Nine books of physick and chirurgery written by that great and learned physitian, Dr Sennertus. The first five being his Institutions of the whole body of physick: the other four of fevers and agues: with their differences, signs, and cures.

CHAP. VI. Of Spirits.

BUT although every part of the body have this heat innate in it yet that alone sufficeth not to undergo all actions, * 1.1 but requires heat and spirits flowing from elsewhere; by which it may be stirred up and cherished; for by it self it hath no power to perform all acti∣ons, but soon languisheth, and so is scattered and vanisheth, ex∣cept it be daily stirred up, nourished, and strengthned by the spirits of the principal parts, especially the heart.

Although the name of Spirit may admit of various significations yet in this place it is taken for the purest, * 1.2 finest, thinnest, hottest, most moveable body, proceeding from the most purest and subtilest part of the bloud; and although the name of Spirit be attributed to the Innate heat, yet it especially belongs to those that are most flu∣ent and moveable. * 1.3 These Spirits are the bond by which the body and soul are united, and the chief instrument of performing our actions, and being wrought in the principal parts of the body are conveyed through their channels into the whole body, and are joi∣ned with the Innate heat, that they may help the powers and fa∣culties to perform their actions. * 1.4 But that is false which some teach, That the Spirit is the Vehicle of the faculties, and that the faculties and power of performing, are carried by these Spirits from the prin∣cipal parts; for the faculties of the soul are unseparable proprieties, and the soul is fitted with its faculty in all its parts, nor doth it take them from any other parts, but there useth them, where it hath fit instruments.

These Spirits are of three sorts, * 1.5 Natural, Vital, Animal. The Natural are generated in the Liver, and are said to flow from thence into all the parts of the body; but although the name of Spirit may in some measure be attributed to the most thin and subtile parts of the blood, which oftentimes comes forth out of the Veins with the blood: yet there is not a little difference betwixt them and the

other Spirits, properly so called; * 1.6 and so properly doth not deserve the ••••me of Spirits, as the rest do, since they are not the proper instru∣••ents of our actions, nor the bond of the soul, which uniteth it ••••th the body, and is not generated in any peculiar cavity as the ••••ital Spirits are. * 1.7 The use of the Natural Spirits are to strengthen ••••e Innate Spirit in all its parts, that it may supply the Vital Spirits ••••th matter, and may serve for the more convenient distribution of blood through the Veins.

The Vital Spirit is generated in the heart, * 1.8 of the thinnest and purest blood, or the natural Spirit, commonly so called, and aêr, by h••••p of respiration drawn, & by the dilatatian of the Arteries in the left Ventricle of the heart, and being there freed from all fuliginous vapours is distributed through the Arteries into all the parts of the body; but the Blood out of which this Spirit is generated, for the most part is conveyed through the arterious vein, from the right Ventricle of the heart into the Lungs, and from thence with aër drawn by breathing in is carried through the arterious vein into the left Ventricle of the heart. * 1.9 Now this Spirit with its innate heat in the heart, is not onely the chief instrument of the actions of the heart, but is distributed through the Arteries into the whole body, and stirreth up, cherisheth, increaseth, and strengthneth the innate heat in all the parts, and doth, as it were, give action and perfection thereunto, whence it is called by some, the Influent heat; besides which it affords matter fit for the generation of the animal spirits.

Thirdly, * 1.10 there are Animal spirits really different from the Vi∣••••l, for they are generated in a peculiar place, namely the Brain, and ••om thence through peculiar Channels, to wit Nerves, are disper∣••d over the whole body; nor can the Vital Spirit perform what the Animal can, fince it is a living part, orespread with a Vital Spirit. Neverthelesse being toucht may be deprived of sense and motion ••••rough the defect of the Vital Spirit. They are generated of the ••urest part of that blood, * 1.11 which is contained in the comers or ca∣••ities of the brain, which comes from the mixt vein and artery, ••nd is orespread with the vital and natural Spirit, the purest part ••eing poured out through little branches and small furrows in the ••bstance of the brain; for in this, and not in the Ventricles of the brain, the purest and most subtile part of the blood is changed into animal spirits. * 1.12 The Animal Spirit serves for the use of living ••••eatures; namely to perform internal and external senses; as al∣••••, it serves for motion in Animals, and its presence occasioneth ••he faculty of the soul, actually to perform the operations of the ••nternal and external senses, and it perfecteth animal motion, and ••an occasion local motion.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Influent Spirits.
• * 1.2

  What the influent spirit is.
• * 1.3

  The Use of Spirits.
• * 1.4

  Spirits are not the Ve∣hicle of the faculties.
• * 1.5

  Spirits how many forts.
• * 1.6

  The natu∣ral Spirit.
• * 1.7

  Its use.
• * 1.8

  The Vital Spirits whence ge∣nerated.
• * 1.9

  Their Uses
• * 1.10

  The Ani∣mal Spir••t.
• * 1.11

  Where and whence ge∣nerated.
• * 1.12

  Its Uses.