As to those animals whose fat consists
of suet, in none is the suet so dense as in the sheep, neither is it
nearly so abundant; for of all animals there is none in which the
kidneys become so soon gorged with fat as in the sheep. Rot, then,
is produced by the moisture and the wind getting shut up in the
kidneys, and is a malady that carries off sheep with great rapidity.
For the disease forthwith reaches the heart, passing thither by the
aorta and the great vessel, the ducts which connect these with the
kidneys being of unbroken continuity.
10
We have now dealt with the heart and the lung, as also with the
liver, spleen, and kidneys. The latter are separated from the former
by the midriff or, as some call it, the Phrenes. This divides off
the heart and lung, and, as already said, is called Phrenes in
sanguineous animals, all of which have a midriff, just as they all
have a heart and a liver. For they require a midriff to divide the
region of the heart from the region of the stomach, so that the centre
wherein abides the sensory soul may be undisturbed, and not be
overwhelmed, directly food is taken, by its up-steaming vapour and
by the abundance of heat then superinduced. For it was to guard
against this that nature made a division, constructing the midriff
as a kind of partition-wall and fence, and so separated the nobler
from the less noble parts, in all cases where a separation of upper
from lower is possible.
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