The French academie Fully discoursed and finished in foure bookes. 1. Institution of manners and callings of all estates. 2. Concerning the soule and body of man. 3. A notable description of the whole world, &c. 4. Christian philosophie, instructing the true and onely meanes to eternall life. This fourth part neuer before published in English. All written by the first author, Peter de la Primaudaye, Esquire, Lord of Barre, Chauncellour, and Steward of the French Kings house.

Of the Mesentarie and Mesar••on: of the meseraicall veines, of the Pancreas or sweet bread, and of their nature and office: of the liuer, and of his na∣ture and office: of the rootes, bodies and branches of the veiues: of their names and vses, and of the similitude be∣tweene them and the arteries. Chap. 63.

ARAM. When wee consider how the prouidence of God of reacheth so sarre vnto those things that are profitable and necessarie in our bodies, that it forgetteth not, neither omitteth the least thing that is in them: wee should bee very blinde of vn∣derstanding, if wee doubted that our God prouided not as well for all things that are profitable and necessarie for our soules, for the spirituall foode and growth of them, and for their perfect purging and saluation. For albeit there is no superfluitie or excrement, in that spirituall foode wherewith the soule is nourished, yet is it requisit and needfull, that the soule bee purged from those excrements and filthinesse of sinne, wherewith the diuel hath infected and filled it. And so indeed is it purged in Iesus Christ, who hath washed and clensed vs from our sinnes by his bloud, and doth daily purge by his holy spirit, and by those meanes which hee hath ordeined in his Church. Therefore I am out of doubt, that God meant to put men in minde of these things, by the order and necessitie which he hath appointed in the nature of their bodies, both in regard of their foode, and of their nourish∣ment: and that we shal alwaies finde good & holy instructions for the soule, by considering the nature and office of euery part of the body. Let vs then consider of other instruments

of the naturall power of the soule, then hitherto we haue spoken of.

After the entrals and guts, the Mesenterie followeth, which is placed in the midst of them, * 1.1 whereupon it is so called of the Graecian••, as if you would say, dwelling in the midst of the guts. And because it is caried and lift vp into the middle of al these vessels, it is also called by some * 1.2 Mesareon, which name signifieth the selfe same thing in Greeke. Others take Mesareon to be the highest part of the Mesentary, which is also called Calicreas by the Graecians, because the flesh of it is very pleasant to eat, according as the name giueth vs to vnderstand. So that it is no entrall or gut, but a coat and foulded couering in the midst of them: or rather a thicke white flew of a snowie & kernelly substance, that beareth fat, distinguishing the entrals, and knitting them vnto the backe. But it was chiefly created to beare vp and sustaine the Mese∣raicall * 1.3 veines and arteries, with the sinewes that are in that member: which because they are in danger of breaking, through the vehement motions of the body & such other accidents, therefore the prouidence of God would not haue them with a foundation, prop & defence to countergard them. For this cause he hath fortified and fastened the branches and diuisi∣ons of the veines, by such a member & instrument, which serueth in stead of a band & stay both to the great & little ones. Besides, ••his action and vse also is to fasten and keepe the entralles euery one in his place, and to conuey vnto the liuer by the miseraicall veines, that * 1.4 are called the hands thereof, that liquor which the Grecians call Chilus, of which we haue already spoken. For as the bodies of trees haue their roots, which spred abroad in the earth to draw nourishment from thence, euen so there are branches dispersed throughout the Mesentery, and deriued from the liuer veine, which are ioyned to the bowels, as it were small rootes to draw foode, being much like to haires or cobwebbes. These branches or small rootr are the Meseraicall veines, so called, because they are placed in the vpper part of * 1.5 that member and instrument that is called Mesareon, whereof I spake euen now. Their office and nature is to draw & suck out nourishment from the guttes, and to carry it to the liuer, from whence they haue all their beginning, as appeareth by Anatomie, howsoeuer there are that think, that some of them come not from thence. The flesh of the Mesentery is kernelly and fatty, not onely seruing in stead of a munition and defence, as hath bin said, but also to moisten the entrals and guts, and to preserue the heate both of the bowels and veines. So likewise the arteries are ioyned to the veines, to giue them heate, and to the guts also to concoct the liquor and nourishment. Besides, the nerues and sinewes there, serue to giue sense to the guts. There is moreouer a kernelly flesh, which the phisitions cell Pan∣creas, * 1.6 because he doth wholy resemble flesh, as the Greeke name importeth. It is placed in hollow part of the liuer, that it might be as it were a cushion vnto it, and a perseruer of the diuided parts thereof, by filling the void places that are between the stomake, the liuet and the spleeue, to the end it may vphold and protect the Miseraicall veines, and keepe euery * 1.7 thing from breaking either by falles or by violent motions. Now touching the liuer, it is a very noble member. For it is the principallest member of all the naturall parts, and the chie∣fest instrument belonging to the vegetatiue and nourishing power of the soule. It is the first * 1.8 of the nobler parts that is made perfect, when the childe is framed in the mothers wombe, it is the author, shop, and forge of the bloud, the original & fountaine of the veines. Therfore the substance of it is a soft & red flesh, like to bloud newly pressed out and clodded, Neuer∣lesse in it owne nature it is perfect flesh, hauing sundry different veines dispersed through out as it were threedes, and arteries also ioyned vnto thē for their refreshing. Now after the stomack hath finished the first concoction of meat, and turned it into liquor as it hath bin declared vnto vs, the second is made in the liuer, after it hath receiued this liquor so prepa∣red by the stomack & guts as we said, and turned it into blood. This concoction is perfect∣ed in the small veins, that are dispersed throughout the body of the liuer. And because God * 1.9 hath inioyned this office to this member, he hath cōpounded it of such a flesh & matter, as hath giuen vnto it this proper & peculiar vertue, to conuert into blood that food and nou∣rishment that is brought vnto it, to the end it may be the instrument of the generation of that thing wherwith the body is nourished. Hauing thus transformed the liquor receiued, it maketh it red like vnto it selfe: as contrariwise, blood is made white in the breasts of womā, both by reasō of their nature & substance, as also for other causes touched by vs. The tempe∣rature of the liuer is hot & moist, such as becometh the blood and cōcoction it hath to per∣form, which is like to boiled meat. Now for asmuch as this instrumēt & mēber is the chiefest in the kitching of mans body, God hath giuen vnto it such a nature & property, as if there were in it a harth, a table, a knife, & a wagoner, as some name thē, hauing regard to the diuers

actions therof, & to the sundry degrees of cōcoction made therin. They call the first actiō or * 1.10 degree of concoction by the name of a harth, because it serueth to heat the foode, as a harth doth in a kitching. The secōd is called a table, namly, when the food beginneth together it self together in the liuer, & is there placed as it were vpon a table to be sent vnto the mem∣bers. The third action hath the name of a knife giuen vnto it, because it diuideth & maketh a separatiō of the humors. And the fourth is as it were the wagoner, because there is the ca∣riage and conueiance of all from thence into the hollow veine. For the naturall vertues and powers gouerne the humors very wel, conducting and leading thē to their due places. For this cause the liuer is the fountaine of blood, & the spring of all the vaines by which it is de∣stributed throughout the body as the hart is the fountaine of the vital spirits, & the origi∣nall of the arteries, whereby the spirits necessary for the body are conueied into it, as the * 1.11 blood from the liuer. Wherefore euen as the arteries are a kind of vains to carry & to distri∣bute the aire, breath, & vitall spirits: so likewise the vaines proceeding frō the liuer, are ordai∣ned to distribute the blood into all parts of the body. These two are linked together with such a neere alliance & agreemēt, that the vaines administer matter to the vital spirit, which is engendred in the hart of the purest & most spirituall blood as the spirit likewise helpeth the blood by his heat in the arteries. Therefore they haue months ioyning each to other, to the end the spirit, as it were a little flame, may receiue norishmēt out of the veins, & that the veines may draw spirit & heat from the arteries. For as we haue already touched, our life is much like to a flame in a lamp, that receiueth food from the oile put into the lampe, euen so the vital spirit, which is as a flame within vs, draweth & taketh nourishment from * 1.12 the veins. Wherein we haue a goodly example of that mutuall society, which we ought to haue one towards another in this life. Now of those veins that deriue their original frō the liuer, there are 2. principall ones that are very great, of which the others are but as it were branches, that from the liuer spread thēselues vpwards & downwards through al the parts of the body. These two veins comming out of the liuer take their beginning from many li∣tle veins, which being as it were their roots, ioyne together afterward into two trunkes or * 1.13 great bodies, that diuide themselues againe into diuers boughs & branches, whereof some are greater and some lesser, after the maner of trees. The first is called the Port veine, because it is as it were the doore of the liuer out of which it proceedeth, being placed in the holow part thereof. The vse and profit of it is to receiue nourishment prepared by the stomack & guts, & then to keep it vntil the liuer hath turned it vnto pure blood, for to send it afterward to all the body by the other great veine called the Caue or hollow veine. And this proceeds * 1.14 from the outside of the liuer, resembling the body of a tree, and diuiding it selfe into two great branches, of which the lesser ascendeth vp to the vitall and animall parts, & to the ends of them, and the bigger branch descendeth down alongst the hinder part of the liuer, vpon that part of the chine bone that is between the kidnies, & so goeth to those parts that are contained vnder them. Forasmuch therefore as the artteries & veines are the principall instrumēts, wherby the soule giueth life vnto the body, some learned men expo••nd that of * 1.15 the vital & naturall parts, which Salomon speaks of the siluer coard not lengthned, of the gol¦den ewer broken, of the pitcher broken at the well, & of the wheele broken at the cisterne.

We haue already snoken of the siluer chaine and of the golden ewer, when wee discour∣sed of the chine bone of the backe, and of the marrow of it. Touching the residue, they vn∣derstand by the well the liuer, which is the fountaine of blood: & by the pitcher, the veines * 1.16 because they are the vesselles whereby the blood is taken out of the liuer & drawne thence, that it may be distributed to all the body: and by the cisterne is vnderstoode the heart, and by the wheele, the head. For we may already perceiue by that which we haue already said of the heart, how seruiceable the liuer is vnto it, considering that the heart is the fountaine of the vitall spirits and the originall of the arteries, (as the liuer of the blood and of the veines) and that the vitall spirits are ingendred in the heart of the purest and most spiritu∣all bloud, which it draweth and receiueth from the liuer. Moreouer, these vitall spirites are * 1.17 by meanes of the heart sent vnto the braine and the head, to serue the animall powers that haue their places and instruments there, and to serue all the sences as well spirituall as cor∣porall. Therefore the head is aptly compared to a wheele, both for the roundnesse of it: as also because it draweth and receiueth the vitall spirits from the heart, which sendeth thē vnto it as the water is drawne from his fountaine, well, or cisterne by meanes of the wheele. Eurther, as it is a needefull, that there should be a coard to reach from the wheell•• downe to the well, and a pitcher or bucket at the end of the coard to draw water withall:

so the arteries reaching from the heart vp to the head, are like to the coarde and pitcher, whereby the braine draweth vitall spirites from the heart. For the great arterie, called Aorta by the Physicions, which commeth out of the heart, and is diuided into two great bran∣ches, * 1.18 of which the one goeth vpward, to carry the vitall spirit to the superiour parts, and the other downeward to doe the like below, forasmuch as it ioyneth vnto the heart, may be taken for the pitcher that draweth from thence the vitall spirits, as from a well; and the branch that ascendeth vpward may be taken for the coard ioyned vnto the wheele.

The like may be seene in the liuer. For the great veines of it are as it were the pitcher, & the veines that ascend vp vnto the head, as likewise the arteries, are the coarde that draw∣eth vp the blo••d from out of the liuer. If then we ioyne that which we haue already heard of the siluer chaine or coarde, and of the golden ewer, with that which wee speake now of the pitcher and of the well, of the wheele, and of the cisterne; we may well be assured, that Salomon hath most wisely comprehended in so small a number of wordes, all the internall parts of the body, and all the powers both animall, vitall and naturall, together with all the instruments which they haue in the body and in the members thereof. For first behold the braine signified by the golden ewer: then the pith of the chine bone and the chine bone it selfe by the siluer coard: next, the liuer by the well, which hath also his pitcher: and lastly, the heart which is signified by the cisterne. As for that particularly spoken of the pit∣cher and wheele broken, which draw water out of the well and cisterne, it is all one as if he had said, that when the fountaine of blood in the liuer waxeth dry and decayeth, the wheele aboue, namely, the head, is broken, because all the sences both exteriour and interiour and the animall vertues faile in the body. For the soule wanteth sound instruments to giue life, motion, and sence vnto it, they being worne and consumed by those meanes and cau∣ses, which we shall vnderstand hereafter. But to follow our purpose, and not to depart from the matter, we must intreate of the nature of blood, and of other humours in the body, and of their diuersitie and nature. This then ACHITOB, shall be the matter subiect of thy discourse.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Of the Me∣sentery.
• * 1.2

  Of the Mesa∣reon.
• * 1.3

  The chiefe vse of it.
• * 1.4

  Other vses of the Mesen∣tery.
• * 1.5

  Of the Mese∣raicall veines Then vse.
• * 1.6

  Of the Pan∣creas or sweet bread.
• * 1.7

  The vses of it.
• * 1.8

  Of the liuer and excellen∣cie thereof.
• * 1.9

  The second concoction in made in the liuer.
• * 1.10

  Foure de∣grees of con∣coction in the liuer.
• * 1.11

  The foun∣taines of the blood, and veines, spirits and arteries.
• * 1.12

  Our life com¦pared to a lampe.
• * 1.13

  The great veines in the body.
• * 1.14

  The Port∣veine.
• * 1.15

  The hollowe veine.
• * 1.16

  Eccles. 12. 6.
• * 1.17

  A place of Sa∣lumon ex∣pounded.
• * 1.18

  Of the artery Aorta.