Whether Fat be a liuing and animated part of the body. QVEST. VI.
THey who imagine that Fatte is curdled or congealed by heate, beare them∣selues much vpon this argument, that no true part of the body is condensed by cold; now say they, Fat is a part & a liuing part of the liuing creature; this point we cal into question. It may I confesse be made probable both by au∣thorities and by arguments. Galen in his Cōmentaries, reckons it among the similar parts; and in another place he sayth, it euery where performeth the same office as the Veines, Arteries, and Sinewes; if it performe any office to the body, then certainely it is a liuing part. Againe, in another place where he reckoneth vp foure differences of parts, he reckoneth the Fat among those that are gouerned by themselues. In his booke of the differencies of diseases, hee sayeth that the number of the parts is abated, if the Arteries, the Veines, the Nerues, the Flesh, and the Fat, be not counted among them. In his book of the vnequall Tempers the parts of the Fingers and Toes are these, the Bones; the Cartila∣ges, the Ligaments, the Arteries, the Veines; the Flesh, the Skin, the Fat. And the autho∣ties may be seconded by arguments; The Fat groweth and is augmented to a certain ter∣minus or extent, and in some creatures it hath alwaies a certaine seate and figure, therefore it is a part. Moreouer it groweth white by the faculty or power of the Membrance, that al∣tereth and assimulateth the bloud: nowe this alteration and assimulation is wrought onely by the power of the soule, and of naturall heate. And againe, in the middle of this Larde are found certaine kernels which could not be generated in the Fat, had it not the forming faculty inherent therein. For the vntying of this knot we must know that there is a twofold acceptation of a part, one more large, the other more strict. In the large account, whatsoe∣uer addeth any thing to the accōplishment of the whole, may be called a part of the whole which it helpeth to accomplish. In which respect the Fat deserueth the name of a part, as also the Haires, the Nayles, the Marrow, the Bloud, yea and milke it selfe. But in the more presse and strict signification, the Fat cannot be called a part, because it neither par∣taketh of a common life, as wee say, neither hath it any proper figure or circumscription. And moreouer as Galen witnesseth, in famine and want of nourishment it may bee conuer∣ted into nourishment: now one part cannot nourish another, but all parts that enioy com∣mon life, haue also one common nourishment, either immediate or mediately. Adde to this, that it is neither spermaticall nor fleshy part; not spermatical, because it appeareth not in the first delineation of the parts; not fleshy, because all fleshy or bloudy parts are red; and therefore it is no liuing part partaking of the liuing soule.
Concerning the places alleadged out of Galen, where he calleth it a similar part, hee v∣seth the name of part, in the larger signification; where he sayth it is the author of a functi∣on, or performeth an office: by office or function he meaneth a vse. For Galen often con∣foundeth an action and a vse, although there is great differēce between them; for the haires haue a vse, yet they performe no office or action. Whereas they obiect that it is increa∣sed; we grant it, but how? by apposition onely, as the haires also grow and encrease, not by assimulation of Aliment as other parts doe: and therefore it onely increaseth so long as it hath matter, when the matter ceaseth, as in old age it doth, then it ceaseth to be generated.
The whitenesse of the Fat say some, is acquired not by the forming faculty, but by cold; as all phlegme is white, whose efficient cause is colde. I thinke the whitenesse comes by a light alteration which the bloud hath from the membranous parts. For when as any no∣table quantity of bloud falleth vpon the membranes, it receiueth indeede a light rudiment of alteration from the power of faculty of the membrane; but because the quantity is grea∣ter then can bee assimulated, and yet it is impacted about the membranes, it is condensed by their weake heate; but is not changed into the nature of the part where it is condensed: