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. I. What a Pulse is.

A Pulse which the Greeks call Sphugmos and Sphuxis, * 1.1 is a motion of the Heart and Arteries proceeding from the vital faculty, consisting of dilatation and contraction, and is appointed for the preservation of the Harmony of the native heat. * 1.2 Instruments of the Pulse are the Heart and Arteries, and the Heart is the Fountain, Chimny, and E∣laboratory of heat and vital Spirits; but the Arteires are the Channels through which this vivifying heat is derived from the heart, as from a Fountain, and disperst through the whole body, which work that they may rightly perform, power is given to them by nature whereby they can dilate and contract them selves by perpetual motion, * 1.3 by which means Arteries Blood with the vital Spirits, is diffused through the whole body, the va∣pors are expelled, and cold air is drawn in; neither is the mo∣tion of the Heart and Arteries made only by the fervent heat of the Blood and Spirits; nor is this motion to be accounted ac∣cidental, * 1.4 and, as it were, violent, but the heart by a peculiar faculty which it hath in its self, which they call Vital and Pul∣sisique is moved; neither are the Heart and Arteries dilated, because they are filled, but they are filled because dilated. Nei∣ther is this faculty denied to the Arteries, although in its own manner, it depends on the heart,

The vse of the Heart and Arteries, * 1.5 and the end of their mo∣tion is the preservation of the native heat, the generation of vital spirits, and the distribution of them through the whole bo∣by; but the native heat is preserved (as being hotter) whilest 'tis cooled and fanned, and the matter fit for the generating of spirits is drawn, but the fuligenous vapors are expelled. The motion of the Heart and Pulse performs these duties by that double motion, out of the which as of parts it is composed, namely by Sistole and Dyastole, or dilatation and contraction.

But because these two motions are opposite, and a thing cannot be moved against its opposite unless first it be quiet. It is ne∣cessary that these two motions admit of two cessations between; the one is that which follows the Systole, the other the Dyastole. And indeed attraction is made by dilatation; for the cooling and fanning of the heat, and the generation of spirits. But con∣traction is made for expulsion; for the heart when it is dilated attracts blood, the matter of vital spirits and arterious blood, and air from the Lungs through the arterious veins; But the Arteries draw some of the thinner blood from the Veins, especi∣ally they draw aire through their small orifices, opening to the Pores of the Skin: by contraction the Heart expels fuliginous vapors, and together emits arterious Blood and Spirits into the Arteries, but the Arteries expel fuligenous excrements, and to∣gether communicate some Spirits and arterial blood to all the parts.

Notes

• * 1.1

  A Pulse what.
• * 1.2

  Instru∣ments of a Pulse.
• * 1.3

  Efficient cause.
• * 1.4

  Vital fa∣culty.
• * 1.5

  The use of the motion of the heart and arte∣ries.