The Sense mooueth the imagination, the imagination commandeth the moouing Fa∣culty, that obeyeth, and so it is puffed vp. The moouing Faculty hath the help of four Mus∣cles, two of which run along the sides of the member; now wee know that all motions of the Muscles is Animall, because a Muscle is defined to be an instrument of voluntary mo∣tion. This inflation hath pleasure also ioyned vnto it, but pleasure is not without sence; wherefore all these three Animall faculties concurre in erection, and therefore it is meerly an Animall action.
On the contrary that it is a Naturall action may thus bee demonstrated: all the causes of this distention, the instruments, the efficients and the end are Naturall. The Naturall organs or instruments are two ligaments, hollow, fungous and blacke, which though they be called Nerues, yet are not voluntary and sensible or feeling sinewes, they arise from the hanch and share-bones, not from the brayne or marrow of the backe. The efficient cause is not our will, because erection is not alwayes at our commaundement either to moue or to appease as we may doe our armes, legges and eyes; but the efficient cause is heate, spi∣rites and winde, which fill and distend these hollow bodies, with an infinite number of ves∣selles both veines and arteries dispersed and wouen through them. The finall cause is pro∣creation which belongeth to the Naturall not to the Animall faculty.
Betwixt these two extreames we wil take the middle way and determine, that the action of erection is neyther meerely Animall nor meere Naturall, but a mixed action. In re∣spect of the imagination & the sence it is Animall, because it is not distended vnlesse some luxurious imagination goe before, and the distention when it is made is alwayes accom∣panied with a sence of pleasure and delight; but in respect of the motion we rather thinke it to be Naturall which yet is somewhat holpen by the Animal. For as the appetite which is stirred vp in the vppermost mouth of the stomacke (because traction breedes diuulsion, diuulsion sence, sence Appetite) is called Animall; and yet the motion wherby the greedy stomacke sometimes snatcheth vnchewed meate euen out of the mouth is Naturall: so the erection of this member because it is with sence and imagination is sayed to bee Animall, but the locall motion whereby it is mathematically inlarged is Natural, arising from the in∣bred faculty of the ligaments: such is also the motion of the wombe when it draweth seed, and of the heart when it draweth into it selfe ayre and bloud. Yet it must be confessed that this naturall motion is holpen by the Animal, because the foure muscles before mentioned though they be very small, yet they helpe to enlarge the distention, and doe also for a time keep it so distended.
If it be obiected that in the running of the Reynes called the venereall Gonorrhaea, there is erection without imagination or pleasure, yea with payne. I answere with Galen that there is a twofould erection, one according to nature, another vnnaturall; the first is from the ingenit faculty of the hollow ligament; the other is symptomaticall; the first with plea∣sure, the other without it yea with payne; in the first the yarde is first distended and after filled with a vaporous spirite; in the latter it is first filled then after distended. In a word, there is the same difference betweene these two distentions which is between the two mo∣tions of the heart. In the Naturall motion of the heart which is accomplished by the vi∣tall faculty, because the heart is dilated it is filled with ayre and bloud, and because it is con∣tracted it is emptyed; but in the depraued palpitation of the heart the heart is distended be∣cause it is filled. So smiths bellowes because they are dilated are presently filled with ayre for the auoyding of vacuity, but bottles are distended because they are filled with wine or water.
Wherefore the Naturall erection euer followeth imagination and hath pleasure ac∣companying it, but the vnnaturall which Galen calleth Priapismus, is altogether without lust or appetite. The cause of this is a plenitude of thick & crasse wind, proued because the motion is so sudden and so violent; for all violent and sudden motions are of winde not of humor as Galen saith; and this wind or vapour is generated either in the hollow nerues and ligaments, or is thither brought by the open passages of the arteries. But of what? Surely of crasse and thicke humours, and that is the reason why melancholly men are most trou∣bled with this vnnaturall erection; as also are Lepers, and therefore the Antients called the Leprosie satyriasis. And thus much concerning the parts of generation in men, now it fol∣loweth concerning those of women.