Van Helmont's works containing his most excellent philosophy, physick, chirurgery, anatomy : wherein the philosophy of the schools is examined, their errors refuted, and the whole body of physick reformed and rectified : being a new rise and progresse of philosophy and medicine, for the cure of diseases, and lengthening of life / made English by J.C. ...

CHAP. LXXIII. The Seat of Diseases in the sensitive Soul, is Confirmed. (Book 73)

1. Ten Paragraphs or Positions elsewhere proved, are supposed. 2. The twelve Properties of the Stomack are rehearsed. 3. That some Diseases do inhabit in the Life of the Stomack. 4. An Objection is Solved. 5. The Life of the Mus∣cles. 6. A consideration of the Apoplexie. 7. The incomprehensibleness of the Vital Powers. 8. Sleep is the last of Faculties. 9. Why sleep was sent in be∣fore Sin. 10. The Seat of all Diseases. 11. An unquenchable Consideration of Hunger and Thirst. 12. That the most powerful Idea's of Diseases are fra∣med in the Duumvirate. 13. The largeness of the Power of Idea's is rehearsed. 14. That Remedies for the most part do not dilate themselves without the cottages of the Stomack. 15. The Schooles not heeding these things, have erred in the ap∣plication of a Remedy. 16. A choice of Medicines. 17. Remarkable things of the Stone for broken Bones.

BUt that the Roots of Life may more clearly be laid open, I will compose some Begin∣nings or Essayes founded by me elsewhere, and borrowed from thence, into Positions. [unspec 1]

1. The Immortal mind, the immediate Image of the Divinity, after that it delegated the Go∣vernment of Life unto the sensitive, mortal and frail Soul, although it delivered its Power unto this mortal Light; yet it hath remained connexed to the same, being co-bound unto it by the Sym∣bole or Resembling mark of Life, as it were the band of the nearest Knowledge: Which sensitive Light of Life, because it sits entertained in the Stomack as the Root of a Mortal Life; there∣fore also the mind it self hath chosen its Bride-bed and Throne in the same place: The which I have elsewhere more strongly profesly confirmed concerning the Soul.

2. The Soul hath sowed its Faculties necessary for Life, throughout the Organs of the Body: Wherefore neither doth the Ankle See, nor the Ear Walk, as neither doth the Liver transchange Meats received, into Chyle.

3. The vital Faculty of the Organs, in health sends forth healthy or sound Actions, and the same as often as it is vitiated, utters vitiated Actions.

4. But the vital Faculty is not vitiated but by a Disease.

5. Which Disease therefore is nothing but a real and actual Vice of the Faculty; a positive Being, I say, and for that Cause consisting of Matter and an Efficient Cause, after the man∣ner of other natural Beings.

6. But seeing the vital Faculty it self, doth essentially include in it a Disease it self: Hence it followes, That a Disease it self is in the formallity of its Efficient Cause, a Faculty not indeed viti∣ated, but vitious: To wit, the which doth vitiate or hurt the vital Faculty: And so a Disease is a Power very much like to the vital Faculties, and that so intimate with them, that also in some Cases it is united as well to mortal and hereditary ones, as those that are centrally rooted.

7. But a vitiated or hurt Faculty, is either a particular one, proper to some one Organ, as Blind∣ness, Deafness, the Palsie, &c. Or it is every way dispersed in the common vehicle of the in∣flowing Archeus, by way of property of Passion, of a secondary Passion, or by way of Sympathy. And indeed however, and after what manner soever a Faculty is hurt, at least-wise it is discerned

and clearly seen every where to undergo a vital Vice; and that every Disease doth immediately in∣habite in the Principle of Life, that is, in the Archeus himself.

8. For all Diseases in general do sit in the universal beginning of Life, whether in the mean time the Archeus be particularly molested by some Organ, or whether he be stirred up and enraged by the Fountain of Life, and a quickned or enlivened Root: For although that may vary the Species of a Disease, yet such a variety doth not take away the maker of a Disease.

9. The Sensitive Soul is chief over all its vital Faculties, whether they are fomented by di∣stributed Organs, or next by the common Archeus: At least from thence it dependeth, that the Cure almost of all Diseases, consisteth and is perfected in the radicall Inne of Life; that is, in the Seat of the Soul and Center of Life: Unless sometimes perhaps a certain Organical part shall drink up a Disease proper unto it self, and the vital Faculty its guest, shall marry its self unto the same.

10. Whence it becomes evident, that almost all Curing of Diseases (Wounds, and likewise those that are Chyrurgical ones I except not) is to be solicited in the Stomack, and in its Duumvirate: and so, neither there to be incongruously sought after or solicited: For so also oft-times, the more outward defects are taken away by an internal Remedy of the Stomack, being else vainly attempt∣ed by external Medicines. It is no wonder therefore, that Remedies do scarce exceed the com∣mand, order of the Stomack, or are materially farther dispersed.

Which things being thus premised by the way, I will subscribe some Priviledges of the Stomack. [unspec 2]

1. And First of all, That is a right proper and peculiar to the Stomack, that it doth prima∣rily Cook for it self; but for the whole Body onely by accident, indirectly, and by an extraordina∣ry right before the other Members: Because Divine Ordination hath so suffered it to be, that it may prepare a nourishment of the rude matter of the meats for all the others: But the Stomack it self is immediately nourished by the Chyle confected by it self, no otherwise than as the Root of Vegetables is nourished by Leffas the Juyce of the Earth: But not that the Stomack doth allure Blood from the Liver for its nourishment, as neither doth the Root of Vegetables fetch back again the Juice, once dismissed from it self, and dispersed upwards from the Bark, that it may thereby be nourished. Wherefore the Stomack enjoys a few Veines for the Office of so great an heap, and a Vessel of so great capacity; To wit, because it is not nourished by venal Blood according to the ac∣customed manner of other Members, but it is fed onely with the Chyle, the which it afterward suits into a Spermatick Liquor agreeable to it self.

2. But the Veines of the Stomack do not therefore diffuse Blood out of themselves, neither doth the Stomack being hurt by a Wound, weep forth Blood: And the same right the rest of the Membranes have borrowed from the Stomack unto themselves.

3. The Stomack-Veines do not transmit any thing of the concocted Chyle of Mcats, or suck is unto them, that they may derive the same unto the Port Vein, according as otherwise, the Mese∣raick Veins are wont to do. And that thing I have else where more strongly confirmed concern∣ing the Digestions.

4. In the next place, neither do the Veins of the Stomack imploy themselves in the nourishment of the Stomack.

5. And therefore the Stomack-Veins being full of pure Blood, have a free, vital, undisturbed faculty, appointed for the sucking of the Chyle or dispersing of the Blood: Either of which two notwithstanding, is domestical to all the other Veines.

6. Yet the Veins and Arteries being knit unto the Orifice of the Stomack, are not in vain ex∣tended, but the Soul being entertained in the slenderness of the Membrane of the Stomack as if it were not there, yea being scarce tied to the place, breathes forth the breath of its Life into the Or∣gans (to wit the Heart, Spleen, Liver, Brain, Kidneys, Stones, &c.) after an unsensible man∣ner, and through an incredible straitness and slenderness of Pipes or Channels. Hence indeed are there sudden Ecclipses, Apoplexies, Epilepsies, Giddinesses, Swoonings, &c. to wit, as oft as the sensitive Soul ceaseth to beam forth its Light into the Organs.

7. For there is in the Pipe of the Artery of the Stomack, a Vital Faculty of that Soul, for the beaming forth Beams of Light unto the heart, so long as it is in a good state: But when as it behaves it self rashly or amiss, presently also Heart-beatings, Faintings, Giddinesses of the Head, Apoplexies, Epilepsies, Drowsie-evils, Watchings, Madnesses, Head-aches, Convulsions, &c. are stirred up. In the next place also, there is by the Soul, the Governness of the vital Faculties, breathed its own vital Virtue through the Stomack-Veines unto the Liver, and so from the Uni∣ty of the Soul, divers natural endowments do flow forth unto all the Organs: for truly alwayes, and on every side, all things as well in the Universe as in us, do issue from one point: For that mortal Soul, and Seminal constant Governess of the Body, seeing it is occasionally begged from the Disposition of the arterial Blood, it of necessity also inhabits in the Organs, as well in the bloudy Spleen, as in the unbloody Membrane of the Stomack: Verily even as the Brain, the Fountain and Judge of the Acts of Perceivances or Feelings, doth most especially want Sense or Feeling, and therefore also it is many times read in the Holy Scriptures, That the Soul of Man dwells in the Blood.

8. It sufficeth therefore in this place, that the sensitive Soul, being placed in these seats, doth there unfold its Virtues, and from thence diversly send them forth.

9. For indeed Sleep, Watching, Appetite, Digestion, Ferment, Chearfulness, &c. do disco∣ver by their plurality, a health of the Functions, even as also in the same Fold, and cemral Foun∣tain, the Apoplexie, Epilcpsie, Vertigo or Giddiness, Madness, Fury, Forgetfalness, &c. are entertained: For truly the one onely sensitive Soul is the immediate Cause, Center, Nest, Foun∣tain, and Original of all vital Faculties and Actions whatsoever. But in this Path it is suffici∣ent to have rehearsed that which else where I have profesly demonstrated, that in the more inward Coat of the Stomack, as it were in a Bride-bed, the Mortal Soul doth dwell, and that it involves in it the immortal Mind within its Bosom: But that all those Powers are vital, in their Function indeed distinct, although not in their vitality or livelinesse, and so, so proper and peculiar unto the Soul it self, that the Etimology of their Propertie hath sprung from thence.

10. Wherefore without Controversie also, I suppose that all Diseases universally (because they rising up against the Powers of the Soul, are Adversaries, and Hostile) do also immediately as∣sault or invade the fraile and mortal Soul: Against which indeed, they are able to shake their Spears or Darts, and pierce the same by reason of the likeness of a sublunary Symbole.

11. Which strife indeed doth first happen in the Archeus himself, the Porter of the Soul, and from thence they are more inwardly derived, and do pierce even unto the kernel of the Soul it self.

12. Diseases also which are brought from without, and forreignly to within, do stand as re∣tainingly subject to this right, as those which of their own free accord do wax hot, or which are struck out of the Flint of the Archeus.

Wherefore, although I have already accused most Remedies of an impossibility of piercing; yet it sufficeth a Physitian, if the Medicine doth in the very mentioned Inne of the Soul, talk with the same in its own possession. But surely these things are new and unheard of, an unexpected Philosophy of Healing: But the novelty it self ought little to deterre us, so truths are demonstrated.

Especially it should be most difficult to perswade, that all madnesses do spring from [unspec 3] the region of the Stomack, unlesse it had been voluntarily and freely granted me, that some Madness is praecordial or from the Midriffs, and likewise that the Stomack it self is the Seat of the concupiscible Faculty, that Sleep likewise and Watchings are raised up, &c. from thence: Unlesse I say, the Falling-sickness were the more frequently felt to be lift∣ed up out of the inmost room of the Stomack into the Heart and Head, and so that the up∣per parts do for the most part, languish through a secondary passion of the inferiour parts. But if the Falling-sickness doth sometimes seem to be raised up from the Feet, yet at least∣wise it never invades without Swooning, and never takes away the Senses, unlesse it shall first sore shake or trouble the sensitive Soul it self, and the principal Faculies thereof; and the proportion of the commotion should determine or limit the proportion of the fit: So that although its occasional nest be reckoned to be in the Head or Feet, yet the Epileptical fit doth never depart, the which leaves not Thirst behind it, and by that Sign it bewrays that it had pitched its Fold in the Stomack, and that the sensitive Soul was smitten in that part

especially, where in it planted the thirsting Power. But seeing the Falling-Sickness doth prostrate all the powers of the Mind with an Unsensibleness, Convulsion and Beat∣ing attending on them: It is for a certain Sign, that the sensitive Soul it self is pierced in its native and wonted place; and that it is there and from thence the Governness of all the Senses and principal Faculties: Yea and seeing such a spoiling of the Faculties doth not happen as it were by hands or degrees, but that there is a commotion of all of them at once by one onely stroke; therefore the government of those Faculties, is denoted to be smitten in its Center, and the Members farther remote from the Stomack, are discover∣ed by a secondary Passion, as to suffer an onset of that Disease: So in like manner also, not to possess from a property those vital Powers which they loose. Neither let any one be amazed or think this a vain kind of Doctrine, although I shall place the Majesty of the Duumvirate within the slenderness of the Membrane of the Stomack: For let that thing be proper to the Soul, that it is deteined in a place as it were without a place. Therefore the Epilepsie painfully and at unwares invading all the Superiority of the sensitive Soul, sitting in the Stomack, doth argue the very seat of the Soul to be there: But not that Epi∣leptical onsets do happen from Fumes or Vapours slowly lifted upwards: The which I have also many times elsewhere, plentifully confirmed concerning Catarrhes. For those Eclipses do happen, no otherwise, than as if a hole be suddenly stopped; through which Light otherwise doth beam forth into an obscure place. For the Light is suddenly inter∣rupted and ceaseth: So that that thing is so natural to an Apoplexie, that among the Ger∣manes and Dutch, it hath obtained the Name of a Stroak; the which notwithstanding, be∣ing new, I have many times vanquished, by procuring Vomit, or by the more strong Stomatical and Aromatical things being Distilled.

Furthermore, in as much as in fits of the Falling-sickness, all Sense, not likewise moti∣on, faileth: Yet that doth not therefore argue, that the sensitive Soul is not the Fountain [unspec 4] of both: For although all the intellectuall powers do fail, and onely the Testimonies of a shaking and leaping motion do remain as long as that Eclipse endureth; yet all those Powers are denoted or designed as issuing from the Soul into the Body, as if they were pro∣per to it: But those Powers which it self hath planted in the Archeus, implanted in the Organs, are under an Ecclipse, and are tumulted by the commotion of the Soul; yet they subsist obscured, because the Life is not taken away, neither doth the Pulse therefore cease.

But in as much as an unvoluntary convulsive motion doth even still remain; that is not: to be attributed so much to the Soul, as to the singular Life of the Muscles: The which in∣deed [unspec 5] I have elsewhere shewn, as yet to persevere for some time after Death: And that a Tetanus and strait Extension doth begin long after Death: So that although the Life of the Muscles doth proceed from the sensitive Soul, yet it obtains a certain peculiar Effica∣cy, as also Station of place. Therefore it is less wonderful or absurd, for the Muscles to be therefore tumulted by their own Motion, if on this side Death, they have felt the com∣mon Life to be Eclipsed.

But in an Apoplexie and Swooning, even the motion of the Muscles also, doth plainly fail, except the motion of those between the Ribs; because then the sensitive Soul doth [unspec 6] undergo a total darkness: Therefore the Soul, the directress of Life, according to the divers Tragedies of its perturbations, doth manifoldly dismiss its Guardians into the Or∣gans placed under it. But every Life, seeing it is of the disposition of Lights, descending from the Father of Lights, it exceeds a humane Understanding: And so by an unfit word, the Father of Lights is called by the Schooles, the Intelligible World, who doth least of all fall under our Understanding: For neither is the most Glorious Father of Lights, and his whole Common-wealth, wholy unknown unto us, according to the Testimony of Truth to Nicodemus, but also the Essence, Thingliness, Direction, and Distribution of the vital Powers, do exceed our Capacity.

For how astonishable is the privation of Understanding, Memory, yea or of Speech on∣ly; especially Motion, Sense, Appetite, yea and the integrity of Health remaining? And [unspec 7] how terrible is the fall of these at every onset of the Falling-sickness, Swooning, or drou∣sie Evil? And how much doth it exceed humane Industrie, that so diverse Faculties do a∣rise and inhabit in one Stomack? Because so diverse Symptomes do bewray the same hurt∣ings of the Faculties: For all things do drive us unto the amazement of a Mira∣cle, or Wonder: And therefore we being admonished by so many stormes on every side of our Ignorance, and Fondness, do confess, that that one only sensitive Soul is the Foun∣tain of Life, also Life the Spring of many Powers, and Distributress thereof, as well in the healthy as in sick Persons. Therefore also if we Physitians ought to lay the Ax unto the

root of the tree) we are intent for the obtaining of Universal Arcanum's or Secrets, which may conserve, preserve; plant, and build up the Life in the very Fountain of Life; the Author of Death and Diseases, no less than of Health. For I now have regard to the frail Soul, but not to the incorporeal and immortal Mind: The which we believe to be Origi∣nally inspired alike, and alike perfect in all. And therefore Conditions, Inclinations, Do∣mestick or Forreign, Mild or Fierce; Tractable or Teachable, Humble or Proud, are in∣stilled into us by the Mortal Soul: Wherein as in a Subject or Place, locally disposing the Inclinations of varieties, are unfolded; which otherwise, from the Mind or Image of God are naturally banished.

Therefore sleep was not in man naturally in respect of his mind, but was afterwards [unspec 8] sent into him by the Creator: But before sleep was bred, Sense, Motion, and Appetite were present: Because the Mind as it was thenceforth Immortal, it was also unweari∣able and had no need of Sleep or Rest.

Yet Sleep was sent into Adam before the Fall: Not so much for that he stood in need [unspec 9] of Sleep, especially a few hours after his Creation; as chiefly, because by Sleep he was not yet made sore afraid of known Death, threatned unto him for eating of the Apple: Otherwise Sleep produceth from it self sluggish idleness, and foolish vain Dreames, and causeth the loss of almost half the Life. Whence even at this day, from the antient Sleep sent into Adam, they have yet retained Dreams, That the Old Men shall Dream Dreams; the Young Men shall Prophesie: And Night unto Night shall shew Knowledge. For the sleepi∣fying Power which was sent into the Mind before the Fall, and the same also being after a sort free from the wedlock of the Mortal Soul, would after some sort draw it into its Origi∣nal Prerogative of Prophesying, unless the darkness of the Soul sprung up, and put in place, did obscure the same.

But while I declaim the Stomack to be the Inne of the sensitive Soul, and for that cause do dedicate the sink of Diseases to the Stomack: I have indeed considered Occasional [unspec 10] Causes near the same place, to sit as well in the hollowness and bought thereof, and being as it were strangers onely, there to stick; and likewise in the tent of the Bowel Duodenum (which is the Prison deputed for the Jurisdiction of the Gaul, and Pylorus) and most trou∣blesome to Anatomists for its composure of Vessels and Glandules, as in the Archeal sheathes, no less of that which is inbred, as of that which is inflowing: To wit, that through the conspiring distemperature whereof, the sensitive Soul is diversly disturbed, and all the Vital Faculties, the Chambermaids hereof, to be co-shaken, and so the same being weakened, that an Army of Diseases doth arise, as well those Radical or Chronical, as those soon hastening; as I long since have known, being thorowly instructed by many Experiences.

So that I saw Hunger, and unextinguishable Thirst to proceed not so properly from the sharpnesse of the matter provoking, as from the very fury of the sensitive Soul: For o∣therwise [unspec 11] a Thorexis, or Draught or Potion of generous Wine, should not dissolve Hunger, unlesse Hunger being as it were made drunk by appeasing, should soundly sleep. And there∣fore Thirst in Feavers doth not afflict but in its own Stations, although the same matter, yea and a more cruel heat doth presse more in their Vigour than at other times.

Now even as the Government of the Stomack hath been enlarged on; So also it hath been shewn, that the sensitive Soul doth there abide, as in the first or chief Kitchin of the Meats, and that the Life doth there Inhabit: For truly the most potent Powers of trans∣changing [unspec 12] and digesting, do there exercise their Offices, and therefore not onely Kitchin∣filths are there collected, but also the Fabrick of hurtful Images is there Stamped: Be∣cause they can no where be more readily framed, than from the Soul the Inmate of those parts: For there is none but feels Horrours, Fears, Tremblings, Angers, Wroths, Sor∣rows, Sighs, and every Perturbation of concupiscible Affects, to arise and be stirred about the mouth of his Stomack: For if a Gun be unexpectedly discharged, who doth not there feel a sudden leaping of some fear? Who in the next place is there, who being ready to sit down at a Table, and endowed with a notable appetite of eating, doth not perceive, if at sometime a sorrowful Message be brought unto him, that all sharpness of eating is presently suspended? Therefore the Faculties do there flourish, whose Effects are there felt. For I have oft-times seen Women, in whom sudden Fear, at another time also, in whom notable Grief had raised up the Falling-sickness. Elsewhere also in whom a lin∣gering and continued Sorrow had moved a Hypochondrial Madness, yea and elsewhere had caused the Scrophulus or Kings-Evil. So a Fear of the Plague doth very often create the Plague; Even as a sudden fear of Death hath sometime killed the Character of the Gout.

Pride also hath often made men mad. I have also known others who having suffered Re∣proach, and not being able to revenge the same, have suddenly fallen into an Apepsia or Unconcoction, into the straights of an Asthma, and into Beatings, Perplexities of An∣guishes, and Oppressions of the Heart. Others who from a suddain sense of Reproach or Contempt, have presently rushed into an Apoplexie. And likewise I have known those that have been wearied with long Grief, have violently rushed into a Dropsie, Jaundise, and Tumors of the Spleen. Likewise very many of both Sexes, who from sudden Anger have departed into an Apoplexie; but others who have gone into divers head-long Griefs of Contractures.

The Fabricks of which Diseases are manifestly felt about the Orifice of the Stomack: For therefore a certain small Feaver, as it were a Diarie or Daily one, doth precede the [unspec 13] Fits of the Gout, under which a Character springs up, which is dismissed from the Sto∣mack into the Joynts that it may tyrannize in the same place. An Apoplexie therefore, whether it break forth from an Inordinate Life, or next from Anger, or Grief: yet at least∣wise, it alwaies ariseth from the stomack, and is darted into the Head: For the Jaundise doth in no other place more flourish than in the Court of the Stomack, whence it stirs up its Anguishes and Sighs, denoting, that there the Game of its Cruelty is played.

Wherefore also I have taught before, that how much soever Vulnerary Potions may re∣strain the framing of corrupt Pus, and fear of Accidents, in the utmost part of the Foot, yet [unspec 14] not that therefore Vulnerary Drinks do enjoy a larger Priviledge otherwise than other Medicines do: For they do not materially hasten unto the remote Wound, when as the while other Medicines are ignorant of a passage to the Spleen, in favour of a Quartan Ague.

Which things the School of Medicine hath not hitherto known, although they are the Foundations of Medicinal Art: Because they are those things which do not onely re∣spect [unspec 15] the virtue or force of Medicines, and the Expedition, Application, and Appropria∣tion of these: But notwithstanding, besides the manner of acting, and hope from thence resulting, they declare the principal efficient of Diseases. The Ignorance therefore of which thing alone, hath caused a sloath and drowsiness in the Physitian; but in the sick, Despair, to∣gether with a sorrowfull apprehension of Griefs and Discommodities; and at length (alas for grief) have brought forth so many Widdows with mournful Orphans, unto the fowl disgrace, or base esteem of Medicinal Affaires.

But so far as it respecteth the choice of Medicines, it hath listed me to wander thorow [unspec 16] the rancks of Minerals, Vegetables and Animals, and to take them in their own simple Integrity, as they sprang forth from Nature, and those again diversly to agitate, and so to divide them into Salt, Sulphur or Fatness, and Mercury or a seminal Juice. And first of all, the natural endowed Virtues or Faculties of things, which the Divine Goodness hath gi∣ven from a Gift for the Sick, do for the most part want the testimony of tasts; so that even by that same sign alone, they do bewray, that they are endowedly instilled by God for the use of Mortals: neither that they do clearly appear but unto those to whom God hath gi∣ven his gifts of the Holy Spirit, and hitherto he hath withdrawn them from the knowledge of unworthy Physitians, who to the little ones and ignorant ones of this World doth re∣veal those things which he hath hidden from the great ones: For there are Gifts dispers∣ed in the Exercise of Simples, by which they ascend unto the largnesse of a general kind: So indeed, as things appropriated and specifical, are acknowledged to be directed by God unto the every way Curing of any kind of Diseases.

For the Stone for broken Bones is of a late Invention, which owes its Name unto the Cure of a broken Bone: But it is unconquered by Fires, nor Calcinable; but notable in [unspec 17] its unsavoury taste, being untamed by the Stomack: Yet it is a wonder how much it shews its self Victor as well about the Bowels, and inward Wounds, as in the outmost parts, about the Fractures of Bones.

From hence, First of all it plainly appears, That on the Digestion and care of the Stomack, do the Cares and Governments of the Sixth Digestion depend throughout its whole.

2. That there is no necessity for a Medicine to be derived unto the place affected.

3. That a Medicine onely by touching at the Archeus of the Stomack, is able to Cure remote Diseases in the Body.

4. That there is no need, that for to Cure, the Agent doth touch the remote Patient.

5. That as the Stone for broken Bones, or the Stone of Crabs doth finish its Cure in the Sto∣mack: after the same manner also do Purgative Medicines, and all other Medicines what∣soever operate.