CHAP. VI. Of the Nourishment of the Infant, and how it exer∣ciseth the Naturall Faculties.
AS in the workes of Art men do proceed from that which is lesse perfect to that which is more perfect; right so is it in the works of Nature. Wherfore the tender Embryo liueth first the most imperfect life, that is, the life of a Plant which we call the Vegitatiue life. Afterward growing vnto further strength, it attaineth the life of an vnreasonable creature which we call the Sensatiue life, and last of all the most perfect life of a man when it is endu∣ed with a reasonable soule. This Aristotle teacheth in his first Booke de Generatione Anima∣lium where he saith, the Infant is not made a liuing Creature and a man together. But we must vnderstand that this progresse in perfection commeth not by reason of the forme, because that is simple and cannot be diuided, but by reason of the matter, that is, of the Organes, which that noble forme and first acte vseth for the accomplishment of second Acts as wee call them, and all the functions.
The first life of the creature whereby it liueth from the very beginning of the Concepti∣on, is the most simple; and is maintained without that which wee properly call Nourish∣ment. And indeede what neede was there of Nourishment or restauration where there was no exhaustion or consumption of the parts? The Embryo at first hath sufficient to che∣rish it selfe out of it owne heate, and by it owne inbred spirit. But after the parts are distin∣guished and delineated, then presently it beginneth to be nourished and encreased, yet is not this nourishment of the same kind with that which the infant enioyeth after it is ariued into the worlde. For then it sucketh Aliment by the mouth, but whilst it is in the wombe it receiueth it onely by the Nauell, whatsoeuer Democritus and Epicurus say. And that did Hippocrates not obscurely intimate, when he saide in his Booke De Alimento, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. that is, The first Nourishment is the Nauel through the Abdomen. After it is borne it swalloweth into the stomacke meats of all kinds, before (saith Hippocra∣tes in his Booke de Natura puert) it draweth onely of the purest bloode from the Mother, which is transfused into the Liuer. The Infant after it is borne maketh manifolde changes and alterations in the Aliment: first Chylification, then Sanguification, lastly perfect Assimu∣lation which is the third concoction. When the infant draweth pure bloode, it giueth not thereto any forme or fashion, but only a perfection and temper like vnto itselfe. Wherfore we ascribe to the infant not Chylification nor Sanguification, but onely the third concoc∣tion which is the particular Nourishment of the singular parts. The manner of this thirde and onely concoction in the infant conteined in the wombe, is thus.
The infant being tied by the mediation of vessels and Membranes to the Mothers womb, draws the purest of her blood through the mouths of those vessels inoculated one into ano∣ther after a wonderfull manner. This blood thus drawn is powred into the body of the Li∣uer through the vmbilicall veine, which is a branch of the gate-veine, and reacheth to the Fissure of the Liuer, yea you may often in dead bodies followe a probe out of it into the small veins of the Liuer: Here the blood is more and more perfected, afterward the thicker and more crude part is distributed through the roots of the Gate-veine into the stomacke, the spleene and the kidneys, the excrements and reliques wherof by the Splenick & mesen∣terick branches are abligated into the cauity of the guts, and there are by degrees gathered together, and in their abode are so dried that they become thick and blacke. The purer and better concocted part of the bloode is conueyed into the trunke of the hollow veine, from which it is diffused through the whole body by the veins, as it were by smal riuerets. But be∣cause the blood is not without his whey, which serueth to weft it through the smal Veines, therefore the whey hauing performed that his office is partly spent in sweate by the habite of the body, partly it is drawne by the Kidneys, and so transcolated through the Vreters or Vrine vessels into the bladder. For the conteyning of which sweate and Vrine, Nature ap∣pointed the Membrane called Amnios. Yet we must not thinke that the Infant pisseth his vrine into this Membrane by the priuities, but it is conueyed thereinto thorough the Vra∣chos, which is a long and bloodlesse Canale or pipe lengthened from the bottome of the Bladder vnto the Nauell. Neyther hath it any Muscle thereto belonging, because in