II 



THE LACTEALS 



SELL I US, in his account of his discovery of 



the lacteal vessels (1622), is of opinion that 

 certain of " the ancients " had seen these vessels, 

 but had not recognised them. He has a great 

 reverence for authority : Hippocrates, Plato, Aris- 

 totle, the Stoics, Herophilus, Galen, Pollux, Rhases, 

 and a host of other names, he quotes them all, and 

 all with profound respect ; and comes to this con- 

 clusion : " It did not escape the ancients, that certain 

 vessels must needs be concerned with containing and 

 carrying the chyle, and certain other vessels with the 

 blood : but the true and very vessels of the chyle, 

 that is, my 'veins,' though they were seen by some 

 of the ancients, yet they were recognised by none 

 of them." He can forgive them all, except Galen, 

 qui videtur nosse omnino debuisse — " but, as for Galen, 

 I know not at all what I am to think. For he, 

 who made more than six hundred sections of living 

 animals, as he boasts himself, and so often opened 

 many animals when they were lately fed, are we to 

 think it possible that these veins never showed them- 

 selves to him, that he never had them under his eyes, 



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