Diexodus medica de hepatis

best flesh and the crasis of the fibers and the most exact structure of the organic form.

54. The function is hence most perfect and most firm, by which the most healthy blood is produced in the body, and is fully sufficient for all uses: indeed, it is hot and moist in a moderate way, of medium consistency, and sweet, where bile and phlegm are in no act; by which not only will the containing parts be able to be best increased and nourished, but also the spirit will be restored to firm actions, and [spirits] which are not the authors of any γενέσει generation/corruption.

55. But this state of a healthy liver is found only in the body of Polycletus a Greek sculptor famous for ideal proportions, and consists only in the mind, as a measure of the excesses and defects from the middle of the species. In Nature, however, it does not occur; for nowhere, with so many intervening accidents, does the thing fall as Nature intended and proposed to the optimum.

56. The health which dwells in breadth is a hectic health, peculiar to each, and is defined by the blameless integrity of actions. Although this is divisible and varied by infinite numbers, it is nevertheless understood by this artful conjecture.

57. The heart being hypothetically symmetrical, or not working against it at all, if the liver should fall short of the best state in its crasis temperament/mixture, as if it became hotter in its first γενέσει generation, this will be revealed by the width of the veins, more bilious blood, and the growth of hair in that region; the defect of which will be blood that is more phlegmatic if it existed colder from its origin due to a more languid heat.

58. But if the liver is made drier by Nature, the blood is sparser and thicker, and the veins harder, whence the whole habit is drier. On the contrary, if it is made more moist, the blood is more copious, the veins softer, and the body turns out more moist.