(g) The fat cometh from the airy portion of the blood; which when it flows to the membranes, by their weak beat (which phyficians account, and call cold) grows thick and close.

(r) The fat increafeth inward beat, by keeping it from outward parts; and defends the parts subject to it from bruifes.

(s) The flefey panicle, is a membrane very thick, finewy, woven in with little veins.

(1) The proper parts in folding this lower region, are two; the firft, the mufiles of the belly-piece, which are eight; four fide-long, trvo right, and two across.

(#) Peritoneum (called the rim of the belly) is a thin membrane, taking his name from compuffing the bowels; round, but lenger: every where double, yet fo thin that it feems but fingle. It bath many bales, that the veins, arteries, and oiler needful veffels might have paffage both in and out.

Şix (a) goodly cities, built with fuburbs round,
Do fair adorn this lower region;

(w) The double tunicle of the rim, is plainly parted into a large space, that with a double wall it might fence the bladder, where the veffels of the navel are contained. These are four, firß the nurse, which is a vein nourishing the infant in the womb; fecond, two arteries, in which the infant breathes; the fou th, the Ourachos, a pipe whereby (while the child is in the womb) the urine is carried into the allantoid, or rather amnion, which is a membrane receiving the fweat and

urine.

(y) The bladder endeth in a neck of flefo, and is girded with a mufcle which is called sphincter: which bolds in the urine left it flow away without our permis fion. If this be loofened, or cold, the urine goes away from us, of itself, without any feeling.

(z) Hence the urine is conveyed through the ordi nary paffages, and caft out.

(a) Befides the bladder there are fix Special parts contained in this lower region; the liver, the flomach, with the guts; the gall, the spleen, or milt; the kidneys and parts for generation.

From thence a (ƒ) groom of wondrous volubility

Delivers all unto near officers,

Of nature like himself, and like agility;

At each fide four, that are the governors
To fee the victuals fhipp'd at fittest tide;
Which straight from thence with prosp'rous
channel flide,

And in Koilia's port with nimble oars glide.

(b) The ftomach (or Koilia) is the fift in order, though not in dignity.

(c) Koila, or the ftomach, is long and round like a bagpipe, made to receive and concoct the meat, and to perfect the chyle, or white juice which rifeth from the

(g) The upper mouth of the flomach bath little veins, or circular firings, to fout in the meat, and keep it from returning.

(b) Vos breve, or the fort vessel, which fending in a melancholy bumour, fourpens the appetite.

(i) In the bottom of the ftomach (which is placed in the middle of the belly) is concoction perfected.

(k) The concoction of meats in the ftomach, is perfected as by an innate property and special virtue; fo alfo by the outward beat of parts adjoining, for it is on eve ry fide compaffed with botter parts, which, as fire to a cauldron, belps to feetbe, and concoct; and the bot fleams within it do not a little further digeftion.

(1) The lower orifice, or mouth of the flomach, is not placed at the very bottom, but at the fide, and is called the Janitor (or porter) as fending out the food now concocted, through the entrails, which are knotty and full of windings, left the meat too fuddenly paffing through

the, body feould make it too subject to appetite and greediness. (m) It is approved, that the entrails dried and blown, are feven times longer than the body, they are all one entire bety; yet their differing fubftanesbath diftinguished them into the thin and thick: the thin bave the more noble office. (n) The firft is flraight, without any winding, that the chyle may not return; and mufi narrow, that it might not find too bafty a passage. it takes in a little paffage from the gall, which there purges his çboler, to provoke the entrails (when they are flow) to caft out the excrements. This is called Duodenum (or twelve fingers) from bis length.

(o) The fecond, is called the lank, or hungry gut, as being more empty than the refs, for the liver being near, it fucks out his juice, or cream; it is known from the rest b the red colour.

(p) The third is called Ilion (or winding) from his many folds and turnings, is of all the lung.ft.

XLII.

The (9) foremost of the base half blind appears; And where his broad way in an Ifthmus ends, There he examines all his passengers,

And those who ought not 'fcape, he backward fends: [raging,

The () fecond Ælos court, where tempets Shut clofe within a cave the winds encaging, With earthquakes shakes the lfland, thunders fad prclaging.

XLIII.

The () last downright falls to port Efquiline, More ftraight above, beneath ftill broader growing,

Soon as the gate opes by the king's affign, Empties itself, far thence the filth out-throwing: This gate endow'd with many properties, Yet for his office, fight, and naming, flies: Therefore between two hills in darkest valley lies. XLIV.

To that (t) arch-city of this government,

The three first pipes the ready feaft convoy : The other three in bafer office spent, Fling out the dregs, which elfe the kitchen cloy. In (u) every one the Hepar keeps his spies, Who if ought good, with evil blended lies; Thence bring it back again to Hepar's treafuries.

(9) The firft, of the bafer fort, is called blind, at rubofe end is an appendant, where if any of the thinner chyle do chance to escape, it is flopped, and by the veins of the midriff fuckt out.

(r) The fecond is Colon (or the tormentor) because of the wind there flaying, and vexing the body.

(s) The last, called Reclum (or ftraight) bath no windings, foort, larger toward the end, that the excrement may more easily be ejected, and retained alfo upon occafion.

(t) The thin entrails ferve for the carrying and the thorough concocting the chyle; the thicker for the gathering, and containing the excrements.

(u) They are all sprinkled with numberless little veins, that no part of the chyle might efcape, till all be brought to the liver

(x) Epiploon (or over-fwimmer) defcends below the navel, and afcends above the bigbeft entrails; of fkinny fubftance, all interlaced with fat.

y) The Mefenterium (or midfi amongst the entrails) whence it takes the name, ties and knits the entrails togethe; it bath a double tunicle.

(z) Pancreas (or all-fiefo) for so it feems, is laid as a pillow under the flomach, and juftains the veins, that are difpread from the gate vein.

You gentle fhepherds, and you fnowy fires.

That fit around, my rugged rhymes attending; How may I hope to quit your strong defires, In verfe uncomb'd, fuch wonders comprehending? Too well I know my rudeness, all unfit

To frame this curious lfle, whose framing yet Was never throughly known to any human wit.

IV.

Thou fhepherd-god, who only know'ft it right, And hid'st that art from all the world befide; Shed in my mifty breast thy fparkling light,

And in this fog, my erring footsteps guide : Thou who first mad'ft, and never wilt forfake it:

Eife how fhall my weak hand dare undertake it,

When thou thyself afk'st counsel of thyself to make it.

V.

Next to Koilia, on the right side stands, Fairly difpread in large dominion,

The (a) arch city Hepar, ftretching her commands, To all within this lower region;

Fenc'd with fure bars, and strongest situation; So never fearing foreigners invafion : Hence are the (6) walls, flight, thin; built but for fight and fashion.

VI.

To th' heart, and to th' head city surely tied (c)
With firmeft league, and mutual reference:
His liegers there, theirs ever here abide,
To take up ftrife, and casual difference:

Built (1) all alike, seeming like rubies sheen,
Of some peculiar matter; fuch I ween,
As over all the world, may no where else be seen.

Much like a (e) mount, it easily ascendeth;

The upper parts all smooth as flipp'ry glass: But on the lower many a crag dependeth; Like to the hangings of fome rocky mafs:

Here first the f) purple fountain making

vent,

By thousand rivers through the Ifle difpent, Gives every part fit growth, and daily nourish

ment.

VIII.

In this (g) fair town the Ifle's great steward dwells; His porphry houfe glitters in purple dye

(a) Of all this lower region, the Hepar, or liver, is the principal. The fituation ftrong and safe, walled in by the ribs.

(b) It is covered with one fingle tunicle, and that very thin and flight.

(6) The liver is tied to the heart by arteries, to the head by nerves, and to both by veins, dispersed to both. (d) The liver confifts of no ordinary flesb, but of a kind proper to itself.

(e) The liver's upper part rises, and swells gently: is very smooth and even; the lower in the outside like to an bollow rock, rugged aud craggy.

(ƒ) From it rise all the springs of blood which runs" in the veins.

(g) The fieward of the whole Ifle, is bere fitly placed, becaufe as all (that is brought in) is bers fitted and disposed, fo from hence returned and dispensed.

In purple clad himself: from hence he deals His ftore, to all the Ifle's neceffity:

And though the rent he daily, duly pay, Yet doth his flowing fubftance ne'er decay; All day he rent receives, returns it all theday.

IX.

And like that golden ftar, which cuts his way Through Saturn's ice, and Mars his fiery ball; Temp'ring their ftrife with his more kindly ray : So 'tween the Splenion's froft, and th' angry gall,

The jovial Hepar fits; with great expence Cheering the Ifle by his fweet influence; So flakes their envious rage, and endless differ

ence.

X.

Within, fome fay, (b) love hath his habitation,
Not Cupid's felf, but Cupid's better brother;
For Cupid's felf dwells with a lower nation,
But this, more fure, much chafter than the
other;

By whofe command, we either love our kind, Or with most perfect love, affect the mind; With such a diamond knot, he often fouls can bind.

XI.

Two (i) purple ftreams, here raise their boiling heads; [ing, The first, and leaft, in th' hollow cavern breed His waves on divers neighbour grounds difpreads: The next fair river all the rest exceeding, Topping the hill, breaks forth in fierce evafion,

And fheds abroad his Nile-like inundation; So gives to all the Ile their food and vegetation;

XII.

Yet these from other ftreams much different;
For others, as they longer, broader grow;
These as they run in narrow banks impent;
Are then at least, when in the main they flow:
Much like a tree, which all his roots fo guides,
That all the trunk in his full body hides;
Which ftraight, his ftem to thousand branches
fubdivides.

XIII.

Yet left these (4) freams might hap to be infected, With other liquors in the well abounding; Before their flowing channels are detected,

(b) Here Plato difpofed the feat of love. And certainly though luft (which fome perversely call love) be otherwhere feated, yet that affection whereby we wish, and do well to others, may seem to be better fitted in the liver, than in the beart, (where moft do place it) because this moderate beat appears more apt for this affection; and fires of the heart where (as a falamander) anger lives, jeems not so fit to entertain it.

(i) Hence rife the two great rivers of blood, of zobich all the rift are leffer ftreams; the firft is porta, or the gate vein issuing from the bollow part, and is fbed toward the ftomach, Spleen, guts, and the epiploon. The fecond is cava, the bollow vein,fpreading his river ver all the body.

(k) The chyle, or juice of meats, concocted in the flomach, could not all be turned into freet blood, by reafon of the divers kinds of humours in it; therefore there

Some leffer delfts, the fountains bottom found" ing, [ing. Suck out the bafer streams, the springs annoyAn hundred pipes unto that end employing; Thence run to fitter place, their noisome load convoying.

XIV.

Such is fair Hepar (1), which with great diffenfion
Of all the rest pleads most antiquity;
But yet th' heart-city with no lefs contention,
And justest challenge, claims priority:

But fure the Hepar was the elder bore;
For that small river call'd the nurse, of yore,
Laid boths foundation, yet Hepar built afore.

xv.

Three poif 'nous liquors from this purple well, Rife with the nativestreams; (m) the first likefire All flaming hot, red, furious, and fell;

The spring of dire debate, and civil ire;

Which wer't not surely held with strong re tention,

Would ftir domestic strife, and fierce contention. [fenfion And waste the weary Ifle with never ceas'd dif

XVI.

Therefore close by, a little conduit stands,

Choledochus (), that drags this poifon hence, And fafely locks it up in prifon bands; Thence gently drains it through a narrow fence; A needful fence, attended with a guard, That watches in the ftraights, all closely barr'd,

Left fome might back escape, and break the prison ward.

XVII.

[fending, The (o) next ill ftream the wholesome fount of All dreary, black, and frightful, hence convey'd By divers drains, unto the Splenion tending,

The Splenion o'er against the Hepar laid,

are three kinds of excremental liquors fuckt away by little vessels, and carried to their appointed places; ene too light and fiery; another too earthy, and beavy; a third wheyife and watry.

(1) Famous is the controverfy between the peripatetick and phyficians ; one bo ding the beart, the other the liver to be firft. That the liver is first in time, and making, is manifeft; because the nurse (the vein that feeds the infant yet in the womb) empties itself upon the liver.

(m) The firft excrement drawn from the liver to the gall, is cholerick, bitter, like flame in colour; which, were it not removed, and kept in due place, would fill all the body with bitterness and gnawing.

(n) Choledochus, or the gall, is of a membraneous fubftance, baving but one, yet that a frong tunice. It bath two paffages, one drawing the bumour from the liver, another conveying the overplus into the firft gut,and fo emptying the gall; and this fence bath a double gati, to keep the liquor from returning.

(0) The fecond ill bumour is earthy and beavy, which is drawn from the liver, by little vessels, unto the Spleen; the native feat of me ancholy, bera fome have placed laughter: But the spleen feems rather the feat of matice and beawinest.