[337] i.e. denial of forethought in the Physis.
[340] It appears to me, from comparison between this and other passages in Galen’s writings (notably Use of Parts, iv., 8), that he means by the “two coats” simply the mucous and the muscular coats. In this case the “straight” or “longitudinal” fibres of the inner coat would be the rugae; the “circular” fibres of the inner intestinal coat would be the valvulae conniventes.
[341] The term here rendered peristalsis is peristolé in Greek; it is applied only to the intermittent movements of muscles placed circularly round a lumen or cavity, and comprehends systolé or contraction and diastolé or dilatation. In its modern significance, peristalsis, however, also includes the movements of longitudinal fibres. cf. p. 97, [note 1].
[342] i.e. those containing non-striped or “involuntary” muscle fibres; organs governed by the “natural” pneuma; cf. p. 186, [note 3].
[343] By this term is meant only what we should call the “voluntary” muscles.
[345] For “symptom,” cf. p. [13], and p. 12, [note 3]. “Transitum namque materiae per angustum corpus id accidens consequitur” (Linacre). Less a “result” or “consequence” than an “accompaniment.”
[346] i.e. this is a purely mechanical process.