M a n wa s gi v en a neck f or t he s a k e of t he lu ngs HAT A NECK was given mankind for the sake of the lungs is best proven by the fact that it is always missing when there are no lungs. for example, this is the reason fish (which also have no lungs) have no neck. those animals to which nature gave lungs are also endowed with a neck.22 for it was necessary that the rough artery [trachea] (shown in fig. 1, ch. 38; vessels running through the neck and lungs are seen in the figure at the end of Bk. iii and in the one attached to the end of Bk. iv), through which we bring air into the lungs when we inhale and blow it out again when we exhale, run from the mouth to the lungs, and for this reason that a space intervene between mouth and lungs, since it was fitting that man be endowed with adequate exhalation23 (which is the material of the voice). for the voice is impossible without benefit of the rough artery. therefore we do not wonder that no animal without a neck emits a voice.24 since, therefore, the lungs are contained in the thorax, and the rough artery (which it was altogether fitting to stop at the mouth) rises out of the lungs, the interval between the upper part of the thorax and the pharynx is made for that artery. Because the thorax and the mouth are separated from each other for the space of the interval between them, a path is made no less for the parts that travel downward from above (such as the dorsal medulla and the gullet) than for those that extend upward from below (such as the rough artery and many smooth arteries and veins). Man therefore obtained a neck for the 40 sake of the rough artery, and a rough artery for the sake of
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