This, then, is one blunder made by those who dissociate themselves from the principle of attraction. Another is that which they make about the secretion of yellow bile. For in this case, too, it is not a fact that when the blood runs past the mouths [stomata] of the bile-ducts there will be a thorough separation out [secretion] of biliary waste-matter. “Well,” say they, “let us suppose that it is not secreted6 but carried with the blood all over the body.” But, you sapient7 folk, Erasistratus himself supposed that Nature took thought for the animals’ future, and was workmanlike in her method; and at the same time he maintained that the biliary fluid was useless in every way for the animals. Now these two things are incompatible8. For how could Nature be still looked on as exercising forethought for the animal when she allowed a noxious9 humour such as this to be carried off and distributed with the blood? . . .
This, however, is a small matter. I shall again point out here the greatest and most obvious error. For if the yellow bile adjusts itself to the narrower vessels10 and stomata, and the blood to the wider ones, for no other reason than that blood is thicker and bile thinner, and that the stomata of the veins11 are wider and those of the bile-ducts narrower, then it is clear that this watery12 and serous superfluity,9 too, will run out into the bile-ducts quicker than does the bile, exactly in proportion as it is thinner than the bile! How is it, then, that it does not run out? “Because,” it may be said, “urine is thicker than bile!” This was what one of our Erasistrateans ventured to say, herein clearly disregarding the evidence of his senses, although he had trusted these in the case of the bile and blood. For, if it be that we are to look on bile as thinner than blood because it runs more, then, since the serous residue9 passes through fine linen13 or lint14 or a or a sieve15 more easily even than does bile, by these tokens bile must also be thicker than the watery fluid. For here, again, there is no argument which will demonstrate that bile is thinner than the serous superfluities.
But when a man shamelessly goes on using circumlocutions, and never acknowledges when he has had a fall, he is like the amateur wrestlers, who, when they have been overthrown16 by the experts and are lying on their backs on the ground, so far from recognizing their fall, actually seize their victorious17 adversaries18 by the necks and prevent them from getting away, thus supposing themselves to be the winners!
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1 plausible | |
adj.似真实的,似乎有理的,似乎可信的 | |
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2 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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3 secretion | |
n.分泌 | |
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4 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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5 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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6 secreted | |
v.(尤指动物或植物器官)分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 );隐匿,隐藏 | |
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7 sapient | |
adj.有见识的,有智慧的 | |
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8 incompatible | |
adj.不相容的,不协调的,不相配的 | |
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9 noxious | |
adj.有害的,有毒的;使道德败坏的,讨厌的 | |
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10 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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11 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
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12 watery | |
adj.有水的,水汪汪的;湿的,湿润的 | |
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13 linen | |
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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14 lint | |
n.线头;绷带用麻布,皮棉 | |
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15 sieve | |
n.筛,滤器,漏勺 | |
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16 overthrown | |
adj. 打翻的,推倒的,倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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17 victorious | |
adj.胜利的,得胜的 | |
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18 adversaries | |
n.对手,敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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