meet­ing of several Insertions, that is below, of the Pectoral Ductus (an Error; for that never passes beyond the Subclavial Vein) from the side of the Axillary Vessels; a­bove, of the Lymphatical Iugular Vessels, and Vessels arising out of the Thymus, which is one of the Iugular Glandules, but seldom any passing of one into ano­ther.

XVIII. This Description the same Author, in a new Plate annex'd, ap­parently demonstrates, and in the same seventh Chapter, adds the way to find out the Iugular Lymphatics.

But tho' the foresaid Doctor Paulus wittily enough derides Bilsius's Circle, yet is it not probable that Bilsius at his dissection should delude so many Learn­ed Men that were present, into that Blind­ness and Madness, as to testifie in a Pub­lic Writing, that they saw such a Circle clearly by him demonstrated, which was not really there to be seen: Could they be all so blind? Besides, we our selves, and several others, have seen this Cir­cle, tho' we could not always find it. Which we the rather believe may hap­pen through the Sport of Nature, in re­gard that in some Dogs the Circle is found to be perfect; in others only a disorderly Concourse of Lymphatic Vessels about the Throat. To conclude then, I assert this in the mean time, That this Circle is no Production of the Tho­racical Ductus Chyliferus (as Bilsius er­roneously avers and delineates) and that, as has been said, it receives no Chylus from it, nor carries any Chylus, but is a Chanel into which the Lymphatic Juice, being carried from the Circumjacent Glandules, and other parts, and to be conveigh'd into the neighbouring Veins, and other parts, is collected together.

Now whether the Chylus and Lym­phatic Humour be one and the same thing, or whether distinct Juices. See Chap. 13. following.

XIX. The use of the Chyliferous The vse. or Great Lymphatic Pectoral Du­ctus, is to conveigh the Lymphatic Iuice continually, and the Chylus at certain Intervals, being forc'd out of the Milkie Mesaraic Vessels, and at­tenuated therein, by the mixture of the Lymphatic Iuice, to the Subclavial Vein, to the end the Lymphatic Iuice may prepare the Blood to cause an Ef­fervescency in the heart, and that the Chylus mixed with the Venal Blood, and carried together with it through the Vena Cava to the Heart; may be chang'd by that into Blood.

XX. That the Chylus and Lym­phatic The ascent of the Chylus. Iuice ascends upward, not on­ly the Situation of the Valves, but o­cular observation in the very Dissecti­on of Animals, sufficiently teach us, by means of a string ty'd about this Cha­nel; for presently there will be a swel­ling between the Knot and the Recep­tacle, and a lankness above the Liga­ture. Which Experiment proves suc­cessful in a Dog newly hang'd, if when the Knot is ty'd, the Guts, together with the Mesentery, be lightly press'd by the hand, and so by that Compression the Chylus be squeez'd out of the Chyliferous Mesaraic Vessels into the Receptacle, and out of that into the Pectoral Du­ctus.

[Page 66]XXI. Now that the Chylus enters the Subclavial Vein, together with the Lymphatic Iuice, and thence is carried to the Heart through the Vena Cava, besides that what has been already said concerning the Holes, is obvious to the sight; it is also appa­rent from hence, for that a good quan­tity of Milk being injected into the Du­ctus Chyliferus, it is forthwith carried into the Subclavial Vein, hence into the Vena Cava and right Ventricle of the Heart, together with the Blood con­tain'd in the Vena Cava, and may be seen to flow out at the Wound made in the Ventricle.

XXII. Now the Cause Impulsive that The impul­sive Cause. forces the Chylus, together with the Lymphatic Iuice, out of the Receptacle into this Ductus Pectoralis, and so for­ward into the Subclavial Vein, is the same that forces it out of the Guts into the Milkie Mesaraic Vessels (of which in the preceding Chapter, that is to say, the Motion of the Muscles of the Abdomen, mov'd upward and down­ward with the act of Respiration, which causes a soft and gentle. Impulsion of the Chylus through all the Milkie Ves­sels, which impulse is conspicuously ma­nifest from hence; for that if in a li­ving Creature the Muscles of the Ab­domen be open'd and dissected, and thereby their Motion be taken away, and then the Bowels of the lower Bel­ly be gently squeez'd, presently we shall see the Milkie Iuice move forward, and croud through all the Milkie Ves­sels; and tho' that Compression has no Operation upon the Pectoral Ductus, yet the Chylus forc'd into it by that Com­pression out of the Receptacle, is by that forc'd upward, as one Wave pushes for­ward another.

XXIII. Here now arises a Question, Whether the whole Chylus as­cend to the Subclavial. Whether the whole Chylus ascend through this Chanel to the Subclavial? and whether or no also a great part of it do not enter the Mesaraicks, and so ascend to the Liver? To which, we say, that the whole Chylus passes to the Subclavial Vein, except that which out of the Chyliferous Bag, by an extraor­dinary Course sometimes, tho' very seldom flows to the Urine Bladder, (of which see more c. 18.) or else in Women with Child, according to its ordinary course flows to the Womb, (See c. 30.) or in Women that give suck to the Breasts; (See l. 2. c. 2.) But Regius is of another Opinion, believing that part of the Chylus is carried to the Spleen out of the Stomach through the Gastric Veins, and part through the Mesaraics to the Liver. Of which, the one is refuted by us in the preceding Chap. 7. and the o­ther L. 7. c. 2. Deusingius smartly main­tains, that the whole Chylus is not carri­ed to the Subclavial through the Ductus Thoracicus, and confirms his Opinion by these Arguments. Exercit. de Chylificat. & Chylimotu.

• 1. Saith he, There is no congruous pro­portion of Nature between the innumera­ble Milkie Veins scattered through the Me­sentery, and the Thoracic Ducts (which nevertheless are seldom more than one) conveighing the Chylus beyond the Axil­lary Veins.
• 2. How shall the Thoracic Duct be able, without prejudice, to transmit such a quan­tity of Chylus, carried through so many Milkie Vessels, to the Receptacle of the Chylus?
• 3. So very small a portion of the Chy­lus as is carried through the Ductus Tho­racicus to the Axillaries and Vena Cava, does not suffice to supply the continual waste of Blood, agitated and boyling through the whole Body, nor to repair the continu­al wearing out of all the parts.
• 4. Seeing there is a great quantity of Chyle made, and but very little can pass through the streights of the Ductus Tho­racicus, where shall the rest of the Chylus remain, which between every Meal is not able to pass through the small Thoracic Duct?
• 5. That same largest quantity of the Chylus, which in time of Breeding and giving Suck, is carried to the Womb and Dugs, whither is that carried, when the time of Breeding and giving Suck is over, when it is very probable that it cannot pass through the Ductus Thoracicus.
• 6. If the Ductus Thoracicus of a live Animal be quickly ty'd with a string, the motion of the Milkie Liquour in the Me­sentery is not perceiv'd to be hindered.