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In his book Nuland tells how, in the Western world, it wasn't until A.D. 131 that a Greek named Galen figured out the obvious: The stomach digests food (because of the body's "divine architecture"). In 1609, Belgian physician Jan Baptista van Helmont declared that a man's soul was located in his belly. This went against centuries of assumptions -- beginning with the ancient Egyptians -- that the soul was located in the heart. (Nuland doesn't mention this, but the American adage that "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach" is perhaps a joining of those two ancient beliefs.)

The Mysteries Within: A Surgeon Reflects on Medical Myths By Sherwin B. Nuland Simon & Schuster, 286 pages Nonfiction Buy this book at B&N.com

For all that modern medicine now knows, Nyland confesses that at least one anatomical mysery remains: Doctors are still puzzled by the spleen. Nuland also interlaces his historical anecdotes with operating room experiences to show how medicine has benefited from centuries of imaginative speculation about how the human body -- especially the above-mentioned pieces -- works.

When I phone Nuland at what I think is the hour of our appointed interview, it sounds as if he is in the middle of something. My call is a surprise.

"I'm sorry," he explains. "It's so strange. I've been reading my book and I've gotten so absorbed in it that I'm not even thinking about what I'm doing or where I am. This is the most peculiar egotistical thing." As he speaks I realize I made a mistake and phoned 15 minutes sooner than I was supposed to.

"I read the reviews of my book," he continues. "And one of the reviewers said 'so and so and so and so.' I said, 'I've got to read that!' So I read five or six pages. What I just started reading was the final chapter, as a matter of fact. The so-called epilogue. I read it about three times since the book came out. Once I start reading it, I become completely absorbed in it because even though I've gone over it so much, it always seems so ..." Then he whispers, "I know it's so strange."

"Do you like your writing?" I ask.

"I love my writing!" he says enthusiastically. "You know why? Because I write out loud. I essentially talk my way through a book. And the kindest comments that I've ever had about my writing come from my friends, who say, 'You know, we know you. This is the way you talk.'"

"You're a very good writer," I tell him.

"Thank you," he answers. "You're so kind."

Now, would I want you to operate on me?

[Nuland is not amused.] Well. I didn't get to be a professor at Yale without being a pretty good surgeon.

As a surgeon, do you have a favorite organ?

My favorite organs are the heart and the spleen. I go into ecstasies about the heart.

I'm not sure I understand what the spleen does.

Welcome to the group, my man. That's why it's called the organ of mystery. No one has ever been able to figure out why it is tucked up there under the diaphragm, why it's that peculiar color [it's red when it's in your body but turns green when it's plucked out!] or what it does -- although it has been increasingly discovered that it not only acts as a filter to get little particles out of the blood that don't belong there, it destroys blood cells that are old and need to be destroyed so they can be re-created in the bone marrow. It's very effective as part of the immune processes.

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