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Colon, and Right gut. The blinde is a thick and short gut, having one mouth, in which the Ilion and Colon meet: it receives the excrements, and conveyes them to the Colon. This Colon hath many windings, that the excrements pass not away too fast the right gut is straight, and conveys the excrements to the fundament, whose lower part is bound up with certain Muscles, called Sphincteres, that the excrements may be the better contained, until such time a man be willing to go to the stool. In the midst of these guts is situated the Mesenterium or Midriffe, composed of many veins, Arteries, and much fat, serving chiefly to sustain the guts. All these parts serve the first concoction. To the second, which is busied either in refining the good nourishment, or expelling the bad, is chiefly belonging the liver, like in colour to congealed bloud, the shop of bloud, situate in the right Hypocondry, in figure like to an halfe Moone, Generosum membrum, Melancthon stiles it, a generous part; it serves to turne the Chylus to Bloud, for the nourishment of the Body. The excrements of it are either Cholerick or Watery, which the other subordinate parts convey. The Gall placed in the concave of the Liver, extracts Choler to it: the Spleen, Melancholy; which is situate on the left side, over against the Liver, a spungy matter, that drawes this black Choler to it by a secret vertue, and feeds upon it, conveying the rest to the bottom of the stomack, to stir up appetite, or else to the guts as an excrement. That watery matter the two Kidnies expurgate, by those emulgent veins, and Ureteres. The emulgent draw this superfluous moisture from the bloud; the two Ureteres convey it to the Bladder, which, by reason of his site in the lower belly, is apt to receive it, having two parts, necke and bottom: the bottom holds the water, the necke is constringed with a muscle, which, as a Porter, keeps the water from running out against our will.

Members of generation are common to both sexes, or peculiar to one; which because they are impertinent to my purpose, I do voluntarily omit.

Middle Region.] Next in order is the middle Region, or chest, which comprehends the vital faculties and parts: which (as I have said) is separated from the lower belly, by the Diaphragma or Midriffe, which is a skin consisting of many nerves, membranes; and amongst other uses it hath, is the instrument of laughing. There is also a certain thin membrane, full of sinews, which covereth the whole chest within, and is called Pleura, the seat of the disease called Pleurisie, when it is inflamed; some adde a third skin, which is termed Mediastinus, which divides the chest into two parts, right and left of this region the principal-part is the Heart, which is the seat and

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fountain of life, of heat, of spirits, of pulse and respiration; the Sun of our Body, the King and sole commander of it: the seat and Organ of all passions and affections. Primum vivens, ultimum moriens, it lives first, and dies last in all creatures : Of a pyramidical forme, and not much unlike to a Pine-apple; a part worthy of admiration, that can yeild such variety of affections, by whose motion it is dilated or contracted, to stir and command the humors in the body: As in sorrow, melancholy; in anger, choler; in joy, to send the bloud outwardly; in sorrow, to call it in; moving the humors, as Horses do a Chariot. This heart, though it be one sole member, yet it may be divided into two creeks right and left. The right is like the Moone increasing, bigger than the other part, and receives bloud from Vena cava distributing some of it to the Lungs to nourish them, the rest to the left side, to engender spirits. The left creeke hath the formé of a Cone, and is the seat of life, which, as a torch doth oyl, draws bloud unto it, begetting of it spirits and fire; and as fire in a torch, so are spirits in the bloud, and by that great Artery called Aorta, it sends vital spirits over the body, and takes aire from the Lungs, by that Artery which is called Venosa; so that both Creeks have their Vessels; the right two Veins; the left two Arteries, besides those two common anfractuous ears, which serve them both; the one to hold bloud, the other aire, for several uses. The Lungs is a thin spungy part, like an Oxe hoof, (saith" Fernelius) the Town-Clark, or Cryer, ( one termes it) the instrument of voice, as an Orator to a King; annexed to the heart, to express their thoughts by voice. That it is the instrument of voice, is manifest, in that no creature can speak, or utter any voice, which wanteth these lights. It is besides the instrument of respiration, or breathing; and its office is to cool the heart, by sending ayre unto it, by the Venosal Artery, which veine comes to the lungs by that aspera arteria, which consists of many gristles, membranes, nerves, taking in ayre at the nose and mouth, and by it likewise exhales the fumes of the Heart.

In the upper Region serving the animal faculties, the chief Organ is the Brain, which is a soft, marrowish, and white substance, ingendred of the purest part of seed and spirits, included by many skins, and seated within the skull or brain pan, and it is the most noble Organ under heaven, the dwelling house and seat of the Soul, the habitation of wisdom, memory, judge

Hæc res est præcipuè digna admiratione, quod tanta affectuum varietate cietur cor, quod omnes res tristes & lætæ statim corda feriunt & movent. Physio. 1. 1. c. 8. * Ut orator regi: sic pulmo vocis instrumentum annectitur cordi, &c. Melancth.

ment,

ment, reason, and in which man is most like unto God: and therefore nature hath covered it with a skull of hard bone, and two skins or membranes, whereof the one is called dure mater, or meninx, the other pia mater. The dura mater is next to the skull, above the other, which includes and protects the brain. When this is taken away, the pia mater is to be seen, a thin membrane, the next and immediate cover of the brain, and not covering only, but entring into it. The Brain it self is divided into two parts, the fore and hinder part; the fore part is much bigger then the other, which is called the little brain in respect of it. This fore part hath many concavities distinguished by certain ventricles, which are the receptacles of the spirits, brought hither by the arteries from the heart, and are there refined to a more heavenly nature, to performe the actions of the soul. Of these ventricles there be three, Right, Left, and Middle. The Right and Left answer to their site, and beget animal spirits; if they be any way hurt, sense and motion ceaseth. These ventricles moreover are held to be the seat of the common sense. The middle ventricle, is a common concourse and cavity of them both, and hath two passages; the one to receive Pituita, and the other extends it self to the fourth creek in this they place Imagination and Cogitation, and so the three ventricles of the fore part of the Brain are used. The fourth Creek behind the head, is common to the Cerebel or little brain, and marrow of the back-bone, the last, and most solid of all the rest, which receives the animal spirits from the other ventricles, and conveys them to the marrow in the back, and is the place where they say the memory is seated.

SUBSEC. V.

Of the Soul and her Faculties.

CCORDING to Aristotle, the Soul is defined to be Evleλéxia, perfectio & actus primus corporis Organici, vitam habentis in potentia: the perfection or first act of an Or ganical body, having power of life, which most Philosophers approve. But many doubts arise about the Essence, Subject, Seat, Distinction, and subordinate faculties of it. For the Essence and particular knowledge, of all other things it is most hard (be it of Man or Beast) to discerne, as Aristotle himself, Tully, < Picus Mirandula, Tolet, and other Neoterick Philosophers

De anim. c. 1. 1. De anima. cap. 1.

c. 13. pag. 1216.

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b

Scalig. excrc. 307. Tolet. in lib. de anima, cap. 1. &c.
Lib. 6. Doct. Va. Gentil.

Tuscul. quæst.

Aristot.

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confess. "We can understand all things by her, but what she is we cannot apprehend." Some therefore make one Soul, divided into three principal faculties; others, three distinct Soules. Which question of late hath been much controverted by Picolomineus, and Zabarel. f Paracelsus will have four Soules, adding to the three granted faculties, a Spiritual Soul: which opinion of his, Campanella in his book de Sensu rerum*, much labours to demonstrate and prove, because carkasses bleed at the sight of the murderer; with many such arguments: And some again, one soul of all Creatures whatsoever, differing only in Organs; and that beasts have reason as well as men, though, for some defect of Organs, not in such measure. Others make a doubt, whether it be all in all, and all in every part; which is amply discussed in Zabarel amongst the rest. The common division of the Soul, is into three principall faculties, Vegetal, Sensitive, and Rational, which make three distinct kinde of living Creatures: Vegetal Plants, Sensible Beasts, Rational Men. How these three principal faculties are distinguished and connected, Humano ingenio inaccessum videtur, is beyond humane capacity, as Taurellus, Philip, Flavius and others suppose. The inferiour may be alone, but the superiour cannot subsist without the other; so Sensible includes Vegetal, Rational both; which are contained in it (saith Aristotle) ut trigonus in tetragono, as a Triangle in a Quadrangle.

h

Vegetal soul.] Vegetal, the first of the three distinct faculties, is defined to be a substantial act of an organical body, by which it is nourished, augmented, and begets another like unto it self." In which definition, three several operations are specified, Altrix, Auctrix, Procreatrix; the first is Nutrition, whose object is nourishment, meat, drink, and the like; his Organ the Liver in sensible creatures; in Plants, the root or sap. His office is to turne the nutriment into the substance of the body nourished, which he performes by natural heat. This nutritive operation hath four other subordinate functions or powers belonging to it, Attraction, Retention, Digestion, Expulsion.

Attraction.] Attraction is a ministring facultie, which, as a Loadstone doth Iron, drawes meat into the stomack, or as a Jamp doth oyle; and this attractive power is very necessary in Plants, which suck up moisture by the root, as another mouth, into the sap, as alike stomack.

Cœlius lib. 2.

Animâ quæq; intelligimus, et tamen quæ sit ipsa intelligere non valemus. Spiritualem animam a reliquis distinctam tuetur, etiam in cadavere inhærentem post mortem per aliquot menses. Lib. 3. cap. 31, c. 31. Plutarch. in Grillo Lips. Cen. 1. ep. 50. Jossius de Risu et Fletu, Averroes, Campanella, &c. Philip. de Anima. ca. 1. Colius 20. antiq. cap. 3. De vit. & mort. part. 2. c. 5. prop. 1. de vit. et Nutritio est alimenti transmutatio, viro naturalis. Scal. See more of Attraction in Scal. exer. 343.

Plutarch. de placit. philos.

mort. 2. c. 22.

cxerc 101. sec. 17.

Retention.

Retention. Retention keeps it, being attracted unto the stomack, until such time it be concocted; for if it should pass away straight, the body could not be nourished.

Digestion.] Digestion is performed by natural heat; for as the flame of a torch consumes oyle, wax, tallow so doth it alter and digest the nutritive matter. Indigestion is opposite unto it, for want of natural heat. Of this Digestion there be three differences, Maturation, Elixation, Assation.

Maturation.] Maturation, is especially observed in the fruits of trees: which are then said to be ripe, when the seeds are fit to be sowne again. Cruditie is opposed to it, which Gluttons, Epicures, and idle persons are most subject unto, that use no exercise to stir natural heat, or else choke it, as too much wood puts out a fire.

Elixation.] Elixation is the seething of meat in the stomack, by the said natural heat, as meat is boiled in a pot; to which corruption or putrefaction is opposite.

Assation.] Assation is a concoction of the inward moisture by heat; his opposite is Semiustulation.

Order of concoction four-fold.] Besides these three several operations of Digestion, there is a fourfold order of concoction: Mastication, or chewing in the mouth; Chilification of this so chewed meat in the stomack; the third is in the Liver, to turne this Chylus into bloud, called Sanguification; the last is Assimulation, which is in every part.

Expulsion.] Expulsion is a power of Nutrition, by which it expels all superfluous excrements, and reliques of meat and drink, by the guts, bladder, pores; as by purging, vomiting, spitting, sweating, urine, haires, nailes, &c.

Augmentation.] As this Nutritive facultie serves to nourish the body, so doth the Augmenting facultie (the second operation or power of the Vegetal facultie) to the increasing of it in quantity, according to all Dimensions, long, broad, thick, and to make it grow till it come to his due proportion and perfect shape which hath his period of augmentation, as of consumption: and that most certaine, as the Poet observes:

"Stat sua cuique dies, breve & irreparabile tempus
Omnibus est vitæ,"

A terme of life is set to every man,

Which is but short, and pass it no one can.

Generation.] The last of these Vegetal faculties is Generation, which begets another by meanes of seed, like unto it self, to the perpetual preservation of the Species. To this faculty they ascribe three subordinate operations: The first to turne nourishment into seed, &c.

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