Anatomical Observations

For it is familiar to the human mind that if, in an object we propose to examine, something occurs that affects our senses in a way similar to a thing previously perceived, that previously known thing is immediately represented to the mind again, even against its will. Hence it happens that by attributing the properties of the better-understood thing to the other, we desist from further examination. Thus, having observed the attractive force of a magnet, some have tried to explain everything through magnetism. Thus, by imagining a hearth and a pot for themselves in man, others, so as not to depart from the similarity, have even found spoons, spatulas, lids, and cooks. Thus, those who compare vessels carrying lymph to pumps, imagine that they draw lymph from the well (that is what they call the receptacle of the chyle). And for no other reason, when they saw a rare texture in the glands, especially in the tonsils, they called them the rest of the sponges. If you desire to hear the thing itself, with these similarities set aside, you will find very few things that were known about them to the ancients. I would not want these things to be said as if I had taken anything away from the ancients, whose authority is always venerable and always honorable to me, for I am undoubtedly persuaded that nothing has been invented and perfected at the same time. They lit the light; it is our task to ensure that, once lit, it is preserved and burns more brightly as we proceed.

§. 5. That veil of similarities, under which the knowledge of the glands long lay hidden, began to be removed bit by bit after certain peculiar ducts were discovered in them.