PART 22
XXII. I hold that it is also necessary to know which
diseased states arise from powers and which from
structures. What I mean is roughly that a "power"
is an intensity and strength of the humours, while
"structures" are the conformations to be found in
the human body, some of which are hollow, tapering
1
from wide to narrow ; some are expanded, some
hard and round, some broad and suspended, some
stretched, some long, some close in texture, some loose
in texture and fleshy, some spongy and porous. Now
which structure is best adapted to draw and attract
to itself fluid from the rest of the body, the hollow
and expanded, the hard and round, or the hollow
and tapering? I take it that the best adapted is
the broad hollow that tapers. One should learn this
thoroughly from unenclosed objects
2 that can be
[p. 59]
seen. For example, if you open the mouth wide
you will draw in no fluid ; but if you protrude and
contract it, compressing the lips, and then insert
a tube, you can easily draw up any liquid you wish.
Again, cupping instruments, which are broad and
tapering, are so constructed on purpose to draw and
attract blood from the flesh. There are many other
instruments of a similar nature. Of the parts within
the human frame, the bladder, the head, and the
womb are of this structure. These obviously attract
powerfully, and are always full of a fluid from without.
Hollow and expanded parts are especially
adapted for receiving fluid that has flowed into them,
but are not so suited for attraction. Round solids
will neither attract fluid nor receive it when it has
flowed into them, for it would slip round and find no
place on which to rest. Spongy, porous parts, like
the spleen, lungs and breasts, will drink up readily
what is in contact with them, and these parts
especially harden and enlarge on the addition of
fluid. They will not be evacuated every day, as are
bowels, where the fluid is inside, while the bowels
themselves contain it externally ; but when one of
these parts drinks up the fluid and takes it to itself,
the porous hollows, even the small ones, are every-where
filled, and the soft, porous part becomes hard
and close, and neither digests nor discharges. This
happens because of the nature of its structure. When
wind and flatulence are produced in the body, the
[p. 61]
rumbling noise naturally occurs in the hollow, broad
parts, such as the bowels and the chest. For when
the flatulence does not fill a part so as to be at rest,
but moves and changes its position, it cannot be but
that thereby noise and perceptible movements take
place. In soft, fleshy parts occur numbness and
obstructions, such as happen in apoplexy. And when
flatulence meets a broad, resisting body, and rushes
on it, and this happens by nature to be neither strong
so as to endure its violence without harm, nor soft
and porous so as to give way and admit it, but tender,
fleshy, full of blood, and close, like the liver, because
it is close and broad it resists without yielding, while
the flatulence being checked increases and becomes
stronger, dashing violently against the obstacle. But
owing to its tenderness and the blood it contains,
the part cannot be free from pain, and this is why
the sharpest and most frequent pains occur in this
region, and abscesses and tumours are very common.
Violent pain, but much less severe, is also felt under
the diaphragm. For the diaphragm is an extended,
broad and resisting substance, of a stronger and more
sinewy texture, and so there is less pain. But here
too occur pains and tumours.
