dry grass singing

visceral

What an odd word. V-i-s-c-e-r-a-l. From viscera, meaning the internal organs in the main cavities of the body, especially those in the abdomen, such as the intestines. From the Latin, viscus. How odd that deep inward feelings should somehow be related to our abdomen, rather than to the heart. Why not, for example, cardiac? "At some cardiac level, i know that this is what i really want." What do intestines have to do with our deepest instincts and emotions?

Then there are gut feelings, gut reactions and gut instincts. Butterflies in our stomachs. What is it with this stomach business?

A quick Google search led me, surprisingly, to a profusion of websites on Biblical studies. Apparently, the ancient Hebrews regarded the bowels (somehow that word seems so much more... visceral... than 'intestines' or 'guts') as the seat of emotion. So every reference in modern English translations of the Song of Solomon to the 'heart' was originally a reference to the bowels. "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him." Oh dear. i can't think of anything less romantic than the thought of a lovelorn bout of stomach-wrenching diarrhoea.

A somewhat more palatable, and more medical, cache of gut-related information was yielded after another Google search was done with a change of search terms. This time, i found out about the existence of what scientists call the 'second brain' in the intestines. The man responsible for bringing this to the attention of the public is Michael D. Gershon, researcher at Columbia University and author of The Second Brain (1999). According to Gershon, the enteric nervous system, or, in layman's terms, our intestine, functions as a complex, integrative brain in its own right. Apparently, our intestine is the only organ that can function independently of the central nervous system, meaning that it is capable of propelling food through all its yards of tubing even when the nerves that link it to the brain are severed. Not only that, the chemicals that are produced in the intestine have also been found to have an effect on our emotions.

i suppose this validates, somewhat, the ancient Jewish understanding of the role of the bowels in regulating our emotions, and i'd be interested in knowing what the scientific community has made of Gershon's initial findings.

More tangentially, all this goes to show how a morning of random etymological musing can sometimes take you down fascinating byways of probably totally useless thought.


[Those of you who are interested may wish to read this article by Michael Gershon, from the medical magazine Hospital Practice. It's very technical, and for the life of me i could not muster the patience to read more than the first few paragraphs, but if any of you do, drop me a note to let me know how you found it!]
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posted by eothen @ 9:19 PM