Folio 86v - the nature of man, continued.
because it is a white fluid. For the Greek word for white is leucos [leukos]. The nature of milk comes by a process of change from blood. For after birth, any blood not consumed as nourishment for the womb, flows by its natural passage into the breasts and, becoming white from their particular quality, acquires the properties of milk. Skin, cutis, is what you meet first on the body. It is so called because, placed over the body, it is the first part to suffer any cut. For the Greek word for 'cut' is cutis. Skin or hide, pellis, is the same thing. It is so called because it keeps off, pellere, external injuries by covering the body, and takes the force of rain, wind and the heat of the sun. When the skin has been removed, what is now revealed underneath is called 'hide', corium. The word is derived from caro, flesh, because flesh is covered by it, but this applies to brute animals. The pores, pori, of the body have a Greek name; in Latin they are properly called spiramenta, 'breathing-holes', because the vitalising spirit is supplied through them from outside. Arvina is the fat which adheres to the skin. Pulpa is flesh without fat, so called because it pulsates, palpitare, for it often recoils. Many also call it viscus, because it has a gluey quality. Limbs, membra, are the parts of the body. The joints, artus, by which the members are fastened together, get their name from artare, to compress. Sinews, nervi, get their name from the Greek; the Greeks call them neutra [neura]. Others think that they are called nervi, strings, in Latin, because the connections of the joints are in turn attached to them. It is definitely the case that the sinews are the greatest source of our strength. For the thicker they are, the more likely they are to increase our strength. Limbs or joints, artus, are so called because, bound together in turn by the sinews, they are compressed, coartare, that is, drawn together; the diminutive of artus is articulus, joints. For we call the larger limbs, like the arms, artus; the smaller limbs, like the fingers, are articuli. Compago is the word we use for the heads of the bones, because they are pressed to each other by the sinews, as if by glue. Bones, ossa, are the foundations of the body; in them
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