The anatomy of human bodies, comprehending the most modern discoveries and curiosities in that art to which is added a particular treatise of the small-pox & measles : together with several practical observations and experienced cures ... / written in Latin by Ijsbrand de Diemerbroeck ... ; translated from the last and most correct and full edition of the same, by William Salmon ...

CHAP. XXIV. Of the Nails.

THough the Bones are not Nails, yet by reason of their Remark∣able hardness, and consequently Similitude to the softer Bones or harder Gristles, we shall add them to this Discourse of the Bones.

I. The Nails are horny Parts fix'd at the Extremities of the Fingers and Toes.

II. By the Greeks they are called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; the Root of the Nail 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; the upper white Part, or little whitish Half-moon 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; the Pellicle growing over the Root 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

III. Iulius Pollux divides the Nails into the Parts under the Nail, the upper Parts, the Parts on both sides, the Parts next to them, the White next the Roots of the Nails; the Clouds in the Nails, and the Ends within the Fingers.

IV. Their Substance is indifferent hard, and without any Sense of Feeling; in the middle between a Bone and a Gristle, which is the reason they are flexible.

V. Their Colour is transparent, or else, according to the Disposition of the Flesh that lies underneath, some∣times ruddy, sometimes pale, sometimes livid, or of any other Colour. From Hippocrates and several other Physitians they take their Indications of Sickness and Health.

VI. They grow very fast to the Flesh that lies underneath and about the Roots, are bound with a strong Ligament, to the end they may stick the firmer, and the Skin embraces them in their full Compass, in the same manner as the Gums environ the Teeth.

VII. There is one at the Extremity of each Finger and Toe, for the Security of the Sensible Parts that lye under them; for that Nerves and Tendons are carried to their very utmost Extremities, and are dilated under the Nails, and contribute a most acute Sense to those Places; so that unless those extream Parts were guarded by the Nails, the general Uses to which they are put, would cause a continual Extremity of Pain, and render the ends of the Fingers altogether useless, and this is their primary Office, their secondary use is for scratching, and several other Employments.

VIII. Vulgarly they are said to be produced from the thicker and more viscous Excrements of the third Con∣coction, and are numbred among the Parts of the Body: Which Opinion Galen seems to favour, who says that no Vessels are bequeath'd to the Nails, but that they take their Encrease from the Roots like the Hair; though in another place he asserts, that there is a Vein, an Artery and a Nerve extended to the Roots of the Nails, from whence they receive Life and Nourishment.

But to resolve this Doubt in short▪ three things are to be considered. First, that the Spots in the Nails are never obliterated, until the Part in which they appear growing beyond the Flesh, come to be par'd off with the rest of the Nail.

Secondly, that though the Colour of the Nails seems to be changed in several Distempers of the Body, yet that is no real Change of the Colour in their Substance, but only of the Humors that lye under; for that the Nails are transparent, so that the Colour of the Blood or any other Humors underneath appears through them. And therefore in a Syncope, or the beginning of a Quartan Ague, by reason of the little Blood that comes to those Parts, they look pale. In Plethories, by reason of the great quantity of Blood, they look red; and in Cacochymies they look of an ill Colour.

Thirdly, the Nails live and grow after Death; which as Aristotle asserts, so is it not to be questioned upon common Experience.

Which Considerations being premis∣ed, it will sufficiently appear.

• 1. That they do not live a Life common with the Animate Parts of the same Body; but a peculiar vigitable Life.
• 2. That they are not nourished by the Blood alone, but by other Nourish∣ments, which remain after the Decease of the Body, after the Blood has been long wasted and putrified, therefore it is not probable that any Arteries or Veins enter their Substance, though perhaps they may extend to their Roots, to be distributed to the Parts under∣neath.
• 3. Thirdly, that they do not grow in their whole Substance but only by Apposition of Parts to the Root, which the Parts before by degrees thrust for∣ward to the Root.

From whence we must conclude, that they are to be call'd Parts of the Body, as they make toward the Perfection of the Whole, for no man can be perfect without his Nails, but not as they en∣joy a common Life with the rest of the Parts, for that we find they live a pecu∣liar Life after the Death of all the rest of the Parts, Vid. l. 3. c. 2.

IX. But then there is another que∣stion, whether they grow in length, breadth and depth; which Spigelius denies. But Bauhinus and Hoffman will have them to grow rather in length, than in breadth and depth. Lindan admits them all the Dimensions of Growth, and confirms it by that of a Woman at Enchysen, so careless of her self, that she let her Nails grow to that prodigious length, that she could not go. A Chyrurgion was sent for to pair them, and my Father, says he, carried away the Parings along with him. The Paring of the Thumb was two Thumbs long, a Fi∣ngers breadth thick, solid about the Roots, and thence compacted of several Slates. The pairing of the middle Finger was as

long as the first, but not so thick, yet very thick. None shorter than a Thumbs length; that of the little Toe, thicker than usually the thickest Nail of the great Toe. What grew in breadth, was seen to be crooked within. Plat•…•…rus tells a Story not unlike this, of a Girl whose Finger Nails were a Fingers breadth in thickness, and jetted forth extreamly, so that they rather look'd like Hoofs than Nails. So I knew a Man, the Nail of whose second Toe of his Right Foot was grown to the thickness of a Finger, solid about the Root, but to∣ward the Fore-part consisting of so ma∣ny Slates, like so many Hoofs, which very much hindred his Going, though the same Deformity were not in the rest of his Nails.

Notes

• The Defi∣nition.
• Their Names.
• Parts.
• Substance.
• Colour.
• Connexi∣on.
• Use.
• Whether they be Parts of the Body?
• The ma•…•…∣ner of their growth.