"(14)
(14) Morris Jastrow: The Liver in Antiquity and the
Beginnings of Anatomy. Transactions College of Physicians,
Philadelphia, 1907, 3. s., XXIX, 117-138.
Three points of interest may be referred to in connection with
Babylonian medicine. Our first recorded observations on anatomy are in
connection with the art of divination--the study of the future by the
interpretation of certain signs. The student recognized two divisions
of divination--the involuntary, dealing with the interpretation of signs
forced upon our attention, such as the phenomena of the heavens, dreams,
etc., and voluntary divination, the seeking of signs, more particularly
through the inspection of sacrificial animals. This method reached an
extraordinary development among the Babylonians, and the cult spread to
the Etruscans, Hebrews, and later to the Greeks and Romans.
Of all the organs inspected in a sacrificial animal the liver, from its
size, position and richness in blood, impressed the early observers as
the most important of the body. Probably on account of the richness in
blood it came to be regarded as the seat of life--indeed, the seat of
the soul. From this important position the liver was not dislodged for
many centuries, and in the Galenic physiology it shared with the heart
and the brain in the triple control of the natural, animal and vital
spirits.
Pages:
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46