Ancient and Modern Learning.
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der, from the beginning of the Duodenum to the end of the streight Gut, the Anatomy of those parts seems to be almost compleat.
The great Use of the Stomach and the Guts, is to prepare the Chyle, and then to transmit it through the Glands of the Mesentery into the Blood; this the Ancients knew very well; the Manner how it was done they knew not. Galen (n)(n) De Usu Partium, lib. 4. cap. 2, 3, 4, 5. held that the Mesaraick Veins, as also those which go from the Stomach to the Liver, carry the Chyle thither, which by the Warmth of the Liver is put into a Heat, whereby the Faeculencies are separated from the more spirituous Parts, and by their Weight sink to the Bottom; the purer Parts go into the Vena Cava. The Dregs which are of two sorts, Choler and Melancholy, go into several Receptacles; the Choler is lodged in the Gall-Bladder and Porus Bilarius: Melancholy is carried off by the Spleen. The Original of all these Notions was Ignorance of the Anatomy of all these Parts, as also of the constant Motion of the Blood through the Lungs and Heart. Herophilus, who is commended as the ablest Anatomist of Antiquity, found out (o)(o) De U. P. lib. 4. c. 19. that there were veins dispersed quite through the Mesentery, as far as the small Guts reach, whichcarried
