Brain
The brain is the boss who runs the entire corporation, the Body, comprising the Organ Systems of these small factories. This is a fundamental fact in the present times, but the old geezers sure had some colorful ideas.
In the 4th Century BC, the great philosopher Aristotle fancied that the brain was merely a heat radiator for the heart. And around the same time, Galen's idea was floating around as well, causing a conflict. The Roman physician Galen believed that the brain was responsible for the mental processes, based on his observations on the effects of brain injury on mental activities.
The know-it-all Da Vinci showed, in his diagrams, the penis to be directly connected to the brain via the spinal cord! This meant that semen originated in the brain and traveled through the spinal cord during coitus (perhaps that's why men think with their balls). Although he corrected his diagrams later, not many people are aware of them.
Breasts
Those big ol' titties have been an attraction for as long as we can remember, always been the head turner. The old chaps cooked some bizarre theories about those jiggly goodies.
In the book written by an anonymous person claiming to be Aristotle, The Problems of Aristotle, the answer to the question 'why do the 'Paps' grow on the chest,' it is written that menstrual blood is transported to the breasts and needs the heat from the heart to be converted into milk. He also claimed small 'Paps' to be better at providing milk (well, at least someone appreciated them) than the big ones.
Some people took saw health signs in them. In her book – The Midwives Book, Jane Sharp, a midwife, wrote that the nipples change colors - red after coitus, blue on sucking, and turn black as they turn old. Galen was the one who had the idea of breasts being glands.
Liver
The liver is a vital organ; there's no doubt about that but, imagine replacing your heart with the liver (imagine lover boys saying stuff like "My liver is all yours, mi amore." Cannibalism alert!). That's precisely what the Romans believed.
Galen believed that the liver was a source of the veins, and the fluids were exchanged through it. The circulatory center of substances in the body was thought to be the liver.
Even before this time in history, 3000 years before Christ, the concept of 'Hepatocentrism' was popular. This idea showed the liver to be the center of the Body, the site for all the mental and emotional activities, housing the soul. This adaptation was included in a lot of literary works. American writer Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' (1851) used "white liver" to signify the lack of courage.
Clitoris
This particular part of the female body is as misunderstood as in the Dark Ages, even today. The quest to find it is far trickier than that of finding an actual treasure.
Charles Estienne, a 16th-century French anatomist, described the anatomy of the clitoris quite correctly but handed it the function of peeing (ugh, more excuses to not touch it).
Some folks, in turn, shamed women. Hippocrates had named the entire female genitalia "to aidoïon," meaning "the shameful parts." Sinistrari, a 17th-century inquisitor, had been so convinced that horny women had their clitoris "rushing out" due to the excessive "seminal spirits". This." also gave rise to reports of women changing their sex (trust me, every woman wants that). He believed such women participated in 'sodomy.'
Although Realdo Colombo and Falloppio fought over who discovered the clitoris first, they did describe it precisely as the "seat of pleasure."
Eyes
Hazel, green, blue, even pink – the colors of these balls never run out, and neither do the antique ideologies about them.
The 'Active eye' or the 'Extramission' theory was quite popular back in the day. Empedocles believed that Aphrodite created the eyes and that she had placed a fire within them to 'keep it lit.' In the 4th century B.C., Plato wrote that eyes emitted light rays to capture the object and make sight possible.
Galen took the Extramission Theory one step further. He believed that optic nerves were large and hollow and carried psychic 'pneuma' from the brain to the eyes. The 'pneuma' then emerged from the eyes, connected with light rays to produce vision. Much later, the 'Intromission' theory of vision was adapted, brought up mainly by Islamic physicians.
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