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.

QVESTION I. Whether the Testicles be principall parts or no.

ARistotle & the Peripatetick Philosophers do admit but one prin∣cipall or chiefe part in the body of man which is the Heart; but * 1.1 their opinion is long agoe hissed out of the Physitians Schoole. Many do accuse Galen of leuity & inconstancy in assigning the * 1.2 number of the principall parts. For sometimes he accounteth the Testicles among the principall parrs, sometimes he exclu∣deth * 1.3 them, but it will not be hard for vs to reconcile Galen vnto himselfe.

The Testicles, because they are the chiefe Organes or instru∣ments of procreation & by procreation mankind is preserued, * 1.4 are therefore to be accounted principall parts; and haply so much are they more excellent then the heart, by how much the species or whole kinde is more noble then one indiuiduum or particular of the kinde. Surely the power and vertue of the Testicles is very great & in∣credible, not onely to make the body fruitefull, but also in the alteration of the tempera∣ment, the habit, the proper substance of the body, yea & of the maners themselues. In these doth Galen place, beside that in the heart, another hearth as it were of the inbred heate, and * 1.5 these are the houshould Goddes which doe blesse and warme the whole bodye. Hence it is, that the Egyptians in their Hieroglyphickes doe paint Typhon gelt, signifying thereby his power and soueraignty to be abolished and decayed.

That they change the temperament it is manifest, because the testicles being taken away or but fretted, contorted, or writhen, yea refrigerated, or hauing suffred convulsion, there * 1.6 presently followeth a change from a hot to a cold temper, and in olde time it was accoun∣ted

a singular remedy for the leprosie to cut off the Testicles, and to this day we vse to ap∣ply Epithymations to them, and finde that they doe wonderfully corroborate and streng∣then the whole frame of the body. And it is ordinary for women (and that not vvithout reason) to presume much vppon the death or recouery of children by the firmenesse or * 1.7 loosenesse of these parts; yea Hippocrates himselfe sayth in his Prognostickes, That the Con∣vultion of the testicles and priuy parts do threaten danger of death.

We see also that in gelt men called Eunuches, there is a change of the whole habite and proper substance of the body, for they become fatter and smooth without haires; the flower also of their bloode decayeth and their vessels or veines loose their bredth and ca∣pacity, * 1.8 and all vigour of lust and desire of ioylity is extinguished; beside the flesh of such creatures looseth the former tast and smell; for whereas before it breathed out a certaine vnsauoury and rammish sowrenesse, after they are gelt it becommeth sweete and pleasant to the raste.

Concerning the chaunge of their Manners, that is notable of Auenzoar the Arabian, where he saith, Eunuchs haue a shrill and piping voice, euill manners, and worse dispositi∣ons, * 1.9 neyther shall you lightly finde one of them of a good inclination, or not broken wit∣ted. Claudian against Eut•• opius inueyeth thus against Eunuchs.

Adde quod Eunuchus nulla pietate mouetur, Nec Generi natisque Cauet.

The Eunuch is deuoide of pietie, Both to his Parents and his Progenie.

Albeit in the seauenth Booke of the Institution of Cyrus it is recorded, that this kind of men is quiet, diligent, and especially faithfull: but we may answere that they are quiet because they are dull and blockish; diligent because they are seruile and base minded; faithfull be∣cause * 1.10 they haue so much distrust of themselues. But howsoeuer, whence comes trow we this so sudden alteration of the temper, habit and maners? Aristotle thinketh that the heart is stretched by the testicles, and therefore relaxed when they are cut away, and so a com∣mon principle affected, because the strength of the Nerues is relaxed or loosened in their * 1.11 originall or beginning. Euen as wee see it commeth to passe in instruments, which haue a more acute or trebble sound when the strings are stretched, and a lower and more remisse when they are loosened; right so it is in Eunuchs, the Testicles being taken away and so the * 1.12 heart affected, the voice and very forme becommeth womanish; for a principle though it be small in quantity, yet it is great in power and efficacy.

Against this opinion of Aristotle Galen disputeth in his first Booke de Semine, and we in our next exercise shall prosecute it at large; for neither doeth the strength of the heart de∣pend * 1.13 vpon the contention or stretching of the Testicles but vpon his owne proper temper; neither if the heart needed any such tension or stretching, were the testicles pinnes fitting for the same. The Common opinion is, that all the other parts are heated by the repercus∣sion of heate from the Testicles vnto them; but because their substance is soft and rare, & reflection or repercussion is vsually (especially if it be any thing strong) from thight and hol∣low * 1.14 bodies, I imagine that their smal and slender reflection can be no cause or author of so powerfull a heat as the parts do stand in need of. Galen referres this alteration to the natiue and ingenit temper of the testicles themselues; for in the place last before named he sayth, that in them there is another fountaine or furnace rather of heate, euen as there is in the * 1.15 heart. But vnder correction it seemeth to me more reasonable, that the heate of the Testi∣cles is not so much from their natiue and in-bred temper, because they are without bloode & like vnto Glandules, as by reason of the seed conteyned in them; for where that is it hea∣teth * 1.16 the whole body, distendeth yea enrageth it. For Hippocrates saith, that seede is of Na∣ture fiery and aery; by the aery part it distendeth the whole frame of Nature, and by the fi∣ery setteth it on worke, or a gog as we say, transporting not the body onely, but the minde * 1.17 also from reason to rage. For as the least part of mortall poyson in a moment changeth the whole body; so is it in seede, whose quality is so actiue and operatiue, that it darteth forth as it were by irradiation his beames through the whole body. And thence it is, that we see gelt creatures are not so stirring as others, whose many motions do stirre vp and so encrease their heate.

It may be obiected that Galen in another placce attributeth onely to the Liuer and the Heart power to change the whole body, not to the Testicles. For thus hee sayeth: Those * 1.18

that haue hot Liuers haue also all their habit hot, vnlesse there bee some obstacle in the heart: on the other side they that haue hot heartes haue also hot habites, vnlesse the Liuer doe vehemently oppose against it: but of the Testicles not one worde or any mention at all; these men may thus be satisfied.

There is a twofold influence of heate, one immediate, another mediate. The immedi∣ate * 1.19 influence of the twofold spirits and bloud and with them of the heate, is from the heart and liuer by the veines and arteries. The mediate is from the Testicles into the whole bo∣dy indeede, but by the mediation of the Heart and the Liuer and the common vessels. For the Testicles haue no peculiar vessels by which they might deriue their influence into the whole body; but they impart this power and faculty of alteration, to the heart by the arte∣ries, to the Liuer by the veines; from which it is againe reinfused into the particular mem∣bers.

It will be obiected that this faculty of alteration proceeding from the Testicles is infused * 1.20 not bodily but onely operatiuely; what neede then hath it of a conduite or pipe either ar∣teriall or venall? But I answere, that faculties doe not vse to bee infused or transfused but * 1.21 by the mediation of spirits, which although they wander and gad vp and downe the body; yet notwithstanding they stand neede of peculiar receptacles to containe them in, such as are the veines, nerues, and arteries. So poyson although in the specificall or essentiall form it opposeth the heart, yet is it carried in a moment of time and matter to the heart through * 1.22 the arteries and spirits wherein the faculties haue their consistence.

Such therefore is the excellency, such the admirable faculty of the Testicles, as well in procreation of seede as we shall declare in our next exercise, as also in the alteration of the temper, habit and manners; and in that respect are they called by Galen, principall parts.

But their want not aduersaries who would thrust them out of this ranke of dignity, al∣though * 1.23 their arguments are very weake. First they say Galen in two places defineth a prin∣cipall * 1.24 part, in the first by Necessity, in the second by communication of a faculty or some com∣mon matter. But for the Testicles there is no necessity of them, for Eunuches liue without them, neither is there any faculty proceeding from them; for the animall faculty procee∣deth from the braine, the vitall from the heart, the naturall (to which the faculty of pro∣creation is referred) issueth from the Liuer the chiefe of all naturall partes. Moreouer from the Testicles there is no matter communicated to the whole body, for they haue no spirits proper vnto them, no vesselles which runne through the body by which it may bee conuayed; but these are trifles.

For we confesse the Testicles are not necessary for conseruation of the life of the indiui∣duum * 1.25 or singular man, but for propagation of the whole species, or of mankinde they are of absolute necessity. Wherefore they are principall parts in respect of mankinde, not in respect of this or that particular man. For the propagation of mankinde is onely accom∣plished by procreation: procreation is not without seede, seed is only concocted and per∣fected by the Testicles, to which the spermaticke vessels doe serue as well for preparation as for conduction and leading of the seede.

But me thinkes I heare the Peripatetians obstreperously deny the Testicles this power of * 1.26 procreation of seede, against whome we will in the next place bend our forces.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The Peripate∣tians.
• * 1.2

  Galen accused but redeemed
• * 1.3

  Lib. de sem. de arte porua. & de vsa part. &. de placitis.
• * 1.4

  The testicles after the tem∣per, habit, and maners.
• * 1.5

  Why the E∣giptians pain∣ted Typhō gelt
• * 1.6

  The tempe∣rament.
• * 1.7

  Prognostica∣tion by the Testicles.
• * 1.8

  The habite.
• * 1.9

  The manners.
• * 1.10

  Why gelt mē are so chāged
• * 1.11

  Aristotles prety conceits.
• * 1.12

  Comparison.
• * 1.13

  Confuted by Galen.
• * 1.14

  The common opinion.
• * 1.15

  Galens opinion
• * 1.16

  Not altoge∣ther allowed.
• * 1.17

  Comparison,
• * 1.18

  Galen redee∣med.
• * 1.19

  A twofold in∣fluence of heat.
• * 1.20

  Obiection.
• * 1.21

  How faculties are infused.
• * 1.22

  Comparison.
• * 1.23

  Obiections.
• * 1.24

  What a prin∣cipal part is according to Galen.
• * 1.25

  Answered.
• * 1.26

  Obiections of the preparati∣on of seed.