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CHAP. XXIX. Pylorus the Governour.

1. The use of the Pylorus delivered by the Antients. 2. The chief Dis∣eases of the Pylorus. 3. He is the Moderator of the first digestion. 4. Of what sort the closure of the Pylorus is. 5. The Command or Go∣vernment of the Pylorus. 6. How vomiting happeneth. 7. The Blas of the Pylorus. 8. The Stern of the first digestion. 9. The Eccen tricities of the Pylorus. 10. Some Originalls of Diseases neglected by the Schools. 11. Some Positions. 12. Whence the diversity of matter vomited up, is. 13. What that gauly thing may be, which is cast forth by vomit. 14. The sluggishness of the Schools. 15. Their ridiculous admonition. 16. The shutting and opening of the Pylorus. 17. The reason of the Scituation of the Gaul. 18. Whence Fluxes, wringings of the Bowels, Bloudy Fluxes, the Hemorrhoids or Piles, &c: are. 19. An errour about hunger and thirst. 20. Some absurd consequences upon the positions of the Schools. 21. A sense of appetites in the Pylorus is de∣monstrated. 22. The remedy of the Bloudy Flux or Dysentery, and Flux, hath opened the office of the Pylorus. 23. Giddinesses of the Head, whence they are. 24. An example in a Cock. 25. The leekie Liquor of the stomach, is not that of the Gaul. 26. Thirst doth not shew a necessary defect of moysture. 27. Whence there is a yellow and bitter vomiting at the beginning of a Tertian Ague. 28. The use of the Pylorus is confirmed by four Histories. 29. Thirteen notable things resulting from thence.

IN what part the Stomach layeth open at top, and being conjoyned to the throat, doth lay under it, that by the figure Autonomasia, is called its Orifice or mouth: But its utte∣rance beneath, is named the Pylorus or Porter: For in those that are well in health, the Py∣lorus is shut, while the Stomach hath received the meats, or drinks, untill that the digestion of the stomach being finished, the Chyle or Cream be made.

For then, not before, the Pylorus openeth himself: but the orifice of the stomach is shut, at least, fulness being present (if there be not sufficient cast in) when the stomach begins to [unspec 1] give it self up to the performance of its office. These are all things that I have hitherto found delivered by the Schools concerning the Pylorus: But I have apprehended a great hinge of health, and sickness, to be involved in the Pylorus.

For first of all, I have seen now and then, in Fevers, that as to day, undigested things have been vomited up, which were the third day agoe cast in: But on the contrary, in the Caeliack [unspec 2] or belly passion, the Pylorus is never shut: Yea some, after that they have been filled with dainty fare, they do not desist from rioting all the night, and therefore they do pisse conti∣nually: Therefore it must needs be, that their Pylorus being notably passable, doth not onely distil drop by drop, but by a continual thred; neither that it doth expect any bound of coction: For straightway even from the beginning, that it was not suitably or exactly shut, or at leastwise, that it doth somewhat lay open in divided wrinckles, after that the stomach was not sufficient for the entring drink: For that happens in healthy persons, when there hath been a defect of the closure of the Pylorus. There are others also, whose Pylorus is a more stubborn keeper, they vomit drinks after they are half digested: because the digestive facul∣ty being not equivalent to the drinks received, being provoked, doth cast forth the whole. Indeed there is too much obstinacy of the Pylorus, where three dayes meats are cast forth.

Which things surely do convince, that the Pylorus is not onely the Porter, but also that it doth govern the first and most evident digestion; and so that in this respect, there is a [unspec 3] drowsie carelesness of the Schools: For that I may give enough to their insufficiency, I say,

that first of all, the Pylorus is shut, not indeed by a muscle, after the manner of the fundament, or Bladder; for it is not the Client of a voluntary motion. Neither in the next place is it shut by contracted fibers or threds, like the Cramp, or wringings of the bowels: For it per∣forms its office of a Porter without feeling, and trouble. But no otherwise than as the womb [unspec 4] after conception, doth the Pylorus shut his neather mouth on every side, by his own proper Blas: thus I consider both the Orifices of the stomach to be shut: yet so, as that the upper Orifice, being in a healthy person once shut after meat, doth easily open it self wholly, at e∣very importunity of a morsel, or pertinacy of a draught; seeing it can scarce endure that any thing should hang above over it in the throat: Although in sick folks, and those that have suf∣fered hunger or want, its opening doth happen with pain and great anguish; because in the same persons, that closure of the Orifice doth depend on an inordinacy. Therefore the clo∣sure of the Pylorus is more obstinate, and exact, than that of the Orifice. Again, it is not to be doubted, that the motive faculty of either part doth not obey the will, and so that it is natu∣rall, or diseasie.

The Pylorus is said in the Schools, to be subject to the retentive faculty: But certainly, it sheweth an absolute power, when as the expulsive faculty being against it, the digestive fail∣ing, [unspec 5] the attractive loathing, and so others being trodden underfoot, the Pylorus is oft-times stubborn, as well in its closure (as I have said above to happen in Fevers) as in its opening (as in Caeliack passions.)

For vomiting is made while the Pylorus being shut, it doth contract it self upwards, not [unspec 6] indeed by the co-wrinckling of the stomach, but by a totall motion of the stomach upwards to the throat; and so the Pylorus doth command vomiting, and hearkeneth not unto the reten∣tive faculty. Seeing therefore the power of the Pylorus is not the Chamber-maid of other faculties, nor subjected to fibers, but Monarchal, and so that the fibers ought to yield obedi∣ence to its very pleasure; It must needs be, that this power is absolutely vital, and that it hath a proper motive Blas, like the womb, independent on the will of man: And that so much the more potent a one, by how much the Duumvirate of the stomach shall now come to light. And although the Pylorus be wearied oft-times by external and occasional causes (to wit from Me∣dicines, Poysons, or Dregs; yet its Blas is free unto its self, which is implanted in its part, or Archeus.

Wherein notwithstanding, I admire a certain power from above, like unto the influences [unspec 7] of the Stars: For the Blas of the Pylorus doth as near as may be, express the Blas of a free will: for truly an external inciter rushing on it, it can nevertheless at pleasure oppose as to shutting, or opening, that as long as the Pylorus is well in health or able, it may be moved for lawful ends, or at leastwise those that appear so to it, for the straightning, or loosening of the passage.

Yet when a man being inordinate, doth transgress against those ends, the Pylorus as the [unspec 8] Governour or orderer of digestion, doth oftentimes constrain the man to expiate his o∣fence by punishing him: But seeing there may be defects in that Blas (in some sort, as it were an arbitrall one) not onely from occasional causes, but also in its own motive mad princi∣ple, so that through fury it doth preposterously open or shut it self freely, like the womb; Sure∣ly, it is a wonder, that these things, with the other beginnings of healing, have stood neglected by the Schools. Every power, and especially the motive, doth easily wander abroad, being stirred up as well by contingent causes, as by a proper beck of madness, seeing they are free, and as it were independent; in the errour of which motive power, the Pylorus doth for the most part, and easily stumble: Even as the womb not being shaken from elsewhere, doth rush it self headlong, ascend, or being furious, doth writhe it self on the sides, doth alienate, straighten, enlarge, contract the throat, weasand, yea and the sinews readily serving the will, against their office, and doth now and then exhibite cruel motions, scarce unlike to magical ones, as the motive Blas is excentrical in stirring up divers Tragedies of Tempests. And these things are diligently to be attended by Physitians, that as oft as through occasion of the provoking cause, the Pylorus doth wander from its aims, he may straightway study a re∣moving of the cause. But if the Pylorus be exorbitant through the errour as it were the fury of its own proper Blas, let him think that he must fight with excentrical powers, and not with matter; and least of all, that evacuations must be trusted to. For we may think that in a tem∣perate state, a man having eaten moderately, his Pylorus is suitably shut, least any thing do [unspec 9] drop down out of his chinks; and that at length digestion being finished, the Pylorus doth open it self: Surely neither doth this come to passe from a forreign pricking quality of the Chyle; but because the Pylorus is expert of things to be done in the stomach, and therefore is to be reckoned the moderator of digestion, by whom indeed are the bounds of Govern∣ment, and the Keyes are kept: For otherwise, if the Pylorus be shut longer than is meer, see∣ing

that which was sufficiently digested doth not therefore cease to undergoe a further force of the digestive ferment, therefore also it is cocted more than is meet: Not indeed, that the Chyle is therefore more excellently cocted like Glasse in the Furnace, by how much the longer; but through too much delay it is alienated and corrupted, which afterwards must needs bring forth very many difficulties, as well in the stomach, as in its own neighbouring parts. Notwithstanding, if the Pylorus be lesse exactly shut, surely the new drink cannot but be (together with its former crudities) carried into the Bowels; about which surely since the digestion of the stomach is not employed, a ferment of the Gaul being received, it is changed into a strange substance, and at length doth procreate divers Infirmities in the veins; be∣cause the first digestion being omitted, it is come to the second: For so inspired tremblings [unspec 10] and shakings of the hands, beatings of the heart, faintings, sharp Fevers, Tumors, and joynt∣sicknesses do break out: So the tartness of Wine being not yet corrected by the first maturity of digestion, being a stranger to the veins, with the Aqua vitae inbred in it, doth cause the proper nourishment of the veins to degenerate with it self; and an unnamed and unknown guest doth bring forth unwonted and unknown infirmities: Even as for the most part, if the Chyle being well ripened, doth slide down into the Duodenum, and at the same instant, new food be injected from above, be sure, that the Pylorus being well appointed, is presently shut, the former baggage being not yet plainly dismissed: Therefore the detained part of the Chyle is corrupted, doth wax sour more than is meet, and defileth the new food with a fore∣ripe ferment; And the whole Chyle is made a forreigner, unless that before an exact coction it be banished by the Pylorus, which is by exciting divers appetites, wringings, and Fluxes. Therefore the errour of Pylorus, whether it be proper, or stirred up from inordinacy, doth cause many difficulties. But that new food sliding in, the Pylorus is presently closed, it is manifest; for else, the new and raw food should slide forth together with the Chyle which should appear in the excrement, as if it were bred from the affect of the passion of the belly, which is sometimes otherwise seen in devouring Children, their Pylorus being not yet suffici∣ently able to obtain its own ends. Therefore weaker stomacks do complain that great sournesses do arise in them, which in the morning they do cast up with their yesterdays food, or at night, with the Chyle of the precedent Noon, and the Reliques of their last meats.

Furthermore, for a more full knowledge of these things, we must repeat, that it belongs [unspec 11] not to the veins of the stomach to suck to them the Chyle detained in the stomach: likewise, that vomiting is made by the Pylorus being shut, and that the whole length of the stomach is contracted from the neather parts, upwards to the Orifice. Lastly, that this motion is made by the Pylorus, which if he should be opened, he should certainly unload the stomach of a lesse trouble; but seeing he openeth not himself, he judgeth it to be inconvenient for health, to have those dregs dismissed beneath: And so he hath seemed to me, to be the Rector or governour of digestion. But that vomiting doth happen two manner of wayes; To wit, by the proper Blas of the Pylorus; but then it is without pain: But the other is made by pro∣vokers; and that, although it be made also by the Pylorus, yet not by its own proper will.

Therefore also it is troublesome, and grievous: at leastwise, vomiting is not made, unless [unspec 12] by the shutting of the Pylorus: Else that should fall down into the Duodenum, which is ex∣pelled by vomiting: For when vomiting is made by the proper motion of the Pylorus, all of whatsoever it judgeth to be hurtful to it self, parteth at the first vomit: But if the Pylorus be provoked by a repeated vomit, other things are ejected, than those which bewrayed them∣selves in the first vomit: To wit, yellow, yolkie things, and then those things do follow, which are of a more transparent yellowness like the Oyl of Rape-seeds, and which are be∣lieved to be gaulie, by reason of their bitterness: and at length, now and then, things Skie-coloured and green, which by taking of the more cruel purging Medicines, do happen straightway after the beginning.

Here the Pylorus was opened between the first, and following vomits, so that whatsoever [unspec 13] doth lay hid in the empty or fasting gut, and in neighbouring places, the Pylorus may pull up∣wards unto himself, whereby he may wash off as it were the mark imprinted by the Medi∣cine: But those things are for the most part bitter, both because they have again and again undergone the ferment of the Gaul, and that an exorbitant and angry one; then also because they are besides their Custom, snatched up into anothers Harvest, where they are corrupted into an excrement, made notable by the quality of the ferment which it hath immediately drawn: therefore the Chyle in the same place becomes gawly and bitter.

But in this place I do behold the Schools with admiration, that they should prescribe meats of an easier digestion to be sent into the stomach, before those which are of a harder cocture; [unspec 14] being unmindful of their own Doctrine, which sheweth, that all Contents of the stomach are turned into a single or simple Chyle; but the Pylorus to be so shut from the beginning, that it suffers nothing, even so much as a drop, to slide forth before digestion be finished. Next, that coction is made by the un-cessant heat of the stomach, and so for this cause also, the di∣gestion continued from the beginning, to begin, neither ever to keep holiday, as long as its Valcan heat doth remain: But that all particular things contained, do receive that digestive heat after the manner of the receiver: which Doctrine indeed standing, seeing all things are reduced into a liquid Chyle, and are thorowly mingled exquisitely in the one onely pot of the stomach; it followes, that in feeding, those things are first to be sent in which are of a har∣der digestion, because they are cooked by so much the longer space of heat.

Suppings (say the Schools) and things of a more ready coction, if they are taken last, would putrifie, if they expect the ultimate bound of the more hard assumed things: As if the dige∣stive [unspec 15] faculty were the parent of putrefaction! neither that there should be made a co-mix∣ing of things eaten! or a conversion into a fluid Chyle! but that those things which are ta∣ken by morsels, should lay secret by Soils or Grounds: As if I say, the Pylorus should open it self by set periods or turns, that the order may be kept in dismissing the Chyle, which there was in receiving of the meats: which things, if the Schools shall believe to be possible, the Pylorus at leastwise, should have a greater power of discretion in observing the priorities of meats, than that the Schools should so sloathfully neglect its office. But the closure of the Orifice doth not conduce unto digestion, neither doth it govern the appetite: But the Pylorus doth command both; because a sufficient satiety is indeed for the most part present; yet moreover, we as yet do eat and drink from vice: Therefore the closure of the Orifice is not from an appetite, as neither from fulness: But weariness, loathings, and aversion from fleshes, do begin presently after Fevers, and the rise of Diseases of the stomach, and they have the Orifice shut.

Therefore the Orifice is neither shut from fulness, nor for the necessity of concoction; as [unspec 16] neither is it continently or sparingly opened by reason of appetite; to wit, if it be shut with∣out appetite, fulness, and concoction, and doth remain open after fulness in time of coction: For belchings are uttered in the morning, the stomach being fasting, empty, and desiring; yet belching doth denounce a closure of the Orifice. In the next place, the Orifice is shut in those, who being pressed with long hunger, do languish, and who have been infirm through a long continuing abstinence from food; To whom the unstopping of the Orifice is very dif∣ficult, grievous, and painful. If therefore the Orifice be not necessarily shut from hunger, appetite, fulness, and coction, therefore the closing or opening of the Orifice doth not re∣spect necessities in the coction of the serving faculties; but the Orifice doth especially serve for this, least to him that layes down, the Chyle should re-gorge into the jawes: whence first of all it is manifest, that the service of the Pylorus is more famous than that of the Orifice.

For truly he is the Ruler of the whole Family-administration of the stomach, even unto the last Circle of the Intestines or greater bowels: wherein, because seeing the operation of the [unspec 17] Gaul is perfected, therefore also the Gaul ought to be superstructed and incumbent on the Pylorus.

Of both which, if there be not a full consent, Fluxes, wringings of the Bowels, Dysenteries, [unspec 18] the Hemorrhoids or Piles, and divers miseries of the Abdomen or bottom of the belly do arise.

It is also an erroneous thing in Galen, and his modern Schools, that we do hunger and thirst [unspec 19] onely through the penury of venal bloud, and so that as many ounces of venal bloud ought to be filled up, as are unfilled. First of all, if that be perpetual, therefore let the Schools choose, to wit, either whether they will make the manglings in cutting of a vein, to be vain, or the ap∣petite not to be stirred up from the sucking of the veins, accusing the defect of venal bloud: which thing first of all, is not to be doubted of in time of health: for if there be hunger by reason of want of venal bloud, therefore Phlebotomy is badly instituted in the penury of venal bloud: But if that be considered in Diseases, suppose in a Fever, where there is no appetite, there also shall be no defect of venal bloud: But if as many ounces of bloud are supplyed, as are consumed, of which Consumption, hunger should be the token: therefore in a Fever, either there is not a consuming of venal bloud, or hunger is not the sense of venal bloud consumed.

But if the venal bloud be also wasted in a Fever, Phlebotomy shall be in vain. Likewise for [unspec 20] every event, after two or three dayes, as much bloud, shall be now consumed by the Fever (seeing a Fever doth consume and extenuate more than right health) as a Plethora or the abounding of humours (the one onely betokener of bloud-letting) should command to be

emptied out: And by consequence, the positions of hunger being supposed, Phlebotomy shall every where be made vain: For the Schools suppose that the bloud is dispensed into the les∣ser veins out of the hollow vein (as if a vein were a dispenser, and there were not a diffe∣rence between the Vessel it self, and the dispenser, or the power proportionally dispensing) and at length into the small little branches, whereby in the last place, it may be dispersed into the habit of the Body: And therefore onely from the sense of hunger, that the last small branches of the veins do suck the greater Trunk; but that this doth afterwards suck the veins [unspec 27] of the stomach and mesentery, from whence at length that hunger and thirst are felt. Which thing being supposed, first of all, those whose veins do swell, should be pressed with no hun∣ger, or thirst; and then, there should not be a sucking of that sense, unless the greater veins were first emptied: Likewise in the third place, this position doth resist the Doctrine of the Schools, who teach, that the stomach doth cook onely for it self in the first place; but se∣condarily, [unspec 28] or by accident, for the whole body, as the stomach doth undergo a common self-love: For that being granted, the stomach shall neither cook, nor desire, and hunger for the Body, but onely for it self; therefore neither shall it feel, that it may supply the penury of the veins: But the veins shall primarily thirst and hunger, the stomach onely by acci∣dent; neither for it self, but for the veins: For the ignorance of the truth, hath made the Schools every where rash: They have not known I say, that hunger is inspired from the Spleen into the Stomach; to wit, that the Spleen hath known the scope of things to be done, as the chief Bowel for the governing of decoctions; and therefore, it is effectively the chief governour of the appetites, to whom notwithstanding, the Pylorus, the ruler, and executer, is an assistant: For the Pylorus for all that, hath a free Blas of opening or shutting it self at plea∣sure, which in time of health is moved by reason of its knowledge of the ends known to the stomach, for which, coction, and appetite are created by the Spleen, as if the Pylorus were conscious of the secret ends of the Spleen: But in sickness, the Pylorus openeth and shuts it self preposterously, and with an invented order being as it were stricken with a symptomatical fury. For I being about to buy a Village, I did walk with a notable appetite, then by chance I wrung my foot awry, I slid down, rigour presently came on me, with a loathing, vomiting, and the former appetite to eat, being suppressed; but I straightway reposed my writhed foot, and that, half put out of its place; and at the same instant, my former appetite was restored unto me, and the nauseousness of my stomach was ceased.

Indeed my Orifice was open, as well in appetite, as in nauseousness; but I had my Pylorus shut in my appetite, and straightway opened in my nauseousness, and again shut in my vomi∣ting: [unspec 21] For as I said, vomiting is not made but by the shutting and inverting of the Pylorus up∣wards: but in the hicket or sobbing, there is made an inversion of the stomach it self up∣wards, which therefore is far different from the inversion of the Pylorus beginning to vomit. But that those things were after this manner, is apparent: because seeing my stomach under notable hunger, had not wherewith to vomit, being greedy of meat, the Pylorus by his own consent, presently closed himself: who again, even from the distortion or writhing of the li∣gaments of my foot, being as it were mad with fury, opened himself, and called unto him the filths from the Duodenum: For at the time of my vomiting, that the Pylorus might expel the conceived ballast, he shut himself, and again had opened himself for a new accumulation or heaping up of filths, unless by the restored small dislocation, the fury of the Pylorus had been appeased. Therefore if with the closure of the Pylorus, my withdrawn appetite straight∣way returned, who seeth not that the appetite afforded by the Spleen, is governed by the Pylorus? I have said, that the Pylorus doth snatch the filths out of the Duodenum upwards into the stomach; that he who before being the Porter, was thought to be dedicated onely to detaining and expelling, may think of attracting hurtful things: which things, although they do happen by a common sorce, whereby all things being once banished, do put on a ho∣stile character, and are thereby presently made worse; yet they are in an inverted order drawn unto the stomach, by a raging Blas of the Pylorus. I have likewise herein discerned, that the Pylorus is not onely the cause of appetite, nauseousness, and vomiting; but also, to be the one onely causer of the Disease called Choler of the Dysentery, or Bloudy Flux, and Flux; and I have experienced, that oft times, a small Remedy being administred, the furies of the Pylorus were appeased, and the aforesaid hurts corrected. Surely it is a thing to be grieved at, that nothing hath hitherto been weighed by the Schools touching these things; and that their whole aid is placed in a Clister, neither that they have come unto the nest of the evil. They have onely converted themselves unto the thorow pas∣sage of the thing produced, like the Dog that bites the stone that is cast at him. For I have seen a young man exceeding well in health, and enjoying a notable appetite, in the morning to have eaten some fresh ripe Mulberries well washed, with bread buttered, and straightway

to have felt a sweet delight of cooling refreshment in his stomack thereby: And then his ap∣petite being by chance half an hour after sore troubled or destroyed, he fell with the pain of the Colick into a Flux, and he had daily perhaps seventy stools of a Milkie colour: But presently restringent Cordials were administred as well within as without: To wit, the juice of Quin∣ces, with Confection of Alkermes, of Diarrhodon of Spodium, De hyacintho, and the like exhil∣erating things. In the mean time, very many Clisters of Whey steelified, and the like sweep∣ings were injected, and all in vain: At length also Opiates were annexed to other things, and nature laughed at the learned ignorance, and sporting experiments; but the sick man grieved at the vain remedies: And at length at the utmost danger of Life that was appointed, the Lord healed him.

For I administred two hard yolks of Eggs, tempered with Rose-Vinegar: his dejected appe∣tite, and the restoring of his appetite by the yolks taken, do testifie that the Flux arose from [unspec 22] the vice of the Pylorus: For he perceived a manifest ease, the medicine being as yet detain∣ed within his stomack. I remember also that by Horse-hoofs fryed in Buttel, and the same being afterwards powdered, the fury of the Pylorus hath been oft appeased, that dysenteries and fluxes have stopped, and felt the bounty of healing, that strong smelling remedy being as yet detain∣ed within the stomack. But if the hoof be the superfluity of a wanton Colt, it is said To bring certain destruction on those that have the Dysentery or bloudy Flux. Therefore the Pylorus being the Ruler of the closure of Digestion, and appetite in the stomack, it doth also through a long journey of the Intestines, govern as well the contents, as the exorbitances of the neighbour-Veins: for the undigestions of meats, and excrements, their corruptions, and quick passages do testifie, that the indignation of the Pylorus only is to be confirmed by remedies.

For so yesterdayes gluttony doth stir up giddinesses of the head, not so much over night, as in the morning, the stomack being void of meats, and those do for the most part cease, the [unspec 23] break-fast being taken; Because then the Pylorus doth open, and is beset with filth, and af∣terwards he closed himself at the coming of the break-fast, and doth as it were forget the for∣mer discommodity.

A Cock of ours, of two years of age, eats Bran and Oats in the morning, according to his custom: but a little before evening he refuseth to Roost on his accustomed staffs; he layes [unspec 24] on the ground, and the morning following is averse to meat: Being giddy-headed, he runs down side-wayes, and doth oft-times fall backwards: At length, he shakes or smites his Comb and Fore-head harder on the ground, and dyes before noon: But by Dissection were found some lesser flints, not indeed in the first sack or stomack, but in the more inward and true stomack. But a greater Flint had shut the Pylorus, which being lesse than a Flint, had cut of the hope of passage: For neither was there any other cause found of so great giddiness, and unwonted death, but that the Pylorus because it was by force and against its will, shut in the place of Coction, it had confected or made a Leeky liquor above the greater Flint: Which surely, could not have come thither out of the Gaul, seeing the Flint had stopt up the passage from Gaul its coming within the stomack, out of the Gaul, thorow the Duode∣num: [unspec 25] Therefore that green and leeky liquor was bred in the stomack, through the Vice of the stopped Pylorus.

Likewise concerning thirst, I have often observed that those that are thirsty in Fevers, have again vomited up the drink, with a fourfold quantity. Therefore thirst is not of necessity, by [unspec 26] reason of the defect of moisture, nor also through the penury of bloud, as that for the same cause the same veins may sometimes be the cause of hunger, and sometimes of thirst, and the messengers of a defect of venal bloud; yea now and then of both together, as well of hunger, as of thirst: But the Bowel inspiring a ferment on the stomack, doth stir up hunger and thirst: For in Fevers, the cause of the Fever is an Alcali abounding; hence neither doth the thirst cease, although the stomack doth abound with its own drink: for neither doth the drink come unto that Alcali: For so salt and peppered things do prepare thirst, no otherwise than as putrified Alcalies or Lixivial salts do; because they exclude the sour Ferment out of the stomack. As salt doth hinder the resolving and transchanging of the food, that is, the entrance of the digestive ferment breathed from the Spleen; So a quantity of the more pure drink, things peppered, hard, and undigestible, are causers of thirst: but not because they are hot and dry things in the middle waters detained in the stomack; but because they do resist the aforesaid Ferment of the Spleen. But sour things on the contrary, as they are neer to the Ferment of the Spleen, they do refresh thirst. Therefore thirst in the like cases, is not through defect of nutritive moisture, but by reason of the Ferment of the Spleen being hindred, which at length overcomming (by a longer time of sleep) the aforesaid difficulties, therefore sleep takes away thirst. Also thirst ariseth in Fevers by reason of burntish putrefactions, and coagulated things; but not because nutritive, and cooling refreshing moisture is desired (as they think)

but a resolver of that which hu••ts: And so it doth not so much shew and require a nourishment, as a Remedy. And therefore neither doth thirst cease by drink, unless this hath brought a co-resembling mean for the receiving of the Ferment. Seeing therefore the Pylorus is the Go∣vernour of Coction, and no less the Moderator of thirst, than of appetite, as well meats as drinks shall be also the perceivances of the same Ruler, distinguishing the bounds or ends of digestion.

For in the Beginnings of Tertians, a plenteous vomiting of a yellow excrement, together with much thirst, doth molest; and those two do concur with the shutting of the mad Pylorus, [unspec 27] and for this cause he doth instead of a sour Cream, frame that yellow or cankered excrement or liquor, which being detained in the stomack of the Cock, caused his death. Moreover I will adde four Histories which will confirm the efficacy of the Pylorus in the action of Government. My Wives Brother was by chance ill at ease for the space of eight dayes, at Mecheline, from a [unspec 28] solemn and gl••ttonous Feast: But a Physitian of the City offers him a vomitory potion, whereby he vomited twice every day: And so he had written the day before, that he the next day would come from Mecheline to Bruxels unto us: Therefore being Boored, and now fitted for his journey, the day following before noon, he dyed, after that in the foregoing night he had been ill, and had vomited often as before, somewhat black Liquor, or venal bloud there corrupted. But his dead carkass being dissected, shewed no vice, except that in his stomack a blackish Liquor floated on the shut Pylorus.

2. A Girle of three yeers old, and noble, takes a vomit to drive away an Ague, of a boasting Italian Physitian, being a few Grains of a certain Powder.

Also another Noble young Daughter, not yet exceeding the second yeer of her age, took the same: Both of them indeed straightway after the taking of it, vomited; but both of them had their right eye wrung or wrested aside, and their whole side as it were beset with the Palsie; their arm indeed wholly, but their leg not altogether so: For the elder being wholly given to tattle, yet her sorely annoyed; but the younger, slumber and vomiting now and then interrupting each other, both of them dye. I am called unto both, and I attempted some things in vain: Perhaps indeed because late, and life failing. But both their carkasses are o∣pened: And the same stinking Liquor detained in the stomack (the Pylorus being exactly shut) the cause of the murder, comes to hand.

3. A Hen, when she would pick grain on the ground, she retorted her neck to one side, and in picking was rowled into a Circle on her left side, and her legs fayling, at the taking of every Barley Corn, or Crum of bread, she slid on her hinder part upon her tail: And that had remained thus perhaps for eight dayes space, before it might be declared to me, I ran unto the unwonted Spectacle, I unfeathered her most lean breast, and a certain old woman o∣pened her former or memb••anous stomack with a Razor. But I found that she had swallowed a small gobbet of rocky Chrystal: but that woman sowed up her stomack again with a thred, and afterwards she survived in perfect health.

4. One of my house-hold servants forming some Vessels about Distillation, with a most sharp fire of pit-Coals, melted a Glasse by sporting: the Fragments and Vessels themselves were dark and white, from green Glasse, and the sweepings of my distillations, But the Frag∣ments of his new Vessels being cast into a corner of the floor, the Hens devoured them, being deceived in the whiteness of glasse: They were well in health: but it happened that the fif∣teenth day after, the two fatter were killed for the Table: But that there were found in their first Stomack some of the aforesaid Fragments, which were easily conjectured to have stuck in the same place many dayes: But they were diminished (so that when as glasse is not broken, but Point-wise) as well side-wayes, as corner-wise: Those Fragments were on every side obtuse or blunted. But I have hence collected to my self things worthy of note.

• 1. That the Pylorus being shut, my Brother did alwayes vomit: For truly, also after death, that stinking Liquor was found in his closed stomack, which else had been in the Bowels with∣out [unspec 29] any notable dammage.
• 2. That that shutting of the Pylorus was furious, otherwise it had opened it self, and had not so hurt.
• 3. That the motions of the Pylorus are of another Re-publick, than all others are: For all contractures do cease with death, those of the Pylorus not so.
• 4. That in the vomitory medicine, its poysonous faculty had stirred up the indignation and contracture of the Pylorus: For he was not only contracted or drawn together, but he drew forth or allured a bloody juice out of the veins of the stomack, which was forth-with made black, and stinking.
• 5. That the same things happened in the two little Girls.

• 6. That the indignation of the Pylorus doth also produce Palsies.
• 7. But an Ae••uginous or cankery Liquor, death.
• 8. That in the Cock, the only stubborn stoppage, from the Even-tide, caused his giddines∣ses.
• 9. The Hen which had swallowed the Chrystal, doth more strongly prove this, besides which, no other thing was found in her fore-stomack.
• 10. That the detaining of Glasse in the stomack did remain with health, because the Pylo∣rus was not thereby stopped up.
• 11. That glasse is of easier Digestion than rocky Chrystal.
• 12. That an Aeruginous, or black Liquor was made from the indignation and shutting of the Pylorus, but not from the detaining of a Body, or Glasse besides nature.
• 13. That Glass was consumed by little and little in the stomack of the Hens.