The generative organs, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically / a posthumous work of Emanuel Swedenborg ; translated from the Latin by James John Garth Wilkinson.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The generative organs, considered anatomically, physically, and philosophically / a posthumous work of Emanuel Swedenborg ; translated from the Latin by James John Garth Wilkinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    soul's part in the body. It is then the fibre that puts the first essence of the seed immediately into the tubules, and in fact sup- plies that which is the vital essence; that is to say, the life itself and the principles and commencements of the bodily life. This alone it is that can be called the plastic and prolific essence, and the principal of all: the rest however exist on its account, to enable it to build up its form aright out of their combined mate- rials, and to commence weaving the web of the animal body. The nature of this substance^ force^ or essence, will be shewn in the Parts on the Animal Spirit and the Soul. Meantime it is indubitable; that the soul which is carried over into the offspring, lies in the seed, and is not poured in at a period subsequent to impregnation. Unless this were the case, surely the female might conceive, though the testicles of the male were removed, or the semen depraved, if any seminal moisture, or anything tending that way, were sprinkled upon her organs. 32. A mere examination of the nerves which flow in, will be sufficient to shew how great is the abundance of this essence which is poured into the testicles by the simplest^ nerves. For fibres are supplied thither not only by the intercostal and par vagum, but also by the lumbar, and the great crural or ischiadic nerves; and moreover a particular branch is sent from the sacrum; thus the supply comes at any rate from all those nerves that carry the largest amount of essence. The intercostal, and the par vagum or eighth pair of nerves, are the largest and most general nerves of the body; after which comes the ischiadic nerve, which is the biggest of all the trunks; not to mention the peculiar nerve from the sacrum, which Vieussens figures and demonstrates in his Neurographia. If we well examine these several nerves it will be very evident, that all the fibre-f that flows into the testicles, descends from the medulla of the cerebellum, but not from that of the cerebrum: hence that the innermost and vital essence of the seed owes its origin, not to the cerebrum, but to the cerebellum. See Part I., where we prove, that the intercostal nerve and par vagum are nerves of the cerebellum, and not of the cerebrum. The ancient anatomists, with Hippocrates, were aware of this * i. e., by the nerves in their ultimate or least fibrillse, into which the author intimates that they divide themselves in the testicles.— TV. f We here use the word Jibre as a collective noun.— TV,