What the peritonĉum is to the abdominal cavity, the
pleura is to the thorax. It is the common
bond of all the organs and vessels which the thorax contains ; and its office is to hold
each in its place with the utmost freedom of motion, and at the same time to impart to
each the motions and wants of the whole ; so that each may accommodate itself to the
necessities of the others, and all may be combined in due proportion in the common use.
The heart and the lungs are not made independent of support through the nobleness
of their office. The other parts of the body
depend upon them ; but there is no organ upon which these do not depend for the means of
doing their use. Especially do they need the
immediate and constant support of the pleura.
The heart lies between the
great lobes of the
+++++++++++++++ page 205 +++++++++++++++
llungs ; but its action is not synchronous with that
of the lungs ; it expands and contracts three or four times during one respiration ; and,
without some means of accommodation, in dilating it would press upon air-cells when they
too were in the effort to expand, and the action of both would be impeded. Again, the heart to contract freely and uniformly,
must be maintained in the same relative position during all the changes and motions of the
body ; and still it must not be attached and bound except at the base, where it gives
forth the arteries and veins. And, further,
the lungs must be maintained in their proper position, and not allowed in state of
collapse to fall upon the heart or to suffer displacement ; and in their place they must
be protected from the ribs, and provided with the means of working without frictions,
freely and smoothly.
Other needed uses will be mentioned hereafter ; but these are plainly required, and
to perform them is the duty assigned to the pleura.
One can hardly avoid a
feeling of affection for
+++++++++++++++ page 206 +++++++++++++++
the friendly ministry of one part of the body to
another ; and for none is the feeling stronger than for the modest service of the pleura,
which does not pretend to be of the least importance itself, but just helps others to
be important, and does for them essential service, perfectly, constantly, and without the
slightest intrusion.[1][1]
In itself it is composed of two membranes, one thick and fibrous, the other smooth,
glossy, and moist. By its fibrous coat it
applies itself closely to the lungs, covering every convolution perfectly, yet
elastically, and entering between the little lobes even to the minutest air-cells, as if
to be in sympathy with and give protection to its inmost thoughts. Its strong outer coat at the same time invests the
lungs with an almost metallic smoothness, which is rendered more perfect by constant
lubrication with delicate oils.
From the base of the lungs the pleura is reflected upon itself, and forms two
membranous bas loosely enclosing again the already encased lungs. The fibrous membrane of these bags, next
+++++++++++++++ page 207 +++++++++++++++
the walls of the thorax, attaches itself closely to
the ribs, and extends its little fibres among the intercostal muscles, even to the fatty
tissues of the chest, while the harder, smooth coat presents inwards a polished surface
for the investing coat of the lungs to play upon. Thus
their easy motions is secured.
On the lower wall of the thorax the pleura unites with the diaphragm, by the
flexibility of which it is enabled to apply its well-oiled coat even to the hollow inner
walls of the lobes of the lungs, giving them the support they need to keep them always in
position, but not imposing the slightest restraint upon their free motion.
Between the great lobes the membranous walls of these bags unite, forming a
partition in the chest, extending from the breast-bone to the backbone ; but in this
partition the two walls part, and leave space between them for a roomy closet for the
heart, which is thus suspended in is place between the folds of the pleura. And in order to protect the heart and the lungs
still further from
+++++++++++++++ page 208 +++++++++++++++
mutual annoyance, still another fold of pleura, or,
as some hold, a little pleura by itself, forms an inner bag of smoothest surface, and
loosely encloses the heart ; which is thus separated from the lungs by two spaces and four
thicknesses of membrane.
Besides achieving this apparently impossible duty of giving to these active organs
the closest and most intimate support without in the least affecting their freedom, and
holding them closely related in their common work but preventing any chance of mutual
irritation, the pleura through smaller chambers between its folds, behind that of the
heart, furnishes safe conduct to the œsophagus on its way to the stomach, to the
great aorta as it descends to distribute the life blood to the lower viscera and members,
to the great ascending vein also and the chyle duct ; and it imparts to them all ? and by
means of the diaphragm, to the lower viscera also ?motions of alternate reception and
action, which are essential to their life and usefulness.
+++++++++++++++ page 209 +++++++++++++++
Many subordinate duties the pleura performs ; but these
are its chief and governing uses.
As the province of the peritonaeum is
held by angels of simple quality (n.5378), not active of themselves but readily
acting from others, and above all things loving harmony, so the angels of the pleura are
modest angels delighting in the harmony of the uses of the heart and the lungs. To the angels of these provinces they attach
themselves closely, rendering them every support and assistance. With ready sympathy and
affection for both ,they interpose to receive and accommodate their strong but not
coincident activities; for the impulses of affection and the thoughts of wisdom are not
synchronous ; they need to be accommodated to each other by intermediates who respect and
love them both. They interpose also between these and the rougher, less sensitive angles,
who, holding merely to the facts of the use and necessity of these vital organs, are like
stony walls of protection to them, and constitute the ribs of the Greatest Man; but who
would
+++++++++++++++ page 210 +++++++++++++++
grate harshly and injuriously in immediate contact
with the angels who are so full of the
love of doing the Lord’s will that they are unwilling to think of themselves, and
those who are intent upon applying the Lord's wisdom to the life of the heavens, and
cannot bear to be reminded of their own importance. The support and protection of the
facts they bring them, without disturbing their unselfish activity; and from full sympathy
with their life, they impress it upon all comers new and old, who pass within their
domain.
Our admiration for the pleura is admiration for these modest, unselfishly useful
angels ; or, for the generous, devoted love for ministering to others which these receive
from the Lord. Other organs of the body
partake, even in a greater degree, of the spirit of mutual service ; and in that service
they all are images of angels' love, and of the Lord’s multiform love of serving,
which creates heaven and earth, and is the life of every part of them.[2]
+++++++++++++++ page 211 +++++++++++++++
The diaphragm forms a partition between
the thorax and the abdomen. Its upper
side consists of the lower part of the pleura, its lower side of the upper part of the
peritoneum. These two membranes come into
immediate contact and close union in the central part of the diaphragm, in three spots
which are likened to the lobes of a clover leaf; but from this centre there radiate
bundles of muscular fibres between the membranes, to the line of attachment at the
extremities of the ribs ; two large bundles of fibres reach well down the lumbar
vertebrae.
When the muscular fibres are relaxed, the diaphragm extends up like a dome into the
thorax, lying close to the compressed lungs; and
then the liver, and some other organs of the abdomen, lie partly above the line of the
ribs in the thorax, and are then in a state of expansion.
But when
+++++++++++++++ page 212 +++++++++++++++
the muscles of the
diaphragm contract, they bring down the dome, expand the cavity of the chest, and press
the abdominal organs out from it, inducing upon them their turn of contraction.
When the chest is in its
state of expansion, it draws in the air from without, and also the fluids of the body from
within, sucking upon every vein and lymphatic; and, as the viscera of the abdomen are at
the same time compressed, they freely yield up their fluids to the demand of the thorax. And when the thorax contracts, it presses upon
arteries, lymphatics, and veins, hastening the departure of the streams ready for the
nourishment of the body, and retarding the return currents; and as the abdomen is at that
time in a state of expansion, its vessels gladly seize the opportunity to fill themselves
full. Liver, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, and even the stomach and intestines depend upon
this alternate motion for their power of usefulness; and their common container, the
peritoneum, secures this motion to them by uniting itself with the
pleura in the diaphragm.
+++++++++++++++ page 213 +++++++++++++++
We have, then, on the one side the pleura, loving its trust of serving the heart and the lungs, enjoying the free motion of the lungs. And desiring to extend its delightful animations and on the other hand the peritonĉum, caring for the common wants of the digestive organs, and here desiring to extend its delightful animations ; and on the other hand the peritonĉum, caring for the common wants of the digestive organs, and here desiring for them the active life of the lungs, for them and the preparation which that activity ensures to receive the fresh streams of blood from the heart. And these two make a compact to help each other in this common use ; and they unite almost as one membrane in the centre of the diaphragm, availing themselves of the assistance of many urgent fibres to bring, their purpose into effect.
Swedenborg's common
statement is that the middle heaven includes the body from the neck to the knees but the
image seen by Nebuchadnezzar was as to the breast and arms, of silver, as to the belly and
thighs of brass, and the legs and feet were of iron.
This was a representative of the successive churches, and consequently of
+++++++++++++++ page 214 +++++++++++++++
the heavens formed from them (n. 10,030), and it marks strongly the division between the chest and the abdomen.
Also in T. C. R. 119, he says that the bi hest heaven is the head,
the second is the breast, the lowest is the gastric re-ion, and the church on earth is the
loins and feet. Perhaps this last statement
refers to the heaven before the Lord's coming, when there was no Christian heaven, and the
ancient was imperfectly formed.
Swedenborg says nothing
about the angels of this province of the Greatest Man ; but their quality is mirrored in
the uses of the organ. They are intermediates
between the spiritual and the natural heavens, — between the angels whose delight it
is to perceive and appropriate spiritual wisdom from the Lord, and
to cherish and exercise the love of heavenly uses to the neighbor, and the angels whose
duty it is to receive new spirits whose spiritual minds are not yet open, to separate the
evil from the good, and to train the good to habits of right thought and action.
+++++++++++++++ page 215 +++++++++++++++
These intermediates on the
one hand delight in the activity of spiritual thou-ht and affection, and on the other in
the use of preparing new angels to receive that thought and affection. Each class loves first its own use, and then that
of the other ; for the use of each is indispensable to the other. There is no purpose in the action of heart and
lungs, unless their influence be received beyond their own province ; and there is no
satisfaction in preparing spirits to
receive the life of heaven, unless heavenly wisdom and love, which constitute that life be
abundantly provided. And in order that any
use may be accomplished in either domain, there must be submission to the universal law of
all created beings, alternate reception and communication, expansion, and contraction;
which the lungs, as is becoming to the province of wisdom, perceive most clearly, and by
means of the diaphragm impress upon all their associates.
Into this alternation, and
thus into the respiration of the heavens, all good spirits are introduced
+++++++++++++++ page
216 +++++++++++++++
iin the province of
the lungs (n. 3894) ; they are continued in it by the animations of the lungs extended to
the remotest parts of the body, and the degree of their vitality and usefulness depends
upon the degree in which they partake of this animation.
+++++++++++++++ page
217 +++++++++++++++
The power of the body is
exerted by the muscles, —which represent the love of work in the mind, and, in the
heavens, societies of those who love the active uses corresponding to those of the muscles
respectively. Thus, the diaphragm is not a passive means of communication between
the thorax and the abdomen ; its active force is essential both to the motions of the
lungs and to the communication of those motions to the rest of the body. And the muscles of the diaphragm correspond to the
angels who have active pleasure in the animations of wisdom and in the communication of
them through the heavens. They combine and
exert an animating pressure upon the provinces of digestion, inviting the expansion of the
lungs ; which, without this powerful cooperation, would be greatly confined in their
action, as in cases of rheumatism of the diaphragm.
+++++++++++++++ page
218 +++++++++++++++
The heart itself is almost
wholly muscular, and they who constitute it are in the active love of communicating love
from the Lord to all whom they can influence, and sending them forth to do the uses of
love. So all the active force exerted by the
hands and feet, by the mouth in receiving food and in speaking, and by all parts of the
body in their several uses, is exerted by muscles ; which, accordingly, represent the
active zeal of the provinces for those uses.
In these activities many
angels combine, and exert their influence as a one. "How
many spirits," Swedenborg says, " concur in one action, was shown me by those
who are in the muscles of the face, from the forehead even to the neck. . . . it was
observed that they were only the subjects of very many, so that in every muscular fibre
very many concur. . . . In heaven, or the Greatest Man, there are innumerable societies
thus unanimous, to which the muscles corresponds"
(D. S. Index. Musculus.")
But the muscles exert their
force mostly through
+++++++++++++++ page 219 +++++++++++++++
tendons, or tendinous sheaths, by which they are
attached to bones or to other parts of the body, and direct their action. And these tendons or ii-aments correspond to
passive subjects, who love indeed to receive the influence and to communicate it, but do
not themselves modify it.
+++++++++++++++ page 220 +++++++++++++++
The least living parts of the body
are the bones, which are composed largely of earthy material, and seem to have a use like
that of the rocks in nature; that is, they serve as a basis and fulcrum for the softer
parts, keeping them extended and in their right places, and serving also for protection to
the organs that specially need protection.
The rocks, and likewise the bones, correspond to the fixed facts upon which all other elements of mental life depend; and, in the Greatest Man, the provinces of the bones are occupied by those who have little other life than that of holding firmly to certain facts of experience which serve for support and protection to those who live more active lives. They serve to preserve the proportions and relations of the parts of the man — not
+++++++++++++++ page 221 +++++++++++++++
exerting any force themselves except that of stolid resistance when their facts are in question.
"The societies
of spirits to which the cartilages and bones correspond are very many; but they are such
as have very little spiritual life in them, as there is very little life in the bones
relatively to the soft parts which they enclose ; as, for example, there is in the skull
and the bones of the head compared with either brain and the medulla oblongata, and the
sensitive substances there ; and also as there is in the vertebrae and ribs in comparison
with the heart and lungs ; and so on. It was
shown how little spiritual life they have who have relation to the bones ; other spirits
speak by them, and they themselves know little of what they say; but still they speak,
having delight in this alone. Into such a
state are they reduced who have led an evil life, and still had some remains of good ;
these remains make that little spiritual life, after the vastations of many ages. . . .
They who come out of vastations, and serve the uses of bones, have not any determinate
thought, but general, almost indeterminate; they are like those who are called distraught,
as if not in the body; they are slow, heavy, stupid, sluggish about everything. Yet sometimes they are not untranquil, because
cares
+++++++++++++++ page 222 +++++++++++++++
do not penetrate,
but are dissipated in their general obscurity."
(n. 5560-5562.)
He explains that the lack of spiritual life is lack of spiritual intelligence and charity, not necessarily, lack of natural intelligence. Therefore, in the "Diary," he says, —
“They correspond to
bones, in the other life, who have studied various sciences and have made no use of them,
as they who have studied mathematics only to find the rules, and have not regarded any use
; or physics and chemistry only for the sake of experiment, and for no other use; also
philosophy to find its rules and terms, only for the sake of the terms and for no other
use; and likewise other things. They who
become bones also, when they reason, hardly
discuss anything else than whether it is or is not.
Hence it is evident that the greatest part of the learned within the church become
bones. They are those who are finally sensual
the church also is in this state to-day ; hence is its end."
(S. D. 5141.)
+++++++++++++++ page 223 +++++++++++++++
Cartilages are really the receptacles of the earthy materials of which bones are made. All bones begin as cartilages, and gradually become hardened by receiving earthy deposits. Their use, therefore, would be performed in the heavens by spirits who are more simple and pliable in their stupidity than those who represent the bones—by those who know a few general truths, while the bones are those who hold their own particular experiences. Such would much more readily enter into easy relations with others than those who must intrude their small experiences. Hence the bones are capped with cartilage at the joints.
The breast-bone also terminates in a cartilage, for the sake of greater flexibility in accommodation to the motions of the chest. The angels who belong to this province in the Greatest Man,
+++++++++++++++ page
224 +++++++++++++++
Swedenborg says, are from our moon ; and he describes their dwarfish appearance, but says nothing, about their character. (E. U. 111.)
In speaking of the various qualities in the Greatest Man, he says,—
“It has been provided by the Lord that those whom the Gospel has not been able to reach, but a religion only, should also be able to have a place in that Divine Man, that is, in heaven, by constituting the parts that are called skins, membranes, cartilages, and bones ; and that they like others should be in heavenly joy ; for it is not a matter of concern whether they are in such joy as the angels of the highest heaven have, or in such as the angels of the lowest heaven have; for every one who comes into heaven, comes into the highest joy of his heart ; he does not bear a higher joy, for he would be suffocated in it." (D. P. 254.)
+++++++++++++++ page 225 +++++++++++++++
We are in the habit of thinking of the skin as a covering for the body of a sort of delicate untanned leather, with no great vitality of its own, but serving to protect the more sensitive and important organs within. There is some truth in this, — the skin does protect much nobler organs than itself ; and the outer skin is not sensitive; yet no other part of the body is more sensitive than the inner skin ; which possesses also a delicacy and complexity of structure which will excite our admiration. There exist in nature multitudes of little animals too minute for the unaided eye to perceive, endowed each with organs of sense, of digestion, of circulation, and of action, all contained within a compass too small for us to notice. From Swedenborg's marvellous description it would appear that there is not a point in the inner skin less exquisitely organized than these.
+++++++++++++++ page
226 +++++++++++++++
The outer layer of the skin, which is the part with which we are best acquainted, is composed of little horny scales laid one upon another like armor of mail to a greater or less thickness according to the exposure. This is perforated by the hairs and by innumerable little pores, which we shall consider hereafter. This outer skin is detached by blisters and chafings, and then we discover a most tender, sensitive surface under it, which we are glad to protect by a plaster till its proper coat of scales is repaired. Yet even these scales do not rest immediately upon the sensitive skin, though they are thrown into little ridges and spirals in accommodation to its papillae. They rest upon a soft, jelly-like vascular membrane (rete mucosum), which encases the papillae of the inner skin, protecting them and combining their sensations.
The surface of the inner skin, thus protected and encased by two outer layers, is composed of little papillae, finer than needle points, each of which under a powerful glass is seen to be a bundle of still more minute papillary fibres. In
+++++++++++++++ page
227 +++++++++++++++
these papillĉ are seen looped, nervous fibres, and also what are called "tactile corpuscles," both of which serve as organs of touch, and many more nerve fibres are seen splitting into almost invisible filaments. Besides these exquisitely sensitive papillĉ in which the touch resides, the skin contains the roots of the hairs, with their anointing glands, innumerable sweat glands, each one looking like a little convoluted intestine—which unravelled, it is estimated, would amount to two and a half miles in length in a single person—also arteries, which in states of inflammation are seen in a net-work over the papillary surface, and veins and lymphatics without number.
So much is commonly known of the skin, and not much more. Microscopic investigation shows some of the nerve fibres ending in the papillae: in loops or "tactile corpuscles but many more divide into little brushes ; and what they do there, or what becomes of them, modern science does not know. And here Swedenborg's more than microscopic insight takes up the subject. "Not
+++++++++++++++ page
228 +++++++++++++++
know," he would say, 'what the fibres do in those most delicate of fleshy forms, when you know that the vessels are woven from the fibres, and that the intermediates are formed by the extremes! The nervous fibres are weaving there the beginnings of the blood-vessels, or the fleshy fibres. They coil themselves into minute invisible tubes, called corporeal fibres, and these again into larger tubes which are the finest fleshy fibres of the papillae, and are the last subdivisions of the arteries, too fine in their ordinary state to carry red blood, and these combining extend their delicately woven walls to the lining of the arteries; and thus through the arteries, the heart, and again the carotid arteries, the nervous fibres return to the brain."
The idea that the beginning
of the arterial system is in the skin, not the heart, at first may seem surprising; but it
is illustrated by the similar and well-known fact that the beginnings of the woody fibres
of trees are in the leaves, not the
stem or the roots. Through the pith and
+++++++++++++++ page
229 +++++++++++++++
the delicate fibres of the bark, nourishment ascends to expand the first tender leaves, and front these descend the first woody fibres between this bark and the pith, as well as new fibres of bark, and extend themselves to the extremities of the roots. Through these woody and cortical fibres sap afterwards ascends to the leaves, and by their means new buds and leaves are formed, which in turn send down other fibres, and thus the trunk of the tree grows in concentric layers of wood, every fibre of which has descended from the leaves.
In Swedenborg's view a similar process goes on from the membranes which are the ultimates of the body, and especially from the skin. Before the heart exists in the embryo, ramifications of blood-vessels are seen, which indeed soon unite in the heart and afterwards act from it ; and these undoubtedly assist in the formation of other vessels and tissues, which are, however, everywhere woven from the nervous fibres, the blood-vessels cooperating and afterwards sustaining them.
+++++++++++++++ page
230 +++++++++++++++
It is a familiar fact that through the skin there are continual exhalation and absorption. There is exhalation of watery vapor, of fatty vapor-as we see by touching the fingers for a moment to clean glass—of more subtile effluvia which affect the sense of smell, sometimes pleasantly as from an infant's skin, and of most delicate, perhaps magnetic influence to which some persons are very sensitive, and which is often used in relieving nervous pains ; these exhalations are all of materials no longer needed in the body, but partaking of the life of the body, and capable of doing more or less use in the extremes or beyond the Surface of the body.
There are also inhalations correlative to these exhalations. It is said that the thirst of exhausted men may be satisfied by immersion in the sea or by wetting their clothes. Nutritious vapors and steam are also absorbed, no doubt in quantities which go far to satisfy hunger.
The volatile oils of
poisonous ivy and of dogwood, inappreciable by any conscious sense, are
+++++++++++++++ page 231 +++++++++++++++
absorbed by the skin to its great discomfort. And more subtile still, the "animal magnetism," as it is called, the most active but delicate of the exhalations of a living body, is absorbed by the minutest pores of another body, and is a powerful agent in restoring disordered or tired nerves. These are things of common experience which show that the skin is a most active agent both in absorbing and in exhaling materials related to animal life of many kinds. Thus the skin has already, upon the surface of the body, some of the properties which are further developed in its continuations which line the stomach and the lungs.
Throughout the viscera, as well as upon the surface of the body, the mouths of the little pores are in the extremities of the little papillae of touch, which by their exquisite sense perceive the quality of the materials offered for their acceptance or rejection, and rule over the action of the ducts according to their perception and to the wants of the body. The knowledge they acquire they report in part to the cerebrum, in which
+++++++++++++++
page 232 +++++++++++++++
dwells the conscious, thinking mind, but in greater part, especially from the viscera, to those nerve-centres which preside over the vital functions of the body without reference to our perverted sense or ignorant reason.
The sense of touch gives substance and reality to all our sensations. Sight and hearing and smell, without touch, would be almost like affections of the imagination ; their objects would seem forever unreal, unsubstantial, unless they could be touched. By touch they are brought into substantial, satisfactory relations to us ; by it we perceive their substance, their texture, their size, and hardness or softness, their general relation to ourselves. To the sense of touch we apply the term "feeling," which is also the name of the inner sensation produced in our mental organs by contact with thought and affection.
Sight is necessary to correct the very limited impressions of touch, and the inner feelings are modified by the understanding; but in both cases
+++++++++++++++ page 233 +++++++++++++++
the sense of relation to us comes through the touch. Therefore it is that touch signifies in spiritual language communication of affection ; for by touch the sensitive papillĉ are modified in form to agree with the object of contact, and they either extend themselves with pleasure and open their little pores to receive the influence presented to them, or they shrink with aversion and close their doors. Spheres of life, and of effluvia partaking of the quality and activity of the life, are both communicated and received through the skin and the touch, including the delicate sense of the quality of spheres, guards all the doors.
At the approach of danger, real or imaginary it orders the doors to be shut, the armor of the skin to be more firmly held, and even the little hairs to be erected and put forth as feelers. But when agreeable influences are felt, the armor is lloosened, the advanced capillary guards withdrawn and laid down, and the doors thrown open wide for sweet interchange of congenial life. Hence the highest use of this sense is with two whose
+++++++++++++++ page
234 +++++++++++++++
lives are one, and Swedenborg says that it is dedicated to marriage.
Swedenborg says that the coverings of the