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Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 31
2 complete historical source paragraphs and 3 editorial footnotes. Author and edition credits are shown for each record; original wording is retained.
English translation and editorial credits: Henry Austin Wilson (translator and notes), Joseph Hirst Lupton (editorial revision assistance), Henry Wace (editor).
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Otherwise Chap. xxxi. The Bodleian ms. of the Latin version gives the title:—“Of the threefold nature of the body.”
Editorial footnote · The Making of Man, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 31, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
XXX. A brief examination of the construction of our bodies from a medical point of view.
Or perhaps “fresher,” the heart seeking as it were for fresher and cooler air, and the breath being thus accelerated in the effort to obtain it.
Editorial footnote · The Making of Man, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 31, editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
17. This then is the cause of this involuntary respiration—the impossibility that the fiery element should remain at rest: for as the operation of motion is proper to heat, and we understand that the principle of heat is to be found in the heart, the continual motion going on in this organ produces the incessant inspiration and exhalation of the air through the lungs: wherefore also when the fiery element is unnaturally augmented, the breathing of those fevered subjects becomes more rapid, as though the heart were endeavouring to quench the flame implanted in it by more violent breathing.
Reading (with Forbes’ marginal suggestion) ἐκπνοήν.
Editorial footnote · The Making of Man, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 31, editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
16. And this seems to me to be the cause of this spontaneous respiration of ours; for often the mind is occupied in discourse with others, or is entirely quiescent when the body is relaxed in sleep, but the respiration of air does not cease, though the will gives no co-operation to this end. Now I suppose, since the heart is surrounded by the lungs, and in the back part of its own structure is attached to them, moving that organ by its own dilatations and compressions, that the inhaling and exhaling of the air is brought about by the lungs: for as they are a lightly built and porous body, and have all their recesses opening at the base of the windpipe, when they contract and are compressed they necessarily force out by pressure the air that is left in their cavities; and, when they expand and open, draw the air, by their distention, into the void by suction.
16. And this seems to me to be the cause of this spontaneous respiration of ours; for often the mind is occupied in discourse with others, or is entirely quiescent when the body is relaxed in sleep, but the respiration of air does not cease, though the will gives no co-operation to this end. Now I suppose, since the heart is surrounded by the lungs, and in the back part of its own structure is attached to them, moving that organ by its own dilatations and compressions, that the inhaling and exhaling of the air is brought about by the lungs: for as they are a lightly built and porous body, and have all their recesses opening at the base of the windpipe, when they contract and are compressed they necessarily force out by pressure the air that is left in their cavities; and, when they expand and open, draw the air, by their distention, into the void by suction.
Complete source paragraph · The Making of Man, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 31, source paragraph 17 · Original source
17. This then is the cause of this involuntary respiration—the impossibility that the fiery element should remain at rest: for as the operation of motion is proper to heat, and we understand that the principle of heat is to be found in the heart, the continual motion going on in this organ produces the incessant inspiration and exhalation of the air through the lungs: wherefore also when the fiery element is unnaturally augmented, the breathing of those fevered subjects becomes more rapid, as though the heart were endeavouring to quench the flame implanted in it by more violent breathing.
Complete source paragraph · The Making of Man, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 31, source paragraph 18 · Original source