An Account of Some Books

An Account of some Books. I. Erasmi Bartholini de NATURÆ MIRABILIBUS Questiones Academicae. Hafniæ. 1674. in 4°. The Subjects of these Disquisitions are Ten, videl. 1. The Figures of Bodies in general. 2. The Figure of Snow. 3. The Pores of Bodies. 4. Attraction. 5. The Cartesian Physiology. 6. Experiments. 7. Physiological Hypotheses. 8. Custom. 9. Nature. 10. The Study of the Danish Tongue. 11. Judgment and Memory. 12. The Secrecy of Sciences. In the first the Author having premised the Division of Matter, and that great Bodies do consist of small ones connected or accumulated, he particularly considers in the Figures of Bodies, the first Figure of Salts, viz. Whether it be that, which is obvious in the several Sorts of them; as the Cubical in common Salt, the Sexangular in Niter, the Octangular in Allum, &c. and whether it be a well-grounded Assertion, that that Figure, which we discover in Bodies, does depend from the primordial Figure of them, and the Continuation of the same? Where he also taketh Notice of that great Inequality of Shapes that may be observed in a very great Equality, such as is seen, for Example, in the Faces of Men: Inquiring into the Reason hereof. The Second considers the Figure of Snow, mostly found Hexagonal, though sometimes Pentagonal, and by some Octagonal. Compare herewith the Observations of Mr. Hook, in his Micrography, p. 88, 91. and those of Dr. Grew, in Numb. 92. of these Tracts. The Third, about Pores, he esteems, not without Cause, to be of that Importance, that without a good Explication of them, both Physick and Physiology is very lame. Of which Argument we hope the Curious will shortly see a more particular Account from the Honourable Robert Boyle, who justly affirms, That from Pores, Figures, Effluviums, and the languid Motions of Bodies, depend the Reasons of all those Qualities which the lazy Philosophy is wont to call Occult. The Fourth is of Attraction, concerning which he maintains, That all those Effects, which the Vulgar ascribes to it, belong to Pulsion; answering such Observations, as seem to plead for Attraction. Touching the Fifth, having declared the Peripatetick Philosophy to be precarious, unintelligible and useless, by Reason of its Three insignificant Principles, he judgeth the Cartesian to be such, as proceeds upon Hypotheses, that assume nothing but what is consonant to the Nature of Things, and comprobated by Experiments. In the Sixth, he much commends the Usefulness of Experiments, judiciously and carefully made; and withal, warns Experimenters not to be too hasty in concluding from a small and incompetent number of Tryals. The Seventh shews the Unfitness, Obscurity and Defe- &iveness of almost all Physiological Hypotheses hitherto re- ceived, and recommends such, as are clearly and distinctly understood; and agree with the Principles of Human Know- ledge, and with Observations and Experiments. Compare with this Discourse that of the Noble Mr. Boyle, concerning the Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Philosophy, lately made publick. The Eighth represents the Tyranny of Custom, especially if it obtains from our Infancy; which is of that Power, that it maketh Men too often conclude, that what is not Cu- stom, is not Reason: Alledging withal, the variety and strangeness of the Customs of several Nations and Coun- tries; and lastly shewing, that as Custom doth pass into Na- ture, so Nature may be changed again by Custom. The Ninth declares, How much Nature may be improv'd and advanc'd by Art, Culture, Care and good Education; and how much impaired and degraded by the want there- of: As also, what an excellent Prerogative it is, to have O- riginally a good Nature, it being far more easy to breed and guard Vertues in such that are endow'd with it, than where either Nature or Custom of Evil must be first expelled. In the Tenth, the Author exhorts to the study and culti- vating of his Mother Tongue, which is the Danish, so as to couch and publish therein whatever is curious and useful, whereby to polish, instruct and benefit all Sorts and Condi- tions of Men in the whole Nation, and so to take them off from Idleness, and free them from Poverty, by giving them the occasion and advantage of Reading, and entertaining themselves in their own Tongue, with what is both divert- ing and advantageous in all kind of Knowledge, Recreati- ons, Practices, Trades and Occupations. In the Eleventh, he discourses of the Advantages of the Memory and Judgment, far preferring the latter before those of the former, and therefore encouraging all Men to employ the best of their Power in forming and correcting the Judgment. In the Twelfth and last he considers, with what Discretion, Arts and Sciences are to be discover'd and communicated; inclining rather by divulging them to benefit Mankind in general, than by making Inclosures to be wanting in the exercise of Humanity. II. Thoma Bartholini de ANATOME PRACTICA ex Cadaveribus morbosis adornanda Consilium. Hafniæ, 1674. in 4°. The Author of this useful Discourse, considering, that the Dissecting, and careful observing of Men and Women dying of considerable Diseases, is one of the main desiderata in Anatomy; and representing here, with no small regret, the sad loss he sustain'd by Fire, of twenty Years labours of his own, bestow'd upon this Subject; he hath been pleased, upon the Occasion ministered unto him by the like Work, begun by Theophilus Bonetus, a learned Physician of Geneva, to deliver in this Tract his Advice concerning that Argument, and the Method he observ'd in his Writing upon it, as far as he was able to recollect his Thoughts about the same. Taking it then for granted, that 'tis the least part of a Physician's and Chirurgeon's Skill, to know the Constitution of the Parts, according to the usual Course of Nature in sound Bodies, and that the Main consists in the Inspection and Consideration of particular Subjects dead of notable Diseases, and in composing thereupon an Anatomie useful in Practice: He declares, That he used in his Work that perished in the Fire, the same Method in the Anatomie of Men and Women deceas'd by considerable Sickneses, that he did in his Anatomie Reformata, made up of his Observations taken from sound Corpses. As, for Example, What is the Situation, Shape, Colour, Connexion, Substance, &c. of the Brain, Lungs, Liver, Intestins, and the like, in such as died of the Apoplexy, Epilepsy, Consumption, Fevers, Dropsy, Jaundice, Small Pox, Cough, &c. solicitously examining the Preternatural Constitution of every Part, in those and other Diseases, in order to the better understanding of the Places affected, and the conjunct Causes? This being a Work as laborious as necessary and useful for Practitioners in Physick, he further particulariseth the Helps, which he made use of, and whereby he compassed his Design; worthy indeed to be weighed and embraced accordingly by all the Sons of this Art. III. La Lettre de Charles Drelincourt, à M. Porree, sur la Methode, pretendue Nouvelle, de tailler la pierre : Avec trois autres à Monsieur Vallot, Premier Medicin de sa Majeste. À Leide, 1674. in 12°. These Letters were written by the learned Author, upon the Occasion of a New Lithotomist in France, pretending to cut all Sorts and Sexes of Mankind, of the Stone in the Bladder, how big soever, without any considerable Medical Preparatives; which, as to Men, he would perform by introducing into the Anus, some Fingers of his right Hand, well oyled, and thereby finding the Stone immediately, and thrusting it into the neck of the Bladder, where it is to be held fast by an Assistant; and thereupon having withdrawn his right-hand-fingers, he would place his Patient in a due posture, and then oyl some Fingers of his left Hand, and slide them into the same place, turning the Neck of the Bladder, together with the Stone, towards the small left Trochanter, till with his right Hand he could draw the Skin of the perineum towards the right femur, where 'tis to be held with his left Thumb, and then with a fit single Instrument he would make a Semi-lunar Incision, and so without any other Mystery, as he speaks, draw out the Stone, and then apply healing Medicines. As to Women, he would perform the Operation adligendo digitos in sinum pudoris, &c. Of this Operation Monsieur Drelincourt observeth; First, That 'tis an Invention as old as Celsus himself, who lived about 1600 Years since. Secondly, That it cannot be used upon adult Persons, especially when they are very corpulent and fat, and the Stone big and closely adhering; since it appears not, how in such Subjects the Operator, that will use this Method, can reach the bottom of the Bladder. Thirdly, That 'tis very doubtful, whether the Bladder can be thus thrust and turned at pleasure, as he pretends; and that it cannot but exceedingly torture the Patient, to make such Compressions, as must needs be made both to thrust down the Stone, and to force the whole Bladder to descend to the perineum. And fourthly, It seems to our Author very suspicious, that this Operator puts his Fingers into the Fundament, before he places his Patient in a due posture to cut him. For, faith Monsieur Drelincourt, if the Operation requires it, why doth he not do this to all his Patients, (at least for a shew) but only to those, which he hath cut, as 'twere, playing, of which He affirms and proves that they have been cheated by him. Fifthly, Notice is here taken, that this Operator dispatches some in two or three minutes, but others he holds above thirty Minutes; and our Author can give himself no other Reason for it, but that he deceives those, and cuts these. Sixthly, he notes, That this pretended Artist maketh in some but very flight and superficial Compressions, and that very few of his Patients make Water at the Wound, even not at the moment of the Operation. What other Cause can there be, than that those who urine are really cut, and those that do not urine, receive but a meer Incision? Seventhly, He observes, that those that are cured of their Incision in five or six Days, whom he proves to have been deceived, are free from all the ordinary Symptoms of this Cutting, but remain subject to the same dysuria, and make as thick and fetid an Urine as before: Whereas in others, whom he cuts indeed, the Cicatrice is long a forming, and is pre- ceded by divers Accidents; but then, Indolence, and the exemption from fits of the Stone, and the clearness of the Urine, do presently follow after the Operation. To all which our Author adds, That his Proofs are more than convincing, when at the end of three Days, upon founding, a Stone is found in some, and none in others. And here he takes occasion to shew the Marks, whereby to discern the Stones of human Bodies from Supposi- tious ones: Which are, 1. That the true ones have an uni- form colour without; whereas he affirms to have seen one of this Gafcon, that was on one side white and full of little shining Bodies, the rest dark and tawny. 2. The internal Colour of the true Ones is often various, but that of the bottom approaches to the outward Colour. 3. The exterior Surface is either smooth, or full of Asperities. 4. The weight of the true Ones is not always proportio- nate to their bulk. 5. If they be fresh, they smell of the Spirit of Urine, and if in Time that Smell abates, or is lost, it may be recover'd, by casting some pieces or powder of it upon a Brick heated red. 6. Upon the True ones, especially if they be rough, there will be found sticking, thin Membrans, or small Fibres, together with some Phlegme and Blood. 7. Their solidity doth often equal that of Flints, yet without striking fire, by what he could ever find. 8. They consist of several Coats, or Layers, and in the Center, a Kernel, serving for a Ground to all the Incrustations; for, these Stones having taken their Begin- ning and first Body in the Kidneys, they are thence precipi- tated into the Bladder, where they are turn'd to and fro, and so become incrustated from Time to Time by the slimy, sulphureous, salin and tartareous sediment of the Wine. And these Stones of the Bladder, faith our Au- thor, being nothing but Tartar, Earth and Salts, cemen- ted together by a little Water and Oyl; if you put some of the Powder of it for a Day in a glass of Water, shaking it a little at first, a Salt will be thence obtained, which will alter the freshness of the Water, and breed a thin Crust on its Surface, as Quick-lime flecked in Water will do. Besides, the Stones of the human Body do furnish by Fire far otherwise, than by Water, viz. a third part of volatile Salt, and of a very piercing Urinous Spirit, and about a fortieth part of stinking Oyl or Sulphur; there remaining about two thirds of earthy Parts, which hold a thirty-sixth part of so fix'd a Salt, that it will bear a violent fire. So far the first Letter. In the second and third our Author relateth, That a certain Person of Normandy, whom the new Pretender affirm'd upon founding to have no Stone, was cut of a Stone of three Ounces weight; and that he dying some Days after it, and being open'd, his Bladder was found, not only full of very hard Callosities, like Ganglions, about the Nerves, but also lumps of a white, grumous, solid and friable Matter, like white Tartar, which was as 'twere cemented upon the scirrous Substance of the Bladder: Besides, there were fastned to the same Bladder, certain Caruncles, resembling the heart of a Pullet, large at their basis, and by little and little growing narrower, and ending in a Point, of a fresh Vermillion colour, which end was loose, whereas their basis stuck close to the Bladder, by very many filaments, which as so many roots, nourish'd them, and made them look so fresh in this their Soil. And what care soever he used in loosening them from these Roots, without hurting the Bladder, he could not compass it; these Roots being quick and deep; yet he took them off with the point of a Pen-knife, and put them in Spirit of Turpentine, where, he faith, he still keeps them. Lastly, He observ'd store of little strange Bodies, that were so interposed between the woof of the fibres of the Bladder, that it was thereby exceeding tumified and and scirrous. He saith, he cut it athwart, and found the inner Substance of it very full of Vessels, of which he founded many, and found, that though it was hard, yet it was very full of Pipes running thorough it, which made him at first imagine, that as the Spermatique and Hypogastrique Channels of a breeding Woman grew big in proportion, that the Embyro is nourish'd; so these Hypogastrique Veins and Arteries of the Bladder, were all dilated and widened to feed these Caruncles, which from thence, as their placenta, drew all their nourishment: But when he saw that these Tubes did far exceed their ordinary number, he believed, that this was from thence, because that each capillary Branch, whose smallness doth commonly hide them from us, was much stretch'd in this Case, to furnish this Matrix, (if it may be so called) with more Blood than ordinary. Errata in Numb. 126. P. 143. l. 3. pro illustres; addito sermone, leg. illustres; ib. l. 23. addito sermone, p. cad. l. 19. leg. Latinus. LONDON: Printed for John Martyn, Printer to the Royal Society. 1674.