Q. How comes it that some creatures want a heart? A. Although they have no heart, yet they have somewhat that answers for it, as appears in eels and fish that have the backbone instead of the heart.
Q. Why does the heart beat in some creatures when the head is off, as in birds and hens? A. Because the heart lives first and dies last, and therefore beats longer than other parts.
Q. Why doth the heat of the heart sometimes fail of a sudden, as in those who have the falling sickness? A. This proceeds from the defect of the heart itself, and of certain small sinks with which it is covered, which being infected and corrupted, the heart faileth on a sudden: sometimes only by reason of the parts adjoining; and therefore, when any venomous humour goes out of the stomach, that turns the heart and parts adjoining, that causeth the fainting.
Of the Stomach.
Q. For what reason is the stomach large and wide? A. Because in it the food is first concocted or digested as it were in a pot, to the end that that which is pure should be separated from that which is not; and therefore, according to the quantity of food, the stomach is enlarged.
Q. How comes it that the stomach is round? A. Because if it had angles and corners, food would remain in them, and breed ill humours, so that a man would never want agues, which humours are evacuated and consumed, and not hid in any such corners, by the roundness of the stomach.
Q. How comes the stomach to be full of sinews? A. Because the sinews can be extended and enlarged; and so is the stomach when it is full; but when empty it is drawn together; and therefore nature provides those sinews.
Q. How comes the stomach to digest? A. Because of the heat which is in it, and comes from the parts adjoining, that is, the liver and the heart. For as we see in metals, the heat of the fire takes away the rust and dross from iron, the silver from tin, and gold from copper; so also by digestion the pure is separated from the impure.
Q. For what reason doth the stomach join the liver? A. Because the liver is very hot, and with its heat helps digestion, and provokes appetite.
Q. Why are we commonly cold after dinner? A. Because then the heat goes to the stomach to further digestion, and so the other parts grow cold.