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BOOK TWO
PART 1
[p. 117]
In the previous book we demonstrated that not only Erasistratus, but also all others who would say anything to the purpose about urinary secretion, must acknowledge that the kidneys possess some
faculty which attracts to them this particular quality existing in the urine.
cf. p. 89.
Besides this we drew attention to the fact that the urine is not carried through the kidneys into the bladder by one method, the blood into parts of the animal by another, and the yellow bile separated out on yet another principle. For when once there has been demonstrated in any one organ, the drawing, or so-called epispastic
This term is nowadays limited to the drawing action of a blister. cf. p. 223.
faculty, there is then no difficulty in transferring it to the rest. Certainly Nature did not give a power such as this to the kidneys without giving it also to the vessels which abstract the biliary fluid,
The radicles of the hepatic ducts in the liver were supposed to be the active agents in extracting bile from the blood. cf. pp. 145-149.
nor did she give it to the latter without also it to each of the other parts. And, assuredly,
if this is true, we must marvel that Erasistratus should make statements concerning the delivery of nutriment from the food-canal
