History of Monsters. 81

middle of the intestines. Having seen these, we consider the stomach—that is, the ventricle—which is like a small belly located between the liver and the spleen. It has a rounded, or rather gourd-like, shape, with its upper part leaning to the left and its lower part to the right, as this shape is more capable of holding a large quantity of material. Furthermore, the stomach has two openings: the upper one, which is wider than the lower, is called the "mouth" of the stomach and is continuous with the esophagus; the lower is called the *pylorus*, meaning the gatekeeper. The mouth of the stomach is attached to the back between the twelfth and thirteenth vertebrae, where the last rib ends; for this reason, in cases of ailments of the stomach's opening, it is more effective to apply ointments to the back rather than the front.

The liver, or *iecur*, located in the right hypochondrium, is called the workshop of the blood. In its concave part, all the veins traveling to the intestines are reduced to one. Schenck, however, occasionally observed the liver on the left side and the spleen on the right. Indeed, he mentions an individual who was distinguished by a double liver. But what moves us to even greater wonder is what he relates regarding a man lacking both of these organs: on October 11, 1564, during the dissection of the corpse of Matthias, a German merchant from Antwerp, not even a trace of a liver or spleen was found. The substance of all the intestines was fleshy, and the *vena cava* took its origin from the intestines; thus, in this man while he lived, the intestines performed the duties of both organs. To return to our point, near the concavity of the liver the gallbladder, or *cystis fellis*, is seen. According to Galen, this bladder receives the excess humor of the bile, which is then gradually purged as it descends through the duodenum. The spleen occupies the left hypochondrium and is quadrangular in shape where it adheres to the round stomach. The office of this organ is to draw away the dregs of the blood and the melancholic humor. But it is remarkable what Schenck noted: that in some people, two or even three spleens have been found, and sometimes none at all. This occurred in our own time in Bologna in a woman who had drowned herself; when her body was opened, only the liver was seen, one part of which was black and quadrangular like a spleen—undoubtedly, that part was performing the role of the other organ.

Once the entrails and organs are removed, the kidneys appear on the right and left sides, along with the branches of the veins arising from the *vena cava*, one of which passes to the right kidney and the other to the left. Here one must admire the unequal placement of the kidneys, as one is higher than the other. Because of this, Galen writes that the *vena cava* arising from the liver, while still high up, turns toward the back and seeks out the right kidney, and subsequently penetrates the left kidney a little lower down. These are the veins called the "emulgents," because they draw out the watery substance and thrust it through the kidneys to the bladder. From the kidneys, the ureters enter the bladder; through these, the watery humor separated from the blood—namely, the urine—is purged. These passages enter the bladder with such ingenuity that once the urine has entered, it cannot exit by the same path. Contemplating the craftsmanship of these vessels, Galen was moved to admire the providence and extraordinary wisdom of the Creator. Next, the nervous bladder is observed, with a fleshy and muscular neck so that the urine can be appropriately retained and expelled. Here it should be noted in passing that two urinary bladders have sometimes been found in humans. Schenck mentions a thirty-year-old woman whose dissected body revealed two bladders: one located in its natural place, the other arising from the right side of the neck of the womb, twice as large as the natural bladder and full of urine, though no passage for admitting or emitting urine could be seen in it.

Next are the vessels destined for generation, which Galen declared to be the same in both men and women. His words are as follows: "Whichever parts are dedicated to generation, all of these are also found in women; they differ only in this: in women, such parts are hidden inside, while in men they appear on the outside." In men, then, there are the penis, the testes, and the spermatic vessels. The penis is continuous with the neck of the bladder, bound by many ligaments that originate from the pubic bone. But the spermatic vessels are said to be of two kinds: some prepare the semen, and others carry it. The "preparatory" vessels are those that depart from the testes and are wound around their upper part, but they do not enter the substance of the testes at all. Others are those that penetrate further to the passage of the penis and ejaculate the already produced semen.