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CHAP. I. What Flesh is, and how manie sorts of Flesh there bee.
FLesh in Latine Caro, in Greeke 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, hath diuers acceptions a∣mongst the Ancients. Sometime in a strict and proper acceptati∣on it is taken for the flesh of a Muscle, as if a Muscle and Flesh wer both one thing: so Hippocrates vnderstandeth it in the 16 A∣phorisme of the fift Section where he saith, That bathes of hot Wa∣ter will loosen the Flesh, that is, dissolue the strength of a Muscle: & in the second Section of his Booke de Fracturis he calleth the Mus∣cles absolutely flesh, because their cheefe part is flesh. But most plainly of all in his Booke de Arte, where he saith, All those members which are compassed a∣bout with flesh, which flesh they call a Muscle, all those parts I say haue bellies.
Sometime by flesh we vnderstand that simple part which is peculiar and proper to ech part of a mans body, and compasseth, gathereth together, and couereth the Stamina or fibres defending them against the rage of the naturall heate which would consume & de∣populate their very substance, as also against the heate and colde, and other outward oc∣currents.
Concerning this flesh Hippocrates in his Booke de Ossium Natura hath this saying, The Flesh is that which tyeth together and buildeth or reareth vp all the parts of this frame. VVee out of Galen and the late VVriters doe take knowledge of foure distinct differences of Flesh; one is flesh properly so called, another is the flesh of the bowelles, the thirde is the peculiar flesh of euery part, and the fourth the flesh of the Glandules or Kernelles. The flesh properly so called is a soft and ruddy part made of blood moderately dried, & is therefore called a bloody part and a hot part: such is the flesh of the Muscles which is truly and absolutely called Flesh, such is also the flesh of the Gums and that in the nut of the yard.
The flesh of the bowels Erasistratus calleth parenchyma, as it were an affusion or gathe∣ring together of blood. For he thought that the substance of the bowels did accrue or ga∣ther of blood yssuing out of the Veines. But wee thinke that the bowelles haue a proper substance of their owne which is the principall and chiefe part of the bowell to which his action doth properly belong. There is also another flesh peculiar vnto euery solide part, which flesh hath no proper name, but Galen calleth it Carnosam substantiam, the Fleshye substance: for in the tenth Booke of his Method he acknowledgeth a double substance in the solid parts, the one exquisitely solide and fibrous altogether without blood, another which stuffeth the fibres and filleth vp their distances, and is called the proper flesh of e∣uery part▪ this he thinketh is neuer restored if it be lost but only moistned and cherished when it is present. Such is the flesh which is to be seene in the stomacke, the Guttes, the Gullet, the Bladders and the wombe. And such a kinde of flesh Theophrastus attributeth vnto plants growing about their woody, and as it were sinnowy fibres.
The common vses of this three-fold flesh Galen hath described in his twelfth Booke De vsupartium, to wit, that it should defend the partes from heate and colde and other out∣ward occurrences. For all flesh is a soft pillowe for the creature when it either lyeth or falleth downe; when it is wounded it yeeldeth to the hardnesse of the weapon; when it is bruised or beaten it filleth vp the breach as it were a boulster of Lint: in the sweltering heate of the Sunne it serueth for a shadow, and in the violence of cold it keepeth warme. And these vses I haue called Common, because there are other peculiar to each kinde of flesh: for the flesh of the Muscles both mooueth voluntarily and also by his stuffing it hin∣dreth the Chord or Tendon of the Muscle, least when it is contracted or drawne toge∣ther it should depart from the bodye, as also it easeth and moisteneth the drowth of the Nerues and Ligaments, which they continuallie acquire by theyr perpetuall motion.
The flesh of the bowelles as it were a certaine stuffing or concretion, first confirmeth the vessels of the bowels, next it filleth vp the empty places betwixt the vessels; and lastly it performeth a similer and officiall action as we shall say anon. Finally there is a glandu∣lus flesh such is the Pancreas a kernally body placed in the belly neere to the gate of the liuer: for some haue defined a Glandule to be a masse of flesh rowled vp in it selfe. And these in my iudgemeut are all the differences and distinctions of flesh. The particular hi∣story