The wards of the key to Helmont proved unfit for the lock, or, The principles of Mr. William Bacon examined and refuted and the honour and value of true chymistry asserted / by John Case ...

CHAP. II. A Consideration of the Action of the Vital Spirits. (Book 2)

IT is well observed, that Angels were the first Creatures God made, created pure as the Light, ordained with the Light to serve God: The same day was the Soul of Man created, there∣fore it is said that Man is but little lower than the Angels, if he lives after the Spirit.

I shall not trouble the Reader any more concerning the charge the Angels have over the Soul of Man; but come to treat of the Archeos, that is, the Place, Habitation, &c. wherein the Om∣nipotent Power hath lodged the Soul of Man, viz. the Body of Man, wherein the Soul, the Image of God, abideth for a time, which is moveable and changeable, and may be called a totter∣ing Tabernacle. These Earthly Bodies have their assistances and being from a Spirit in Latine called Vita, or Life; the Vital Spi∣rit which hath its Nutriment from Blood, and this Sanguine or Blood is maintained and preserved by Nourishment as Meat or Drink, which we inwardly take.

It may be convenient to give you a word or two concerning the Blood, how it comes to support the Body, or Vital Spirits, as I have told you before by Food; and after it hath passed that place called the Ventricles, or Stomach, which is there concocted

or digested, it descends into the Hungry Gut called Jejunum; it is drawn from the Jejunum by five of the Miseraical or Sucking Veins, which chuse out the best for Blood; it is drawn into the great hollow Vein, called Vena porta; it is drawn from Vena porta into the Liver, and there 'tis converted into Blood; it is drawn from the Liver into the hollow Vein again the second time to be refined and separated: it is from thence sent each to his natural place and receptacle, as Choler to the Gall, and Melan∣choly to the Spleen, &c. as the Principles of the Bodies so called of the Physitians.

Now the Living or Vital Spirits stand in need of two things, that it may subsist, convenient Motion and Aliment, and so is the Body of Man preserved and kept alive.