On Respiration 199 



manner. When the diaphragm, whether owing to 

 the pressure of the swollen viscera of the lower part of 

 the belly or in consequence of its own weakness, is 

 unable to contract and descend, and the thorax is 

 therefore dilated only by the movement of the ribs, 

 it comes to pass that the lungs, inflated by inspira- 

 tion, cannot, because of the resistance of the 

 diaphragm, attain their usual well-balanced position, 

 and their lobes are necessarily bent divers ways ; and 

 so the bronchia are bent and sometimes greatly 

 twisted so that the air cannot pass freely through 

 them, but, striking against them, will produce, as it 

 does, the sound and whistling. And hence it is that 

 this sort of afTection sometimes comes on suddenly 

 after taking flatulent food or drink. 



Hiccup has also a claim to be reckoned among 

 convulsive inspirations, for in it the diaphragm is 

 contracted by violent but interrupted and often 

 repeated systole, so that, in consequence of its con- 

 traction, the chest is suddenly dilated and the air 

 rushes violently and not without noise into the lungs. 

 For it must not be supposed that hiccup is produced 

 by the movement of the stomach, but by that of the 

 diaphragm. For the stomach when seized by con- 

 vulsion by no means produces inspiration, as happens 

 in this affection. Further, when the stomach is 

 convulsed, the parts about it contract inwardly, as 

 we can experience in vomiting, but in hiccup the 

 abdomen is forced outwards, and this, as we have 

 shown, arises from the contraction of the diaphragm. 

 Yet since this ailment usually afflicts a too full or 

 otherwise burdened stomach, we must suppose that 

 the stomach, or rather its upper orifice which is 

 attached to the diaphragm, is first affected, and that 



