The Liver
The liver is an organ that always fascinated me but was never a large focus in any of the courses I taught as there was never enough time. This bothered me as as the liver affects every other organ in the body and affects the ability of an organism to function and survive. The liver is an often neglected organ in the study of body systems, especially for undergraduate students. The liver only took up about one-third of a lecture in my Pathophysiology course though it was not nearly enough time to dive into the amazing world of the liver. I always dreamed of offering a course that was entirely based on the liver and this is what I am going to try to do here in this blog through this post and many more.
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Liver = Love
A previous student once spoke to me after the liver lecture and mentioned that in their culture the liver is the organ representing love. They explained to me that you tell someone they are your liver as the strongest way to express your love for another person. This fascinated me as it was new information and I have an odd interest in the history of language, the root of different words, and understanding other cultures. As I have read more and more, I see that the liver is used in numerous languages and phrases from African nations to Middle Eastern nations to Eastern nations to express unconditional love and emotion.
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From a completely scientific standpoint, it makes sense that the liver is associated with love in many cultures as the liver is a vital organ in the body that processes all of the blood flowing throughout the body. After diving into this information more deeply, I learned most Eastern and Middle Eastern cultures view the liver as the organ of love, not the heart like the Western world. In the spirit of creating a liver-focused post, I knew I needed to do some digging into the history of the liver in different cultures, and its focus on symbolizing love.
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Liver Etymology
Etymology is the study of words, their history, and how words change over time. This is a great starting point for the word liver because historically it was considered the organ of love, life, emotions, pleasure, and passion. In Western languages, the liver's historical origins are that it is the organ of emotions, the organ of life, and the organ of courage. It is interesting that even during ancient times the recognition of the liver's importance for survival was well understood. To learn more about the etymology of the liver check out the sources links below [1].
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Digging deeper into the history of the liver further increases my fascination with this organ as multiple different ancient cultures viewed the liver as central to the functioning of humans. Hepatocentrism was the focus of medicine in most ancient populations of humans. The ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia considered the liver central in the functioning of a human body and the Western world did not move away from this mindset until the 1600s. The liver was thought to be where a human's soul was housed with some even believing there was a fire (soul) burning in each person's liver [2].
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Ancient religious texts, pieces of famous literary works, Greek mythology, and medical writings all focus on the liver being the center of human life in ancient times. Some of the famous works that demonstrate the reverence felt for the liver are listed below [2]:
- The Quran
- Moby Dick
- The myth of Prometheus
- The Bible
- The Tale of Hind bint ‘Utbah
- Snow White
- The Torah
- The God of death in ancient Aztec mythology
- The myth of Tityus
- The Iliad
- Ancient Chinese, Persian, and Urdu medical texts
- The crucifixion of Jesus Christ
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It is interesting to note that the ancient Egyptians did NOT see the liver as the location the soul - the ancient Egyptians saw the heart as the location a soul resides. This is the reason why the heart was left in a mummified corpse while the liver was not. The heart remaining in the corpse was thought to allow the person to move into the afterlife to live on forever [2].
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In the 1600s, medical knowledge started to change and scientists of that time discovered that many of the functions they associated with the liver were actually associated with the heart. It was during this time Western culture started moving away from its reverence for the liver. There is a work of art in the Museo Storico Nazionale dell'Arte Sanitaria in Rome, Italy called "Il Fegato" that depicts the heart and liver fighting over being the king of organs through the production of blood (interestingly enough, the heart does not produce blood as you all know, but I guess talking about the bone marrow isn't as cute as the heart). Moral of this story? I need to get to Rome to check out this painting [2]!
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Above is a very brief outline of the history of the liver and helps explain common phrases related to the liver in many cultures. What is most interesting is the strong correlation of the liver and love in most non-Western cultures that seems to have been lost to the Western world in the seventeenth century. I highly encourage you all to check out the two sources below [1 and 2] as they are good reads and can jump start you on the fun nerd journey of entomology and the intersection of science, medicine, the arts, and language. To end, I must say, I love my two little livers (my cats).
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Liver Education (To be updated as I complete blog posts)
Anatomy
Liver Lobules
Basic Liver Functions
Accessory Organ of Digestion
Organ of Metabolism
Organ of Hematology
Organ of Endocrinology
Organ of Detoxification
Organ of Storage
Organ of Immunity
Organ of Synthesis
Liver Dysfunction
Icterus/Jaundice
Sources
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747976/pdf/nihms493154.pdf
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6078213/
