3o8 Mayow 



we should expect from our supposition, for the nutri- 

 tious juice of the brain, which in other cases is in 

 great part sent into the spinal marrow, here, as that 

 road is closed, is all dispensed by the cerebral nerves. 

 Hence, as the head is supplied by these nerves turgid 

 with nutritious juice, it obtains a more liberal supply 

 of nutriment and necessarily grows in a more than 

 proportional degree. Hence, also, the face is better 

 conditioned and the mind more acute than accords 

 with the •age, for as the exhaustion of the spirits 

 makes us torpid and languid, so their abundance, con- 

 gested in the brain, makes us wise and ingenious. 



2. The abdominal viscera are wont for the most 

 part to exceed the normal proportion ; and here the 

 same argument holds as in the case of the head, for 

 it has been certainly made out that all those plexuses 

 of nerves devoted to the service of the lower part 

 of the abdomen are for the most part derivatives of 

 the vagus and of the intercostal nerves, which have 

 their origin from the brain ; so that we need not 

 wonder if these viscera grow largely, enjoying as 

 they do a fuller nourishment brought by the said 

 nerves. For although the nerves of an intercostal 

 pair receive branches from the spinal marrow, which 

 can bring no nutritious juice, still that defect is 

 abundantly compensated by the fuller supply from 

 the brain. As to the liver and the other parenchymata, 

 which seem to consist mainly of affused blood, per- 

 haps the nervous juice is not so necessary for their 

 nutrition. But as the muscles of the abdomen which 

 cover these organs derive their nerves from the spinal 

 marrow, and as they cannot bring any nutriment at 

 all from that dried- up fountain, it follows that the 

 viscera within swelling up, press with their mass 

 against these muscles and make them tense, as the 



