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Whether the Spermaticall parts can reioyne againe after they be violated and seuered. QVEST. VIII.
COncerning the coalition or reioyning of Spermaticall partes there is great contention; I know that many, as well of the ancient as later writers haue, and do maintain; that they may all reioyn 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; that is, according to the first intention, as Chirurgians vse to speake, and this they establish by these arguments. Where the Efficient, Materiall, and Finall causes of co∣alition are, there is nothing to hinder a reiunction; but in young, growne and aged men, this threefold cause is present, therefore in all such there may be coalition: the Maior pro∣position of it selfe is cleere enough; the Minor is thus confirmed. The Efficient cause of coalition is the forming faculty, which vseth heate as her instrument; this faculty is seated naturally in euery part, but more manifestly in the solid parts then in the fleshy. The Mat∣ter of the spermaticall parts is seede, of which there is sufficient plenty, as for nutrition and accretion or growth, so also for a newe generation. Hippocrates also, Galen and Aristotle, doe agree, that the seede is an excrement, or rather surplusage of the last concoction; now the last and most absolute aliment is plentifull enough, neuer fayling vnlesse it be in the vt∣most limit of decrepit age, and therefore the excrement or surplusage of it is not wanting. Moreouer according to Hippocrates, veines, arteries, nerues, and all spermaticall parts haue the power of procreating seed. Neither is the Finall cause wanting, for a broken bone and a diuided veine, doe after a sort desire and striue to be reunited; because the solace and com∣fort of Nature consisteth in vnion, as her sorrow and desolation in solution. They haue al∣so another argument not inelegant; Hollow vlcers are filled vp with new flesh, intertexed and wouen with small and capillarie veines, arteries and sinewes; for that flesh is sensible, it liueth and is nourished, therefore of necessity by veines, arteries and sinewes.
Who is so mad that he dare exclude the teeth out of the number of spermaticall parts? but they grow againe after they be extracted. Hippocrates in his book de Carnibus, maketh a threefould generation of the teeth. The first from the seede in the wombe; the second from milke; the third from more solid aliments. Now if by the transmutation of the ali∣ment the spermaticall parts doe encrease, why shall they not be reunited, seeing that accre∣ation is one of the kinds of generation? Galen in the seauenth chapter of the fift booke of his Method, and in the fourteenth of his Method writeth, That he hath seene many sculdered & reunited arteries. He telleth a story of a young man who had an artery diuided in his arme, which afterward did perfectly reunite againe. Also in his 91. chapter of his booke de arte parda, and in the fift chapter of the sixt booke of his Method, hee affirmeth that the bones of Children may reunite. These are the reasons which they vrge, and wherewith they goade vs to subscribe, that spermaticall partes euen according to the first intention, may reunite themselues.
Those which haue giuen vp their names against this opinion, doe labour to prooue the contrary by authorities and by reasons. And first they oppose the sixtieth Aphorisme of the sixt section; If a bone, a gristle, a nerue, or the fore-skin bee cut, they neuer reunite againe. Galen in the 8. and 10. chapters of his first booke de semine, as also in the 87. chapter de ar∣te parua, writeth that the fleshy parts doe easily conglutinate, spermatical neuer. And in the 91. chapter Artis paruae, he esteemeth a fracture in a bone to bee incurable, because bones doe not reunite according to the first intention. These authorities are seconded by Reason; first, both the Efficient and Material causes of reunition are wanting. The Efficient is the formatiue facultie, which is onely in the seede, whose drowsie & lusking faculty is onely brought in∣to act by the heate of the wombe. True it is, that there remaineth in the solid parts, a fa∣culty conseruing the figure of the part; but to make any thing anew is proper onely to the seede, the Efficient therefore is wanting.
Neither is there any Matter at hand, as the seede; which being generated onely in the testicles, how can it be transferred to the head, the arme or any other part?
Out of these waues and stormes of opinions, that wee may redeeme and establish their minds that are yet incertainely tossed to and fro, and set them safe aland in a quiet harbor, wee will determine the whole question by three conclusions, and these conclusions shall haue three foundations. The first is taken out of the determinations of Galen, in the 90. and 91. chapters de arte parua, and is on this manner. There is a double reunition of dissol∣ued