An Account of Two Books

lowish water in it, having made a roundish cavity, impressed in that kidney: whence some thought it came, that a little before his death a suppression of urine had befallen him; though others were of opinion, that his urine was suppressed upon the regurgitation of all the Serosity into the Lungs. Not the least appearance there was of any Stony matter either in the Kidneys or Bladder. His Bowels were also found, a little whitish without. His Spleen very little, hardly equalling the bigness of one Kidney. In short, all his inward parts appear'd so healthy, that if he had not changed his Dyet and Air, he might perhaps have lived a good while longer. 3. The Cause of his death was imputed chiefly to the change of Food and Air; forasmuch as coming out of a clear, thin, and free Air, he came into the thick Air of London, and after a constant, plain, and homely Country-diet, he was taken into a splendid Family, where he fed high, and drunk plentifully of the best wines, whereupon the natural functions of the parts of his body were over-charged, his Lungs obstructed, and the habit of the whole Body quite disorder'd; upon which there could not but soon ensue a dissolution. 4. His Brain was found entire and ferme: And though he had not the use of his Eyes, nor much of his Memory, several years before he died; yet he had his Hearing and Apprehension very well, and was able even to the hundred and thirtieth year of his Age to do any Husbandmans work, even Threshing of Corn. An Account of two Books, I. De VIS CERUM STRUCTURA Exercitatio Anatomica MARCELLI MALPIGHII, Philos. & Med. Bonon, &c. Bononiae 1666. in 4°. A Copy of this Ingenious Book was transmitted by the Author himself to the Publisher, and there being as yet no other Copies of it in England, at least not among Stationers, some Account of the Contents thereof will, 'tis thought, not be unacceptable to the Curious, whilst either more of them be procured out of Italy, or the Book itself be reprinted here; which latter I now find actually a doing in 12. by Mr. John Martyn. It contains 5. Dissertations: Of the Liver; the Exterior part part of the Brain; the Kidneys; the Spleen; the Polypus of the Heart. Concerning the Liver, he first gives a summary Account of what hath been said of it; then relateth what himself hath observed in that part, in all sorts of Living Creatures, finding it to have Lobes and to be a Glandul of that kind, which by Anatomists are called Conglomerate in contradistinction to the Conglobate; thirdly examines (very modestly) the reasons given by the Learned Dr. Wharton against its being a Glandul; fourthly, assigneth its office and Use, and making it no other, then that it separateth the Gall, and conveys the same, by means of the porus biliarius, into the Intestins; notwithstanding all the Exceptions of De Bills, Deusingius, Sylvius &c. Whereunto he subjoyns also the great Use of the Gall (esteemed a kind of Excrement by the Vulgar) in performing the part of a necessary condiment and ferment in digestion; so that upon its absence, or obstruction in the Liver, very dangerous diseases, and especially the Dropsy, must needs ensue. Touching the Exterior part of the Brain (called by Anatomists Cerebri Cortex) he first inquires into the Nature of its Substance, and finds it a Congeries of Glanduls, more conspicuous to be such in boiled than in crude Brains, and most discernible in Fishes and Birds: Where he alleges an Observation of a Stone found in the Brain, which was fashioned like the fruit of Mulberry's, conglomerated and made up of many small kernels or grains, of ash-color, probably thus form'd by the petrified Cortex of the Brain, and so retaining the natural Shape of the Glanduls thereof. Next, he solveth the arguments of the above mentioned Dr. Wharton produced in his Book De Glandulis, against that Opinion. Further, explaining the Vessels of the Brain, and their Process, he affirms, that the whole Substance called the Medulla of the Brain and the After-brain, is a Heap of Fibres or Vessels, which from the Stock or Trunk of the spinal marrow, by many Windings and Crinkles forme those Cavities and Involutions, to be found there, and are at last deeply implanted in the very Glanduls of the Brain: Where he teaches, that the whole Work of separation and depuration is perform'd by the inward structure of the Glanduls of the Brain, the Juice passing immediatly immediately out of them into the hollow and fistulous fibres, to be conveyed by a continued course into the subjacent parts to execute its several offices, as is performed by the little Tubes or Pipes of Plants: adding for the illustration of the Original of the Spinal Marrow and the Nerves, that that Marrow is a Bundle of Nerves, which whilst it makes up the Brain, divides it into two parts (by the circumvolutions of which the sides of the ventricles are formed) and terminates at last in the Cortex, wherein, and in whose Glandular grains the extreme roots of the Nerves, in the smallest size, are implanted. After this he proceeds to the use of the Cortex, and is of opinion, that by these little Glands there are separated and collected those particles, which Nature has design'd for Instruments of Sensation, and by which, when convey'd through the tubulous Nerves, the coherent parts are impregnated and swell'd, and the Animal made sensible of the operations of several Objects. Moreover he advances some consideration of his, upon the Learn'd Dr. Willis's Opinion about the Production of the Internal Senses by virtue of the Brains structure; and also upon his ascribing to those Bodies, he calls striata and radiosia, a twofold texture, whereof the one ascends, the other descends, for the perception of the impressions of Sensible Objects by the former, and the performance of Motions by the latter. Lastly, he takes notice that the famous Dr. Glisson hath derived the matter of the Nervous Juice through the nerves into the Brain, from the Glands of the Mesentery; and Fortius, from the Mouth and Intestins; whereas, since he has observed the Mass of the Brain made up only of a Glandular Cortex, and of Fibres proceeding from thence, together with the sanguineous vessels, and not yet found any cavities for receiving the Chyle, and conveying it into every part of the Brain; he therefore conceives, that all the Nerves are produced Out of the Brain and the Cerebellum, for this end, that they may carry down the juice separated in the very Glands; there wanting no sanguineous vessels, by which both sufficient matter may be furnished, and the residue of the percolated Juice carried away again. Concerning the Kidneys, he first relates, what hath been taught of them hitherto; and then delivers both his own observations about them, by by a long use of the Microscope, and his deductions from them. He affirms, that he hath always observed, the Kidneys to be also a Concrete of Small Glandules, by injecting through the Emulgent Artery a black liquor, mixt with spirit of wine, and by cutting the Kidney's longways, and then finding, betwixt the Urinous Vessels and their interstices, very many of such glandules which like little apples are appendant to the Sanguineous, vessels, turgid with that black liquor. He adds, that after many trials, he at last found also a connexion betwixt those Glandules and the Vessels of Urine. As to the Pelvis, he makes that nothing but an Expansion of the Ureter, as consisting of the same membrane and nervous fibres with the Ureter. Discourting of the Use of the Kidneys, he finds it difficult to explain, by what art and mechanism, Nature so copiously excretes by the Reins (whose glandular structure seems to be uniforme) a liquor, which is compounded of Aqueous, Saline, Sulphury and other particles, and sometimes the relics of imposthums, and other filth of the Body: Where he takes great pains, in some measure to clear that matter; adding thereunto the manner of the Stones generation in the Kidneys. In the Exercitation about the Spleen, having premised, as before in the other parts, what has been hitherto publish't about it, he subjoyns what himself hath further observed therein: viz. That the whole body of the Spleen, however it may seem to be a Substance made up of concreted blood, yet is indeed a Complex of Membranes, fashion'd and distinguish't into little Folds and Cells, clearly to be seen by syringing into it store of Air by the Ramus splenicus, whereby the whole Spleen will become so turgid, as to swell into an excessive bigness; which if upon the excission of the thus swelled part, it be presently cut, its whole masse will be found made up of Membranes, of the shape of the Cells in Bee-hives; as he affirms to have clearly seen in the Spleen of a Sheep and Hogg, and in that of a man. But then he adds, that through this whole membranous Body of the Spleen are copiously dispersed Clusters of Glandules, or, if you will, Bladders, very plainly resembling Clusters of Grapes, appendant on the fibres, and the extremities of the arteries and nerves of that body. Coming to discourse of the Use of the Spleen, after he hath examined the various opinion of Anatomists concerning it, and declar'd his dissatisfaction therein, together with the reasons thereof, he does with great modesty as well as ingenuity offer his thoughts about it, viz. That, considering the whole structure of the Spleen, it seems to be designed for a new separation and mixture of the Juices conveyed into it's Glandules by the Arteries and Nerves, and then collected in the Cells; whereby and by it's stay there, the Blood receives such a further change, and is so much more exalted, that being convey'd by the Splenetic Branch into the neighbouring Liver and there refermented, it acquires a disposition, for an easy separation of the Gall there (which is supposed to be the chief work of the Liver.) Tou hing the last subject of these Dissertations, which is of the Polypus of the Heart, the Author observes, after the recitation of other Writers opinions of the same, that those Excrements grow and swell for the most part in the Right Ventricle of the Heart sooner than the Left, as they also do about the other veins of the Lungs and Head, from this cause, That the returning flux of the blood is now, by the long continued nutrition of the parts, and by transpiration, depauperated of the spirituous and finer particles, such as are the sulphurous and the red; and whilst it is freshly confounded with the Chile, and other liquors, yet different from the nature of blood, the white and ragged parts thereof, being precipitated by the contiguity of those unlike parts, are in the large folds of the Hearts right ventricle or auricles, by their ruggedness and little chinks entangled; whence being associated to the like others, passing by, they grow into a greater bulk; as it happens in the generation of the stone in the Pelvis of the kidneys, or in the concretion of Tartar in water conduits. But, besides this, the Author conceives, that the Polypus may be generated from other causes, since Experience evinces, that it is produced by poisonous potions, by malignant Fevers, caused chiefly by a miasma or corruption of the Air, and by the Plague, and other infectious Distempers; wherein it happens, that such steams or juices are, by the corrupt fermentations of the Viscera, mixt with the Blood, which disturb its texture. This our Author illustrates by some Experiments; whereof one is, that pouring Oyl of Sulphur, or of Vitriol upon warm blood, it raiseth it, and by a kind of coction at last incrustates it: Another, that throwing pulverised Allum on it, it renders it black and adust. But that Niter, either pulverized or dissolved per deliquium, attenuates it, and renders it very florid; as also doth Aqua vitae, Sal gemmae, common Salt, Sal Armonica, Sulphur, and Harts horn; which also for a prey while hinder the coagulation of the blood. And discoursing from hence of the causes, which in the Plague, &c. do coagulate the blood, either in whom, or in part by generating Polypus's, he saith, that those causes ought to be taken from something analogous to Allum, Vitriol and the like, not from Niter and Volatile Spirit, which should rather be used as remedies by re-fermenting and rendering fluid the blood. II. EPHEMERIDES MEDICORUM SYDERRH, ex Hypothesibus & Tabulis Joh. Dom. Cassini, Florentiae 1668. in his fol. What Galileo Galilei undertook, after he had discover'd the Satellites of Jupiter, of giving an easy and sure way to know the Longitudes by a careful Observation of those Stars; Signior Cassini seems to have now performed more fully than others, by composing certain Tables, after 15 years Observations made with exactness of the motion of the said Satellites. These Tables are contained in this Book; and for the verifying of them, he hath added the Ephemerides of those Stars for the year lately elapsed, viz. A. 1668. Whereupon the Author hath been desired from hence, that, if he have calculated any more Ephemerides of them for any following years, he would oblige the Curious by timely publishing them for observation. Mean time the French Philosophers at Paris have acquainted us in the Journal des Sciences of Dec. 17, 1668, with the Observations made by them, to verify the said Ephemerides, by a Telescope of 14 feet; which may be of service to those, that have made observations elsewhere at the same instant and with the same accurateness, to know the difference of Longitude between Paris and the Place of their Observation. Octob. 7. 1668. hor. 10. p.m. 32 m. the first Satellite (call'd Pallas) entered upon the face of Jupiter. Oct. 8. h. 8. 11. m. The 2d Satellite (call'd Juno) went out behind Jupiter. Oct. 9. h. 8. 54. m. the 2d. Satellite went out from the face of Jupiter. Oct. 16. h. 10. 4. m. the 2d. Satellite entered upon the face of Jupiter. Oct. 22. h. 10. 41. m. 33. sec. the first Satellite entered into the shadow of Jupiter. Oct. 23. h. 8. 32. m. the first Satellite entered upon the face of Jupiter. Nov. 12. h. 10. 40. m. the 2d. Satellite entered into the shadow of Jupiter. Nov. 20. h. 2. 38. m. 30. sec. after midnight, the 3d Satellite (call'd Artemis) entered into the shadow of Jupiter.