Kitap 2
6
At this point, again, I should like Erasistratus himself to answer regarding this small elementary nerve, whether it is actually one and definitely continuous, or whether it consists of many small bodies, such as those assumed by Epicurus, Leucippus, and Democritus.Observe that Erasistratu's simple nerve may be almost looked on as an anticipation of the cell. The question Galen now asks is whether this vessel is a unit mass of living matter, or merely an agglomeration of atoms subject to mechanical law. cf Galen's fibres, p. 329. For I see that the Erasistrateans are at variance on this subject. Some of them consider it one and continuous, for otherwise, as they say, he would not have called it simple; and some venture to resolve it into yet other elementary bodies. But if it be one and continuous, then what is evacuated from it in the so-called insensible transpiration of the physicians will leave no empty space in it; otherwise it would not be one body but many, separated by empty spaces. But if it consists of many bodies, then we have escaped by the back door, as the saying is, to Asclepiades, seeing that we have postulated certain inharmonious elements. Once again, then, we must call Nature inartistic; for this necessarily follows the assumption of such elements.
