CHAP. I. A General Description of the Head.
HAving hitherto declared two general parts of mans Body, that is, the Natural and Vital, it is now fit to betake our selves to the last, that is, the Animal, beginning with the Head.
Wherefore we will first define the Head, then divide it into its parts; thirdly, describe each of these parts; fourthly, demonstrate them after the order they offer themselves to our sight in dissection.
The Head therefore is the seat of the senses, the Palace and habitation of reason and wisdom, from whence, as from a fountain infinite actions and commodities arise. It is seated above the rest of the body, that the Animal spirit from thence, as from a Tower, may govern and moderate the whole body, and perform all actions according to the prescript of nature. By the Head we under∣stand all that which is contained from the Crown of the head to the first vertebra of the neck.
The best figure of the head is round, lightly flatted on each side, extuberating something to the fore and hind-part thereof. For from hence is taken an argument of the goodness of the senses; on the contrary, those which are exactly round, or acuminate, and sharp towards the top, are not thought good. The Head is divided into the face, forehead, temples, the forepart, the crown, and hind-part.
By the Face we understand, whatsoever is contained between the Eye-brows and the lower part of the chin. By the Forehead, all the space from the eye-brows even to the Coronal Suture. By the Temples, whatsoever is hollowed from the lesser corner of the ey, even to the ears. By the Forepart of the Head, whatsoever runs in length from the top of the forehead, or the Coronal Suture, even to the Suture Lambdoides, and on each side to the Ossa petrosa, the stony Bones, or scaly Sutures. By the Crown we signifie a certain point exquisitely in the midst of the Sagittal Suture, which is suffi∣ciently known. By the Occiput or hind-part of the head, that which is terminated by the Suture Lambdoides, and the first vertebra of the neck.
Of all these parts there be some simple, some compound; besides, some are containing, some contained. Of the containing, some are common to all the parts of the head, as the skin, the fleshy pannicle, and pericranium; others are proper to certain parts, as the fleshy pannicle to the neck, face, forehead, and skin covering the Cranium, the common coat of the muscles to the fat and face; the skull and both the Meninges to the Brain.
The parts contained, are the substance of the brain, the four ventricles, and the bodies con∣tained in them, the nerves, the mamillary processes; the Plexus Choroides or Rete admirabile; the Glandula basilaris, and others, of which we will speak hereafter.
We must now speak of the containing parts beginning with the Skin; for the order of teach∣ing requires, that we take our Exordium from the more simple; but first we will say something of the Hair.
The hair is nothing else then an excrement generated and formed of the more gross and terrene portion of the superfluities of the third concoction, which could not be wasted by insensible transpiration. The benefit of it is, that consuming the gross, and fuliginous, or sooty excrements of the Brain, it becomes a cover and ornament for the head.
This hair of the head and eye-brows have their original from the first conformation of the in∣fant in the womb, the rest of the hairs of the body arise and grow forth as the body grows and be∣comes more dry, of which sort are the hairs which cover the chin, armholes, groins, and other parts of our bodies.