Книга только для ознакомления
. Now as to the manner in
which animals are nourished, and as to the source from which they
obtain nutriment and as to the way in which they absorb this from
the stomach, these are matters which may be more suitably considered
and explained in the treatise on Generation. But inasmuch as the parts
are, as already said, formed out of the blood, it is but rational that
the flow of the blood should extend, as it does, throughout the
whole of the body. For since each part is formed of blood, each must
have blood about and in its substance.
To give an illustration of this. The water-courses in gardens are so
constructed as to distribute water from one single source or fount
into numerous channels, which divide and subdivide so as to convey
it to all parts; and, again, in house-building stones are thrown
down along the whole ground-plan of the foundation walls; because
the garden-plants in the one case grow at the expense of the water,
and the foundation walls in the other are built out of the stones. Now
just after the same fashion has nature laid down channels for the
conveyance of the blood throughout the whole body, because this
blood is the material out of which the whole fabric is made. This
becomes very evident in bodies that have undergone great emaciation.
For in such there is nothing to be seen but the blood-vessels; just as
when fig-leaves or vine-leaves or the like have dried up, there is
nothing left of them but their vessels
|
