Mikrokosmographia a description of the body of man. Together vvith the controuersies thereto belonging. Collected and translated out of all the best authors of anatomy, especially out of Gasper Bauhinus and Andreas Laurentius. By Helkiah Crooke Doctor of Physicke, physitian to His Maiestie, and his Highnesse professor in anatomy and chyrurgerie. Published by the Kings Maiesties especiall direction and warrant according to the first integrity, as it was originally written by the author.

QVEST. VIII. Of the Temperament, nourishment, Substance and Flesh of the Heart.

COncerning the Temperament of the heart, the Physicians are at great strife a∣mong * 1.1 themselues. Auerrhoes was of opinion, that the heart of his owne na∣ture was cold, because his greatest part consisteth of such things as are natu∣rally cold, as immoouable fibres, foure great vesselles which are spermaticall parts and without bloud and cold; and that it is hot by accident onely, by rea∣son of the hot bloud and spirits contained in it and his perpetuall motion.

This opinion of Auerrohes his followers strengthen with these reasons. First, because * 1.2 the flesh of the heart is thight and solide, and nourished with solide, thicke and cold bloud. Secondly, because at the Basis of the heart which is his noblest part, there groweth a great * 1.3 quantity of fat, whose efficient cause (saith Galen) is cold. Lastly, because it is the store∣house of bloud; now bloud (saith Hippocrates in his Booke de Corde,) is naturally cold, for as soone as it is out of the veines it caketh. But to the first argument we answere, that the fi∣bres * 1.4 and the vessels are not the chiefe parts of the heart, but the flesh: and therefore Ari∣stotle and Galen call it a fleshy viscus or bowell. To the second, that the fat groweth not in the ventricles, nor about the flesh of the heart, but onely about his Membrane which in * 1.5 respect of his flesh is but a cold part: beside Natures finallcause, that was to keepe the heart from torrifying, ouercame all the rest, which thing in nature is not vnusuall. To the * 1.6 third we answere, that there are two sorts of blood, one venall and another arteriall; the veniall indeed is lesse hot but the arteriall bloud is exceeding hot. Now the hart is the shop or worke-house of arteriall not of venall bloud.

We conclude therefore that the heart is not onely hot, but of all the bowels the hot∣test, * 1.7 which we are able to prooue by authorities, reasons, and experience. Hippocrates de principijs saith, There is much heate in the heart, as being of all members the hottest. Galen in the last chapter of his first booke de temperamentis. The bloud receiueth his heate from the heart, for that of al the bowels is by nature the hottest. The reason is, The hart is the fountaine * 1.8 of heat & of the Nectar of life: it ingendereth the arteriall blood, the venall it attenuateth for the Lungs; heere the vitall spirits the hottest of all others are made. Finally, heere is the hearth & the fire wherby the natural heate of al the parts is refreshed. Experience also. For if you put your finger into the hart of a beast suddenly opened, the heat of it wil euen burn * 1.9 as Galen saith in his first booke de semine, and experience proueth. Againe, the flesh of the heart is the most solid of all flesh, because it is ingendered of most hot bloud, made dense and thicke by the parching power of an exceeding great heate. But some will say that the * 1.10 spirits are hotter then the heart: I answere, it is true that in the spirits there is a greater heat, but in the heart there is more heate, more sharped and which heateth more, because of the density of his substance; so fire in straw or stubble though it be a flame burneth but light∣ly, for you may draw your hand through it without any great offence; but hot glowing y∣ron although it haue not the same degree of heate that the flame hath, yet it burneth more strongly and cannot be touched without danger. But it may be demanded, if the spirits be * 1.11 hotter then the heart and are bred in the heart, whence haue they that greater heat? I an∣swere, The heart consisteth of three parts as it were or substances; a spiritual, a moyst and a solid. The spirits are ingendered of the spirituall and hottest part of the heart, and are hotter indeed then the whole heart, but not hotter then that part that ingendereth the spi∣rits. * 1.12

That this may be, Galen giueth an instance in milke: milke in his whole substance is ei∣ther cold or temperate, but his fatty and buttery part is hotter then the whole body of the milke; so the heart is hot in his whole substance, but the spirituall part of the heart is hot∣ter then the whole heart, and from that part haue the spirits their intense heat: & thus much of the actiue qualities of the heart. Now for the passiue there is as great dissention. Aui∣cen de Temperamentis, and Galen in his second Booke de Temper. Cap. 3. and 12. and in his 3. Booke de Aliment. facultatibus say it is dry, and his flesh hard and solid; now it is a sure rule * 1.13 That whatsoeuer is hard to feele too in a liuing body, that also is dry. On the other side Auer∣rhoes will haue it moyst, because life consisteth in heate and moysture, but the heart is the beginning of life and the shop of moysture. Galen in the last Chapter of his first Booke de Temperamentis, calleth it a Bloudy Bowel, therefore moyst; and in the same Chapter, It is a little lesse dry then the skinne, therefore moyster then the skinne. I answere, it is true that the heart is moyster to feele too then the skinne. But Galen when hee sayeth it is drie, * 1.14 compareth it not to the skinne but to the other parts, for so his words are. The flesh of the heart is so much dryer then the flesh of the spleen or kidneyes, as it is harder: And so much of the Temperament of the heart.

Concerning his nourishment, Galen in his first Booke de vsu partium, and the 7. de Ad∣minist. * 1.15 Anatomicis, sayeth it is nourished with venall and thicke bloud; many of the later writers say it is nourished with the thin bloud contayned in his ventricles. On Galens side, that is on the trueths, are these reasons. It is a Catholicke principle, Euery thing is preser∣ued * 1.16 and refreshed with his like. The flesh of the heart is hard, thicke and solid, such therfore must be his nourishment: beside there is a notable veine called Coronaria or the Crowne∣veine, which compasseth a round the Basis of the heart and sendeth foorth branches into all his substance; but Nature vseth not to doe any thing rashly or in vaine, it serueth there∣fore * 1.17 for his nourishment: beside occular inspection prooueth it which no reason can con∣uince.

The braunches of the coronarie veine are more and more conspicuous on the left side of the heart then on the right, because the thicker part wanteth the more nourishment. But the aduersaries say that the outward part is onely nourished with this veine, the inward with the bloud contayned in the ventricles: for say they, this veine is too little to nourish * 1.18 the whole heart being a very hot member and in perpetuall motion; beside the veine loo∣seth it selfe in the superficies of the heart and passeth not into the ventricles. But for the nar∣rownes of the veine I cannot perceiue it is so small as they talke of it; and for this motion it is true, yet there are many things that temper it, on the outside it is couered almost with fat and compassed with a watery humour, and within it hath aboundant moysture where∣by * 1.19 though it be not nourished yet is it watered and kept from drying and flaming; as boy∣ling hot water-keeps a vessell on the fire from burning. And whereas they say the branches of the coronary veine passe not into the ventricles; I answere, that neither are the vesselles dispersed into the inner substance of the muscles and the bones. Hippocrates sayeth That flesh draweth from the next vessels. If you would faine reconcile the newe writers to Galen, * 1.20 you may say. That haply the inward parts of the heart are nourished with the bloud con∣tayned in the ventricles but not yet attenuated, for why should the inward parts be nouri∣shed with rarified bloud and the outward with crasse and thicke; seeing the nature of the inward flesh and outward is all one? and somuch of the nourishment of the heart. Nowe * 1.21 for the substance and flesh of it, some say it is musculous, but that we haue answered before in the description; briefly thus. Hippocrates in his Booke de Corde calleth it a strong muscle: againe it is moued by a locall motion and so are none of the other bowels, as the Liuer, the Spleene, the Kidneyes, &c. but all muscles are so moued. Moreouer, the flesh of the bo∣wels is simple and similar, but the flesh of the heart not so but wouen with threds and fi∣bres * 1.22 like that of the muscles, therefore it is a muscle. Galen on the contrary will haue it no muscle, for that muscles haue simple fibres but the heart manifold, the muscles haue but * 1.23 one and that a simple motion, for they bow or streatch forth, lift vp or pull downe; but the heart hath diuers yea contrary motions: and this is a very powerfull argument which yet some seeke to ouerthow: because say they there be many muscles which haue diuers kinds of fibres, and also diuers yea and contrary motions; as the Pectorall muscle which hath di∣uers * 1.24 fibres: and moueth the arme not vpward and downward onely but forward: also and the muscle called Trapesius which moueth the shoulder blade not only vpward and down∣ward but backward also; and therefore the variety of his fibres and the diuersity of his mo∣tions

do not exempt him from the number of muscles.

I answere for Galen. Those two Muscles aboue named haue indeed diuers motions but * 1.25 not from the same part; but from diuers parts of the muscles; for they haue diuers origi∣nals or beginnings. The Trapesius ariseth from the back-part or nowle of the head & from the rack-bones of the backe; by the former part it moueth vpward, and downeward by the latter. The pectorall also hath diuers beginnings, for it ariseth from the Throte and from the whole breast-bone; wherefore these muscles doe not pull downe with the same part wherewith they lift vp, but the heart is dilated and contracted in the same part; there is not therefore a like reason of their motions. The like may be said of their fibres; for the fibres of those aboue-named muscles though they be of more kinds thē one yet are they distinct; the fibres of the heart are wouen together and confounded that no art or industry wil part them. The fibres of the muscles are diuers in their diuers parts, but those of the heart are all in euery small part of the heart.

Moreouer, the taste of the heart and of the muscles is not one saith Galen in the 8. chapter of his 7. booke de Administrat Anatom. Auicen saith the muscles are weary the * 1.26 heart neuer: yet this seemeth to be no sound reason, because the midriffe which is a very strong muscle mooueth perpetually: but Auicen hath another reason for Galens opinion of more force which is this. The heart is no muscle because his motion is not voluntary, for * 1.27 we can neither forslow nor hasten, neither stay nor stirre vp his motion as we may the mo∣tion of the midriffe and of all the other muscles. We conclude therefore with Galen that * 1.28 the heart is no muscle, but either an affusion of bloud which Erasistratus called parenchy∣ma; or some peculiar flesh. How Hippocrates is to be vnderstood wee haue said before, to * 1.29 wit, abusiuely; it is musculous because it is red & fibrous, but not a muscle. But it will be ob∣iected it is moued with locall motions, therefore it is a muscle.

I answere, that by the same reason should the wombe be a muscle, for we haue shewed * 1.30 how that is moued euen locally sometimes, as when it closeth in conception, or is dilated in the birth: and the guts haue a locall motion called motus peristalticus which no man will say is a voluntary motion or that therefore they are muscles.

To the other argument we say, that the flesh of the heart though it bee fibrous yet it is simple, because the fibres are of the same substance with the flesh of it as the fibres of the * 1.31 stomacke, the wombe and the guts; but the fibres of the muscles are particles of Nerues and Tendons much vnlike their flesh: and this indeed is Galens answere in his 2. booke de temperamentis; yet we affirme that the fibres of the heart are stronger and harder then the rest of his flesh, which maketh it stronge and better able to indure his perpetuall labour.

But why is the flesh of the heart more fibrous then that of the Liuer or kidneyes. Galen answeres, The fibres of the heart are made for necessary vses of traction retention and expulsion, * 1.32 by the right it draweth in the Diastole or dilatation, by the oblique it retaineth, and by the trans∣uerse it expelleth in the Systole or Contraction.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Of the tempe∣rament of the heart.
• * 1.2

  Auerrhoes that the heart is cold.
• * 1.3

  The 1. reason The second. The third.
• * 1.4

  Answere to the first.
• * 1.5

  To the second
• * 1.6

  To the third.
• * 1.7

  That the hart is hot. Authorities.
• * 1.8

  Reasons.
• * 1.9

  Experience.
• * 1.10

  How the spi∣rits are hot∣ter then the heart by which they are made. Comparison.
• * 1.11

  Whence the spirits haue their heate that is hotter then the hart is.
• * 1.12

  Three substā∣ces of the heart.
• * 1.13

  Whether the hart be moyst or dry. An axiome.
• * 1.14

  Resolution.
• * 1.15

  How the hart is nourished.
• * 1.16

  An axiome.
• * 1.17

  An argument from ocular inspection.
• * 1.18

  Arguments for the other side.
• * 1.19

  Answered.
• * 1.20

  A reconcilia∣tion.
• * 1.21

  Of the sub∣stance of the heart. Whether it be a muscle.
• * 1.22

  That it is.
• * 1.23

  That it is not.
• * 1.24

  Answere of some to Ga∣lens argu∣ment.
• * 1.25

  Answere for Galen.
• * 1.26

  Auicen for Galen one weake argu∣ment.
• * 1.27

  Another stronger.
• * 1.28

  The conclusi∣on with Galen.
• * 1.29

  Answere to Hippocrates authority.
• * 1.30

  To the first reason.
• * 1.31

  To the second.
• * 1.32

  Why the flesh of the hart is fibrous