THE Gristles that are in the bulke of the body are eyther in the rack-bones * 1.1 of the Spine or in the Chest. In the spine there are many gristles to esta∣blish the articulation of the spondels, and to make their motion more facile and easie. All the vertebrae of the necke haue gristles aboue and below, excepting the first, so is it likewise in the backe and in the loynes. But those of the holy-bone are harder and drier then the rest because the whole bone is immouea∣ble.
The extremity also of the holy-bone is gristly, and is called Coccyx or the Rump. It car∣rieth the figure of a Cornet or paper wherein Grocers vse to put vp their Spices, sauing that the cone or sharpe end is somewhat beaked or crooked. This establisheth the right gut, as also the neck of the womb and the bladder, and when women are in trauel it is bent backward not without very great paine.
For the chest it behooued well that some part of it should bee gristly that it might more easily follow our inspiration and expiration. First therefore there are two gristles * 1.2 which ioyne the clauicles to the brest-bone. Then the Sternon or brest-bone hath a gri∣stle in the vpper and another in the lower part. In the vpper part betwixt the first and the second bones which serueth instead of a ligament, but below appeareth that not able gri∣stle which they call Xiphoides or the brest-blade. The forme of this gristle is very diuers, * 1.3 for it is not alwayes acuminated or pointed; but sometimes broad in the end, and some∣times tyned or diuided into two forkes and thereupon some haue called it Furcella the lit∣tle Forke. Oftentimes saith Laurentius we haue seene it round like the Epiglottis. Some∣time the parts are vnequall, and the lesser lyeth ouer the greater like the leafe of the herbe which we call Horse-tongue, about the middle of it it is perforated with a smal hole which few haue obserued, made to transmit a nerue and a veyne.
The vse of this gristles is the same with other gristles which hang at the ends of bones to witte, by yeelding to breake the violence of outward iniuries, and to defende the * 1.4 parts subiected thereto. Some thinke it was made as a defence for the midriffe which in that place is neruous; some to safegard the mouth of the stomacke, hence say they often comes a Nausea or loathing of the meate when this gristle is bent inward and presseth the mouth of the stomacke. Some of the Neotericks or new VVriters do deride this latter vse, because say they there is a great distance betwixt this gristle and the mouth of the sto∣macke which is applyed to or leaneth vppon the backe, but Laurentius saith it is false that there is any such distance in liuing bodies, for first they that vomit much when they are a∣bout to cast, do find a paine at this gristle.
Againe, Hippocrates in the third section of his booke de Articulis hath remembred such a distention of the stomacke to the foreparts where he saith That the repletion of the belly (he meaneth the stomacke) is a direction for broken ribs.
Moreouer in Coacis he calleth the mouth of the stomacke Sternum, where he speaketh of the bitternes and gnawing of the Sternum, that is, of the mouth of the stomack; but aboue all that is absurd with old wiues fable, who say that this gristle somtimes fals away and may be replaced againe by muttering a peece of the mattens ouer it, and by attrectation or groping vppon it.
Finally, euery rib hath two gristles, one on the backside where it is articulated to the spondell: another on the foreside by which it is ioyned to the brest-bone. But the forward * 1.5 are greater and thicker then those that are backward, because the fore, art of the chest is distended and contracted. The gristles also of the bastard ribs are longer then those of the true ribs. And so much for the gristles of the Trunke.