A systeme of anatomy, treating of the body of man, beasts, birds, fish, insects, and plants illustrated with many schemes, consisting of variety of elegant figures, drawn from the life, and engraven in seventy four folio copper-plates. And after every part of man's body hath been anatomically described, its diseases, cases, and cures are concisely exhibited. The first volume containing the parts of the lowest apartiments of the body of man and other animals, etc. / by Samuel Collins ...

TO THE High Puissant, and most Noble Prince HENRY Duke of Norfolk, Earl-Marshall of England, Chief of the Noble Family of the HOWARDS, Earl of Arundel, Surrey, Norfolk, and Norwich, Baron Mowbray, Howard, Seagrave, Bruse (of Gower) Fitz-Alan, War∣ren, Clun, Oswaldestrey, Maltravers, Graystock, Verdon, Furnival, Lovetot, Strange (of Blackmere) and Howard (of Castle Rising) Constable and Governor of his Ma∣jesties Royal Castle and Honor of Windsor, Lord War∣den of the Forest of Windsor, Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Norfolk, Surrey, and Berks, of the City of Norwich and County of the said City, and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter, &c.

May it please your Grace,

PErsons of great Honor, as highly Enobled with a Liberal Education of Literature and Vertue, do resemble the Heavenly Mind in Humility and Goodness, and are Graciously pleased to accept a small Present (offered in great Devotion) which is humbly laid at your Feet to give it your Patronage.

And this untimely Birth wanting due Limbs and Linea∣ments, craveth the covert of your Graces Wing; and it being attended with the ill circumstances of a mean Parent and its own Poverty, beggeth the favour of your Gracious reception, and the honor of your Pass to recommend it to the Charity of others.

Your Family is highly Renowned in Honor and Anti∣quity, as being descended from many Noble Progenitors, and is rendred numerous too, as being propagated into many Families of great Honor, Vertue, and Fortune, which make them very Valuable and Meritorious in the Eye of the World.

Your Goodly Personage is beautified with the fine Linea∣ments of a Graceful Visage, and Enobled with outward and inward Parts, disposed in elegant order: Your excellent frame of Body is adorned with a boun Mine, pleasant Lan∣guage, and amicable Converse, highly endearing and com∣manding the hearts and hands of all that have the honor to be known to your Grace, whom I most humbly take the bold∣ness to present with a fine Sight of the Parts of Man's Body (wherein you may see your own Stately Fabrick, clearly represented unto you as in a Glass) consisting of many out∣ward Coverings enclosing each other as fine Walls guarding the more inward and Noble parts, supported by a fine Co∣lumn of the Chine, composed of many joynts of the Ver∣tebers of the Back, curiously carved into variety of Pro∣cesses.

This elegant Pile of a Humane Body is made up of three Stories, the lowest is outwardly convered with the com∣mon Integuments and Muscles of the Belly, and more in∣wardly beautified with the fine Hangings of the Rim of the Belly and Caul, encircling the noble Furniture of the Viscera.

The Stomack is like a Retort, in which a milky Humour is extracted, and the Guts are its recipients; the Spleen, Liver and Kidneys are so many Colatories to refine the Vi∣tal Liquor; and the Ureters are Aquaeducts to convey the strained watry parts of the Blood into the Bladder, as into a Cistern.

The middle Story of the Body is divided from the lowest by the interposition of the Midriff, as by a Floor, arched in its repose, and brought toward a Plane in motion; this

A partiment is seeled above by the Clavicles, and fortified be∣fore by the Stermon, as with a Breast-plate, and behind with the carved Spondyles of the Back, and on each side with many bony Arches of the Ribs, and more inwardly is adorned with the choice hangings of the Pleura and Me∣diastine, encircling the Heart, (as an Engine to move the Blood,) and the Lungs a Systeme of Pipes to fan and exalt the Blood by the elastick Particles of Air.

The third Apartiment is embelished with a beautiful Fron∣tispiece of the Face dressed with variety of Colours, com∣posed of many lights and shades, and of a fine symmetry of different parts, answering each other in due proportions. The Brain being the noble Housholdstuff of this highest Story, is guarded with the Ivory Tables of the Skull, as with a Helmet, and clothed more inwardly with the cover∣ings of the Dura and Pia Meninx, as with thin Vails: This delicate Compage of the Brain is made up of various Pro∣cesses, beset with numerous streaks, which are so many Fi∣laments entertaining the Animal Liquor and Spirits, the immediate Emissaries, the great Ministers of the Soul, by which it acts its more noble operations of Sense and Reason.

Thus I have shewed You the pleasant prospect of the several Apartiments, and their rich Furniture, relating to the magnificent Fabrick of Man, that your Grace may make a reflection upon your own Elegant Composition, and admire and adore the great Goodness, Wisdom and Power of the Omnipotent Architect, disposing all things to your own Person in due weight, number, and measure, and give this great heavenly Maker all Eucharist and Obedience by reason he hath imparted to you out of his infinite Mercy, such salu∣tary methods of Vertue, expressed in Sobriety to preserve your excellent frame of Nature; So that your Grace hath served the ends of Nature and Creation, as you have de∣meaned your self in that decorum, which is most orderly in sensual Enjoyments proportionate to the Law of Nature, and perfective of a happy Life.

Your well composed and serene Temper is seated in a Haven of Ease and Repose, as secured against the Storms and Tempests of Passions, making your Grace capable to inspect the Secrets of Nature, and Mysteries of Religion, and contemplate the more Divine Attributes of the Eternal Being; and your regular Appetites hold conformity with

the more sober Dictates of Reason, as having inclinations to obey the Commands of the Understanding; whereby you become a Master of Prudence and Conduct, as being first a Governor of your Self, and so are rendred fit to Govern others, as being Constituted by His Sacred Majesty, a Great Minister of State in Civil and Military Affairs, wherein your Grace hath wisely deported your Self with Justice and Equity to the Love and Admiration of others.

Your Amicable and generous Disposition, your great Courage and Gallantry of Mind, your profound Judg∣ment and quick Apprehension, your life of Temperance, Charity, and Humility, have made you an Ornament of Mankind, and me perfectly your just Admirer and Votary, as all the Intellectual and Moral Perfections of your many Noble Ancestors are met in your Grace (as a Center of Vertue and Learning) to whom this Book is humbly De∣dicated as an Oblation from

My LORD,

Your Graces most Obedient and Obliged Servant SAMUEL COLLINS.