Spleen

From the book

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordSpleen is an organ, but also a word for spite, ill will or ill temper.
In the Anatomy of MelancholyThe anatomical digression places the spleen on the left, opposite the liver.
In this edition“Splenitick” becomes “splenic”; “in Splenatick” becomes “in disorders of the spleen.”
A place to readmocking spleen, private spite as a cause of war, and the claim that splenic wind is widespread

Meaning

Spleen is an organ, but also a word for spite, ill will or ill temper. Its association with laughter can make it the bodily image of a mocking disposition. Splenetick, Splenatick and Splenitick are medical adjectives in the passages examined here: belonging to, or suffering from a disorder attributed to, the spleen. Latin lien and splen, with their inflected forms, supply corresponding names for the organ. Context decides whether Burton is describing a bodily part, classifying a disorder or characterizing an attitude.

Use in the book

The anatomical digression places the spleen on the left, opposite the liver. In its inherited physiology, this spongy organ draws black bile to itself by a hidden power and feeds on it. Surplus is sent to the stomach to stimulate appetite or to the intestines as waste. These functions make the spleen central to later explanations of melancholy. It can be blamed for failing to cleanse other parts, being blocked, or drawing blood without expelling it. Burton reports authorities who assign it the greatest responsibility; he does not replace the several competing abdominal causes with one exclusive doctrine. In the local statement that the spleen contributes “by all their consents,” consents means the authorities’ agreement, not the technical transmission of disease from one part to another.

Black bile associated with the spleen is not in itself always a disease: the anatomy gives it the useful role of restraining the hot humours and nourishing bones, while the symptom account makes natural black bile harmful through excess quantity or thickness.

The organ also appears in claims about inheritance and diet. A marginal Lienosis means people with spleen disorders, named alongside melancholic parents in an account of inherited constitution. In the warning about impure water, Splenetick qualifies ailments, while the margin’s splenem names spleen disorder by naming the organ. The spleen itself is also listed among internal organs judged difficult to digest as food. These are historically reported claims, not a single explanation of every disorder.

Sorrow can also initiate a bodily pathway involving the spleen. In the account attributed to Melanchthon, Burton’s body text describes black blood drawn from the spleen and spread beneath the left ribs. The margin explicitly makes the shrinking heart the agent drawing a thick melancholy humour. The body calls the resulting troubles hypochondriacal convulsions; the marginal quotation calls them wind. The two formulations should not be made identical, even though they share an explanation connecting sorrow, heart and spleen.

In the classification attributed to Laurentius, splenic melancholy stands alongside liver-related and mesenteric forms. Burton’s organ list and adjective list are differently ordered, so their terms cannot be matched mechanically by position. The symptom account associates a suspected splenic origin with hardness and pain in the left region beneath the ribs, rumbling, strong appetite and poor digestion. Its “if” matters: the preceding discussion says even accomplished physicians may disagree about the affected organ. This is a conditional diagnostic scheme within a disputed historical medicine.

The same anatomical word can enter a different prognosis. Rhazes’s reported account includes an enlarged spleen together with appearing varices among the conditions under which the disease is said to be resolved. This differs from the earlier swelling treated as a cause or burden; the conjunction and the attributed setting prevent enlargement alone from becoming a universal good sign.

A sufferer may also merely suspect that the splen is diseased; that English spelling occurs in a catalogue of feared bodily troubles. Elsewhere Burton invokes a weak spleen, among other inward causes, to resist the claim that sufferers can simply choose to stop fearing. Advice can do little, he argues, while those causes remain. This bodily argument is distinct from the later moral counsel for spiteful “spleen.”

Treatment retains the same organ-specific attention. The apple passage uses “in Splenatick” elliptically for spleen disorders and requires correction of the preparation’s supposed coldness, rawness and wind. A further report joins capers and blacksmiths’ quenching water to the treatment of a swollen spleen. “Capers alone” is followed by another remedy in both body and margin; it should not be rewritten as a single experimentally isolated treatment. The next sentence claims that drinking the water leaves animals with little or no spleen, whereas its marginal quotation says animals raised at blacksmiths’ premises have small spleens. The difference in both circumstance and degree remains visible.

Treatment is also disputed and qualified. Hot baths are warned against in the account of inflamed spleen and liver conditions. For illness proceeding from the spleen, Altomare and Mercurialis approve vinegar, whereas other named physicians oppose it altogether; Mercado allows it in some cases and Rhazes remains hesitant in the continuation. The margin’s lieni belongs to the claim that vinegar agrees with the spleen, one side of that debate.

The nonmedical senses are equally important. Burton’s introductory self-portrait alternates laughter, satire and grief. Petulanti splene chachinno presents a mischievously scoffing disposition, and the Latin address to the ill-disposed reader turns the same spleen into a mock threat of ridicule. Elsewhere ridicule becomes a cause of suffering: people of “petulant” spleen would rather lose a friend than a jest and exploit those dependent on them. In the denunciation of war, a ruler’s “private spleen” means spite for which other people are sacrificed. Music is praised for taking away “spleen and hatred,” while moral counsel opposes spleen with virtues that restrain angry or envious reactions. In the religious polemic, spleen belongs among leaders’ motives for leading others astray. None of these particular claims requires a literal diseased organ.

The proverb that even a fly has a spleen warns that the weak can retaliate. Its Latin next gives an ant its bile; Burton’s English switches to a bee and its sting. The alteration sharpens the warning, and should not be presented as a word-for-word translation.

Related entries

Hypochondria; Myrach; Meseraic; Melancholy; Humour; Humoral qualities; Passion; Anger (future entry outside Batch 1)

Places to read

Democritus Junior to the Readermocking spleen, private spite as a cause of war, and the claim that splenic wind is widespread
To the reader who misuses his leisure, unnumbered preliminary matterthe spleen of the threatened satirist
First Partition, humoursblack bile’s useful restraining and nourishing functions
First Partition, anatomysituation and alleged processing of black bile
First Partition, the part affectedPiso’s claim that sufferers seldom escape a swollen spleen
First Partition, inherited dispositionpeople with splenic disorders in an inherited-constitution claim
First Partition, dietspleen as food
First Partition, wateralleged splenic ailments from impure water
First Partition, sorrow as a cause, repeated []black material drawn from the spleen; body convulsions and marginal wind remain distinct
First Partition, causes from mockeryspiteful laughter and the vulnerability of dependants
First Partition, inward causesfailed cleansing, obstruction, swelling and the splenic classification
First Partition, general symptomsfeared illness and the English spelling splen
First Partition, humoral symptoms, [second occurrence]natural black bile made harmful by excess or thickness
First Partition, symptomsuncertainty of localization and conditional symptoms on the left
First Partition, causes of symptomsinward causes and the limits of advice alone
First Partition, prognosticsenlarged spleen together with varices in Rhazes’s reported prognosis
Second Partition, bathingqualifications concerning hot baths
Second Partition, dietdisagreement over vinegar and the spleen
Second Partition, music and counselill will, ill temper and the proverb of small creatures’ retaliation
Second Partition, treatment of hypochondriacal melancholyapples, the reported remedies for swelling, and the narrower claim in the animal margin
Third Partition, causes of religious melancholyspleen as a leader’s malicious motive

In this edition

“Splenitick” becomes “splenic”; “in Splenatick” becomes “in disorders of the spleen.” The latter supplies the noun required by the compressed construction. Those passages remain anatomical and medical. The expanded article also retrieves different senses elsewhere: “private spleen” becomes “private spite,” “spleen and hatred” becomes “ill will and hatred,” and spleen in the catalogue of religious leaders’ motives becomes “malice.”

The printed chachinno is retained in the introductory quotation; the later margin prints cachinno. The edition renders the first phrase as “a scoffer with a mischievous spleen” and the later marginal sentence as “I guffaw with insolent spleen.” These are construction-level renderings, not grounds for assigning “scoffer” or the whole act of guffawing to the noun splene. The words lien and splen name the organ in the medical evidence; the local explanation must additionally state what is claimed about it.

consents

Printed “consents” (English). Attestation: word form.

Agreement among the cited medical authorities.

Argument: This is agreement, not the technical transmission of disease by consent.

Context: Burton describes their shared acceptance of splenic contribution.

Source: original body

Source wording: by all their consents

hypochondriacall convulsions

Printed “hypochondriacall convulsions” (English). Attestation: phrase.

Dangerous spasmodic disturbances under the ribs in the body’s account of sorrow’s effects.

Argument: The marginal flatus says wind rather than convulsions.

Context: Burton’s English statement of the attributed explanation.

Source: original body

Locator qualification: Do not remove bracketed or repeated-page qualifier.; This source group includes repeated printed 96–97 and supplied 98–99; see SUPPLIED_OPENING and SOURCE_DJR_040.

Source wording: those perilous hypochondriacall convulsions

hypochondriacos flatus

Printed “hypochondriacos flatus” (Latin). Attestation: phrase.

Citation key, Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: hypochondriacos flatus

Wind beneath the ribs, alleged in the margin to result from the thick humour drawn from the spleen.

Argument: Keep distinct from Burton’s body term convulsions.

Context: Original marginal account attributed to Melanchthon.

Source: original marginal quotation with editorial translation

Locator qualification: Do not remove bracketed or repeated-page qualifier.; This source group includes repeated printed 96–97 and supplied 98–99; see SUPPLIED_OPENING and SOURCE_DJR_040.

Modern rendering: hypochondriacal wind

At a Glance

Meaning

Use in the book

Places to read

In this edition

consents

hypochondriacall convulsions

hypochondriacos flatus

lien · lienis

lien · Lien

lien · lienes

lien · lieni

lienosus

petulant a spleen

petulanti splene

private spleen

spleen · local use 1

spleen · local use 2

spleen · local use 3

spleen · local use 4

spleen · local use 5

spleen · local use 6

spleen · splen

spleen · local use 7

spleen / splen · petulanti splene chachinno

spleen / splen · Petulanti splene cachinno

splen · Splen

splen · splenem · local use 1

splen · splenem · local use 2

splen magnificatur

Splenatick · local use 1

Splenatick · local use 2

splenetic

Splenetick

Splenitick

tumorem lienis

weak spleen