An Essay of the POROUSNESS OF ANIMAL BODIES.
AS the most numerous part of the Pores of Bodies is too minute to be seen, so the Contemplation of them has been thought too inconsiderable to be regarded. But when I consider, how much most of the Qualities of Bodies, and consequently their operations depend upon the structure of their minute, and singly invisible, particles, and that to this latent contexture, thē bigness the figure and the collocation of the Intervals and Pores [Page 2] do necessarily concur with the Size, Shape and Disposition or contrivance of the substantial parts I cannot but think the Doctrine of the small Pores of Bodies, of no small importance to Natural Philosophy. And I scarce doubt, but if such little things had not escaped the sight of our Illustrious Verulam, he would have afforded a good Porology (if I may so call it) a place, (and perhaps not the lowest neither,) among his Desiderata.
And, though other imployments and avocations hinder me from attempting to treat of this subject as amply and particularly as it deserveth, or even as I had design'd in a Scheme drawn diverse years since, and seen by some Virtuosi; Yet, not to leave apart of Physicks, that seems to me so curious and important, altogether as uncultivated as I found it; I shall present you as many of the Notes I had drawn together about this subject, as I can conveniently (for I do not pretend to do it methodically) reduced to three heads: Whereof the first, which [Page 3] will challenge to it self this present essay, is the porosity of Animal Bodies, about which I shall not be solicitous to marshal my observations, since they all conspire to shew but this one thing; That the parts of Animals, especially whilest these are alive, are furnished with numerous Pores.
Those parts of the Bodies of Animals, wherein their porosity may be best shewn seem to be their Membranes or Skins, the Bones, the Flesh, and Coagmentations of Membranes, Flesh and Juices. And therefore it would be proper enough to treat of these Heads distinctly, and give Instances of each of them in particular. But yet I think it will be more convenient, to set down in order the principal Fountains, whence the Porousness of the substances belonging to the Animal Kingdom (as the Chymists speak) may be derived, and to annex to each of these the Experiments and observations, upon which I argue from it, and which it will be easy to refer, if [Page 4] that be thought fit, to this or that of the parts above mentioned (namely the Membranes, Bones, &c.) whereto they shall (respectively) appear the most properly to belong.
CHAP. I.
THe first thing from which I will deduce the Porosity we have been speaking of, is, the Frame or Constitution of the stable Parts of the Bodies of Animals. For the Body of an Animal being not a rude and indigested lump of matter, but a curious engine, admirably framed and contrived for the exercise of several Functions as Nutrition, Generation, Sensation, and many differing local Motions, it was necessary that it should be furnished with variety of Dissimilar and Organical parts not only very Skilfully, but very differingly, contrived congruous to the several uses for which they were designed, or if you please, to the several Functions they [Page 5] were to perform. And, because 'twill be easily granted, that the Corpuscles, that are skilfully brought together for such purposes, must be so contexed as not to touch one another exactly every where, it will readily follow that they must leave little Intervals or Pores between them, and that, considering the multitude of particles that must go to the making up the Body of the Animal, and the great difference and variety in point of bigness and figure of the Corpuscles that are requisite to contex such differing parts, as Membranes, Fibres Bones, Grizles, Ligaments, Veins, Arterys, Nerves, &c. Both the number and the variety of the Pores cannot but be very great. This argument will be much confirmed, by what there will be occasion to say further to the same purpose, in the Essay touching the Porosity of even Solid Bodies. Wherefore I shall now proceed to the Second thing, whence we may derive that of Animal Substances.
CHAP. II.
THis is afforded us by considering the Nutrition of Animals. For there being continually a great waste made of their substance, partly by the exclusion of visible excrements, and partly by the avolation of invisibles steam, this great loss must necessarily from time to time be repairpaired by the supplies afforded by Nutrition of which the best, if not the only Intelligible, way of giving an account, is, to conceive that the alimental Juice, prepared chiefly in the Stomach is impelled or attracted (for to our present purpose it matters not which) to the parts of the Body that are to be nourished by it, and the Corpuscles of the juice insinuate themselves at those Pores they find commensurate to their Bigness, and Shape; and those that are must congruous, being assimilated, add to the substance of the part wherein [Page 7] they settle, and so make amends for the Consumption of those that were lost by that part before. This may be illustrated by what happens in Plants, and especially Trees, in which, of the various Corpuscles that are to be found in the liquors, that moisten the Earth, and are agitated by the heat of the Sun and the Air, those that happen to be commensurate to the Pores of the Root, are by their Intervention impelled into it, or imbibed by it, and thence conveyed to the other parts of the Tree in the form of Sap which passing through new strainers, (whereby its Corpuscles are separated, and prepared or fitted to be detained in several parts) receives the alterations requisite to the being turned into Wood, Bark, Leaves, Blossoms, Fruit, &c. But to return to Animals, our argument from their Nutrition will be much confirmed, by considering, that in Children and in other young Animals, that have not yet attained their due Stature and Bulk, the Nutrition is so copious as to amount [Page 8] to a continu'd Augmentation. For, as 'tis evident that Animals grow in all their parts, and each part according to all its Dimensions, in so much that even the cavities of Bones increase; so we cannot well conceive how this can be done, unless the Nutritive liquor be distributed through the whole Body of the part that is to be nourished and augmented. And to this distribution 'tis requisite that the Body abound with Pores into which the congruous particles of the Juice may be intimatly admitted, & penetrating even into the innermost recesses, may place or lodge themselves in the manner that is most convenient for the Natural Increase of the part. But the more particular Declaration of this Process I leave to Anatomists and Physicians.
CHAP. III.
HAving premis'd once for all, that in this Essay, I often use the word Skin in the lax and popular sense of it, [Page 9] without nicely distinguishing the Epidermis or Cuticula, called in English the Scarf-skin, from the Cutis it invests and sticks closely to; I shall proceed to another Topic, whence the Porousness of Animals may be argued, namely, the great plenty of matter that is daily carried off by Sweat, and insensible Transpiration. For, 'tis confest that Sweat is discharged at the Pores of the skin; and since there is no penetration of Dimensions, we may safely conclude, that the matter that is not wasted by Sweat, or by any other sensible way of evacuation, must have small Pores or out-lets in the Skin, at which it may issue in the form of steams; though nothing hinders but that invisible Effluvia also may evaporate at the same Pores with the Sweat, though for want of plenty or grossness, or a fit disposition in the ambient, those Effluvia be not at the Orifices of those Pores brought into little Drops, such as those of sweat.
That therefore the Skins of a multitude of Animals, though they seem [Page 10] close to the eye, may be porous, may (as we have been saying) be argued in many of them from their sweating. But because all of them have not been observed to sweat, as is wont to be particularly affirmed of Dogs, we shall add some other Instances to make it probable.
We may sometimes, in the smooth skin of a living man, discern Pores with good Microscopes, and, with one that is none of the best, we may easily on the inside of gloves, which are made but of skins drest, discern good store of these little out-lets: Sometimes orderly enough ranged to make the sight not unpleasant. And though some of them may, I think, be suspected to have been made by the Hairs that grew on the skin before 'twas drest, yet that greater numbers of them, than can be supposed to come from thence, are perforations that pass quite through the Leather, may, not improbably, be shewn by the usual Practice of Chymists, to purify Quick-silver by tying it up strictly [Page 11] in a piece of kids or sheeps Leather, and then wringing it hard to force it out; by which means the lower surface of the Leather will be covered with a Mercurial Dew or Sweat which will fall down and fly out, as the Pores happen to open this or that way, in a thick shower of globules, leaving the dross behind in the Leather. And tho when a mans skin is tanned it is of a greater thickness then one would expect, and that which I employed seem'd almost as thick as a Buck-skin Glove yet having had the curiosity to try the same Experiment with the skin of a mans Arm, I found the Quick-Silver would be squeez'd out at the Pores of that also. 'Tis not necessary that I should here inquire, whether the little holes, unperceiv'd by the naked Eye, at which the Sweat is discharged, and perhaps the matter that the Body looses by insensible transpiration gets out, be not, at least most of them, the Orifices of small excretory vessels, belonging to those very numerous glandules which the excellent Anatomists [Page 12] Steno and Malpighi are said to have discovered beneath the Cuticula, and which for their smalness and shape have been called Glandulae miliares. I need not, I say, engage in this inquiry, since according to this ingenious opinion also, the Skin must be allow'd a multitude of small Perforations or Pores, and that is sufficient for my purpose, from whencesoever this Porosity proceeds in a mans Skin. For the next observation will shew that some membranes of Animals may give passage to transpir'd matter without being perforated by the excretou [...] Vessels of Glandules.
The Membranes or Skins under the shells of Hens Eggs, though they be very thin, are of a Contexture very fine and close as may be confirmed by their resisting the sharp Corpuscles of Vinegar; and yet, that not only these Skins, but the shells that cover them, are porous, may be inferred from the Experiments I made, of keeping them suspended for a good while, and carefully counterpoised in good scales; [Page 13] for by these it appeared, that the Eggs did from time to time manifestly lose in weight; which could not reasonably be imputed but to an invisible Transpiration, the rather, because usually in eggs that have been kept long, there will be at one end a cavity which is wont to increase with their age, and is made by the shrinking of the Membrane from the Shell, to accommodate it self to the diminished quantity of matter, that remains to be involved by it.
When I consider the plenty of matter, that is wont to be discharged daily by insensible Perspiration, especially in Healthful men that exercise themselves moderately, I cannot but think it probable, that the minute Pores, that suffice for the carrying off so much matter, are very numerous, and are much more so than even by the multitude of drops of sweat, that serve to wet the skin, men are wont to imagine. For Sanctorius in his excellent little Tract de Medicina statica affirms, that what is barely carryed [Page 14] off by insensible transpiration does ordinarily amount to more, that is, diminishes more the weight of a mans Body, than all the visible excrements (whether gross or liquid) put together. Aph. vi. He adds, If the meat and Drink, taken in one day, amount to the weight of eight pound, the insensible Transpiration ordinarily amounts to five pounds or thereabouts. And elsewhere says, that sometimes in the space of 24 hours, in the Winter time, a healthy Body may exhale fifty ounces or more. And some Tryals, that I have carefully made upon my self, added to some others of a very curious as well as great Prince, that made use of a like instrument, & did me the honour to acquaint me with the events, gave me no cause to reject Sanctorius observations, considering the difference in point of heat, between the climate of Italy, where he writ, and that of England, where ours were made; only I fear, there has been committed an oversight by those many that ascribe all the decrement of [Page 15] weight, that is not referrable to the grosser Excrements, to what transpires at the Pores of the visible parts of the skin, without taking notice of that great plenty of steams that is in expirations discharged through the Windpipe by the Lungs, and appear manifest to the Eye it self in frosty weather; though they may be presumed to be then less copious than those Invisible ones that are emitted in Summer, when the ambient Air is much warmer. But though I look upon the Windpipe as the great Chimney of the Body in comparison of those little Chimneys (if I may so call them) in the Skin, at which the matter that is wasted by perspiration is emitted, yet the number of these little vents is so very great, that the fuliginous Exhalations that steal out at them, cannot but be very considerable. Besides that, those that are discharged at the Aspera Arteria, do probably, at least for the most part, issue out at the latent Pores of the Membranes that invest the Lungs; which membranes [Page 16] may be lookt upon as external parts of the Body, in reference to the air, tho not in reference to our sight. But, to return to our Eggs, we may safely allow a very great evacuation to be made at the Pores of the skin in man, who is a sanguineous and hot Animal, since we see that even Eggs, that are still actually cold, transpire. And I elsewhere mention the copious transpiration even of Frogs, that are always cold to the touch; and the Decrement in weight of some Animals, soon after they are strangled or suffocated, when, their vital Heat being extinct, no more fumes are emitted by expirations at the wind-Pipe: To which signs may be added the trivial experiment of holding in warm weather the palp of ones Finger, as near as one can without contact, to some cold & solid smooth body, as to a piece of polished Steel or Silver; for you will often times see this Body presently sullyed or overcast, with the invisible steams that issue out of the Pores of the Finger, and are by the cold and smooth [Page 17] surface of the Body condensed into visible steams, that do as 'twere cloud that surface, but upon the Removal of the Finger, quickly fly off, and leave it bright again.
The Perviousness of the skin outwards may not improbably be argued from the quickness wherewith some Medicines take away some black and blew Discolorations of the skin, that happen upon some lighter stroke, or other contusions. For, since these preternatural and unsightly colours are wont by Physicians to be imputed to some small portions of blood, that upon the contusion is forced out of the capillary vessels that lye beneath the surface of it, & being extravasated are obliged to stagnate there; it seems very likely, that if a powerful Medicine do quickly remove the discoloration, that work is performed by attenuating, and dissolving, and agitating the matter, and disposing it to transpire through the cutaneous Pores, though perhaps, when 'tis thus changed, some part of it may be imbibed again by [Page 18] the Capillary Vessels, and so by the circulation carryed into the mass of Blood. Now, that there are Medicines that will speedily work upon such black and blew marks, the Books and Practice of Physicians and Chirurgeons will oblige us to admit. Helmont talks much of the great vertue of white Briony root in such cases. And a notable Experiment made a while ago by a Learned acquaintance of mine in an odd case, did not give Helmont the Lye. And I know an eminent Person, who having some while since received a stroke, by a kick of an Horse, on his Leg, a very threatning contusion, which made the part look black and frightful, he was in a few hours cured of the pain of the hurt, and freed from the black part of the Discoloration by the bare application of the chopt leaves of Hissop mixt with fresh Butter into the form of a Pultess.
Nor is it only the Skin that covers the visible parts of the Body that we judg to be thus porous, but in the Membranes [Page 19] that invest the internal parts, we may reasonably suppose both numerous and very various Pores, according to the exigency of their peculiar and different Functions or Offices. For, the two first causes of Porosity mention'd in this Essay, are as well applicable to the Membranes that cover the internal parts, as the Liver, the Spleen, &c. as to the external Skin, or Membrane that covers the Limbs; and in some respects the transpiration through such Pores seems more advantaged, than that through the Pores of the surface of the Body; since the parts that environ the Spleen, Liver, Kidneys, &c. in man, are hot in comparison of the ambient Air, and being also wet, which the Air is not, the laxity of the Pores of the internal parts is doubly befriended. And perhaps it may be allowable to conceive, both the Skin that covers the Limbs, and the Membranes that invest the internal parts of the Body, to be like worsted stockings, Wast-Coats, &c. Which in their [Page 18] [...] [Page 19] [...] [Page 20] ordinary state have a kind of continuity, but upon occasion can have their Pores every way enlarged and stretched, in this or that manner, as the Agents that work on them determine them to be. This may be confirmed, by what we manifestly see in the finer sort of leather, as that of Kid or Lamb, and by the latent Pores that may be opened in Sheeps-Leather, and mans Leather, by the pressure of included Quick-Silver.
This Porosity of a living mans Skin and other Membranes, though internal ones, will the more easily be assented to if it appear that such thick and gross Membranes, as the urinary bladders of dead Animals, are Porous and Penetrable even by Water. This we tryed, by putting some salt of Tartar in a clean well dryed bladder (which ought to be afterwards tyed up close in the neck, lest the effect should be ascribed to the moist Air) and leaving the lower part of the bladder, as far as the Salt, reached immersed in common Water, whose particles [Page 21] by degrees insinuated themselves into the Pores of the bladder, in plenty enough to resolve the Salt of Tartar into a liquor. And, that it may not be said that the Acrimony of the Salt, by fretting the bladder, made way for the Corpuscles of the Water, I shall add that the Experiment succeeded, but much more slowly, when we tryed it with Sugar instead of Salt of Tartar. And there are some, who pretend that certain Syrups made this slovenly way, which they would have pass for a secret, are very much preferable to those made of common Water.
That the films that line the shells of Eggs are of a very close Contexture seems probable, as by other things, so by their resisting some liquors, sharp enough to corrode the shell, and yet that such Membranes are pervious to Liquors that are none of the most subtile of all, we found by the ensuing Experiment. This was made by taking an ordinary Hens Egg, and keeping it for two or three days in distill'd Vinegar, [Page 22] or in strong crude Vinegar. For then taking it out of the Liquor and wiping it well, it was visibly, and not inconsiderably, swell'd, which I concluded to be from the ingress of some particles of the liquors, at the Pores of the Skins that invest the White of the Egg. For we found nothing broken, though we made the Tryal more than once. And to be satisfied that the manifest expansion proceeded from some other cause, than the meer dilatation of the White, or Yolk, or both, we compared the weight of the Egg, after it was taken out and well wiped, with that which had been taken before 'twas put into the Menstruum, and found the Egg, notwithstanding the loss of the Shell, to be considerably heavier than 'twas before its immersion.
I shall add on this occasion that by a more unlikely way than that newly recited, both the Egg, Shell and Lining of an Egg, may be penetrated. For, notwithstanding the fine and close contexture of the Membranes that invest [Page 23] the Eggs, the Chineses have a way of Salting them in the shell, as I have been assured both by English and Dutch Merchants trading to the East Indies. And in one of the Dutch Journals sent by the Council of Batavia to their Principals in Holland, and intercepted by an English man of War, I met with divers accounts of great numbers of salted Eggs, that were such or such a day of such a Month brought in by Sea to Batavia or other Ports. Long after which time, meeting with an ingenious Physician, that liv'd in Batavia, I learned by enquiry from him, that 'tis very true that such Eggs are frequently met with in those parts; he having divers times eaten of them there: some that he judged to have been either boyled or roasted, before they were salted; and others that were raw, when they came to be dressed for him, but yet retained a Briny tast. And, though the Merchants I enquired of could not tell me what way the Chineses employed to Salt their Eggs, without making them [Page 24] unfit for common use, yet by a tryal made with clay and Brine, in which I kept the Eggs for a competent time, I was perswaded that 'twas possible the Chineses should have the Art ascribed to them. For upon the breaking of an Egg coated with clay, after it had lain for a competent time in Brine, I found its Tast considerably Salt, but was, by I know not what accident, hindered from prosecuting the Experiment, and endeavouring to make it more practicable and useful.
I knew a Physitian of more learning than vertue, who, being tormented with a violent and obstinate Colic of a peculiar kind, was wont to relieve himself by Clisters of Sack; thô he usually found that not long after he had taken any of them, they would make him giddy, and fuddle him, as he himself confessed to me. But upon this Instance I lay not much weight, and less upon what was answered me by a great Chirurgeon, who having practised his Art in the West-Indies, and being asked [Page 25] by me whether he had not dressed Wounds and Ulcers with the recent juice of Tobacco (a plant I use to keep growing in my Garden for its excellent vertues in cuts, burns, and tumors;) and whether, if he employed it, he did not find it emetick, he told me among other things, that having Divers times dressed with this Juice a small Ulcer in a Womans leg, the patient soon after the application would grow sick, and have her stomack turned, or actually vomit. But, as I was saying, on this instance I lay no stress, because the Corpuscles of the Tobacco might probably enough get in at the small Orifices of some corroded Vessels, and so be conveyed inwards, rather by the help of the Circulation of the blood, than on the account of the Porousness of the Parts. And therefore I shall rather mention what has been related to me, by an eminent Physician of the famous Colledge of London, namely, that he had divers times given himself a vomit, by a certain application of decocted Tobacco to [Page 26] his wrists, and some other external parts; which brings into my mind, what is affirmed to have been observed in some Children that have scabb'd Heads, who have been made Drunk, by the application of Clothes or spunges wetted in Infusion of Tobacco, or of strong Liquors, and applied to the part affected. Though in this case the inebriating Particles may be suspected to have got in, not at the meer Pores, but rather at the Orifices of the Capillary Vessels, that were made accessible by such little solutions of Continuity, as are seldom wanting in scabbed Heads.
That Children may be purged by outward applications is asserted by some Physicians; and an experienced Person of that number has affirmed to me, that he can almost constantly do it by a Plaister. But 'tis more considerable what was related to me by an eminent Virtuoso, who being indisposed to believe such things a while before he told me the story, was desired by a curious Person to shew him [Page 27] his Hand which the Relator having done the other took it in his hand, which was moistened (as was afterwards confessed) with a kind of subtile Chymical Oil, but so slightly, that the Relator scarce minded it, till some time after when he found himself prest with a motion, like that which a purge would have given him; for the other thereupon smiling, my acquaintance began to suspect what the matter might be, and was in a short time purged four times, without griping, or other pain or discomposure. But to return to the Porousness of Membranes, it may serve to make way for your admitting it, to observe, that though Lute-strings be but Ropes of Fibres (which are at least the chief parts that Membranes consist of) dead, cold and stiff, yet when the lute is in tune they will sometimes in wet weather swell so forcibly as with noise and violence to break, which proceeds from the copious ingress of moist vapors into their Pores, whereby they are not only shortened, but as I have tryed in [Page 28] nice scales, made manifestly heavier.
The Porosity of the internal parts of Animals by both the foremention'd ways ( viz. of emission and reception of Corpuscles,) may be confirmed by the things that happen in some of the Metastases or Translations (as the Physitians call them) of the morbifick matter in diseased Bodies. 'Tis known to them that are any thing conversant with Hospitals, or the observations of Physicians, that there do not seldom occur in Diseases sudden Removes of the matter that caused them, from one part to another according to the nature and functions of which, there may emerge a new Disease, more or less dangerous than the former, as the invaded part is more or less noble. Thus oftentimes the matter, which in the sanguiferous Vessels produced a Feaver, being discharged upon some internal parts of the Head, produces a Delirium or Phrenitis; in the latter of which I have somewhat wondered, to see the Patients Water so like that of a Person without a Feaver; the same [Page 29] Febrile matter either by a deviation of Nature, or medicines improper or unskillfully given, is discharged sometimes upon the Pleura, or Membrane that lines the sides of the Chest; sometimes upon the throat; sometimes upon the Guts; and causes in the first case a Pleurisie, in the 2d a Squinancy, and in the third a Flux, for the most part dysenterical. But, because I suppose, that many, if not most, of these translations of peccant humors, are made by the help of the circulation of the Blood, I forbore at the beginning of this Section to speak in general terms, when I mentioned them in reference to the Porousness of the internal parts of the Body, and contented my self to intimate, that some of them may serve to confirm that Porosity.
This will not perhaps seem improbable, if we consider that 'tis in effect already proved, by the same arguments by which we have shewn, that both the Skin and the internal Membranes are furnished with Pores, Permeable by Particles whose Shape and [Page 30] Size are correspondent to them. For we may thence probably deduce, that when a morbifick matter, whether in the form of Liquor, or of exhalations, chances to have Corpuscles suited to the Pores of this or that part of the Body, it may, by a concourse of Circumstances, be determined to invade it, and so dislodge from its former receptacle, and excite Disorders in the part it removes to.
CHAP. IV.
ANother thing whence the Porosity of Animals may be argued▪ is, their taking in of Effluvia from without. For these cannot get into the internal parts of the Body, to perform their operations there, without penetrating the Skin, and consequently entring the Pores of it.
Now, That things, outwardly applyed to the Body, may without wounding the Skin, be convey'd to the internal parts, there are many things that argue.
[Page 31]And first, it has been observed in some Persons, (for all are not equally disposed to admit the action of particular Poysons) that Cantharides, being externally apply'd by Chyrurgions or Physicians, may soon, and before they break the Skin, produce great disorders in the Urinary Passages, and sometimes cause bloody Water. And I remember, that having once had a blistering Plaister, applyed by a skilful Chyrurgion between my shoulders, though I knew not that there were any Cantharides at all mixt with the other Ingredients, yet it gave me about the neck of my Bladder one of the sensiblest pains I had ever felt, and forced me to send for help at a very unseasonable time of night.
The Porousness of the Skin may be also argued from divers of the effects even of Milder Plaisters. For, though some Plaisters may operate as they closely stick to the Skin, and hinder Perspiration from within, and fence the part from the external cold; yet, twill scarce be denied, that [Page 32] many of them have notable effects upon other accounts, whereof none is so likely and considerable as the copious ingress of the Corpuscles of the Plaister, that enter at the Pores of the Skin, and being once got in, act according to their respective Natures & Vertues. The like may be said of Ointments, whose operations, especially on Children (whose Skin is ordinarily more soft and lax) are sometimes very notable. And I have known considerable things performed by them, in an internal Disease of grown men, where I should scarce have expected a Vegetable Ointment should perform so much: I say, a Vegetable Ointment, for 'tis vulgarly known that by Mercurial Ointments Salivation may be excited; and sometimes, against the Physitians will, the Corpuscles of the Quick Silver get so far into the Body, that he is not able to get them out again.
What we lately said of Plaisters, may be applyed to those that Physitians call Pericarpia, or Wrist-bands: [Page 33] The better sort of which, though sometimes ineffectual, are oftentimes successful in stopping Fits of Agues, as I have frequently found in a mixture, elsewhere mention'd, of Currans, Hops, Baysalt well beaten together, by which, by Gods blessing, many, and I among others, have been freed from simple Tertians, and either double Tertians or Quotidians.
The Argument of the Porosity of Animals, drawn from those things that get in through their skins, without breaking or wounding them, may be much strengthned, if it can be made appear, that those Physitians do not deceive us, who ascribe sensible Operations and Vertues, to things externally applyed, in so loose a way, that they do not so much as stick to the Skin, or perhaps immediately touch it; such as some call Periapta and Appensa; divers of which are best known among us, by the name of Amulets; such as are the Quills containing Quick-silver or Arsenick, that some hang about their necks, and [Page 34] wear under their Shirts, against the Plague and other Contagious Diseases; and the Bloodstones that others wear against Haemorrhages; and the stone which the Women use in the East-Indies, for a quite contrary effect, in Obstructione Mensium. That many of these external Medicines, answer not the promises of those that extol them, having some of them no sensible operation at all, and others no considerable one, experience has assured judicious observers; but that some of them, especially on some Patients, may have considerable, not to say admirable, operations, I confess my self by other motives, as well as Authority, to be perswaded. Having been one summer frequently subject to bleed at the Nose, and reduced to imploy several remedies to check that distemper; that which I found the most effectual to stanch the blood, was some moss of a dead mans Scull (sent for a present out of Ireland where 'tis far less rare than in most other Countrys) though it did but [Page 35] touch my skin till the herb was a little warm'd by it. And though I remember not that I have known any great matter done to stop Haemorrhagies by the bare outward application of other Blood-stones; yet of one that look'd almost like an Agate, I admired the effects, especially upon a young and extraordinarily Sanguin person. To which I shall add a memorable thing, Note: If one would see this passage at large he may find it at the end of the Essay. communicated to the experienced Zwelfer by the chief Physitian of the States of Moravia. For this learned man whom he extols for a great Physician and Philosopher; assures him, that having prepared some Trochischs of Toads according to Helmonts way, (which I remember I also was solicitous to prepare, but had not occasion to make tryal of their vertue,) he not only found, that being worn as Amulets they preserved him and all his Domesticks, and Friends, from the Plague (though he daily visited the infected) but that having caused these [Page 36] Trochischs to be put upon the Plague sores of several persons, none of them died, but the venom of the pestilential Carbuncles was thereby so weakened that the ulcers were afterward easily cured by vulgar remedies.
And now, as to the difficulty, which I acknowledge not to be small, to conceive how Bodies actually cold can emit Effluvia, capable of penetrating (without moistening it) a Membrane of so close a Contexture as a mans Skin; I suppose it will be much lessened in the objectors opinion, by what he will meet with hereafter about the Pores of Bodies, and the Figures of Corpuscles. For supposing these to be congruous, it will not seem incredible, that the Effluvia of Amulets should in tract of time get passage through the Pores of the Skin of a Living Body. And to make this the more probable, I will give an Instance in the Skin of a dead Animal. And, because this requires a Liquor I much employ in these trials about Porology, though I have many years since in [Page 37] another Tract taught how to make it for another purpose; yet I shall here repeat, that 'tis made by exactly mingling Flower of Brimstone, powdered Sal Armoniac and good Quicklime in equal quantities, save that, if the Quicklime be not very dry and good, a fourth or fifth part must be superadded, for these being nimbly mixed, and distilled by degrees of Fire in a Retort, till the Sand be at length brought to be almost red hot, there will come over a smoaking Spirit, which must be kept very carefully stopt, and which for distinctions sake, I also use to call, The Permeating Menstruum or Liquor, and its expirations the Penetrant, or Permeating Fumes.
And now you will easily understand the experiment I was about to mention, which was this; We took a very clean piece of polish'd Copper, in want of which one of silver will serve the turn, and having lapt it up in a piece of either Lambs or sheeps Leather, so that it was every way [Page 38] inclosed, we then held it over the Orifice of the Vial that contained the Spirit, at a pretty distance from the Liquor, whose fumes nevertheless did quickly, (perhaps in a minute of an hour or less) pervade the Pores of the Leather, and operate upon the included metal as appeared by the deep and lasting tincture it had given to the lower surface of it, though the interposed Leather it self was not deprived of its whiteness, nor at all sensibly discoloured; however it smelt of the Sulplureous steams that had invaded it. And, if I misremember not, the same Experiment succeeded, though somewhat more slowly, when a double Leather was interposed between the fumes and a new piece of Copper coin. This will be thought the less strange, when I shall come to some other Instances of the Penetrancy of these Spirits. In the mean while I leave it to be considered, whether this may not suggest some conjecture at that strange Phoenomenon, which is recorded by Authors of good repute, [Page 39] That sometimes in great Thunders the Lightening, among other operations, has been found to have manifestly discoloured mens money, without burning the Purses or Pockets wherein it lay. For in our experiment, the steams that in a trice pervaded the Leather, the most usual matter whereof Purses are made, were sulphureous, as the smell argues, that those which accompany the Fulmen are wont to be; and whereas these, when they invade Bodies, are usually very hot, ours operated when the Liquor that emitted them was actually cold. And if it be said, that sometimes their money has been found discolored in their Pockets, who were not struck, by the Fulmen, but had it only pass near them, it may be objected, that tho the intire Body, whether fluid or solid, if there be any of this latter kind that is in Latine called Fulmen (for our English word, Thunderbolt seems not so applicable to a fluid) did not touch them, yet it might scatter steams enough round about it, to cause [Page 40] the Phoenomenon. For confirmation of which I shall take notice, that a considerable Person of my acquaintance, having had the Curiosity to ascend a burning mountain in America, till the sulphureous steams grew too offensive to him, he told me that, among other operations he observed them to have upon him, one was, that he found the money he had about him turned of a black and dirty colour, such as I have observed our sulphureous steams often give both to Copper, and to Silver Coins. But whether or no our Spirits will justify the conjecture, they invited me to mention, at least their so easily pervading the Skin of a dead Animal may make it probable, that the Skin of a Living man may be easily penetrated by external steams whose approach the Eye does not perceive, and whose operations, though not inconsiderable, may therefore be unsuspected. I leave to Physitians to consider, what use may be made of this observation, in reference to the propagation of contagious Diseases, by the contact of [Page 41] infected Air, distinct from the Respiration of it, and by the penetration of the steams, that issuing from divers Bodies invade the Skin, and may perhaps be capable of operations, either hurtful or friendly, that are not usually suspected to proceed from such causes, and are therefore misascribed to others. And on this occasion it will not be impertinent to add, that by hanging up sheeps Leather or Lambs Leather in the free Air, the vapors of it would so insinuate themselves into the Pores in wet weather, that a moderate degree of moisture in the Air would add to it a not inconsiderable weight, of which dry weather, whether hot or cold, would deprive it.
CHAP. V.
I Must not in this place omit some Instances, very proper to manifest the Penetrableness of Membranes to Fumes themselves, if they be subtile [Page 42] enough for their Pores, or correspondent enough to them.
Among the observations published by Physicians I have met with some by which it appears that Cantharides may have great Effects upon the internal Parts of the Body, though they do not so much as touch the Skin, but are placed at some distance from it, Note: Schenkii Observationum Lib. 7. Obs. 37. so that their Effluvia must be transmitted through other Bodies before they can penetrate that. The learned Michael Paschalius mentions a Chyrurgion, who was twice brought to void much Blood with his Urine, by some Spanish Flies that he carryed about in a Purse or Bag. And another Doctor of note relates of another person that came to complain to him, that he pissed Blood, having carryed about with him Cantharides, though in his Pocket, and adds, that a like Case was recounted to him by Helidaeus, whom he calls an eminent Bolognian Physician.
We see, that in Linnen Cloth, the [Page 43] finer and more slender the threads are the closer and less Porous, coeteris paribus, the Linnen is: By analogy to which one may esteem the thin film that lines the shell of an Egg, to be of an exceeding close Contexture; and yet that even this film is not impervious to some Fumes, I have found by the following Tryal.
To make this, we slowly and warily pick'd off a sufficient part of the Shell of a Hens Egg, from the Skin that lay just beneath it, and is wont to stick so close to it, that their separation, without injuring the Membrane, is not easy. In this Skin, being wip'd, we wrapt up a flat piece of Copper, whose surface was made bright, that the change of Colour might be the better seen; and having kept this covered bit of Plate, over the Fumes of our smoaking Liquor lately mentioned for a minute or two by our ghess we unfolded the Skin, and found, as we expected, that the lower surface of the Copper which was it that had been held over the [Page 44] Fumes, was turned of a very dark colour, which manifested that even so fine and closely contexed a Membrane was not only, as we have formerly shewn, penetrable by Liquors, but readily pervious to our sulphureous exhalations, tho these were probably but faintly emitted, since the Liquor they came from was then actually cold. But in making the Tryal it is fit to hold (as we did in that newly recited) the Membrane against the light, to see if it be intire, and have escaped all those little lacerations that are hardly avoidable in severing it from the Shell it sticks so close to. If this caution be neglected, 'tis easy to be imposed on, by overlooking some little holes, that are not easily discerned when one looks down upon the Skin, and yet may be sufficient to make the Experiment deceitful. But, thô when 'tis well made, it is a notable confirmation of the Doctrine endeavoured to be established in this Paper, yet I shall now subjoyn a more considerable [Page 45] Instance to the same purpose.
The Porousness of the Internal Membranes of the Body, will be more easily granted, if it be considered that either the Liquors, or the moist Exhalations, whose Action is promoted by the Natural Heat of the Parts, keeps them constantly wet or moist, and thereby renders them more lax, and more penetrable by subtle Spirits or other Corpuscles. In favour of this Reflection I made the following Experiment. We took a piece of a dryed Urinary Bladder, which was judged to have been a Calfs; and having lapt it about a new piece of Silver Coin, so that the Bladder was single where it covered the lower side of the Piece, we kept it for divers Minutes, by guess, over the Spirituous Fumes of our often mentioned Permeating Liquor, but could not perceive that the Coin was thereby at all affected or ternished. Whence we concluded that the Pores of the dry Bladder were too close and narrow▪ to give passage to the Expirations of [Page 46] the Menstruum. But presuming that moisture would some what relax them with another piece of the same Bladder, made limber by being a little wetted in common Water, we lapt up another like peace of new Coin, as we had done the former, and kept it at the same distance as before, from the Liquor, but not for so long a time. For after about two Minutes, by guess, we remov'd and took out the Piece, and, as we expected, found much of its lower surface (that regarded the Liquor) deeply discoloured. Which Experiment will not only justify what I lately said, of the greater Laxity of moist than of dry Membranes, but will be thought no mean confirmation of what is in this Essay delivered about the Porosity of Membranes, since the Urinary Bladder does, as Anatomists well know, consist of more than one Membrane, though they stick so close together, as to appear but one to the Eye. And this Bladder was speedily penetrated by [Page 47] the Fumes that our Liquor emitted in exceeding Cold and Frosty weather, though the Bladder it self was not in the warm Body of the live Animal, but had been so long kept dryed and cold, that probably the Moisture it introduced in scarce one minute of an Hour, could not restore it to the Laxity it had, whilst it was a part of the living Calf.
One of the notablest Instances I ever met with, of the Porosity of the Internal Membranes of the Humane Body, was afforded me by that British Nobleman, of whom our famous Harvey tells a memorable, not to say matchless, story. This Gentleman, having in his youth, by an accident which that Doctor relates, had a great and lasting Perforation made in his Thorax, at which the motion of his Heart could be directly perceiv'd did not only out live the accident, but grew a strong, and somewhat corpulent man; and so robust, as well as Gallant, that he afterwards was a Souldier, and had [Page 48] the honour to command a Body of an Army for the King. This Earl of Mount-Alexander (for that was his last Title having marryed one of my nearest kinswomen, and having been told that I was very desirous to see, what I had heard such strange things of, very obligingly came, at a fit time, to give me that satisfaction. In order to which he removed that which covered the wide Orifice of his Hurt, and gave me the opportunity of looking into his Thorax, and of discerning there the motions of the Cone, as they call it, or Mucro of the Heart. But these things I mention but upon the by, and because of the strangeness of the fact; the thing I principally intended relates to my present argument. Having then made several inquiries fit for my purpose, his Lordship told me, that when he did, as he was wont to do from time to time, (though not every day) inject with a Syringe some actually warm medicated Liquor into his Thorax, to cleanse and cherish the [Page 49] Parts, he should quickly and plainly find in his Mouth the tast and smell of the Drugs, wherewith the Liquor had been impregnated. And I further learned, that, whereas he constantly wore upon the unclosed part of his Chest, a Silken Quilt, stuffed with Aromatick and odoriferous Powders, to defend the neighbouring Parts and keep them warm; when he came, as he used to do after some weeks, to imploy a new Quilt, the fragrant Effluvia of it would mingle with his breath in exspiration, and very sensibly perfume it, not, as I declared I suspected, upon the score of the pleasing Exhalations that might get up between his Clothes and his Body, but that got into the Organs of Respiration, and came out with his Breath at his Mouth, as was confirmed to me by a grave & judicious Statesman, that happened to be then present, and knew this General very well. Other circumstances I might add, but that I dare not trust my memory for them, and unhappily lost the Paper, [Page 50] wherein the oddness of the things invited me to set them down, for fear of forgetting them.
That part of this Narrative which relates to Injections may be much confirm'd by what is delivered by Galen himself, who says that Mulsum or Honeyed Water, being injected at the Orifice of Wounds penetrating into the cavity of the Thorax, has been observed to be in part received into the Lungs, and discharged out of the Aspera Arteria by coughing. And this he mentions as a known thing, imploying it as a Medium whereby to prove another.
The mention that has been made of the Porosity of Membranes, brings into my mind what I once observed at the Dissection, made by some Physicians, and Anatomists, of a lusty Souldier, that was hanged for I know not what crime. This man, though otherwise young and sound, was observed to have been long molested with what they call a short, dry Cough, which made us expect to find something [Page 51] much amiss in his Lungs. But meeting with nothing there, we were at a loss for the cause of this Cough, till coming to consider the internal part of the Chest, we perceived something on one of the sides, by tracing of which we discovered, that between the Pleura and the substance of the intercostal muscles, there was lodged a certain matter, of the breadth of a Silver Crown piece, or thereabouts, of a roundish figure, and of the consistence and almost colour of new, soft Cheese, which odd stuff was concluded to have been the remains of some ill cured Pleurisy, and to have transmitted through the Pores of the Pleura, though that be a very close Membrane, some noxious Effluvia, which ever and anon irritated the Lungs into an irregular and troublesom motion, and so produced the Cough the Malefactor had been molested with.
CHAP. VI.
I Am well aware that 'tis far less difficult, to prove the permeableness of single Membranes, than that of such a Part of the Body, as seems to be an aggregate of several parts, which in regard of their close adhesion, are looked upon but as one part, to which, on that account, men commonly give a distinct name. But yet there are some Phaenomena that seem to argue, that even such compounded or resulting parts if I may so call them, are not destitute of Pores, which whether they be not some of them the Orifices of exceeding slender and therefore unobserved Capillary Vessels, I must not now stay to enquire.
When the cavity of the Abdomen in those Hydropical Persons that are troubled with an Ascites, is filled with Water, or rather with a Liquor that I have found to be much more viscous, it justly appears strange, that by an [Page 53] Hydragogue, or some appropriated purging medicine, great quantities of this gross Liquor should in a short time be carryed off by Siege, and perhaps also by Urine, though to get into the cavity of the Guts, or that of either of the Kidneys, it seems necessary that it Permeate the Tunicles, and other component parts, of the Viscera it gets into.
I know not whether I may on this occasion take notice of what Physicians observe to occur now and then in Empyema's that follow ill conditioned Pleurisies. For it has several times been observed, that upon the bursting of such imposthumes into the cavity of the Chest, the Purulent matter hath been voided by Siege and Urine. I hesitate, as I was saying, whether I should alledge this Phaenomenon, as a proof of what I now contend for, till it be determined whether this Metastasis be made by transudation properly so called, or by the ingress of the Pus into the imperfectly closed Orifices of the Vessels of the Lungs; [Page 54] where being once admitted and mingled with the Blood they may with this circulating Liquor arrive at the Kidneys, or any other Parts fitted to make a secretion of this Heterogeneous matter.
But whatever be the Reason or manner of it, we find that the Lungs do sometimes odly convey things to distant parts of the Body. And if I may here mention a thing, cui honos praefationis est, I shall add that I have several times observ'd in my self, that when I had been an actor or an assistant in the Dissection of a living Dog, especially if his Blood or Body were rankly Scented, I should divers hours after plainly find that odour in the excrements I voided by Siege.
A famous Chirurgeon and Anatomist relates, that one who was very ill of a dropsy, judged to arise from a Scirrhus of the Spleen, coming to ask his counsel and assistance, though he judged the patients case desperate, yet to content him, he ordered him to dip a very large Sponge in good Quicklime-Water, [Page 55] and having squeezed out the superfluous Liquor, to bind it upon the region of the Spleen, only shifting it from time to time. He adds, that after some months he was much surprized to receive a visit from this Patient, with solemn thanks for his recovery; the outward Medicine having, it seems, resolved the Scirrhus and concurred with nature to evacuate the hydropical humour. For the resolution of which hard tumour it seems necessary, that the sanative Corpuscles of the external remedy should at length penetrate, not only the Epidermis, and the true Cutis, but the Muscles themselves of the Abdomen, and some other interposed parts.
These instances may be strengthen'd by an eminent observation of Galen, who takes notice that Bones being sometimes broken, without piercing the Skin that covers the part they belong to, when the Callus is making, and the broken parts of the Bone begin to be conglutinated together, a Portion [Page 56] of that Blood which had flowed to the part affected is carryed to the Skin and permeats that, so as to wet and foul the Dressings or Bandages that are kept upon the limb affected by the Fracture.
CHAP. VII.
BOnes, Horns, and parts of the like Substance, being those that are granted to be the most solid of the Bodies of Animals, I come in the last place to shew by particular Experiments that these also have their Pores. I say, by particular Experiments, because in a general way, their Porosity has been already proved, by the same Arguments, from their original Texture, Nutrition, Augmentation, &c. That have been employed to manifest the Porousness of Animal substances in general.
That the Nails of men, as well as their Skins, are Porous, may be gathered from their being easily and [Page 57] permanently tinged with divers metalline solutions, and particularly with those of silver in Aquafortis, and Gold in Aqua Regia; the former of which solutions though cold, will but too easily tinge the Skin and Nails it chances to touch, and makes some little stay upon, with a dark and blackish colour; which I found not that I could wash out with water, or, even with a far more penetrating and abstersive liquor. The like durableness I found in the Purple spots, that I sometimes purposely made on my Nails, by letting some little drops of the solution of Gold in Aqua Regia dry upon them, which I now and then did, to observe the way of the Nails growth. For if the stain were made near the root of the nail, it would be still, though very slowly, thrust on by the new matter, till after some weeks it arrived to the further end of the Nail, and was fit to be pared off with it. But this only upon the by. 'Tis more to our purpose to take notice, that, though the Menstruums imployed in the recited [Page 58] Experiments be of themselves very acid and corrosive, yet they are so changed by the metals they have dissolved, that they are Acid no more, the solution of Silver being rather extreamly bitter, and that of Gold of a kind of Stiptic tast, almost like that which sloes, growing in the hedges, are wont to be of.
Ivory is a thing too well known to need to be described. And, since 'tis generally lookt upon (for I have had no opportunity to compare it with the Bones) as the solidest part of the vastest of Terestrial Animals, Experiments proving its porosity, will be strong presumptions for that of the hardest parts of other Animals. And the Porousness of Ivory may be argued from the several ways of dying it with permanent colours. For in these colorations the Tinctures that make them, must penetrate into, and be lodged in the Substance of the Ivory, especially when the Substance remains smooth and glassy, as I have divers times made it do, when I employed [Page 59] fit Menstruums and Metalline Pigments. The solution I formerly mentioned of Silver in Aqua fortis, being laid upon Ivory, will soon give it a dark and blackish stain, which is not, that I have found, to be washed off. I remember also that I many years since taught some ingenious artificers, to adorn Ivory with a fine purple colour, by moistening it with, and suffering leisurely to dry on it, a solution of Gold made in Aqua Regia. And if occasion required, allayed with water, nor needs either of these solutions be applyed hot, any more than the Ivory needs to be heated. Both which circumstances favour the Porousness of the solid Body.
Copper dissolved in Aqua fortis stains Ivory with a blewish colour, as I have sometimes seen in the hafts of knifes, about whose coloration nevertheless another way is also employed. But I remember that without making use of any Acid or Corrosive Menstruum, I have even in the cold stained Ivory, with a fine and permanent [Page 60] blew, like a Turquois, by suffering to dry upon it as deep a solution as I could make of Crude Copper, in an urinous Spirit, as that of Sal Armoniack.
But now to return to Bones, their growth in all their dimensions, does, as I lately noted, argue their Porosity and the marrow that is found in the great hollow Bones, whether it nourish them or no, must it self be supplyed by some alimental juice, that soaks or otherways penetrates, into the cavities that contain it.
Nor does it seem at all improbable, that Blood it self may through small Vessels be conveyed into the very substance of the Bone, so as that the Vessels reach at least a little way in it, though perhaps the Liquor they carry may afterwards by Imbibition be brought to the more internal parts of the Bone. For not to urge that we manifestly see, that on each side of the lower Jaw, Nature has been careful to perforate the Bones and make a Channel in the substance of it; which Channel [Page 61] receives not only a larger Nerve but a Vein, & Artery to bring in & carry back Blood for the nourishment of the Teeth, by distinct Sprigs sent from the great branch to the particular Teeth. Not to urge this, I say, (which I mention but to shew that the opinion lately proposed is agreeable to a known practice of Nature) I have been assured by eminent Anatomists, whom I purposely consulted, that they have observed Blood-vessels to enter a great way into the substance of the larger Bones. And one of them affirmed, that he had traced a Vessel even to the great Cavity of the Bone. Which I the less scrupled to admit, because it has been observed, that in younger Animals the Cavity is in great part furnished with Blood▪ as well as Marrow, and in those larger Pores, whereof many are found in the more Spongy Substance of divers Bones, Blood has been observed to have been lodged, as also in the spongy part of the Skull, that lies between the two Tables, as I have been assured by Skilful Eyewitnesses.
[Page 62]The blackness also, that Bones acquire when put into a competent heat, and a peculiar kind of fatness which they may by heat be made to afford, shew that they harbour, even in their internal parts, store of Unctuous Particles, separable from the solid substance, (which still retains its shape and continues solid) in whose Pores they may thereby be argued to have been lodged. The Lightness of Bones, even when their Cavity is accessible to (Air and) Water, is also a great sign of their Porosity. And so is their being corroded by tinging liquors, if they be penetrative and well applyed. I know not whether I should add on this occasion, that having taken calcined and pulverized Bones, such as we use to make our Cupels of, and, after having given them a good heat, kept them for some time in the Air, but in a well covered place; I found the imbibed moisture of the Air to have manifestly increased their weight; and that I also observed in a curious Skeleton, [Page 63] where the Bones were kept together by wires, instead of other Ligaments, that though I kept it in a well covered place, not far from a Kitchin Fire, yet in very moist weather the Bones seemed to swell, since those joynts that were easy to be bent, in dry weather, and that after several manners, would grow stiff and refractory, and indisposed to be put into such motions, when the weather was considerably wet. These particulars (as I was saying) I am somewhat doubtful whether I should here insert, because one may suspect the Phaenomena may proceed rather from somewhat else, than the imbibed moisture of the Air; and yet I would not omitt to mention these observations, because I do not yet see any cause to which they may more probably (or indeed so probably) be assigned.
And on this occasion I shall subjoyn some observations made on large and solid Ox Bones, which in one of my Note Books I find thus registred. Nov. 15. We weighed two [entire or unbroken] [Page 64] Marrow Bones, and found the one to weigh ℥xxix + ʒss, and the other ℥xxiv + ʒiv + 30 gr. Nov. 24. The former weighed ℥xxix + ʒvi, and the latter ℥xxv + ʒi + 30 gr. Decemb. 28. the former weighed ℥xxix + ʒiij. 55 gr. and the latter ℥xxiv + ʒvii. + 39 gr. June 7th of the following year, the former weigh'd ℥xxix + ʒii. And the latter ℥xxiv + ʒvii. By which observations purposely made at differing times of the year, and in very good scales, it seems that Bones do plentifully enough imbibe the Exhalations of the Air, and emit them again, together with some of their own, according as the ambient happens to be disposed. And these alterations argue the Bones to abound with Pores, since the external steams must have Pores to receive them, and the Effluvia must upon their recess leave Pores behind them.
I confess that to think (as with some Anatomists I lately seemed to do) that Bones themselves admit into their substance, Vessels capable of [Page 65] conveying a nutritive Liquor, we must suppose those Vessels extreamly slender. But that 'tis not only possible but somewhat credible, there may be such, I am induced to think, by what is known to happen in that disease, which from the Country it most infests is called the Plica Polonica. For, tho one would think that the hairs of men are much too slender, to have cavities in them capable of visible Liquors; and though I have found it very difficult, even with a good Microscope, to perceive any cavities in the hair of a man transversly cut; yet not only some other writers of good note, but the Judicious Sennertus himself deliver, that in this disease (of which he particularly treats) it has been observed, that if the Patients cause their intangled hair to be cut, as they sometimes do, by reason of its nastiness or unsightliness, they are not only thereby endangered, but sometimes the single hairs will actually bleed, where the ends have been cut off; so that so thick a Liquor as Blood may be conveyed [Page 66] through Vessels, that can at most be but in a proper sense Capillary and must be far less than hairs, if their Perforations be like those by which many Plants have their nourishment conveyed to them, or such as are obvious in divers Canes, which being cut quite through transversly, discover a multitude of distinct Pores, that by some Experiments one may be induced to guess, reach all along, and make the Cane like a Cylindrical Bundle of Minute Pipes; or rather a multitude of small cavities, that perforate from end to end the Parenchyma, or Substance analogous to it, that gives them stability. And for the present this sort of Vessels seem to me, the more likely to be those that convey the Blood to the extream Parts of the Hair, because even in Horse hairs, which yet are nourished and grow, I am not yet sure, that I have discovered with my Microscopes any cavity, and therefore suspect there may be divers imperceptible ones, for the Hair is nourished and grows, which it is not like [Page 67] it should do if the Body were solid; and if there were but a single cavity in it, as in the lower part of a Quill, 'tis like the Microscope I used would have discovered it, since with one much inferiour I could easily see, that several little short Hairs, that grow upon the Animal that yields Musk, had each of them a cavity in it like that of the lower part of a Quill.
To the things that have already been said about the Porosity of Bones, I shall now add an observation of a very learned Physician, that is very remarkable to our present purpose, because it argues, that even Bodies not saline, nor actually moist, may from without get into the Pores and Cavities of Humane Bones. Divers Physicians have complain'd of the mischiefs done to the Bones by Mercury, employ'd to salivate in Venereal Diseases. Whereof I remember I have read a very notable Instance, in a learned Book (which I have not now by me) of an eminent Roman Professor of Physick, who had the opportunity [Page 68] of making several curious observations in the famous Hospital of the Incurabili at Rome; and is therefore the more to be credited; where he relates, that in the Cavity of at least one Pocky-mans Bones, there was found real Quick-Silver that had penetrated thither. And this brings into my mind a memorable observation of an ancient and experienced Physician, who being famous for the cure of Venereal Diseases, was asked by me, what Instances he had found of the Penetration of Quick-Silver, either outwardly or inwardly administred, into the Bones of men? To this he answered, that he could not say he had himself taken notice of any Quick-Silver, in the Cavities of greater Bones, but that some other Practitioners had told him, that they had met with such Instances, as I enquired after. But for himself, he only remembred that a Patient, who had been terribly fluxed with mercurial Inunctions, coming afterwards to have one of the Grinders of his lower Jaw pulled out, [Page 69] because of the raging pain it had long put him to; my Relater had the curiosity to view narrowly this great Tooth, and found, to his wonder, a little drop of true Mercury in that slender Cavity of the Root, that admits the small Vessels which convey nourishment and sense to the Tooth, in more than one of whose three Roots he affirmed to me that he found true, though but exceeding little, Quick-Silver. But a full Testimony to my present purpose is afforded me by the experienced Physician Eustachius Rudius, who relates, Note: Eustach. Rudius (apud Sennertum) lib. 5. de morbis acutis cap. 15. that he saw himself, and that others also observed, some Bodies dissected, of those that had been anointed for the Venereal Pox, in the Cavities of whose Bones no small quantity of Quick Silver was got together, (which yet (to add that upon the by) he says, did not hinder some of them from living many years, surviving those Inunctions.)
CHAP. VIII.
I Am not ignorant that, among the Particulars laid together in the foregoing Essay, there are some that are not absolutely necessary, to prove the Porousness of the Bodies of Animals. But I thought it not impertinent to mention them, because I hoped that they, in conjunction with the rest, may be of some use to Naturalists, in giving an account of several things that pass in a Humane Body, whether sound or sick, especially if it be of a Topical disease, and may remove, or much lessen that great Prejudice, that makes many (and some of them otherwise learned) Physicians despise the use of all Amulets, Pericarpia, and other external Medicines in Distempers of the Inward parts, upon a confident, but not well grounded supposition, that these Remedies immediately touching but the outside of the Skin, cannot exercise any considerable operations [Page 71] upon the internal parts of the Body.
But though I have thus acknowledged some Passages of the foregoing Essay to be supernumerary, yet I must not dismiss it without intimating that I might from one Topick more have fetched a probable, though not a demonstrative argument, in favour of the Porousness of Animals. For this may be very probably argued from hence, that even Inanimate, Solid and Ponderous Bodies, that in all likelyhood must be of a far closer Texture than the living Bodies of Animals (whose various Functions require a greater number and diversity of Pores in their differing Organs) are not devoid of Pores, and have some of them very numerous ones, as will be sufficiently made out in the following Essay, to which I shall therefore hasten.
N. B. The following Paper is that which is refer'd to in the 35th Page of this Essay.
Note: Pharmacopoeiae Regiae classis xiii. pa. 614.615.Hujus rei veritatem comprobat Doctissimus ac celeberrimus Medicus & Philosophus D. Johannes Chrysostomus Irmbler, Statuum Moraviae Marchionatûs Protomedicus, his verbis ad me scribens: Et revera paravi ego, Anno M. DCLV, quo tempore inter Infectos versabar quotidie, Trochiscos Bufonios, eósque ut caetera Helmontii, indefessi veritatis indagandae, & ex puteo Opinionum veterum nostram credulitatem excaecantium eruendae, nati Philosophi, experimenta suas laudes sustinere comperi: Inter, viginti autem Bufones vix unum quidem, jucundo sane spectaculo, vidi vermiculos, per nares & oculos egressuros, manu repellere quamdiu poterat, doxec elanguerit Bufo: sed Trochiscos ex vermiculis unà cum pulvere emo [...] tui bufonis, & materiâ per anum (nondum [Page 73] vidi per vomitum;) scilicet alis, pedibus, capitibus, ventribus Scarabaeorum viridibus, auratisve & nigris, quos bufo cum terra in escam venatur, ejectâ, cerea patinâ exceptis, cum Tragacantho rosato formatos, pluribus personis super anthraces opponi feci, at (que) nullum eorum mortuum esse dicere possum, sed & meorum domesticorum, ut & aliorum, quibus dedi, amicorum nullus, quod scio, infectus est. Sic comperi non tantùm hisce Trochiscis enervari virus pestilens in Carbunculo jam admissum, ut dein vulgaribus chirurgicis remediis ulcus facili negotio fuerit curatum, sed etiam ad sinistram mammam ligatos, mihi meísque accursui & occursui infectorum expositis, animositatem quandam indicibilem conferre, atque ita miasmata & effluvia pestilentialia abarcere. Hucusque Excel. Medicus Moraviae.