§5Τί δὴ τοῦτ’ ἔστι πανταχόθεν καὶ πανταχόσε, σαφέστερον ἔτι διαιρήσω σοι.
What this "from all sides" and "to all sides" is, I will divide even more clearly for you.
πάμπολλοι πόροι ταῖς ἀρτηρίαις, οἱ μὲν ἐν αὐτοῖς τοῖς χιτῶσιν οἷον ὀπαί τινες, ἄλλοι δὲ δίκην στομάτων εἰς ἔντερα καὶ γαστέρα καὶ τοῦτο δὴ τὸ ἐκτὸς δέρμα περαίνονται.
There are very many passages in the arteries, some in the tunics themselves like certain holes, and others terminating like mouths into the intestines, the stomach, and this external skin.
ἀλλὰ καὶ συνεχεῖς ἀλλήλαις τε καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ κατὰ μεγίστους εἰσὶ πόρους, κατὰ τὰς αὐτὰς ἀρτηρίας, μᾶλλον δὲ εὐρυχωρίας ἁπάσας.
But they are also continuous with one another and with the heart through the greatest passages, along the same arteries, or rather all the spacious cavities.
ταῖς γε φλεψὶν οὔπω κατὰ μεγάλας, ἀλλ’ ἐκφεύγουσι μὲν τὰς αἰσθήσεις αἱ συναναστομώσεις αὐτῶν.
With the veins, however, they are not yet continuous through large passages, but their anastomoses escape our senses.
ὥστε, κᾂν ἀπιστοίης δικαίως, ὡς οὐκ οὔσαις, πιστεύσαις ἂν διὰ τὰ ἄλλα τὰ πρὸς τῶν παλαιῶν εἰρημένα, καὶ οὐχ ἥκιστα διὰ τόδε τὸ φαινόμενον.
So that, even if you should justly disbelieve, as though they did not exist, you would believe because of the other things said by the ancients, and not least because of this phenomenon.
εἰ γάρ τις λαβὼν ζῶον ὁτιοῦν τούτων δὴ τῶν μεγάλας τε καὶ σαφεῖς τὰς φλέβας τε καὶ τὰς ἀρτηρίας ἐχόντων, οἷον βοῦν, ἢ σῦν, ἢ ὄνον, ἢ ἵππον, ἢ πρόβατον, ἢ ἄρκτον, ἢ πίθηκον, ἢ πάρδαλιν, ἢ ἄνθρωπον αὐτὸν, ἤ τι τῶν ἄλλων τῶν παραπλησίων, κατὰ μεγάλας καὶ πολλὰς ἀρτηρίας τρώσειεν, ἐκκενώσει δι’ αὐτὰς ἅπαν τοῦ ζώου τὸ αἷμα.
For if anyone, taking any animal of those having large and clear veins and arteries, such as an ox, or a pig, or an ass, or a horse, or a sheep, or a bear, or an ape, or a leopard, or man himself, or any other of similar kinds, should wound it along many large arteries, he will empty all the blood of the animal through them.
τούτου πολλάκις τοῦ φαινομένου ἡμεῖς πεῖραν ἐποιησάμεθα, καὶ διαπαντὸς εὑρίσκοντες ἐκκενουμένας τὰς φλέβας ἅμα ταῖς ἀρτηρίαις ἀληθὲς τὸ τῶν συναναστομωσεών ἐκ τούτων ἐπείσθημεν δόγμα.
We have often made a trial of this phenomenon, and finding always that the veins are emptied together with the arteries, we were persuaded from these things that the doctrine of anastomoses is true.
διὰ γοῦν τούτων τῶν ἀναστομώσεων ἐκ τῶν φλεβῶν ἕλκουσι μὲν ἐν ταῖς διαστολαῖς ἀρτηρίαι, ἐκθλίβουσι δὲ εἰς αὐτὰς ἐν ταῖς συστολαῖς, ὥσπερ διὰ τῶν εἰς τὸ δέρμα περαινομένων στομάτων ἐκκρίνουσι μὲν ἔξω πᾶν ὅσον ἀτμῶδές τε καὶ καπνῶδες περίττωμα, μεταλαμβάνουσι δὲ εἰς ἑαυτὰς ἐκ τοῦ περιέχοντος ἡμᾶς ἀέρος οὐκ ὀλίγην μοῖραν.
Through these anastomoses, at any rate, the arteries draw from the veins during the diastoles, and expel into them during the systoles, just as through the mouths terminating in the skin they secrete outward all the vaporous and smoky residue, and receive into themselves no small portion from the air surrounding us.
καὶ τοῦτ’ ἔστι τὸ πρὸς Ἱπποκράτους λεγόμενον, ὡς ἔκπνουν καὶ εἴσπνουν ἐστὶν ὅλον τὸ σῶμα.
And this is what is said by Hippocrates, that the whole body is exhalant and inhalant.
κατὰ δὲ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον ἔκ τε τῆς γαστρὸς καὶ τῶν ἐντέρων ἕλκουσί τε καὶ αὖθις ἐκκρίνουσιν.
And in the same way they both draw from and again secrete into the stomach and the intestines.
οὕτω δὲ καὶ ἐκ τῶν περιεχουσῶν αὐτὰς χωρῶν διὰ τῶν οἷον ὀπῶν τῶν καθ’ ὅλους τοὺς χιτῶνας αὐτῶν ἐν μέρει μὲν ἕλκουσιν, ἐν μέρει δ’ ἐκκρίνουσι.
And thus also from the regions surrounding them, through what are like holes throughout their whole tunics, they partly draw and partly secrete.
παρὰ δὲ τῆς καρδίας λαμβάνουσι μὲν πλεῖον, διδόασι δ’ ἔλαττον.
But from the heart they receive more, and give less.
αἰτία δὲ αἱ τῶν ὑμένων ἐπιφύσεις, ὑπὲρ ὧν αὐτάρκως Ἐρασιστράτου διειλεγμένου, περιττὸν ἡμᾶς νῦν γράφειν.
And the cause is the attachments of the membranes, about which, since Erasistratus has discussed them sufficiently, it is superfluous for us to write now.
ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνος μὲν ἔοικεν ὑπολαμβάνειν, μηδὲν ὅλως εἰς τὴν καρδίαν ἐκ τῶν ἀρτηριῶν μεταλαμβάνεσθαι, πλήν γε διὰ τῶν ἐν πνεύμονι· τὸ δὲ οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει.
But he seems to suppose that nothing at all is transferred into the heart from the arteries, except indeed through those in the lung; but this is not the case.
τάχα μὲν γὰρ καὶ τὰ κατ’ αὐτὸν τὸν τῆς φύσεως νόμον διοικουμένου τοῦ ζώου μεταλαμβάνεταί τι μικρόν.
For perhaps even when the animal is governed according to the very law of nature, some small thing is transferred.
οὐχ οὕτως γάρ μοι δοκοῦσιν ἀκριβῶς ἀποφράττειν τὸ στόμα τῆς μεγάλης ἀρτηρίας οἱ ὑμένες, ὡς μηδὲν ἐξ αὐτῆς εἰς τὴν καρδίαν παλινδρομεῖν· εἰ δὲ μὴ, ἀλλά τοί γε, βιαίας τινὸς περιστάσεως καταλαβούσης τὸ ζῶον, ἀναγκαῖον οὕτως γίνεσθαι.
For the membranes do not seem to me to block the mouth of the great artery so accurately as to prevent anything from running back from it into the heart; but if not, at all events when some violent circumstance overtakes the animal, it is necessary that it should happen so.
πάντως δὲ μᾶλλον ἀληθὲς εἶναί μοι δοκεῖ.
In any case, it seems to me to be more true.
τοῦτο δὲ καὶ δι’ ἑτέρων ἡμῖν γραμμάτων ἀποδέδεικται, καὶ οὐ μεγάλη τις αὐτοῦ χρεία πρὸς τὸν ἐνεστῶτα λόγον.
And this has been demonstrated by us also in other writings, and there is no great need of it for the present argument.
εἰ μὲν γάρ τι καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ μεταδιδόασιν αἱ ἀρτηρίαι, πανταχόθεν ἂν οὕτως ἕλκοιέν τε καὶ αὖθις ἀντιπέμποιεν· εἰ δὲ μὴ, πανταχόθεν μὲν ἕλξουσιν, ἐπιπέμψουσιν δὲ καὶ, πλὴν εἰς τὴν καρδίαν, πανταχόσε.
For if the arteries also impart something to the heart, they would in this way both draw from all sides and send back again; but if not, they will draw from all sides, and they will send to, except into the heart, all sides.
καί μοι δοκεῖ πολλῷ βέλτιον εἶναι τοῦτο τὸ δόγμα τῶν Ἐρασιστρατείων ὑποθέσεων· οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ σύμπνουν οὐδὲ σύῤῥουν εἶναι τὸ σῶμα δυνατὸν ἑαυτῷ, τῶν ἀρτηριῶν ἑλκουσῶν μὲν πανταχόθεν, μὴ ἐκπεμπουσῶν δὲ πανταχόσε.
And it seems to me that this doctrine is much better than the Erasistratean hypotheses; for indeed it is not even possible for the body to be in agreement in breath or in flow with itself, if the arteries draw from all sides but do not send out to all sides.
καὶ μὲν δὴ τὸ τῆς ἐνεργείας αὐτῶν χρηστὸν ᾧδ’ ἂν μᾶλλον εἰς ἅπαν ἐκταθείη τὸ ζῶον.
And indeed the usefulness of their activity would in this way be more extended to the whole animal.
οὕτω γὰρ ἅπαν μόνον ἀναψύχεσθαί τε καὶ καθαίρεσθαι δυνήσεται ταῖς τῶν ἀρτηριῶν διαφόροις κινήσεσι ἐπιστατούμενον.
For only in this way will the whole be able to be cooled and cleansed, being superintended by the various movements of the arteries.
ὡς δ’ Ἐρασίστρατος ὑπελάμβανεν, ὀχετῶν ἀψύχων ἔργον, οὐκ ὀργάνων ζωτικῶν, αἱ ἀρτηρίαι τοῖς ζώοις ὑπηρετοῦσιν.
But in the way that Erasistratus supposed, the arteries serve animals with the function of lifeless conduits, not of vital organs.
ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ δι’ ἑτέρου τινὸς ὅλου βιβλίου πολυειδῶς ἀπεδείξαμεν, αἷμα κᾀν τῷ κατὰ φύσιν ἔχειν τὸ ζῶον ἐν αὐταῖς ταῖς ἀρτηρίαις περιέχεσθαι.
But we have demonstrated, also through another whole book in various ways, that blood is contained in the arteries themselves, even when the animal is in its natural state.
εἰ δὲ τοῦτο, παντί που δῆλον, ὡς οὐχ, ὅτι πληροῦνται τοῦ παρὰ τῆς καρδίας ἐπιπεμπομένου πνεύματος, ὡς Ἐρασίστρατος ἐνόμιζε, διὰ τοῦτο διαστέλλονται μᾶλλον, ἢ, ὅτι διαστέλλονται, διὰ τοῦτο πληροῦνται.
And if this is so, it is clear to everyone, I suppose, that they do not dilate because they are filled with the pneuma sent from the heart, as Erasistratus thought, but rather they are filled because they dilate.
κενῶν μὲν γὰρ αἵματος οὐσῶν, ἐνδέχοιτ’ ἂν ἴσως ἐν ὀλίγῳ χρόνῳ τὸ ἀπὸ τῆς καρδίας ἐπιῤῥυὲν ἐξικέσθαι μέχρι τῶν περάτων· αἷμα δὲ εἴπερ ἔχοιεν, οὐδαμῶς ἐγχωρεῖ τὸ τάχος τῆς κινήσεως ὁμολογεῖν τῷ παρὰ τῆς καρδίας πληρουμένας αὐτὰς διαστέλλεσθαι.
For if they were empty of blood, it might perhaps be possible in a short time for that which flowed from the heart to reach as far as the extremities; but if they contain blood, it is in no way possible for the swiftness of the movement to agree with the view that they are dilated by being filled from the heart.
οὐ γὰρ, ὅτι πληροῦνται, διὰ τοῦτο διαστέλλονται, ἀλλ’ ὅτι διαστέλλονται, διὰ τοῦτο πληροῦνται.
For they do not dilate because they are filled, but they are filled because they dilate.
τοῦτο μὲν δὴ πολλάκις τε καὶ πανταχοῦ καὶ ἡμῖν καὶ πολλοῖς τῶν ἔμπροσθεν ἀποδέδεικται, τὸ τὰς ἀρτηρίας ἐνεργεῖν αὐτὰς, ὡς καὶ ἡ καρδία, συστελλομένας τε καὶ διαστελλομένας ἐν μέρει κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἐκείνῃ δύναμιν, ἣν ἐκ τῆς καρδίας ὁρμωμένην διὰ τῶν χιτώνων αὐτῶν ἐλέγομεν πέμπεσθαι.
This indeed has been demonstrated both often and everywhere, both by us and by many of those before us, namely, that the arteries themselves act, just as the heart does, contracting and dilating in turn according to the same power as that, which we said was sent through their tunics, starting from the heart.