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. XV. Concerning the vse of the Spleene against the slanderous ca∣lumniations of Galens Aduersaries.

THere be diuers opinions as well of the Ancient as Moderne writers about the vse of the Spleene, Erasistratus thought it not of any great moment. Aristo∣tle in his third Booke de partibus Animalium, confesseth it to be necessary in∣deede, yet not absolutely, but by euent, although hee sayth it sometime draw∣eth the excrement from the stomacke, and worketh it vnto his nourishment. Both these opinions haue beene hissed out of the Schooles of Physitians, as being neither established by reason, nor agreeing with the maiesty, wisedom, and policy of Nature, who vseth not to create any thing in the frame of our bodies, which is not necessary for the bet∣ter gouernment and order of the common-wealth of the same. Alexander Aphrodisaeus sect. 2. problem, and Aretaeus lib 1. de causis & signis chronicorum, and the author of the Book de Re∣spiratione do conclude, that the spleene is the organ of sanguification, and they call it the bastard Liuer. In this say they is the veinall blood prepared and concocted, yet doth their beleefe rest vpon coniecture, because the frame and structure of both the bowels is alike; because in both of them there are large and ample vessels; because nature vseth to make the common ministers or seruiceable partes of the bodie, either double, or if but single then that one is placed in the middest, as the heart, the stomacke, the wombe, the bladder, the mouth, the tongue, and the nose; because the Liuer is in the right side and the Spleene in the left, they seeme to bee two organes ordained for one and the same action. But these bare coniectures are too weak to make a party that should hope to preuaile against a com∣mon receiued opinion. For how could nature haue set two so ample bowels which were to serue the whole bodie in the midst vnder the heart, and how again should she not haue bin idle if she had made more instruments then one for sanguificatiō, when one was sufficient? Rondeletius was of opinion that the Spleen is not the receptacle of the melancholy humor, because that humour remaining in his naturall integrity, is spent vpon the bones & other hard and dry parts of the body, and because there is lest of that humor in vs, there is no part appointed to receiue the superfluities thereof, like as there is no place ordained to receiue the recrements of the blood, which for the most part do passe away by sweats and insensi∣ble transpiration. Bauhin runneth a middle course between these whose arguments we haue heard before in the history, & may receiue answer partly by himselfe, partly by the answere to others. Vlmus a Physitian of Poytiers in France, in an elegant and wittie Booke which hee set out of the Spleene, hath deuised a newe and vncouth vse thereof, that is, That in the Spleene the Vitall spirite is prepared: hee meaneth that the thinnest part of the Bloode, which is the matter of the Vitall spirite, passeth from the Spleene thorough

the Arteries into the lefte ventricle of the heart, where it is mingled with the aire, and per∣fected & so powred foorth through the arteries, as it were thorough chanels and water∣courses into the body. And this new paradoxe he establisheth with reasons, which carry a shew of great strength and euidence of truth.

The matter (saith he) of the vitall spirit is double, Aire and Blood, and both these stand in neede of preparation and attenuation: the Aire is prepared in the Lunges, but the Blood not in the right side of the heart as Galen would haue it, because there are no mani∣fest passages from the right to the left ventricle: not in the Lunges as Columbus thought, and therefore in the Spleene.

Moreouer, we are perswaded (saith he) heereunto both by the structure of the Spleene it selfe, and by the Symptomes or accidents which follow those that are splenetick. For the structure, Hippocrates in his first Booke de morbis mulerum saith, that the Spleene is rare and spongy, as it were another tongue. Beside, there are innumerable foulds of Arteries therein; now these foulds are no where ordained but for a new elaboration, and therefore in the Braine is the wonderfull or admirable web formed, in the testicles mazy vessels, in the Li∣uer millions of veines; wherefore it followeth that Nature hath ordained the spleene for the preparing and attenuating of vitall bloode. Add heereto, that all the Symptomes of spleniticke persons as a liuid or leaden colour, vnsauoury sweate, aboundance of lice, puf∣fings or swellings of the feete, palpitiations of the heart, are demonstratiue signes of a lan∣guishing or decayed heate and impure spirits.

The probability of these arguments hath made many to stagger in their resolution con∣cerning this point, and yet notwithstanding if they be called to the touchstone, wee ima∣gine they will proue no current Coine. For how may it be that the vitall spirit prepared in the webs of the Spleene, should be conueyed by the great Artery vnto the left Ventricle of the heart, when at his orifice there are three Values or Membranes shut without and o∣pen within, which hinder the ingresse of any thing into the heart? And this Hippocrates in his Booke De corde plainly auoucheth, whose words because they are sweeter then Nectar and brighter then the midday Sun we will willingly transcribe. At the mouths or ingate of the Arteries, there are three round Membranes disposed, in their top like a halfe circle, and they that prie into these secrets of Nature, do much wonder howe these orifices and ends of the great Arteries do close themselues: for if the heart be taken out, and one of those Membranes be lift vp and another couched downe, neyther water nor winde can passe into the heart: and these Mem∣branes are more exactly disposed in the mouthes of the left ventricle, and that for very good rea∣son. Thus farre Hippocrates. From whence I gather, if nothing can passe through the Ar∣tery into the heart, how shall the bloode attenuated in the Arteries of the Spleene passe thereinto, as Vlmus conceiteth? But I know what the answere will bee, that those Mem∣branes are not ordained altogether to hinder the passage too and fro; but that nothing should passe or repasse together or at once after a tumultuous manner. But this is idly to decline the force of the argument, for the blood that is brought into the heart for the gene∣ration of vitall spirits, must both be aboundant, and at once aboundantly exhibited vnto it; which these semicircular Membranes will not admit. But concerning this question, wee shall haue occasion to dispute heereafter when we entreate of the preparation of the vitall spirit., for this time therefore thus much shall suffice.

Notwithstanding, whereas he obiecteth that the large and manifold Arteries which are in the Spleene were not ordained in vaine but for a further elaboration of blood, I answer that the vse of the Arteries of the Spleen is fourefold. The first, that by their pulsation they might purge and attenuate the foeculent and drossie blood; the second to solicit or cal this blood out of the Veines into the substance of the Spleene; the third to ventilate or breath the naturall heate of the Spleene defiled and almost extinguished by so impure a commix∣tion least it should faint and decay; and finally, to impart vnto the Spleen the vitall facul∣ty. And so wee see how these notable Arteries are not without especiall Reasons orday∣ned.

As for the Symptoms which follow Splenitick Patients, they happen from the impuri∣ty of the blood, not yet cleansed from this foeculent excrement, and are rather effects of a fault in sanguification then of the store house of the spirits. Moreouer, if the Spleen had beene ordained for the preparation of the vitall spirit, it should haue been found in all per∣fect creatures, because that spirit is of absolute necessity for the maintenance of life. Yet Laurentius saith, that a few yeares before he wrote his Anatomy, hee cut vppe at Paris in

France the body of a young man corpulent and full of flesh, wherein he found no spleen at all: the splenicke braunch was there and that very large, ending into a small glandulous or kernelly body, and the two haemorrohidal veines which purged the foeculencie of the bloud. Pliny in the 11. Book of his Naturall history, writeth that the Spleen is a great hinderance to good foot-man-shippe or swift running, and therefore some doe vse to seare it, yea and they say that a creature may liue though it bee taken out of the side. Againe those crea∣tures which haue lesse of this drossie slime haue no spleenes, and yet it is not to bee denyed but they ingender vitall spirites. Hereof Aristotle is a witnesse, in the 15. Chapter of his second booke de historia Animalium, where hee sayeth that the Spleene is in all creatures which haue blood, but in many of those which lay egges it is so small that it cannot almost be perceiued, as appeareth in Pigeons, Kites, Hawkes, and Owles.

These thinges being so, let vs now lay downe our opinion concerning the vse of the spleen. We will therefore with Galen, that the spleene is ordayned for the expurgation of foeculent blood; and therefore Nature hath placed it opposite to the Liuer, that the thicke and muddy part of the iuice being drunk vp and exhausted, the blood might be made pure. This melancholy iuyce by a wonderfull prouidence and vnknowne familiarity the Spleene inuiteth vnto it selfe, yet not pure and vnmingled as the bladder draweth choler, but allay∣ed with much benigne iuyce and laudable blood; because as wee sayed before, where the draught is made through large orificies, there the iuyce is neuer sincere, but mixed with some other humour.

This bloud thus drawne and brought by the Splenicke braunch, the aboundance of Arte∣ries doe attenuate, mitigate, and concoct, making it like vnto the Spleene which is nou∣rished with the purer part thereof. This Galen witnesseth where he sayth, That the Spleen draweth thicker blood then the Liuer, but is nourished with thinner, and the impurer part some∣time belcheth backe into the bottome of the Stomacke, sometime falleth into the Hemorrhoidall veines: and this is the true and vniforme opinion of Galen and the most Physitians concer∣ning the vse of the Spleene, which it shall not bee amisse to proue also by some arguments. It is most certaine that in the Liuer there are ingendred with the blood three kinde of ex∣crements, one thinne and more ayrie which swimmeth aloft and is called Choler; another thicker and more earthy answering to the lees of wine, the third waterie and whaey. The Choler because his acrimony is more prouoking, is first of all sent aside; the melancholly iuyce as being more myrie and impure, needes the more forcible expurgation; for this ex∣purgation, it was necessarie there should be some receptacle and that not far distant from the place of concoction.

This receptacle is neither the stomacke nor the guts, nor the Kidneyes, nor the braun∣ches of the hollew veine: it remaineth therefore that it must bee the Spleene, which recei∣ueth a notable splenicke branch from the trunke of the gate veine and the lower partes of the Liuer. An argument hereof is the couler of the spleen, which is almost in all creatures blacke or brownish, as also sowre to taste: now such as the couler is of any part, such is the humor that hath dominion therein.

Moreouer that the Spleene is ordained for the drawing and purging of the lees of the blood, these things doe sufficiently witnesse; because it is most subiect to obstructions and 2 schirrous tumors, not by reason of his substance, for it is rare and fungous like a fast sponge or a smooth pumie-stone; not by reason of his vessels which are very large: wherefore by reason of the humor contained therein, which if it were thin would neyther beget obstruc∣tions nor such scirhous hardnesses. This Galen teacheth in the 13. booke of his Method. The substance sayeth hee of the Liuer is very liable to the scirrhus, as Naturally conteining some myrie and grosse iuyce: the substance of the spleene is more rare and open then that of the Liuer, but yet is oftner afflicted with scirrhous tumors, because of a kind of Aliment wherewith it is re∣freshed. And againe in his 5. Booke of the Faculties of simple medicines. The Spleene hath ample passages. From whence then proceed these frequent obstructions but from the grosse and foeculent blood? In respect of this thicke humor, Galen in his 5. Booke de sanitate tu∣enda sayth, That the Spleene is helped by the exercise of the vpper and lower partes to attenuate it. And in Plutarch Orchomenes the Lacedemonian was very spleeniticke, yet hee so exerci∣sed himselfe in running, that at length he obtayned the prize in a race.

Furthermore, that the spleene is the receptacle of foeculent blood may thus be demon∣strated: If the spleene bee obstructed, this muddy blood floweth presently backe vnto the 3 Liuer, and infecteth that which is pure and laudable with his couler, and hence the habite

of the body becommeth melancholy, and the patient ouertaken with the blacke Iaundise, euen as when the passage of gall is obstructed the choler returneth into the Liuer, where∣upon the whole body becommeth yellow in a yellow Iaundise. For this cause I thinke it was that the Ancientes placed the seate of laughter in the Spleene, for it is a knowne di∣sticke.

Cor sapit ac pulmo loquitur fel continet Iras, Splen ridere facit, cogit amareiecur.

The seate of wisedome is the Heart, the Lungs our Tongues doe moue: The Gall our Rage, the Spleene our Mirth, the Liuer holds our Loue.

And the Diuine Plato aluding hereto, writeth that the Spleene is placed next vnto the Liuer to keepe it alwayes pure and bright and shining like a mirrour, fitte to returne the I∣mages of those things that light vpon it.

But there are many things obiected against the trueth of this opinion, which it is very reasonable we should answere and dissolue. If the Spleene had beene ordained for the dra∣wing and purging of the melancholy iuyce, then Nature would haue prouided some passa∣ges to leade it from the Liuer; there should haue beene also some cauity to receiue it, and some wayes by which it might be thrust forth. So there are certaine passages of the gall dispersed through the whole body of the Liuer, and hollow like Arteries which leade the choler from the Liuer: there is also a notable cauity in the bladder recieuing it, & wayes by which it is thrust downe into the duodenum. In like manner, Nature for the vrine proui∣ded the emulgent vesselles to leade it from the hollow veine: the membranous cauities of the Kidneyes to receiue it, and the vreters and bladder to expell and auoyde it; but for the melancholy iuyce there are no proper and peculiar passages to leade it to the Spleene, no cauity or hollownesse in the Spleene to receiue and conteine it, nor any wayes whereby it might be auoyded; and therefore the Spleene is not ordained for the drawing and expur∣gation of this humor. That there is no pipe, passage, or vessell appointed for the transpor∣tation of these lees of the blood may be proued thus. Nature is so prouident that as soon as sanguification is perfected, she prouideth that the noysome and heterogenie parts should bee purged and separated from the laudable blood, that it might not bee adulterated with their contagion. But if the melancholy iuyce should passe away by the splenicke braunch, this councell and law of Nature should be vtterly ouerthrowne, because it must needs passe through the trunke of the Gate-veine, and defile with his slimy muddines all the braunches that belong to the stomacke, the kall, and the neighbor parts. Neither can the Spleene be a fit receptacle for this melancholy iuyce, because in it there are no hollow veines, whereas this thicke excrement would occupy a greater place then a thinne. Finally, there are no passages by which these lees might be thrust forth, for it is not returned into the hemorrho∣idall veines, nor into the bottome of the stomacke; because if it were thrust into the hemor∣rhoidall veines, then all men should be trobled with hemorroids, because all men haue this foeculent blood: adde hereto, that the blood that floweth by these veines is thinne and pur∣ple, not blacke and thicke. Againe, if the Spleene should belch out the reliques of this foe∣culencie into the bottome of the stomacke, it should at length bee auoyded either by vo∣mit or by siege, and so we should continually haue sowre vomits or eructations, and black stooles.

These and such like are the arguments by which the aduersaries of Galens opinion doe contend against him. But their blunt weapons will not fasten in the flesh, Nulla sequitur de vulnere sanguis. For we answere, that the splenicke branch is a fit vessell for the conuey∣ance of this melancholy iuyce, from which although almost all the veines of the stomacke and the Kall doe arise: yet those parts doe not draw into them this impure blood, but only the Spleene which by a kinde of familiarity challengeth it as his proper guest. So the kid∣neyes alone do sucke through their ample vessels the whay, not pure but mingled with the blood.

As for a cauity, we doe not thinke it necessary in the spleene, because there are an infi∣nite number of beds and webs of veines and arteries therein, in which the slime and mud∣dy blood is boyled and attenuated: so in the Liuer there are many of these webbes and yet no cauity, as also in the breasts and the testicles. Galen in the 4. booke of the vse of Parts, and the 6. Chapter, asketh the question why there be two Kidneyes and but one bladder, and one spleene? he answereth himselfe, because the serous or whaey humour is in greatest quantity, the choler lesse, and the melancholy least of all. The whay thinnest, the melan∣choly

Lees thickest, and the choler betwixt both. And therefore for a little and thicke hu∣mor which was hard to be mooued, a great and rare organ was most fit; but it needed not to be hollow, because the melancholy iuice was not sodainly to bee remooued, but by de∣grees and length of time to be changed and altered. Now, if there be any reliques of this melancholy bloode, who will deny that it is auoyded by the Hemorrhoidall veines at the seige, or by the veinall vessell into the bottome of the stomacke. Neither doth it hence fol∣low, that the stooles should be alwaies blacke, or the vomits sowre; because a little quantity of this foeculent blood by the heate of the inward parts may bee digested and spent in a va∣pour, as the excrements of the bones, the gristles, & other parts. But if it abound as it hap∣neth in melancholy men, then the excrements of the belly, the bladder, and the hemorroid veines appeare blacke.

Tis true indeede, that sometimes a right thin and purple bloode passeth away by the Hemorrhoides, because the Leeches sucke that which is thin, the thicker setling because of the streightnesse of the wound: or els we say, that there are two kinds of Hemorrhoids, the one externall, the other internall; the internall arise from the splenick branch, and the externall from the Iliack: the first do euacuate ill disposed and foeculent bloode, the other do empty the turged and full veines, and therefore the bloode that passeth from them is pure and lawdable.

Notes

• Erasistratus. Aristotle.
• Alexander and Aretaeus.
• Their reasons
• Confuted.
• Rondeletius his opinio.
• His Reasons.
• Vlmus his opi∣nion.
• His reasons.
• Hippocrates.
• Vlmus opiniō confuted.
• Hippocrates.
• Obiection. Answer 4. vses of the Arteries of the Spleene.
• Answere to the argument of the Symp∣tomes.
• Perfect Creatures may liue without their Spleenes.
• A History out of Laurentius.
• Pliny.
• Aristotle. Creatures that lay egges haue smal spleenes.
• Concerning the vse of the spleene, agree¦ing with the trueth.
• Galen.
• Confirmed by reasons. The first.
• From the cou¦lor and taste.
• 2

  2. Argument.
• Why the spleen is sub∣iect to ob∣structions & scirrhous Tu∣mors. Galen.
• Plutarch.
• 3

  3. Argument.
• The cause of the black and yellow iaūdise
• Plato.
• Obiections.
• Answeres to the former ar∣guments.
• Galens obiec∣tions.
• His owne an¦swere.
• Why there is no notable cauity in the Spleene.
• External and internall, Hemorrhoids