AMong those many favours you have afforded me, your private, sweet, most familiar and long Collo­quies with me have been singular: While you lay­ing aside important af­faires, out of an admirable candour and love to Learning, (in which few excell you) vouchsafe sometimes to treate with me [Page 2]concerning occult Philosophy and most sacred medicines: In one of which meetings, as I had laid open what I had found in the Sini­ster Ventricle of the heart of a young Gentle­man, which you desired me to describe while the Species were yet fresh in my memory, as others many both Physitians and Friends have done also: So here I have done it: And do first communicate it unto your selfe, as a small [...] of my certaine knowledge of your great and admirable perfections in many Sciences, nececessary him who is Physitian to Princes; and of my singular estimation of them: As also to sow some seeds of future Discourses, both new and worthy of that sa­ving and divine Magick which we both pro­fesse: Well knowing that good use may bee made of this History by all Physitians, and profit unto many, as I have partly declared in the Subsequents.

It is an ostent and prodigy, strange and incredible which J am to paint: And if in many Physitians of best esteeme, and since­rity I had not found Relations very like it, mine owne heart would not have given credit to mine owne eyes and hands when first I found it: But you have found one like it in the heart of a Noble Lord; but when you have seen this, I shall know whether so grown, or of this forme, or otherwise: Let the Vulgar and Ignorant, beleeve it, or not believe it, Physitians and knowing men (as you do) will [Page 3]receive it: And therefore briefly the certaine History and true Relation is this.

THe seventh of October this yeare cur­rent, 1637 the Lady Herris wife un­to Sir Francis Herris Knight, came unto me and desired that I would bring a Sur­geon with me, to dissect the body of her Ne­phew Iohn Pennant, the night before decea­sed, to satisfie his friends concerning the cau­ses of his long sicknesse and of his death: And that his mother, to whom my selfe had once or twice given helpe some yeares before concerning the Stone, might be ascertained whether her Sonne died of the Stone or no? Upon which intreaty I sent for Master Iacob Heydon Surgeon, dwelling against the Castle Taverne behind S^t. Clements Church in the Strand, who with his Man-Servant came un­to me: And in a word we went to the house and Chamber where the dead man lay: We dissected the naturall Region and found the bladder of the young man full of purulent and ulcerous matter: The upper parts of it bro­ken, and all of it rotten: The right kid­ney quite consumed, the left tumified as big as any two kidnies, and full of sanious mat­ter: All the inward and carnose parts eaten a­way & nothing remaining but exteriour skins.

No where did we find in his body either [Page 4]Stone or gravell. The Spleen and Liver not af­fected in any discernable degree, only part of the Liver was growne unto the Costall mem­branes, by reason of his writing profession.

Wee ascending to the Vitall Region, found the Lungs reasonable good, the heart more globose and dilated, then long; the right Ventricle of an ashe colour shrivelled, and wrinkled like a leather purse without money, and not any thing at all in it: the Pericardium, and Nervous Membrane, which conteyneth that illustrious liquour of the Lungs, in which the heart doth bath its selfe, was quite dried also: The left Ventricle of the heart, being felt by the Surgions hand, appeared to him to be as hard as a stone, and much greater then the right: which upon the first sight gave us some cause of wonder, seeing (as you know) the right Ventricle is much greater then the left: Wherefore I wished M. Heydon to make incision, upon which issued out a very great quantity of blood; and to speake the whole verity, all the blood that was in his body left, was gathered to the left Ventricle, and contayned in itHere those men may be handsomely questioned (who say that the pulse is no­thing else but the impulse, of blood into the Arteryes or the Systole of the heart) what was become of the pulse in this man all the while that the whole blood betooke it selfe into the h [...]art, here was either a living man without pulse, or pulse with­out the Systole of the heart. For what could the arteryes re­ceive where nothing was to be received? or how could there be pulse where was no impulse into the arteryes? The pulse the doubtlesse [...]s from another cause, and is a farre other matter then most men conceive: for there are in a sound man 4450 pulsations in an houre, in a sicke man sometimes in some percute fevers and diseases above 35600, and more, which cannot be from so many severall expressions and receptions of blood; for it is impossible the heart should make compression, and the arteryes apartion, so often in that space. Nay in Dicrot: Capizant. and other inordinate pulses, diverse pulses strike in lesse space then the mouth of an arterey can goe, much more then in lesse times then it can open, shut, and open againe, which 3. acts are requisite to the beginning of a second pulse. But of this I have largely treated in my 3, Booke De Febribus.

[Page 5]No sooner was that Ventricle emptied, but M. Heydon still complaining of the great­nesse and hardnesse of the same, my selfe see­ming to neglect his words, because the left Ventricle is thrice as thicke of flesh as the right is in sound men for conservation of Vitall Spirits; I directed him to an other dis­quisition: but he keeping his hand still upon the heart, would not leave it, but said againe that it was of a strange greatnesse and hard­nesse; whereupon I desired him to cut the Orifice wider: by which meanes we present­ly perceived a carnouse substance, as it seemed to us wreathed together in foldes like a worme or Serpent, the selfe same forme ex­pressed in the first Iconography: at which we both much wondred, and I intreated him to seperate it from the heart, which he did, and wee carryed it from the body to the window, and there layed it out, in those just dimensi­ons which are here expressed in the second figure.

The body was white of the very colour of the whitest skin of mans body: but the skin was bright and shining, as if it had beene var­nished over; the head all bloody, and so like the head of a Serpent, that the Lady Herris then shivered to see it, and since hath often spoken it, that she was inwardly troubled at it, because the head of it was so truely like the head of a Snake.

The thighes and branches were of flesh [Page 6]colour, as also all these fibraes, strings, nerves, or whatsoever else they were.

After much contemplation and conje­ctures what strange thing that part of the heart had brought forth unto us, I resolved to try the certainty, and to make full explora­tion, both for mine owne experience and sa­tisfaction, as also to give true testimony to others that should heare of it: And there­upon I searched all parts of it, to finde whe­ther it were a pituitose and bloody Col­lection, or the like: Or a true organicall body, and Conception: J first searched the head and found it of a thicke substance, bloody and glandulous about the necke, somewhat broken, (as J conceived) by a sudden or violent separation of it from the heart, which yet seemed to me to come from it easily enough.

The body I searched likewise with a bodkin betweene the Leggs or Thighs, and I found it perforate, or hollow, and a solid body, to the very length of a silver bodkin, as is here described: At which the Spectators wondered. And as not credi­ting me, some of them tooke the bodkin after me, made triall themselves, and re­mained satisfied, that there was a gut, Veine or Artery, or some such Analogicall thing that was to serve that Monster for uses naturall: Amongst whom the Lady Herris and the Surgian made tryall after me with [Page 7]their owne hands, and have given their hands that this Relation is true. This La­dy dwelleth at the signe of the Sugar loafe in S. Iames street in the Convent Garden.

THis strange and monstrous Embryon borne in the said Ventricle, which as Hippocrates saith is nourished neither with meats nor drinkes, Sed purâ & illustri sub­stantia, taking aliment from the blood puri­fied out of the next Cisterne; made mee (importuned with other occasions then) to leave this new and rare Spectacle in the charge of the Surgion, who had a great desire to conserve it, had not the Mother desired that it should be buried where it was borne; saying and repeating, As it came with him, so it shall goe with him: Wherefore the Mother staying in the place departed not till shee had seene him sow it up againe into the body after my going away.

Which as soone as I heard, I presently described the forme of it at home, inter rari­ora à me reperta: And thus this History had alwayes beene buried from the World, (the Mother having thus buried the Creature) if your selfe and others had not desired a figure and narration of it, which caused me to take the hands, and mindes of some of them who [Page 8]were present: Who being nearest the young man, were most likely to say the best, and therefore being besides people of good fame and reputation might bee credited; conside­ring that they would say nothing at all ei­ther against their owne house, or against ve­rity more then what apparent and cleare truth should necessitate them unto: Which from themselves and under their hands, here I have done.

There were also divers others, such as dwelled in the house, and some that came in, who beheld it, after whom I have no leisure to enquire: But such who will scarce believe their Creed, or any true mans word, or that men have senses (which have alwaies beene reputed incorrupted Witnesses,) may goe into the high buildings upon the Street in Saint Giles Parish, and at the corner house next the greene Dragon where the Young-man died; they may make further inquisition.

Since which time the Mother hath remoo­ved her selfe into Bloomesbury neare unto the house of one Master Nurse, who directed me to her lodgings; a man well knowne in all that Region.

Mistris Gentleman dwelleth neare unto S. Clements Church in the Strand, and the Chirurgion, or his man can direct them to the house.

Moreover that day all of us that were pre­sent [Page 9]at this sight related to our friends, wives, or husbands what we had found, as they will testifie.

The History therefore being verified by as much testimony as humane perswasion need require: Except nothing but oath will content some, which if it shall be found neces­sary to Authority: It will most readily come forth also and obey: It is most requisite that something be said of this or any such like matters generated in mans heart, both for the manner of their generation and the way of their cure, and by what means such rare and incredible causes of death may bee found out in time and taken away.

SUch matters as these were worthy of your selfe, and a man of your long experi­ence. Yet because this strange generation was found by me, I will consult with your learning, rather then by any hasty resolution, determine and discourse a little to state a que­stion of no smal difficulty; Hip de morbis Avicen l. 3. se [...] 11.since Hippocrates first hath given the occasion, which was this; Cor nullo morbo laborat: the heart laboureth of no di­sease: & Prince Avicen, cor longinquum anocumen­tis, the heart is farr remote from dangers. And yet contrary to these: Very many Physitians enumerate these diseases of the heart; the Marasmus, Syncope, the Cordiack passion [Page 12] Lypothymy, Apostems, Vlcers, Botheralia, Corrosion of Sublimate; and I dare adde, dis­eases which afflict the heart by reason of distil­lations from the head in some who have had the unction: Tremors also and palpitations of the heart; as Peter Ebanus in his Booke de Venenis: And the Paralysis of the heart, as old Aurelianus in his second Booke of Slow­passions: After Haerophylus and Erasistratus have observed.

And now of late Skinkius and others have found wormes in Cordis capsulâ, which is the Pericardium: But I speake more pre­cisely and punctually, that now in the left Ventricle of the heart, this Worme or Serpent hath beene found: Which the Mother of the Young-man saith, was at least of three yeares growth, for so long he complained of his breast, and as shee saith would never button his Doublet in the Mor­ning, but be open breasted in all weathers, till he had washed his hands and face, and was sub­ject to palpitations.

Now then that wee may judge whether Hippocrates, and Avicen direct their speeches: these reasons are to be admitted.

reason 1 First, from the situation of the heart, in medio medij pectoris, saith Avicen, in the middle of the middle of the brest: which Ma­thematically is not true: for so the basis or upper part, or caput onely is placed in an Equidistance from the diaphragma (the in­feriour [Page 13] furcula,) and the Clanicula, (and the furcula superior) and betweene the Vertebra of the backe and the anterior Sternon.

reason 2 The Second is, that the heart dwelleth in a strong pannicle, and such an one, that non in­venitur panniculus compar ei in spissitudine, ut sit ei Clypeus & tutamen: Hip. l. de Cord. that no pannicle is comparable unto it, that it may be a shield and defence unto the heart.

reason 3 Thirdly, Avicen addeth, that the heart it selfe is created of strong flesh, that it may be longinquum anocumentis, in quo contextae sunt species villarum fortium: Diverse strong strings admirably woven together do bind and strengthen the heart, and give it aptitude for motion, and resistance. Hippocrates long before Avicen saith the same, and things of greater consequence: Cor est musculus fortis, &c. The heart is a strong muscle, non nervo, sed densitate carnis & constrictione: Hip. ubi supra. not by his nervous nature, but by solidity of flesh and constriction: And in the heart there lye hidden diverse skins like spiders webs ex­tended, which do so bind and shut the endes of the forts, that no man ignorant, knowes how to take out the heart, but will take up one for an other. Neither can water or wind pe­netrate into the heart: and more; Cor tuni­cam habet circumdatam, & est in ipsâ humor modicus, &c. Vt cor sanum in custodiâ flores­eat: habet autem humiditatem tantam quanta sat is est aestuanti in medelam: hunc humorem cor [Page 12]emungit bibendo ipsum assumens & consumens, pulmonis nimiram potum lambens: He speakes further of the cover called the Epiglottis, that nothing may enter that way but what is con­venient; So that seeing the heart is fortified with such strength of ribbs, with such co­vers, such skins, such fortitude of substance, such density of flesh, such excellence of li­quour, such curious filaments, that nothing can enter, hurt, or come neere the heart to make it sicke: but that it is able to defend it selfe, both by its owne situation, strength, and happy condition in very many respects, and keepe out or put backe whatsoever also by force shall come neere unto it: It remaineth that the heart is not, neither can be subject to any disease, or at least not easily.

Yea those other men who enumerate the diseases of the heart; grant, as chiefely Vales­cus de Tharanta and the Arabians all confesse that a Syncope hapneth, or else death as soone as any disease approacheth, or hurt toucheth the substance of the heart; also Avicen, Pe­trus de Ebano relate that the forementi-oned diseases kill as soone as any of them touch the substance of the heart: So also Herophylus coefessed that sudden death followed if a Paralysis once surprized the heart: And for Bothors or Phlegmo's, or Erisipelas or the like, they say that they are diseases of the heart initiativè only, and not subjectivè, to dwell there any time.

[Page 13]And indeed I am fully perswaded that the heart suffereth a marasmus privativè, by ne­gation of due transmission from other parts, rather then that marcor should follow àd cordis substantiae ariditatem; for if any part have good substance in it, the heart hath; and therefore Hippocrates saith, that quando fontes resiccati fuerint homo moritur: that the Ven­tricles have the last humidity in them: where­fore Galen seemeth to desert his Master in saying, a cordis ariditate incipere malum. Viz, veram senectutem & interitum naturalem. Whereas hee should have said the contrary: that the aridity of the heart followeth the desiccation and want of due transmission of other parts: Yee if J may speake my mind freely, Hippocrates is not to be taken simply, that the heart cannot be any wayes affected; but perhaps in the sense of Galen, that the heart suffereth little or no paine by reason the substance of the heart hath but little sensation, having but one little nerve for feeling from the sixt Conjugation, and that is somewhat obscure also.Gal. 2. pla. 8. Or if hee meane, as indeed I am sure hee doth, that diseases doe not affect the heart; hee is to bee understood that or­dinarily they doe not, but very seldome, by reason of the carnous parts, Cor solidum ac densum ut ab humore non aegrotet, & prop­terea nullus morbus in corde aboritur, caput autem & Splen maximè sunt morbis ab­noxia, [Page 16]His speech is evidently comparative; else wee see very often that which hee never saw in all his long life and experience: And indeed we see now very frequently the heart affected with Imposthumes, with Wormes, with Abscesses, with Fleamy con­cretion both in the Eares of the heart and Ventricles, yea and now with a Serpent: And yet men live divers yeares with them, and many other diseases both per essentiam & Consensum, all kinde of distempers both equall and unequall, of which the Ancients have left no memory nor mention unto us, with which the Books of late Physitians are re­pleate. Wherefore the propositions of the Ancient Physitians must have a friendly inter­pretation; or else mens hearts now a daies are more passible and obnoxious unto diseases then in former ages, which by me as yet can­not easily be admitted: Wee are forced therefore to conclude that the heart per essen­tiam & primariò & subjectivè may be afflicted with a disease and cause of death, and it can­not otherwise be conceived, seeing such crea­tures are begotten in it; yet doubtles exteriour diseases kill sooner then innate.

BUt this then begets a greater question, how this Monster or such as this should bee be­gotten or bred in the heart, so defended, as [Page 17]hath beene said, more then all the body, and in the most defended part of the heart, the left Ventricle three times thicker of flesh and sub­stance then the right? as also of what matter? seeing that Cell is possessed and replenished with the best, purest and most illustrious liquor in the body, the blood Arteriall and the vitall spirits.

There are who conceive that pervious pas­sages may be found for little Wormes and the like to enter into the heart: but they must give a better way then any that J have yet seene doe, as also the Wormes must be very little. Others say, that such matters are caused by the ill habit of the heart; by which if they meane the substance of the heart, it is not to be receaved, till the heart hath beene hurt by ill distributions and transmissions which in our case is otherwise: for halfe of the heart, the left Ventricle, (the Matrix of this Ser­pent) was solid and still good: Where­fore it is not in the ill habit of the substance.

Others thinke that those Wormes which create sometimes the mal della luna, as the Italians terme it, living in the pericardium, and gnawing the heart: Of which there are innumerable Stories.

Heben flreit lib de peste telleth us one, of a Prince to whose heart a white Worme was found cleaving with a sharp and horny nose.

Alexius pedemont anus, lib. 1. Sceret. [Page 16]telleth us of an other: and so Math: Corvar: lib. 2. c. 28. Consult. med.

In Stowe's Cronnicle ad annum 1586. of Q Elizabeth, a matter of this nature, in an Horse is recorded as a memorable thing in these wordes.

The Seventeenth day of March, a strange thing hapned, the like whereof before hath not beene heard of in our time. Master Dorington of Spaldwick in the County of Huntington Esquire, one of her Ma­jesties Gentlemen Pentioners, had an horse which died suddenly, and being ripped to see the cause of his death, there was found in the hole of the heart of the same horse, a Worme which lay on a round heape in a kall or skinn, of the likenesse of a Toade; which being taken out and spread abroad, was in forme and fashion not easie to be de­scribed: The length of which worme divi­ded into many graines to the number of fifty (spred from the body like the branches of a Tree) was from the snout to the end of the longest graine seventeene inches, having soure issues in the graines from which drop­ped forth a red water: The body in big­nesse round about was three inches and a halfe, the colour whereof was very like a Mackerel. This monstrous worme found in manner aforesaid, crawling to have got away, was stabbed in with a dagger and died; which being dryed was shewed to [Page 17]many honourable personages of this Realme.

If this Horse-worme or Serpent be Chronicled, how much more may this be memorized for Posterity? Or that which you have, or that which you told me was found in the heart of the Lord Boclew.

By reason these were found in Men, that in an Horse: and this found by me of greater length, and more certaine forme, then that which they could not tell how to describe.

As also those peeces of black flesh genera­ted in the left Ventricle, of which Benivenius historizeth one, C. 35. de abdit is, in forme of a Medler, upon the Artery; and Vesalius, lib. 1. c. 5. de humani corporis fabricâ, speaketh of a most Noble and learned Personage, in the left Ventricle of whose heart, two pounds of blacke glandulous flesh were found; the heart extended like a pregnant wombe.

Yea and those pituitose carnosities and other matters, so often seene in the left Ven­tricle, by Neretus Neretius that famous Phy­sitian of Florence, and Erastus, part. 5. dispu­tat. de feb, putrid: may be generated in the pericardium, either by drinkes of ill condition sliding into the Trachaea, and so into the Ar­teries, and the heart: Cornelius Gemmad de Naturae divinis characterismis: and sometimes some small seedes or attomes of creeping creatures; which Cornelius Gemma setteth forth sufficient­ly, [Page 18]and historiseth many strange matters in this kinde, as some to vomit Yeeles and Ser­pents of strange formes: and it is a common saying of the Pedemontanes, and such as drinke the waters of the Alpes; that every such man borne hath a Frog to his brother. Such things may passe into the stomak, but rarely into the heart.

BUt that which I have to say, is this; that these strange and extraordinary genera­tions are caused from the temperament indi­viduall, for you well know that there is a double temperament; the one Specificall, the other individuall; the one is fixum and unalterable, the other is temperamentum fluxum, and accidentall.

As for the Specificall temperament, al­though the vitall acts cease, yet the specificall act is never changed; for you see that the parts of this or that animall, retaine their specificall vertue when they are dead: as herbes, or those partes of herbes, as leave, seedes or rootes, keepe their property, and retaine their owne heates or savours, when they are cut away, or taken up from the ground: Yea and there are certaine specifike atoms which alwayes continue after putre­faction, and extreame drinesse in the fixed salt.

This temperament is proper to every creature: for Man hath his temperament, the Lyon his, hysopp his, and the rose his owne: For God made every thing, secundum species suas, & in genere suo producat aqua in species suas, & omne volatile secundum genus suum.

Et Deus fecit bestias juxta species suas & omne reptile terrae in genere suo, & producat terra animamin genere suo, &c.

Wherfore the Specificall temperament of Socrates doth not differ from the temperament of Hippocrates, Plato, Cato, or any other man: which may be well put against Aristotle, who thought the soules of men did differ in no­bility one from an other: which difference can no way be founded upon the tempera­ment specifically, but rather upon the jndi­viduall, which is but the accidentall consti­tution of the Individualls of the same species; which followeth some peculiar determina­tion of th' horoscopant; or else upon some other speciall helpe, or hinderance; as from the singular scite of Heaven, ascention of Starres, aspect in flux, the aliment of pa­rents, either more or lesse elaborate; and [Page 20]many other matters every creature borne hath according to the felicity or infelicity of his generation: especially Man, who of all other creatures is nourished with most variety of meates and drinkes: We also see every day that such men are more hot, and vivacious, who are borne either in the Starres of Leo, or the Sun Orientiall: they also to be of more suculent habit, who are born within the second quadrate of the Moon: and such to be least vital, who are born in the silence of the Moon, herbs also gathered the Moon, decreasing, have lesse force: & the very soile often doth either so aug­ment, ordwarfe plants, and herbes, and give them such strange conditions, that they are found degenerat, and scarcely the same herbs: As for the prolifick matter, it breedes (as Physitions say) a male, or female, as it is more or lesse concocted: There are also di­verse conjunct matters, which helpe or hin­der generation, as such matter doth which dif­fereth much a punctis specificis, or à semine, for the sperma may be much, which is materia augment ativa, but the seed is so little of which a giant is generated, that as novum lumen saith: it can be no greater at first moment of conception, then in proportion to the 8200. part of a graine of wheate; which confirmeth that of Aristotle, that the fortieth day after conception, homo formicá non major; from which augmentative matter it is (which is made of various and alterative aliment) that [Page 21]children differ so much from both their owne parents: hence one sweates and sweares at the sight of a Cat: and an other forsakes the table at the sight of a Pigg or Goose; the rea­sons of which antipathies and diversities, are founded in the latent matter spermatike, as if the Mother of one, somewhat before her Sonne was begotten, had eaten a mouse; and the other fed upon the eares of a Jew.

All which is said to illustrate, that there is in many men, a certaine connate matter and obedientall, susceptible of divers diseases, and infelicities: Wherefore it was not so an­ciently, as worthily said; Foelicissimum est benè nasci, it is a most happy thing to be well borne.

And from this Diatheses and ill dispositions may many a strange sicknesse in after ages spring, as time, diet and other accidents doe alter or intend the heat, cold, or acrimony of the humour and blood, or some other qua­lity.

I pray Sir, note well the faithfull Relation of a most understanding and sincere man, M. Iohn Whistler, one of the Benchers of Graies-Inn and Recorder of Oxford, who upon my Narration of this History of Iohn Pennant (the very same day, or the next that I found the Serpent;) told me that in his youn­ger daies himselfe was a great Cock-Master, and one of his old fighting Cocks beginning to droope, he thought it best to cut off his [Page 22]head, which as soone as it was done, there appeared and shot out betweene the skinns another head and neck, like that of his Cock, but it was a kinde of gelly (as hee conceived) with a very fine skin upon it, with a bill and a little combe: The rest was not searched, which perhaps was bred of some Egg in the body of the Cock, which kind of Concepti­ons are very rare, yet the sacred Scripture ma­keth mention of Cockatrices: Which doubt­lesse cannot be bred but of some humour or blood exalted to some extraordinary and pre­ternaturall degree of heat, cold, or sharpe­nesse, or some other quality: Which first the naturall heat and valour of that bird proo­veth: Secondly his martiall profession and terrible battells performed almost to death, all his life long; as also being begotten of such like Ancestors, himselfe also excelling in heat and fiery spirits accidentall.

Compare this Young-mans state also with this history; his right kidny wholy consumed, his left tumified as big as any two kidnies or three, full of ulcerous matter: So likewise his bladder full of ulcer, and rottennesse, and nothing in his body to be found the cause of this: Wherefore the sharpnesse and extraor­dinary heate of the blood or some such like quality was the cause of the Ulcers, and so also consequently of that extraordinary pro­duction in the heart: For nothing els appea­reth whatsoever may be conceived: And this [Page 23]accidentall temperament of the blood, I take to be the cause of this which we found in the heart: For in the heart (if any where) was the greatest heat, and if in any part of the heart in the left Ventricle, the principall re­ceptacle of arteriall blood and spirits: And I have more to confirme me in this opinion, having certaine knowledge both of the diet of his Mother and Grand-mother also, and of his owne: Which I am not willing to make publique; but to make private use of it to my selfe.

All which shall not by me bee intended to prejudice any other better judgement concer­ning other like conceits; by reason that pas­sages to that Ventricle may be sometimes per­vious, although very rarely: But to informe you of some peculiar knowledge that I have of this mans History; which may give us great light concerning others of like condi­tion.

I could here discourse how the imagination produceth strange things in men; and wor­keth not only in our owne bodies, but also in hyle mundi, as Fryer Bacon prooveth,Ro. Bacon. l. de Coelo & mundo and Prince Avicen: But this I will not attempt, except you shall judge this Relation may be beneficiall to any, and then I shall discusse it out at large.

BUt to me the resolution of this matter see­meth very profitable to know how these things may be bred in men, for I suppose, men from hence will take speciall care to alter the accidentall temperament of humors, if they find them excell in any high degree of heate, cold, sharpnes, or the like, such as have in them inconvenience and danger, and to deale with learned Physitians in time.

So also is the knowledge of singular use and benefit to know when men are affected with a­ny such disease, and how they may be cured.

As for the knowledge of abstruse and se­cret affections, where perhaps no dolor gives certitude of the place affected, as in diseases by consent, when some other parts are more afflicted, such skill is worthy of a Physitian, and at any rate to be procured: But how or where shall we have it? Who writeth of it? Who hath so much as ever dreamed of any such helpe to mankind? For mine owne part I never yet read of any Signa pathognomonica of any such disease: Neither doe I know where to find one graine of instruction in this, as also in divers other diseases (which I can nominate) more then from mine owne obser­vation and care. Wherefore if I set downe one thing which is not common nor els where to be found. I hope you will take it as my good [Page 25]wish unto the Common-wealth of Physitians, and I will lay my ground upon two Histories of mine own: the one was in December, anno. 1634. For being sent for to a yong gentleman whose name was Arthur Buckeridge son unto M. Ar­thur Buckeridge now of Tottenham Gentleman, who was sick of that kind of pox which our Country people call the Flocks, which were many, flat headed, white, and wrought along, as if wormes had made certaine crooked fur­rowes among them, which when at first I be­held, I was very diffident in my selfe of do­ing any cure, because I never-knew any of that disease and manner saved: Yet while the friends of the Youth declared unto mee what an ingenious child and scholler he was, and what hopes all his friends had of him: I still beheld the variegation, or vermiculation of that kind of variolae: And because no Phy­sitian in all my reading ever gave me the least light or helpe to cure them: J more studiously searching the cause of their forme, strongly apprehended that that outward work and waving could proceed from no cause, but from putrefaction caused of worms; and that God and nature did assist in so great a difficulty, shewing by this external signature the internall cause, taking therefore my Indicative from the Conjunctive (as Galen counselleth very well) J prescribed chiefly against wormes and inward putrefaction, and in very short space he was re­stored to his health: And while I write these [Page 26]things, the yong-man (whom J never saw since) commeth in to my house to search after me, and to give me thanks so long after, being shortly to goe for Oxford: Wherefore to confirme this History I sent unto the Young-mans Apothecary to see what was yet upon file, to ascertaine what I say; and it is retur­ned me, that two of my bils are yet there re­maining: As also one honest Gentleman re­membreth well that I then expressed as much and told his friends that I intended to prescribe against the worms principally.

The other History was of this Iohn Pennant, whom we dissected; who was well known unto me, as his friends and others well can as­sure it, in whom as is likewise sufficiently knowne, I very often noted this, that he had an excellent Eye, but extraordinarily sharpe, and like the Eye of a Serpent, and so much I have spoken of it, that divers Gentlemen and good Schollers did make an­swer unto me that heard of his long diseases of the supposed stone, or ulcer of the bladder: that pains and griefes did sharpen mens aspects: But finding what we have seene in him, thus much shall mine owne observa­tion teach me ever; Let others doe, or be­lieve as little as they please, that secret, unu­suall and strange inward diseases, doe send forth some radios, or signatures from the center, A­nalogicall to the circumference, by which we may finde the causes if we be diligent and care­full: [Page 27]And this is that which I would com­mend, of which I know no man that hath written one word as yet: Which although at first it seemeth new, yet if men will well consider it and what I shall say I doubt not but they will be confirmed, that it is an accurate and a most necessary observation, and a chiefe Window to see into the most secret di­seases and Closets of the body and heart also.

And first as an introduction to beliefe what helps Physitians may have from beames and signatures. All learned Physitians will thus farre goe vvith me, that this vvas that admirable way of the old Magitians to find out the natures of medicines, from their peculiar beams, signatures and similitudes, and that there is no Simple or medicine Specifical (as they say) or excellent for any disease or ve­ry few, but we are able to make the radij or sig­natures to appeare, from which those learned Magi did, or might find out the properties and virtues of those Simples or medicines, and this you know to be true, and this way you all know that Sponsa Solis or the Kiramides of the Synas went, as that book of the King of Persia sheweth, which I lent unto you; and you have no doubt many volumes of Physitians as well as others who have written of this argument. Wherefore seeing it is so cleare that signa­tures and beames have so excellently and clearely discovered the virtues of all medi­cines [Page 28]latent and abstruse. Shall we conceive that God and Nature are deficient in affor­ding outwardly some helps to know the in­ward, secret and strangest maladies? It can­not be: For to what purpose is it, that the Sim­ples have virtues medicinall, and for every disease, if some diseases may not be dis­vered, and how can they bee discove­vered within, to which no eye can come? from which nothing is received, as in some other diseases. Some are knowne by time, as Feavers, keeping Period: Some by place or part affected, as Cholick, Angine, Stone in the reynes, and the like. Some by ex­cretions, as Dissenteries. Some by such like and others more or lesse: But there is no meanes to discover such a thing as this that hath given occasion of all this discourse, for nothing was excerned of it any waies, or from it that could give any light: No topicall griefe so great as that in his reynes and bladder, he did complaine of his breast and of a beating there sometimes; but Palpitatio cordis is signum commune. Neither did this man complaine as he did alwaies of his other affe­ctions. Neither can it be imagined how such a substance growing and receiving daily aug­mentation in his heart could be discovered by the wit of man, but by some outward thing singular and unusuall, as a speciall radius of what was within.

I trust then that this speculation and pra­ctise will in time be thought of, and that it may, I will set this signature upon it (al­though seldome or scarce ever noted by any except by Friar Bacon in his Booke de Caelo & mundo, &c. More especially by that incom­parable sage Alkinaus, the most learned man that the East since his time, or long before hath brought forth unto the world: that every thing hath his radios proprios, as well as the starres of Heaven have: Alkindus his wordes are these, in his Treatise de radijs, as a firme conclusion, and sufficiently there by him confirmed; Agite ergo cum mundus Elementaris sit exemplum mundi, it a quod quae­libet res in ipso contenta ipsius speciem continet. Manifestum est quod omnis res huj us mundt sive sit substantia, sive accidens, radios facit suo modo ad instar siderum, alioquin figuram mundi syderci ad plenum non haberet. But this we will ma­nifest to the sense in some few (saith hee) the fire transmitteth his beames to a certaine distance: the earth sends out her beames of colde, of medicine, and of health; and me­dicines taken into the body, or outwardly applied, diffuse their beames through the wholebody of him that receives them: the collision of solid bodies makes a sound which diffuseth it selfe by the beames of the thing [Page 30]moved: and every coloured body sendeth out his beames, by which it is perceived, and this is subtely knowne in most other things: by which by vive reason it is certainely knowne to be true in all things; taking this therefore for truth wee say, that every thing which hath actuall existence in the elemen­tary world, sendes forth his beames, which fill the elementary world after their manner, whereupon every place of this world con­tayneth the beames of all things which are actually existent in every place: And as every thing differeth from other; so the beames of every thing do differ in effect and nature from the beames of all other things, by which it comes to passe that the operation of the beames is diverse in all diverse things: Thus farre, and much more Alkindus to the same and like effect: Yet I will ad some few in­stances more. The severall smelles of all things in the world, are their severall radij which doe discover themselves unto us, and we perceive them to be many times where we see them not: Wee smell Roses, Musk, Civit, Amber, Quinces, Apples, Plantes and herbes of all sortes, and very many other thinges in roomes or boxes, before we come neere them: and we are most times assured of such things to be neere us, by their proper and peculiar emanations, or irradiations, which are their specifick beames, darting out and diffusing themselves from one cen­ter, [Page 31]unto a certaine distance, according to the vertue of the species or his proper nature, which may doubtlesse also be intended, or remitted, or varied, and so make strong pro­jection, according to the rectitude of line, or else be debilitated according to the pro­portion of obliquation: but this I insist not upon.

Fetted things also have their radios, accor­ding to their owne proper nature, and there is the same reason of them in all points accor­ding to their species: The colours of other things are also beames: and the very truth is, that as all thinges in the world have their pro­per radios: so all the actions that they have is by vertue of these radij: and as Alkindus saith, by these beames is exercised in con­junctum localiter, aut in seperatum: which the Schoole-men call immediatio virtutis, or im­mediatio suppositi: in both, nothing is done sine radijs, nor truly knowne: As for exam­ple, If two men come close together, one cannot strike another, Immediatione suppositi, except the animales radij actuate the nerves and muscles of the hand, and therefore imme­diatio virtutis is supposed. These spirits are the radij animales, and by these every action arbitrary or not arbitrary is effected in or by man, and every other creature.

And as cleare to us is that action which is performed immediatione virtutis in other creatures; for we see an Adamant to draw [Page 32]yron at a distance: A looking Glasse to re­present the Images of things separated from the glasse: And this we know must bee by some Emission or projection of beames one towards another, as well as by the Emission of the animall spirits from the braine into the nerves. And a mar­vellous wonder it hath beene to me to see how Mineralls purified and defecated from heterogeniall mixtures, finding themselves free doe strike out themselves in any liquour into branches and Starrs, as is acknowledged by Physitians, calling them medicinas stell at as, as Mercurius Stellatus: Regulas Antimonij Stellatas, &c. and not onely Minerals doe thus, but the Salt of vegetables, and animals I have made so, that they will doe the like: So that it is evident that every thing in the world hath his beames; and it cannot, nor ought not to be otherwise, sith the nine times most blessed and most glorious Essentator of all things who hath beene so diffusive, as to branch out himselfe into every thing visible and invisible, that any thing should not have some likenesse unto him who made all things summaratione, and with as great perfections as their severall species were capable of. And for them therefore not to shew them­selves, and who was their Father, it is impos­sible.

[Page 33]Yea even putrid humours, and materiall causes of diseases, as being naturall things though corrupted are good: and have their beames and their signatures in savours, pustles, bubos, spots, and tokens without, of divers sorts according to the severall spe­cies of the humour putrified within, or from the commixtion with other causes by which a Physitian is much instructed, what is with­in, and how to take heed himselfe; and to come home to the very point, and cause of all this Discourse, we see in all kind of Animals in the world (and I doubt not but your incredible desire to know and excellent naturall sagacity hath often observed) that according as their arteriall blood is exalted, such radij are in their Eyes; as we see in some men more then others, and in Cocks, and in Serpents: A Cocke hath an Eye whose radij are almost exalted to the beames of the Eye of a Serpent: And doubtlesse such blood had this man, and such spirits of an incredible heate or acri­mony: The Eye is an Index animi, which cannot otherwise be then by the radij or spi­rits of it, much more then doth it shew the blood arteriall upon which those spirits are founded; and thus from the Eye I have made it evident, that we may know much of the left Ventricle of the heart where the arteriall bloud is elaborated and made: And thus in other matters, if from the radij or signatures [Page 34]exterior we play the good Magitians and dili­gently consider them: I am perswaded wee may have a singular helpe and insight to cure the most hidden and most dangerous diseases of all, and such as otherwise cannot be known. You see Sir, I have founded my sentence upon God, Nature, and Experience, and if it be hidden or not believed by any, it is to them incredible who have grosse conceptions, small skill, as J am sure your great insight and wisdome will and can better confirme: For what is that which makes some men wiser then others? Magis sapiens est & dicitur qui minus perceptibilia percipit de rebus & earum conditionibus, saith that wise man Alkindus: There is no doubt ther­fore (as the same man saith) but that they who are informed with an holy desire of wisedome will labour much to comprehend the secret conditions of things, as the an­tient Physitians did who with wonderfull sa­gacity searched for that skill which we injoy: As for such as are neither wise nor have desire of wisedome, I leave them to Ptolemey that other miracle of knowledge to instruct the world of them; Reprehen­dunt insipientes quod non comprehendunt, unwise men reprehend all that they doe not comprehend.

IT remaines onely that something be said of the cure of such Conceptions if by any Physitian they be perceived in time: Either by pulsation of the heart or by any externall signe or signature, or Syn­drome.

There are some who use no alterants nor o­ther peice of art then to kill and dissolve such conceptions: and they confide in this. ℞. Succi Allij, Nasturtij, Raphani, ana. ʒ.j. detur & statim curabitur. So Schenckins from Stockerus. Others thus. ℞. Tanaceti ramulum in umbra siccatum, in pulverem redactum cribella­tum (que), cui addatur pulvis sequens, ℞. Rad gen­tian. Rad. Paeoniae longae, ana. ʒ.j. Myrrhae, ʒ.ss. misce, tere & cum uti volueris. ℞. ℈.j. Et cum guttula aquae ut solum madefiat misce, deinde inunge os & lahra infantis aut patientis ter aut quater, & una cum caeteris medicamen­tis eijcientur. So Schenckins. This I grant is good for wormes that cause Epileptike fits in children, but for such as lie deeper in the pericardium and the left Ventricle, it is not likely they will be sensible of, at so great a di­stance and inclosure: I rather thinke that the use of some oyles which are more penetrative, may do more good, as some drops of Olei de Sabina in aqua juventutis, Raimundi or Olei ex Baccis Iuniperi ob ejus penetrativam virtu­tem [Page 36]may with some continuance or with the successe before mentioned be more effica­cious: But why am I so large speaking to you? But to lay some grounds of future dis­courses with you, concerning both preservati­on and cure of such latent maladies, rather then here to set them out.

Yet for conclusion I have onely this one thing to note unto the world: how that these which seeme so rare, strange, and incu­rable mischiefes, might be more familiarly knowne, and easily cured, if it were not for a babish, or a kinde of cockney disposi­tion in our common people, who think their children or friendes murdered after they are dead, if a Surgion should but pierce any part of their skinnes with a knife: by which it commeth to passe, that few of those innu­merable and marvellous conceptions, which kill the parents in which they are bred, (as your selfe with admiration have knowingly spoken to me of their infinite number which are generated in mans body) can ever be found out, or cured: so great a monster is begotten in the blood of fooles, and feare­full people, which destroyeth the common good of man-kinde in a very great propor­tion: whereas that knowledge of their generations, which Physitions have, is [Page 37]commonly from the dissections of the bodies of Noble Personages, and of the Gentry, who with their friendes about them have beene bred to more fortitude, and are more wise and communicative, as most of our me­dicinall histories, you know confirme, and your selfe likewise hath told me of some. All vertuous and heroick soules know that when their particle of divine perfection is returned to him that gave it, that then their bodies are to serve the universe (as that pious Bishop knew) who when he had gi­ven away all besides his body, at last gave that also for the good of the living, when it should be found dead, and therefore bequea­thed it to the Physitians to dissect it: but doubtlesse our Tradesmen, their wives and children, and our sugar-sop citizens are com­pounded of a rarer, noli me tangere, when they are dead then when they were alive; And though Nobles and Princes may be cut in peeces, yet is it piacular, and the losse of grace for ever with them, if a Phisitian should but intimate such a matter as decently but to open any part of their most intemerate Impes.

But what good more frequent dissections might doe, what portentuous matters they might discover, and how facile they might finde the causes, and their cure, you suffi­ciently know, and in part others may by this history understand: And although the [Page 38]learning and knowledge of some Phisitions of our age be singular, and growne to such an happy degree of perfection, yet there are by dissections every day something to be learned: and how much the internall do sim­bolize with externall, as in part I have dis­covered, and J will yet give out one il­lustration more: let but Phisitions well note their patients complections, and colours (for this time I will onely speake of the face) and let them take afterward if they come to dissect them notice of their livers, and if they be diligent, in few dissections they shall be able, looking into any mans face what­soever, to know the affections very manifest­ly of his liver. Sir, under favour, and with you J have thus much freedome as to tell some of my brother Phisitions and Sur­gions, that the inspections and dissecti­ons which they celebrate over the world, are not to inable men to talke of names, parts and places, but to doe, and to be able to judge of thinges hidden and secret, that they may not be deceived tou­ching the causes of mens diseases: this is the chiefest end, and yet how few study out of entrailes this learning, I neede not intimate unto you.

The wayes of nature, by which opera­tions are effected, as also the continuation of parts and vessels, their communication, and to finde the causes of sicknesses, their epi­geneses, [Page 39]their metastases, their apostases, their palyndromyes.

The wayes of Simptomes, reasons of re­vulsions and the like, are the next: and so much subordinate to the other, and of lesse necessity, as obuious inspections shewe this to be more facile, and with lesse labour to be attained then that; the other therefore not being so well perfected to our dayes, I have by this extraordinary occasion, and out of my good wishes, ventured to speake a word by you, unto such as are wise in our owne profession, since Phisitians should be [...], as our dictators word is, like Gods, what is in us in good skill, and good will, for the safety of man-kinde: that as it was said of his dayes, so it may of ours, in corum diebu; raro animae descendebant ad infernum: in their dayes, soules seldome descended into hell, if any at last forsaking divine grace shall des­cend; yet that hell may gape a long time ere it receive them, and that others may have time to shake handes with Heaven, that our profession, the noblest and wisest of all others, (I speake of professions which con­cerne this life onely, not of professions super­naturall) may still be esteemed divinest (as the old Phisitians were crowned deservedly, and related among the Gods, above all others) while by our meanes, miserable men are restored to the onely blessing of this life, health; and (as I said) be preserved [Page 40]from that great and eternall gulph of infelici­ty, Hell (many of them not being in state of grace, because sicke upon their sinnes) and lastly, made live till they be friends and sonnes of God, and so rich as to come to Heaven: our Saviour Christ crowning us with such happy mindes, as to be made instru­ments and meanes of many mens eternall salvation, by occasion of their temporall restitution.