The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher Part 27

Q. Why do the hardness of the paps betoken the health of the child in the womb? A. Because the flowers are converted into milk, and thereby strength is signified.

Q. Why are women's paps hard when they be with child, and soft at other times? A. Because they swell then, and are puffed, and the great moisture which proceeds from the flowers doth run into the paps, which at other seasons remaineth in the matrix and womb, and is expelled by the place deputed for that end.

Q. By what means doth the milk of the paps come to the matrix or womb?

A. There is a certain knitting and coupling of the paps with the womb, and there are certain veins which the midwives do cut in the time of the birth of the child, and by those veins the milk flows in at the navel of the child, and so it receives nourishment by the navel.

Q. Why is it a sign of a male child in the womb when the milk that runneth out of a woman's breast is thick, and not much, and of a female when it is thin? A. Because a woman that goeth with a boy hath a great heat in her, which doth perfect the milk and make it thick; but she who goes with a girl hath not so much heat, and therefore the milk is undigested, imperfect, watery and thin, and will swim above the water if it be put into it.

Q. Why is the milk white, seeing the flowers are red, of which it is engendered? A. Because blood which is well purged and concocted becomes white, as appeareth in flesh whose proper colour is white, and being boiled, is white. Also, because every humour which is engendered of the body, is made like unto that part in colour where it is engendered as near as it can be; but because the flesh of the paps is white, therefore the colour of the milk is white.

Q. Why doth a cow give milk more abundantly than other beasts? A.

Because she is a great eating beast, where there is much monthly superfluity engendered, there is much milk; because it is nothing else but the blood purged and tried.

Q. Why is not milk wholesome? A. 1. Because it curdeth in the stomach, whereof an evil breath is bred. 2. Because the milk doth grow sour in the stomach, where evil humours are bred, and infect the breath.

Q. Why is milk bad for such as have the headache? A. Because it is easily turned into great fumosities, and hath much terrestrial substance in it, the which ascending, doth cause the headache.

Q. Why is milk fit nutriment for infants? A. Because it is a natural and usual food, and they were nourished by the same in the womb.

Q. Why are the white-meats made of a newly milked cow good? A. Because milk at that time is very springy, expels fumosities, and, as it were, purges at that time.

Q. Why is the milk naught for the child, if the woman giving suck uses carnal copulation? A. Because in time of carnal copulation, the best part of the milk goes to the seed vessels, and to the womb, and the worst remain in the paps, which hurts the child.

Q. Why do physicians forbid the eating of fish and milk at the same time? A. Because they produce a leprosy, and because they are phlegmatic.

Q. Why have not birds and fish milk and paps? A. Because paps would hinder the flight of birds. And although fish have neither paps nor milk, the females cast much sp.a.w.n, which the male touches with a small gut, and causes their kind to continue in succession.

_Of the Back._

Q. Why have beasts a back? A. 1. Because the back is the way and mien of the body from which are extended and spread throughout, all the sinews of the backbone. 2. Because it should be a guard and defence for the soft parts of the body, as for the stomach, liver, lights and such like.

3. Because it is the foundation of all the bones, as the ribs, fastened to the back bone.

Q. Why hath the back bone so many joints or knots, called _spondyli_? A.

Because the moving and bending it, without such joints, could not be done; and therefore they are wrong who say that elephants have no such joints, for without them they could not move.

Q. Why do fish die after their back bones are broken? A. Because in fish the back bone is instead of the heart; now the heart is the first thing that lives and the last that dies; and when that bone is broken, fish can live no longer.

Q. Why doth a man die soon after the marrow is hurt or perished? A.

Because the marrow proceeds from the brain, which is the princ.i.p.al part of a man.

Q. Why have some men the piles? A. Those men are cold and melancholy, which melancholy first pa.s.ses to the spleen, its proper seat, but there cannot be retained, for the abundancy of blood; for which reason it is conveyed to the back bone, where there are certain veins which terminate in the back, and receive the blood. When those veins are full of the melancholy blood, then the conduits of nature are opened, and the blood issues out once a month, like women's terms. Those men who have this course of blood, are kept from many infirmities, such as dropsy, plague, etc.

Q. Why are the Jews much subject to this disease? A. Because they eat much phlegmatic and cold meats, which breed melancholy blood, which is purged with the flux. Another reason is, motion causes heat and heat digestion; but strict Jews neither move, labour nor converse much, which breeds a coldness in them, and hinders digestion, causing melancholic blood, which is by this means purged out.

_Of the Heart._

Q. Why are the lungs light, spongy and full of holes? A. That the air may be received into them for cooling the heart, and expelling humours, because the lungs are the fan of the heart; and as a pair of bellows is raised up by taking in the air, and shrunk by blowing it out, so likewise the lungs draw the air to cool the heart, and cast it out, lest through too much air drawn in, the heart should be suffocated.

Q. Why is the flesh of the lungs white? A. Because they are in continual motion.

Q. Why have those beasts only lungs that have hearts? A. Because the lungs be no part for themselves, but for the heart, and therefore, it were superfluous for those creatures to have lungs that have no hearts.

Q. Why do such creatures as have no lungs want a bladder? A. Because such drink no water to make their meat digest and need no bladder for urine; as appears in such birds as do not drink at all, viz., the falcon and sparrow hawk.

Q. Why is the heart in the midst of the body? A. That it may import life to all, parts of the body, and therefore it is compared to the sun, which is placed in the midst of the planets, to give light to them all.

Q. Why only in men is the heart on the left side? A. To the end that the heat of the heart may mitigate the coldness of the spleen; for the spleen is the seat of melancholy, which is on the left side also.

Q. Why is the heart first engendered; for the heart doth live first and die last? A. Because the heart is the beginning and original of life, and without it no part can live. For of the seed retained in the matrix, there is first engendered a little small skin, which compa.s.ses the seed; whereof first the heart is made of the purest blood; then of blood not so pure, the liver; and of thick and cold blood the marrow and brain.

Q. Why are beasts bold that have little hearts? A. Because in a little heart the heat is well united and vehement, and the blood touching it, doth quickly heat it and is speedily carried to the other parts of the body, which give courage and boldness.

Q. Why are creatures with a large heart timorous, as the hare? A. The heart is dispersed in such a one, and not able to heat the blood which cometh to it; by which means fear is bred.

Q. How is it that the heart is continually moving? A. Because in it there is a certain spirit which is more subtle than air, and by reason of its thickness and rarefaction, seeks a larger s.p.a.ce, filling the hollow room of the heart; hence the dilating and opening of the heart, and because the heart is earthly the thrusting and moving ceasing, its parts are at rest, tending downwards. As a proof of this, take an acorn, which, if put into the fire, the heat doth dissolve its humidity, therefore occupies a greater s.p.a.ce, so that the rind cannot contain it, but puffs up, and throws it into the fire. The like of the heart.

Therefore the heart of a living creature is triangular, having its least part towards its left side, and the greater towards the right; and doth also open and shut in the least part, by which means it is in continual motion; the first motion is called _diastole_, that is extending the heart or breast; the other _systole_, that is, shutting of the heart; and from these all the motions of the body proceed, and that of the pulse which the physicians feel.

Q. How comes it that the flesh of the heart is so compact and knit together? A. Because in thick compacted substances heat is commonly received and united. And because the heart with its heat should moderate the coldness of the brain, it is made of that fat flesh apt to keep a strong heat.

Q. How comes the heart to be the hottest part of all living creatures?

A. It is so compacted as to receive the heat best, and because it should mitigate the coldness of the brain.

Q. Why is the heart the beginning of life? A. It is plain that in it the vital spirit is bred, which is the heat of life; and therefore the heart having two receptacles, viz., the right and the left the right hath more blood than spirits; which spirit is engendered to give life and vivify the body.

Q. Why is the heart long and sharp like a pyramid? A. The round figure hath an angle, therefore the heart is round, for fear any poison or hurtful matter should be retained in it; and because that figure is fittest for motion.

Q. How comes the blood chiefly to be in the heart? A. The blood in the heart has its proper or efficient place, which some attribute to the liver; and therefore the heart doth not receive blood from any other parts but all other parts of it.

Q. How happens it that some creatures want a heart? A. Although they have no heart, yet they have somewhat that answers for it, as appears in eels and fish that have the back bone instead of the heart.

Q. Why does the heart beat in some creatures after the head is cut off, as in birds and hens? A. Because the heart lives first and dies last, and therefore beats longer than other parts.

Q. Why doth the heat of the heart sometimes fail of a sudden, and in those who have the falling sickness? A. This proceeds from the defect of the heart itself, and of certain small skins with which it is covered, which, being infected and corrupted, the heart faileth on a sudden; sometimes only by reason of the parts adjoining; and therefore, when any venomous humour goes out of the stomach that turns the heart and parts adjoining, that causeth this fainting.

_Of the Stomach._

Q. For what reason is the stomach large and wide? A. Because in it the food is first concocted or digested as it were in a pot, to the end that which is pure should be separated from that which is not; and therefore, according to the quant.i.ty of food, the stomach is enlarged.

Q. How comes it that the stomach is round? A. Because if it had angles and corners, food would remain in them and breed ill-humours, so that a man would never want agues, which humours are evacuated and consumed, and not hid in any such corners, by the roundness of the stomach.

Q. How comes the stomach to be full of sinews? A. Because the sinews can be extended and enlarged, and so is the stomach when it is full; but when empty it is drawn together, and therefore nature provides the sinews.

Q. How comes the stomach to digest? A. Because of the heat which is in it, and comes from the parts adjoining, that is, the liver and the heart. For as we see in metals the heat of the fire takes away the rust and dross from iron, the silver from tin, and gold from copper; so also by digestion the pure is separated from the impure.