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Aristotle - On The Parts Of Animals
Atec Февраль 16 2008 20:01:06
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What has been said of the heart as a whole is no less true of its
cavities and of the blood-vessels; these also if of large size being
cold. For just as a fire of equal size gives less heat in a large room
than in a small one, so also does the heat in a large cavity or a
large blood-vessel, that is in a large receptacle, have less effect
than in a small one. Moreover, all hot bodies are cooled by motions
external to themselves, and the more spacious the cavities and vessels
are, the greater the amount of spirit they contain, and the more
potent its action. Thus it is that no animal that has large cavities
in its heart, or large blood-vessels, is ever fat, the vessels being
indistinct and the cavities small in all or most fat animals.
The heart again is the only one of the viscera, and indeed the
only part of the body, that is unable to tolerate any serious
affection. This is but what might reasonably be expected. For, if
the primary or dominant part be diseased, there is nothing from
which the other parts which depend upon it can derive succour. A proof
that the heart is thus unable to tolerate any morbid affection is
furnished by the fact that in no sacrificial victim has it ever been
seen to be affected with those diseases that are observable in the
other viscera. For the kidneys are frequently found to be full of
stones, and growths, and small abscesses, as also are the liver, the
lung, and more than all the spleen
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