A History of Science — Volume 1Williams, Henry Smith
History
A History of Science — Volume 1
Williams, Henry Smith
Science -- History
"Also, that animals are born from one another by seeds, and that it is
impossible for there to be any spontaneous production by the earth.
And that seed is a drop from the brain which contains in itself a warm
vapor; and that when this is applied to the womb it transmits virtue and
moisture and blood from the brain, from which flesh and sinews and bones
and hair and the whole body are produced. And from the vapor is produced
the soul, and also sensation. And that the infant first becomes a solid
body at the end of forty days; but, according to the principles of
harmony, it is not perfect till seven, or perhaps nine, or at most ten
months, and then it is brought forth. And that it contains in itself all
the principles of life, which are all connected together, and by their
union and combination form a harmonious whole, each of them developing
itself at the appointed time.
"The senses in general, and especially the sight, are a vapor of
excessive warmth, and on this account a man is said to see through air
and through water. For the hot principle is opposed by the cold one;
since, if the vapor in the eyes were cold, it would have the same
temperature as the air, and so would be dissipated. As it is, in some
passages he calls the eyes the gates of the sun; and he speaks in a
similar manner of hearing and of the other senses.
"He also says that the soul of man is divided into three parts: into
intuition and reason and mind, and that the first and last divisions are
found also in other animals, but that the middle one, reason, is only
found in man. And that the chief abode of the soul is in those parts
of the body which are between the heart and the brain. And that that
portion of it which is in the heart is the mind; but that deliberation
and reason reside in the brain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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