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BOOK THREE
[p. 261]with a mere name- as though Aristotle had not clearly stated in the fourth book of his "Meteorology," as well as in many other passages, in what way
digestion can be said to be allied to boiling, and also that the latter expression is not used in its primitive or strict sense.
But, as has been frequently said already,
v. p. 9, et passim.
the one starting-point of all this is a thorough-going enquiry into the question of the Warm, Cold, Dry and Moist; this Aristotle carried out in the second of his books "On Genesis and Destruction," where he shows that all the transmutations and alterations throughout the body take place as a result of these principles. Erasistratus, however, advanced nothing against these or anything else that has been said above, but occupied himself merely with the word "boiling."
PART 8
Thus, as regards digestion, even though he neglected everything else, he did at least attempt to prove his point- namely, that digestion in animals differs from boiling carried on outside; in regard to the question of deglutition, however, he did not go even so far as this. What are his words?
"The stomach does not appear to exercise any traction."
cf. p. 97.
Now the fact is that the stomach possesses two coats, which certainly exist for some purpose; they extend as far as the mouth, the internal one remaining throughout similar to what it is in the stomach, and the other one tending to become of a more fleshy
