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. II. Whether the Guts haue any common Retentiue Facultie.

THE authorities of Galen aboue alledged do prooue but one facultie of the * 1.1 guts, to wit, the Expulsiue; yet there are some which striue out of Galen him selfe to prooue common and officiall-Retentiue and Concocting Faculties also. Concerning the Retentiue we will first see and then of the other. Galen discoursing about the nature and causes of the Lienterie (a disease wherein the meat is auoyded whole and vndigested as it was eaten, without any notable alteration) re∣ferres it to the weakenesse of the retentiue vertue; not of the proper Aliment that is of bloud, but of the Chylus contayned; the same also doth Auicen determine. Moreouer Ga∣len 3. de symptomat. causis sayeth, that the concoctiue facultie in Children is stronger, but the retentiue and expulsiue weaker, because they haue tender bellies, or doe oftentimes vn∣burden nature; now those things that are auoyded are contayned in the guts, the retentiue facultie therefore of the guttes is the weaker.

Againe in his booke of experienced medicines he prescribeth stipticke or binding medi∣caments for the fluxe of the belly, to roborate or strengthen the vertue of the guttes; and wee in the diarrhoea doe apply outward strengthening and astringent things. Adde hereto that most men are somewhat bound rather then soluble, the cause of which astriction they referre vnto the strength of the retentiue vertue, out of Galens commentarie vppon the xx. * 1.2 Aphorisme of the second section. Lastly the retention of the Chylus and of the excrement is necessary; of the Chylus, that the Aliments should not suddenly slip away and wee thereby become slaues to our insatiable throates and paunches; of the excrements, lea•••• we should be constrayned continually and vnseasonably to auoyde them.

These and such like things they propound, to teach that there is some force and power * 1.3 in the guttes to reteine the Chylus and the excrements, which because they seeme to bee very strange, and abhorring from the determinations of Galen and the ancient Physitians, it shall not be amisse to make interpretation of Galens wordes. The Lienterie is a disease * 1.4 not of the guttes but of the stomacke, and it is a symptome in the ouer hasty egestion or ex∣pulsion of meates scarcely at all altered or changed; for Galen thus defineth the Lienterie, When the meate is auoided by the siedge not at all altered or concocted; and therefore they doe ill that call it a leuitie or smoothnesse of the guttes, because it may be sometime when they are rough, being an affection of the stomacke onely and not of the guts; for although they be smooth and slippery, yet if the stomacke doe sufficiently boyle the Aliment, wee are ne∣uer troubled with the Lienterie, because the nature of it consisteth In the priuation of the first concoction, which is celebrated in the stomacke, and in a heady or sodaine egestion; where∣fore they conclude amisse that the Lienterie proceedeth from the weaknesse of the reten∣tiue facultie of the guttes, for that Galen conceiteth not; who discussing the causes there∣of, referres them to the distemper of the stomacke dissoluing the strength of all his facul∣ties, and to a light and superficiall exulceration, whereby that commeth to passe in the sto∣macke prouoked by the Lienterie, which hapneth in the bladder through the strangurie. It is true that the distemper of the guts do also breed a Lienterie, but not at the first hand, vn∣lesse the stomacke also doe sympathize with them, or bee drawne into consent by reason of their mutuall society communion and neighbor-hood.

And whereas Galen writeth that Children are often troubled with vomitings and loose∣nesse, * 1.5 hee referres the cause thereof to the weakenesse of their retentiue vertue; not of the guttes but of the stomacke, for their fibres are softer; beside their liquid eiections are caused

by their continuall eating and greedy appetites, the strength of their naturall heat desiring more then it can conteine or concoct; whence it commeth to passe that the fibres, as it were the raynes of the stomacke being loosened, they are ouertaken with manifold vomi∣tings and frequent deiections.

Those things which they obiect concerning stipticke medicines which coroborate the guts, and stay the fluxe of the Belly are but of small moment; for we doe not therefore ap∣ply them to strengthen the Retention of the guts which is none at all, but to bind or Con∣tract the veines of the mesenterie, which are dispersed in infinite braunches through the coates of the guttes, and doe empty into them malignant and superfluous humors; or else to thicken, refrigerate, or appease those r••ging humors which in substance are very thinne, * 1.6 in their Temper very hot, and in their quality very sharpe and coroding; that so they might become more vnapt to moue with such violence and force as they are wont. And what I pray you is more absurde, then to referre the cause of the astriction of the belly to the strength of the Reteining vertue? Let them rather harken to Galen, who in the third book of the causes of Symptomes, elegantly assigneth the causes of slowe deiection, sometime to * 1.7 the weaknesse of the expulsiue power, sometime to the dull sence of the guttes, sometime to the thicknesse, stipticke, or binding nature and small quantitie of that which is eaten; sometime to the weaknesse of the muscles of the Abdomen, who haue a great hand & beare a great part in the auoyding of the excrements; but concerning the Retentiue power of the guts he addeth not a word, neither maketh mention thereof.

Lastly, whereas they obtrude vnto vs, the necessity of their Retention of the Chylus and the excrements, we admit is very willingly; but doe not ascribe it to the retentiue faculty of the guts: for toward the reteyning of the Chylus, the wisedome and prouidence of Nature hath prouided the manifold boughts, doublings, and conuolutions or writhen complicati∣ons * 1.8 of the guttes; so that in so long a iourney and intricate a passage, it is not possible that almost any part of the Aliment should ariue at the port Esquiline which before was not met withall by the sucking mouthes of the almost infinite veines of the mesenterie. And for the Retention of the excrements, it is not a naturall but an Animall action; because it is performed by the helpe of muscles, to wit, the sphincters, which doe constringe or gather together the lower part of the right gut, that the excrement might not bee auoyded with∣out the commandement of reason and consent of the will. It is therefore hence manifest * 1.9 that the guts haue no Naturall power to reteine the Chylus or the excrement.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Concerning the retentiue faculty of the guts. Arguments to proue it. Galen. Auicen. Com. ad Aphor. 22. sect 3. ad Aphor. 12. sect. 4. ad Aphor. 1. sect. 6. ad Sent. 53. sect. 3. lib. 3. Epid. also 1. de Criss. b. 22. Fer. tract. 5. c. 5.
• * 1.2

  Galen.
• * 1.3

  The former arguments answered.
• * 1.4

  Galen expoū∣ded. The nature of the Lientery Galen.
• * 1.5

  Why Chil∣dren vomit & scoure often.
• * 1.6

  The vse of stipticke me∣dicines in fluxes.
• * 1.7

  Galen. The true cau∣ses of costiue∣nes.
• * 1.8

  The reason of the conuoluti∣ons of the guts.
• * 1.9

  The conclusi∣on.