LL-L "Etymology" 2002.07.11 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 11.JUL.2002 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Etymology"

> From: "Luc Hellinckx" <luc.hellinckx at pandora.be>
> Subject: Raw materials.
>
> Beste leeglanners,
>
> Medieval knowledge about a body must have been more basic in the sense
> that
> some bodily funtions were not as clearly understood as they are now, but
> on
> the other hand man was more directly exposed and accustomed to slaughter
> I'm
> afraid (both of humans and animals).
> On farms, killing animals was almost everyday-business. Therefore I
> think
> people will surely have known that veins contain blood and nothing else
> (OK,
> ultimately blood contains useful elements of the food that we eat but
> that's
> another (newer) story).
> Moreover, bloodletting (= tapping blood) was very popular during the
> Middle
> Ages, so I gather people will surely have noticed that the red liquid
> oozing
> out of their veins was quite different from...euh...say, "ex-food" (with
> which they had a very "down-to-earth"-relationship as well...*pun
> intended*).

I really don't think that people would have made such
deductions in the middle ages. Generally, the classical
Greek theory that blood was "cooked food" (it was thought
to have been cooked in the heart) would have held sway and
no anount of everyday observation could have overcome
received wisdom in that particular age.

It can be interesting to ponder how much the natural human
train of thought can be in conflict with modern scientific
methods of deduction and how difficult it can be to make
the crossover from an observation (eg "blood is nothing
like either food or its end-product") to a deduction about
the actual nature of things.

A recurring illustration of this is the old understanding
of how the human eye worked, which can seem quite bizarre
to us: that in order for us to be able to see things, the
eye must emit light. However, this arises from one of the
favourite human modes of explaining a poorly-understood
phenomenon, which is to presume that there must be a
mysterious substance that causes it. So in order to explain
the phenomenon of darkness, they assumed that darkness was
a substance that gathered in the air at night (hence phrases
like "gathering darkness") and was dispelled by the sun's
rays, or by fire. There's nothing illogical about this -
it's how dew behaves, for example. This lead philosophers
to conclude that since darkness blocks vision, light must
be emitted from the eye.

It was also generally accepted that pain was a substance
that must be emitted by the brain and sent to different
parts of the body when they were hurt.

I say this is a recurring phenomenon because we also had
phlogiston theory (a substance "explaining" heat) and
psion theory (a substance "explaining" telepathy) and
even in this day and age Penrose's popular particles
"explaining" consciousness, but really explaining nothing.

Or, to sum up my philosophy in a nutshell - people are
stupid  :)

I do seriously say, though, that the absence of "food-like"
properties in blood wouldn't automatically lead to the
conclusion that there is no food in blood.

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'

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