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ON THE NATURAL FACULTIES Book I
PART 13
[p. 53]strong coats. For if we say that the vapours pass through these coats, why should they not pass through the peritoneum
Unless otherwise stated, "peritoneum" stands for parietal peritoneum alone
and the diaphragm, thus filling the whole abdominal cavity and thorax with water? "But," says he, "of course the peritoneal coat is more impervious than the bladder, and this is why it keeps out the vapours, while the bladder admits them." Yet if he had ever practised anatomy, he might have known that the outer coat of the bladder springs from the peritoneum and is essentially the same as it, and that the inner coat, which is peculiar to the bladder, is more than twice as thick as the former.
Perhaps, however, it is not the thickness or thinness of the coats, but the situationof the bladder, which is the reason for the vapours being carried into it? On the contrary, even if it were probable for every other reason that the vapours accumulate there, yet the situation of the bladder would be enough in itself to prevent this. For the bladder is situated below, whereas vapours have a natural tendency to rise upwards; thus they would fill all the region of the thorax and lungs long before they came to the bladder.
But why do I mention the situation of the bladder, peritoneum, and thorax? For surely, when the vapours have passed through the coats of the stomach and intestines, it is in the space between these and the peritoneum
In the peritoneal cavity.
that they will collect and become liquefied (just as in dropsical subjects it is in this region that most of the water gathers).
Contrast, however, anasarca, p. 41.
Otherwise the vapours must necessarily pass straight forward
