An Accompt of a Book

An Accomp of a Book. De CORPORE ANIMATO Libri quatuor, seu promota per Experimenta Philosophia SPECIMEN ALTERUM; Auth. Johanne Baptista Du Hamel P.S.L. Pariliis, 1673. in 12°. This learned Author having formerly published a Treatise of the Affections of Bodies, (described in Numb. 65. of these Papers,) and therein explained their Qualities, both sensible and others, and such as belong to Bodies in general, and things Inanimate; He thought fit in this piece to give us another Specimen of the Experimental Advancement of Physiology, by treating of that noble subject of Bodies Animate; which he doth very learnedly, and modestly, in four Books: In the first, he treats first of the Nature and powers of the Sensitive Soul; seeming to incline to the opinion of those excellent men, Gassendus, Fabri and Willis, who esteem the Souls of Brutes to be either Fire, or something having affinity or analogy with it. Then, Of Sense, what it is that causeth Sensation; what the Objects transmit into the Sensories; what are chiefly the differences of the Internal senses; what the Imagination; what the Ingenium or Wit; whence so great a power of the Memory; from what causes so many and so great differences of Witts; what produces the Appetite and the Affections of the Soul; and many other important subjects belonging to this Head. In which Dissertation he expresses his great wonder at those, that deny Perception and Sense to Brutes, which he thinks to be as manifest in them, as that they have Organs fitted for it. In the same, he thinks it somewhat incredible, that those Qualities, we call Sensible, should have their being and denomination altogether from the apprehension of the Senses; so that, if there were no seeing Eye, there would be no Colour; if there were no hearing Ear, there would be no Sound; if there were no feeling Hand, there would be no Heat, &c. He there also discourses largely and ingeniously of the Causes of the variety of Witts, and what kind of force and faculty is most fit for this or that Art, Science, and Profession; what will make an Orator, a Poet, a Musician, a Painter, a Physician, a Lawyer, a Divine, a Statesman, &c. When he inquireth into the nature and force of the Memory, he taketh pains in assigning not only the cause of its tenacity, lubricity, promptitude of furnishing for delivery; but also the rooms and galleries, to receive and lodge such an infinite variety of movements and phantasms, as occur and present themselves to animals. Where something is annexed relating to Artificial Memory. Explicating the nature of the Affections and the manner of moving them, he takes notice of that admirable quickness and celerity, with which the impressions are made and transmitted from the Objects through the Sensories to the Fancy; expressing there a species of convenience or inconvenience, and so moving the the Appetit accordingly by the animal spirits, determined by the Fancy to pass into such nerves rather than into others, &c. In the second part he treats of the Organs and Operations of the External Sensory in particular; where he descends to various and very curious Observations and Experiments, which do considerably elucidate that subject. Discoursing of the sense of Touch, he takes notice of the curious texture of the Skin, being found for the most part nothing but a woof of capillary nerves, arteries and veins, and receiving into it the ends of the excretory vessels arising from an infinite number of little glandules, through which vessels the sweat and steams do issue. Here also upon occasion he ingeniously assigns the cause of the Blackness of Negros; as also of that sharpness of sweat, that sometimes corrodes and maketh friable mens shirts; of Rheumatismes; of Gouts; of the Lassitude and heaviness in thick and rainy weather, &c.; suggesting withall, several Remedies in such and other cases. When he treats of the Taste, he well considers the structure of the Tongue, and the nature of the Spittle, and the great number of the nervous papillae or little teats in it; and esteems, that the cause, which so quickly reviveth faint and sometimes dying persons, is, that some of the subtile and most penetrating parts of liquors administered do enter into the said nervous papillae, and from thence pass, in a moment, into the nerves themselves of the body, and so give new motion and refreshment. Where he also renders the cause of the pica or unnatural appetite in young women, and others. When he giveth an account of the sense of Smelling, he takes notice, with Dr. Willis, of the great affinity there is between that sense and the Sight and Taste, and of the ground thereof; as also of the reason why some Brutes exceed men and other animals in Smelling; and why men or brutes that are flat nos'd, have a dulness in this Sense, &c. Describing the Sense of Hearing, he commends the Loud-speaking Trumpet, lately produced in London by Sir Sam. Moreland; adding, that the same may also be conveniently effected by a large and oblong Cone; and mentioning withal M. Mariotte's contrivance of an instrument of a Parabolical figure, of very great advantage to a dull Hearing. Treating of the sense of Seeing, he explains at large and with much clearness the Fabric of the Eye, and the whole matter of Vision, and much of what is material in Opticks and Dioptricks; not forgetting what hath lately passed between M. Mariotte and M. Pecquet, (two considerable Members of the Royal Academy at Paris,) concerning the proper Organ or Vision, which the former of them maketh to be rather the membrane Choroides than the Retina*; wherein our Author seems to agree with M. Mariotte. Nor doth he pass by the Question, why Animals with two Eyes, and Flies and other Insects with many Eyes, do not see one Object double or manifold? He inquires also, how the Distances, Magnitudes, nitudes, Figures and Motions of Objects are perceived and estimate by the sight? He delivers likewise the doctrine of Reflexe and Refracted Vision, and that of Telescopes and Microscopes, with more plainness, than many others have done, &c. In the third Book, he expatiates what belongs to the Organs and Functions of the Internal Senses. Where he discutteeth that so much controverted and difficult point about the knowledge of Brutes, and labors to assign the Difference that is betwixt the knowledge of Man and that of other Animals. Then he examines the Structure and Use of the Brain, (referring in many things to Dr. Willis's Book on that Argument) and treateth of the Organs of the Inward Senses; discussing withall that ingenious opinion of Dr. Willis, importing, that the Species of objects are impress'd in the cortex of the Brain, whence the Spirits reflected, cause Reminiscence; as the Spirits fluctuating in the corpus callosum produce the act of Imagination; and passing through the medulla into the nerves, excite the Appetite, or the instinct to spontaneous motion, whilst the Spirits proceeding from the cerebellum produce all motion involuntary. Next, he discourses of Sleep, and Waking; where he takes notice of those Animals that sleep all the winter long; as also of Night-walkers; likewise of that opinion of Dr. Willis, that Sleep and the Memory have one and the same seat, &c. To all which he subjoineth a discourse of some other Affections of the Brain, as Giddiness, Raving, Phrensy, Melancholy and the like; of all which he acknowledges the said Dr. Willis to have written with great learning and solidity. In the fourth and last Book he delivers the Doctrine of the Motion of Animals and the Organs thereof. And here he first treats of the nature and origin of the Nerves, and observes the difference that is between the Brain and the After-brain, relating an Experiment made in the Royal Academy, by which it appear'd, that the Brain being cut in a live animal, the Motion of the Heart and the Respiration ceased not; but all ceased, as soon as the knife touched the Cerebellum or After-brain. Where he again takes notice of Dr. Willis's system, and very candidly professeth, that he knows not, whether any thing in our Age have been invented more ingenious and useful, for explaining clearly the Oeconomy of the whole Animal, and its Functions, both found and disorder'd. Then, he enumerates all the Conjugations of the Nerves; and here, amongst many other things, he observes the cause, why, in all the Perturbations of the Soul, the Eyes, the Face and the Mouth itself, do so exactly answer the Affections of the Heart, as if they were all struck with the same pleurum or quill; as he also remarketh with Dr. Willis, that the Engin in Brutes is of a slighter contrivance than in Man, forasmuch as in those the Heart receives no nerves from the Intercostal; whence there is not in them that Consent between the Heart and the Brain, that there is in Man. Further, he treats of the Muscles, as the chief Instrument of Spontaneous motion, motion, explaining the manner how it is perform'd, and endeavouring to solve the difficulties occurring therein: where he examines both what Des-Cartes hath devised on this subject by assigning a direction to the wagging Glandula pinealis; and what Gassendus and Dr. Willis have suggested on the same, by the flammeous motion or explosion of the Spirits; the former seeming to him altogether fictitious (how ingenious soever;) the latter leaving it hardly conceivable to him, how so constant and even a motion of the Muscles in a sound body can proceed from so violent a cause; nor how the Soul would be able to keep such a command over her motions, if they did depend from an Accension of the Spirits or a violent Explosion. Meantime, he finds it very difficult to make it out, what it is indeed, that causeth the Motion of the Muscles; yet conceive at last, that 'tis the Contraction of their fibres, that produces it; but whether that be done by the accession of some substance, or by a change of angles in the fibres, is a new difficulty, which the Learned scruples to determine anything in, though Dr. Willis declare for the former opinion. After this, he enumerates many things, that remain yet unknown to us in the Motion of the Muscles. Which done, he concludes the whole with his ingenious Considerations about the Motion of Walking, Flying, Swimming, Creeping, &c; annexing thereto his doctrine of Passions. ERRATA in this Numb.98. Pag.6141.l.20. r.evidentii. p.6146. l.penult. r.plau. Ibide r.Augusto minse. LONDON, Printed for John Martyn, Printer to the Royal Society, 1673.