Anatomical membranes · Lexicon

From the book

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordA membrane is a covering or lining.
In the Anatomy of MelancholyBurton’s simplest account gives membranes the office of covering the other parts.
In this editionAt the passage “Rim” becomes “abdominal membrane”; the whole “Peritoneum, or Rim of the belly” becomes “peritoneum, or lining of the abdomen.”
A place to readthe idiom of breaking the belly’s rim with laughter

Meaning

A membrane is a covering or lining. Burton’s Membranes, Tunicles, Caules and Kels overlap in this sense, although their particular locations matter. Rim can mean an abdominal membrane or lining; Kell and Kaull name a caul. These words should be read through the structure and function assigned to them in the passage, rather than through the everyday senses of a rim or a modern assumption that each older name identifies a different structure.

Use in the book

Coverings and bodily regions

Burton’s simplest account gives membranes the office of covering the other parts. They belong among the similar parts thought to derive directly from seed. Nerves are described as membrane on the outside and marrow within; the windpipe contains cartilage, membranes and nerves. These statements organize the historical body by its materials and their uses. They are not modern tissue descriptions silently hidden beneath old spellings.

Within the abdomen, the rim divides the region of the navel and flanks from the upper region beneath the ribs. The subsequent stomach passage supplies a caution about precision: the stomach is supported by a large kell or kaull called Omentum, “which some will have the same with Peritoneum, or Rim of the belly.” The identification belongs to “some,” rather than being an unqualified equation of all these names. The supplied edition notes that the anatomical authorities it discusses distinguish omentum and peritoneum. Burton’s compression must remain visible.

The chest has a different set of coverings. The diaphragm or midriff separates it from the lower abdomen and is called an instrument of laughter. The Pleura lines the chest and is named as the seat of pleurisy when inflamed. Some add a third skin, Mediastinus, dividing the chest into right and left parts. The words skin and membrane overlap here; the account should not acquire additional structures merely to fit a current anatomical scheme.

In the head Burton names two membranes protecting the brain. The dura mater, also called meninx, lies next to the skull; beneath it, the thin pia mater immediately covers the brain and also enters it. Covering is therefore both a protective function and a way of describing relative position. The passage’s two named membranes are the account Burton gives, not a complete modern enumeration supplied by this lexicon.

Seats of disease and treatment

The early inventory of head diseases distinguishes coverings, cavities and the brain’s substance. In the definition of phrenitis, inflammation may affect the brain itself or its “Membranes or Kels,” accompanied by acute fever. Later, Salvianus’s proposed locations for melancholy include the brain’s substance, its membranes and tunicles, the ventricular passages and their veins. The second account offers alternatives. It does not establish that melancholy always begins in a covering, and it differs from the earlier account that excludes ventricular obstruction from melancholy properly understood.

The abdominal membrane called Mesenterium appears among the possible origins of hypochondriacal melancholy. In the treatment discussion, the Meseriack membrane is said by Laurentius to be emptied through a particular form of bloodletting. Elsewhere a historical case of skull-boring reaches duram matrem, “the dura mater,” in the marginal report. That case stands beside explicit disagreement about such procedures: Messaria rejects cauteries immediately before Burton’s sweeping “All approve.” These are attributed and disputed accounts of treatment, not instructions or proof of universal agreement.

Figurative and disputed evidence

The rim also belongs to an idiom of excessive laughter. Imagining Democritus returned to inspect modern folly, Burton says that he would “break the rim of his belly.” The modern “split his sides laughing” conveys the whole idiom; it does not identify the rim as the sides. The anatomical image supports satire rather than a report of injury.

The jealousy discussion gives coverings a further role as supposed evidence. A newborn’s kell is mistaken by a jealous father for something resembling a friar’s cowl, and that resemblance becomes his absurd ground for accusing the visitor of paternity. Earlier in the same discussion, a thin membrane called Hymen is invoked in disputed tests of virginity. Burton reports medical writers who reject the test as insufficient, followed by others who defend it and accuse the critics of favouring women. A membrane’s appearance is thus an object of contested inference, not a fact that by itself establishes the accusation. The anatomical Hymen here is distinct from the marriage deity named elsewhere in the work.

Related entries

Organical parts; Anatomy; Cerebral chambers; Ventricle; Myrach; Meseraic; Hypochondria; Phrenitis; Jealousy

Places to read

Address to the readerthe idiom of breaking the belly’s rim with laughter
1.1.1.3–4brain coverings in the disease inventory and fever-associated phrenitis
1.1.2.3membranes as similar parts, coverings and the exterior of nerves
1.1.2.4abdominal rim and caul, chest membranes, windpipe and brain coverings
1.1.3.2the earlier distinction between the brain’s substance and ventricular obstruction
1.1.3.4the mesentery in the classification of hypochondriacal melancholy
1.2.5.3Salvianus’s alternative locations for the offending humour
Second Partition · paragraph 13–15the dura mater in an attributed skull-boring case and nearby disagreement about treatment
Second Partitionthe mesenteric membrane in a reported bloodletting rationale
3.3.2.1 and 3.3.3disputed virginity tests and the jealous interpretation of a newborn’s caul

In this edition

At the passage “Rim” becomes “abdominal membrane”; the whole “Peritoneum, or Rim of the belly” becomes “peritoneum, or lining of the abdomen.” These local explanations avoid forcing the first occurrence into a more exact anatomical identity than the wording warrants. “Membranes, and Tunicles” becomes “membranes and coverings.” The compressed series “Caules, Kels, Tunicles, Creeks” is rendered collectively as “coverings, membranes, recesses”; the modernization does not give four separately assignable English nouns.

The duram matrem attestation belongs to Burton’s marginal quotation; the English translation printed alongside it in the accompanying note is editorial. In the caul anecdote, “kell” becomes “caul,” while “Coule” becomes “cowl”: retaining that distinction makes the mistaken resemblance intelligible. The author’s body text, his quoted reports and the supplied edition’s anatomical qualifications remain separate layers.

caul/kell spellings · Caules

Printed “Caules” (English; family). Attestation: word form.

At a Glance

Meaning

Use in the book

Places to read

In this edition

caul/kell spellings · Caules

caul/kell spellings · Kels

caul/kell spellings · Kell

caul/kell spellings · Kaull

caul/kell spellings · kell

cowl

dura mater

dura mater · duram matrem

hymen

mediastinus

membrane

meninx: anatomical membrane-name

mesenterium

meseriack membrane

omentum

peritoneum

pia mater

pleura

rim · Rim

rim

skin

tunicle