of Operation, the chief ingredients that Circumstantiate; and lastly, the cause that constitutes this useful Appetite of Hunger.
Aristotle,
and his Followers, having assigned the Appetite of Hot and Dry, as the object that entertaineth Hunger, which seemeth very strange, because divers kinds of Aliment, as proper Objects (as any can be pro∣pounded) of Hunger, are of a contrary nature, Cold and Moist, or Tem∣perate at least, as all Liquid forms of Aliment made of Corn, Milk, the most simple and wholsome Diet, whereupon it is of most easie Digestion, and less offensive to the Stomach; which if more generally received, would prevent ill habits of Body, and variety of Diseases (the necessary products of wanton Appetites) and lessen the Practice of Physitians, and the ex∣pense of long Courses of Physick, the due punishment of Luxury, and Pom∣pous Treats: Which do not chiefly consist in the prime qualities of Hot and Dry, but in other more grateful Tastes of more delicious well tempered Acids and Sweets; which Italians (great Masters of Palates) call Dulce, Piquante.
So that the Ratio formalis,
belonging to the proper object of Hunger, is not constituted of hot and dry, but of sweet and lenient Aliment, which do countermand the roughness of the Stomach, and by it soft unevennesses do fill up the Interstices of its Folds, and do give a check to the keen pursuit of Aliment, and satisfie the troublesome importunity of the Appetite.
Whereupon the Antients,
have not so well as might be, placed the ob∣ject of Hunger in the more remote, and less useful first Elementary qualities, which is more reasonably founded in the more near and active Chymical Principles of Saline and Sulphureous, and in well tempered Acids, and Al∣kalys, as full of fixed and Volatil Spirits, the instruments of Fermentation, subservient to the Concoction of Aliment in the Stomach, by reducing it to a laudable Fluor; which disposeth it to a secretion of Fluid and Alimentary parts, from the more solid and gross Faeces, that the white Liquor being Extracted, might be readily entertained into the Intestines, and Milky Ves∣sels, and be thence dispensed into the Subclavian Veins, to associate with the Blood, to give due supplies to repair the decays of Nature.
Learned Doctor Glysson is of opinion, that the most essential part of Ali∣ment consisteth in a nutricious succulency, with which all Meat doth more or less abound, as being apt to be advanced into Chyle; which is contained in it, as the Philosophers phrase it, Non in actu exercito, sed in actu signato: Not actually, but virtually, by reason Aliment hath not in it an Existent Milky Humour, but a Matter only praeviously disposed, consisting of a mild delicate Temper, as impraegnated with Fixed, Sulphureous, and Saline, al∣laied with some Earthy Particles, which are the immediate object of Hun∣ger.
Galen,
and his Admirers, phancy the object of Hunger to be seated in a kind of sense relating to Suction, with which the Stomach is affected: This opinion laboureth under great difficulties, because if there be any such action, it must be assigned to some empty Vessels, attracting Liquor in to satiate them, which doth suit with the Arteries, which import Vital Juice to the Ven∣tricle; nor doth this assertion comport with the Veins, which export the Blood imported into the substance of the Stomach by the Arteries So that this Conjecture, that Hunger hath Suction for its Object, is opposite to the aeconomy of Nature, and the laws of Circulation, which is performed by an Impulse, wherein one Particle of a fluid body presseth another forward, which is inconsistent with Suction, or Attraction.