Of Medicine, in Eight BooksCelsus, Aulus Cornelius
History
Of Medicine, in Eight Books
Celsus, Aulus Cornelius
Medicine, Greek and Roman
The head then and what is contained in the mouth are bounded not only
by the tongue and palate, but by the external parts, which lie exposed
to view. On the right and left side about the throat are large veins,
which are called sphagitides[BW]; and arteries, named carotides[BX],
running upwards, which reach beyond the ears. And in the neck itself
are placed small glands, which sometimes swell, and are painful.
Then two passages begin: one of which is called the aspera arteria,
or wind-pipe; the other the gullet. The wind-pipe is more external,
and goes to the lungs; the gullet more internal, and leads to the
stomach. The former receives the breath, the latter the food. Their
courses being different, where they meet there is something like a
small tongue(1) in the wind-pipe at the entrance of the fauces: when
we breathe this stands erect; when we take meat or drink, it shuts
the wind-pipe. Now the wind-pipe being hard and cartilaginous, is
prominent in the throat; and elsewhere falls back. It is composed of
certain circles formed like the vertebræ in the spine, yet so, that
it is rough on the external part, on the internal smooth like the
gullet; and thus descending to the præcordia it is connected with the
lungs: these are of a spongy nature, and therefore capacious of air;
and behind being joined to the spine, they are divided into two lobes
like an ox’s hoof. With these the heart is connected, being muscular,
situated in the thorax under the left breast: and it has what we may
call two ventricles. But under the heart and lungs is the transverse
septum, consisting of a strong membrane equally nervous, which divides
the abdomen from the præcordia, many vessels also being dispersed over
it: it separates from the superior parts not only the intestines, but
the liver and spleen too. These bowels are next to it, but placed below
it, the one on the right side, and the other on the left. The liver
having its origin under the præcordia from the very septum itself, on
the inside is concave, and the outside gibbous. This projecting rests
gently upon the stomach, and is divided into four lobes. On the lower
part, the gall-bladder adheres to it. But in the left side the spleen
is not connected with the septum, but to an intestine; it is of a
soft and loose texture, of a moderate length and thickness; and this
proceeding a little beyond the region of the ribs into the abdomen, is
chiefly covered by them. And these indeed are joined. But the kidneys
are divided: which adhere to the loins below the last ribs(2), and
the sides next these are round, on the other they turn inward; they
are both stocked with vessels, and covered over with coats(3). These
then are the situations of the bowels. But the gullet, which is the
beginning of the intestines, arises nervous from the seventh vertebra
of the spine, and about the præcordia is united with the stomach.
The stomach, which is the receptacle of food, consists of two coats,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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