On Fleshes — First Draft Translation

ON FLESHES. Up to this point in my account I make use of opinions held in common, both those of others who came before me and my own; for it is necessary to lay down a common starting-point for the opinions of one who wishes to compose this account concerning the art of medicine. 1 As for things in the heavens, I have no need to speak of them, except insofar as I shall demonstrate, with respect to the human being and the other living creatures, how many things came to be and were generated, what the psyche (life-principle) is, what being healthy is, what being sick is, what is bad and good in a human being, and whence one dies. Now I set forth opinions of my own. It seems to me that what we call the hot is both immortal and has understanding of all things, and sees and hears and knows all things, both those that are and those that will be. Of this, the greatest part, when all things were thrown into turmoil, withdrew to the highest revolution; and it seems to me that the ancients named it aither. 2 The second portion below is itself called earth — cold and dry and setting much in motion; and in it there is indeed much of the hot. The third portion, that of air, has taken the middle region, being something warm and moist. The fourth, that nearest to earth, is the most moist and most dense. As these things revolved, when they were thrown together in turmoil, much of the hot was left behind in the earth here and there — some parts large, some smaller, and some very small indeed, many in number. 3 And in time, as the earth was dried out by the hot, these things, enclosed within crusts, produced rottings around themselves like tunics. And after a long time of being heated, whatever happened to be fatty from the earth's rotting and to have very little of the moist was burned through most quickly and became bones. Whatever happened to be more glue-like and to partake of the cold could not, when heated, be burned through, nor could it become fully moist; on this account it took on a form different from the others and became firm sinews — for there was not much of the cold in it. The blood-vessels had much of the cold; and of this cold, what was most glue-like on the outside, when roasted by the hot, became a membrane (mēninx), while the cold within, overcome by the hot, was dissolved and became fluid for this reason. According to the same account, the throat (pharynx), the gullet (stomachos), the belly (gastēr), and the intestines down to the rectum became hollow; for as the cold was continually heated, the glue-like portion on the outside was roasted, and there formed around it a tunic, a membrane; and the cold within — for there was in it neither fat nor much of the glue-like — melted away and became fluid. According to the same account the bladder also: much cold being left behind, that surrounding it, being heated by the hot, was dissolved and became fluid, for there was in it neither fat nor glue-like; but what remained on the surface became a tunic. And concerning the other hollow things as well, it holds in the same way: wherever the glue-like was more than the fatty, a tunic-membrane formed; wherever the fatty was more than the glue-like, bones formed. The same account applies to the bones: wherever there was none of the glue-like but there was fat and cold, this burned through more quickly on account of the fat, and these are the hardest and most compact of the bones; wherever there was fat and glue-like in roughly equal measure, these bones are cavernous. So much for these matters: the cold congeals; the hot dissolves, and with much time also dries; wherever some fatty matter is combined, the hot burns through and dries more quickly; but wherever the glue-like combines with the cold without the fatty, it does not readily burn through, but when heated over time it congeals. The brain is the mother-city of the cold and the glue-like; the hot is the mother-city of the fatty — for when heated, the first thing of all to be dissolved becomes fat, and on this account the brain, having very little of the fatty and most of the glue-like, cannot be burned through by the hot, but in time acquired a thick tunic-membrane; and around the membrane, bones in those regions where the hot prevailed and where there was fatty matter within. 4 And the so-called spinal marrow descends from the brain; and there is in it not much of the fatty or the glue-like, just as there is in the brain; on this account it would not be right for it to bear the name of marrow — for it is not like the other marrow, such as is found in the other bones; it alone has membranes, while the other does not. Clear evidence of these things is available to anyone who wishes to roast sinew-like and glue-like matter, and the rest: the other things roast quickly, but the sinew-like and glue-like do not readily roast, for they have least of the fatty; and the fattest and most unctuous roasts most quickly. The viscera, it seems to me, were constituted as follows: I have already spoken about the blood-vessels; the heart has much of the glue-like and the cold; and, being heated by the hot, it became hard and sticky flesh, and a membrane formed around it, and it became hollow — not like the blood-vessels — and is situated at the head of the most hollow blood-vessel. 5 For there are two hollow blood-vessels from the heart: one is named the artery; the other is the hollow vein (koilē phleps), beside which the heart is situated; and the heart has most of the hot where the hollow vein is, and stores the pneuma (breath). In addition to these two vessels, there are others throughout the body. The most hollow vein, beside which the heart is, extends through the whole belly-cavity and through the diaphragm, and divides toward each of the kidneys; and it divides at the loin and courses toward other parts and into each leg; and also above the heart toward the neck, some to the right, some to the left; and it then leads to the head and at the temples each branch divides. It is also possible to name the greatest blood-vessels by number; but in a word, the other blood-vessels are branched off from the hollow vein and from the artery throughout the whole body; the most hollow are those near the heart and the neck and in the head and below the heart as far as the hips. And the hot is most present in the blood-vessels and the heart, and because of this the heart, being the hottest of all things in the human being, holds pneuma. 6 It is easy to understand that the pneuma is what nourishes: the heart and the hollow blood-vessels are always in motion, and the hottest is most plentiful in the vessels; and because of this the heart, being the hottest of all in the human being, draws pneuma. There is another way to understand this: if one wishes to burn fire in a room when no wind is breathing in, the flame moves now more, now less; and a burning lamp moves in the same way, now more, now less, with no wind that we are able to perceive blowing; and cold is the nourishment of the hot. The child in the womb, holding its lips closed, sucks from the nipple-channels of its mother and draws both nourishment and pneuma into the heart — for this is the hottest thing in the child — whenever its mother breathes in; and the hot provides motion to both this and the rest of the body and everything else. If someone should ask how one can know that the child in the womb draws and sucks, this is what can be said in reply: it is born with excrement in its intestines, and it defecates as soon as it is born — both human beings and sheep; and yet it would have no excrement if it had not sucked in the womb, nor would it know how to suckle at the breast immediately at birth, if it had not also sucked in the womb. So much for the motion of the heart and the blood-vessels. The lung formed beside the heart in this way: of the moist, whatever was most glue-like, the heart, heating it, quickly dried it out like foam, and made it cavernous, with many small blood-vessels in it. 7 Small blood-vessels formed in it for this reason: whatever cold was present in the glue-like matter was dissolved by the hot and became fluid; and the tunic itself came from the glue-like matter. The liver was constituted as follows: with the hot, a large quantity of the moist was enclosed, without the glue-like and the fatty; the cold overcame the hot, and it congealed. 8 Evidence for me of this: whenever someone slaughters a sacrificial animal, as long as it is still warm the blood is fluid; but once it cools it congeals; if one shakes it, however, it does not congeal — for the fibers are cold and glue-like. The spleen was constituted as follows: together with the hot and the glue-like, and with very much of the hot but very little of the cold — only enough to congeal the glue-like matter, which are the fibers present in the spleen; and because of these fibers the spleen is soft and fibrous. 9 The kidneys were constituted as follows: a little of the glue-like, a little of the hot, and most of the cold; and it was congealed by this, and the organ became the hardest and least red, because not much of the hot entered into its constitution. The same account applies to the fleshes: the cold arrested and compressed and made flesh; the glue-like became the pores; and in these pores the moist, just as also in the great blood-vessels. The hot is in the whole body, but most of the moist is in the body, and much of the cold is in the moist; and there is only enough cold to be able to congeal the moist — but it is overcome, and so the moist is dissolved by the hot. The demonstration that the moist is warm: if one wishes to cut the human body anywhere one pleases, warm blood will flow, and as long as it is warm it will be fluid; but when it is cooled by both the cold within and that outside, a skin and a membrane form; and if one removes this skin and leaves it for a short time, one will see another skin forming; and if one always removes this, another skin would form from the cold. For this reason I have said more, so that I may demonstrate that it is necessary for the outermost part of the body, facing the air, for a skin to form from the cold and the winds striking against it. Joints were formed as follows: when the bones were being constituted, those of them that were fatty were burned through most quickly, as has been said above in the earlier account; but whatever of them was glue-like could not be burned through, but being enclosed between what was burning and drying under the hot, sinews and saliva were produced; and the saliva — whatever of the glue-like was most moist — being heated became a thicker fluid; and from this saliva came to be. 11 The nails were produced from this glue-like matter: for from the bones and the joints, what is ever most moist of it, being glue-like, goes out, and drying and desiccating outward from the heat, becomes nails outside. The teeth come to be later, for this reason: growth comes from the bones of the head and the two jaws; the glue-like and the fatty present in them are dried by the hot and burned through, and teeth form, harder than the other bones, because there is no cold in them. 12 The first teeth grow from the diaita (regimen / way of nourishment) in the womb, and after birth from the milk while the child is suckling; and when these fall out — from solid and liquid food — and they fall out at seven years from the first nourishment, though in some earlier, if they have grown from sickly nourishment; in most, when seven years have passed. The teeth that grow in replacement age together with the person, unless they are destroyed by disease. Teeth come to be later than other things for this reason: in the lower jaw there are hollow blood-vessels, and these alone of the bones supply nourishment to the bone; and the bones give back such growth as they themselves are, and all other things likewise give back such growth as they themselves are; for the blood-vessels from the belly-pouch (nēdys) and the intestines, into which food and drink are gathered, when these are heated draw the thinnest and most moist portion; the thickest part of it is left behind and becomes excrement in the lower intestines; and the thinnest part the blood-vessels draw from the belly-pouch and the intestines above the fasting-gut (nēstis), as the food is heated; and when it has passed through the fasting-gut, it is compressed in the lower intestines and became excrement; and the nourishment, once it arrives at each part, gives back the form of each part just as it was; for each thing is irrigated by nourishment and grows — the hot and the cold and the glue-like and the fatty and the sweet and the bitter and the bones and all else that is in the human being. 13 For this reason teeth come to be later; and I have already said earlier that the jaws alone of the bones have blood-vessels within themselves; and because of this more nourishment is drawn to them than to the other bones. And having more nourishment and a more concentrated inflow, they bring forth from themselves such growth as they themselves are, as long as the whole human being is growing. A person is visibly growing, and this is most apparent from seven years to fourteen years, and in this period both the largest of the teeth and all the others grow, after those that were produced from the nourishment in the womb have fallen out. Growth continues also into the third hebdomad, in which one becomes a youth, up to four and five hebdomads; and in the fourth hebdomad two teeth come through for most human beings, which are called the sōphronistēres (wisdom teeth). Hair grows as follows: there are bones and the brain, from which such growth comes, because of the surrounding glue-like matter — just as for the sinews — and there is no fat in it; for if fat were present, it would be burned out by the hot. 14 One might perhaps wonder that there is much hair also in the armpits and in the pubic region and over the whole body: the same account applies to this; wherever it happens that the glue-like is in the body, there hair grows from the hot. Hearing works as follows: the passages of the ears adjoin a bone that is hard and dry, like stone; and this by nature adjoins a cavernous, porous hollow of bone; and sounds are held against the hard part; and the hollow bone resounds through the hard; and the skin near the sense of hearing, next to the hard bone, is thin like a spider's web, the driest of all the skin. 15 Many evidences that the driest resounds most; and when it resounds most, then we hear best. And there are those who, writing about nature, have said that the brain is what resounds; but this cannot be so: the brain itself is moist, and the membrane around it is moist and thick, and around the membrane are bones; now nothing moist resounds, but only what is dry; and resonance is what produces hearing. The brain, being itself moist, smells dry things, drawing the smell together with the air through the bronchia (the nasal passages), which are dry; for the brain extends from the nose into the hollows; and on this side there is no bone in front of it, but a soft cartilage like a sponge — neither flesh nor bone. 16 And when the hollows of the nose are dry, the brain is more precise in smelling things drier than itself; for it does not smell water — for water is more moist than the brain, unless it has rotted; for when water rots it becomes thicker, and so does everything else. But when the nostrils are moistened, it cannot smell; for it does not draw the air toward itself. For this reason also, when the brain melts most of itself down into the palate and the throat and the lung and the rest of the belly-cavity, people know this and say that a flux flows from the head; and it flows down also into the rest of the body; and this is a turning-point for the hot. Sight works as follows: a blood-vessel descends from the brain's membrane to each eye through the bone; through these two blood-vessels the thinnest of the most glue-like matter is filtered from the brain; and because of this it forms around the eye a skin of such a character as is the transparent part of the eye facing the air, against which the winds strike, in the same account as I gave concerning the rest of the skin. 17 These skins before the seeing part are many and transparent, just like it; for the light and all bright things reflect back in this transparent element; and it is by means of this reflecting-back that one sees; and what is not bright and does not reflect back, one does not see by means of this; and the other part around the eyes — the white — is flesh. The so-called pupil of the eye appears dark for this reason, that it is in depth, and tunics around it are dark; by tunic we mean what is present, like a skin; and it is not dark to sight, but white and transparent. The moist within is glue-like; for we have often seen it flow out glue-like when an eye has burst; and if it is still warm it is fluid; and when it has cooled it became dry like transparent frankincense-resin, and it is the same in human beings and in beasts. The eye is pained by everything that falls into it — the winds striking against it, and all other things that are brighter than is fitting for it, and if one applies any ointment — because it is uniformly fluid-holding, just as the mouth and the tongue and the rest of the belly-cavity are fluid-holding. A person speaks by drawing the pneuma inward into the whole body, and most of it into the hollows; and this, being pushed outward through the void, makes sound; for the head resounds. 18 The tongue articulates by striking; obstructing in the throat and striking against the palate and against the teeth it produces distinct sound; and if the tongue does not articulate by striking at each moment, one could not speak distinctly, but only produce the single tones, as each by its nature. Evidence of this: those deaf from birth do not know how to speak, but utter only the single tones, and not even if someone trying to speak has expelled the pneuma outward. This is plain: when human beings wish to speak loudly, drawing in the outer pneuma they push it outward and produce a great cry so that the pneuma resounds, and then the voice dies away; and singers of the kithara, when they need to sustain their voice over a long span, drawing the pneuma inward to the full extent, stretch out the emission at length and produce great voice and sound so that they resound with the pneuma; and when the pneuma fails they stop; and from these cases it is clear that the pneuma is what produces vocal sound. I have already seen men who, having cut their own throats, severed the throat (pharynx) completely; these men remain alive but produce no vocal sound, unless someone closes the throat together — and these do produce sound; and it is plain from this too that the pneuma, when the larynx is severed, cannot draw inward into the hollows, but breathes out through the cut. So it stands with voice and speech. The life-cycle of a human being runs in seven-day periods. 19 [45] First, when the seed enters the womb, within seven days it already has all that the body will ever have. Someone might wonder how I know this. I have seen much by the following means: the common prostitutes, those among them who have had experience many times — whenever one goes to a man, she knows when she has taken seed in the belly; and then she causes it to be destroyed; and when it has already been destroyed, it falls out like a piece of flesh. I have thrown this piece of flesh into water and examined it in the water, and have found it to have all its limbs, and the sockets of the eyes, and the ears, and the extremities, and the fingers of the hands, and the legs, and the feet, and the toes, and the genitals, and the entire rest of the body is plain to see. And it is also clear — even when she conceives — to women who are experienced: immediately she shuddered, and heat and gnashing and spasm take hold, and numbness seizes the joint and the whole body and the womb; and as many women as are lean and not moist suffer this; but as many as are fat and phlegm-laden, many of these do not perceive it. It is in the way they showed me that I also know what I know. And it is clear also from this, that the life-span is seven days: if someone is willing to go seven days eating nothing and drinking nothing, most die within those very days; and there are some who survive them, but they die nonetheless; and there are some who were persuaded not to hold out unto death but to eat and drink — yet the belly no longer accepts it; for the fasting-gut has grown together within these days; and these too die. And one may also reckon by this: a child born as a seven-month offspring comes into being by proportion, and lives, and has such proportion and an exact count in terms of weeks; but one born at eight months has never survived at all; and a nine-month-and-ten-day offspring is born and lives, and has an exact count in terms of weeks: four tens of weeks total two hundred and eighty days; and a single ten of weeks is seventy days. And the seven-month offspring too has three tens of weeks, and each ten is seventy days, and the three tens of weeks are all together two hundred and ten. And so also the most acute illnesses come upon human beings — passing through the days in which they are decided and either died or became well — [four days, half a week; and second-day fevers in one week]; and tertian fevers in eleven days, in one week and half a week; and quartan fevers in two weeks; and quintan fevers in eighteen days wanting two from twenty, that is, two weeks and half a week. The other illnesses do not permit one to declare by reasoned judgment within how much time the patients will be well. And so too with large wounds on the head and elsewhere on the body: on the fourth day they begin to inflame; when inflamed they settle in seven days, and in fourteen [and in twenty] wanting two. But if someone treats carelessly and the large wounds on the heads do not settle within this time, the people die. Anyone who is inexperienced might also wonder at this: that a seven-month child is born. I myself have seen this many times. And if anyone wishes to examine this too, it is easy: let him go to the midwives who are present at births and inquire of them. And there is also another piece of evidence: children complete their teeth after seven years have passed; and in seven years, by proportion and exact count, there are decades of weeks [thirty-six and a half decades, five and] three hundred and sixty weeks. 19 [50] The necessity of nature — why each of these things is governed in sevens — I will set out in other writings.