Nature's cabinet unlock'd wherein is discovered the natural causes of metals, stones, precious earths, juyces, humors, and spirits, the nature of plants in general, their affections, parts, and kinds in particular : together with a description of the individual parts and species of all animate bodies ... : with a compendious anatomy of the body of man, as also the manner of his formation in the womb / by Tho. Browne ...

The Commentary.

(A) DIaphragma hath divers appellations; for it is sometimes derived from the verb Diaphratto, that is, to fortifie; because Diaphrattei, that is it

separates out the middle and low belly; and also it is called the se∣venth transverse: it is called Dia∣phragma, and by ancient Medicks called Phrenas, because as some judge by its inflammation the minde is hurt. Its use is noble; for it separates between the spiri∣tual and vital bowels; and the heart and the lungs, from the na∣turals: which separation Aristo∣tle thinks to be made by nature, lest the vapours, which do exhale from meat, offend the heart, in which the soul, he thinks, doth reside: But this opinion is false, because the fumes do pass by the Oesophagum. To conclude, the Diaphragma hath two holes placed in organs ascending and descending. Again, it helps ex∣spiration and inspiration: for when the thorax is contracted, then the inspiration is dilated; but when it is laxed, then inspi∣ration

is made. Again, it helps the ejection of the excrements by its motion, with the muscles of the Abdomen. Again, it is the rise of the organs, whereby it pleasantly affects the heart, and causes laughter.

(D) The covering which de∣fends the heart, and contains it in its seat, and hinders it lest it should be oppressed with its vi∣cine members, is called Capsula, which contains also a certain watrish humour, lest it should 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and dry with too much heat: the substance of the heart is hard and dense, lest it should be broken by its violent motions: Its substance, saith Ari∣stotle, is thick and spiss, into which heat is received strongly; and therefore its temperament is the hottest of all the members: it is endowed with three kinds of fibres; strait, crooked, and trans∣verse;

that it may both draw, contain, and expel. Now Ari∣stotle thinks these fibres to be nerves, and the principle of the nerves to be in the heart: but he is deceived; its figure is Pyrami∣dal, but not absolutely so in brutes, but it is more flat then in a man: it is placed in the tho∣rax, as the safest place, and on the left side thereof.

(C) This is the shop of the vital faculty; and therefore it is rightly called by Aristotle, the first thing that lives, and •…•…he last that dies: by its perpetual mo∣tion and heat, it begets vital spi∣rits: for when it is dilated (which motion is called Dyastole) it al∣lures unto it, and draws blood, by the benefit of the strait fibres, from the vena cava, by the venous artery: but when it is constring∣ed, which is called Systole, it sends blood from the right ven∣tricle

into the lungs, by which they are nourished, and that by the venous artery: but the vital spirit out of the left, by Aorta into the whole body; and both ways it converts into vital spi∣rit, by attenuating the pure blood into vapour.

(D) There are two remarka∣ble ventricles of the heart, the right and the left: between these there is a partition, which di∣stinguishes the one from the o∣ther, which whereas it is crass and firm, it is not rightly called by Aristotle the third side, or bel∣ly; but lest that the passages may seem to be made by this, it sends out blood into another ventricle by narrow pores.

(E) The lung is called by the Greeks pneumon, a pneo, which is to breath, because it is the organ of breathing: therefore the lung ought to consist of such a sub∣stance,

that it may be filled and distended with air, like a pair of bellows. The primary Cause of which action is its proper substance, which helps the mo∣tion thereof: for when it is dila∣ted, it draws air, and by the ve∣nal artery carries it to the heart; by which the heat of the heart is allayed, and the vital spirit, as with food, thereby cherished. The figure of the Lung resembles the hoof of an ox, which is divided by the Mediastinum into two parts: it is the organ of voice; which I prove, because no ani∣mal hath a voice, that hath not a lung: there are some that say, that there are two lungs: but truly it is but one, divided into two parts, the right and the left. And again, both the parts consist of two Globes, the one superior, the other inferior; some∣times seen open, and sometimes

shut: the use thereof is, that it may be moved more nimbly, and so amplex the heart more easily.