Medical Science and the Anatomia Animata in Milton's Paradise Lost

Having shown that Milton’s ‘science’ is not as backward or as orthodox as
critics such as Hunter and Svensen have claimed, the dissertation offers a closer, more
detailed scrutiny of contemporary medical vitalism. Chapter 3 takes up Roger’s
attribution to Milton of a radical vitalist materialist natural philosophy, but seeks to
elaborate the somewhat unsophisticated version of vitalism that he offers. Demarcating
different strands of vitalism within contemporary medical discourse, this chapter
explores the underlying determinants of Francis Glisson’s vitalist philosophy with a
new attention to the breadth and detail of his work. His re-evaluation of the intrinsic
power of matter is made by vitalising an essentially Aristotelian structure (in particular
the productive relations between form, matter and vital heat) with the independent
interactive material forces observed in chymical medical theory. Standard models of
force and bio-mechanism in the body are re-defined into a dynamically vital but
stratified ontological order of spirit and thicker substance. This model of the causal
power of matter and spirit is shown to be coherent with Milton’s natural philosophy of
matter and spirit as they are represented in the cosmological meeting point of chaos and
holy light in Paradise Lost. The chapters that follow will use this essential model of
vital matter to elaborate comparisons between medical processes as they were reimagined
by vitalist physicians and the representations of bodily processes and
animation in various areas of Paradise Lost.
Chapter 4 is the first to do so, and it examines the parallels between the new
theories of conception that were being developed (most famously by Harvey, but also
by Glisson and others) and various accounts of Creation in Paradise Lost. In comparing
the different medical theories of conception, this chapter begins by observing that the
Aristotelian dualism of form and matter met distinct problems in the experimental work
done by Harvey in his research for Generatione animalium. It goes on to show that
Glisson’s chymical anatomy of the blood both emerged from and worked to
authenticate such research by modifying this Aristotelian doctrine. The chapter
demonstrates parallels between the physicians’ vital fluid of conception and the warm
prolific humours of the Creation and between the creative agencies of Holy Spirit, vital
spirit and light. Thus the ‘mixt’ of active and vital fluid and spirit, which transforms
itself into blood and, eventually, organs, gives a basis in the natural philosophy of the
body for the divine spirit and matter that enact the work of Creation in Paradise Lost.
Overall, the chapter seeks to place the work of Glisson and of Milton in harmony with
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