The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 2Browne, Thomas, Sir
Religion
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 2
Browne, Thomas, Sir
Christianity; Ethics; Religion and medicine
That there are different passages for Meat and Drink, the Meat or dry
aliment descending by the one, the Drink or moistening vehicle by the
other, is a popular Tenent in our daies, but was the assertion of
learned men of old. For the same was affirmed by _Plato_, maintained by
_Eustathius_ in _Macrobius_, and is deducible from _Eratosthenes_,
_Eupolis_ and _Euripides_. Now herein Men contradict experience, not
well understanding _Anatomy_, and the use of parts. For at the Throat
there are two cavities or conducting parts; the one the Oesophagus or
Gullet, seated next the spine, a part official unto nutrition, and
whereby the aliment both wet and dry is conveied unto the stomack; the
other (by which tis conceived the Drink doth pass) is the weazon, rough
artery, or wind-pipe, a part inservient to voice and respiration; for
thereby the air descendeth into the lungs, and is communicated unto the
heart. And therefore all Animals that breath or have lungs, have also
the weazon; but many have the gullet or feeding channel, which have no
lungs or wind-pipe; as fishes which have gils, whereby the heart is
refrigerated; for such thereof as have lungs and respiration, are not
without the weazon, as Whales and cetaceous Animals.
Again, Beside these parts destin'd to divers offices, there is a
peculiar provision for the wind-pipe, that is, a cartilagineous flap
upon the opening of the Larinx or Throttle, which hath an open cavity
for the admission of the air; but lest thereby either meat or drink
should descend, Providence hath placed the _Epiglottis_, _Ligula_, or
flap like an Ivy leaf, which alwaies closeth when we swallow, or when
the meat and drink passeth over it into the gullet. Which part although
all have not that breath, as all cetaceous and oviparous Animals, yet is
the weazon secured some other way; and therefore in Whales that breath,
least the water should get into the lungs, an ejection thereof is
contrived by a Fistula or spout at the head. And therefore also though
birds have no Epiglottis, yet can they so contract the rim or chink of
their Larinx, as to prevent the admission of wet or dry ingested; either
whereof getting in, occasioneth a cough, until it be ejected. [SN: _Why
a man cannot drink and breath at once._] And this is the reason why a
Man cannot drink and breath at the same time; why, if we laugh while we
drink, the drink flies out at the nostrils; why, when the water enters
the weazon, Men are suddenly drowned; and thus must it be understood,
when we read [SN: Anacreon _the Poet, if the story be taken literally_.]
of one that died by the seed of a Grape, and another by an hair in milk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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