Q. Why does the heart beat in some creatures after the head is cut 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, and in
those who have the falling sickness? A. This proceeds from the defect of
the heart itself, and of certain small skins 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 this 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
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.
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