Vital heat and the circulation of the earth's waters
Heat moves the humors of the body as water runs through the veins of the earth
The transcribed passage extends the microcosm argument: the heat infused in animate bodies moves the humors that nourish them, and that motion both conserves the humor and vivifies the body. Water, dedicated as the vital humor of the arid earth, runs with vehemence through its ramifying veins to succor every part in need, and from the great ocean it flows into the hollow caverns of the earth's interior and back up, against its natural course, to the mountain peaks. The facing leaf f.235v is catalogued only as a leaf bearing writing, so it carries untranscribed text not included in this bundle.
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Water running through the ramifying veins of the earth
Water is infused into the arid earth and, running with curious vehemence through its ramifying veins, succors all the parts constrained by the need of humor. From the great depth of the mighty ocean it flows into the hollow, wide caverns of the earth's visceral interior, and thence, against its natural course, surges continuously to the high mountain peaks before returning below through the broken veins.
Heat, humor and the life of the body
The heat infused in animate bodies moves the humors that nourish them, and the motion produced by the humor is at once the conservation of itself and the vivification of the body that encloses it. Leonardo makes the cause that moves the water through the earth's veins identical to the cause that moves the humors in every species of animate body.