Galen: On the Natural Faculties by Galen
Chapter VII
130 words | Chapter 37
Interaction between two bodies; the stronger masters the
weaker; a deleterious drug masters the forces of the
body, whereas food is mastered by them; this mastery is
an _alteration_, and the amount of alteration varies
with the different organs; thus a partial alteration is
effected in mouth by saliva, but much greater in
stomach, where not only gastric juice, but also bile,
pneuma, innate heat (_i.e._ oxidation?), and other
powerful factors are brought to bear on it; need of
considerable alteration in stomach as a
transition-stage between food and blood; appearance of
faeces in intestine another proof of great alteration
effected in stomach. Asclepiades's denial of real
qualitative change in stomach rebutted. Erasistratus's
denial that digestion in any way resembles a _boiling_
process comes from his taking words too literally.
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