§^^- iSi^:^:i '-■■■' '-^'' .-m^.S:] J3^>J ■^.MsM LIBRARY ANNEX o STi? £«!/ rt"^ fJMn tf'- I ^ '^~m 1.^7 h '1. ?-Tt-' ^t it '■?«:( Li'S^'i'ii ■u:!.ii^.t CORNELL UNIVKRSn Y LIBRARY ENGLISH COLLECTION THE GIFT OF JAMES MORGAN HART PROFESSOR OF ENGUSH J{ THE PUEPLE ISLAND BY PHENIAS FLETCHBE. A SEVENTEENTH CENTtTRY LAYMAN'S POETICAL. CON- CEPTION OP THE HUMAN BODY. By Augustus Geote 'Poulmas, M. D. Associate Prafessor of Anatomy, Indiana TJrmersity. :h The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924013121169 CFrom The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, Vol. XVIH, No. 197, August, 190771 .v THE PUEPLE ISLAND BY PHENIAS FLBTCHBE. A SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LAYMAN'S POETICAL, CON- CEPTION OP THE HUMAN BODY. By Augustus Geote Pohlman, M. D. Associate Professor of Anatomy, Indiami University. The Purple Island by Phenias Fletcher (1583-1650) was [317] first published in 1633; again in 1784; a third time in 1816, and the last edition (at hand and limited to 106 copies) in 1869. While authorities seem to believe that Fletcher's poetry influenced that of the immortal Milton, they appear to regard his work as stilted. The Purple Island, according to S. L. Lee, in the Dictionary of National Biography, is an allegory " overloaded with detail, and as a whole is clumsy and intri- cate." Nevertheless the poem is to be looked upon with inter- est in that the first five cantos contain a dissertation on the human body in verse, and in that they furnish us with an idea of how well a layman understood the structure of self at that time. The Purple Island is not an accessible book, and for that reason I ofEer some of the better verses, illustrat- ing particularly apt descriptions, together with a meager ac- count of the scope of the work. "Thirsil" (Fletcher himself) sings of the wonders of the body to the "nymphs and shepherd-boyes." The creation is naturally Genesis: "Nor made He this like other Isles; but gave it Vigour, sence, reason, and a perfect motion, To move it self whither it self would have it. And know what falls within the verge of notion: No time might change it, but as ages went. So still return'd; still spending never spent; More rising in their fall, more rich in detriment." — I, 46. (IJ [317] " Looke as a scholar, who doth closely gather Many large volumes in a narrow space; So that great Wisdome all this All together Confin'd into this Island's little space; And being one, soon into two he fram'd it; And now made two, to one again reclaim'd it; The little Isle of Man, or Purple Island nam'd it." — I, 48. [318] In Canto II the description of the body begins with bone, cartilage, and ligament. " It grounded lies upon a sure foundation, Compact, and hard; whose matter — cold and drie — To marble turns in strongest congelation; Fram'd of fat earth, which fires together tie: Through all the Isle, and every part extent. To give just form to every regiment; Imparting to each part due strength and stabllshment." —II, 5. " Whose looser ends are glu'd with brother earth. Of nature like, and of a neararelation ; Of self -same parents both, at self-same birth; That oft it self stands for a good foundation : Both these a third doth soulder fast, and binde; Softer than both, yet of the self-same kinde; All instruments of motion,when combin'd." — II, 6. He goes on to mention the muscle mass and coverings of the body, but takes these up in greater detail later. The first allusion to the circulatory system is as follows : " Nor is there any part in all this land. But is a little Isle: for thousand brooks In azure chanels glide on silver sand; Their serpent windings, and deceiving crooks Circling about, and wat'ring all the plain, Emptie themselves into th' all-drinking main; And creeping forward slide, but never turn again." — II, 9. It might be inferred that Fletcher knew of Harvey's work published five years before the printing of the Purple Island. Further reading shows that this is not the case, and also is substantiated in the prelude : " I am entring upon my Win- ter, and yet these blooms of my first Spring." It is thought that Fletcher started the work while at Camrndge where he entered in 1600. (2) The Island is parted in three regiments, " By three Me- [3iS] tropolies joyntly sway'd," namely, the abdomen, chest, and head — ^with liver, heart, and brain as "chief cities," respec- tively. He describes the five layers of the abdominal wall : " The first of these is that round spreading fence. Which like a sea girts th' Isle in every part; Of fairest building, quick and nimble sence, Of common matter fram'd with speciall art; Of middle temper, outwardest of all, To warn of every chance that may befall: The same a fence and spie; a watchman, and a wall." —II, 16. " It cover'd stands with silken flourishing. Which as it oft decaies, renews again. The other's sense and beautie perfecting; Which els would feel, but with unusuall pain: Whose pleasing sweetnesse and resplendent shine, Softning the wanton touch, and wandring ey'n. Doth oft the Prince himself with witch'ries undermine." —II, 18. It was not nntil Malpighi's time (1665) that the micro- scope made matters a little clearer. " The second rampier of a softer matter. Cast up by th' purple rivers' overflowing: Whose airy wave, and swelling waters, fatter For want of heat congeal'd, and thicker growing. The wandering heat — which quiet ne're subsisteth — Sends back again to what confine it listeth; And outward enemies by yeelding most resisteth." — II, 19. Even Malpighi seems to have been influenced by the popu- lar notion as to the origin of fat when he saw minute globules floating in the blood stream and apparently leading from one fat mass in the omentum to another. " The third more inward, firmer than the best. May seem at first but thinly built, and slight; But yet of more defence than all the rest; Of thick and stubborn substance, strongly dight. These three — three common sences — round impile This regiment, and all the other Isle; And saving inward friends, their outward foes beguile." —II, 20. 1 318 " Beside these three, two more appropriate guards With constant watch compasse this government: The first eight companies in severall wards, — To each his station in this regiment — On each side foure, continual! watch observe, And under one great Captain joyntly serve; Two fore-right stand, two crosse, and foure obliquely swerve." — II, 21. The verse on the peritoneum is accompanied by an interest- ing footnote which reads : " It hath many holes, that veins arteries, and other needfull vessels might have passage both in and out." If by " other needfull vessels " Fletcher meant the lacteals discovered by Aselli in 1633, but not published until 1637 does not appear. It is probable that he meant the nerves. " Between this sence's double-walfed sides. Four slender brooks run creeping o're the lea; The first is call'd the Nurse, and rising slides From this low region's Metropolie: Two from the Heart-citie bend their silent pace; The last from Urine-lake with waters base In th' Allantoid sea empties his flowing race." — II, 23. In his note on this verse he makes the following comment: "Where the vessels of the navile are contained. These are foure : first, the nurse ; which is a vein nourishing the infant in the wombe; second, two arteries, in which the infant breathes; the fourth, the Ourachus, a pipe whereby (while the childe is in the wombe), the urine is carried into the Al- lantoid, or rather Amnion ; which is a membrane receiving the sweat and urine." (Excellent knowledge for a clergyman.) Six cities are found in this region : " The liver stomack with the guts; the gall, the spleene, or milt; the kidneys, and parts for generation. Mastication and swallowing are mentioned. He believes in a definite sphincter—" the upper mouth of the stomack has little veins, or strings circular, to shut in the meat, and keep it from returning." The " Vas breve " is supposed to stir up " civile strife " and the spleen to be the seat of melancholy. " The Island's common cook. Concoction " prepares the [319] food in the stomach by the aid of " moistning flames" sent it by neighboring orgniis. The " Porter " drains the kitchen, (4) and lie goes on to describe the intestines. [3i9] " These pipes are seven-fold longer than the Isle, Yet all are folded in a little pile, Whereof three noble are, and thinne; three thick and vile." —II, 39. " The first is narrow'st, and downright doth look. Lest that his charge discharg'd might back retire; And by the way takes in a bitter brook, That when the Chanel's stopt with stifeling mire. Through th' idle pipe with i piyc with piercing waters soking. His tender sides with sharpest stream provoking, Thrusts out the muddy parts, and rids the miry choking." —II, 40. " The foremost of the base half blinde appeares; And where his broad way in an Isthmos ends. There he examines all his passengers. And those ®a* ought not scape, he backward sends : The second .^ilol's court, where tempests raging Shut close within a cave the wlndes encaging; With earthquakes shakes the Island, thunders sau pm- saging." — II, 42.' The rectum and its sphincter are passed over hurriedly with the following words : " This gate endow'd with many properties. Yet for his office sight and naming flies; Therefore between two hills, in darkest valley lies." The Epiploon, Mesenterium, and Pancreas are named. The function of the latter it will be remembered was not known at this time, and in fact it was regarded as more or less of a useless organ until Wirsung discovered the duct in 1643 — some ten years after this book was published. The description begins in Canto III with the Isle's great Steward — the liver : " To th' heart and to th' head-citie surely ti'd " as his note states to the heart by arteries, to the head by nerves (possibly the phrenics) — a connection between inflam- mation of the diaphragm and brain was mentioned by Galen, although stoutly denied by Alexander of Tralles, (see Pusch- '"The first of the baser is called blinde: at whose end is au appendant, where if any of the thinner chyle do chance to escape, it is stopt, and by the veins of the midriffe suckt out." [319] mann's Alexander of Tralles, Vol. I, p. 510). " Much like a mount, it easily ascendeth; The upper part's all smooth as slipperie glasse: But on the lower many a cragge dependeth; Like to the hangings of some rookie masse: Here first the purple fountain making vent. By thousand rivers through the Isle dispent, Gives every part fit growth and daily nourishment." — III, 7. " Two purple streams here raise their boiling heads; The first and least in th' hollow cavern breeding, His waves on divers neighbor grounds dispreads: The next fair river all the rest exceeding. Topping the hill, breaks forth in fierce evasion, And sheds abroad his Nile-like inundation; So gives to all the Isle their food and vegetation." — III, 11. " Yet these from other streams much different; For others, as they longer, broader grow; These as they runne in narrow banks impent. Are then at least, when in the main they flow; Much like a tree, which all his roots so guides. That all the trunk in his full body hides; Which straight his stemme to thousand branches subdi- vides."— Ill, 12. " Yet lest these streams might hap to be infected With other liquofs in the well abounding; Before their flowing chanels are detected. Some lesser delfs, the fountain's bottome sounding, Suck out the baser streams, the springs annoying. An hundred pipes unto that end employing; Thence run to fitter place, their noisome load convoying." —Ill, 13. He mentions the " controversie between the Peripateticks and the Physicians/' and commits himself as follows: " Such is fair Hepar, which with great dissension Of all the rest pleads most antiquitie; But yet th' Heart-oitie with no less contention, And justest challenge, claims prioritie: But sure the Hepar was the elder bore; For that small river, call'd the Nurse, of yore Laid boths' foundation, yet Hepar built afore." — III, 14. ((5) The three kinds of " excremental liquors " " were disposed [319] of in verses 15, 16, and 17. It must of course be remembered that the work of Glisson and Malpighi did not appear until 1654 and 1661, and Malpighi had to contend with the idea that bile was formed in the gall bladder. " Three pois'nous liquors from this purple well Rise with the native streams; the first like fire. All flaming hot, red, furious, and fell, The spring of dire debate, and civile ire; Which wer't not surely held with strong retention, "Would stirre domestick strife, and fierce contention. And waste the weary Isle with never ceas'd dissension." " Therefore close by a little conduit stands, Choledochus, that drags this poison hence, And safely locks It up in prison bands; Thence gently drains it through a narrow fence; A needfull fence attended with a guard. That watches in the straits all closely barr'd. Lest some might back escape and break the prison ward." Fletcher comments on the last verse: "It hath two pas- sages, one drawing the humour from the liver, another con- veying the overplus to the first gut, and so emptying the gall. And this fence hath a double gate to keep the liqueur from returning." " The next ill stream the wholesome fount offending, [320] All dreary black and frightfull, hence convay'd By divers drains unto the Splenion tending. The Splenion o're against the Hepar laid. Built long, and square: some say that Laughter here Keeps residence, but Laughter sits not there. Where darknesse ever dwells, and melancholy Fear." " The third bad water, bubbling from this fountain, Is wheyish cold, which with good liqueurs mient, Is drawn into the double Nephros mountain; ^ " The chyle, or juice of meats concocted in the stomack could not all be turned into sweet bloud by reason of the divers kinds of humours in it: Therefore there are three kinds of excre- mentall liqueurs suckt away by little vessels, and carried to their appointed places: one too light, and fiery; an other too earthy, and heavy; a third wheyish, and watery." (7) [320] Which suck the best for growth, and nourishment: The worst, as through a little pap, distilling To divers pipes, the pale cold humour swilling. Runs down to th' Urine-lake, his banks thrice dally flUing." He foregoes a description of the genital organs under cloak of modesty: " Forbear, my maiden song, to blazon wide What th' Isle and Nature's self doth ever strive to hide." Procreation, however, is aptly conveyed in verses 36 and 37. " These two fair Isles distinct In their creation, Yet one extracted from the other's side. Are oft made one by Love's firm coml)inatlon, And from this unltle are multipli'd: Strange may it seem; such their condition. That they are more dlspread by union; And two are twenty made, by being made In one. For from these two In Love's delight agreeing. Another little Isle is soon proceeding; At first of unlike frame and matter being; In Venus' temple takes it form and breeding. Till at full time the tedious prison flying. It breaks all lets Its ready way denying; And shakes the trembling Isle with often painfull dying." Canto IV deals with the middle province — the seat of " all heat and life " and " therefore walled about with ribs, for more safety." " But in the front two fair twin-bulwarks rise. In th' Arren built for strength, and ornament; [Arren.the man] In Thelu of more use, and larger size; [Thelu, the woman] For hence the young Isle draws his nourishment: Here lurking Cupid hides his bended bow; Here milkie springs in sugred rivers flow; Which first gave th' infant Isle to be, and then to grow." —IV, 5. " For when the lesser Island — still increasing In Venus' temple — to some greatnesse swells. Now larger rooms and bigger spaces seizing. It stops the Hepar rivers; backward reels The stream, and to these hills bears up his flight, And in these founts — by some strange hidden might — Dies his fair rosie waves into a lily white." — IV, 6. A curious mistake, common even at the present time, is [320] found in IV, 11. " This third the merrie Diazome we call, A border-citie these two coasts removing; Which like a balk, with his crosse-builded wall. Disparts the terms of anger, and of loving; Keeps from th' Heart-citie fuming kitchen fires, And to his neighbours gentle windes inspires; Loose when he sucks in aire, contract when he expires." The description of the heart is detailed. The Pericardium is mentioned as a " wheyish moat." The anaiomy and physi- ology was derived for the most part from Galen and some from Vesalius, Columbus, and others. The coronary vessels are noted " two arteries, and a vein called the crowns." The heart is included in verses 18-34. " The citie's self in two partitions reft. That on the right, this on the other side: The right — made tributarie to the left — Brings in his pension at his certain tide, A pension of liquours strangely wrought; Which first by Hepar's streams are hither brought. And here distill'd with art, beyond or words or thought. The grosser waves of these life-streams — which here With much, yet much lesse labour is prepar'd — A doubtfull Chanel down to Pneumon bear: But to the left those labour'd extracts shar'd, As through a wall, with hidden passage slide; Where many secret gates — gates hardly spi'd — With safe convoy give passage to the other side. At each hand of the left two streets stand by. Of severall stufEe, and severall working fram'd. With hundred crooks, and deep-wrought cavitie: Both like the ears in form, and so are nam'd. r th' right street the tribute liquour sltteth: The left forc't aire into his concave getteth; Which subtile wrought, and thlnne, for future workmen fltteth. The citie's left side, — by some hid direction — Of this thinne aire, and of the right side's rent, [!] — Compound together — makes a strange confection; And in one vessel both together meynt, [mixed] (9) [830] Stills them with equall never-quenclJed firing: Then in small streams — through all the Island wiring — Sends to every part, both heat and life inspiring. In this Heart-citie foure main streams appeare, One from the Hepar, where the tribute landeth, Largely pours out his purple river here: At whose wide mouth a band of Tritons standeth, Three Tritons stand — who with their three-forkt mace Drive on, and speed the river's flowing race. But strongly stop the wave, if once it back repace. The second is that doubtfull chanel, lending Some of this tribute to the Pneumon nigh; Whose springs by carefull guards are watcht, that sending ^ Prom thence the waters, all regresse denie: The third unlike to this from Pneumon flowing. And his due ayer-tribute here bestowing, [!] Is kept by gates and barres, which stop all backward going. The last full spring out of this left side rises. Where three fair Nymphs, like Cynthia's self appearing. Draw down the stream which all the Isle suflaces; But stop back-waies, some ill revoluture fearing. This river still it self to lesse dividing, At length with thousand little brooks runnes sliding, His fellow course along with Hepar chanels guiding." The function of the lungs was naturally restricted and not understood until the demonstration of the circulation by Har- vey, ei(!«aa then imperfectly. [321] " Close by this pipe runnes that great chanel, down Which from high Cephal's mount twice every day Brings to Koilia due provision: Straight at whose mouth a floud-gate stops the way. Made like an ivie leaf, broad-angle-fashion; Of matter hard, fitting his operation, For swollowing soon to fall, and rise for inspiration.' — IV,.3«. -bV- The muscle tissue completing the tracheal rings dorsally had long been observed, but it was so arranged that "the meat pipe might not be galled or hurt." " Fitly 'tis cloath'd with hangings thinne and light. Lest too much weight might hinder motion: His chiefest use to frame the voice aright; (10) — The voice which publishes each hidden motion — [? no- [331] tlon] And for that end a long pipe down descends, — Which here it self in many lesser spends — il Untill low at the foot of Cephal mount it ends." — IV, S*.'^ In verse 3| we meet another curiosity — " the unmoved gristle" of the larynx (cricoid?) often double in women. " Upon the top there stands the pipes' safe covering, Made for the voice's better modulation: Above it fourteen carefull warders hovering. Which shut and open it on all occasion: The cover in foure parts, it self dividing. Of substance hard, fit for the voice's guiding; One still unmov'd — in Thelu double«^oft-residing." — IV, Z%. Canto V takes up the head-citie. " Foure severall walls, beside the common guard. For more defence the citie round embrace:" — V, 11. " The other two of matter thinne and light; And yet the first much harder than the other; Both cherish all the Citie: therefore right They call that th' hard, and this the tender mother. The first with divers crooks and turnings wries Cutting the town in foure quaternities ; But both joyn to resist invading enemies." — V, 12. [Brain membranes.] Fletcher's knowledge of the brain, of the eye (the latter well described) as well as other parts of the head wJipd un- doubtedly drawn from the Greeks. The verse on the ear bones is particularly apt. " The first an hammer is call'd, whose out-grown sides Lie on the drumme; but with his swelling end Fixt In the hollow stithe, there fast abides: The stithe's short foot doth on the drumme depend. His longer in the stirrup surely plac't; ~irhe stirrup's sharp side by the stithe embrac't. But his broad base ti'd to the little window fast." — ^V, 43. The Labyrinth was well known, but apparently was sup- posed to contain air. Otherwise the mode of hearing was rela- tively well understood, as illustrated by the next two verses — taken, I believe, almost wholly from Galen, who, according to Puschmann gives a similar figure : (11) [331] " As when a stone, troubling the quiet waters, Prints in the angry stream a wrinkle round. Which soon another and another scatters. Till all t^a-alke with circles now is crown'd: •/^/^^_,Ali-sS'the aire struck with some violence nigh, h*^ ' Begets a world of circles in the skie; All which infected move with sounding qualttie. These at Auditus' palace soon arriving, Enter the gate, and strike the warning drumme; To these three instruments fit motion giving. Which every voice discern: then that third room Sharpens each sound, and quick conveys it thence; Till by the flying poast 'tis hurri'd hence. And in an instant brought unto the judging sense." —V, 47 and 48. These are the better verses of Phenias Fletcher's " Purple Island," and show a rather remarkable knowledge of the hu- man body. It is hardly fair to say that Fletcher contributed anything to the art, except perhaps in his wording and his al- lusions. The description of the mode of hearing especially appeals to me as extremely simple and yet relatively well done. It must be remembered that apart from the Greek school, the only accessible works were possibly those of Sylvius, Vesalius, Fallopius, and Fabricius. That he must have known of the works of these men is to be inferred from the credited discovery of the stapes in 1548 by Ingrassias. It appears, however, quite extraordinary that the other ear ossicles — the labyrinth with its two windows — should have been known long before this time without the stapes being discovered. The writer begs to acknowledge the kindness of Professor J. W. Bright, of Johns Hopkins University, in calling his attention to the " Purple Island." LiTEEATUBE. Fletcher, Phenias : The Purple Island or Isle of Man. . Edited by Alexander Grosart, 1869. Puschmann, Theodor : Alexander von Tralles. Published, Wien, 1878. Foster, Sir T,I. : Lectures on the History of Physiology, Cambridge, 1901. (12) M€< W vv^ i^'^t*^. ■!■■' .:■■■ -.■■^. .', r. ^'' m m tm ii,> .<^; M^#' ^ ■.'%Wi£i& Wii: /^^■^ jS^I S^'i rtSt iM'i m^ y^, ^m^'WL