CHAP. XLIII. The Duumvirate or Sheriffdome.

THe Heathen Poet doth morally, yet from a homely judgement, call Sleep, the Image [ 1] of Frozen Death. But I, seeing that I know Sleep to be a natural power, dismis∣sed from the principality of the Stomack into the Brain, and to be committed to the charge of the Power of Government, that it might be put in execution; being a Christi∣an, do believe that God (alwaies to be sanctified) When he intended to frame Woman of the rib, he cast a Sleep upon Adam: Not indeed as a privative Being, but as an actual real faculty, and meerly positive: And therefore that the Power of Sleeping is vital, necessary, and consequently natural: For I may not believe, that God made Death in man, or the image thereof: Neither was it meet, that the image of Death should go before sin, and the occasion of Death.

The Schools indeed teach, that Sleep is caused by vapours lifted up out of the [ 2] Stomack into the Brain, stopping or intercepting the passages of the Senses, Motion, Speech, Judgement, &c. which things surely, I being as yet a young man, judged to be ridiculous: For in very deed, so a disease had been before sin; because sleep should be a disease; to wit, there had been a flatulent and vapoury Palsie, and Temporary [ 3] madness, both in a body then as yet, not capable of suffering, and in a life immortal. Its a shamefull thing therefore, that the blockishness of Paganisme should as yet be seriously taught in the Schools, especially by Christians, better instructed. Yea the Schools do erre in their own position proposed.

For those that sleep do move, and turn themselves up and down, some do walls [ 4] about, do feel the stings of a gnat or flie, so as that they do thereby awake: others also do speak, and oft-times aptly answer. At length, as the Schools do badly accord with themselves, while they confound sleep, and waking Catarrhs, with the same root, causes, and manner of making; so I, after that the toyes of a Catarrhe were hissed our, rejected also the assigned causes of sleep, as vain fables. Last of all the Schools also lay hands on themselves, while they teach, that from Opiates, things (as they say) most cold, and rather things powerfully restraining every evapouration (at least wise they are feigned to restrain, &c. Vapours for Catarrhs, more than Coriander) from their own nature; Sleep, the Drowsie evil, yea and death are most readily brought on a man: and so much the more speedily, by how much the Opiate [ 5] shall be of a more gradual cold in quality and quantity: And that by how much the more of sincere Opium shall be taken, and the more inward cooling made, by so much the more plentiful, and more continued vapours should be brought from the stomack into the head, also although the mouth of the stomack be shut. But surely it is a stupid devise, that sleep should be made by cold. Neither is it to be understood, how one onely grain of Opium can cause a sufficiency of cold in the Stomack, and had actually driven a sufficient quantity of vapours into the Head? How likewise, it shall belong to cold, to stir up vapours, rather than to re∣strain Page  338 them. But these things we may suppose to be granted by the rule of false∣hood.

And that Sleepifying vapours are derived upwards from the meats: also that the Sinews, the authours of the senses and motions, are stopped by these vapours. But [ 6] I would they had first considered, that the roots or first extremities of the Sinews, are continual to the Brain and thornie marrow: and that the other extremities or out∣most ends of the Sinews do end into the more outward muscles, or into the very Or∣gans of the Senses: and so, that therefore sleepie vapours first ought materially to pierce, and plainly to be imbibed into the substance of the brain and thornie marrow, and to obstruct both, before that they should according to the position of the Schools, cause sleep. And which way should these vapours incline from the Stomack, and pierce thorow the whole Substance of the Brain, by what meanes should they reach even unto the very innermost, and altogether continued root of the Sinews it self, which is unseperably connexed to the Brain? In the next place, how could he that is awake∣ned at the will of the awakener, be so speedily loosed and freed from those impediments? Or what may detain those vapours there for so many hours, without their co-binding, or co-thickning into water? for truly those vapours being once constrained, a passage should lay open to the Spirits, which should presently shake of the sleep: Or what at length may hinder, that new vapours should not continually make towards the same beginnings of the Sinews, and being there Coagulated, should not bring forth of necessi∣ty, daily Catarrhes or rheums; and undoubted palseys? Surely if an Anatomist, or a man in his right mind doth but once at least, rudely contemplate of these things, he ought of necessity to admire with amazement at these fables of heathens, especially be∣cause they have no affinity or connexion with the principles of our constitution. It also happens that some one is many times awakened in one only night, that he ariseth, and goes to sleep again; and so almost at his pleasure, there should be so many ob∣structions of the Sinews in one night, yea in one hour. I passe by in the mean time, that sleep is stirred up, an Opiate being as yet materially within the Stomack; even as unvoluntary experience hath often taught. Therefore either so small a quantity, and onely the Odour of the Opium, ought to fume up into the Brain, or it self being there detained, should send away sleepy Vapours its Vicars:

But not the first, because before that the Opium could strike the sense of Tasting, or Smelling, the Opium should be continually percieved in the Tongue, Palate, No∣strills, [ 7] and Jawes, and that before Sleep, which is not done. Moreover, the Sulphur of Vitriol, which is an exceeding Sleepifier, seeing it is fixed, cannot shake its Vapours into the Head, as neither dismisse from it, its Vicary partakers. Truly I conjecture that the Greek Authors of Sleep, or those that were riotous, when they perceived that themselves being drunk, were given to Sleep, judged that they were to derive all Sleep from no other thing, neither that Sleep could any longer creep on us, (not so much as late in the Morning, and the Meats being now digested) but only from Meat and Drink. I find also in the Schools, the material causes of Giddiness of the Head, not a whit to differ from the causes of natural Sleep: All which things, I have else∣where concerning Rheums, proved to be meer ignorances, and unsavoury consents, having arisen from a sluggishness of diligent searching, and a readiness of subscribing. But I pray, what is that which is so cold in Opium, which causeth Sleep against my will, and I being sufficiently heated: If the coldness of vapours, why do Wines after Din∣ner provoke Sleep? Is there therefore one only identity or samliness of disposition of [ 8] that which is cold, and hot, to procure Sleep? Why therefore is cold singularly adjudged to Opium? Why are not hot things judged to be alike Stupefactive and Dormitive or Sleepifying? Why have not deadly Poppies much praised by Poets for Sleep, perswad∣ed them to remember another vertue besides cold? Why doth Opium taste bitter? And why is bitterness reckoned in the Schools, to be heat predominant? Therefore the Schools must needs chuse one of these two; To wit, either that cold in Opium is not exceeding, and by consequence, that Opium doth not cause Sleep through cold; or that bitterness is a deceitfull token of heat in the Schools. For why is not Purslain which is cold by reason of its third degree, Sleepifying? Why is not a handful of Purslain equivalent to two Grains of Opium, seeing there is more plentiful cold in it, and it doth more powerfully coole in such a small parcell, than in so exceeding small a quantity of Opium? Why doth Nightshade make one mad, but doth not by its cold produce Sleep? But I do find in Opium a sharp Sudoriferous or sweat provoking Salt, Page  339 and a bitter oyl, far differing from the smell of Opium, yet provoking Sleep.

But the Sulphur of Vitriol is sweet like hony, with the smell, vapour, and fury of [ 9] Opium: because it being fixed in the torture of the fire, is exceeding hot, and Sleepifying. For there are some, who do wash off a powder from Colcotar or Calcined Vitriol, in de∣priving it of its saltness: But it is almost unefficacious, how ever the writers of young beginnings by vain promises may boast of it: For the right, and that which they call, that of the Philosophers, is made of the Spirit of Green Vitriol; which by a repeated Cohobating or injection of its own extracted liquor in distillation, being pressed out and made notably volatile in the last torture of the fire, is coagulated and fixed: which thing the common Sal Armoniack performeth, which ought afterwards to be taken from thence by the repeated distillations of the Spirit of wine. That Sulphur is commendable among Secrets for long life, and for chasing away a troop of some diseases.

Sleep therefore possesseth many as yet speaking, after the whispering of three mo∣ments. [ 10] How therefore shall a stopping up of all the Sinews be in these, so suddenly at hand? Wherefore in the next place, doth Sleep sooner creep on those that lay along, than on those which sit, when as otherwise, the motion of Vapours from the lower Parts, ought to be far more easie in a body raised upright, than in one laying side∣wayes? Moreover, although it should be granted, that all the Sinews are equally stopped up, and that before sleep (which is as unsavoury as ridiculous) yet from whence are the mental powers stupifyed by Sleep? Unless thou hast given the Soul a charge of necessity to have placed her Inn in the Chest of the Brain, and nigh the Si∣news? And thereupon the Bosomes of the Brain, all the interval of Sleep to be filled, not indeed with Animal Spirit; but with forraign, crude, grosse, and diseasie va∣pours, and the Authors of discourses themselves, the while, to keep holiday, sleep, or to wander far abroad? But all the Organs to be straightway after set at liberty, at the sound, or pleasure of the awakener?

But I have heard Sleep to be excused by the Title of an Ordinary Effect, and the [ 11] which should otherwise be diseasie, unlesse it were daily and accustomed. I have laughed at that old wives invention; That even the first Sleep, or punishment of sin, should be sent into man before excesse of Riot. And then, because an evill, which in it self is a disease or an evil, is never the less an evil, because it is ordinary: And that being granted, Sleep should never bring refreshment to languishing strength, but a perpetual pain or labour. But I, after that I once saw or perceived the light of a cer∣tain Soul, by some kind of representation, understood that Sleep is made while the [ 12] Spleen doth properly labour about, or apply it self to nourishment with recreation and delight: Then indeed it giving a leave unto its own serious imaginations, by de∣lighting, it wholly sinks it self into a ful rest of enjoyment, to wit, from a perceived sweetness of its own fullness; and the liberty of a stomatichal ferment being restored unto it, it employeth it self in a thorow enjoyment of delights: and therefore also the digestion in the Stomack is more unsuccessful in time of Sleep, because then slower: wherefore enjoyment, and cessation from labour, hath alwaies been the first or chief wish in the whole sensitive nature: vain therefore and full of mockery are the Cogitations in ones first Sleep, while the phantasie of the Spleen or Stomack is with drawn from thinking, from a growing necessity: which things shall presently be more cleerly manifested in this treatise.

A Humorist being asked by a riotous Person, why his Head aketh in the morning on [ 13] the left-side above his forehead, perhaps unto the largeness of a greater dollar? He readily answerd, that it was manifest by Anatomy, that the Orifice of the Stomack was inclined toward the left-side: that it was also taught now for many ages, that painfull Vapours are carried out of the Stomack into the Head; but that they cause pain, be∣cause they being lest of the wine, are sharp, tart, & biting; & likewise that they keep the perpendicular line of the same side, neither that they are suffered to be extravagant. The which being said, the Galenist lifts up his Eyelids, joggs or cocks his Cap, and gra∣tifies his own Soul, because the other being credulous, thinks he had given him Satis∣faction by so lying a Fable: For in that the pain of the fore-head obtaineth a straight∣ness of the side from the Stomack, it secretly implyeth some remarkable thing for the action of Government, and the Duumvirate: But none hath thought that that can be done without an actuall commerce of vapours. For first of all, no Va∣pour out of the Stomack, strikes the Head; as neither also is there any sharp, salt, Page  340 bitter, or brackish vapour; even as elsewhere concerning Rheums: Because the pain of which we now speak, is continual, as well to him that layes along, as to him that stands, or sits, and that without a necessity of belching: But if this doth sometimes ac∣company it, yet the pain doth never, the less, or more molest: neither also is there therefore, any sharpness, saltness, bitterness of vapours, unless that in inordinate appetite the belching be sour & then especially, there is scarce a pain ever present in the Head. And Morover, a Vapour being supposed according to the Schools, the Wea∣sand at leastwise, holds every where the middle of the Neck and Jaws. For that cause therefore, the Vapours, if there were any, should strike the middle, bottom or root of the Brain with a straight line; but not the forehead, and much less the left-side thereof: neither could they ascend in one that lays down, but should be blown out though the Mouth and Nostrils: Because although they were granted to ascend even into the plain (which there is none) beneath the Brain, yet they should not pierce unto its bosomes, without a mortall confusion of the Spirits: And least of all, should Vapours reach uncessantly unto the coats of the Brain; whereof notwithstand∣ing, a painful feeling is judged to be, but not of the Brain it self: Yea a pain and savour of the smitting Vapour, should presently be felt, rather above the Palate (where the plain of the Brain is falsly supposed to be) than in the forehead, or under the Scull: Which thing notwithstanding, as many as ever have undergon these pains, will reprove of falshood.

The Schools indeed have been ignorant, that the action of Government doth con∣tract the coats of the Brain without vapours, in what part it hath pleased the Du∣umvirate [ 14] of the Soul (as in the Book of the Disease of the Stone, in the Chapter of the act of feeling): therefore should not the top of the Crown, rather pain a man, than the one side of the forehead? even as in the Megrim? For the Crown is perpendicu∣lar to the Throat; from whence it is clearly manifest, that the Head is no more pie∣rced by watery vapours from the Stomack, than the Chin by vapours of the Stones, in Bearded persons, but not in those that are Gelded. In the next place, the bot∣tom of the Brain should especially be pained, the which the vapour should first touch at, and not the coats or membranes of the Brain. And then, the back-run∣ning Sinews of the Palate, Tongue, &c. should be cruelly affected, before the left wing of the Forehead under the Scull. Neither at length, should those vapours enclose themselves under the Pericranium, or above either of the membranes of the Brain in the circle of one Doller: Neither also should they ever cause a Megrim for one half of the Head, and much less, sometimes for the right side; but rather they should a∣scend in a straight line, and likewise, should alwaies, out of the Throat, equally affect the whole Head; seeing passages are wanting, which may as it were through Trunks, conveigh those vapours, sometimes hither, sometimes thither: for why, according to Hippocrates, doth milk bring the head-ach to him that is Feverish, if the vapours of whey ought rather to asswage these griefs? Why doth new food appease the head-ach, seeing that from new meat (especially Wine accompanying it) sharp vapours, rather than mild ones, like Milk, ought to exhale? Therefore the pain being once now setled, food should not appease the pain, but rather should stir it up, and make a new one. All which things, seeing they resist the position, and ex∣perience, they convince also, that the aforesaid pain, doth without vapours proseed from the Duumvirate, by a naked action of Government. I have many times admi∣red, that it was alwaies subscribed, by all altogether, and throughout all particulars unto the traditional fables of the Antients. But I have shewn in the Treatise of the Toyes of a Catarrhe, that these races of vapours out of the Stomack, are triflours, and therefore also the causes of vapours dedicated to Sleep. Lastly, I have already pro∣ved above, that there is an action of Government on the superiour or upper parts, no less than the actions of the superiour parts have been hitherto thought to be, on the inferiour or lower ones. Then also, I have shewn by the way, that out of the Mid∣riffs doth issue the most powerful temper or constitutive temperature of acting in Diseases, which Antiquity hath hitherto dedicated only to the Head.

Now I lay it down for a position, that the Duumvirate the president of the action [ 15] of Government, doth inhabite in the Hypochondrial part, to wit, in the Spleen, and the Stomach: in parts I say, which the Schools have esteemed the sink of the very worst Humor, and the Sack of the more impure meats. Four things therefore in so great a Paradox come to be proved; to wit,

Page  341 That the Duumvirate commands the whole Body.

That the Phantasie or imagination, Venus, &c. is to be attributed to, or belongs to the Spleen and Stomack,

That unto this very Duumvirate, belongs Sleep, watching, &c.

That in the same place, is the Inn or Seat of the Soul:

Which four particulars do meet as it were in one only point. The Phylosophers, together with Astrologers, have dedicated the Spleen to Saturn, the parent of the Starry gods, as to the inchoative or original principle of Life: But the Galenists, who are wont in most things to contradict themselves, have made the Spleen partly the Sink of the most stubborn Excrementous and feigned black Choler, and partly the receptacle of madness, not indeed by reason of a Melancholy matter in it, but rather, by reason of a certain conceptual, irrational and bestial disturbance; therefore they sometimes name it the Hypochondrial passion. But seeing according to their maxime; There is a sound function of the same part, and power, whereof there is a vitiated one, and on the contrary: I will conclude from thence, even against the will of the Schools, [ 16] that a certain sound and entire imagination is due to the Spleen, if vitiated, and pre∣cordial or Midriffie Melancholy doth proceed from thence: for many do understand that they are mad, and as it were ignorant Idiots, and they grieve that they cannot bridle those phansies which are importunate night and day: And so, they are vexed at it were with a double mental conceit. For so those whom a mad Dog hath bitten, and are slidden into the fear of waters, (which Disease they have therefore called an Hydrophobia) do accuse their unvoluntary madness, which they forefeel, foretel, and do warn the standers by to beware of them. They answer, that that happens, not indeed because any imagining power is there entertained, but because a fume of black Choler is from thence carried up into the Head, the Sheath of the imaginative pow∣er. Which particulars surely, seeing they are of great moment, it is meet they should be examined in a peculiar Treatise of the Soul, and of the Seat, Throne, and Inn thereof.