The kidneys, moreover,
by being fat are the better enabled to secrete and concoct their
fluid; for fat is hot, and it is heat that effects concoction.
Such, then, are the reasons why the kidneys are fat. But in all
animals the right kidney is less fat than its fellow. The reason for
this is, that the parts on the right side are naturally more solid and
more suited for motion than those on the left. But motion is
antagonistic to fat, for it tends to melt it.
Animals then, as a general rule, derive advantage from their kidneys
being fat; and the fat is often very abundant and extends over the
whole of these organs. But, should the like occur in the sheep,
death ensues. Be its kidneys, however, as fat as they may, they are
never so fat but that some part, if not in both at any rate in the
right one, is left free. The reason why sheep are the only animals
that suffer in this manner, or suffer more than others, is that in
animals whose fat is composed of lard this is of fluid consistency, so
that there is not the same chance in their case of wind getting shut
in and causing mischief. But it is to such an enclosure of wind that
rot is due. And thus even in men, though it is beneficial to them to
have fat kidneys, yet should these organs become over-fat and
diseased, deadly pains ensue.
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