An Account of Three Books

monumenta, unde omnem hujus Inventi rationem haurire licet Astrophilis. Amplexus eandem Reverendiss. Seth. Wardus, primum ostendit, paria facere cum linea æquabilis motûs circa alterum Ellipseos umbilicum gyrata; deinde & Calculi directi methodo ornavit eâ, quam paulò antè recitavimus: Ita ut nil amplius desiderari posset, quàm ut Urania felicibus caeptis annueret. Cujus quidem nomine suscipere ausus fuit Illustris. Comes Paganus, edito, biennio post, ejusdem ferè tenoris scripto, adeò veram esse Hypothesin, ut deprehensam circa Octantes discrepantium, Astronomorum insectæ tributam mallet. At Cl. Bullialdi, audiendam potius ipsam Astronomiam ratus, Observatorum ore loquentem, secundis curis, adhibita prioribus Inventis limitatione quadam, discrepantiam illam exterminavit. Unde porrò intelligitur, Hypothesin illam, cui Cl. Cassinius investigationem Apogearum & Excentricitatum superstruit, tantum ferè deficere à vero, quantum Cl. Bullialdi limitatio polet, atque ab illo defectu pullulare eum quem suprà notavimus, Calculi à Coelo diffusum. Tantum vero abest, ut de Eximii Viri Inventione vel minimum delibatum velim, ut quicquid hujus lucubrationculæ non hausì ex Reverendiss. Wardo, vel Herigono, id omne ipsi libertissimè acceptum referam, qui ansam nobis praebuit hæc altius considerandi. Nec dubitamus, quin omnia ista multò uberioris ac luculentius in promisso Tractatu expposita propediem reperturi simus, cujus Editionem maturam, pro eo quo flagramus divinisimæ Scientiæ amore, perquam avidè exspectamus. An Account of Three Books. I. Esperienze intorno alla Generatione Degli Infetti, fatte da Francisci Redi, Academico della Crusca. In Firenze, A. 1668. in 40. The Learned and Ingenious Author of this Book, lately come to the Publishers hands, though not yet (which is much disliked by the curious) into our Stationers Shops, doth with much industry undertake therein to evince, that there is no such thing as Equivocal Generation but that every Animal is generated by the seed of another Animals (its parent,) or, at least, from some Living and un-corrupted Plant, as out of Oak-Apples, and several Protuberances and Excrencies of Vegetables. First then, in the afflicting of the Universal and true Generation of Insects by a peculiar and paternal Seed, the Author positively affirms, that he could never find, by all the Experiments and Observations, he ever made (of which he relateth a great number, by himself made upon all sorts of Animals) that ever any Insects were bred from Flesh, or Fish, or putrefied Plants, or any other Bodies, but such as Flies had access unto, and scatter'd their seed upon; he having taken extraordinary care and pains to observe, that always on the Flesh, before it did verminate, there late Flies of the self same kind with those, that were afterwards produc'd thence; and again, that no Worms would ever come from any Flesh in Vessels well cover'd, and defended from the access of Flies; so that to him there is no generation of Insects from any dead Animals, but such as have been fly-blown. And least it should be objected, that the reason, why in vessels exactly clos'd, no Insect breeds, is the want of Air, necessary to all Generation, He hath carefully covered several vessels with very fine Naples-vail, for the Air to enter, though Flies could not; but that no worms at all were bred there, notwithstanding that many Flies swarmed about them, invited by the smell of the Flesh inclosed therein. Secondly, to make out the other part of his Position, viz. That those Animals that are not bred by the seed of other Animals, are produced from some live Plant, or its Excre- Excrecence; This Author esteemeth it not absurd to affirm, that that Animal or Power, which is able to produce Flowers and Fruits in living Plants, may be alike capable to breed Worms in them; since that Soul is so powerful, as to cause Plants to feed, to grow and to produce seed, as it doth in Animals. For confirmation of which, he observeth, that both the generation of Worms in Vegetables is always and constantly the same (not at all casual,) and that all Galls grow constantly in one determinate part of the branches, and always in the new branches; as also, that those little Galls, which grow on the leaves of the Oak Holm &c. do all grow constantly on the fibres or strings of those leaves, not one of them being seen to grow on the smooth part betwixt two strings. Further, that there are found many leaves of other trees, on which grow Vesicles, or small bladders, or some wrinkled or swollen places, full of worms, springing forth with those leaves. Besides, that there is not one Gall but it hath its proper worm; and that each sort of galls hath its peculiar and determinate race of worms and flies, which never vary: Where he takes notice of the singular Art of Nature both in forming the Egg, which is found in the center of Galls, and in preparing its place therein, furnishing it with many filaments, that pass from the Gall-apple to the Egg, as so many veins and Arteries, serving for the formation of the Egg and Worm, and for the nourishment requisite thereto. To which he adds this Observation, that there being certain sorts of Galls, which breed more worms at a time than one, Nature hath carefully provided and distinguished places for them, as she doth in those Animals that are multiparous. Having established this ground against Equivocal generation, he proceeds to particulars, and refutes the opinion of those, that will have Bees to be bred of the putrefied flesh of Bullocks; VVaps, of Asses or Mules flesh; Drones, of Horses; Scorpions, of buried Crustaceans, or the herb Basilica, or dead Scorpions; Toads, of Ducks buried in Dung; Mites, of Cheese, affirming, that none of these Insects have any such origin mentioned, but that all those substances have been first blown upon by some Fly or other. He interprets through the whole Book many curious and considerable Observations relating to this Subject. As, that some Flies are viviparous, others oviparous only, yet not denying, but that the same Flies may sometimes breed live worms, sometimes lay eggs, according to the more or less heat of the season. 2. That Humane bodies breed worms, but not immediately, but by Insects blowing on them. 3. That Fruit and Herbs, crude or boiled, kept closed up, breed no Vermin, but in an open place, do breed some. 4. That there are no Animals partly animated, partly yet earthly, nor Animals half animated, and half wood. 5. That worms breed in the Livers of Mutton, and the Heads of Staggs, she having seen divers of them in both their kinds of Animals, and esteeming, that the soul of the superior animal was able to breed those inferior animals. 6. That Lice are bred of Eggs or nits, laid by their Female parent; he having discerned by a microscope some nits yet pregnant with young ones, others emptied of them. 7. That all living Creatures are subject to lice or some such kind of Vermine; the Ass not being exempted from them, as Aristotle, and upon his authority, Pliny, Monet &c. would have it: And that all sorts of towls (except Ostridges, in which he never could meet with any Vermin in any season,) and fish, have each sort their peculiar lice: Of which he hath represented divers of several sorts. N.B. The Author promises in this Treatise a very particular History of the various Fruits and Animals, that are generated of Oaks and other Trees. II. Pharmacopoeia Regia, sive Dispensatorium Novum locupletatum & absolutum, cum annexa Mantilla Spagyrica, & gemino Discursu Apologetico contra Ott. Tachenium, & Franc. Vernis. Auth Joh Zwelfer. M.D.A. 1668. in folio. The Author of this Volume, after he had published to the World his Animalversi- ons upon the Pharmacopoeia Augustana, and after that, a Pharmacopoeia Regia, and then, an Appendix superadded to both, pretends now in this vast Work to deliver something compleat of this kind, following the Experiments and Operations made in his Laboratory, by which he affirms to have given us the Compositions and Preparation of the choicest Medicaments, performed by a genuine and accurat Method, according to the 19. Classes of the Augustan Dispensatory, and directing all to the principal parts of the humane Body, and the particular Cases of Patients, so that in almost each Class there may be found (he Judge) precious remedies described for every sickness, uncommon ones, and confirmed by Natural and Medical Reasons, and Experience itself. Where he ingeniously cautions his Reader, above all things to examine, by whom Medicines are prepared; and particularly inflameth in a Preparation of Antimonium Diaphoreticum, which, though himself had used it, when duly and by himself prepared, with very great success against the Plague, yet had found almost fatal to himself; upon occasion taking it, when prepared by a Pseudo-Chymist. In the annexed Mantis he describes the Medicines, that may be made of all sorts of Metals; as also of Antimony, Vitriol, Sulphur, Niter, and Tartar; among all which (to note that upon the by) he declareth the virtue of Aurum fulminans for an excellent Diaphoretic; and teacheth how its fulminating force may be taken away, viz. by a little Spirit of Salt powred on it, or by some distilled Vinegar boiled with it. Farther, our Author in his Defence against Tachenius (who with some sharpness had attacked all his former Writings), makes it his business, to refute Tachenius his way of Fixing the Volatile Salt of Vipers, which, it seems, he had formerly communicated to him when they friendly conversed together, but upon trial, proved false: Where our Author takes occasion to evince it not to be true, that Animals contain none but Volatile Salt, and that Vegetables likewise have not a grain of fixed Salt, except it be produced therein by the Fire; both which Tachenius seems to have asserted. To which he adds an examination of the Doctrine of Salts, delivered by the said Tachenius in his Hippocrates Chymicus, not at all approving, that he confounds the Lixiviants and Alcalys with the Salts of Minerals and Animals, in that he gives to these two latter kinds of Salts one general name of Alcalys: Where many things occur, belonging to the making of Soap, Glaze, Verdigris; as also to the Liquor distilled out of Calx viva, to Fulminating Gold, the Melting of Metals, the Salt of Tartar, the Generation of the Stone in Animals, the Alcalys and Resuscitation of Vegetables; the Helmontian Ludes, &c. Moreover, this Author vindicates himself against the Notes of one Franc. Verni of Montpelier, written upon the Pharmacopoeia Bricii Bauderonii; published in French A. 1662. at Lyons, in 4°. in which Notes the said Verni excepts against our Author concerning the Preparation of the Compounded Acid Syrup of Mefus, and the confusion of Alkermes. In this Work is also contained the Third and Enlarged Edition of the Authors Animadversions upon the Pharmacopoeia Augustana, and its Mantis; wherein by a genuine and dextrous Method, the Preparations of Simple and Compounded Medicines are so delivered, and the Errors of the Ancients in such a manner detected, that from thence, by preserving and exalting the Vertues of the Simple Medicaments, they shall become much fitter means in the Hands of Physicians, suddenly, safely and pleasantly to remove the distempers and Maladies of Humane Bodies. To all which is also annexed his Spagyric Appendix, wherein what may seem in those Animadversions to be somewhat obscure and imperfect, is pretended to be so much farther explained and perfected that it may not only render them far more clear, but also enrich them with divers uncommon Considerations and Remedies: Where the Reader will meet, among many considerable Observations, a very necessary Caution concerning the Oriental Bezoar, of which the Author notes, there must needs be innumerable sophistical ones, considering the multitude of them, pretended to be true ones, seen everywhere, in all parts and places of the World; whereas yet the Creature, whence 'tis taken, being a Savage Animal, like a kid, is not to be had but by Hunting; and that but in one corner of the East-Indies: Which Consideration induces our Author to conclude, that most of those Stones are factitious, prepared perhaps out of Magisteries of Alexipharmatical Plants, as Scordium, Rue and the like; which may also be of good use in causing sweat and expelling poison. III. Affectionum qua dicuntur Hystericae & Hypochondriaca Pathologia Spasmodica Vindicata, contra Responson. Epistol. Nathanaelis Highmore M.D. Cui accessere Exercitatus Medico-physicae dua, 1. De Sanguinis Accensione. 2. De Motu Musculari, Auth. Tho. Willis M.D. Nat. Philos. Prof. Oxon, nec non Med. Coll. Londini & Soc. Regiae Sodalis. Londini apud Jac. Allestry In 4°. The Learned Author of this Book makes it his chief business therein, to vindicate his Doctrine, which maketh the two Affections expressed in the Title, to belong to the Brain and the Nerves, from the Arguments alleged by the other Learned Physician Dr Highmore, who makes the one to be a distemper of the Blood and Lungs, and the other of the Stomach. In the doing of which, our Author first undertakes to shew, by several considerable Arguments, that the affections, called Hysterical, cannot proceed from the Lungs studied up to a great degree of stiffness with fluent Blood; seconding them by some Histories and Observations, which seem very pertinent to his purpose: Which done, he proceeds to remove the difficulties and Objections, alleged by Dr Highmore in his Epistle, formerly printed, and taken notice of in N. 54. of these Transactions. Secondly, he endeavors to evince, that the Hypochondriack passion is wrongfully ascribed to the stomach. Where he taketh occasion, both to deny to the spleen the office of Warming the Stomach, and to assert the Fermentative function of the same: Teaching withal, that the Acidity is not produced in the stomach alone, nor thence only communicated to the Blood and other humors; and that it proceeds from the fluor of the Salt, and that that Salt is one of the Elements of Natural things; which latter he attempts to make out by Experiments against the Objections of his Adversary. To this Vindication are annexed two Exercitations, whereof the First is concerned in proving the Accension of the Blood: Where the Author undertakes to show, that the Blood being animate, that Animaion or Life depends from its being kindled, so far as much as the proper affections of Fire and Flame belong to the Life of the Blood; which is here deduced at large; although it be without acknowledged, that this Vital Flame doth not, as the common Flame, appear to view, in regard that its Form is subordinate to another Superior Form, viz. the Corporeal Soul of the Animal. The second Discourse treateth of the Muscular Motion, where, having declared, that Dr Steno hath been the first that hath delivered aright the Structure of Muscles, and that the Figures described by him are visible in them; and also made out the motions of their Fibers by divers Anatomical Experiments; besides many other considerable particulars: He affirms, that the Motion of Muscles depends from a constant Influx both of the Blood and the Animal spirits; and that the latter alone, without being associated by the former, cannot perform that moving function; maintaining, that as the Spirits (or Springy particles) in the contraction of a Muscle rush out of the Tendons into the Fleasy parts of it, and in the relaxation, skip back from these into those, so those Spirits, rising quite within the Tendons, do swell the Fleasy fibres by conflicting and struggling there with the particles of Blood. To which he adds the manner, how the Instinct (as he pleareth to call it) of performing or stopping the Muscular Motion, is imprinted by the Nerve in the Muscles: Subjoynig also divers important particulars concerning two sorts of Spasmes or Convulsions proceeding from the Muscles, with an illustration of the same by a very remarkable case. All which he concludeth with solving the Objections, which this his Doctrine of the Muscles may be liable, and annexing some Figures, very lively representing some Muscles, together with an Explication of the same. LONDON, Printed by T. N. for John Martyn Printer to the Royal Society, 1670.