Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rosa Anglica (Author: [unknown])
section 9
9
If it be asked, whence it comes that the feet swell more in hydrops, than the hands, I say as does Serapion, that the hands are near the heart, and therefore the pulse is taken at
p.275
the wrist (hand); the heart is the source of the natural heat, and the feet are far off therefrom, and so they are far from the source of heat and therefore death starts from the feet, as Galen says. For this reason surplus matter is better digested and consumed in the hands than in the feet. Another cause: as it is proper and natural for gross matter to fall down, therefore swelling is more proper to the feet than to the hands.