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CHAP. XXVIII. A six-fold digestion of humane nourishment. (Book 28)

1. The miserable boastings of the Galenists. 2. Whence the first dissoluti∣on of the meat is. 3. A sharpness being obtained, is presently changed into a salt Salt. 4. The use of the gut Duodenum neglected in the Schools. 5. Sharpness or soureness out of the stomach, doth hurt us. 6. The va∣riety, and incompatibility or mutual unsufferableness of the Ferments. 7. An example of that ready exchanging. 8. Nothing like a Ferment doth meet us elsewhere. 9. The volatileness of sharpness doth remain in a salt product. 10. The latitude in Ferments. 11. Whence it is known that the first Ferment is a forreigner to the Stomach. 12. Why Sawces do stand in sharpness. 13. Sharpness is not the Ferment it self, but the Instrument of the same. 14. Too much sharpness of the Stomach is from its vice. 15. A receding from the Schools in the examination of the Gaul. 16. That Choler is not made of meats. 17. That the Gaul is not an excrement, but a bowel. 18. The membrane of the wombe is a bowel, even as also that of the Stomach. 19. Why the Gaul and Liver are connexed. 20. What may be the stomach of the Liver. 21. VVhy it goes before the Ferment of the Gaul, and is the second digestion. 22. VVhy the venal bloud in the Mesentery doth as yet want threds, neither there∣fore doth it wax clotty. 23. The wombe of the Ʋrine, and the wombe of Duelech or the Stone in man, are distinct. 24. The stomach of the Gaul, and its Region. 25. The rotten opinion of the Schools concerning the rise of the Gaul, and its use. 26. Nature had been more careful for the Gaul its enemy, than for Phlegme its friend. 27. The separation of the Ʋrine differs from the separation of wheyiness out of milk. 28. The second and third digestions are begun at once, although the third be more slowly perfected. 29. What the stomach of the Gaul is. 30. The Gaul doth import more, than to be chief over an excrement. 31. Birds want a Kidney and Ʋrine, but not a Gaul. 32. Fishes also do prove grea∣ter necessities of a Gaul, than of filths or excrements. 33. That the Schools are deceived in the use of the Gaul. 44. The Liquor of the Gaul with its membrane, being a noble bowel, doth now and then banish its superfluity into the gut Duodenum. 35. How excrements do obtain the heat of the Gaul, yet are not therefore choler, or gaul. 36. The pro∣per savour of the dung doth exclude the gaul, and fiction of choler. 37. Gauls seem what they are not. 38. Whence the vein hath it, that even after the death of a man, it doth preserve the venal bloud from coagulating. 39. The extream rashness of the Schooles. 40. The solving of an Objection. 41. It is proved by many Arguments, that the veins of the stomach do not attract any thing to themselves out of the Chyle. 42. The Authour is dissented from the Schools, in respect of the bounds of the first Region in the Body. 43. The true shop of the bloud is not properly in the passage of the Liver. 44. The action of a Ferment doth act onely by inbreathing, neither doth it want a corporeal touching. 45. The absurd consequences upon the positions of the Schools concerning touching, and continual nourishing warmth. 46. The Ferments of the

Gaul and Liver do perform their offices by in-breathing. 47. Why Fla∣tus's or windy blasts do not pierce an Entrail. 48. The Errour of Para∣celsus about the pores of the Bladder. 49. The first digestion doth not yet formally transchange meats. 50. Where the absolute transmutation of meats is compleated. 51. It is false, that nourishment is not to be granted without an excrement. 52. It is false, that the stomach doth first boil for it self, and secondarily for the whole Body. 53. The Gaul hath the nature of a Balsam. 54. A miserable objection. 55. The Gaul taken for a Balsam in the holy Scriptures. 56. Against the Gaul of the Jaundise. 57. Two Idiotisms in Paracelsus. 58. How the Salt of the Sea is separated from Salt-peter. 59. Out of water there is Vine∣gar. 60. The fourth digestion and Region of the Body. 61. Why the heart is eared. 62. The fifth digestion. 63. That the vapour in the venal bloud, is not yet a Skyie Spirit. 64. The nourishing of the flesh, and the bowels, is distinguished. 65. That the Animal Spirit doth not dif∣fer in the Species from the vital. 66. The fourth, and fifth digestions do want excrements. 67. What the sixth digestion is. 68. The Dis∣eases in the sixth digestion are neglected by the Schools, because not un∣derstood. 69. In the designing of the Kitchin, and Shop, there are some errours of the Schools. 70. Why an Artery doth for the most part ac∣company a vein. 71. Paracelsus is noted. 72. The errour of Fer∣nelius concerning Butter. 73. The rashness of Paracelsus concerning Milk. 74. A censure or judgement of Milk. 75. The best manner of drawing forth Goats bloud. 76. An undoubted curing of the Pleurisie without cutting of a vein. 77. Why Asses milk is to be preferred be∣fore other Milks. 78. The education of a Child for a long and healthy life. 79. Some things worthy to be noted concerning the Ʋrine. 80. Why dropsical persons are more thirsty than those that have a hectick Fever. 81. The proper place of the Ferment of the Dung, is even as in a Wolf. 82. The proper nest of Worms, and the History of the same. 83. The difference of Ascarides from VVorms. 84. That a Clyster is injected in vain for nourishment sake.

I Have observed notable abuses committed throughout the whole description of Functions, or of the use of parts: Although Galen doth not more gloriously triumph in any place, than [unspec 1] in the Treatise of Pulses, and in the use of parts; the which notwithstanding, the modern Ana∣tomists do shew, that he never thorowly considered: wherefore it is altogether probable, that without the knowledge and searching out of the truth, these Treatises described by Galen from elsewhere, and prostituted for his own, are as yet to this day worshipped in the Schools. Wherefore I have premised the digestions which Antiquity hath hitherto known, and hath confirmed each to other by subscribing; and I will subjoyn those things which singular expe∣rience under divine grace, hath taught me.

Without controversie, it belongs to meats and drinks, together, and in like manner, to be dissolved into a Cream, plainly transparent in the hollow of the Stomach. I add, that that is [unspec 2] done by vertue of the first Ferment, manifestly soure or sharp, and borrowed of the Spleen: for I have found as many suitable Ferments, as there are in us, digestions. Again, neither is it of lesse admiration, that that Cream is spoiled wholly of all drawn sourness of the fer∣ment, as soon as it slides out of the stomach into the great Bowel or intestine, than the power of that ferment in the stomach, was wonderful. That intestine is called the Duodenum, from the measure of 12 fingers, and it is immediately under the Pylorus or lower mouth of the stomach.

Truly Anatomy complains of trouble in this place, by reason of the stretching out the offi∣ces of the kernels and Vessels, to wit, in so small a space, for Instruments of so great uses; [unspec 3] and so that in the whole dissection, nothing doth offer it self alike difficult: For neither are there so many Vessels and Organs in vain, although their use hath stood neglected.

For first of all, when I learned that the ferment conceived in the Cream of the stomach, was pernicious as well in the intestines themselves, as in other parts, by reason of many tor∣ments [unspec 5] or wringings.

I not sloathfully noted, that all particular parts have obtained particular ferments, seeing there is an unexcusable necessity of these, in transchanging. And so I also from hence fur∣ther [unspec 6] concluded, that all particular ferments do abhorre strange ones to be their Compani∣ons, and the commands of strange patrons, as if they were forreign thieves, and such as thrust their Sickle into another mans Corn: And that indeed through no vice of jealousie, as though they did envie the activities of others: But from an endeavour of executing the office; which was enjoyned them by the Lord of things. It is a wonder to be spoken, that a sour cream in the Duodenum, doth straightway attain the savour of Salt, and doth so willingly ex∣change its own sharp Salt, into a salt Salt.

No otherwise almost, than as the Vinegar which is most sharp, hath forthwith (through red Lead) put off its former sharpness, and doth presently change into an aluminous sweet∣ness; [unspec 7] Even as also the sharpness of Sulphur, is forthwith changed in the Salt of Tartar, But by a far more excellent vigour of transmutation, that sour Cream is presently made Salt in us.

For truly, that is made without any co-mixture of any Body, even as when Vinegar waxing sweet, it is constrained by the addition of the Lead, or a sharp distillation is drunk up in an [unspec 8] Alcali-Salt: Because in very deed, nothing is any where found, which can fully answer to the force of a ferment; seeing Ferments are the primitive causes of transmutations, and that indeed from a former cause: and therefore it must needs be, that the similitudes of those, drawn onely from a latter effect: do very much halt.

Therefore our sour Cream is made salt, only by a fermental, and unchangeable disposition: wherefore also, the volatile sharpness of that Cream doth remain in its antient volatility, [unspec 9] while it exchangeth its own first obtained soureness with saltness: For the volatile stillatiti∣ous sharpness of Vinegar, doth not thus remain volatile as before, while it dissolveth Litharge, Minium, or Ceruse: because in dissolving, it is coagulated, and doth assume the form of a more fixed Salt, now separable from the liquid distillation of the Vinegar, which it had lately married; but in dissolving it is coagulated, and doth assume the form of a more fixed Salt: because it is the action of a thing dissolving, and dissolved, but not of a trans∣changing Ferment, which doth continually tend to a new Form on either side.

For indeed, the Stomachs of some do more easily digest Potherbs, Pulses, or bread-Corns; but those of others do more succesfully digest Fishes, abhorre Cheese, prefer water before [unspec 10] Wine; whereas in the mean time, the stomach of others, is a devourer of flesh, or addicted to Apple; to wit, by reason of a specifical, yea and also an appropriated property of that Fer∣ment: yea neither is it sufficient to have said, that the sour Ferment of the first digestion, and totall cause of the melting of the harder meats doth freely inhabit in the stomach, un∣less that very thing be more plainly explained.

First of all, the stomach hath not this Ferment in it self, or from its own self: For the digestion of the appetite, and Family-government of the stomach do sometimes depart, and [unspec 11] return without extinguishing; because they are not of the stomach it self. Wherefore I have said, that the membrane of the stomach hath all the efficacy of its digestion, and go∣vernment thereof, from the Spleen: For surely, the Spleen together with the stomach, doth therefore make in us one onely Duumvirate or Sheriffdom, from whence indeed, the Poets have erected the Golden and prosperous Kingdoms of Saturn, and in pride, the liberal Feasts of Saturn. The Antients have smelled out some History of antient truth: To wit, that whatsoever things, meats being digested, are cast out by vomit, are of a soure taste, and smell; yea although they were seasoned with much Sugar: For soure belchings coming upon adust ones in Diseases, are reckoned to presage good, according to Hypocrates.

Hence indeed, all saltnesses or seasonings, and Sauces of meats for sharpening of the Ap∣petite, are sharp; as the juyce of Citron, Orange, Pomegranate, the unripe Olive, Tartar, Vine∣gar, [unspec 12] Berbery, Vine-branch, Mustard, and likewise Salt of the Sea, as it containeth a sharp Spirit in it: in which respect, also the Liquors of Sulphur, Vitriol, Salt, Sal Niter, &c. are commended: For I will not that the sharpness of any of those be consumed into increase of a specifical and appropriated ferment dwelling in the Spleen: Far be it; for ferments have nothing besides, or out of themselves in nature, which may worthily be assimilated to them∣selves; seeing they are specifical gifts of a vital nature: For therefore a ferment, in what respect it is a ferment, is a vital and free Secret, yoaked to no other quality: for it is suffi∣cient for Sawces, that sharp things do prepare meats for a more easie entrance of the fer∣ment of the Spleen.

In the next place, although the ferment of the stomach hath a specifical tartness, yet that tartness is not the vital ferment it self; but onely the Instrument thereof: For the ferment [unspec 13] of the stomach hath a sharpness, as a singular companion unto it self, it being also divided by properties, by general kindes, and Species: but digestion in it self, is the work of the life it self, whereof, sharpness is in this Shop, the attaching or guarding Instrument: But in the other Shops which are afterwards, the life associates to it self a secondary quality on either side, as a Minister of its intention to the fermental quality, and suited to the vital scope.

For from hence, there is no seldom offence of the stomach, it having arisen from a degree of a forreign sharpness: wherefore, an Orexis or inordinate appetite to meat, and such like [unspec 14] perplexities or the stomach, do offend in an adulterous tartness: For from hence, are prick∣ings in the stomach, difficult concoctions; lastly, very soure belchings, and vomitings: wherefore, if a ferment should consist in soureness; Vinegar, Oyl of Vitriol, and the like, should ferment the lump of bread, and should digest our meats by a perfect transmutation: but they do neither of these; Therefore the ferment is a free Secret, and vital, and there∣fore it every where co-fitteth to it self a retaining quality in its own Borders: Because, see∣ing ferments are of the rank of formal and seminal things, therefore they have also severed themselves plainly from the society of material qualities: But if they have associated unto them a corporeal ministring quality, whereby they may the more easily disperse their own vital strength; account that to be done for a help; and so it cannot but contain a duality with the Ferment: And therefore also, that quality may offend, as well in its excessive, as in its diminished degree.

For in that thing I greatly differ from the Schooles: Because first of all, they teach, that the Gaul is not a vital bowel. [unspec 15]

• 2. That it is not a noble member.
• 3. That it is nothing, but a very unprofitable superfluity it self, and banished from the masse of venal bloud; to wit, least it should infect the venal bloud.
• 4. That it is therefore a product besides the intention of nature.
• 5. Being onely profitable for the expelling of Dung, and Urine.
• 6. And therefore that the little bag of the Gaul, is not of the substance of a Bowel, but a sack or sink of dregs and superfluities.
• 7. That at length, Sanguification or the making of bloud doth begin, and is compleated in the Liver: which things indeed seem to me, dreams.

For first of all, seeing Choler is not required to the constitution of venal bloud, that bitter Gaul or Choler should not of necessity be procreated of all kinde of meats, unless it be pro∣pagated [unspec 16] by a proper Agent, and in a particular Shop of its own, for a profitable, vital, and necessary end: For much lesse hath the Gaul seemed to me, to be an excrement, than the wa∣ter of the Pericardium or Case of the heart.

It is a wonder at least; why Fishes, of water, and Cattel, of Grasse, do nevertheless alwayes daily make so bitter a Liquor. Truly that simple identity or sameliness of the Gaul, through [unspec 17] so many particular kindes, seemed to me to prove some necessity in the Workmanship of life: And so, the Gaul not to have the necessity of an excrement produced by any nourishments whatsoever, but rather the constitution of a necessary Bowel: For I ceased to admire, by con∣sidering, how great Tragedies of rule, the paunch (which is nothing but a Sack and Skin) [unspec 18] might stir up; and that it obtained the room of a principal bowel; by considering I say, how great a prerogative the membrane of the stomach might challenge to it self; so that it hath snatched to it self, the name and properties of the heart before the other bowels: Whence surely I ceased to admire, that the name of a bowel should be given to the little bag of the Gaul, and to the Gaul it self: especially, because the wrathful power is believed by most to be bred in the same.

Surely I have found in the Family-administration of mans digestion, Bodies, and Ferments connexed of two bowels (the Gaul and the Liver) for Sanguification. To wit, the Gaul to [unspec 19] precede in the work of Sanguification, and for this cause to be nearer to the Stomach and En∣trails, than the Liver: For the Gaul is nourished in the Bosom and lap of the Liver, as it were in its Mothers Bosom; for it is the Balsam of the Liver and Bloud.

For seeing Sanguification is not a transmutation, which may be introduced by a momenta∣ry disposition; and since the Liver is deprived of a remarkable hollowness, whereby it may [unspec 20] be able to contain within it, the juyce that is to be made bloud, for the leisure or terme of digestion; That is, the Liver in it self, is a solid Body, having few and slender veins, and so the whole Cream being accompanied with so great a heap of Urine; it ought to passe thorow the Liver with a swift passage; but the crude Cream, cannot by so swift a passage onely,

be straightway changed into venal blond. Wherefore a perfect Sanguification could in no wise be made in the Liver; Because the Liver was not a Kitchin, but a family Governour by its own Sanguificative ferment, whereby as it were by a Command, it chiefly by successive dispositions, executes the office enjoyned it from its creation. Therefore the plurality of the Mesentery veins is the stomack of the Liver it self, and the preparative Shop of the venal bloud: And the perfection thereof, the Liver doth breath into the venal bloud, as yet naked, after that it is laid up into the hollow vein. Truly, as Sanguification is a certain more ex∣quisite digestion, and a more manifest transmutation of a thing, than is the melting of the meat into Chyle, it could not fitly or profitably happen in any large vessel, but in many the more straight ones, which together, may equalize some notable capacity; whereby indeed that fermental Archeus may most strictly, narrowly, and neerly touch, and comprehend them all, and his Liver may communicate a ferment in changing, and may inspire a vital faculty. Forthe Spleen doth inspire its Ferment into the Stomack, a large vessel; for neither doth the Spleen touch the meats immediately: So also doth the Liver inspire the act of Sanguifica∣tion by the breathing, or ferment of its own life into the veins subjected under it. And even as the meat slides from the Mouth into the Stomack, and there expecteth the end of digestion:

So from the Entrails the Cream is immediately snatched into the stomack of the Liver: But seeing that Cream is much, and for a great part of it excrementitious (for as yet it con∣taineth [unspec 21] the Urine in it) it ought first to be unloaded of its excrement, that it may the more conveniently be made bloud: Because that Cream is as yet wholly undistinct; neither therefore doth it acknowledge an excrement: what therefore shall the Liver act by a single action of Sanguification? For shall the severing of the excrement, the degeneration of the Cream, and Sanguification of the Cream, be made and finished by one and the same work? Nay, Surely the Cream had need of a Ferment its transchanger, distinct from the Sanguifica∣tive ferment, whereby indeed that part of it that is less fit, is changed into a meer excrement; for the action of Sanguification could not make an excrement of that which is not an excre∣ment: For both those do differ too much from each other: For the action which prepares an excrement out of the greatest part of the Cream, is not made by the coagulation of the venal bloud, and separation of the more wheyie part:

Seeing the venal bloud in the Meseraick Veins is not onely not coagulated, but neither in∣deed is it as yet coagulable, as long as it is conversant in that stomack: As is manifest in the [unspec 22] bloody flux. Therefore there is made a seperation of the wheyie excrement from the venal bloud, in the Meseraick veins themselves, and indeed from a far other acting ferment, and bowel, than that which is employed about Sanguification or making of bloud: For it is a cer∣tain act which condemns a part of the Cream into an excrement; But it preserveth the venal bloud, and leaveth it untouched: therefore a production, and seperation of the excrement goes before Sanguification.

And so the womb of the Urine beginneth before the Meseraick veins: Yet the womb of the stone is not as yet in the same place, because the ferment of the Rein or Kidney changeth [unspec 23] the spirit of the Urine in the Liver, and round about it.

Therefore whatsoever was soure in the Cream is changed by the ferment of the Gaul, into the salt of the Urine: But the stomack of the Gaul is the Duodenum, and the following Reed [unspec 24] of the neighbour Bowels, and it ends in the beginnings of the Veins of the Mesentery. But be∣cause this use of the parts and ferments is hitherto unheard of in the Schools, it is therefore to be dilated by a large discourse.

First of all, The Doctrine of the Schools standing; That the venal bloud is made in the Liver, and that together with the venal bloud, the Gaul is also made: Therefore of necessity [unspec 25] also, the seperation of the Gaul shall in motion, and nature be after Sanguification: Where∣fore the Chest of the Gaul ought to be above the Liver, and not beneath it, nigh the port vein. For by way of supposition, I now grant the fictions of four humors; at least it had far more commodiously purged the matter, bloud, from superfluous Choler, than the Chest of the Gaul (seeing indeed the Choler should as yet be mingled immediately with the Urine) and especially because they teach, That the Urine ought to be tinged by the Gaul, and there∣fore in vain. For why should the Gaul be so precisely separated from the Urine, if it ought again straight-way to be added unto it? I conjecture the Liver to be loaded for every event, with a vain and importunate baggage, by the little bag of the Gaul hanging on it; by the lit∣tle bag I say, onely of cast-out dung, dedicated to the provoking of Urines. And being by so much more unhappy than the bladder, because seeing it is that which is a membrane of the first, and Spermatick constitution, yet that it ought to be nourished by the Gaul alone; See∣ing it wants a vein propagated by running through its little bladder. For since we are nour∣ished by the same things whereof we consist; where shall that little bag find a spermatical

nourishment from the Gaul? which in it self should be nothing but an excrement? But if the Gaul be said to be collected into the Chest under the Liver, for the wiping away the dregs of the paunch; at least, the Agent which procreateth in the Urine a Salt of not Salts, had more commodiously left a part of its own Urine for the washing and cleansing of the Entrails, and disturbing the superfluities of these, as it had freed the Liver of the stinking; and ••edious bur∣den and consociation of the Gaul. Neverthelesse it is of Faith, that our body is so (workman-like) framed by God, that nothing therein is in vain, and nothing therein diminished: Be∣cause that, it is far more artificially and commodiously made, than our understanding can comprehend. Therefore, if the ends of the Gaul granted by the Schools, should be true, verily the Reins had far more commodiously satisfied those ends (as I have said) than that the work∣man of things had therefore loaded; the Liver with that unprofitable weight: But the con∣sequence convinceth its antecedent of falsehood. Therefore the whole doctrineis false. If Birds do want Reins a Bladder and Urine, whereby they may the more fitly fly, but the Gaule should serve onely for the wiping or cleansing of the blood, at least the bloud had more willingly wanted the refining of the Gaul, than the refining of the Urine; that is, if nature be able to se∣perate drink in a Bird, without Urine, and therefore likewise to want Reins, and Bladder, would it not bemuch more easie for it to have severed some small quantity of the Gaule with the Urine, and superfluities of the paunch, than to have loaded a noble bowel with a Chest, and so by the unprofitable baggage of an excrement, to have troubled Sanguification? even in Birds? [unspec 36] Certainly nature at least reckoned to be more indulgent to Choler, than to Phlegme, because she hath framed for it a peculiar little Bladder or Bag: For it is a foolish or unsavoury thing, that nature had placed the Gaul in the lap of the Liver, for the dregs of the paunch, and blad∣der; when as otherwise she had dissembled Choler to be abundantly thorow mixed with the venal bloud. Wherefore I more fully looking into the matter, have obser∣ved, that the Chest of the Gaul is as it were the Kernel of the Liver, curiously kept in its hol∣low part from injuries; but the Liver to be as the rhine or bark of the Gaul: And then, that the Gaul is so much the nearer tied to the Duodenum, because its digestion, and ferment should go before the digestion of the Liver, or Sanguification.

Indeed the wheyie superfluous part ought to be seperated from the lively Cream, which seperation therefore is not to be compared to whey and milk, which are not severed from each [unspec 27] other, but with the corruption of the milk: For truly, in the Cream a separation of the whey happeneth, together with the rectifying and preserving of the venal bloud: That is, the fer∣ment of the Gaul is the perfective one of the Cream, the preservative one of the bloud, and the cor••uptive one of the whey: which three things do together concur in one point, whereby the Gaul doth convert the sharp salt of the stomack (except that which is hurtful & corruptive in the stomack) into a salt Salt. Moreover, although I have said, that Sanguification is the latter in respect of the seperation of the Urine, and transmutation of the sour into salt:

Yet both ferments, as well indeed of the Gaul as of the Liver, do begin at once, because neither of them keeps Holy-day or is idle: For as the ferment of the Liver is of a greater [unspec 28] work and perfection; So it doth more slowly perform its charge, than the Ferment of the Gaul: For the aforesaid transmutation of the Cream ought to proceed, that the Liver being somewhat eased of an unprofitable burden, might the more commodiously employ it self in Sanguification. Therefore the second digestion or that of the Gaul, is distinct from the first and third, in the ferment, bowel, womb, taste, effect and end: All which the Schools are hi∣therto ignorant of, because erring in the use of the Gaul.

For in the first digestion, the stomack is the receptacle, but the Spleen doth inspire from it self, a sour ferment into the meats, and a sour Cream is thereby made: But in the other, the [unspec 29] slender entrails are the stomack, but the ferment is inspired from the gaul, for the corruption and seperation of the watery part, and a sharp volatile salt is changed into a Salt volatile one: But that this might be done by a speedy touch, I shall at sometime shew by some Handicraft operations: To wit, that the Oyl of Vitriol is by the only touching of Mercury, converted into a meer Alum, Vinegar, and Salt, &c. Also straightway after drink, there is oft-times a watery pissing made, yet Salt, and the mark of the first digestion is scarce conceived, but that a notable part of the drink slides forth under an errour of the Pylorus, and by conse∣quence, there was not made a seperation of the Urine from the bloud in the Liver: Be∣cause the venal bloud is not as yet made in the Liver, if the Chyle it self be as yet made or concocted out of meats in the stomack: To wit, when drinkers do very often make water after meat: Therefore also Urine is made of watery drink, yea out of drink from whence ve∣nal bloud was not made; and so the generating of Urine doth there go before Sanguification. At length, the very veins of the Mesentery, are the stomack of the third digestion, which way the Liver inspires a bloudy ferment, and a very red or ruddy salt venal bloud is the effect thereof.

For the wounds of the Gaul are presently mortal, but those of the Liver not so. If the e∣••ore the Gaul were likewise Choler, death would of necessity follow every effusion of [unspec 30] the Gaul. Nevertheless, the yellow Jaundise is not mortal, although the Gaul (as the same Schooles do teach) is not onely diffused over the entrails, but throughout the whole Body, equally, longly, largely, deeply, and throughout its least part: Therefore either a wound of the Gaul doth import more than the effusion of Choler, or the Jaundise is not effused Choler, or both is necessary. Wounds of the Bladder also, being inflicted above the share (as successful Wurtz is witness, in my judgement the Standard-defender of the more modern Chyrurgio••s) are cured, although the Urine, together with its Gaul (as they will have it) cannot but be powred forth at that very time or moment.

Therefore the Chest of the Gaul hath a necessity, and Integrity, fast tied to the life by rea∣son of sudden death: Neither is it the effusion of that gawly superfluity, which doth neces∣sitate [unspec 31] that speedy death. Again, Birds do live prosperously without Kidneys, or a Bladd••r, yet not without a Gaul: wherefore there is a more conjoyned necessity of the Gaul, than of Kidneys: Because that the Kidneys being rockie and putrified, the life is safe. And then, Fishes (according to the Doctrine of the Schools) do abound with very much phlegme, and [unspec 32] are destitute of actual heat: they are onely nourished with cold bloud, and watery food.

At length, their excrements easily glistering, they had no need of a spur, the Gaul. Wherefore, seeing the ends, matter, and efficient cause of the Gaul attributed by the Schools, [unspec 33] should fail in a Fish; surely we shall believe that the Liver is vainly, deceitfully, and by the errour of nature, yea and of the Creator, wearied, unless we had rather acknowledge perpe∣tual errours in the Schools, and to contemplate some greater moment of a necessary bowel to be in the Gaul.

From hence therefore, I determine the Gaul to be a vital Bowel, and its very Body to be a bitter Liquor prepared of the best venal bloud, containing the Balsam of the Liver, and Ar∣terial [unspec 34] bloud: But whatsoever it by chance casts back of it self, into the bowel Duodenum, is the excrement of it self, and a Liquor now despised of the Gaul.

But that these things have themselves after this manner, I have at sometime shewen under the impostures of Choler, by the example of a Calf, who••e motherly, and sweet milk waxeth [unspec 35] sour, and is coagulated in the stomach, and therefore affords Runnet for Cheeses: For milk is made a watery Cream, but little of coagulated milk: But that Cream contains Urine and venal bloud; but another coagulated Body, which of pale, begins to wax yellow, is made dung: But that baggage straightway falling into the Duodenum doth proceed unto the Ileos, being coagulated, and waxeth of a Citron colour, the more, by how much it hath departed farther from the stomach; and at length it waxeth green; yet there is not bitterness in the yellow, but a nitrous taste: But in the green, the smell of Dung doth now plainly appear: But the wheyie Cream is presently drawn and supped up with greediness by the meseraick veins, for the use of sanguification. Likewise Milk is stirred in Infants, whence also those that are the more young ones do cackie all yellow, not from the plenty of Choler, neither by reason of the domination of the Chest of the Gaul; but surely, because the ferment of their Dung is feeble. Therefore the ferment of the Gaul doth not change the sourness of the stomach into bitter, but into Salt, for the reasons explained concerning the Spirit of life. Spare me ye more ten∣der eares, because I ought to treat of Dungs. I will therefore shew, that the savour of Dung excludes the Gaul, that it befools the use of the Gaul invented by the Schools, and convin∣ceth Choler of a fiction.

A Boy of four years old had fowled in Bed; but being much afraid of whipping, he ate his own Dung, yet ••e could not blot the sign out of the sheets: wherefore being asked by threat∣nings, [unspec 36] he at length tells the chance. But being asked of its savour, he said it was of a stink∣ing, and somewhat sweet one: For among other things, he had eat Pease-pottage; but he complained, that the undigested husks or brans of the Pease were notably soure: for there is not an equal vigilancy of the ferment of the Gaul, over thick, and undigested Dungs, as there is over transparent things, and those things which are to be prepared into the dignity of venal bloud. I came by chance unlooked for, the same day, and I diligently enquired, a price being also added, whether those things which he had eaten, were bitter. He answered negatively, and the same as before. Likewise Nuns did Board noble Maids sufficiently so∣ber, at their Table: but they continually preached, that they who did eat dainty fare, should have their parts with the rich Glutton; but that they onely should be saved, who by the eve∣ry way denyal of mortification, did eat any the most vile things. Therefore a noble little Virgin being very desirous of her Salvation, and much moved by the aforesaid perswasion, eats her own Dung, and was weak or sick. But she was called home again by her Parents,

and at length told the chance: She was asked thereupon, of what savour it was, and she an∣swered, it was of a stinking, and waterishly sweet one. Thirdly, a Painter of Bruxels, being mad between whiles; about the beginning of his madness, escapes into a Wood near by, and was there found far from the sight of men, to have lived 23 dayes by his own Dung. He was straightway brought home; I went to see him, and the Lord healed him. But he was per∣fectly mindeful of all things past at the time of his madness. I asked him, whether he re∣membred of what savour his Dung was: He said, it savours as it smells: And being after∣wards examined by me through the Capital tasts, he answered, it was not sour, not bitten, sharp, salt, but waterishly sweet: Yea, he said, that by how much the oftner he had re-earen it, by so much it had alway been the sweeter. But being asked, for what cause he had ra∣ther eat Dung, than return home? He said, that he throughout his whole madness abhorred men, being perswaded by his own fury, that men sought to destroy him by a snare. There∣fore it is manifest, that there is not even the least drop of Gaul in the Dung: for the Gaul being once burst, however a Fish may afterwards be most exactly washed, yet the bitterness of the Gaul conceived by the least touching, is never laid aside.

For if yellowness should bewray the Gaul, the dung of Infants should be especially gawly, which notwithstanding is licked by Dogs, because it hath as yet retained some kinde of savour [unspec 37] of the milk: But whatsoever hath not been fully subdued in the stomach, nor hath assumed the beauty of a transparency, may not hope to be digested in the bowels by the ferment of the Gaul, although it be tinged with a yellow colour; Because it goes not to the second, or third, but thorow the absolute first. Whatsoever therefore is thick, and tinged with heat in the Ileos, that is wholly banished into an excrement, and under a certain sweetness, doth attain the savour of putrefaction; No otherwise than as soure fruits wax sweet by a little heat: But whatsoever was before sour in the stomach, that is made salt in the Duodenum, and is severed from the Dung: but if any thing do persevere sour, which may resist the fer∣ment of the Gaul, wringings of the bowels, &c. do presently follow: But the excrement of man doth putrifie, because the ferment of the dung is chief over that place: But that which slides out of the stomach undigested, also is not digested in the bowels; It is cast out whole, but it keeps, and now and then increaseth the part of sournesses which it assumed in the sto∣mach: For from hence do the brans in bread, provoke the stool, by reason of sharpness; but other things do wax more sharp, and stir up wringings of the guts: Therefore from the Duo∣denum, the Chyle doth forthwith begin to exchange its own sharp volatile Salt into an equall saltness, it being resolved in the Cream: But the remaining, and more corporal substance of the Cream doth expect a sanguification in the veins of the mesentery, from the inspired fer∣ment of the Liver: The salt Liquor in the mean time being attracted by the Reins thorow the Liver, is it self committed to the Reins and Bladder for expulsion. Therefore the third digestion begins in the veins of the mesentery, which is terminated in the Liver: For the ve∣nal bloud as long as it is in the mesentery, is not yet digested, not yet thredded, or perfect: For the venal bloud of the mesentery, doth therefore not grow together in the Bloudy flux: But otherwise, a vein of the stomach being burst, the venal bloud doth forthwith wax clotty in the stomach.

For the ferment of the Liver is so much inclined to sanguification (for it is its univocal [unspec 38] and one onely office) that the veins do even by the right of league retain or hold that from the Liver, and its proper implanted Archeus thereupon confirming it; So that the bloud in the veins of a dead Carcase is not coagulated a long while after death, which being elsewhere powred forth, doth presently wax clotty: For the Cream running down afterwards thorow the Bowels, becomes the dryer, and also the liquid matter thereof being sucked upwards into the veins: But thereby, the rest doth more and more putrifie, so that, when it is almost brought down to the ends of the Ileos, now not a little of a more liquid Dung is generated; because before it hath fully putrified, it is snatched to the mesentery, that it may be thorowly mingled with the Urine, profitable for its ends: Even as elsewhere concerning Fevers, and likewise concerning the Stone.

Which yellow Dung, the Schooles have believed to be Choler and Gaul; and so out of the Dung, they have founded their demonstration for one of the four humours, and a Gate [unspec 39] hath thereby layen open to miserable errours, and wicked slaughters: For it was of little re∣gard for them hitherto, to have built up their false significative knowledge by the unknown substance of the tincture of the Urine; but to have made Choler and Gaul the constitutive humours of us, the causers of all Diseases; to wit, to have feigned yellow Choler, and that a little the more digested, to be adust, and like the cankering of Brasse, and from thence, to be dry, and scorched melancholy or black Choler; but the gaul it self to be the sink of su∣perfluous Choler; but the venal bloud to be nothing but an artificial Body, connexed of

many things or humours, which being again seperated, they should be the same after their death, as before in their life; but that a Body is not born of Mother nature, by a true trans∣mutation of the Chyle into univocal or simple venal bloud; and at length, to have instituted healings about the removing of accomplished causes, which never will be, or were in nature. Surely that thing doth exceed gross ignorance, and renders the Snorters of the Schooles un∣excusable.

But perhaps they will object to me; Thou sayest that the veins do suck the Cream, being [unspec 40] slidden out of the stomach, into the intestines: therefore the same office belongs to the veins of the stomach, that they may draw that sour Cream into themselves, without the interce∣ding of the Ferment of the Gaul; that is, without changing of the Sour into Salt: And by consequence, thy ferment of the Gaul is a dreamed and invented thing: yea meat broath injected by a Clyster, shall be able to pierce to the Liver, without the knowledge of the Gaul (touching the right of a Clyster, I have finished this question in the Book of Fevers.) I answer, that it is an antient abuse of the Schooles, who have equally attributed the same use to all the [unspec 41] veins: As if the veins seperated in the arms, should busie themselves in drawing of the Cream? First of all, I have already shewen, that the bloud in the veins is coagulable, the bloud of the Mesentery not so. And then, we must know that all sour Cream is an enemy to the veins, but that these do draw no hostile thing unto them: from whence it followes, that the veins of the stomach do not allure any thing of the Cream under them; and that all bloud, before it be attracted by the veins of the Mesentery, hath boren the hand of the ferment of the Gaul, in its own stomach of the bowels: yea, although the Arteries being dispersed throughout the stomach, do suck the Spirit of Wine, yet they draw no juyce: For which way should the Arteries draw juyce, seeing they can never do any good thereby? seeing sanguification doth not belong to the heart, but to the Liver? Seeing the juyce being attracted in the Artery, should of necessity be a hinderance, and ought to be corrupted? If therefore the Arteries have a natural endowment of avoyding things hurtful, and likewise of drawing vital things unto them, and things appointed for them by the Lord of things; shall that discretion be denied to the veins in the stomach? For nature should have dealt ill with Horses, who being con∣tent with one onely draught in the morning, are fed all the day after, with Straw, Hay, Chaffe, Oats, or Barley: For truly dry or unjucie things, should straightway contract thirst in the stomach; if the veins of the stomach should draw drink unto them, Horses should be thir∣sty all the day: Therefore the drink ought of necessity to remain in the stomach so long, as that it may expect there an end of future digestion, least the sour Liquor be drawn into the veins, which is plainly hostile, or least the Cream being half cocted, be supped up by the veins, before the appointed time. Therefore there is another use of the veins of the sto∣mach, than that which is of the meseraick veins: And therefore the Argument objected falls to the ground: because the meseraick veins are the stomach of the Liver, and there is not ano∣ther besides those: the veins of the stomach are not likewise that which are onely dedicated to the nourishing of the stomach. Again, whensoever the Pylorus is not exactly shut, it hap∣pens (as in long drinkings) that the stomach doth almost with a continual thred, as it were make water downwards, by dropping into the bowel: but in those that have Fevers, whose Pylorus doth erre through too much straightness, the drink doth sometimes remain a full three dayes space, and at length, more is cast back by one onely vomit, than was taken in two dayes; which thing surely doth oppose that, that the veins of the stomach do attract juyce. It hath oft-times befallen me lying in a Coach with my face upwards, that I should hear through the jogging of the wayes, my stomach to contain a Chyle floating in me like to a Bottle half full: but that I have often gone to bed after that, without a Supper, or drink; yea that I felt my stomach in the morning, as I did the day before: Wherefore I being somewhat curious, have provoked my self to vomit, and I vomited up Cream somewhat sour, plenteous, transpa∣rent, so that my teeth were astonished by reason of the sourness; and although I felt no bur∣den before vomiting, yet after vomiting, I perceived an easement or lightning: whence I observed,

First of all, that if the veins of the stomach had now sucked the Chyle 20 hours, I had not been as yet able to have cast back so much, from a moderate yesterdayes dinner.

• 2. That the sour Cream is not allured by the veins.
• 3. That that sourish Cream was not as yet dismissed from the stomach, not indeed through the vice of digestion, but through the errour of the Pylorus.
• 4. That digestion differs from the expulsive faculty, if one be perfected, the other being absent, or failing.
• 5. That now and then, the digestion beares the unguilty fault of the expulsive saculty, and this of it.

• 6. That as I did offend by too much shutting of the Pylorus, so drinkers do offend-by a too much negligent bolting of the Pylorus.
• 7. Moreover, at the beginnings of Diseases things are often cast back, which were taken three dayes before.
• 8. That it belongs not to the veins of the stomach to attract the Cream.
• 9. That nevertheless the Doctrine remaineth, which hath made it a foolish thing for a Clyster to be injected by the fundament, for nourishing of the sick.
• 10. That the upper orifice of the stomach in Fevers, offends by too much opening and thirst; but that the Pylorus errs through a strict closure of himself.
• 11. That in Fevers, both digestion, and also expulsion do offend.
• 12. That the Key of the Orifice or upper mouth of the stomach is in the Spleen, and that of the Pylorus, in the Gaul, by reason of the divers seats of a twofold ferment.
• 13. That the reason of Scituation for the Spleen, and Gaul, is from the reason of their office.

For indeed, the Schools do extend the first Region of the Body from one extream, from the mouth even into the fundament; and from the other extream, even into the hollow of [unspec 42] the Liver: But I do describe the Regions by digestions, seeing otherwise, without these, a Region it self is a Being of Reason: For what doth it belong to a digestion, that there is the utterance of an excrement? what doth it pertain to the stomach, that its drosse departs tho∣row the fundament? For the Dung of the intestine is no more the excrement of the stomach, than sweat is: therefore if the fundament belongs to the first Region, by reason of the excre∣ment of the stomach; therefore also, the Skin shall belong to the first Region by Reason of sweat, and the Bladder by reason of Urine. Therefore not an excrement; Lastly, not the departure hereof, but digestion alone, doth prescribe a limit unto a Region; and therefore, there are as many Regions, as digestions.

In the next place, the shop of sanguification is not the Liver it self in its own substance: because even the Liver of Fishes should also make their venal bloud: but yet seeing every [unspec 43] thing generates the like to it self, it should of necessity be, that either the Liver of Fishes should be red, or their bloud to be white; both whereof are false: whence we learn, that san∣guification it self is made in the Liver its own stomach, which is the manifold vessel it self of the Mesentery: Otherwise, the Liver hath too few and slender veins for the due perfect∣ing of the juyce of so great a heap: For out of them, the last perfection of sanguification is inspired into the hollow vein on the venal bloud, by the ferment of the Liver.

And the Schools do think, that sanguification is made by an actual nourishing warmth of the Liver, and Cream; because they are ignorant of any other actions, than those which hap∣pen [unspec 44] through a daily touching or comprehending.

And therefore also, that every Agent ought necessarily to suffer, by reason of a resistance, are-acting of the Patient; and that is the unexcusable containing cause of our death, because [unspec 45] the radical heat (For they hold it a firm thing, that they have attributed all things to heats, and colds) being by degrees wearied by the re-acting of Patients, should be extinguished: which two Maxims of Aristotle, having more place in the Mathematicks, than in nature, have deceived the Schools: which thing I shall elsewhere abundantly prove.

In returning to our purpose, I conclude, that the Gaul, and the Liver do perfect their own offices, not indeed by a corporeal co-touching, congress, or co-mingling of themselves; [unspec 46] nor lastly, by embracing, or receiving within their own bosom: But the Gaul dismisseth its own Fermental Blas into the bowels, and the Liver his into the veins of the Mesentery: which actions, although unaccustomed in the Schools, I will demonstrate in its place.

Furthermore, the Schools stand amazed, why windes cannot passe thorow the Coats of the intestines, in wringings of the Bowels, while notwithstanding so great a glut of Liquor is e∣very [unspec 47] day, abundantly snatched into the meseraick veins, and yet Pores are not seen in the in∣testine, thorow which so much Liquor may daily hasten into the veins: yea neither indeed, although after death, the Bowel being swollen with winde, is strongly, and even unto its bur∣sture, pressed together. Truly as oft as by heats, and colds, figures, and similitudes of arti∣ficial things, (which are of the Schools Instruments, and sacred Anchor) they do not attain the thing, they presently fly to miracles, or at least to the hidden Mysteries of things: being frighted away by the greatness, or unwontedness of the astonished matter, they with the sloath of a narrow search, acquiesce in the admiring of hidden properties.

Paracelsus for the framing of Medicinal Vitriol out of Brasse, bids old or decayed Salt to be hanged up in a Brasse Kettle of hot water, in the bladder of a Swine, and so that the whole [unspec 48] Salt will presently be dissolved: wherewith he dids the Plates of Brasse to be anointed, and promiseth that Vitriol will be bred in the Air. I was indeed as yet in my young begin∣nings,

yet I knew from Phylosophy, that Salt could not be resolved into Water in its own weight, without its substantial transmutation: yet on the other hand, the authority of Para∣celsus perswaded the contrary; to wit, That without the adjoyning of water (for else the Blad∣der should be in vain) the salt should melt into water. Wherefore I being a young Beginner, decreed to try the rash monstrous assertion of so great a man: But presently by a slow or gentle heat, I found the water in the Kettle to be not much less salt than that which was in the Blad∣der, whose neck was tied fast to the handle of the Kettle appearing above the water; from whence I knew, that the water did pierce within and without the Bladder; to wit, That the Bladder was passable by Salt, and hot water, but not by air: For seventy seven parts of rain water do resolve twenty three parts of dryed salt: But whereas one of the seventy seven parts of the water flies away, a crust of salt swims on the brine. Therefore Paracelsus doth vainly command by a Bladder, those things which are commodiously done without it: And that, be∣sides the supposition of a falshood hitherto. Therefore I observed that a Bladder is Porie in a degree of heat, but not in the heat of our family-administration: Hence therefore I gathered, that throughout the Conduit of the Veins, the Bowels do abound with more, and very small Pores, than elsewhere, to which Pores others should answer being passable throughout the Conduit of the veins. Therefore the Cream doth pass thorow the bowels, partly by its imbibing of them, even as Salt water doth a Bladder, and partly by a proper sucking of Sympathy thorow the aforesaid Pores, open indeed in our life time (even as also in heat, waters do pierce a Bladder) but shut in the time of death. But wind is not imbibed by the Bowels by moistening, neither is it sucked by the Veins, and therefore neither doth it for this cause pierce the Bow∣els: And that especially, because it wanteth the drawings of agreement, and a motive Blas, whereby the wind the severer of things to be drawn, may be drawn, and doth resist. The Veins therefore that are dispersed between the double Coat of the stomack, do want the afore∣said Pores: but the porous ones, with which outer Coat they being encompassed, do sweat thorow them the elementary venal bloud: And so the proper Kitchin or Digestion of the stomack is from without to within; But the Kitchin which is made universal in its hollowness, is there also wholly composed and enclosed; And that, least the digestion of them both should breed confusion. Indeed, there is a twofold Cook in the Stomack; one from the Spleen; and the other being proper to it self sends forth divers digestions. Moreover, the sharp ferment in the Stomack dissolves the meats into juice; but the ferment of the Gaul, by saleing the sour Chyle, doth seperate the juice for venal bloud, and from thence doth with-draw the Liquor Latex, Urine, Sweat, Dung, being yellow and liquid, and the parts of a thicker Ballast. Nei∣ther therefore is Digestion in the Stomack, a formal transmutation of meats:

For example; for Magisterials among Chymists, do indeed melt the body of a thing, and do open it with a seperating of some certain dregs also: Yet they do not therefore include a [unspec 49] transmutation of it; even as neither doth Salt being resolved, differ substantially from it self being dried; Because the same seminal Archeus is as yet on both sides chief Ruler. So nei∣ther in an egge is there a formall transmutation, although at the time of nourishing heat, the yolk doth melt and contract a stink; but they are onely material disposures required unto a formal transmutation, resulting at length from thence again. Neither is the Digestion of the Gaul in respect of the lively Cream, as yet reckoned a formall transmutation, although in re∣spect of excrements, it doth formally transchange: For the unlike parts of the Cream, of which an elementary application is not intended for them, do putrifie through a dungie fer∣ment, and are deprived of their middle life, as also of an Archeus: But there is onely pre∣tended a transmutation of the Homogeneal Cream, as also an enjoyment of the same.

Therefore meats are not truly and essentially changed, unlesse when the venal bloud is made [unspec 50] in one part, and the dung in the other part is fully become putrified. Also the bowel depu∣ted for the making of venal bloud, cannot be at leisure for preparing of yellow dungs in the Ileos and Colon: And the dung differs from the eaten meat essentially, but it must not be be∣lieved to be putrified in a few hours by heat onely, the which, neither is it turned by heat into a certain kind of Cream, but by the proper ferments of the Kitchins. Therefore the meat is not yet fully transchanged, unless when its own Archeus being subdued, our vital one is in∣troduced with a full vassallizing of the former: For so wine is wholly changed into Vinegar, Quick-silver wholly into Gold, an Egge wholly into a Chick, and the bloud wholly into the last nourishment.

From whence I conjecture it to be a falshood, that there is no nourishment without an ex∣crement: [unspec 51] For the Schools have meditated of dungs: and have not minded that Homogene∣al things do onely concur to generation: Therefore, although before the transmutation of the food, there are made the seperations of dregs; Yet that afterwards, dregs are no more made in transchanging; to wit, after the obtaining of Homogeneity or parts of the same kind:

For a seperation of dregs from that which is Homogeneal is impossible, wherein one thing doth not any thing differ from another: But in meats, or under the first ferment, there is a diver∣sity of kind, by reason of the difference of the meats, and parts of the same, the unequality of chewing, and an unlike application of the received ferment: For the sood doth partly hearken the more easily to the ferment, and being partly rebellious, doth resist; whence also a disa∣greeable capacity of the ferment doth arise.

That also of the Schools is false, That the stomack doth primarily coct for it self; secondarily, [unspec 52] only for the whole body, and so that it self is truly nourished by a sourish Chyle: And so that if it should not be nourished by its own Chyle, neither would it begin, or attain a Cocture; Because that from the self-love of nature, every thing doth act intentionally for it selfe.

• 1. If that thing may have place in a totall Agent; yet surely not in the direction of all particular parts.
• 2. Because no part doth act any thing in the body from a proper pleasure of self-love; and much lesse do the shops dedicated to the service of the whole, so act: But nature doth on every side obey the appointments of the Creator, which were measured out by use and necessity, in the power of the Lord of things.
• 3. We are nourished by the same things whereof we consist; but we in no wise consist of the Cream.
• 4. The stomack is nourished with no other matter than the other rank of membranes, which is destitute of the Cream.
• 5. The Cream doth not receive life, but by the Degrees of venal bloud; but the stomack cannot be nourished by a nourishment not yet vitall.
• 6. The Cream is a melted food, having as yet the Archeus, and Properties of the food; but spermatick and similar members of the first constitution, cannot be nourished by a liquor not yet limited unto a humane species.
• 7. The veins are not dispersed into the stomack that they may suck venal bloud, but that they may diffuse nourishment; But they do not contain the Cream: Therefore the fami∣ly-administration of the Members being unknown, faulty arguments, from not the cause, as for the cause, do every where sprout forth in the Schools, and do bring forth capital errours, and deaf experiences, to be purged in another Tent.

Francis Alvares an eye-witness writeth, That the Abyssine, or Aethiopian Nobles are de∣lighted in their feasts with raw Oxe flesh, with a seasoning, or sawce of its own Gaul, yet they are [unspec 53] not any thing weaker than the strongest Europeans. If therefore the Gaul be an excrement (as it hath pleased the Schools) and of so great cruelty (as they think) that the Gaul being detai∣ned in the stomack, doth produce a fainting of the Spirit; yea that within few dayes, Choler, through a disease, doth kill us: How shall a raw and cadaverous Gaul, make men sound, and the more strong?

Perhaps they will object; If the Gaul be so necessary a Bowel; Pigeons or Doves could not [unspec 54] want that: But they know not that the scituation of the Members, and heart in a Pigeon, is tur∣ned upside down: For if an Emmet hath his Choler in him, Pigeons have also their Gaul, although it be not bitter, nor distinguished by a little bag, as neither in Emmets: For it is sufficient that the Blas of the second digestion is established in another part: For the heart of a Pigeon sits in the four Lobbets of the hollow of his Liver, they being overwhelmed above, and its bunch hangs forth downwards: The Pigeon being a great fighter even unto bloud, doth want a little bag of Gaul: But the Lamb hath a large Gaul, even as also every the least, and mildest of fishes. They gave me Gaul to eat, and in my thirst they gave me Vinegar to drink That was wine of Myrrhe mixed with Gaul, which they offered to the Saviour of the world, now fainting with the pains of an unwonted passion, and wearied out with the weight of his own Crosse: Not indeed that he might presently swoon, even as otherwise they are threatned with fainting, who undergo bitter vomitings (which the Schools falsely call Gaulie [unspec 55] ones.) The Jews therefore, did acknowledge the Gaul for a Balsam preserving life; and it fat differeth from that yellow poyson rejected by Vomiters: Therefore the Sacrilegious did offer Gaul, whereby they might the longer torment the Lord Jesus under pains, before death. Therefore the Gaul if it be a Bowel, and its action be altogether vital, it can scarce be resto∣red, and at least, is by no means delighted with material Remedies, as neither with solutive ones, but with an equivalent ferment, of the nature of a Blas: for there is a certain immediate and mutual traduction or passing over, and easie operation of powers into powers; Because there is a touching of each other, and that mutual, in a co-resemblance, and therefore also a piercing one.

For I remember that I saw the diffected dead carkass of a certain Comptroler to a King, & of [unspec 56]

another, a School-master, who were dead of the yellow Jaundise, yet the emunctory of neither Gaul was brought close to the Duodenum; but in some of the Meseraick Veins, were pellets, which I judged to be liquid dung there detained, molesting the action of the ferment of the Gaul: also sorrow hath oft-times given a Beginning to the Jaundise and doth nourish it being begun. If therefore sorrow doth inhabit in the Spleen, the seat of Melancholy (according to the Schools) why therefore should the Gaul be stopped from sorrow? and not the Spleen? Therefore,

• 1. Sorrow doth not only hinder the digestion of the Stomack, but also of the Gaul; By the errour whereof, the liquid Dung, which is especially carried through the Fundament, doth immoderately, and unseasonably arise into the veins.
• 2. Therefore the Gaul is a noble, and vital Bowel.

At length, The Cream sliding out of the Pylorus or neather mouth of the Stomack, into the Duodenum, being straight-way snatched within the Sphear of activity, by the in-breathing of the Gaul, doth exchange its sourness into Salt, and its more watery part is made severable from its more pure or un-mixt part, which is drawn by the Reins.

Whence the Urine is sufficiently salt; but the venall bloud, a little. But that Paracelsus will have the Urine to be brought into the bladder, not by the Reins and Urine vessels, but by [unspec 57] the habit of the flesh that is indulged by his own Idiotisme or Property of speech: Even as also that, That Oyls and Emplasters are the true food of wounds, so that a wound is truly nouri∣shed by them, and that the corrupt matter is the excrement of that nourishment. Therefore the sour salt of the Cream, seeing it is destitute of an object, and the which, seeing it wandreth through the action of a dissolver, into a fixed salt (as I have taught before concerning volatile spirits) it is suitably exchanged into the volatile salt of Urine; And that not by the action, or re-action of sournesse on a certain object, but by a true fermental transforming; for the Spirit of life it self is of the nature of a volatile salt, and of that which is salt: And so even from hence alone, the vital action of the Gaul is proved: For Sea salt being oft eaten, doth remain almost whole in the excrements.

Which thing the Boylers of Salt-peter do experience against their wills: For they are con∣strained to seperate salt out of the dung of Jakeses, being sometimes eaten up by the Salt-pe∣ter, [unspec 58] through a repeated boyling, and coagulation of cooling: For the Sea salt being coagula∣ted, doth stick fast to the spondils or chinks of the vessels, being nothing changed from it self long ago eaten; And that, before the Salt-peter hath obtained a sufficient drying up of its own coagulation: And therefore from hence it is known, that Sea-salt is more readily coagu∣lated than Salt-peter: Therefore humane excrements are lesse fit for Salt-peter, than otherwise those of Goats, Sheep, and Herds: Yet as much of that Sea-salt as is subdued by the ferment of the stomack, so much also is sour, and volatile: Consequently also, although any one do use no salt, his Urine should not therefore want salt; because it is that which is a new creature, and a new product out of the sour of the Cream. The Salt of the Urine therefore hath not its like in the whole Systeme of nature: For not that of the Sea, Fountain, Rock, Gemme, not Nitre, not that of Salt-peter, Alume, or Borace; Lastly, not of any of natural things, as neither the Salt of the Urine of flocks or herd, with which although it may agree in the manner of making, yet the salt of mans Urine disagreeth from them throughout the general and parti∣cular kinds; no lesse than dungs do vary throughout the species of Bruits, although bruits are fed with common fodder, to wit, by reason of the diversities of an Archeus and Ferment: Therefore of meats, and drinks, not sour, or salt, is made a salt sour, and at length a salt Salt, and it is easier for a thing of a sour salt, to be made Salt, than of not Salt, to be made sour salt.

I remember that I have seen a Chymist, who every yeer did fill a Hogs-head of Vinegar to two third, parts with water of the River Rhoan: he exposed it to the heats of the Sun, and so [unspec 59] he transchanged the water in it self without savour, into true Vinegar, a ferment being concei∣ved out of the Hogs-head: This I say he was thus wont to do, by reason of the singular pro∣perty of that Vinegar: For truly, out of the Vinegar of Wine, the weaker part doth alwayes drop or still first, but the more pure part a little before the end, riseth up with the dregs: but this Vinegar made of meer water, as it wants dregs, so it alwayes doth minister an equall di∣stillation from the Beginning even to the end. Wherefore as the ferment of a vessel doth by its odour alone change Water into Vinegar; So indeed, by the fermental odour of the Spleen breathed into the stomack, meats are made a sour Cream, which afterwards is turned into a urinous salt; yea, and into a vital one: Because the Schools never dreamed of these things, neither had their followers read them in the labours or night watches of their Prede∣cessors, therefore they have been ignorant of the use of parts, and ferments, and the celebrati∣ons or solemnities of transmutations, but they have introduced both the Cholers into the masse of the bloud: Lastly, They have not known the Contents and be-tokenings of the Urine:

Therefore the third Digestion is made by the President-ferment of the Liver; which is by the blind odour of a Gas, doth begin Sanguification in its own stomack of the Mesentery, and at length perfecteth it in the hollow Vein.

Furthermore, The fourth Digestion is compleated in the Heart, and Artery thereof; in [unspec 60] which elaboration the red and more gross blood ofthe the hollow Vein is elaborated, made yel∣lower, and plainly volatile: For the heart is said to be eared on both sides, and hath at its left [unspec 61] bosom, one onely beating Artery, inserted in a great Trunk fit for it, that by a double row∣ing, it may the more strongly draw the fenced venal bloud which is between both bosoms in the middle of the heart. Refer thou hither, what I have above noted concerning the porosi∣ty of the hedge or partition which distinguisheth the bosoms of the heart, and why the Arte∣rial bloud doth not return from the left bosome into the right, but only the spirit of life as it were through a thin sive. Therefore the venal bloud of the Liver, differs from the arterial bloud, by the fourth digestion, manifested by the colour, and consistence of the matter digested.

But the fifth Digestion doth transchange the Arterial blood into the vital spirit of an Arche∣us, [unspec 62] of which I have discoursed under the Blas of man, as also under The Spirit of Life. I could not satisfie my self, that in the venal bloud of the Liver there was any spirit, although it hath gotten a degree of its perfection, after that it hath overcome or exceeded the Mesentery: But that venal blood alwayes seemed to me as it were a certain Masse of Mummie, and the matter Ex qua or [whereof:] But not as yet to be accounted for perfect vital blood.

For if the blood of the hollow vein had begged a spirit from the Liver, the right ear of the heart had been in vain, which works uncessantly for no other end, than that some spirit may [unspec 63] be drawn from the left bosom thorow the fence of the heart, that the blood in the hollow vein nigh the heart, may begin to be quickned by the participation of that spirit: But seeing from the left sides there is an ear, and especially the notable Trunk of an Artery; hence also the ••••cking is stronger from the left bosom. And from hence by consequence also, little of the vital Spirit is communicated to the venal blood: For truly, the blood of the Liver is alwayes throughout its whole, moist with too much liquor, whereof it ought to be deprived before that it be made a fruitful and worthy support of spirit; neither finally hath the Liver had a fit hollowness in it self for the framing of spirit. Wherefore as I have intellectually seen throughout the whole Scene of Generation, one onely Framer, and Ruler of the spirits of life in the seed; So also, I admit of one onely spirit of the vital family-government.

For the venal blood slides indeed within the stems or threds of the Muscles, and is made [unspec 64] flesh, but it doth not easily transcend unto the Bowels that are to be nourished, and to the threds or fibers of the flesh: For an infirm man being extenuated by a long disease, a reco∣vering even after youth, doth easily retake the former state of his flesh; but he which is waxen lean by the vice of a certain Bowel, doth not therefore likewise rise gaain unto his former state: And this is the difficulty of healing the Consumption, and of healing the Ulcers of the Bowels, whereas in the mean time, external Ulcers being far worse, are healed by Medicines taken in by way of the mouth, although they are at a farther distance from the mouth than internal Ulcers: Because the Bowels and inward Membranes are nourished by Arterial blood: more than by Venal blood. But life hath received its bound from God: Therefore also whatso∣ever things are nourished by vital bloud, they stop their increase at a certain number of dayes: Whereas the while, the flesh of the Muscles (which is nourished onely with venal bloud, and the fibers of the Mufcles which are nourished with Arterial blood) doth uncessantly in∣crease as oft as it faileth, and groweth up to a hugeness, to the destruction of some: So also broken bones are made sound by a bonie callous matter, at any age. But seeing the Bowels do cease to increase, all the spermatick fibers also, and those of the first constitution do cease from growing: For which of you shall adde a Cubit unto his stature? For I have observed that women with child being long afficted with notable grief, have brought forth the less Young.

First of all therefore, I do not admit of a Livery spirit to be in the venal bloud. And then, nei∣ther do I distinguish the Animal spirit from the vital: For truly in one onely ship, one only Pilot stands at the Stern, neither do more suffer themselves to be together, without confusion: Neither do I admit of a new Digestion for animal spirits in the bosom of the brain.

Like as also, that the spirit doth not differ in the species, from it self, in all the particular Organs of the Senses, and Executers of Motions: Although the senses dirfer among them∣selves [unspec 65] in the Species, as also from motion: So I think it to be a confused argument, that de∣viseth many Archeüsses to be in a man: For although the Gas shall draw a singular disposition

from the instrument, yet this doth not prove a specifical diversity. Therefore in the Fourth, and fifth Digestions, there are no excrements, nor unlike things or parts, nor do they proceed [unspec 66] from them.

And therefore it is false, That in every nourishment there is an excrement: For the arte∣rial bloud, and spirit do agree in a simple and vitall unity: But if any superfluities of the former Digestions do rush into, or are ingendred into the Arteries, let that be a diseasie, turbulent and confused government: I now speak of the ordinary Digestions.

At length, the sixth and last Digestion is perfected in all the particular Kitchins of the [unspec 67] Members: And there are as many stomacks, as there are members nourishable. Indeed, in this Digestion, the in-bred spirit in every place, doth Cook its own nourishment for it selfe; under which Digestion, as there are divers dispositions incident, so also divers errors of those [unspec 68] dispositions do happen: And so the diseases which the Schools do attribute unto their four feigned humours, should rather be owing unto things tranchanged:

But I call things transchanged, dispositions, which afterwards do in the Arterial blood, consequently succeed into the true nourishment of the solid parts. The Schools divide these [unspec 69] transchanged things into four successive coursary dispositions; and as if in these, no errour could offer it self, they have forgotten the diseases which from hence ought to be attributed to a rank or order. Indeed, they say the first is, because the venal bloud doth within the ex∣tremities of the veins, obtain the Muscilaginous substance of a raw seed. Presently in manner of a dew it is diffused or falls out into the empty spaces of the flesh.

Thirdly, When it is now applyed to the solid parts.

And lastly, When it is assimilated or made like to the thing nourished, and is truly in∣formed hereby, it assumeth the nature of a solid part; which to be the dross of the Schools, surely they do not diligently mind.

For in the first place, Neither the Arterial, or Venal bloud do wax white in the extremi∣ties of the Veins, seeing the extream or utmost parts are not potent with any other power of ashop or office, which its whole more former Channel of the Vein hath not: And so the Vein, although it be the vessel of the prepared nourishment for the Kitchins of the solid parts, yet the Vein is not the Kitchin of the solid parts. Indeed all particular solid parts do nourish their own and proper Kitchin within. Therefore the venal, and arterial blood are not altered, unless they be applyed to the solid parts; Because they are diverted by the property of the solid parts, into a raw seed, but not of their own free accord in the utmost part of the veins.

Secondly, The spermatick Muscilage is not be-dewed by the veins in a solid Member. For a Muscillage is badly consonant to a dew. But the thin and fluid arterial, and venal bloud sli∣deth along within the Kitchins of every part, which are only transchanged by the ferment of the place.

Thirdly, Neither are there empty places of flesh, which are devised to be greedy of a dew.

Fourthly, Neither is nourishment applyed to the sound or solid parts, in manner of a dew, which but a little before was a Muscilage.

Fifthly, Neither at length is this dew united, and assimilated to the solid parts, but what so∣ever happens to be assimilated unto them, this is within the yeers of growth; but afterwards, as the venal, and arterial blood have throughly crept into the solid members, by a continued suck∣ing of nature; so they are there digested, and suited, and at length expulsed by transpiration: Therefore these four Dispositions feigned by the Schools, and badly harmonized, I meditate to be digested into a Quaternary number (for peradventure a hundred Dispositions do inter∣pose, before of an Egge, of a Chick, a solid part I say be constituted of Arterial blood) with the blemish of the blindness or giddiness of the Schools: wherein nothing is right or true, but they do behold the very history of the matter bespotted, and to them it is a truth, because they have no nourishment of truth without the excrement of Fables.

Therefore also the veins themselves, as they are nourished only with the Arterial blood of the first constitution, even so also in this respect perhaps, an Artery doth every where accom∣pany [unspec 70] a vein. For from hence it comes to passe, that through the more cruel issuings of bloud, at last, not venal blood, but a whiteness flowes forth, or the immediate nourishment of the veins, by reason of the penury of venal bloud.

But Paracelsus every where bringing nature over to his own desires, saith, That in the Di∣gestion of the stomack, a stinking or putrified Sulphur is seperated from the two other Beginnings: [unspec 71] But in the Liver, that the salt is seperated from the Mercury; but the venal blood to be the Mercu∣ry, and the true nourishment of the whole entire part. Neither is it worth ones labour, by scof∣fing at this man; to be drawn any longer on the Stage, while himself doth infringe this his own Doctrine: For he diligently searching into the original of Ulcers, saith, That the whole

venal blood is nothing but the salt (now he makes no mention of Mercury, unlesse he confoun∣deth the Mercury with the Salt, in name and thing) although the urine of those that are ulcerated doth not contain a crum of salt less than themselves not ulcerated. But surely it is a shamefull thing to reckon the three first things of the venal blood, as if they were excrements, whose Arterial bloud is one of the three. Also he every where compareth Milk to the Arterial blood; Not knowing that a thing transchanged, is not any more like it self being not trans∣changed, as neither is a Chick like to an Egge, or to an Yolk. Indeed he calls the Buttery part of the Milk swimming upon the Milk, the Sulphur of the Milk (never in the mean time, not indeed Analogically, doth the Buttery part swim upon the Arterial blood) but the Cheese or Curds he calls the salt of the Milk; therefore also the Whey of the Milk shall be also the Mercury of the Milk, and by consequence its best part, and the best nourishment of the Milk: And the Whey of the Milk shall be the Mercury, out of the Mercury of the Arterial bloud. I will willingly, and smilingly grant Paracelsus the Whey, and will my self take the Cream; Because the Butter resembles the smell of flowers, where-with the Cow is fed; but not the Whey.

But Fernelius thinketh Butter to be nothing but the froth of the stirred Cream: not know∣ing [unspec 72] a presupposing of a sour ferment in the Cream, that it may be truly transchanged into But∣ter by shakings together: For from hence, if a little Ashes, Soape, Sugar, or of those things which do participate of a Lye or Lixivium, be immingled with the Cream, there will never be Butter made thereby, by reason of an Alcali which flayeth every sour Ferment: For there∣fore in Winter, the co-shaking of the Cream is more tedious, before the Butter be brought forth; because heat doth promote sour things, and all putrefactions.

But Paracelsus being elsewhere unmindful of his own Doctrine, doth prefer the Cream be∣fore the Whey, and Cheese, as well for health, healing, as for the goodnesse of the food: But [unspec 73] the Galenical Schools do prefer the thin and waterish Milk before the more fat Milk. For this cause they determine Ewes Milk to be the vilest, and then Cows Milk; Thirdly, Goats milk; And at length, they prefer Asses milk before the rest, by reason of its thin substance, and very much wheyinesse. But I know, that this one only Milk of beasts fed in dry pastures, is the best, as well in healing, as in eating, and to be least wheyie: For they command a Goat (let the same judgement be of Milke where the like reason appeareth) whose Venal blood the Schools do prescribe in the Shops, and in many places Sheeps blood is sold for Goats blood) to be first nourished with things Diuretical or provoking Urine. Therefore the virtues of Milk are to be measured by the soundnesse, life, and meats of the Beast, but never by his [unspec 74] grossnesse or fatnesse.

And Physitians being called to give their judgement of Milk in a Nurse, do come badly in∣structed; neither are they ready to judge otherwise, than of the venal blood drawn out by Phlebotomy: That is, minds being blind through ignorance, do not see with open eyes. I have observed also, that of the same Cow, of the like quantity of Milk, there is an unlike quantity of Cream, although she rejoyce in the same pasture; for that also is according to the unlike soundnesse of the Cow.

But I, for Blood, hang up a He-Goat by the horns, and do bend his hinder legs to his horns: I cut off his Testicles, and his Venal blood being received from thence, I dismisse him without [unspec 75] bloud for the Butcher. But this venal blood being dried is like unto glass, and of a most dif∣ficult sifting, and very far differing from the Goats blood of the Shops. But it being taken in the weight of a Dram, doth straight-way cause sleep, and cureth the Pleurisie, &c. without cutting of a Vein: Neither will it ever fail thee.

For Asses Milk doth more refresh and recreate or renew, yea and thus far it nourisheth; not as it is more wheyie; For that is to have judged of the virtues of a Kernel never before [unspec 76] seen, by the shell. But a she-Asse, as she is long-lived, her Milk is more excellent than that of other four-footed beasts.

For it must needs be, that her Milk also hath an Archeus endowed with a long life: And for this cause indeed, her Cream doth not seperate it selfe till a long time after: Because [unspec 77] it doth more slowly hearken to corruption: For that sequestration doth tend unto a duality and destruction. Hence it is manifest, that seeing in child-hood the nourishment is conver∣ted into our very Constitutives, Asses milk doth more conferre a long life, and healthier, on Children, than other foods.

Wherefore also, Womens milk, although it be most like unto us, immediate, mumial, and nourishable, yet it gives place to Asses-milk for long-life. But the she-Asse is to be com∣bed [unspec 78] like unto Horses, and so it may be known by the taste of the milk, whether the Asse were combed that morning, or not.

Therefore let the Schools learn a better judgement concerning Nurses, concerning Milk, and Diet; likewise to judge of the contents of the Urine, nor to acknowledge Choler, or [unspec 79] Gaul in the Urine, or Dung; Let them know I say to distinguish the Urine of the venal bloud from the Urine of the drink: and then, that the drawing of Liquor out of the veins of the Mesentery, doth cause natural thirst, but not from the exhausting of the lesser veins, by rea∣son of the impoverishing of the venal bloud. For otherwise Physical or consumptional persons [unspec 80] should alwayes thirst, and more than those that have the Dropsie; and the repeated thirst should bewray a repeated Consumption of the bloud, distinguished by small intervalls.

We must also know, that at the end of the Bowel Ileos, there is a little Sack, which they [unspec 81] have called the blinde gut, in which the ferment of the dung resideth; the which, seeing it is the work of corruption, and not of nourishing, its putrefaction is never to be accounted among the digestions of nourishments: For the ferment of the dung doth not proceed from any Bowel, or vital faculty; and therefore in this terme of mutation, more secure wringings do happen, while the matter seasoned with a dungie ferment, doth go back, or contract the sud∣den stains of a defiled putrefaction. Moreover, the blinde gut is small, yet the necessary re∣ceptacle of all dung: which is manifest: For indeed, a Wolf, hath beneath the middle of his intestine, two membranous Bottles, or little round Sacks, which are to him in the room of a blinde gut: For his meat falls from a long conduct of the intestine, into one of the little Sacks, but presently into the other; and at length it is brought hence into the following bowel.

But humane Worms are not generated in the Duodenum, and much lesse in the stomach: [unspec 82] yea, if they should the longer remain there, they would be digested after the manner of the food: For whither the Ferment of the Gaul doth not reach, there is the Worms country: For they are made of nourishment half digested, the which when it is brought down unto its own places, it is incrusted with a skin, as it were luke-warm Milk, and it beateth, and by de∣grees is endowed with life: For Worms do scarce creep upwards out of their vital nest, un∣less by reason of an obstacle horrid unto them, and of an ill contagion; and so they do scarce presage any good, which are voluntarily ejected upwards: But Worms do presuppose a Fer∣ment of the Gaul.

For otherwise, in the Caeliack passion, worms should be continually stirred up: For the Cream would presently putrifie, unless the Gaul did presently season the Cream with its Salt. [unspec 83] In the right or straight gut, about the end of the Colon, Ascarides do come forth, which are not Worms of the substance of man, or bred of the Cream; but of putrified superfluities, even as in Flesh, Cheese, Fishes, and Ulcers, Worms do come forth. Therefore Ascarides are cadaverous or as from a dead Carcase, Worms not so. Lastly, Worms are in us without in∣crease of off-spring; but Ascarides do bring forth their own Eggs. Common water boyled with Quick-silver, in a little, and unhurtful drink, killeth all Worms, as well in the Bowels, as elsewhere; but in Ulcers, if that water be powred on them. Last of all, for an over-plus, I will add, seeing the Bowels wherein Worms are bred, cannot digest the same; thence it fol∣lowes, that Clysters put up for to nourish, are frustrate of their hope, and they shall sooner nourish Worms, and Ascarides, than the man.

Nature therefore, hath with me, constituted six vital digestions; But in the seventh num∣ber she her self resteth. [unspec 84]