A vein and artery descend from the left emulgents into the testis of the left side. They are the seminal passages swollen with blood and spirit; the seminal matter contained in them procreates females, because their humour is watery and requires coction. Seminal passages, likewise an artery and vein, are extended downward from the right [emulgents] into the right testis; but having arisen from the trunks of the vena cava and aorta artery, therefore the juice in them is less watery, and properly concocted is more suited for the generation of males. In these passages blood is concocted, and afterward transferred to the glandular flesh of the testes it acquires the form of semen.[20]
The kidneys are solid and hard organs, not sentient, and the attractive force in them is very powerful. They purge the blood of its watery part and bile, but they retain [some of] the blood so that they may be nourished by it and expel the rest of the humour. For the OURĒTĒRES are attached to them,[21] that is, the urinary passages, whitish, reed-like and tensile which it may be said extend to the bladder and are similar to its substance.
The diaphragm is a membranous substance, running between the vital and natural members. It is called DIAPHRAGMA by the Greeks. It strengthens the expulsive force in the intestines, it is assigned to the members selected for spirit, and it curbs the smoky vapours lest they blacken the vigorous spirits of the heart and brain. Above, there is affixed to it a sinewy covering[22] which clothes the thorax inwardly and binds the pectoral ribs to the interstitial spaces, which covering the Greeks in good part name PLEURA, but sometimes it is called HYPOZŌMA[23] by them. By its inflammation pleurisy occurs, the name taken from the covering.
From the pleura near the spine arises a membrane separating the lungs and lower thorax into equal parts through the middle. It is commonly called the mediastinum, and is so well adapted to the lungs that a defect of one lung is not easily communicated to the other.[24] Certainly the lungs inhabit the middle palace of the chest, invigorate the spirits of the heart and brain, temper the heat and avert the danger of suffocation, and have lobes like the liver. They hold the heart constantly in a kind of embrace in the manner of very caressing nurses and sing a harmony of qualities by which they soothe the individual parts of the body and make them vigorous. From that part of the mediastinum which holds the middle of the lungs, a thick and hard membrane appears which completely covers the heart,[25] called in Greek PERIKARDION. This protects the heart lest it be afflicted by accidental things; and lest it lack the moistening fomentation by which its heat is moderated. It unites the forces of the heart and prevents the exhaled spirits from being dispersed by vehement motion. Here the heart establishes itself, prince of members[26] and an organ sharpened into [the shape of] a top; hollow within; continuously palpitating by its three ventricles,[27] with an auricle on each side in which life remains the longest.[28] The seat of the spirit and a small amount of blood is in the left ventricle of the heart, from which the pulmonary vein advances and enters the lungs to receive better-prepared air from them;[29] this it introduces into the ventricles of the heart lest they become unduly heated. The right ventricle contains more and very hot blood. The vena cava rises into this[30] through the middle of the spine and pours in the tinder of the vital spirit from the liver. From this the pulmonary artery belches much blood into the lungs. In the ventricle between the right and left there is tempered blood of slight quantity. From this ventricle the large artery called the aorta arises, the vehicle of the vital spirits; it is constantly agitated up and down by the contrary motions of dilatation and constriction, and finally it is divided into myriads of branches so that it revivifies the living parts in the whole body by a gentle flatus. This is the end of the account of the vital members.
The membrane covering the bony roundness of the head outwardly is called PERIKRANION by the Greeks, and it is hard, thick and firm, and conforms in substance to the exterior covering of the brain which is commonly called the dura mater. The covering of the dura mater hangs affixed to the pericranium, so it seemed to nature, lest in contact it have an effect on the brain; under this covering a thin and soft membrane, which is called the pia mater, sprinkled with numerous veins, envelops and nourishes the brain. It is continuous to the dura mater and the substance of the brain, and it penetrates the ventricles of the brain. Hence the brain displays itself very clearly to the eyes, both its ventricles and the cerebellum placed at the rear of the head from which the medulla descends into the vertebrae of the spine. Here the reticular plexus (commonly called the rete mirabile), woven together from numerous slender threads of veins and arteries at the summit of the cerebellum, displays its phantasia; in it the vital spirit carried upward from the heart through the arteries, having been fully concocted and rarefied, becomes animal spirit, the cause of sensation and motion in the whole body. For the brain is the source of the nerves, but the nerves are the vessels which distribute animal spirit;[31] from the medulla of the spine (it is called nucha by the Barbarians) they are distributed to all parts of the body. Furthermore, there extend from the brain seven pairs of nerves.[32] Two nerves look forward to the nares,[33] the olfactory organs. Two are carried to the eyes,[34] intersecting in their course, from whence comes the faculty of vision. Another two [carry] motion to the eyes,[35] another two give motion and taste to the tongue.[36] From two the stomach acquires sensation[37] so that appetite may not be lacking to it, and from as many slender nerves the palate distinguishes flavours.[38] Finally, from a single origin one nerve is extended on each side, provided for the right and for the left ear lest they be struck by deafness.[39] These things which have been said by me briefly regarding the animal members, within the proposed limits, end this introduction to anatomy. Other matters which pertain to this subject I shall discuss in another work where we shall adapt the discourse to all aspects of anatomy.
Printed by Rob. Redman in London
M.D.XXXII
With Privilege
Footnotes
[1]The term mirach means the anterior abdominal wall, but here Edwardes refers to the abdominal wall as venter. Lower venter proper means the abdomen or abdominal cavity together with the pelvis.
[2]There is confusion here for, of course, the skin of the body is most sensitive. The subcutaneous tissues, on the other hand, are relatively insensitive.
[3]He refers to the aponeurosis of the external oblique muscle. It joins with its fellow of the opposite side in the mid-line at the linea alba.