Chapter 1: On man and his parts

4. _Homo_ is so named because he is made of _humus_ (earth), as it is told in Genesis: “Et creavit Deus hominem de humo terrae.” And the whole man made up of both substances, that is, of the union of soul and body, is termed _homo_ by an abuse of the word.

6. Man is two-fold, the inner and the outer. The inner man is the soul (_anima_); the outer man, the body.

7. _Anima_ received its name from the heathen, for the reason that it is wind (_ventus_). Wind is called in the Greek ἄνεμος; and we seem to live by drawing air into the mouth. But this is most clearly false, because _anima_ comes into being long before air can be received into the mouth, because it is already alive in the womb of the mother.

8. _Anima_ therefore is not air, as certain have thought who have not been able to form a conception of an incorporeal nature.

9. The evangelist asserts that _spiritus_ is the same thing as _anima_, saying: “Potestatem habeo ponendi animam meam et rursus potestatem habeo sumendi eam.” And in regard to the _anima_ of the Lord at the time of the passion, the same evangelist thus spoke, saying: “et inclinato capite emisit spiritum.”

10. For what is it to send forth the _spiritus_, if not to lay down the _anima_. But the _anima_ is so called because it lives, and the _spiritus_ because of its spiritual nature, or because it breathes (_inspiret_) in the body.

11. Likewise _animus_ is the same as _anima_. But _anima_ is of life, _animus_ of wisdom. Whence the philosophers say that even without _animus_ the life remains, and without the mind, _anima_ endures....

12. ... It is not _anima_, but what excels in _anima_ that is called _mens_, its head or eye, as it were. Whence man himself is called the image of God in respect to _mens_. However all those things are united to _anima_ so that it is one thing. The _anima_ has received different names according to the working of different causes.

13. ... When it gives life to the body, it is _anima_; when it wills,[328] it is _animus_; when it knows, it is _mens_; when it recollects, it is _memoria_; when it judges what is right, it is _ratio_; when it breathes, it is _spiritus_; when it is conscious of anything, it is _sensus_....

[328] _Vult._

14. _Corpus_ is so called because being corrupted, it perishes. For it is perishable and mortal and must sometime be dissolved.

16. The body is made up of the four elements. For earth is in the flesh; air in the breath; moisture in the blood; fire in the vital heat. For the elements have each their own part in us, and something is due them when the structure is broken up....

18. The bodily senses are five: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. Two of these open and close; two are always open.

56. The arteries are so named because the air, that is, the breath, is carried by them from the lungs; or because they retain the breath of life in their narrow and close passages, whence they emit the sounds of the voice, which would all sound alike if the movement of the tongue did not create differences of the voice.

77. _Lac_ (milk) derives its name from its color, because it is a white liquor, for the Greeks call white λεῦκος and its nature is changed from blood; for after the birth whatever blood has not yet been spent in the nourishing of the womb flows by a natural passage to the breasts, and whitening by their virtue, receives the quality of milk.

86. _Ossa_ (bones) are the solid parts of the body. For on these all form and strength depend. _Ossa_ are named from _ustus_ (burned), because they were burned by the ancients, or as others think, from _os_ (the mouth), because there they are visible, for everywhere else they are covered and concealed by the skin and flesh.

92. _Terga_, because it is on the back that we lie flat on the earth (_terra_); men alone can do this, for dumb animals lie either on the belly or on the side; whence the word _tergum_ is applied to them mistakenly.

108. The knees are the meeting-points of the thighs and lower legs; and they are called knees (_genua_) because in the womb they are opposite to the cheeks (_genae_). For they adhere to them there and they are akin to the eyes, the revealers of tears and of pity. For the knees (_genua_) are so called from the cheeks (_genae_).

109. In short they assert that man in his beginning and first formation is so folded up that the knees are above, and by these the eyes are shaped so that there are deep hollows. Ennius says: “Atque genua comprimit artagena.” Thence it is that when men fall on their knees they at once begin to weep. For nature has willed that they remember their mother’s womb where they sat in darkness, as it were, until they should come to the light.

118. _Cor_ is derived from a Greek term—what they call καρδία (heart)—or, it may be, from _cura_ (cure). For in it dwell all anxious thought and wisdom. And it is near the lungs for this reason, that when it is fired by anger it may be cooled by the liquid of the lungs. It has two arteries, of which the left has more blood, the right, more air. From it also is the pulse we find in the right arm.

120. The _pulsus_ (pulse) is so called because it beats (_palpitet_), and by its evidence we perceive that there is sickness or health. Its motion is two-fold; a simple motion which is made up of a single beat, and a composite, made up of several movements—irregular and unequal. And these movements have definite limits....

121. The veins are so called because they are the passages of the flowing blood, and its streamlets spread through all the body, by which all the parts are moistened.

124. The Greeks call the lungs πλεύμων, because they are the bellows of the heart and in them is πνεῦμα, that is, _spiritus_, by which they are stirred and moved, whence they are called _pulmones_....

125. _Jecur_ (liver) has its name because in it fire (_ignis_) has its seat, and from there it flies up into the head. Thence it spreads to the eyes and the other organs of sense and the limbs, and by its heat it changes into blood the liquid that it has appropriated from food, and this blood it furnishes to the several parts to feed and nourish them. In the liver pleasure resides and desire, according to those who dispute about natural philosophy.

127. The spleen is so called from corresponding to (_supplementum_) the liver on the opposite side in order that there may be no vacuum, and this certain men believe was formed with a view to laughter. For it is by the spleen we laugh, by the bile we are angry, by the heart we are wise, by the liver we love. And while these four elements remain, the animal is whole.