Kidneys In Ancient Greece

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Throughout history, many grand empires pushed and pulled the secession of finding the truth behind the many mysteries of human life and the world around them in different directions. The many rising empires of these early centuries lead the beginning of the influences of scientific thought, method, and the framework for the answers of anatomical and physiological reasoning of the human body. To highlight two of the major influential empires who aided the spread and exposure of scientific thought to the future peoples are, Greece and Rome. Greece ultimately had more prominent people who are remembered as innovators and are seen ahead of their own time period. To name one of these scholars of the past is, Aristotle. Aristotle is respected for …show more content…
The note he had taken of the kidneys in his book, Parts of Animals he says that the kidneys, “are present in some animals, but not of necessity; they are present to serve a good purpose” (267). The kidneys, in his eyes, serve two purposes “(1) to subserve the blood-vessels; and (2) to excrete the fluid residue” (271). The first purpose is more “to provide an anchor for the lower blood vessels,” where the second, pertains to their specific function, “to purify blood” (33). The kidneys “dividing membrane” was to separate the “liquid wastes from the blood” which were then sent to the bladder (33). On the other hand, Galen believed heavily on the necessity, and usefulness of the kidneys. In his treatise On the Natural Faculties, he bashed the men that had the audacity to claim that the kidneys were brought into the human body without a justification on their function. Galen’s extreme belief in the essential need for the kidneys brought him to share his own theories on their function. In speaking of the men whom he bashed, Galen felt an obligation to show them in a live animal, the truth in the necessity of the kidneys, he continues saying what is clearly seen,“The urine plainly running out through the ureters into the bladder” (24). Galen’s theories led him to perform his own experimentation, mainly on live pigs, to explain and show, that in fact, urine is made in the kidneys, not the bladder. Galen’s ideas on the structure of the kidneys pertain to two chambers “upper and lower, separated by a membrane, the colatorium” (44). This two-chambered kidney structure was to work as a sieve, so “blood was supplied to the upper cavity from the renal vessels; there it was purified,” this would then move to the colatorium where “lighter noxious fluid was filtered off
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