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would be left ineffective and useless for the economy of the whole. For this reason, having gone under the lung from behind, through its continuous motion, and drawing the organ towards itself, it widens the passages for the drawing in of air, and by pushing it again, it prepares what has been taken in to be breathed out. But in the parts in front of itself, having attached to the space of the upper stomach, it makes it warm, and moved to its own activities; not rousing it for the drawing in of breath, but for the reception of suitable food. For the entrances of both the breath and of food are situated near one another; but passing by each other lengthwise, the one by the other, they are completed together at the top with equal measure, so that they are joined at the mouth to each other, and the passages end in one mouth, from which the entrance for food on the one hand, and for breath on the other, is made. But into the depth, the adherence of the pair of passages no longer remains throughout. For the heart, falling in between the seat of each, imparts powers, to the one for respiration, and to the other for food. For the fiery element is by nature to seek the matter that kindles it, which indeed necessarily also happens concerning the receptacle of food. For by as much as it becomes fiery through the neighboring heat, by so much the more are the things that sustain the heat drawn to it; and such an impulse we name appetite. 249 But if the container of food should grasp sufficient matter, not even so does the energy of the fire rest. But just as in a crucible it produces a certain melting of the matter, and having dissolved the composite things and liquefied them, as if from some funnel it transfers it to the successive passages. Then having separated the thicker part from the pure, it leads the fine part through certain channels to the gates of the liver; but the material sediment of the food, it has pushed into the wider passages of the intestines, and turning it about in time with their many-formed windings, it holds back the food in the bowels, so that it might not be easily cast out because of the straightness of the passage, and immediately stir the living creature to appetite, and that man might never cease from such an occupation, according to the nature of irrational creatures. And since the liver especially had need of the cooperation of heat for the turning of humors into blood, and this is distant from the heart in its position (for it was not possible, I think, for a certain principle and root of vital power to be confined around the other principle), so that nothing of the economy might be harmed in the distance from the heating substance; a sinewy passage (and this is named artery by those wise in these things), having received the fiery spirit of the heart, carries it beside the liver, joined at the mouth somewhere there beside the entrance of the humors, and having made the moisture boil through the heat, it deposits in the humor something of the kinship of fire, having crimsoned the form of blood with a fiery color. Then certain twin channels, setting out from there, each containing in a pipe-like manner its own spirit and blood, so that it might be easy to travel, the humor accompanying the heat in motion and being lightened, are scattered in many divisions over the whole body, being split into countless origins and offshoots of channels in every part. But the two principles of the vital powers, having been mixed with one another, both that which sends the heat everywhere throughout the body, and that which sends forth the humor, just as some necessary loan from their own resources, bring as a gift to the more ruling power of the vital economy. And this is that which is observed in the membranes and the brain, from which comes every movement of a joint, and every contraction of muscles, and every voluntary spirit sent to each of the members, which shows our earthly statue, active and moving, as if by some device. For the purest part of the heat, and the finest part of the humor from each power, having been united through a certain mixing and blending, both nourish and compose the brain through the vapors.

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ἄπρακτόν τε καὶ ἀνόνητον πρὸς τὴν τοῦ παντὸς οἰκονομίαν καταλειφθείη. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο κατόπιν μὲν ὑποβᾶσα τὸν πνεύμονα, διὰ τῆς διηνεκοῦς κινήσεως, καθέλκουσά τε πρὸς ἑαυτὴν τὸ σπλάγχνον, ἀνευρύνει πρὸς τὴν ὁλκὴν τοῦ ἀέρος τοὺς πόρους, ἀνοχλίζουσά τε πάλιν ἐκπνεῖσθαι τὸ ἐναπει λημμένον παρασκευάζει. Ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἑαυ τῆς προσφυεῖσα τῷ χωρήματι τῆς ἄνω γαστρὸς, ἔν θερμον αὐτὴν, καὶ πρὸς τὰς ἰδίας ἐνεργείας κινουμέ νην ποιεῖ· οὐκ εἰς πνεύματος ὁλκὴν ἀνεγείρουσα, ἀλλ' εἰς ὑποδοχὴν τῆς καταλλήλου τροφῆς. Πλησίον μὲν γὰρ πεφύκασιν ἀλλήλων αἱ εἴσοδοι τοῦ πνεύματός τε καὶ τῆς τροφῆς· ἀντιπαρεξιοῦσαι δὲ κατὰ τὸ πρό μηκες ἡ ἑτέρα πρὸς τὴν ἑτέραν, καὶ τῷ ἴσῳ μέτρῳ κατὰ τὸ ἄνω συναπαρτίζονται, ὥστε καὶ συνεστομῶ σθαι πρὸς ἀλλήλας, καὶ ἑνὶ στόματι τοὺς πόρους ἐναπο λήγειν, ὅθεν τῷ μὲν τῆς τροφῆς, τῷ δὲ τοῦ πνεύματος ἡ εἴσοδος γίνεται. Ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ βάθος οὐκέτι διαπαντὸς τὸ προσφυὲς παραμένει τῆς συζυγίας τῶν πόρων. Μέση γὰρ τῆς ἑκατέρων ἕδρας ἡ καρδία παρεμπε σοῦσα, τῷ μὲν πρὸς ἀναπνοὴν, τῷ δὲ πρὸς τροφὴν, τὰς δυνάμεις ἐντίθησιν. Πέφυκε γὰρ τὸ πυρῶδες ἐπιζητεῖν τὴν ὑπεκκαίουσαν ὕλην, ὃ δὴ καὶ περὶ τὸ δοχεῖον τῆς τροφῆς κατ' ἀνάγκην συμβαίνει. Ὅσῳ γὰρ ἔμπυρον διὰ τῆς γείτονος γίνεται θερμασίας, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ἐφέλκεται τὰ τὸ θερμὸν ὑποτρέ φοντα· τὴν δὲ τοιαύτην ὁρμὴν, ὄρεξιν ὀνομάζομεν. 249 Εἰ δὲ περιδράξαιτο τῆς ἀρκούσης ὕλης τὸ περιεκ τικὸν τῆς τροφῆς, οὐδὲ οὕτως ἠρεμεῖ τοῦ πυρὸς ἡ ἐνέργεια. Ἀλλὰ καθάπερ ἐν χωνευτηρίῳ σύντηξίν τινα τῆς ὕλης ποιεῖ, καὶ διαλύσασα τὰ συνεστῶτα καὶ ἀναχέασα, καθάπερ ἐκ χοάνης τινὸς μεταχεῖ πρὸς τοὺς ἐφεξῆς πόρους. Εἶτα τὸ παχυμερέστερον τοῦ εἰλικρινοῦς διακρίνασα, τὸ μὲν λεπτὸν δι' ὀχετῶν τινων ἐπὶ τὰς τοῦ ἥπατος ἄγει πύλας· τὴν δὲ ὑλώδη τῆς τροφῆς ὑποστάθμην, εἰς τοὺς εὐρυχωροτέρους τῶν ἐντέρων πόρους ἀπώσατο, καὶ τοῖς πολυτρόποις αὐτῶν ἑλιγμοῖς ἀναστρέφουσα χρόνῳ, παρακατέχει τὴν τροφὴν τοῖς σπλάγχνοις, ὡς ἂν μὴ δι' εὐθύτητα τοῦ πόρου ῥᾳδίως ἀποβαλόμενον, εὐθὺς ἀνακινοίη τὸ ζῶον πρὸς ὄρεξιν, καὶ μηδέποτε παύοιτο τῆς τοιαύ της ἀσχολίας κατὰ τὴν τῶν ἀλόγων φύσιν ὁ ἄνθρω πος. Ἐπεὶ δὲ καὶ τῷ ἥπατι μάλιστα τῆς τοῦ θερμοῦ συνεργίας ἦν χρεία πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὑγρῶν ἐξαιμά τωσιν, ἀφέστηκε δὲ τοῦτο τῆς καρδίας κατὰ τὴν θέ σιν (οὐ γὰρ ἦν, οἶμαι, δυνατὸν ἀρχήν τινα καὶ ῥίζαν ζωτικῆς οὖσαν δυνάμεως, περὶ τὴν ἑτέραν ἀρχὴν στενοχωρεῖσθαι), ὡς ἂν μή τι τῆς οἰκονομίας ἐν τῇ ἀποστάσει τῆς θερμαντικῆς οὐσίας παραβλαβείη· πόρος νευρώδης (ἀρτηρία δὲ τοῦτο παρὰ τῶν ταῦτα σοφῶν ὀνομάζεται) ἀναδεξάμενος τῆς καρδίας τὸ ἔμπυρον πνεῦμα, φέρει παρὰ τὸ ἧπαρ, αὐτοῦ που παρὰ τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ὑγρῶν συνεστομωμένος, καὶ ἀναζέσας διὰ τῆς θερμότητος τὴν ὑγρασίαν, ἐναπο τίθεταί τι τῷ ὑγρῷ τῆς τοῦ πυρὸς συγγενείας, τῇ πυροειδεῖ χρόᾳ τὸ τοῦ αἵματος εἶδος καταφοινίξας. Εἶτα ἐκεῖθεν ἀφορμηθέντες δίδυμοί τινες ὀχετοὶ, τὸ οἰκεῖον ἑκάτερος σωληνοειδῶς περιέχοντες πνεῦμά τε καὶ αἷμα, ὡς ἂν εὐπόρευτον εἴη, τὸ ὑγρόν τε τοῦ θερμοῦ κινήσει συμπαροδεῦον καὶ κουφι ζόμενον, ἐφ' ἅπαν τὸ σῶμα πολυσχιδῶς κατα σπείρονται, εἰς μυρίας ὀχετῶν ἀρχάς τε καὶ διαφύ σεις κατὰ πᾶν μέρος διασχιζόμενοι. Μιχθεῖσαι δὲ πρὸς ἀλλήλας τῶν ζωτικῶν δυνάμεων αἱ δύο ἀρχαὶ, ἤ τε τὸ θερμὸν πανταχῆ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα, καὶ ἡ τὸ ὑγρὸν ἐπιπέμπουσα, καθάπερ τινὰ δανεισμὸν ἀναγ καῖον ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων τῇ ἀρχηγικωτέρᾳ τῆς ζωτικῆς οἰκονομίας δυνάμει δωροφοροῦσιν. Ἔστι δ' αὕτη ἡ κατὰ τὰς μήνιγγας καὶ τὸν ἐγκέφαλον θεωρουμένη, ἀφ' ἧς πᾶσα μὲν ἄρθρου κίνησις, πᾶσα δὲ μυῶν συνολκὴ, πᾶν δὲ προαιρετικὸν πνεῦμα καὶ τοῖς κα θέκαστον μορίοις ἐπιπεμπόμενον, ἐνεργόν τε καὶ κινούμενον τὸν γήϊνον ἡμῶν ἀνδριάντα, καθάπερ ἐκ μηχανῆς τινος ἀποδείκνυσι. Τοῦ τε γὰρ θερμοῦ τὸ καθαρώτατον, καὶ τοῦ ὑγροῦ τὸ λεπτότατον παρ' ἑκατέρας δυνάμεως διά τινος μίξεώς τε καὶ ἀνακρά σεως ἑνωθέντα, τρέφει τε καὶ συνίστησι διὰ τῶν ἀτμῶν τὸν ἐγκέφαλον.