_MADAM,_
Your _Author_ says,[1] it is an ancient Truth, _That whatsoever things,
meats being digested and cast out by vomit, are of a sowre taste and
smell, yea, although they were seasoned with much sugar._ But I do
not assent to this opinion; for I think that some Vomits have no more
taste then pure Water hath. Neither am I of his mind, That _Digestion
is hastened by sharpness or tartness:_ For do but try it by one
simple experiment; take any kind of flesh-meat, boyl or stew it with
Vinegar, or sowre wine, or with much salt; and you will find, that it
doth require a longer time, or rather more motions to dissolve, then
if you boyl it in fair water, without such ingredients as are sowre,
sharp, or salt; also if you do but observe, you will find the dregs
more sandy, stony and hard, being drest with much salt, and sharp
wine, or vinegar, then when they are not mixt with such contracting
and fixing Ingredients. Wherefore, if the Ferment of the stomack hath
such a restringent and contracting quality, certainly digestions will
be but slow and unprofitable; but Nature requires expulsion as much
as attraction, and dilation as much as contraction, and digestion is
a kind of dilation. Wherefore, in my judgment; contracting tartness
and sharpness doth rather hinder digestion then further it. Next I
perceive, your _Author_ inclines to the opinion, _That Choler is not
made by meat_:[2] But I would ask him, whether any humor be made of
meat, or whether blood, flesh, &c. are made and nourished by meat? If
they be not, then my answer is, That we eat to no purpose; but if they
be, then Choler is made so too. But if he says, That some are made, and
some not; then I would ask, what that humor is made of, that is not
made by meat or food received into the body? But we find that humors,
blood, flesh, &c. will be sometimes more, sometimes less, according
either to feeding, or to digestion, which digestion is a contribution
of food to every several part of the body for its nourishment; and when
there is a decay of those parts, then it is caused either by fasting,
or by irregular digestion, or by extraordinary evacuation, or by
distempered matter, &c. all which, causes sickness, paleness, leanness,
weakness, and the like. Again: your _Author_ is against the opinion of
the Schools, _That the Gall is a receptacle of superfluous humors and
dregs_: for he says, _it has rather the constitution of a necessary
and vital bowel, and is the balsom of the liver and blood._ Truly, it
may be so, for any thing I know, or it may be not; for your _Author_
could but guess, not assuredly know, unless he had been in a man as big
as the Whale in whose belly _Jonas_ was three days, and had observed
the interior parts and motions of every part for three years time, and
yet he might perchance have been as ignorant at the coming forth, as
if he never had been there; for Natures actions are not onely curious,
but very various; and not onely various, but very obscure; in so much,
as the most ingenious Artists cannot trace her ways, or imitate her
actions; for Art being but a Creature, can do or know no more then a
Creature; and although she is an ingenious Creature, which can and hath
found out some things profitable and useful for the life of others,
yet she is but a handmaid to Nature, and not her Mistress; which your
_Author_, in my opinion, too rashly affirms, when he says,[3] That _the
Art of Chymistry is not onely the Chambermaid and emulating Ape, but
now and then the Mistress of Nature_: For Art is an effect of Nature,
and to prefer the effect before the cause, is absurd. But concerning
Chymistry, I have spoken in another place; I'le return to my former
Discourse: and I wonder much why your _Author_ is so opposite to the
Schools, concerning the doctrine of the Gall's being a receptacle for
superfluities and dregs; for I think there is not any Creature that
has not places or receptacles for superfluous matter, such as we call
dregs; for even the purest and hardest Mineral, as Gold, has its dross,
although in a less proportion then some other Creatures; nay, I am
perswaded, that even Light, which your _Author_ doth so much worship,
may have some superfluous matter, which may be named dregs; and since
Nature has made parts in all Creatures to receive and discharge
superfluous matter, (which receiving and discharging is nothing else
but a joyning and dividing of parts to and from parts,) why may not the
Gall be as well for that use as any other part? But I pray mistake me
not, when I say _superfluous matter or dregs_; for I understand by it,
that which is not useful to the nourishment or consistence of such or
such a Creature; but to speak properly, there is neither superfluity
of matter nor dregs in Nature. Moreover, your _Author_ mentions a
_six-fold digestion_, and makes every digestion to be performed by
inbreathing or inspiration; For _in the first digestion_, he says,
_The spleen doth inspire a sowre Ferment into the Meat: In the second,
The Gall doth inspire a ferment, or fermental blas into the slender
entrails: In the third, The Liver doth inspire a bloody ferment into
the veins of the Mensentery_, &c. I answer, first, I am confident
Nature has more ways then to work onely by Inspirations, not onely in
General, but in every Particular. Next, I believe there are not onely
six, but many more digestions in an animal Creature; for not onely
every sort of food, but every bit that is eaten, may require a several
digestion, and every several part of the body works either to expel, or
preserve, or for both; so that there are numerous several Motions in
every Creature, and many changes of motions in each particular part;
but Nature is in them all. And so leaving her, I rest,
Madam,
_Your Faithful Friend_
_and Servant._
[1] _Ch._ Of a Six-fold digestion.
[2] See _The passive deceiving of the Schools, the humorists,_ c. 1.
[3] _Ch._ Heat doth not digest efficiently.