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IF euer that great interpreter and inessenger of Nature Aristotle the Prince of the Peripateticks doe lesse sufficiently acquite himselfe it is in the matter of Ana∣tomy, * 1.1 & more especially in that he hath written concerning the vse of the brain in the seuenth Chapter of his second Booke de part. Animal. where he cannot be redeemed from palpable absurdity. The braine sayth he was onely made to resrigerate
the heart. First, because it is without blood and without veines; and againe because a mans braine is of all other creatures the largest for that his heart is the hottest. This opi∣nion of Aristotle, Galen in his 8. booke de vsu partium confuteth by these arguments. First, seeing the braine is actually more hot then the most soultery ayre in Summer, how shall it * 1.2 refrigerate or coole the hart? Shall it not rather be contempered by the inspiration of ayre which it draweth in and as it were swalloweth from a full streame? If the Peripateticks shal say that the externall ayre is not sufficient to refrigerate the heart but that there is alsore∣quired an inward bowell to asist it: I answere, that the braine is farre remoued from the heart and walled in on euery side with the bones of the Scull. But surely if Nature had in∣tended it for that vse, she would eyther haue placed it in the Chest or at least not set so long a necke betweene them. The heele saith Galen hath more power to coole the heart then the braine: for when they are refrigerated or wet, the cold is presently communicated to the whole body, which hapneth not when men take cold on their heads. Beside, the braine is rather heated by the heart then the heart cooled by the braine, because from the heart and the vmbles about it, there continually arise very hot vapours, which beeing naturally light do ascend vpward. Adde heereto this strong Argument which vtterly subuerteth the opinion of Aristotle and the Peripateticks. If the braine had beene only made to coole * 1.3 the heart, what need had there bin of so admirable a structure? what vse is there of the 4. ventricles, the Chambered or Arched body, of the webs and textures of the Arteries, of the pyne glandule, of the Tunnell, of the Testicles and Buttocks, of the spinal marrow and of the manifold propagations of the sinewes?
Finally, if this were true that Aristotle affirmeth, then should the Lyon which is the hottest of all creatures (witnesse his continuall disposition to the Ague) haue had a larger braine then a man, and men because they are hotter should haue larger braines then woe∣men; which things because they abhorre from reason and sense, wee doubt not to affirme that the brain was created for more noble and diuine imployments then to refrigerate the heart. The body therefore of the braine was built for the performance of the Animall, Sensatiue, Motiue and Principall functions, and it is hollowed into so many ventricles & * 1.4 furnished with so many textures and complications of vessels; for the auoyding of his ex∣crements, for the preparation and perfection of the Animall spirits; besides, the Nerues serue as Organs to lead out the same Animall spirit together with the faculties of motion and sense vnto the sences and the whole body. Auerrhoes (Aristotles Ape and where occa∣sion is giuen a bitter detractor from Physitions) endeauoreth to excuse Aristotle and saith, * 1.5 That the braine doth therefore refrigerate the heart because it tempers the extreame heat of the vitall spirits. But let vs grant that the braine tempers some spirits, yet it will hardly temper the spirits of the heart & of the large Arteries, if it at all temper those spirits which * 1.6 are contained in the substance and membranes of the brain; which spirits so tempered see∣ing they do not returne vnto the heart, how shal they temper the heat of the heart? Alex∣ander Benedictus in the 20. Chapter of his fourth booke seemeth to follow the opinion of Auerrhoes. Albertus Magnus a man better stored with learning then honesty, although hee be a Peripatetick, yet in this point he falleth from his Maister Aristotle, and saith in his 12 booke de Animal. that the braine by his frigidity doth no more temper the heat of the hart then the siccity or drinesse of the heart doth temper the moysture of the braine.
All these questions and difficulties with their resolutions you must seeke for in the third * 1.7 part of our booke of the vessels. The rest of the questions we now prosecute.
The vse of the braine af∣ter Aristotle.
Aristotle con∣futed.
A very strong Argument.
The true vse of the braine.
What Auerrhos opinion is.
But confuted.
Where these questions are disputed.