914. When I asked what these things mean, or depict, I was told that this is how the infundibulum 1in the brain is portrayed, the nature of which is patent from the term that describes it, namely, that it receives solute spirits from the blood that have been moistened along the way by a suitable liquid so as not to escape through the pores, and so they are carried down along many paths into the large ventricles, and from there through their foramen under the pineal gland into the cleft, or third ventricle, and from there into the funnel, and so into the pituitary gland. There a separation takes place, and by certain routes they are brought down to the ends of the sinuses and into the jugular veins.
Thus do the [animate] spirits resolved from the blood globules and joined there in the cortical beginnings with new spiritual essences travel, brought down through their own tissues into the ventricles, and then through the funnel into the blood, so as to vivify the dry and lifeless blood at the ends of the sinuses, and to be brought then to meet the chyle just arriving from the body, and to be combined with it in the heart, thus vivifying the blood stream in the heart.
All these details, and the whole process, so lengthy to describe, were told by angels to other angels, and took but a moment, or about one second.
Footnotes:
1. The Latin word, "infundibulum," is also the English term. See 913.
914. When I inquired what these things signified or represented I was told that such is the representation of the infundibulum of the brain, the nature of which is evident from its description: namely, that it receives spirits resolved from the blood, and besprinkled on the way with a suitable serum lest they exhale through the pores. They are then carried off through very many paths into the large ventricles, and thence through their own foramen under the pineal gland to the third cleft or ventricle, and from there to the infundibulum and so to the pituitary gland. There they are separated, and by determinate paths they are carried down to the extremities of the sinuses and so to the jugular veins. Thus the spirits resolved from the blood globules come to the cortical beginnings, and being there conjoined with new spirituous essences, are carried down through their fibers into the ventricles, and then through the infundibulum into the blood, that they may vivify the dry and lifeless blood in the extremities of the sinuses. After this they are borne along to the chyle, fresh from the body, and being conjoined therewith in the heart, thus vivify the mass of the blood in the heart. All this, together with the whole process so tedious to describe, was said by angels to other angels in a moment, almost in a second.
914. Quando quaesiveram, quid haec significent seu repraesentent, mihi dictum est quod talis repraesentatio sit infundibuli in cerebro, cujus natura ex descriptione patet, nempe quod recipiat spiritus solutos ex sanguine, et in via conspersos convenienti sero, ne exhalent per poros, et sic deferuntur 1
per plurimas vias in ventriculos majores, et inde per suum foramen sub glandula pineali in rimam seu ventriculum tertium, indeque in infundibulum, et sic in glandulam pituitariam, ibique discernitur 2
, et sic per determinatas vias deducuntur in sinuum fines, et venas jugulares, sic alluunt spiritus soluti a globulis sanguinis, et ibi in principiis corticalibus, conjuncti cum novis spiritualibus essentiis, deferuntur per suas fibras in ventriculos, et sic per infundibulum in sanguinem, ut in finibus sinuum sanguinem siccum et exanimum vivificent, et dein obviam ferantur chylo, recenti e corpore, et cum eo conjungantur in corde, et sic massam sanguinis in corde vivificent. Haec omnia cum toto processu, prolixe describendo, ab angelis, dicta altis angelis, erant per minutulum, fere minutum secundum 3
.
Footnotes:
1. in J.F.I. Tafel's edition deferantur
2. sic manuscript
3. exitus inclari in the Manuscript; cf. 579 ad finem