An Account of Some Books

An Account of some Books. I.W. SENGUVERDIUS P.D. de TARANTULA. In quo, prater ejus descriptionem, effectus veneni Tarantulae, qui hactenus fuere occultis qualitatibus adscripti, rationibus naturalibus deducuntur & illustrantur. Lugd. Batav. 1668. in 12. This Author having described the structure of the body of this Tarentin Spider, and the chief parts thereof, together with its bigness, qualities, food, abode, manner, and season of stinging, and aptitude to live very many days without any visible food; passeth to discourse of the nature and effect of the poison, which being viscous and tenacious, exerts itself not presently, but lurks a good while in the body; and after the revolution of a year, being stirr'd and subtilized by the heat of the Sun, is rowled and put into motion, producing for the first two years only various diseases in the patient, as a dejection of the appetite, burning Fevers, Cachexy; after which do follow very strange and surprizing effects, in some stinging and laughing; in others, weeping and crying; in others, sleeping; in others, continual watching; in some, vomiting; in some, dancing and sweating; in some, madness; in some, the fancy of being Kings; in others, that of being slaves: Just as Drunkenness renders some morose, silent and fearful; others bold and clamorous. This only he affirms to be common to all that are bitten by the Tarantula's, that they delight in Musick, and are thereby moved either to dance, or to gesticulate. He observes also, that some of these Patients are delighted with certain sorts of Colours, some with Yellow; some Green; some Red. But he noteth this as the most wonderful effect, that this poison so fixeth those imaginations, which a man chanceth to have when he is bitten, that he, that shall then think himself a King, will persist in that fancy ever after, till he be cured. The cure of the poisonous effect, he with others assigneth to be Musick, and the dancing, consequent thereto; which the Patients do perform as if taught: Yet so, that not every one is affected with every song, but each with such an one, as is suitable to his temper; that which is unsuitable, tormenting the party. Some Tarantula's he affirms to have poison contrary to that of others, so that one man bitten by both such, cannot be made to dance; forasmuch as the one poison which induceth to dance, is made ineffectual by the contrariety of the other: It being also requisite, to use different Songs and Instruments, according to the different quality of the poison, and the various Constitution of the Patient. Further, he observes, that the Tune, which is suitable to the person bitten, is also suitable to the Tarantula itself, &c. contra; as also, that not only men, but other Animals, as Cocks, Wasps, &c. bitten by the Spiders, do dance; and that the effects of the wound depend not on the life of the wounding Spider. After this, our Author Philosophifeth thus. He esteems, that this poison invades chiefly the Arteries and Nerves, and the Spirits in the Nerves; as also the Brain and Fibres; and having cast the humours, raised in the whole Body, upon the Brain, disturbs the Imagination, according to the diversity both of Men's tempers, and of the Tarantula's. The Fevers, Cachexy, Dancing, Sleep, Waking, various gestures, he giveth this account of; That since the Tarantula wounds by biting with a moist mouth in the hottest Season; thence by an opening made, the poison, consisting in a Salivous moisture, is out of the Spider's body conveyed into that of Man, whereby, upon its diffusion through the humane body, it affects the Muscles and Nerves principally, and in them, by the periodical heat, the spirits stirring up and increasing the heat in the Heart, and by too vehement heat corrupting the bile in the vessels, and so causing hot Fevers and Cachexy: And it may be also, that by that Salivous and venemous substance in the Mouth, the Pores are obstructed, and the passages shut, whereby an outlet being denied to the heat, it is too much augmented in the body, and so likewise putrifies the bile, and causeth the same distempers. Sometime this poison is joyned to the Spirits, and thereby causeth about the beginning of the Nerves another motion, than Nature, if not disturbed, would produce: whence, by vellicating the Muscles, it induces the party to dance. Or it ascends in- to the Brain, and there, by its viscosity, obstructs the Nerves in the place where they meet, and so hindring the Animal Spi- rits to pass into the Organs, causeth sleep; or, by its activity (so quick, that the Nerves cannot be obstructed by the Vapors, and a passage is constantly open'd for the Spirits to issue into the Or- gans) produceth continual Wakes. If it be demanded, how Music becomes a remedy, and inciteth the Patient to dance? 'Tis here answered, That Sound having a great influence upon the Actions of Man, and being a motion of the Air, the Air mov'd, causeth a like motion in the next Air, and so on, till the like be produced in the Spirits of the Body, to which the Air is impelled. Wherefore since the commotion of the Passions depends on the Spirits, and the viscous humour of the Tarantula, is a capable subject of sound, hence 'tis (faith this Author) that the Air being mov'd by a Musical Air, suitable to the Patient, the poison of this Spider and the Spirits of the Man are by the same agitation put into a commotion; whence follows a propension to dance: And the Nerves being by the same agita- tion vexicated, and the Spirits in the Nerves stirr'd more vehe- mently, and consequently the Muscles moved, the whole Body cannot but perform that dancing motion. If it be asked, how the cure is made by Dancing, The answer here is, that by that vehement Motion the Blood is heated, the Pores open'd, the Poison rarified and dispersed, and by Sweat e- jected: But that these Patients are not cured by Sudorificks; the reason thereof is given from the difference between Sweat caused by Dancing, and that which is provoked by Medicines; forasmuch as Medicines are not capable so to stirr the little parts, wherein the poison lodges, as Dancing is. But if it be insisted, why all that are thus bitten, are not cura- ble by Dancing, some being known to have Danced 30 or 40 years, without being cured; Here is no other cause alleged, but that in some the poison is pertinacious and unremovable. These, and the like Phaenomena (vid. why several Patients are cured, and several Tarantulas affected by several Tunes; why the Tarantulas in Apulia only produce these effects, &c.) are fully explicated in the Book itself. II. REGNERI De GRAAF, M.D. EPISTOLA, De non-nullis circa Partes Genitales Inventis Novis. Lugduni Batav. in 16. A. 1668. III. JOHANNIS Van HORNE, M.D. Observationum surarum circa Partes Genitales in utroque sexu, PRODROMUS. Lugd. Batav. in 15. A. 1668. It seemes, that the two Authors in these two Papers have met with almost the very same Observations; which they account New, about the Genitals in both Sexes; and that, the former having appeared in Print before the latter, the latter thought himself obliged, the self same day that the Epistle of De Graaf came out of the Press (as himself intimateth) to declare in this his Prodromus, that, though he knowes not, whether the Observations of the former be altogether the same with his, yet, to avoid dispute hereafter, he thought fit, in this Paper of his, to represent the short of his own un-borrowed Observations, concerning that Subject, till he should be able to publish a full History of the structure of those parts. Touching De Graaf, he 1. Rejects the opinion of those, that teach a Conjunction of the Seminal Arteries with the Veins by visible Anastomoses, and that reckon the Testicles among Glan-duls. 2. He affirms, that he hath often unravell'd totam substantiam testiculorum in ingentem longitudinem. 3. He afferts to have shew'd by a short way, Vesicularum seminalium cum vasis differentibus communionem, magnitudinem, figuram, earumque in Vertebrae exitum. To which he saith to have added a very easy way of examining the Body of the Prostate. From the consideration of all which he concludes, Utam esse solummodo materiam feminis, earumque in testibus generari, in vesiculis excipi, & inae in Vertebrae iici, non per unum, ut vult Veslingius, sed duo foramina. 4. He affirms to have an easier and more accurate way of dissecting the Penis than any other Anatomists he knows; and that he affiges to the Muscles thereof a far other use, than hath been done hitherto. Of all which he intimateth, that he is ready to publish a Book, after he shall have received the thoughts of Dr. Sylvius upon the Manuscript thereof. He concludes, that he hath contrived a New Instrument, whereby every one may give himself a Cypher without any Denudation of the parts, or change of posture. Concerning Van Horne, he also refutes the above-mention'd Anastomoses between Arteries and Veins; then describes the Spermatick Arteries and Veines; the Pyramidal-Figure, they make, where they meet near the Testes, the direct and retrograde passage of the said Artery's through the Testes, and such a strange Anastomosis between the Spermatick Veines, that they represent a kind of rete mirabile most elegantly. He also will not admit the Testes to be Glandular, but affirms, (which is the same with the Doctrine of De Graaf) totam Testium molem nil esse aliud, quam congeriem minutissimorum funiculorum, habentium seriem continuatam, atque concavorum, pro seminis materia devehenda: adding, that if the greater Globe of the Epididymis be well examin'd, there will appear through its Membrane such anfractus and funiculorum gyri, as resemble those of the Brain. He holds triplicem materiam seminis, unam, qua venit à Testibus; alteram, qua à Vesiculis; tertiam, qua ex prostatis in Urethram propellitur. He deduceth from the wonderfulness of the Structure of the Penis, Tensionem ejus, & impetuosam semenis per eundem ejaculacionem. After this, he intimates briefly the Observables in Partibus Genitalibus Mulierum, and among other things remarks (what was lately also noted out of Steno's Myologia, Numb. 32.p.628.) Muliebrum testes esse Ovario in Oviparis analogos, they containing perfect Eggs, full of Liquor, and encompassed with a skin of their own, whereof he affirms to have yet some by him, &c. ERRATA. Numb. 32.p.617.l.1. read Rotation for Relation. p.624.l.27.r. Herniarum instar p.625.l.25.r. Angles. Numb. 33. p.641. l.32.r. converging, whereas some Copies have conveying. p.642. l.17.r. ILMK In this Numb. p.647.l.5.r. the second, for first term. ib. l.20.r.A = B, for A < B. In the SAVOTY, Printed by T.N. for John Martyn, Printer to the Royal Society, and are to be sold at the Bell a little without Temple-Bar, 1667.