Subsection 4. Composite parts.

Composite parts are those we call organs, or instruments; they are internal or external. The principal external parts lie at the front or back. At the front are the crown and forepart of the head, skull, face, forehead, temples, chin, eyes, ears, nose, and so on; the neck, breast, chest, upper and lower abdomen, regions beneath the ribs, navel, groin, flank, and so on. At the back are the back of the head, back, shoulders, sides, loins, hipbones, sacrum, buttocks, and so on. There are also the joints, arms, hands, feet, legs, thighs and knees, and parts common to both front and back. Because these are obvious and familiar, I have listed them casually, and only the principal and larger ones: anyone who wishes may learn the rest from books on the soul.

The internal organs, which cannot be seen, are numerous, with various names, functions and classifications. The most notable division is Laurentius’s, into noble and lesser parts. Among the noble parts are three principal organs, on which all the rest depend and which they serve: the brain, heart and liver. Their positions determine three regions, or a threefold division of the whole body. First comes the head, containing the organs of sensation and movement and the brain itself. Through its nerves, the brain gives sensation and movement to the other parts, and serves, so to speak, as the heart’s privy councillor and chancellor.

The second region is the chest, or middle cavity, where the heart holds court as king and communicates life to the whole body through its arteries. The third region is the lower abdomen, where the liver resides as a specially appointed legate, together with the other organs that perform the natural functions of digestion, nourishment and expelling waste.

This lower region is separated from the upper by the midriff, or diaphragm. Some subdivide it into three cavities or regions: upper, middle and lower. The upper comprises the regions beneath the ribs, with the liver on the right and spleen on the left; from this region hypochondriacal melancholy takes its name. The second comprises the navel and flanks, separated from the first by the abdominal membrane. The last is the urinary region, itself subdivided into three parts. The Arab writers divide this region into two parts, the epigastrium and hypogastrium, upper and lower. They call the epigastrium mirach, from which comes the term mirachial melancholy, sometimes mentioned by them. I will treat these regions briefly and separately, beginning with the third, which contains the organs of the natural functions.

Meanwhile, readers, imagine that you have been brought into a sacred temple or majestic palace, as Melanchthon says, to contemplate not merely the material but the extraordinary art, workmanship and design of our great Creator. Properly considered, this is a pleasant and profitable subject for reflection.

The parts of this region now offered for your consideration serve nutrition or reproduction. Those serving nutrition perform the first or second stage of digestion. They include the oesophagus, or gullet, which carries food and drink into the stomach. The ventricle, or stomach, lies centrally in the part of the abdomen below the diaphragm. It is, so to speak, the kitchen of the first stage of digestion, turning our food into chyle. It has two openings, one above and one below. The upper is sometimes understood as the stomach itself; the lower, its bottom door, as Wecker calls it, is named the pylorus. The stomach is supported by a large caul called the omentum, which some identify with the peritoneum, or lining of the abdomen.

The intestines extend from the stomach to the anus. They help to transform and distribute the chyle and carry away waste. They are divided into small and large according to their position and substance, thinner or thicker. Among the small intestines is the duodenum, or whole gut, next to the stomach and about twelve inches long, according to Fuchs. The jejunum, or empty gut, continues from it and has many mesenteric veins attached, which carry part of the chyle from it to the liver. Third comes the ileum, with its many folds, which joins the others in receiving, holding and distributing chyle from the stomach.

There are three large intestines: the blind gut, colon and straight gut. The blind gut is thick and short, with one opening where the ileum and colon meet. It receives waste and passes it to the colon. The colon has many windings so that waste does not pass through too quickly. The straight gut leads the waste to the anus; its lower part is closed by muscles called sphincters, which hold it in until a person wishes to empty his bowels. Amid the intestines lies the mesentery, here called the midriff, composed of many veins and arteries and much fat, chiefly serving to support the intestines. All these parts serve the first stage of digestion.

The second stage, concerned with refining useful nourishment or expelling the useless, belongs chiefly to the liver. The colour of congealed blood and shaped like a half-moon, it lies beneath the ribs on the right and is the workshop of blood. Melanchthon calls it a noble organ. It turns chyle into blood to nourish the body. Its waste is either bilious or watery, and is carried away by the subordinate organs.

The gallbladder, placed in the hollow of the liver, draws yellow bile into itself; the spleen draws black bile. The spleen lies on the left, opposite the liver. It is a spongy substance that attracts this black bile by a hidden power and feeds on it, sending the rest to the bottom of the stomach to stimulate appetite, or to the intestines as waste. The two kidneys remove the watery matter through the renal veins and ureters. The renal veins draw this surplus moisture from the blood, and the two ureters carry it to the bladder, whose position in the lower abdomen fits it to receive it. The bladder has two parts, the neck and the base. The base holds the urine; a muscle constricts the neck and, like a porter, prevents the urine from escaping against our will.

The reproductive organs are either common to both sexes or peculiar to one. Since they are irrelevant to my purpose, I deliberately leave them out.