A HISTORY OF THE KIVERIS VEIN
Introduction
Questions to consider: What was the explanation for the existence of the kiveris vein? How was the formation of breast milk explained?
A Collection of Quotations from Original Sources and Images of the Kiveris Vein:
Antiquity
Galen, 200 A.D.
"Now Nature conducted arteries and veins to all the [other] parts over the shortest interval, as I have said, and only the testes and breasts did she bring then not from vessels nearby but from those at a distance... for both milk and semen are generated from perfectly concocted blood. It is the length of time which blood spends in the vessel conducting it that permits the perfect concoction of these, and of necessity blood spends more time in longer vessels and the longer vessels are always those that come from a distance. Properly, then, Nature brings blood and Pneuma to the testes and breasts not from vessels nearby, but from those that have traversed a very long interval."
The Middle Ages
[[Find quotes from Master Nicolaus]]]
The Renaissance
Jacopo Berengario da Carpi, 1460-1530
"[The] bifurcated arteries and veins, one at the right, the other at the left descending are according to some divided on each side into ten parts... [One] goes to the long muscles of the abdomen. The branches of this one in ascending are joined with the viens of the chest descending toward these branches. United with these chest veins they go to the breasts. From this branch notable parts go to the uterus, from which two veins not associated with arteries ascend through the abdomen to the breasts. Through these veins the abdomen is joined to the uterus. Therefore in pregnancy and in the time of retention of menstruation beyond what is natural, the breasts may swell as much as possible."
"Both veins and arteries go from nearby places to bring food to their members, with the exception of the veins and arteries of the testes and breasts which come to these from afar off so that the blood may delay a long time within them. Thus the blood is better digested and more easily converted into good sperm and into milk."
Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452-1519
"Both veins and arteries go from nearby places to bring food to their members, with the exception of the veins and arteries of the testes and breasts which come to these from afar off so that the blood may delay a long time within them. Thus the blood is better digested and more easily converted into good sperm and into milk."
Conclusion
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