Galen’s Simple Drugs 11 preface (I)

In the case of animals, most parts are common to them all, but surely nothing is as common as flesh. For every animal has this: the blooded ones, like humans, the entire group of quadrupeds, birds, snakes, lizards, turtles, and so forth; and those without blood, like the entire group of shellfish, many of the aquatic animals, and also the terrestrial ones. Flesh is the main part an animal that is eaten; for in fact the majority of the entrails’ bulk is composed from the flesh in them. Some doctors call the flesh in them ‘parenchyma,’ because they think when the blood flows out (encheomenon) of the veins, it coagulates around all the vessels, while they only use the name ‘flesh’ for what is in the muscles. However, as I always say, we should not argue about names. What we should pursue is knowledge of the things themselves. This is what I am constantly pursuing, so I will now proceed to discuss all the knowledge I have gained about the specific and common parts in each animal, whether I have learned about them through experience or through reason. I will begin from what is properly called ‘flesh.’

Τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἐν τοῖς ζώοις μορίων κοινὰ πᾶσιν αὐτοῖς ἐστιν, οὐδὲν μὴν οὕτω κοινὸν ὡς ἡ σάρξ. πᾶν γάρ ζῶον ἔχει ταύτην. ἔναιμον μὲν ἄνθρωπός τε καὶ τετράποδα πάντα καὶ ὄρνιθες, ὄφεις τε καὶ σαῦροι καὶ χελῶναι καὶ ἄλλα τοιαῦτα· χωρὶς δ' αἵματος τὰ τ' ὄστρεα πάντα καὶ τῶν ἐνύδρων οὐκ ὀλίγα, καθάπερ καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ γῇ. καὶ τὸ ἐσθιόμενον τῶν ζώων ἡ σάρξ ἐστι μάλιστα. καὶ γάρ καὶ τῶν σπλάγχνων ὁ πλεῖστος ὄγκος ἐκ τῶν κατ' αὐτὰς γίνεται σαρκῶν. ἔνιοι δὲ τῶν ἰατρῶν τὴν μὲν ἐν τούτοις σάρκα παρέγχυμα καλοῦσιν, διότι τῶν φλεβῶν ἐκχεόμενον τὸ αἷμα περιπήγνυται πᾶσι τοῖς ἀγγείοις, ὡς ἐκεῖνοι νομίζουσιν, τὴν δ' ἐν τοῖς μυσὶ μόνην ὀνομάζουσι σάρκα. περὶ μὲν δὴ τῶν ὀνομάτων, ὡς ἀεὶ φαμεν, ἐρίζειν οὐ χρὴ, τὴν δὲ τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτῶν ἐπιστήμην ἀσκητέον, ἧς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀντιποιούμενοι διὰ παντὸς, ὅσα περὶ τῶν καθ' ἕκαστον ζῶον μορίων ἰδίων καὶ κοινῶν ἐπιστάμεθα, τὰ μὲν ἐκ τῆς πείρας, τὰ δ' ἐκ τοῦ λόγου διδαχθέντες, ἐφεξῆς ἐροῦμεν ἅπαντα τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀπὸ τῆς ἰδίως ὀνομαζομένης σαρκὸς ποιησάμενοι.

Galen, On the Capacities of Simple Drugs, XI.1 proem, XII.310–311 K.