Kitap 2
7
IN the affections of the liver, the patients do not die, indeed, more quickly than in those of the heart; but yet they suffer more pain; for the liver is, in a great measure, a concretion of blood. But if the cause of death happen to be situated in its Portæ, they die no less speedily than from the heart; for these parts are tissues formed of membranes, of important and slender nerves, and of large veins. Hence certain of the philosophers have held that the desires of the soul are seated there. In hemorrhage it greatly surpasses all the others; for the liver is made up from the roots of veins. Wherefore a great inflammation does form in it, but not very frequently, nor in its vital parts, for the patient would die previously. But a smaller inflammation often takes place, whence it happens that they escape death, indeed, but experience a more protracted state of disease. For of its office, as regards sanguification, there is no stop nor procrastination, as from it a supply of blood is sent to the heart, and to the parts below the diaphragm.
