125. Jecur (liver) has its name because in it fire (ignis) has its seat, and from there it flies up into the head. Thence it spreads to the eyes and the other organs of sense and the limbs, and by its heat it changes into blood the liquid that it has appropriated from food, and this blood it furnishes to the several parts to feed and nourish them. In the liver pleasure resides and desire, according to those who dispute about natural philosophy.
127. The spleen is so called from corresponding to (supplementum) the liver on the opposite side in order that there may be no vacuum, and this certain men believe was formed with a view to laughter. For it is by the spleen we laugh, by the bile we are angry, by the heart we are wise, by the liver we love. And while these four elements remain, the animal is whole.
Chapter 3. On human monstrosities.
1. Portents, Varro says, are those births which seem to have taken place contrary to nature. But they are not contrary to nature, because they come by the divine will, since the will of the creator is the nature of each thing that is created. Whence, too, the heathen themselves call God now nature, now God.
2. A portent, therefore, happens not contrary to nature, but contrary to known nature....
4. Certain creations of portents seem to have been made with future meanings. For God sometimes wishes to indicate what is to come by disgusting features at birth, as also by dreams and oracles, that he may give forewarning by these, and indicate to certain nations or certain men coming destruction. This has been proved by many trials.
5. ... But these portents which are sent in warning, do not live long, but die as soon as they are born.
12. And just as there are monstrous individuals in separate races of men, so in the whole human kind there are certain monstrous races, as the Gigantes, Cynocephali, Cyclopes, and the rest.
15. The Cynocephali are so called because they have dogs’ heads and their very barking betrays them as beasts rather than men. These are born in India.
16. The Cyclopes, too, the same India gives birth to, and they are named Cyclopes because they are said to have a single eye in the midst of the forehead. These have the additional name ἀγριοφαγίται because they eat nothing but the flesh of wild beasts.