Q. Why do fish die after their backbones are broken? A. Because in fish the backbone is instead of the heart; now the heart is the first thing that lives, and the last that dies; and when that bone is broken, fish can live no longer.
Q. Why doth a man die soon after the marrow is hurt or perished? A. Because the marrow proceeds from the brain, which is the principal part of a man.
Q. Why have some men the piles? A. Those men are cold and melancholy, which melancholy first passes to the spleen, its proper seat, but there cannot be retained, for the abundance of blood; for which reason it is conveyed to the backbone, where there are certain veins which terminate in the back, and receive the blood. When those veins are full of the melancholy blood, then the conduits of nature are opened, and the blood issues out once a month, like women’s terms. Those men who have this course of blood, are kept from many infirmities, such as the dropsy, plague, &c.
Q. Why are the Jews much subject to this disease? A. Because they eat much phlegmatic and cold meats, which breed melancholy blood, which is purged with the flux. Another reason is, motion causes heat, and heat digestion; but strict Jews never move, labour, nor converse much, which breeds a coldness in them, and hinders digestion, causing melancholic blood, which is by this means purged out.
Of the Heart.
Q. Why are the lungs light, spongy, and full of holes? A. That the air may be received into them for cooling the heart, and expelling humours, because the lungs are the fan of the heart; and as a pair of bellows are raised up by taking in the air, and shrunk by blowing it out, so likewise the lungs draw the air to cool the heart, and cast it out, lest through too much air drawn in, the heart should be suffocated.
Q. Why is the flesh of the lungs white? A. Because they are in continual motion.
Q. Why have those beasts only lungs that have hearts? A. Because the lungs are no part for themselves, but for the heart; and therefore it were superfluous for those creatures to have lungs that have no hearts.
Q. Why do such creatures as have no lungs want a bladder? A. Because such drink no water to make their meat digest, and need no bladder for urine; as appears in such birds who do not drink at all, viz. the falcon and sparrow-hawk.
Q. Why is the heart in the midst of the body? A. That it may impart life to all parts of the body; and therefore it is compared to the sun, which is placed in the midst of the planets, to give light to them all.