_MADAM,_
I do verily believe, with the Schools, the _Purging of the Brain_,
against your _Author_;[1] For I know no reason, why all the parts of
a man's body should not stand in need of evacuation and Purging, as
well as some. 'Tis true, if the substance or nourishment received were
all useful, and onely enough for the maintenance, subsistance and
continuance of the Creature, and no more, then there would be no need
of such sort of evacuation; but I believe the corporeal self-motions
in a body, discharge the superfluous matter out of every part of the
body, if the motions of the superfluous matter be not too strong, and
over-power the motions in the parts of the body; but some parts do
produce more superfluities then others, by reason their property is
more to dilate, then to contract, and more to attract, then to retain
or fix; which parts are the brain, stomack, bowels, bladder, gall, and
the like: wherefore, as there is nourishment in all parts of the body,
so there are also excrements in all parts, for there is no nourishment
without excrement. Next your _Author_ says, That _the nourishment of
the solid parts is made with the transmutation of the whole venal blood
into nourishment, without a separation of the pure from the impure._
But I pray give me leave to ask, _Madam_, whether the solid Parts
are not Instruments for the nourishment of the Venal blood? Truly, I
cannot conceive, how blood should be nourished, wanting those solid
parts, and their particular motions and imployments. Again: his opinion
is, _That the brain is nourished by a few and slender veins; neither
doth a passage or channel appear whereby a moist excrement may derive,
or a vapour enter._ And by reason of the want of such a passage, in
another place[2] he is pleased to affirm, _That nothing can fume up
from the stomack into the brain_, and therefore _Wine doth not make
drunk with fuming from the stomach into the head, but the Winie spirit
is immediately snatched into the arteries out of the stomach without
digestion, and so into the head, and there breeds a confusion._ First,
I am not of the opinion, that all nourishment comes from the veins, or
from one particular part of the body, no more do Excrements; neither do
I believe that every passage in the body is visible to Anatomists, for
Natures works are too curious and intricate for any particular Creature
to find them out, which is the cause that Anatomists and Chymists
are so oft mistaken in natural causes and effects; for certainly,
they sometimes believe great Errors for great Truths. Next, as for
Drunkenness, I believe that many, who drink much Wine, are drunk before
such time as the Wine spirit can get into the Arteries; but if there be
Pores to the Brain, as it is most probable, the spirit of Wine may more
easily ascend and enter those Pores, then the Pores of the Arteries,
or the Mouth-veins, and so make a circular journey to the Head. But
as for Excrements, whereof I spake in the beginning, as they are made
several manners or ways, and in several parts of the body, so they
are also discharged several ways from several parts, and several ways
from each particular part, indeed so many several ways and manners, as
would puzzle the wisest man in the world, nay your _Authors Interior
keeper of the Brain_, to find them out. Wherefore, to conclude, he is
the best Physician, that can tell how to discharge superfluity, and to
retain useful nourishments; or to restore by the application of proper
Medicines, decaying parts, or to put in order Irregular motions; and
not those that have Irregular opinions of Immaterial causes: To which,
I leave them, and rest,
Madam,
_Your faithful Friend_
_and humble Servant._
[1] _Ch._ Call'd _The Erring Watchman, or Wandring Keeper_.
[2] _Ch._ call'd _The Spirit of Life_.