Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/167

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

A N I

A N I

accounts for all difeafes, but for the operations of all medi- cines, from the hypothefis of Animalcules. He has peculiar animals for every difeafe : fcorbutic Animalcules, podagrical Animalcules, variolous Animalcules,, &c. all at his fervice. To fliew what lengths men are capable of purfuing chimeras, we will give a fpecimen of his method of philoibphizing. The caufe of an intermitting fever or an ague, of the tertian or quartan kind, is, that the patient has fame way received into his body a number of feverifh or agutih Animalcules, whofe nature is to ileep like the marmot, or dormoufe, or fquirrel, fome forty-eight hours, others twelve hours s and at waking caufe the disturbances which make the fit or accefs of the difeafe. When a perfon in the rheumatifm feels pains, fometimes in the right arm, fometirnes in the leftj fometimes in one hip, fometimes in the other ; the reafon is, that fome rheumatic Animalcule has been admitted into his body, where having multiplied and bred a large number, thefe travel in herds, fometimes to feed on one part of the body, fometimes on another, as their fancy leads them to ibift the fcene, or as they grow tired of their former pafture. Such is his pa- thology. Jour, des Scav. T. 82. p. 535. feq. For the curative part he obferves, that meats, drinks, medi- cines> drugs, plants, minerals, are all full, both within and without of Animalcules, or their ova : each fpecies of which is the bane or deftruction of fome other, as wolves are of fheep, cats of mice, fpurhawks of partridge, pikes of carps, and fwallows of flies.

This author by forty years labour, and the ufe of a thoufand bottles of different infufions of plants and minerals, made a nice difcovery of above a thoufand fpecies of Animalcules, their feveral changes and transformations, and. different dura- tions of their lives, manners of coupling, feafons of hatch- ing, ages of going to hunt others, their combats, &c. He tried different kinds on the blood and urine of his patients, till he had difcovered which was the proper antagonift to thofe of this or that difeafe. A. C. D. fyfteme d'un medecin Anglois fur la caufe de toutes les efpeces des maladies, avec les furprenantes configurations des differentes efpeces des pe- tits infects, qu'on voit par le moyen d'un bon microfcope dans le fang, & dans les urines des differens malades, & meme de tous ceux qui doivent le devenir, Paris 1726. 8°. Suite du fyftem d'un medecin Anglois, par lequel font indiquees les efpeces des vegetaux, & des mineraux qui font des poifons infallibles pour tuer les differentes efpeces de pelits animaux qui caufent nos maladies, Paris 1727. 8°. Vid. Jour. des Scav. T. 84. p. 428.

Klrcher, Fabri, Griffon, Bradley, and others, account for the plague, and all peftilental difeafes from the ingrefs of a poifonous fpecies of Animalcules into our bodies, where after gnawing and confuming the principles of flefh, they lay thei r eggs in the emunctories of the body, from whence arife pefte- lential buboes, in which fwarms of little infects have been obferved. Jour, des Scav. T. 63. p. 348. It. T. 73. p, 473. feqq.

One would be almoft tempted to doubt, whether the micro- fcope had done more good than harm. It has opened a large field for fiction and impofture. Hartfocker laughs at many of the pretended difcoveries of Lewenhoeck. Many others have fufpected their reality. There was fomething of my- ftery at bottom. He is faid to have referved his fineft glalTes for his own ufe ; none but his wife and daughters were ever fuffered to fee them. Vid. Bibl. Rais. T. 4. p. 186. It may be added, that the Royal Society, to whom after his death he bequeathed his glaffes, have not been able to find half his wonders in them. One man, 'tis alledged can fee that by a microfcope which another cannot. The diffe- rence that is found between the ages of one man and another, as to the ftrength and clearnefs of fight, hold equally when they are armed with a microfcope, as when naked.

The Animalcules, which, according to M. Griffon, were the caufe of the late plague of Marfeilles, were fo very fmall, that no body could fee them, except a fmgle hermit of Tho- loufe. — Without fuppofing any thing of miracle or impofture in the cafe. Jour, des Scav. T. 73. p. 475. . A great part of the appearances of what they call Animalcules are tranfient, and many others obfeure and undeterminate. The imagination of the obferver in many cafes is left to make what it can out of them. They are on much the fame footing with the images we difcern in the fire, or in the clouds, which either become animals, or any thing elfe, ac- cording to the ftrength and pregnancy of the fpectator's fancy. A mole or inanimate corpufcle, with which all waters are replete, when magnified, may eafily bear fome affinity to one fort of infect or another. And the continual interline mo- tions and fluctuations in liquors, will drive their contents in all manner of directions, from whence it will not be hard to frame a notion of fwimming, frifking about, &c.

Animalcules in the femen. See Semen.

Animalcules in fluids. See Fluidj and PEPPER-IFater.

ANIMATED {Cycl.) — Naturalifts and philofophers vary ex- tremely in aiTigning the characters, fubjects and fpecies of ani- mate bodies. — Some include flocks and ftones in this rank; others exclude brutes themfelvcs. See Animation,

Cardan will have all ftones to be alive and animated; The Cartefians on the contrary deny a foul not only to plants, but to all animals, except man. Ephem. Acad. N. C. dec. 2. an. 7. App. p. 205.

7'hales held the loadftone and amber, others the cornu am- monis, fponges, &c. to be anhnated. Vid. Jour, des Scav. T. 52. p. 679.

Some of the philofophers have held that all nature is afiimated; that the fun, the earth, the planets, rivers, trees, ftones, &c. are fo many animals ; others, that the whole fyftem is only one huge animal, informed with an univerfal foul, or anima mundi. Plato^ in Tiinseo. Morhcff. Polyhift. Philof. 1.- 2. P. 1. c. 11. n. 7.

Animated borfe hairs. See Horse hairs.

Animated is alfo ufed to denote a thing impregnated with vermin or animalcules. See Animalcule. In this feme the whole earth may be faid to be afiimated; fmce in every part of it we meet with an infinite number of animals, either great or little, vifible or invifible : they are found in air, watur, earth, and even in the hardeft ftones : multitudes of them are found in all funs of plants ; and there is perhaps no animal known, which does not breed numbers of others in the different parts of its body. Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 43. p. 363. feq.

Kircher fpeaks of an animated putredo, or morbid ftate of fluid, and other bodies which generates fwarms of invifible

, animalcules or infects, which, in the hum in body, ofcc&fibn various diforders. See Anim alcule. Langius has published a fy&erh of animated pathology. Pa- thalogia animata, jcu anunadver pones in pathdogiajn fpapri- cam Fabri: quibus morbus cmues ex gemtihi; fms ct:uf;<* ani- mata potiflimum putredine, Sic. explicat. "Francof. 16S8. 3°. Bibl. Univ. T. 14. p. 92. feqq.

This book, according to Sig, Vallifnieri, ■ does not anfwer the title ; it being in reality but few difeafes that the author accounts for from this caufe. Giorn. de Letter d'ltal. T. in. p. 67. feq.

Needham gives into the fame fyftem, of worms King con- cerned in all difeafes i and not only directs ahtfeefciiwVes in fevers, but to be mixed in all the remedies given in ali othci cafes : one great part of the attention of u phyneian.* accord- ing to him, is ftill to aim at worms, which are mere ci lefs concerned in all difeafes. Needham, Medcl. Medic, c. 5. p. 176. feq.

ANIMATION {Cycl)— The hiftory of the opinions concern- ing the Animation of the fcetus, or the origin of the human foul, is given at large by Jac. Thomafius. DifT de orie. animse humanse, Lipf. 1669. An extract of which is given in Burggr. Lex. Med. in voc;

The different hypothefes of phyficians and pbilolbphers, con- cerning the time of Animation, have had their influence en the penal laws made againft artificial abortions, it having been made capital to procure mifcarriage in the one ftate, while in the other it was only deemed a venial crime. Sec the article Abortion.

The emperor Charles V, by a conftitution publifhcd in 1532, put the matter on another footing ; inftead of the diftinc- tion of an animated and unaminated fcetus, he introduced that of a vital and non-vital Icetus, as a thing of more obvious and eafy decifion, and not depending on any fyliem either of creation, traduction, or infufion. Burggrave, Lex. Med. T.i. p. 821.

Accordingly afcetusis faid, in a legal fenfe, to be animated, when it is perceived to ftir in the womb ; which ufuallv har- pens about the middle of the term of geftation. Te'tchmy. Inftit. Medic, legal, c. 8, 9,2j. See Foetus. T. Fienus, Gardinius, Verde, Fort. Licetus, F. de Bonnc- nia, have written exprefsly on the Animation of the fcetufj Fr. Zanellis on the Animation of the feed. Liptn, Bibl. Med; pp. 180, 419.

Animation is alfo ufed by fome mechanical philofophers, for the act of foliciting the defcent of a body, fo as to give it continually new degrees of acceleration. Bernaul. apj Mem. Acad. Scienc. 17 14. p- 271.

Animation is alfo ufed by alchemifts for the operation of fermenting a white foliated earth, with a kind of philofophi- cal or celeftial water of fulphur. Libav. Synt. Arc. Chym. I.7. c.8.

Animation is alfo ufed in a moral or figurative fenfe, for the act of giving life and force to a difcourie, or the like. M. Barry has given rules to preachers, lawyers, CSV. for ani- mating or enlivening their fpeeches. Methode pour bien prc- noncer un difcours, & pour le bien Animer, LeiJ. 1708= i2mo. Vid, Nouv. Rep. Lett. T. 43. p. 223.

Animation is alfo ufed by hermetic philofophers* to denote a certain ftate of perfection to which a body is brought by fome appropriate procefs, in virtue whereof it becomes ca- pable of producing fome extraordinary phenomena, ^hdnc. Lex. Phyf. p. 27.

ANIME', (Cycl.) in heraldry, is where the eyes, &r. of a ra- pacious creature are borne of a different colour from the reft of the creature. Diet. Herald.

The French fay anime, the Englifb. incinfed, the Latins ih* fenfus, of fuch or fuch a colour.

ANL