vivens, ultimum moriens, it lives first, dies
last in all creatures. Of a pyramidical form,
and not much unlike to a pineapple; a part worthy of
[964] admiration, that can yield such variety of affections,
by whose motion it is dilated or contracted, to stir
and command the humours in the body. As in sorrow,
melancholy; in anger, choler; in joy, to send the blood
outwardly; in sorrow, to call it in; moving the humours,
as horses do a chariot. This heart, though it
be one sole member, yet it may be divided into two
creeks right and left. The right is like the moon
increasing, bigger than the other part, and receives
blood from
vena cava, distributing some of
it to the lungs to nourish them; the rest to the left
side, to engender spirits. The left creek hath
the form of a cone, and is the seat of life, which,
as a torch doth oil, draws blood unto it, begetting
of it spirits and fire; and as fire in a torch, so
are spirits in the blood; and by that great artery
called aorta, it sends vital spirits over the body,
and takes air from the lungs by that artery which is
called
venosa; so that both creeks have their
vessels, the right two veins, the left two arteries,
besides those two common anfractuous ears, which serve
them both; the one to hold blood, the other air, for
several uses. The lungs is a thin spongy part,
like an ox hoof, (saith [965]Fernelius) the town-clerk
or crier, ([966]one terms it) the instrument of voice,
as an orator to a king; annexed to the heart, to express
their thoughts by voice. That it is the instrument
of voice, is manifest, in that no creature can speak,
or utter any voice, which wanteth these lights.
It is, besides, the instrument of respiration, or
breathing; and its office is to cool the heart, by
sending air unto it, by the venosal artery, which vein
comes to the lungs by that
aspera arteria which
consists of many gristles, membranes, nerves, taking
in air at the nose and mouth, and by it likewise exhales
the fumes of the heart.
In the upper region serving the animal faculties,
the chief organ is the brain, which is a soft, marrowish,
and white substance, engendered of the purest part
of seed and spirits, included by many skins, and seated
within the skull or brain pan; and it is the most
noble organ under heaven, the dwelling-house and seat
of the soul, the habitation of wisdom, memory, judgment,
reason, and in which man is most like unto God; and
therefore nature hath covered it with a skull of hard
bone, and two skins or membranes, whereof the one
is called dura mater, or meninx, the other
pia mater. The dura mater is next to the
skull, above the other, which includes and protects
the brain. When this is taken away, the pia mater
is to be seen, a thin membrane, the next and immediate
cover of the brain, and not covering only, but entering
into it. The brain itself is divided into two
parts, the fore and hinder part; the fore part is much
bigger than the other, which is called the little