FOOTNOTES:
[a] Frogs are generally thought to have but one Ventricle in their Hearts.
[] The Tortoise hath three Ventricles, as the Parisian Academists in their Memoirs affirm. Besides these two Ventricles [before spoken of] which were in the hinder Part of the Heart, which faceth the Spine; there was, say they, a third in the Fore-part, inclining a little towards the Right-side, &c. Memoirs, &c. p. 259. But Mr. Bussiere charges this as a Mistake in those ingenious Gentlemen, and asserts there is but one Ventricle in the Tortoise’s Heart. See his Description of the Heart of the Land Tortoise, in Philos. Transact. Nᵒ. 328.
[c] The Sea-Calf is said by the French Academists, to have this Provision, and their Account of it is this: Its Heart was round and flat. Its Ventricles appeared very large, and its Auricles small.——Underneath the great Aperture, through which the Trunk of the Vena Cava conveyed the Blood into the right Ventricle of the Heart, there was another, which penetrated into the Arteria Venosa, and from thence into the left Ventricle, and afterwards into the Aorta. This Hole called the Foramen Ovale in the Fœtus, make the Anastomisis, by the Means of which, the Blood goes from the Cava into the Aorta, without passing through the Lungs. French Anatomists, p. 124.
[d] Τὴν τε Καρδίαν περὶ τὸ μέσον πλὴν ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ, &c. Arist. Hist. An. L. 2. c. 17.
[e] Dr. Lower, de Corde, c. 1.
[f] I might have mentioned another wise Provision from the same Author, which take in his own Words: In Vitulu & Equis, imò plerique aliis animalibus majoribus, non solas propagines à Nervo sexti paris ut in Homine, sed etiam plurimas à Nervo intercostali, ubi rectà cor transit, cor accedere, imò in parenchyma ejus dimitti: & hoc ideo à Naturâ quasi subsidium Brutis comparatum, ne capita quæ terram prona spectant, non satis facilè aut copiosè Spiritus Animales impertirent. Blasii Anat. Animal. Par. 1. c. 4. ex Lowero. de Corde.
[g] Diaphragmatis circulo nerveo firmiter adheret [Pericardium] quod Homini singulare; nam ab eo in Canibus & Simiis distat, item in aliis animalibus omnibus. Bartholm. Anat. L. 2. c. 5.
[h] Finalem causam quod atrinet,——cùm erectus sit Hominis incessus atque figura, eoque facilius abdominis viscera suo pondere descendant, minore Diaphragmatis nixu atque Systole ad Inspirationem opus est; porro, cùm in Exspiratione pariter necessarium sit Diaphragma relaxari,——cùm capsula cordis omnino connectendum fuit, in Homine, ne fortè, quamdiu erectus incedit, ab Hepatis aliorumque viscerum appensorum pondere deorsum adeò deprimeretur, ut neque Pulmo satis concidere, neque Expiratio debito modo peragi potuerit. Quocirea in Quadrupedibus, ubi abdominis viscera in ipsum Diaphragma incumbunt, ipsumque in pectoris cavitatem suo pondere impellant, ista partium accretio Exspirationi quidem inutilis, Inspirationi autem debitam Diaphragmatis tensionem impediendo, prorsus incommoda fuisset. Lower, ib. p. 8.
[] Dr. Tyson’s Anat. of the Orang-Outang, in Ray’s Wisd. of God, p. 262.
CHAP. VI.
Of the Difference between Man and Quadrupeds in the Nervous Kind.
There is only one Difference more between Man and Quadrupeds that I shall take notice of, and that is the Nervous Kind: And because it would be tedious to insist upon many Particulars[a], I shall, for a Sample, insist chiefly upon one, and that is, of Nature’s prodigious Care for a due Communication and Correspondence between the Head and Heart of Man, more than what is in the four-footed Tribe. For this Purpose, besides the Correspondence, those Parts have by Means of the Nerves of the Par Vagum (common both to Man and Beast) there is a farther and more special Communication and Correspondence occasioned by the Branches[] of the intercostal Pair sent from the Cervical Plexus to the Heart, and Præcordia. By which Means the Heart and Brain of Man have a mutual and very intimate Correspondence and Concern with each other, more than is in other Creatures; or as one of the most curious Anatomists and Observers of these Things saith[c], “Brutes are as ’twere Machines made with a simpler, and less operose Apparatus, and endowed therefore with only one and the same Kind of Motion, or determined to do the same Thing: Whereas in Man, there is a great Variety of Motions and Actions. For by the Commerce of the aforesaid Cervical Plexus[d] he saith, The Conceptions of the Brain presently affect the Heart, and agitate its Vessels and whole Appendage, together with the Diaphragm. From whence the Alteration in the Motion of the Blood, the Pulse and Respiration. So also on the contrary, when any Thing affects or alters the Heart, those Impressions are not only retorted to the Brain by the same Duct of the Nerves, but also the Blood it self (its Course being once changed) flies to the Brain with a different and unusual Course, and there agitating the animal Spirits with divers Impulses, produceth various Conceptions and Thoughts in the Mind.” And he tells us, “That hence it was that the ancient Divines and Philosophers too, made the Heart the Seat of Wisdom; and certainly (saith he) the Works of Wisdom and Virtue do very much depend upon this Commerce which is between the Heart and Brain:” And so he goeth on with more to the same purpose. Upon the Account of this Intercostal Commerce with the Heart, being wanting in Brutes, there is another singularly careful and wise Provision the infinite Creator hath made in them, and that is, That by Reason both the Par Vagum and the Intercostal too, do not send their Branches to the Heart, and its Appendage in Brutes, therefore, lest their Heart should want a due Proportion of Nervous Vessels, the Par Vagum sends more Branches to their Heart than to that of Man. This as it is a remarkable Difference between Rational and Irrational Creatures; so it is as remarkable an Argument of the Creator’s Art and Care; who altho’ he hath denied Brute-Animals Reason, and the Nerves ministring thereto, yet hath another Way supplied what is necessary to their Life and State. But let us hear the same great Author’s Descant upon the Point[e]; “Inasmuch saith he, as Beasts are void of Discretion, and but little subject to various and different Passions, therefore there was no need that the Spirits that were to be convey’d from the Brain to the Præcordia, should pass two different Ways, namely, one for the Service of the vital Functions, and another for the reciprocal Impressions of the Affections; but it was sufficient that all their Spirits, whatever Use they were designed for, should be conveyed one and the same Way.”
Here now in the Nervous Kind we have manifest Acts of the Creator’s Design and Wisdom, in this so manifest and distinct a Provision for Rational and Irrational Creatures; and that Man was evidently intended to be the one, as the Genus of Quadrupeds was the other.