Galen's art of physick ... translated into English, and largely commented on : together with convenient medicines for all particular distempers of the parts, a description of the complexions, their conditions, and what diet and exercise is fittest for them / by Nich. Culpeper, Gent. ...

CHAP. 4. Of Healthful Bodies.

1. A Body is Simply said to be healthful when it is in good natural temper, when the seven Na∣tural things, viz. Spirits, Elements, Complexions, Humors, Members, Vertues, Operations keep a good decorum, then is a Body Simply said to be in Health.

2. A Body in Health according to time, is taken not according to the Natural inclination of the Body, as the former was, but when it is in such a Natural temper, as we shewed before, only for the time being, the former is proper to the Body, this but accidental. Thus Galen.

Culpepers Comment.

I shall here explain a little, Galens meaning in those words of his; Seven Natural Things.

• 1. Spirit, Taken in a Physical sence, is an airy sub∣stance,

• very subtil and quick, dispersed throughout the Body, from the Brain, Heart, and Liver, by the Nerves, Arteries, and Veins, by which the powers of the Body are stirred up to perform their Office and O∣peration.
• 2. An Element, is a Body pure, simple, unmixed, from which all Natural things have their Original, they are held to be in number four, Fire, Air, Water, Earth; their Operations are, Active as heat and cold, Passive as driness and moisture.
• 3. Complexions are the Operations of these Ele∣ments upon Mans Body, as when the Fire prevails, the body is Chollerick, when the Air he is Sanguine, when the Wa••er he is Flegmatick, when the Earth he is Me∣lancholl••.
• 4.

  Humors are,

  • 1. ••holler, whose Receptacle is the Gall.
  • 2. Blood, whose Seat is the Liver.
  • 3. Flegm, placed in the Lungs.
  • 4. Melancholly, which keeps his Court in the Spleen.

  Thus you see how Elements, Complexions and Hu∣mors are subservient the one to other, even as the Spi∣rit, Soul, and Body are (if we may reason a minore ad ma••u••) in the Microcosm.

• 5.

  Me••b••••s or Limbs, are Simple or Compound, Principal or Subservient.

  First, Simple Members are,

  • 1. Bones.
  • 2. Cartilages.
  • 3. Ligaments.
  • 4. Veins.
  • 5. Arteries.
  • 6. Nerves.
  • ...

• ...
  • 7. Tendons.
  • 8. Panides.
  • 9. Fat.
  • 10. Flesh.
  • 11. Skin.

  Secondly, Compound Members are,

  • 1. Head.
  • 2. Heart.
  • 3. Liver.
  • 4. Lungs.
  • 5. Legs.
  • 6. Arms.
  • 7. Hands.

  Thirdly, Principal Members are,

  • 1. Brain.
  • 2. Heart.
  • 3. Liver.
  • 4. Testicles.

  Fourthly, Members Subservient are,

  • 1. Nerves to carry the Animal Spirit.
  • 2. Arteries to carry the Vital Spirit.
  • 3. Veins to carry the Natural Spirit.
  • 4. Spermatick Vessels to carry the Procreative Spirit.

• 6. Vertues, are that whereby these act the Body, and they are Vital, Natural, and Animal, I forbear wri∣ting of them, there being a Treatise of them, Astrologo Physically handled by me already at the latter end of my Ephemeris for 1651.
• 7. Operations of these upon the Body of man are,
  • First, The Animal Vertue causeth.
    • 1. Imagination, Apprehension, Fancy, Opinion, Con∣sent, &c. in the two former Ventricles of the Brain.
    • 2. Judgment, Esteem, Reason, Resolution, Dis∣posing,

• ...
  • ...
    • ... Discerning, in the middle Ventricle of the Brain.
    • 3. Calling to mind what is to come, Remem∣brance of what is past, in the hinder Ventricle of the Brain.
  • Secondly, The Vital Vertue moveth,
    • 1. Joy, Hope, Mirth, Singing, by dilating the Heart.
    • 2. Sadness, Sorrow, Fear, Sighing, &c. by com∣pressing the Heart.
  • Thirdly, The Natural Vertue,
    • 1. Altereth Food into Chyle, Chyle into Blood and Humors, Blood into Flesh.
    • 2. Joyneth, formeth, ingendreth, encreaseth, and nourisheth the Body of Man.

And now you see what Galen intends by a Healthful Body, namely, such a one where all these keep a good and orderly decorum.