A proof
that the heart is thus unable to tolerate any morbid affection is
furnished by the fact that in no sacrificial victim has it ever been
seen to be affected with those diseases that are observable in the
other viscera. For the kidneys are frequently found to be full of
stones, and growths, and small abscesses, as also are the liver, the
lung, and more than all the spleen. There are also many other morbid
conditions which are seen to occur in these parts, those which are
least liable to such being the portion of the lung which is close to
the windpipe, and the portion of the liver which lies about the
junction with the great blood-vessel. This again admits of a
rational explanation. For it is in these parts that the lung and liver
are most closely in communion with the heart. On the other hand,
when animals die not by sacrifice but from disease, and from
affections such as are mentioned above, they are found on dissection
to have morbid affections of the heart.
Thus much of the heart, its nature, and the end and cause of its
existence in such animals as have it.
5
In due sequence we have next to discuss the blood-vessels, that is
to say the great vessel and the aorta. For it is into these two that
the blood first passes when it quits the heart; and all the other
vessels are but offshoots from them.
Pages:
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135