Book 3
11
Thus too, the coat of a vein, being single, consists of various kinds of fibres; whilst the outer coat of an artery consists of circular fibres, and its inner coat mostly of longitudinal fibres, but with a few oblique ones also amongst them. Veins thus resemble the uterus or the bladder as regards the arrangement of their fibres, even though they are deficient in thickness; similarly arteries resemble the stomach. Alone of all organs the intestines consist of two coats of which both have their fibres transverse.My suggestion is that Galen refers to (1) the mucous coat, with it s valvulae conniventes, the muscular coat, of which the chief later is made up of circular fibres. cf p. 262, note 1. Now the proof that it was for the best that all the organs should be naturally such as they are (that, for instance, the intestines should be composed of two coats) belongs to the subject of the use of parts;Or utility. thus we must not now desire to hear about matters of this kind nor why the anatomists are at variance regarding the number of coats in each organ. For these questions have been sufficiently discussed in the treatise On Disagreement in Anatomy. And the problem as to why each organ has such and such a character will be discussed in the treatise On the Use of Parts.
PART 12
