Arcana microcosmi, or, The hid secrets of man's body discovered in an anatomical duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the parts thereof : as also, by a discovery of the strange and marveilous diseases, symptomes & accidents of man's body : with a refutation of Doctor Brown's Vulgar errors, the Lord Bacon's natural history, and Doctor Harvy's book, De generatione, Comenius, and others : whereto is annexed a letter from Doctor Pr. to the author, and his answer thereto, touching Doctor Harvy's book De Generatione / by A.R.

CHAP. XII.

1. Distinction of sexes: the male hotter then the female. 2. The seed no part, nor aliment of the body: derived from all parts, how. 3. The menstruous bloud no excrement, how it is: The cause of the small pox: Its evacuation. 4. The uses of the matrix. 5. Its vitiosity, the cause of Monsters: Mola, what.

I. AS nature hath appointed generation for continuing of the species, so it hath appointed distinction of sexes, aiming as well at the female, as the male, and not at the male alone, as some think, who would make the female an imper∣fect thing, and aberration of nature: for the one sex is no less needfull for procreation then the other. 2. The male is hot∣ter then the female, because begot of hotter seed, and in a hot∣ter place, to wit, the right side; and because the male hath larger vessels and members, stronger limbs, a more porie skin, a more active body, a stronger concoction, a more couragi∣ous minde, and for the most part, a longer life; all which are effects of heat. Besides that, the bodies of males are sooner articulated and conformed, to wit, by 10 days, in the womb, then the females are; the motions of the male in the womb, are quicker and stronger, then of the female. The fatness, softness, and laxa••ie of the womans body, besides the abun∣dance of blood, which cannot be concocted and exhaled for

want of heat, argue that she is of a dol'der temper then the man: She indeed hath a swifter pulse, because of the narrow∣ness of the arteries▪ and her proneness to anger and venery, ar∣gue imbecility of minde, and strength of imagination not heat. 3. The male groweth flower then the female, because he was to live longer; therefore nature proceeds the flower, as we see in trees and plants; a Cherry-Tree groweth up sooner then an Oak, and decayeth far sooner. Besides, the soft and loose flesh of the female is sooner extended, then the solid and har∣der flesh of the male: We may then conclude, that the male is hotter intensively; but the female by reason she hath more blood, is hotter extensively.

II. The seed is no part of the body, because the body is not more perfect by its presence, nor malmed by its loss or absence; nor is it the aliment of the body, because then the body would not part with it: nor is it properly an excrement peccant in the qualitie; but it is the purer part of the blood, or quintes∣sence of it, unuseful for the body when it is peccant in the quantity. 2. Because the blood is in every part of the body, and the seed is the quintessence of the blood; therefore the seed may be said to be derived from all parts of the body, for all parts of the body consume upon much evacuation of seed; and as it is from all parts, in respect of its material and grosse•• substance, so it is principally from the head, heart, and liver, in regard of its more aerial parts.

III. Though the menstruous blood may receive corruption by its long suppression, or by the moisture of some bad humors, yet in sound women, it is as pure as any other blood in the bo∣dy: For it is appointed by nature for nutriment of the infant, whilst it is in the womb; and after birth it is converted into milk, neither doth it differ from other blood in its material and efficient causes; besides that, it is as red, and coagulates as soon, as the purest blood of the body: Neither doth na∣ture send it away because it is peccant in the quality, but be∣cause it is exuberant in the quantity. 2. By reason the men∣struous blood is infected with ill humours, on which the child in the womb feeds; hence it is, that there are few or none, but one time or other are infected with the small pox; which as divers other poisons, doth not presently shew it self, but lieth a long time lurking in the body: And if at the first time, the venome of this disease is not thoroughly purged out, it returns: Hence it is, that some have this disease divers times. 3. The menstruous blood is not the cause of the small pox,

whilst it remains in the vessels, but when it is converted into the substance of the body; hence it is, that women whose moneths are stopped, are not infected with this malady. 4. This blood is evacuated once in a moneth ordinarily, at such time as the Moon, which hath dominion over humid bodies, is most prevalent: Nature also observes her own periods, and times of evacuation, of which we can give no reason. But this is cer∣tain, that if the evacuation of this blood were as frequent as of other excrements, there would be no conception.

IV. The chief uses of the matrix are to draw the seed to it, to mingle it with the blood, to contain it, to excite its facul∣ties and spirits, for it is not actually animated till now, and so the seed by its spirits is made capable of animation, and shortly after being incorporated with the blood of articulati∣on: These fore-named functions of the matrix are performed, not so much by its heat, as by its natural temper.

V. Oftentimes the vitiosity of the matrix is the cause of mon∣strous births; so likewise is the imagination, the defect or ex∣uberance of seed; the unlawful permistion of seeds, the heat of the body, and the formative faculty. 2. The false concep∣tion called Mola, is begot when the seed is faulty, weak or deficient, and the blood predominant; which is known from a true conception, because there is no milk in the breasts, when there is a false conception, neither doth it move after the fourth moneth, as the child doth; sometimes it is moved by the matrix, but not by it self, as the child: besides it remains after the eleventh moneth, which is the time prefixed for the birth of the child.