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1. HItherto we have spoken of the first kinde of natural Animates, to wit, of Plants: We shall now prosecute the other kinde, aistheton, or such as have sense.
2. Aisthetice is a nature which is indowed with sense.
3. And it is Zoophyton, or an Animal.
4. An Animal is a (A) sen∣sible and animated body, mo∣ving
it self to a place.
5. For Sense belongs onely to Animals, and they are constitu∣ted for them; and herein they differ from Plants.
6. This animated Body (B) is one, and simple harmony of ma∣ny parts, by continuation and union of form; and it is dividu∣al and variable into almost infi∣nite parts.
7. Therefore all that is part of an animate Body, into which the same body cannot be divided, or remain well whole, Arist. 7. Polit. c. 8.
8. And some things are con∣tained in these parts.
9. They are contained, which when they have a fluent and co∣herent nature, are yet sustained by help of others.
10. Of which sort (C) are both humours and spirits.
11. An humour is the liquid
and fluent part of a body, con∣tained in the spaces of an ani∣mate body, and so placed there∣fore for the preservation of the same.
12. Therefore whatsoever doth flow in and from the body, inso∣much that a vessel is required to be subjected, in which the thing may be contained, is called an humour.
13. And humour is either in∣site or acquisite: the insite is en∣gendered of the whole mass of the body, having its rise from the seed and menstruous blood, for the conformation of the body; and it is also called radical, or primogenial.
14. And it is either airy, or oleous, in which the native heat is preserved, even as a flame by the candle.
15. It is daily made of ali∣ment: for whatsoever suffices in
its place, it is needful to be chan∣ged by the help of heat; but heat in product of time begins to fade, and therefore what happens of aliment, is impure; and if it be destitute of fit aliment, then heat at length quite dissipates.
16. The acquisite doth come out for reparation sake, for the more profitable parts of ali∣ments.
17. And it is either primary or secondary.
18. The primary is gotten immediately of aliments conco∣cted in the liver.
19. Chylus therefore is not to be accounted the first humour, both for that it is unapt of it self to nourish the body or any part thereof, and also that it is not as yet truly fluid, and not cocted in the liver.
20. Primary humours are ei∣ther profitable or excrementiti∣ous.
21. Those that are profitable, and make much to nutrition, are blood and flegme.
22. Blood (D) is a hot hu∣mour, temperate, sweet, rubi∣cund, prepared in the Miseraick veins, and confected in the liver, of the most temperate, oleous and airy parts of chyle.
23. With this alone, are all the parts of animals nourished. First, when it is certain, that we are nourished of those things of which we consist; but we are made of pure blood in the womb. Secondly, because this humour alone is distributed by vessels, o∣ver the whole body, and so doth accede to every part. Thirdly, this alone also is sweet, and apt to nourish: other humours are either bitter or acid. Fourthly, this alone can concrete by the be∣nefit of the fibres, and be assimi∣lated to the body, Arist. l. 2. de part. anim. c. 23.
24. Therefore this alone is con∣tained in the veins, not mingled with any other humour, although it be conflated of four divers parts, which do so constitute the sanguineous Mass, as Cheese and Whay belongs to the substance of milk.
25. Therefore, because nature is not one and the same in all parts, therefore from this Mass several stocks of juices may be drawn.
26. Those parts are various, of which blood doth consist: some improperly entitle them by the name of excrementitious humours.
27. For those humours are not carried with blood into the body, if it injoys fully its native health; but if infested with any preterna∣tural affection, then it is not blood, but an excrement, as Ari∣stotle calls it; and the Philoso∣phers,
Nosodes haima, diseased blood.
28. Flegme (E) is a cold hu∣mour, moist, white, and insipid; gotten of a cold portion of chyle in the liver, that by the progress of time and greater concoction, it may divert to blood, and so nourish the body.
29. Therefore, nature pru∣dently hath hid no receptacle, which might expurge it: there∣fore, seeing it cannot be evacua∣ted, it requires to be altered.
30. Furthermore, there are ex∣crementitious humours, which are unprofitable to nourish the body; therefore they are purged by nature.
31. And these are made either by the second concoction, toge∣ther with the blood in the liver, and may be discerned; or of the third, of what is left of every part.
32. Two excrementitious hu∣mors,
are generated in the second concoction in the liver: the one representing the flower, the other the fecies of wine, to wit, yel∣low and black, choler and whey.
33. Yellow bile or choler (F) is an excrementitious humour, hot and dry, bitter also, being procreated of the tender and hot∣ter parts of chyle; and so gathered into the bladder of the gall.
34. This humor doth flow from the bladder of the gall, by the passage of the Choledochum (from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is, choler, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that is to receive) to the end of the intestines, that it may stimulate the dull intestines by its acrimony to excretion; and so bring down the slow flegme adhering to the interior mem∣branes.
35. Black choler (G) or me∣lancholy is a cold and dry hu∣mour, crass, and black, acerb,
acid, arising from the gross•…•…r and feculent part of aliment, and expurged from the spleen.
36. Serum or whey, is an ex∣crementitious humor, begotten of drink or any other liquor, wherewith meat is digested in the stomach by the action of heat in the liver.
37. Part of it is mild, and di∣stributed together with blood into the veins, and so the same made gross by the coction, and plenty of fibres; and as it were deduced in a chariot, to the ex∣tremities of the body: the other part which is unprofitable, is forthwith expelled to the •…•…ins; and hence by the Uretra's to the bladder.
38. This Serum, therefore, is matter of urine; for this is no o∣ther thing then serum, altered in the liver and vessels, attracted from the reins, and expulsed into
the bladder: and at last excre∣ted by the passage of the vein, that purer blood may be made.
39. But the excrementitious humours, which are discerned in the third concoction, do either break out of the whole body, or by some determinate part.
40. Of which sort are sweats, and tears, which we put amongst the excrements of the third con∣coction: not that they are then generated (for their matter is the same with serum) but after that the concoction is made, they are discerned.
41. Sweat therefore is serum altered in the liver, and by the conveyance of the blood, is trans∣mitted by the veins; and at length out of these veins, by the insensible passages of the body, expulsed into the species of wa∣ter.
42. The usual and natural
sweat of our body is of a watry colour; but sometimes it is yel∣lowish, and reddish, by reason of the tenuity of the blood, which Aristotle mentions.
43. A Tear is a drop, contain∣ed in the head and angles of the veins which are in the eyes, and doth break out by the watry holes, to the internal angle of the eye; and by compression and dilatation, by the scissure of the conjunctive tunicle.
44. Hence it is, that the com∣ing of tears, doth not proceed from the eyes; for they are, as it were, but the emissaries of the drops.
45. It behoves also that na∣ture should have given to every man tears, properly so called, be∣cause sometimes he is sad, and sometimes rejoyces; whence his veins are dilated and compressed.
46. They are most prone to
tears, whose bodies are endowed with a cold and moist, tender, soft, and effeminate constitution, and with a moist and languid brain: hence it is, that children and women, more then men, are addicted more to pour out tears in such a plentiful manner.
47. Great plenty and abun∣dance of tears do flow from them also, who have the carnucles and angles of the eyes great and lax.
48. And on the contrary, some by no force, nor means, can be made to weep, because in them the Lachrymal flesh doth obduce the veins, and so hinder the flux of tears.
49. Let these suffice to have been spoken of the primary hu∣mours, both excrementitious and profitable: the secondary hu∣mours, are those which are made new, of insited or radical moi∣sture,
or of blood much conco∣cted.
50. Of which sort are these two, (H) Ros and Gluten.
51. Ros is an humour, which doth distil like a dew, generated of blood resolved into vapour, and doth resude by the tunicles of the veins; and partly flows from or by the pores thereof.
52. Gluten is an humour be∣gotten of Ros: applied first to the substance of the part, and there adhering; and then chan∣ged by the heat of the parts: and it is called Gluten, because it ag∣glutinates the parts.
53. Therefore we shall ex∣clude the rest; either because they are or may be referred to what hath been said; or that they are improper, wanting names, where∣by they cannot be appropriated to any class.
(A) IT is delivered in the defini∣tion, that an Animal doth consist of Matter and Form. Matter is an Animate, or Orga∣nical body: Form is endowed with sense; for sense ought to be∣long, and is necessary to such an Animal; and of that alone are Animals constituted: and therein do they differ from Plants, which indeed are animates, but destitute of sense.
Now in animals, motion doth always accompany sense, as a thing necessary to the conserva∣tion of the animal: for because it is preserved by nutriment, it stands in need of motion to pro∣cure that nutriment: but every animal by divine ordination, doth generate the whole and perfect simile to it self; in which gene∣ration,
matter is the seed of both sexes, masculine and feminine; or a certain simile, that is in stead of seed: although sometimes cer∣tain animates are produced out of putrefaction, yet there must be some certain seminal force therein, or else it could not be the efficient cause of any such ge∣neration.
(B) Because these▪ sublunaries do consist of dissimilar natures, therefore they are mortal & cor∣ruptible: therefore lest that God should seem to be wanting to them, he hath or dained that they that cannot remain in the same number, or at least in the same species, be revived by annual succession; and therefore by the benefit of procreation, that one species should proceed out of an∣other; whence the life of the dead (as we may say) is placed in the memory of the living; and
the father doth live in the son, as the artificer in his work. But as God is always the first cause of all natures, so is he the true, pro∣per and first efficient cause in the rise of all animals: The secon∣dary or instrumentary, are the animals themselves, whether mas∣culine or feminine of the same species, that they may make one when they are united, and di∣stinctly ordered to the obscene parts and instruments of genera∣tion: for the masculine is gene∣rated in another, and not in it self; the feminine doth generate in it self, and not in another: Where observe, that perfect ani∣mals onely can be said to pro∣ceed from the congress of the masculine and the feminine; yet some may be excepted: for of lit∣tle animals, as insects, which are produced of putrid matter alone, without seed; so the flye Can∣tharis,
hath neither masculine nor feminine: nor is it a P•…•…enix in nature: so an Eel is of neither sex; and many other.
(C) It is disputed by some, whether humours or spirits may be rightly reckoned amongst ani∣mal parts; because they obtain no figure, nor certain mode of increment, like solid and dimense parts: but know, that we take the word part largely in this place, for all that which is necessary to the constitution of an animate body: for whatsoever may not be taken from the whole, with∣out a dissolution of that whole, that may properly be called part of that whole: therefore humors and spirits, because if they be taken away, the animal whole cannot consist; therefore they are adjudged to pass under the name of parts.
But here it will be demanded,
whence doth the dissimilitude of the four humours depend, from the efficient or from the matter? Galen and Avicen do assert, that blood doth arise from a mode∣rate and temperate, choler from an intense, and flegme from a re∣miss heat. But Fernelius more rightly refers the cause of so great variety to the aliment, that is, •…•…o the material cause, because it •…•…s not consentaneous, the same •…•…eat, in the same time and part, •…•…o produce contrary effects: •…•…herefore the cause of this dissi∣•…•…ilitude is referred to the mat∣•…•…er. For whereas aliment (which •…•…s the matter) taken into our bo∣•…•…ies, doth consist of divers parts, •…•…t is altogether consentaneous to •…•…uth, that those humours which •…•…o arise from it, cannot be alto∣•…•…ther of one and the same genus, •…•…ut divers; for what part of the •…•…yle is more temperate, is con∣verted
by the liver into blood; and what more hotter, is chan∣ged into▪ yellow choler; and what is crude, into flegme; and what is terrene, into melancho∣ly. And these are familiar to the body, four manner of ways, as Hippocrates saith, by which we are constituted and nourished: for because the bodies of animals do disperse those things which are excrementitious, by certain oc∣cult foramens, and that by difla∣tion; therefore they need ali∣ment.
(D) Blood may be understood two manner of ways: First, for all the four humours, which are contained in the veins, which when opened, blood doth flow out, endowed with the four hu∣mours; for blood is not similar, but a mass conflated of different humours: Secondly, blood may be taken peculiarly and properly,
for a pure sejoyned humor, which is known by this sign, that assoon as it is let out into a vessel, it concretes, and turns into clots, by reason of its fibres: this hu∣mour is called by Hippocrates, hot and moist, because it conserves the life of the animal, which consists of a humid, as though material, and a calid principle as formal; and it is also called temperate by Galen, because a hot and moist temperament, doth next accede to the temperature, because it is the fittestto produce animal-ope∣rations; and it is called sweet, be∣cause it arises from a moderate heat, and of a temperate and best part of chyle: it is called Red or Rubicund, because it acquires a colour from the liver, that is red: for every part propounds this as its end, to assimilate that to itself, which it altered; therefore chyle is taken from the ventricle, and
transmuted by little and little to the liver; and so by degrees, doth pass, and is converted into its na∣ture: and hence it is, that it re∣ceives its colour; from this doth every part attract aliment; whence blood is called by some, the treasure of life, which nature so keeps in such safe custody, that all the other humors may receive loss, before blood: nay some have gone so far, as to go about to demonstrate, that the soul re∣sides in blood; others do affirm, that blood is essentially the very soul.
(E) Flegme, is gotten of the gross and watrish part of chyle: sometimes it is called sweet; not that any dulcitude or sweetness doth possess it, as it is with ho∣ney or sugar: but so to be under∣stood, as when we say sweet wa∣ter, or water is sweet: and when we ascribe frigidity to it, we do
mean, that it is not partaker of the contrary, viz. heat; but be∣cause that coldness is predomi∣nant in it: for if flegme were onely cold exactly, then it would be coacted like unto ice; and if it were exactly humid, it were void of all crassitude and len∣tor: the effect of it is to nourish the flegmatick members, toge∣ther with blood; and it is alimen•…•… half cocted, and in progress of time may easily make blood, and nourish the whole body.
(F) The matter of black cho∣ler or melancholy is the more gross and feculent part of ali∣ment, not unlike to the fecies of wine, or the setlings of oyl. This humour is cold and dry, because terrene: neither yet so cold, but that it is a partaker of some heat, otherwise it would concrete like ice; nor void of all humidity, o∣therwise it would not be an hu∣mor,
but a hard body like to an Adamant: its proper colour is black, or rather oleaceous, which in a temperate man, is called black: if compared with the co∣lour of other humours, it is crass, by reason of its terrene nature; and it hath sometimes a sowre sapour, when much heat cocts the humidity; and sometimes sharp, when less heat, &c. its use is to nourish the gross, hard, and terrene members.
But here a question may be handled: whereas it is said, that melancholy is terrene, cold and dry, therefore unapt to all the motions, both of body and minde; its strange why Aristotle will have all melancholy persons to be ingenious, either in the study of Philosophy, or moral Policy, in Poetry, and many other Arts and Sciences. It is answer'd, that the strength of wit is discerned
and discovered, either by quick∣ly learning, or strongly retaining. In this latter, melancholy per∣sons do excel, because siccity is necessary and appropriated to the retentive faculty: therefore the brain is made firm and contem∣perated from this humor, by the heat of blood and spirit; and in∣deed, those that are without this humour, are very forgetful: and though they may be ingenious, yet they are always found to be light and unstable, seldom perse∣vering in the thing proposed, by reason of the levity of spirits; for judgement and prudence, is no•…•… perfected in motion, but in rest: whence Aristotle could affirm, that the soul is rendred more in∣telligible, by rest and quietness, then commotion and trouble.
(H) Avicen, besides those two before named, doth make other two adventitious humours, a∣mongst
which those spoken of do possess a medium: the first is called innominatus, because it ne∣ver flows out of the veins; but the second, the Barbarians call Cambium, because it desires to flow out, and would be changed into the substance of flesh: but both of them are rejected: yet Fuchsius would have this humor to be the same with the radical, but without reason.
Here it may be demanded, whether it may perpetuate life? because the oleous or radical is preserved and nourished with hu∣midity, and new always substitu∣ted in the place of that which is absumed; for I do not see why, if radical humidity be wanting, that death should follow: but answer may be made, that the privation or defect of the radical humor, depends upon the impo∣tency of heat: for whatsoever suf∣fices
in the place of its native hu∣mour, that is necessary to be changed by the help of heat; which as Scaliger thinks, is alter∣ed and grows feeble, by use and diuturnity of time: therefore what accedes of aliment is more worse and impure, then that which decedes; therefore heat destitute of idoneous aliment, is dissipated. And hence it is that man necessarily must dye.