**The hierarchy [of ike organs] is such that incessantly one bor- 

 rows from another, one lends to the other, one is the other's 

 debtor . . . each member prepares itself and strives anew to purify 

 and refine this treasure . . . each doth cut off and pare a portion 

 of the most precious of its nourishment; and dispatch it down- 

 wards where Nature hath prepared Vessels and Receptacles 

 suitable . . . to preserve and perpetuate the Human Race. All this 

 is done by Loans and Debts from one to the other." — Rabelais, 

 Pantagruel (Book III, Chapter 4). 



