notorious, that scents do hugely affect the brain; as to instance in apoplexies, hysterical passions, and in some sort of syncopes and cephalalgies, common practice doth demonstrate. So then, if feeding animals perceive such strange alterations, by odoriferous exhalations, as of Assa fætida, Galbanum, Verruca Equinæ, &c. which, according to the prodigious invention of the most philosophical Dr. Willis, are able to restrain the most violent explosions (like those of gunpowder, than which none more violent) of the nitro-sulphureous atoms, with which, in spasmodick distempers, the nervous juice is impregnated, and by which it is reduced to the greatest disorders, why may not these abstinents be relieved by such inriched fumes also?

Fifthly, Without sleep no long life, and, without food, no sleep; for, say the ancients,* sleep is the binding up of the first sensorium, or common-sense, caused by the food digesting in the stomach, elevating its fumes to the brain, which, there condensing, stop the passages of the animal spirits, whereby they are detained from their just visitations, whence the senses are disabled for the execution of their offices. R. 1. It is not certain, that sleep is absolutely necessary to life, for we read of many that lived waking: It is said that Ramus studied philosophy so incessantly, that he became blind, or deaf, or both, through defect of sleep. Rhasis watched so long at his study of physick, until, at last, he could not sleep at all; likewise a doctor of the law studied so indefatigably, that he never laid his eye-lids together for four months; yet all recovered by the use of hypnoticks. The most inquisitive Galenist, Fernelius, reports a certain man to have survived fourteen months waking. The grave Heurnius relateth a story from, he saith, a truly learned man, Jerom Montuus, of a noble matron that lived thirty-five years without sleep, nor hurt thereby; and of another that lived ten years waking. Seneca reports, that Mæcenas lived three years without sleep, and at last was recovered by musick. 2. But I affirm not that our jejunants are vigilants, and therefore add, that, though these persons receive no external food, yet airy condensations and concretions, the phlegmatick humours, colliquations of the parts, &c. afford matter for such vapours; and so much the more plentifully, because they are environed with a, thick wall, whose very crevices, and much more gates, and publick outlets, are so close shut up and barricadoed, that these troops of exhalations, that were wont to be dispersed, are now crouded together, which, assaulting the brain, may do much to bind up her common-sense. 3. It seems probable, by apoplectical dormitators, that a cold humour, lodged in the brain, is a great causer of sleep; and why such a humour may not lodge in a sufficient proportion, in these constipated brains, to procure intermitting sleeps, I see not. 4. It is apparent that narcoticks, as

Aristot. de Somn. & Vigil, c. 3. Ἡ το πρώτο αἰσθητηρία κατάληψις πρὸς τὸ un duvãodai évepytiv. Galen. de Sympt. Caus. c. 8. & de Motu Muscul. c. 4. Zacut, Lusitan. de Med. Princ. Hist. p. 23, 24, 23. Lib. v. Patholog. Lib. de Morb. Cap. c. 16. Lib. de Provi

dentia,

opium, and in their measure, wines, tobacco, &c. provoke sleep; not by any cold quality, for they are all proved to be hot, but, it is probable, by adding such a ferment to the blood, as renders the spirits, separated in the brain, more torpid, ignave, and, consequently, unapt to motion, and the execution of their offices; or, which is almost the same thing, as renders the blood unapt for separation of spirits in the brain's alembick, whence the wearied spirits, for want of fresh supplies, are becalmed and quiescent. So then, if the humours, in the bodies of these abstinents, should happily partake of these narcotick sulphurs, they may prove somniferous, without the elevation of fumes from digesting food. But, sir, lest you should be startled at this unphilosophical discourse, in representing sleep rather as a non-emission of spirits from the brains, than a non-immission of them to the brain from the external senses, and consequently, as a negation of action, rather than of passion, I crave leave to mind you, that I am not only deficient in the beard, but much more in the brain, of some very great philosophers, who rank not only the external senses, but the first internal, or common-sense, in the predicament of passions; which, I confess, I cannot understand, because I know, that when devout persons are taken up in divine services, though their eyes be wide open, and presented with various objects, yet they see them not, because they mind them not; likewise, when diligent students are intent upon their books, they hear not the clock that strikes at their ears; and sound sleepers, with lethargical persons, feel not the pulling and hauling of their friends that would awake them, &c. From whence I conjecture, that, though objects act ad ultimum virium upon the external senses in imprinting their species, yet that causeth not sensation, except there be an actual attendance of the sensitive spirits upon the sensible objects, a framing of their effigies or species, and a conveyance thereof to the understanding. Can you imagine that Columbus's journey to the Indies, his surveying that unknown world, and returning a map thereof to his own countrymen, was a mere passion of his, and only the action of a novel jig of American atoms? Or, Camden's perambulation through all the coasts of this island, with his observations thereon, which he digested into a valuable volume, was merely his suffering, but wholly the doing of subtile spirits, and æthereal globules magically charmed into a once happy combination? But to return, 5. Cold juices, as of housleek, lettuce, violets, &c. will conduce to our sleep, and, it is not to be doubted, but the juices in these bodies may be cold enough to effect the same. 6. The animal spirits, in these persons, being but languid, are the less active, and, consequently, can give the fewer repulses to the insinuating courtships of somniferous causes. 7. The spirits of these languishers, it is probable, are scant and defective, and, therefore, easily tired by their constant operations, and consequently easily persuaded, either by a command of the heavenborn soul, or an exhalation from the earthy body, to yield to this temporary death. 8. Great security of mind, pleasing faucies,

either from imagination, such as some of these are said to be swelled withal, or from the senses affected by musick, dropping waters, gliding rivers, whistling winds, &c. are usual promoters of insensation. By all which you may perceive, that there are more doors to our bed-chamber than one.

Thus, sir, to satisfy your curiosity, I have traveled somewhat an unbeaten, yet not altogether unpleasant path; and, that I might not return these fruits of my travels as jejune and sterile as the country visited, I have, therefore, taken a slight view of some of the monuments of antiquity, as also of the stately superstructures of the new model, that occurred in our journey. Yet there is one thing remaining, that should have been premised, and that is, an exact history of our damsel; but that you cannot expect, because you did not demand; and, I suppose, you did not demand, because you knew I was unable to perform. Yet, that I might not seem to build on the sands, I shall present you with a short narrative, received since I began this discourse, from a person of known ingenuity and honesty, and therefore most worthy of credit:

This abstinent is one Martha Taylor, a young damsel, born ' of mean parentage, inhabiting not far from Bakewell in Derbyshire; who, receiving a blow on the back from a miller, became 'a prisoner to her bed for several days; which being expired, she 'obtained some enlargement for a time, but, by increasing distempers, was quickly remanded to her bed-prison again; where 'continuing some time, she found, at last, a defect in her gula, and, quickly after, a dejection of appetite, so that, about the ' twenty-second of December, Anno 1667, she began to abstain 'from all solid food, and so hath continued (except something so small, at the seldom ebbings of her distemper, as is altogether 'inconsiderable) till within a fortnight before the date hereof, ' which amounts to thirteen months and upwards; as also from all 'other sorts, both of meats and drinks, except now and then a 'few drops of the syrup of stewed prunes, water and sugar, or the 'juice of a roasted raisin, &c. but these repasts are used so seldom, ' and in such very small quantities, as are prodigiously insufficient ' for sustentation. She evacuates nothing by urine, or stool; she 'spits not, that I can hear of, but her lips are often dry, for which 'cause she takes water and sugar with a feather, or some other liquids; but the palms of her hands are often moist, her coun'tenance fresh and lively, her voice clear and audible, in discourse 'she is free, her belly Happed to her back-bone, so that it may be 'felt through her intestines, whence a great cavity is admitted 'from the Cartilago ensiformis to the navel; and, though her upper parts be less emaciated, though much too, yet her lower parts are very languid, and unapt for motion, and the skin 'thereof defiled with a dry pruriginous scurf, for which, of late, they have washed them with milk. She sleeps so sparingly, that once she continued five weeks waking. I hear nothing of any 'extraordinary previous sanctity, though, since her afiliction,

< being confined to her bed, which lieth in a lower room, by the fire-side, she hath learned to read; and being visited so plentifully by the curious from many parts, as also by the religious of all persuasions, she hath attained some knowledge in sacred 'mysteries, but nothing of enthusiasm, that she pretends unto. And, lest she should prove a cheat, she hath been diligently watched by physicians, surgeons, and other persons, for, at least, a fortnight together, by the appointment of the noble Earl of Devonshire, as is already published by Mr. Robins B. of D. that is, ballad-maker of Derby, whose ballad, they say, doth much excel his book. Likewise several other persons, at other 6 times, have been pleased to watch for their own satisfaction, who, 'detecting no fraud, have given the account above-mentioned; which was, for the main, confirmed to me by a sophy, the renown of whose wisdom hath often made England to ring, who 'assured me, that he had an exact account of her.'

This story being born thus out of due time, it may seem necessary to make some reflexions therefrom on the precedent discourse. And 1. Her age confirms the probability of a ferment in the seminals. 2. An antipathy to meat was not the promoter of the tragedy, but an inability to swallow. 3. Her assumptions of liquors, though seldom and slender, contributed not only to a petite concoction in the ventricle, but also to a fermentation in the heart. 4. Her restrained evacuations, by urine and stool, add much to her moisture, as well as to our trouble to render the assumption and non-evacuation consistent; to the performance whereof, let it be remembered, that, in this respect, she was formerly compared to embryo's, who use no excretion by the fundament, but retain, in their intestines, the more crass feculencies, till the time of their exclusion, the uterine embraces; which is the rather to be admitted, because she, as well as they, receives nothing but liquids; only in this she differs, they evacuate, by the urachus, into the allantoides their urinal excrement, but she hath no excretion of urine at all; the defect whereof may yet be supplied by these three advantages, which she hath above them, as are her ex. piration, extraordinary transpiration in the palms of her hands, and the far smaller quantity of liquors that she receives. 5. Her non-excretion, and the dryness of her mouth, argue the remand. ing of the humours to the further services of nature. 6. The atrophy of the parts, and inability to motion, seem to argue a defect of nervous juice and animal spirits; which weakens the necessity of our giving a perfect account, how nature may be completely sustained in the absence of food. 7. Her impetiginous eruptions argue the saltness of her blood, which adds the greater probability to the several saline ferments mentioned before. 8. Her sparing sleep shews not only the no necessity of the ordinary measures of healthful dormitators, but also that sleep may be conciliated otherwise, than by the powerful mediation of fuming food. 9. There is no cause, from any antecedent sanctity, to ascribe this miran dous production to miraculous causes. 10. Her abode, in a lower

room, doth accommodate her with a moister air, which is more generative of humours. 11. Her propinquity to the fire conduceth to the extraneous reception of igneous atoms. 12. Her non-pretensions to revelations, and the constant visits she receives from persons of all forms, may serve to occlude, not only the mouths, that are so unevangelical, as to cry her up for a miracle, but those also, that are so unphilosophical, as to cry her down for the cheat of a faction.

Now, sir, should I take my hand from the table, did I not suspect, that some one may possibly reply upon me and say, if I take it to be possible to live without food, it is a wonder I fall not myself to this piece of frugality; I therefore add, though with this jejune table one may possibly live, yet it follows not that I can; for, according to the old saying, That, which is one man's meat, is another man's poison; and, even in physick, it is affirmed by that noble philosopher, Esquire Boyle* (a worthy fellow of the Royal Society, of whose admirable designs I would you should know that I am a great admirer) that some medicines, as particularly salt of amber, is effectual for epileptical children, not so for adult epilepticks; and the deserving Dr. Castle affirms + that Mercur. dulc. is more safe for children, than grown persons, especially if irrigated with_acidities. But, sir, I find myself launching into a wide sea; I shall therefore tack about to do my devoir, and crave your acceptance of this slender offering, and your Quietus est for the present, giving you assurance, that, in so doing, you may hereafter command, Sir,

Your observant Servant,

King's-Norton, Feb. 22, 1668.

Scept. Chym. p. 251.

JO. REYNOLDS.

+ Chym. Gal. P. 26.