Another collection of philosophical conferences of the French virtuosi upon questions of all sorts for the improving of natural knowledg made in the assembly of the Beaux Esprits at Paris by the most ingenious persons of that nation / render'd into English by G. Havers, Gent. & J. Davies ..., Gent.

CONFERENCE CXXI. Whence come the Marks or Spots wherewith Children are born? (Book 121)

AS the Degrees of Life have dominion over the First Quali∣ties, so they have authority one over another, each in his order. The Vegetative life in Man makes use of the Elementa∣ry Qualities at pleasure, even to the prejudice of their own Na∣ture. So, Heat congregates things of the same, and separates those of different Nature; but our Vegetative Soul makes it do the contrary, namely, Unite the Four Humours in the Veins though different in nature, instead of segregating them: for in this Case, Heat acts not with full authority but as the Soul's Of∣ficer, following her intentions. And the reason is, because these four Humours being ingredients into the Nativity of Man, they must necessarily pass into his nourishment; which they cannot do without being mingled together. But when the

Blood is out of the Veins; then the Heat, disengag'd from the Soul's jurisdiction, disgregates and separates all four, making the Choler float uppermost, the Phlegm next, then the Blood, and lowest of all, Melancholy, as the dregs. Amongst Souls there is the same order of Superiority. The Sensitive makes the Vegetative obey it; as appears by this, that if after meat the Imagination attend much to an object, the Concoction of the Food is retarded, because all the Faculties of the Soul being united in their Root and Essence of the Soul, when she sets her self much upon one object, she leaves the other inferiour powers idle; they not being able to work but as the Soul, (their princi∣ple) employs them. Now this premis'd, I say, when a breed∣ing Woman hath a longing for any thing, this desir'd thing is imprinted strongly in the Phancy; and this imprinting being made in the Brain, the Spirits which flow from thence, carry a copy thereof with them. For as an intire Looking-glass repre∣sents but one Image, but every piece of a broaken one hath its whole Pourtrait: because the Intentional Species or Images of things, though divisible by reason of their subject, are yet in themselves formally indivisible, being Forms without Matter, and consequently indivisible; Division proceeding from Quan∣tity, a concomitant of Matter: So those Spirits which stream from the Brain, though they leave there the image of the desir'd thing, yet withall they carry the same image with them, as be∣ing portions of the substance wherein it is engraven; and run∣ning to the place where the Foetus is form'd, by reason of the union of its Umbilical Vessels with those of the Mother, they ar∣rive at the Infant and imprint the Characters, they bring, upon it: the Vegetative and Plastick or Formative Vertue suffering it self to be over-rul'd by the Sensitive, as this is by the Imagina∣tive, and this again by the other superiour powers. When the teeming Woman touching her self in any part, the Spirits run thither from the Brain, either by reason of the touch or the motion (both depending upon the Animal Spirits) but finding the Mother's flesh too hard and disproportinate to their effect, and missing their blow, they go to give it upon the tenderer flesh of the Child. And as in Generation, the Spirits of all the parts of the Body accur to the place where the Seed is receiv'd, there to engrave the Characters of the parts whence they flow, which afterwards serve for the Formative Vertue, every one having his task to make the part from which it issu'd: so the Mo∣ther's Spirits keep the same course and rule towards the Embryo, so that those which serv'd to the Mother's touch, go to find that same place in the Child's Body, there to mark the Image which they brought from the Brain; Nature finding ways for her In∣tention where none appear.

The Second said, The impotence of that Sex and their weak∣ness of Mind, (evidenc'd by the violence of all their Passions, which know no mediocrity) is one of the principal causes of

the impetuosity of their desires. Now the Species of the thing desir'd being in the Imagination, it excites the Appetite which desir'd it; this the motive Faculty, which employs the Animal Spirits to execute the commands of the Faculties by whom it is set on work. And as the Vertues and Images of things gene∣rated here below by the heat and influence of the Stars, are re∣ceiv'd in the Air which consigns them to the Earth; so those Spirits receive the Species and Images whereof the brain is full; and being directed by the Imagination to the Womb (which hath great communication with the Brain by means of the nerves of the sixt Pair, as appears by the effects of Odors upon that part) there they retrace and imprint upon the Child the Images wherewith they are laden. For, if it be true that the Imagina∣tion can act beyond its Subject, as Estriches and Tortoises are said to hatch their Eggs with their Eyes, and that Hens hatch Chickens of the colour of such cloths as are laid before them whilest they are sitting; much more may the Imagination of a Woman represent upon the tender Fruit in her womb the Ima∣ges of things which she passionately desires: and this is no more strange than the common observation, of People falling sick, and recovering again, meerly by Fancy.

The Third said, That the images of things desired are, in the Spirits, just as those of sensible objects are in the Air, which is full of them. But as these, that they may be seen, must be ter∣minated by a smooth and opake body; so, that those which are in the spirits may be express'd, they must be terminated by a soft, tender, and capable body, as a child's is in the first months of his conformation, during which alone he is susceptible of these impressions, which are only of things edible and potable; being the Child, then endu'd only with sensitive Life, cannot be affected but by things serving to the Animal Life, as aliments are, which (besides) are ordinarily and most ardently desir'd by breeding Women; those that long for chalk, coals, and other impurities being unhealthy and distemper'd. Now to give ac∣count why the Grapes, Mulberries, Strawberries, Goose-berries, and other Fruits delineated upon our bodies, ripen and change colour at the same time as the true fruits upon the earth do, I shall not recurr to the Stars, or Talismanical Figures, but more probably to that Universal Spirit which causeth the same fer∣mentation in the spirits of our bodies as in Wine and the Vine when it is in its sap and flower; and in Pork or Venison when Hogs and Deer are salt, mezled, or go to rut.

The fourth said, That some of these Marks adhere to parti∣cular Families. So the family of Seleucus had an Anchor upon the thigh; in Greece some were distinguish'd by a Lance, a Cre∣vish, a Star, &c. which marks, as Warts and Moles, proceed from the Formative Vertue in the seed, which containing the Idea of all the parts, expresses them to the life in the child. Other sorts of Marks are not ordinary but fortuitous, and depend

upon the Imagination alone, which employs the spirits which are common both to the Mother and Child by the Umbilical Vessels, and have the same motions: so that when the Woman scratches her self in any part of her body, the spirits having a like motion are carri'd towards that part, and at the same time towards that correspondent part in the child's body, whose tenderness is alone susceptible of the image wherewith they are impregnated, and which is never to be removed, as being from the first conformation.

The Fifth said, That not only the desire of eating and drink∣ing, which is pacifi'd by enjoyment, but any vehement passion, even a sudden fright against which there is no remedy, some∣times leads the variable Fancy of Women to interrupt the work of the Formative Vertue, otherwise always very regular. As a certain Woman having seen a Criminal broken upon the Wheel, brought forth a child that all the bones were broken. Hereunto also contribute the excess or defect of the Matter, its evil quality, and the deprav'd conformation of the Womb. But to attribute the communication requir'd for this effect be∣tween the Imaginative and Formative Faculties to the Umbili∣cal Vessels, cannot hold; there being but one Vein, two Ar∣teries, and the Ʋrachus, without any nerves, by which alone the animal spirits are transmitted from the Brain. Nor can those Species without dissipation and confusion, separate themselves from the mass of Blood, and pass by the circuit of the Mo∣ther's Veins into the Umbilical Vein of the Foetus; wherefore 'tis more rational to ascribe this effect to the correspondence of the Faculties, whereof the Superior indeed move the Inferior, but by a simple and pure irradiation, without transmitting any thing to them: There needing no other communication then that of a Lutinist's finger, or a Dancing-master's foot with their Imagination, which yet follow one the other, although it transmits not to the ends of their hands and feet, the notes and cadences which they represent. Thus, for the imprinting of a Mark, the Formative Faculty being mov'd by the Imaginati∣on, hath no need to receive any Species, as the Cognoscitive Faculties have, of which number the Formative is not. Nor is it more strange, that the Foetus, indu'd with a particular soul, yet feels the effects of its Mothers Imagination, than that Fruits receive the changes and alterations of the Trees to which they adhere.