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The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6) cover

The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 3 (of 6)

Chapter 71: CHAP. 68.—THE THROAT; THE GULLET; THE STOMACH.
By the Elder Pliny
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The work assembles systematic observations on animals, insects, and trees, combining natural history with practical notes. It surveys insect forms and habits, including bees, silk‑producing worms, spiders, and parasitic species, and discusses reproduction, classification, diseases, and useful products like honey and silk. It then examines animal anatomy in detail, limb by limb and organ by organ, comparing organs, vital functions, and bodily peculiarities across species. Later sections catalogue trees and exotic plants, describing aromatic gums, spices, frankincense, myrrh, and methods for producing and testing unguents and perfumes, and noting their uses and regions of origin.

CHAP. 68.—THE THROAT; THE GULLET; THE STOMACH.

Man only, and the swine, are subject to swellings in the throat, which are mostly caused by the noxious quality of the water264 which they drink. The upper part of the gullet is called the fauces, the lower the stomach.265 By this name is understood a fleshy concavity, situate behind the tracheal artery, and joining the vertebral column; it extends in length and breadth like a sort of chasm.266 Those animals which have no gullet have no stomach either, nor yet any neck or throat, fishes, for example; and in all these the mouth communicates immediately with the belly. The sea-tortoise267 has neither tongue nor teeth; it can break anything, however, with the sharp edge of its muzzle. After the tracheal artery there is the œsophagus, which is indented with hard asperities resembling bramble-thorns, for the purpose of levigating the food, the incisions268 gradually becoming smaller as they approach the belly. The roughness at the very extremity of this organ strongly resembles that of a blacksmith’s file.