History of Animals E-book
Author: Aristotle
Genre: Biology / Medicine, Philosophy, Science
350 BC
HISTORY OF ANIMALS
by Aristotle
translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
Electronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)
Book I
1
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OF the parts of animals some are simple: to wit, all such as divide
into parts uniform with themselves, as flesh into flesh; others are
composite, such as divide into parts not uniform with themselves, as,
for instance, the hand does not divide into hands nor the face into
faces.
And of such as these, some are called not parts merely, but limbs or
members. Such are those parts that, while entire in themselves, have
within themselves other diverse parts: as for instance, the head,
foot, hand, the arm as a whole, the chest; for these are all in
themselves entire parts, and there are other diverse parts belonging
to them.
All those parts that do not subdivide into parts uniform with
themselves are composed of parts that do so subdivide, for instance,
hand is composed of flesh, sinews, and bones.
Of animals, some resemble one another in all their parts, while
others have parts wherein they differ. Sometimes the parts are
identical in form or species, as, for instance, one man's nose or eye
resembles another man's nose or eye, flesh flesh, and bone bone; and
in like manner with a horse, and with all other animals which we
reckon to be of one and the same species: for as the whole is to the
whole, so each to each are the parts severally. In other cases the
parts are identical, save only for a difference in the way of excess
or defect, as is the case in such animals as are of one and the same
genus. By 'genus' I mean, for instance, Bird or Fish, for each of
these is subject to difference in respect of its genus, and there are
many species of fishes and of birds.
Within the limits of genera, most of the parts as a rule exhibit
differences through contrast of the property or accident, such as
colour and shape, to which they are subject: in that some are more and
some in a less degree the subject of the same property or accident;
and also in the way of multitude or fewness, magnitude or parvitude,
in short in the way of excess or defect. Thus in some the texture of
the flesh is soft, in others firm; some have a long bill, others a
short one; some have abundance of feathers, others have only a small
quantity. It happens further that some have parts that others have
not: for instance, some have spurs and others not, some have crests
and others not; but as a general rule, most parts and those that go to
make up the bulk of the body are either identical with one another, or
differ from one another in the way of contrast and of excess and
defect. For 'the more' and 'the less' may be represented as 'excess'
or 'defect'.
Once again, we may have to do with animals whose parts are neither
identical in form nor yet identical save for differences in the way of
excess or defect: but they are the same only in the way of analogy,
as, for instance, bone is only analogous to fish-bone, nail to hoof,
hand to claw, and scale to feather; for what the feather is in a bird,
the scale is in a fish.
The parts, then, which animals severally possess are diverse from,
or identical with, one another in the fashion above described. And
they are so furthermore in the way of local disposition: for many
animals have identical organs that differ in position; for instance,
some have teats in the breast, others close to the thighs.
Of the substances that are composed of parts uniform (or
homogeneous) with themselves, some are soft and moist, others are dry
and solid. The soft and moist are such either absolutely or so long as
they are in their natural conditions, as, for instance, blood, serum,
lard, suet, marrow, sperm, gall, milk in such as have, it flesh and
the like; and also, in a different way, the superfluities, as phlegm
and the excretions of the belly and the bladder. The dry and solid are
such as sinew, skin, vein, hair, bone, gristle, nail, horn (a term
which as applied to the part involves an ambiguity, since the whole
also by virtue of its form is designated horn), and such parts as
present an analogy to these.
Animals differ from one another in their modes of subsistence, in
their actions, in their habits, and in their parts. Concerning these
differences we shall first speak in broad and general terms, and
subsequently we shall treat of the same with close reference to each
particular genus.
Differences are manifested in modes of subsistence, in habits, in
actions performed. For instance, some animals live in water and others
on land. And of those that live in water some do so in one way, and
some in another: that is to say, some live and feed in the water, take
in and emit water, and cannot live if deprived of water, as is the
case with the great majority of fishes; others get their food and
spend their days in the water, but do not take in water but air, nor
do they bring forth in the water. Many of these creatures are
furnished with feet, as the otter, the beaver, and the crocodile; some
are furnished with wings, as the diver and the grebe; some are
destitute of feet, as the water-snake. Some creatures get their living
in the water and cannot exist outside it: but for all that do not take
in either air or water, as, for instance, the sea-nettle and the
oyster. And of creatures that live in the water some live in the sea,
some in rivers, some in lakes, and some in marshes, as the frog and
the newt.
Of animals that live on dry land some take in air and emit it, which
phenomena are termed 'inhalation' and 'exhalation'; as, for instance,
man and all such land animals as are furnished with lungs. Others,
again, do not inhale air, yet live and find their sustenance on dry
land; as, for instance, the wasp, the bee, and all other insects. And
by 'insects' I mean such creatures as have nicks or notches on their
bodies, either on their bellies or on both backs and bellies.
And of land animals many, as has been said, derive their subsistence
from the water; but of creatures that live in and inhale water not a
single one derives its subsistence from dry land.
Some animals at first live in water, and by and by change their
shape and live out of water, as is the case with river worms, for out
of these the gadfly develops.
Furthermore, some animals are stationary, and some are erratic.
Stationary animals are found in water, but no such creature is found
on dry land. In the water are many creatures that live in close
adhesion to an external object, as is the case with several kinds of
oyster. And, by the way, the sponge appears to be endowed with a
certain sensibility: as a proof of which it is alleged that the
difficulty in detaching it from its moorings is increased if the
movement to detach it be not covertly applied.
Other creatures adhere at one time to an object and detach
themselves from it at other times, as is the case with a species of
the so-called sea-nettle; for some of these creatures seek their food
in the night-time loose and unattached.
Many creatures are unattached but motionless, as is the case with
oysters and the so-called holothuria. Some can swim, as, for instance,
fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans, such as the crawfish. But some of
these last move by walking, as the crab, for it is the nature of the
creature, though it lives in water, to move by walking.
Of land animals some are furnished with wings, such as birds and
bees, and these are so furnished in different ways one from another;
others are furnished with feet. Of the animals that are furnished with
feet some walk, some creep, and some wriggle. But no creature is able
only to move by flying, as the fish is able only to swim, for the
animals with leathern wings can walk; the bat has feet and the seal
has imperfect feet.
Some birds have feet of little power, and are therefore called
Apodes. This little bird is powerful on the wing; and, as a rule,
birds that resemble it are weak-footed and strong-winged, such as the
swallow and the drepanis or (?) Alpine swift; for all these birds
resemble one another in their habits and in their plumage, and may
easily be mistaken one for another. (The apus is to be seen at all
seasons, but the drepanis only after rainy weather in summer; for this
is the time when it is seen and captured, though, as a general rule,
it is a rare bird.)
Again, some animals move by walking on the ground as well as by
swimming in water.
Furthermore, the following differences are manifest in their modes
of living and in their actions. Some are gregarious, some are
solitary, whether they be furnished with feet or wings or be fitted
for a life in the water; and some partake of both characters, the
solitary and the gregarious. And of the gregarious, some are disposed
to combine for social purposes, others to live each for its own self.
Gregarious creatures are, among birds, such as the pigeon, the
crane, and the swan; and, by the way, no bird furnished with crooked
talons is gregarious. Of creatures that live in water many kinds of
fishes are gregarious, such as the so-called migrants, the tunny, the
pelamys, and the bonito.
Man, by the way, presents a mixture of the two characters, the
gregarious and the solitary.
Social creatures are such as have some one common object in view;
and this property is not common to all creatures that are gregarious.
Such social creatures are man, the bee, the wasp, the ant, and the
crane.
Again, of these social creatures some submit to a ruler, others are
subject to no governance: as, for instance, the crane and the several
sorts of bee submit to a ruler, whereas ants and numerous other
creatures are every one his own master.
And again, both of gregarious and of solitary animals, some are
attached to a fixed home and others are erratic or nomad.
Also, some are carnivorous, some graminivorous, some omnivorous:
whilst some feed on a peculiar diet, as for instance the bees and the
spiders, for the bee lives on honey and certain other sweets, and the
spider lives by catching flies; and some creatures live on fish.
Again, some creatures catch their food, others treasure it up; whereas
others do not so.
Some creatures provide themselves with a dwelling, others go without
one: of the former kind are the mole, the mouse, the ant, the bee; of
the latter kind are many insects and quadrupeds. Further, in respect
to locality of dwelling-place, some creatures dwell under ground, as
the lizard and the snake; others live on the surface of the ground, as
the horse and the dog. [Some make to themselves holes, others do not
so.]
Some are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat; others live in the
daylight.
Moreover, some creatures are tame and some are wild: some are at all
times tame, as man and the mule; others are at all times savage, as
the leopard and the wolf; and some creatures can be rapidly tamed, as
the elephant.
Again, we may regard animals in another light. For, whenever a race
of animals is found domesticated, the same is always to be found in a
wild condition; as we find to be the case with horses, kine, swine,
[men,] sheep, goats, and dogs.
Further, some animals emit sound while others are mute, and some are
endowed with voice: of these latter some have articulate speech, while
others are inarticulate; some are given to continual chirping and
twittering, some are prone to silence; some are musical, and some
unmusical; but all animals without exception exercise their power of
singing or chattering chiefly in connexion with the intercourse of the
sexes.
Again, some creatures live in the fields, as the cushat; some on the
mountains, as the hoopoe; some frequent the abodes of men, as the
pigeon.
Some, again, are peculiarly salacious, as the partridge, the
barn-door cock and their congeners; others are inclined to chastity,
as the whole tribe of crows, for birds of this kind indulge but rarely
in sexual intercourse.
Of marine animals, again, some live in the open seas, some near the
shore, some on rocks.
Furthermore, some are combative under offence; others are provident
for defence. Of the former kind are such as act as aggressors upon
others or retaliate when subjected to ill usage, and of the latter
kind are such as merely have some means of guarding themselves against
attack.
Animals also differ from one another in regard to character in the
following respects. Some are good-tempered, sluggish, and little prone
to ferocity, as the ox; others are quick-tempered, ferocious and
unteachable, as the wild boar; some are intelligent and timid, as the
stag and the hare; others are mean and treacherous, as the snake;
others are noble and courageous and high-bred, as the lion; others are
thorough-bred and wild and treacherous, as the wolf: for, by the way,
an animal is high-bred if it come from a noble stock, and an animal is
thorough-bred if it does not deflect from its racial characteristics.
Further, some are crafty and mischievous, as the fox; some are
spirited and affectionate and fawning, as the dog; others are
easy-tempered and easily domesticated, as the elephant; others are
cautious and watchful, as the goose; others are jealous and
self-conceited, as the peacock. But of all animals man alone is
capable of deliberation.
Many animals have memory, and are capable of instruction; but no
other creature except man can recall the past at will.
With regard to the several genera of animals, particulars as to
their habits of life and modes of existence will be discussed more
fully by and by.
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Common to all animals are the organs whereby they take food and the
organs whereinto they take it; and these are either identical with one
another, or are diverse in the ways above specified: to wit, either
identical in form, or varying in respect of excess or defect, or
resembling one another analogically, or differing in position.
Furthermore, the great majority of animals have other organs besides
these in common, whereby they discharge the residuum of their food: I
say, the great majority, for this statement does not apply to all.
And, by the way, the organ whereby food is taken in is called the
mouth, and the organ whereinto it is taken, the belly; the remainder
of the alimentary system has a great variety of names.
Now the residuum of food is twofold in kind, wet and dry, and such
creatures as have organs receptive of wet residuum are invariably
found with organs receptive of dry residuum; but such as have organs
receptive of dry residuum need not possess organs receptive of wet
residuum. In other words, an animal has a bowel or intestine if it
have a bladder; but an animal may have a bowel and be without a
bladder. And, by the way, I may here remark that the organ receptive
of wet residuum is termed 'bladder', and the organ receptive of dry
residuum 'intestine or bowel'.
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Of animals otherwise, a great many have, besides the organs
above-mentioned, an organ for excretion of the sperm: and of animals
capable of generation one secretes into another, and the other into
itself. The latter is termed 'female', and the former 'male'; but some
animals have neither male nor female. Consequently, the organs
connected with this function differ in form, for some animals have a
womb and others an organ analogous thereto.
The above-mentioned organs, then, are the most indispensable parts of
animals; and with some of them all animals without exception, and with
others animals for the most part, must needs be provided.
One sense, and one alone, is common to all animals- the sense of
touch. Consequently, there is no special name for the organ in which
it has its seat; for in some groups of animals the organ is identical,
in others it is only analogous.
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Every animal is supplied with moisture, and, if the animal be
deprived of the same by natural causes or artificial means, death
ensues: further, every animal has another part in which the moisture
is contained. These parts are blood and vein, and in other animals
there is something to correspond; but in these latter the parts are
imperfect, being merely fibre and serum or lymph.
Touch has its seat in a part uniform and homogeneous, as in the
flesh or something of the kind, and generally, with animals supplied
with blood, in the parts charged with blood. In other animals it has
its seat in parts analogous to the parts charged with blood; but in
all cases it is seated in parts that in their texture are homogeneous.
The active faculties, on the contrary, are seated in the parts that
are heterogeneous: as, for instance, the business of preparing the
food is seated in the mouth, and the office of locomotion in the feet,
the wings, or in organs to correspond.
Again, some animals are supplied with blood, as man, the horse, and
all such animals as are, when full-grown, either destitute of feet, or
two-footed, or four-footed; other animals are bloodless, such as the
bee and the wasp, and, of marine animals, the cuttle-fish, the
crawfish, and all such animals as have more than four feet.
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Again, some animals are viviparous, others oviparous, others
vermiparous or 'grub-bearing'. Some are viviparous, such as man, the
horse, the seal, and all other animals that are hair-coated, and, of
marine animals, the cetaceans, as the dolphin, and the so-called
Selachia. (Of these latter animals, some have a tubular air-passage
and no gills, as the dolphin and the whale: the dolphin with the
air-passage going through its back, the whale with the air-passage in
its forehead; others have uncovered gills, as the Selachia, the sharks
and rays.)
What we term an egg is a certain completed result of conception out
of which the animal that is to be develops, and in such a way that in
respect to its primitive germ it comes from part only of the egg,
while the rest serves for food as the germ develops. A 'grub' on the
other hand is a thing out of which in its entirety the animal in its
entirety develops, by differentiation and growth of the embryo.
Of viviparous animals, some hatch eggs in their own interior, as
creatures of the shark kind; others engender in their interior a live
foetus, as man and the horse. When the result of conception is
perfected, with some animals a living creature is brought forth, with
others an egg is brought to light, with others a grub. Of the eggs,
some have egg-shells and are of two different colours within, such as
birds' eggs; others are soft-skinned and of uniform colour, as the
eggs of animals of the shark kind. Of the grubs, some are from the
first capable of movement, others are motionless. However, with regard
to these phenomena we shall speak precisely hereafter when we come to
treat of Generation.
Furthermore, some animals have feet and some are destitute thereof.
Of such as have feet some animals have two, as is the case with men
and birds, and with men and birds only; some have four, as the lizard
and the dog; some have more, as the centipede and the bee; but
allsoever that have feet have an even number of them.
Of swimming creatures that are destitute of feet, some have winglets
or fins, as fishes: and of these some have four fins, two above on the
back, two below on the belly, as the gilt-head and the basse; some
have two only,- to wit, such as are exceedingly long and smooth, as
the eel and the conger; some have none at all, as the muraena, but use
the sea just as snakes use dry ground- and by the way, snakes swim in
water in just the same way. Of the shark-kind some have no fins, such
as those that are flat and long-tailed, as the ray and the sting-ray,
but these fishes swim actually by the undulatory motion of their flat
bodies; the fishing frog, however, has fins, and so likewise have all
such fishes as have not their flat surfaces thinned off to a sharp
edge.
Of those swimming creatures that appear to have feet, as is the case
with the molluscs, these creatures swim by the aid of their feet and
their fins as well, and they swim most rapidly backwards in the
direction of the trunk, as is the case with the cuttle-fish or sepia
and the calamary; and, by the way, neither of these latter can walk as
the poulpe or octopus can.
The hard-skinned or crustaceous animals, like the crawfish, swim by
the instrumentality of their tail-parts; and they swim most rapidly
tail foremost, by the aid of the fins developed upon that member. The
newt swims by means of its feet and tail; and its tail resembles that
of the sheat-fish, to compare little with great.
Of animals that can fly some are furnished with feathered wings, as
the eagle and the hawk; some are furnished with membranous wings, as
the bee and the cockchafer; others are furnished with leathern wings,
as the flying fox and the bat. All flying creatures possessed of blood
have feathered wings or leathern wings; the bloodless creatures have
membranous wings, as insects. The creatures that have feathered wings
or leathern wings have either two feet or no feet at all: for there
are said to be certain flying serpents in Ethiopia that are destitute
of feet.
Creatures that have feathered wings are classed as a genus under the
name of 'bird'; the other two genera, the leathern-winged and
membrane-winged, are as yet without a generic title.
Of creatures that can fly and are bloodless some are coleopterous or
sheath-winged, for they have their wings in a sheath or shard, like
the cockchafer and the dungbeetle; others are sheathless, and of these
latter some are dipterous and some tetrapterous: tetrapterous, such as
are comparatively large or have their stings in the tail, dipterous,
such as are comparatively small or have their stings in front. The
coleoptera are, without exception, devoid of stings; the diptera have
the sting in front, as the fly, the horsefly, the gadfly, and the
gnat.
Bloodless animals as a general rule are inferior in point of size to
blooded animals; though, by the way, there are found in the sea some
few bloodless creatures of abnormal size, as in the case of certain
molluscs. And of these bloodless genera, those are the largest that
dwell in milder climates, and those that inhabit the sea are larger
than those living on dry land or in fresh water.
All creatures that are capable of motion move with four or more
points of motion; the blooded animals with four only: as, for
instance, man with two hands and two feet, birds with two wings and
two feet, quadrupeds and fishes severally with four feet and four
fins. Creatures that have two winglets or fins, or that have none at
all like serpents, move all the same with not less than four points of
motion; for there are four bends in their bodies as they move, or two
bends together with their fins. Bloodless and many footed animals,
whether furnished with wings or feet, move with more than four points
of motion; as, for instance, the dayfly moves with four feet and four
wings: and, I may observe in passing, this creature is exceptional not
only in regard to the duration of its existence, whence it receives
its name, but also because though a quadruped it has wings also.
All animals move alike, four-footed and many-footed; in other words,
they all move cross-corner-wise. And animals in general have two feet
in advance; the crab alone has four.
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Very extensive genera of animals, into which other subdivisions
fall, are the following: one, of birds; one, of fishes; and another,
of cetaceans. Now all these creatures are blooded.
There is another genus of the hard-shell kind, which is called
oyster; another of the soft-shell kind, not as yet designated by a
single term, such as the spiny crawfish and the various kinds of crabs
and lobsters; and another of molluscs, as the two kinds of calamary
and the cuttle-fish; that of insects is different. All these latter
creatures are bloodless, and such of them as have feet have a goodly
number of them; and of the insects some have wings as well as feet.
Of the other animals the genera are not extensive. For in them one
species does not comprehend many species; but in one case, as man, the
species is simple, admitting of no differentiation, while other cases
admit of differentiation, but the forms lack particular designations.
So, for instance, creatures that are quadrupedal and unprovided with
wings are blooded without exception, but some of them are viviparous,
and some oviparous. Such as are viviparous are hair-coated, and such
as are oviparous are covered with a kind of tessellated hard
substance; and the tessellated bits of this substance are, as it were,
similar in regard to position to a scale.
An animal that is blooded and capable of movement on dry land, but
is naturally unprovided with feet, belongs to the serpent genus; and
animals of this genus are coated with the tessellated horny substance.
Serpents in general are oviparous; the adder, an exceptional case, is
viviparous: for not all viviparous animals are hair-coated, and some
fishes also are viviparous.
All animals, however, that are hair-coated are viviparous. For, by
the way, one must regard as a kind of hair such prickly hairs as
hedgehogs and porcupines carry; for these spines perform the office of
hair, and not of feet as is the case with similar parts of
sea-urchins.
In the genus that combines all viviparous quadrupeds are many
species, but under no common appellation. They are only named as it
were one by one, as we say man, lion, stag, horse, dog, and so on;
though, by the way, there is a sort of genus that embraces all
creatures that have bushy manes and bushy tails, such as the horse,
the ass, the mule, the jennet, and the animals that are called Hemioni
in Syria,- from their externally resembling mules, though they are not
strictly of the same species. And that they are not so is proved by
the fact that they mate with and breed from one another.
For all these reasons, we must take animals species by species, and
discuss their peculiarities severally.
These preceding statements, then, have been put forward thus in a
general way, as a kind of foretaste of the number of subjects and of
the properties that we have to consider in order that we may first get
a clear notion of distinctive character and common properties. By and
by we shall discuss these matters with greater minuteness.
After this we shall pass on to the discussion of causes. For to do
this when the investigation of the details is complete is the proper
and natural method, and that whereby the subjects and the premisses of
our argument will afterwards be rendered plain.
In the first place we must look to the constituent parts of animals.
For it is in a way relative to these parts, first and foremost, that
animals in their entirety differ from one another: either in the fact
that some have this or that, while they have not that or this; or by
peculiarities of position or of arrangement; or by the differences
that have been previously mentioned, depending upon diversity of form,
or excess or defect in this or that particular, on analogy, or on
contrasts of the accidental qualities.
To begin with, we must take into consideration the parts of Man.
For, just as each nation is wont to reckon by that monetary standard
with which it is most familiar, so must we do in other matters. And,
of course, man is the animal with which we are all of us the most
familiar.
Now the parts are obvious enough to physical perception. However,
with the view of observing due order and sequence and of combining
rational notions with physical perception, we shall proceed to
enumerate the parts: firstly, the organic, and afterwards the simple
or non-composite.
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The chief parts into which the body as a whole is subdivided, are
the head, the neck, the trunk (extending from the neck to the privy
parts), which is called the thorax, two arms and two legs.
Of the parts of which the head is composed the hair-covered portion
is called the 'skull'. The front portion of it is termed 'bregma' or
'sinciput', developed after birth- for it is the last of all the bones
in the body to acquire solidity,- the hinder part is termed the
'occiput', and the part intervening between the sinciput and the
occiput is the 'crown'. The brain lies underneath the sinciput; the
occiput is hollow. The skull consists entirely of thin bone, rounded
in shape, and contained within a wrapper of fleshless skin.
The skull has sutures: one, of circular form, in the case of women;
in the case of men, as a general rule, three meeting at a point.
Instances have been known of a man's skull devoid of suture
altogether. In the skull the middle line, where the hair parts, is
called the crown or vertex. In some cases the parting is double; that
is to say, some men are double-crowned, not in regard to the bony
skull, but in consequence of the double fall or set of the hair.
8
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The part that lies under the skull is called the 'face': but in the
case of man only, for the term is not applied to a fish or to an ox.
In the face the part below the sinciput and between the eyes is termed
the forehead. When men have large foreheads, they are slow to move;
when they have small ones, they are fickle; when they have broad ones,
they are apt to be distraught; when they have foreheads rounded or
bulging out, they are quick-tempered.
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Underneath the forehead are two eyebrows. Straight eyebrows are a
sign of softness of disposition; such as curve in towards the nose, of
harshness; such as curve out towards the temples, of humour and
dissimulation; such as are drawn in towards one another, of jealousy.
Under the eyebrows come the eyes. These are naturally two in number.
Each of them has an upper and a lower eyelid, and the hairs on the
edges of these are termed 'eyelashes'.
The central part of the eye includes the moist part whereby vision
is effected, termed the 'pupil', and the part surrounding it called
the 'black'; the part outside this is the 'white'. A part common to
the upper and lower eyelid is a pair of nicks or corners, one in the
direction of the nose, and the other in the direction of the temples.
When these are long they are a sign of bad disposition; if the side
toward the nostril be fleshy and comb-like, they are a sign of
dishonesty.
All animals, as a general rule, are provided with eyes, excepting
the ostracoderms and other imperfect creatures; at all events, all
viviparous animals have eyes, with the exception of the mole. And yet
one might assert that, though the mole has not eyes in the full sense,
yet it has eyes in a kind of a way. For in point of absolute fact it
cannot see, and has no eyes visible externally; but when the outer
skin is removed, it is found to have the place where eyes are usually
situated, and the black parts of the eyes rightly situated, and all
the place that is usually devoted on the outside to eyes: showing that
the parts are stunted in development, and the skin allowed to grow
over.
10
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Of the eye the white is pretty much the same in all creatures; but
what is called the black differs in various animals. Some have the rim
black, some distinctly blue, some greyish-blue, some greenish; and
this last colour is the sign of an excellent disposition, and is
particularly well adapted for sharpness of vision. Man is the only, or
nearly the only, creature, that has eyes of diverse colours. Animals,
as a rule, have eyes of one colour only. Some horses have blue eyes.
Of eyes, some are large, some small, some medium-sized; of these,
the medium-sized are the best. Moreover, eyes sometimes protrude,
sometimes recede, sometimes are neither protruding nor receding. Of
these, the receding eye is in all animals the most acute; but the last
kind are the sign of the best disposition. Again, eyes are sometimes
inclined to wink under observation, sometimes to remain open and
staring, and sometimes are disposed neither to wink nor stare. The
last kind are the sign of the best nature, and of the others, the
latter kind indicates impudence, and the former indecision.
11
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Furthermore, there is a portion of the head, whereby an animal
hears, a part incapable of breathing, the 'ear'. I say 'incapable of
breathing', for Alcmaeon is mistaken when he says that goats inspire
through their ears. Of the ear one part is unnamed, the other part is
called the 'lobe'; and it is entirely composed of gristle and flesh.
The ear is constructed internally like the trumpet-shell, and the
innermost bone is like the ear itself, and into it at the end the
sound makes its way, as into the bottom of a jar. This receptacle does
not communicate by any passage with the brain, but does so with the
palate, and a vein extends from the brain towards it. The eyes also
are connected with the brain, and each of them lies at the end of a
little vein. Of animals possessed of ears man is the only one that
cannot move this organ. Of creatures possessed of hearing, some have
ears, whilst others have none, but merely have the passages for ears
visible, as, for example, feathered animals or animals coated with
horny tessellates.
Viviparous animals, with the exception of the seal, the dolphin, and
those others which after a similar fashion to these are cetaceans, are
all provided with ears; for, by the way, the shark-kind are also
viviparous. Now, the seal has the passages visible whereby it hears;
but the dolphin can hear, but has no ears, nor yet any passages
visible. But man alone is unable to move his ears, and all other
animals can move them. And the ears lie, with man, in the same
horizontal plane with the eyes, and not in a plane above them as is
the case with some quadrupeds. Of ears, some are fine, some are
coarse, and some are of medium texture; the last kind are best for
hearing, but they serve in no way to indicate character. Some ears are
large, some small, some medium-sized; again, some stand out far, some
lie in close and tight, and some take up a medium position; of these
such as are of medium size and of medium position are indications of
the best disposition, while the large and outstanding ones indicate a
tendency to irrelevant talk or chattering. The part intercepted
between the eye, the ear, and the crown is termed the 'temple'. Again,
there is a part of the countenance that serves as a passage for the
breath, the 'nose'. For a man inhales and exhales by this organ, and
sneezing is effected by its means: which last is an outward rush of
collected breath, and is the only mode of breath used as an omen and
regarded as supernatural. Both inhalation and exhalation go right on
from the nose towards the chest; and with the nostrils alone and
separately it is impossible to inhale or exhale, owing to the fact
that the inspiration and respiration take place from the chest along
the windpipe, and not by any portion connected with the head; and
indeed it is possible for a creature to live without using this
process of nasal respiration.
Again, smelling takes place by means of the nose,- smelling, or the
sensible discrimination of odour. And the nostril admits of easy
motion, and is not, like the ear, intrinsically immovable. A part of
it, composed of gristle, constitutes, a septum or partition, and part
is an open passage; for the nostril consists of two separate channels.
The nostril (or nose) of the elephant is long and strong, and the
animal uses it like a hand; for by means of this organ it draws
objects towards it, and takes hold of them, and introduces its food
into its mouth, whether liquid or dry food, and it is the only living
creature that does so.
Furthermore, there are two jaws; the front part of them constitutes
the chin, and the hinder part the cheek. All animals move the lower
jaw, with the exception of the river-crocodile; this creature moves
the upper jaw only.
Next after the nose come two lips, composed of flesh, and facile of
motion. The mouth lies inside the jaws and lips. Parts of the mouth
are the roof or palate and the pharynx.
The part that is sensible of taste is the tongue. The sensation has
its seat at the tip of the tongue; if the object to be tasted be
placed on the flat surface of the organ, the taste is less sensibly
experienced. The tongue is sensitive in all other ways wherein flesh
in general is so: that is, it can appreciate hardness, or warmth and
cold, in any part of it, just as it can appreciate taste. The tongue
is sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, and sometimes of medium width;
the last kind is the best and the clearest in its discrimination of
taste. Moreover, the tongue is sometimes loosely hung, and sometimes
fastened: as in the case of those who mumble and who lisp.
The tongue consists of flesh, soft and spongy, and the so-called
'epiglottis' is a part of this organ.
That part of the mouth that splits into two bits is called the
'tonsils'; that part that splits into many bits, the 'gums'. Both the
tonsils and the gums are composed of flesh. In the gums are teeth,
composed of bone.
Inside the mouth is another part, shaped like a bunch of grapes, a
pillar streaked with veins. If this pillar gets relaxed and inflamed
it is called 'uvula' or 'bunch of grapes', and it then has a tendency
to bring about suffocation.
12
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The neck is the part between the face and the trunk. Of this the
front part is the larynx [and the back part the gullet]. The front
part, composed of gristle, through which respiration and speech is
effected, is termed the 'windpipe'; the part that is fleshy is the
oesophagus, inside just in front of the chine. The part to the back of
the neck is the epomis, or 'shoulder-point'.
These then are the parts to be met with before you come to the
thorax.
To the trunk there is a front part and a back part. Next after the
neck in the front part is the chest, with a pair of breasts. To each
of the breasts is attached a teat or nipple, through which in the case
of females the milk percolates; and the breast is of a spongy texture.
Milk, by the way, is found at times in the male; but with the male the
flesh of the breast is tough, with the female it is soft and porous.
13
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Next after the thorax and in front comes the 'belly', and its root
the 'navel'. Underneath this root the bilateral part is the 'flank':
the undivided part below the navel, the 'abdomen', the extremity of
which is the region of the 'pubes'; above the navel the
'hypochondrium'; the cavity common to the hypochondrium and the flank
is the gut-cavity.
Serving as a brace girdle to the hinder parts is the pelvis, and
hence it gets its name (osphus), for it is symmetrical (isophues)
in appearance; of the fundament the part for resting on is termed the
'rump', and the part whereon the thigh pivots is termed the 'socket'
(or acetabulum).
The 'womb' is a part peculiar to the female; and the 'penis' is
peculiar to the male. This latter organ is external and situated at
the extremity of the trunk; it is composed of two separate parts: of
which the extreme part is fleshy, does not alter in size, and is
called the glans; and round about it is a skin devoid of any specific
title, which integument if it be cut asunder never grows together
again, any more than does the jaw or the eyelid. And the connexion
between the latter and the glans is called the frenum. The remaining
part of the penis is composed of gristle; it is easily susceptible of
enlargement; and it protrudes and recedes in the reverse directions to
what is observable in the identical organ in cats. Underneath the
penis are two 'testicles', and the integument of these is a skin that
is termed the 'scrotum'.
Testicles are not identical with flesh, and are not altogether
diverse from it. But by and by we shall treat in an exhaustive way
regarding all such parts.
14
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The privy part of the female is in character opposite to that of the
male. In other words, the part under the pubes is hollow or receding,
and not, like the male organ, protruding. Further, there is an
'urethra' outside the womb; (which organ serves as a passage for the
sperm of the male, and as an outlet for liquid excretion to both
sexes).
The part common to the neck and chest is the 'throat'; the 'armpit'
is common to side, arm, and shoulder; and the 'groin' is common to
thigh and abdomen. The part inside the thigh and buttocks is the
'perineum', and the part outside the thigh and buttocks is the
'hypoglutis'.
The front parts of the trunk have now been enumerated.
The part behind the chest is termed the 'back'.
15
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Parts of the back are a pair of 'shoulder-blades', the 'back-bone',
and, underneath on a level with the belly in the trunk, the 'loins'.
Common to the upper and lower part of the trunk are the 'ribs', eight
on either side, for as to the so-called seven-ribbed Ligyans we have
not received any trustworthy evidence.
Man, then, has an upper and a lower part, a front and a back part, a
right and a left side. Now the right and the left side are pretty well
alike in their parts and identical throughout, except that the left
side is the weaker of the two; but the back parts do not resemble the
front ones, neither do the lower ones the upper: only that these upper
and lower parts may be said to resemble one another thus far, that, if
the face be plump or meagre, the abdomen is plump or meagre to
correspond; and that the legs correspond to the arms, and where the
upper arm is short the thigh is usually short also, and where the feet
are small the hands are small correspondingly.
Of the limbs, one set, forming a pair, is 'arms'. To the arm belong
the 'shoulder', 'upper-arm', 'elbow', 'fore-arm', and 'hand'. To the
hand belong the 'palm', and the five 'fingers'. The part of the finger
that bends is termed 'knuckle', the part that is inflexible is termed
the 'phalanx'. The big finger or thumb is single-jointed, the other
fingers are double-jointed. The bending both of the arm and of the
finger takes place from without inwards in all cases; and the arm
bends at the elbow. The inner part of the hand is termed the 'palm',
and is fleshy and divided by joints or lines: in the case of
long-lived people by one or two extending right across, in the case of
the short-lived by two, not so extending. The joint between hand and
arm is termed the 'wrist'. The outside or back of the hand is sinewy,
and has no specific designation.
There is another duplicate limb, the 'leg'. Of this limb the
double-knobbed part is termed the 'thigh-bone', the sliding part of
the 'kneecap', the double-boned part the 'leg'; the front part of this
latter is termed the 'shin', and the part behind it the 'calf',
wherein the flesh is sinewy and venous, in some cases drawn upwards
towards the hollow behind the knee, as in the case of people with
large hips, and in other cases drawn downwards. The lower extremity of
the shin is the 'ankle', duplicate in either leg. The part of the limb
that contains a multiplicity of bones is the 'foot'. The hinder part
of the foot is the 'heel'; at the front of it the divided part
consists of 'toes', five in number; the fleshy part underneath is the
'ball'; the upper part or back of the foot is sinewy and has no
particular appellation; of the toe, one portion is the 'nail' and
another the 'joint', and the nail is in all cases at the extremity;
and toes are without exception single jointed. Men that have the
inside or sole of the foot clumsy and not arched, that is, that walk
resting on the entire under-surface of their feet, are prone to
roguery. The joint common to thigh and shin is the 'knee'.
These, then, are the parts common to the male and the female sex.
The relative position of the parts as to up and down, or to front and
back, or to right and left, all this as regards externals might safely
be left to mere ordinary perception. But for all that, we must treat
of them for the same reason as the one previously brought forward;
that is to say, we must refer to them in order that a due and regular
sequence may be observed in our exposition, and in order that by the
enumeration of these obvious facts due attention may be subsequently
given to those parts in men and other animals that are diverse in any
way from one another.
In man, above all other animals, the terms 'upper' and 'lower' are
used in harmony with their natural positions; for in him, upper and
lower have the same meaning as when they are applied to the universe
as a whole. In like manner the terms, 'in front', 'behind', 'right'
and 'left', are used in accordance with their natural sense. But in
regard to other animals, in some cases these distinctions do not
exist, and in others they do so, but in a vague way. For instance, the
head with all animals is up and above in respect to their bodies; but
man alone, as has been said, has, in maturity, this part uppermost in
respect to the material universe.
Next after the head comes the neck, and then the chest and the back:
the one in front and the other behind. Next after these come the
belly, the loins, the sexual parts, and the haunches; then the thigh
and shin; and, lastly, the feet.
The legs bend frontwards, in the direction of actual progression,
and frontwards also lies that part of the foot which is the most
effective of motion, and the flexure of that part; but the heel lies
at the back, and the ankle-bones lie laterally, earwise. The arms are
situated to right and left, and bend inwards: so that the convexities
formed by bent arms and legs are practically face to face with one
another in the case of man.
As for the senses and for the organs of sensation, the eyes, the
nostrils, and the tongue, all alike are situated frontwards; the sense
of hearing, and the organ of hearing, the ear, is situated sideways,
on the same horizontal plane with the eyes. The eyes in man are, in
proportion to his size, nearer to one another than in any other
animal.
Of the senses man has the sense of touch more refined than any
animal, and so also, but in less degree, the sense of taste; in the
development of the other senses he is surpassed by a great number of
animals.
16
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The parts, then, that are externally visible are arranged in the way
above stated, and as a rule have their special designations, and from
use and wont are known familiarly to all; but this is not the case
with the inner parts. For the fact is that the inner parts of man are
to a very great extent unknown, and the consequence is that we must
have recourse to an examination of the inner parts of other animals
whose nature in any way resembles that of man.
In the first place then, the brain lies in the front part of the
head. And this holds alike with all animals possessed of a brain; and
all blooded animals are possessed thereof, and, by the way, molluscs
as well. But, taking size for size of animal, the largest brain, and
the moistest, is that of man. Two membranes enclose it: the stronger
one near the bone of the skull; the inner one, round the brain itself,
is finer. The brain in all cases is bilateral. Behind this, right at
the back, comes what is termed the 'cerebellum', differing in form
from the brain as we may both feel and see.
The back of the head is with all animals empty and hollow, whatever
be its size in the different animals. For some creatures have big
heads while the face below is small in proportion, as is the case with
round-faced animals; some have little heads and long jaws, as is the
case, without exception, among animals of the mane-and-tail species.
The brain in all animals is bloodless, devoid of veins, and
naturally cold to the touch; in the great majority of animals it has a
small hollow in its centre. The brain-caul around it is reticulated
with veins; and this brain-caul is that skin-like membrane which
closely surrounds the brain. Above the brain is the thinnest and
weakest bone of the head, which is termed 'bregma' or 'sinciput'.
From the eye there go three ducts to the brain: the largest and the
medium-sized to the cerebellum, the least to the brain itself; and the
least is the one situated nearest to the nostril. The two largest
ones, then, run side by side and do not meet; the medium-sized ones
meet- and this is particularly visible in fishes,- for they lie nearer
than the large ones to the brain; the smallest pair are the most
widely separate from one another, and do not meet.
Inside the neck is what is termed the 'oesophagus' (whose other name
is derived from its length and narrowness), and the windpipe. The
windpipe is situated in front of the oesophagus in all animals that
have a windpipe, and all animals have one that are furnished with
lungs. The windpipe is made up of gristle, is sparingly supplied with
blood, and is streaked all round with numerous minute veins; it is
situated, in its upper part, near the mouth, below the aperture formed
by the nostrils into the mouth- an aperture through which, when men,
in drinking, inhale any of the liquid, this liquid finds its way out
through the nostrils. In betwixt the two openings comes the so-called
epiglottis, an organ capable of being drawn over and covering the
orifice of the windpipe communicating with the mouth; the end of the
tongue is attached to the epiglottis. In the other direction the
windpipe extends to the interval between the lungs, and hereupon
bifurcates into each of the two divisions of the lung; for the lung in
all animals possessed of the organ has a tendency to be double. In
viviparous animals, however, the duplication is not so plainly
discernible as in other species, and the duplication is least
discernible in man. And in man the organ is not split into many parts,
as is the case with some vivipara, neither is it smooth, but its
surface is uneven.
In the case of the ovipara, such as birds and oviparous quadrupeds,
the two parts of the organ are separated to a distance from one
another, so that the creatures appear to be furnished with a pair of
lungs; and from the windpipe, itself single, there branch off two
separate parts extending to each of the two divisions of the lung. It
is attached also to the great vein and to what is designated the
'aorta'. When the windpipe is charged with air, the air passes on to
the hollow parts of the lung. These parts have divisions, composed of
gristle, which meet at an acute angle; from the divisions run passages
through the entire lung, giving off smaller and smaller ramifications.
The heart also is attached to the windpipe, by connexions of fat,
gristle, and sinew; and at the point of juncture there is a hollow.
When the windpipe is charged with air, the entrance of the air into
the heart, though imperceptible in some animals, is perceptible enough
in the larger ones. Such are the properties of the windpipe, and it
takes in and throws out air only, and takes in nothing else either dry
or liquid, or else it causes you pain until you shall have coughed up
whatever may have gone down.
The oesophagus communicates at the top with the mouth, close to the
windpipe, and is attached to the backbone and the windpipe by
membranous ligaments, and at last finds its way through the midriff
into the belly. It is composed of flesh-like substance, and is elastic
both lengthways and breadthways.
The stomach of man resembles that of a dog; for it is not much
bigger than the bowel, but is somewhat like a bowel of more than usual
width; then comes the bowel, single, convoluted, moderately wide. The
lower part of the gut is like that of a pig; for it is broad, and the
part from it to the buttocks is thick and short. The caul, or great
omentum, is attached to the middle of the stomach, and consists of a
fatty membrane, as is the case with all other animals whose stomachs
are single and which have teeth in both jaws.
The mesentery is over the bowels; this also is membranous and broad,
and turns to fat. It is attached to the great vein and the aorta, and
there run through it a number of veins closely packed together,
extending towards the region of the bowels, beginning above and ending
below.
So much for the properties of the oesophagus, the windpipe, and the
stomach.
17
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The heart has three cavities, and is situated above the lung at the
division of the windpipe, and is provided with a fatty and thick
membrane where it fastens on to the great vein and the aorta. It lies
with its tapering portion upon the aorta, and this portion is
similarly situated in relation to the chest in all animals that have a
chest. In all animals alike, in those that have a chest and in those
that have none, the apex of the heart points forwards, although this
fact might possibly escape notice by a change of position under
dissection. The rounded end of the heart is at the top. The apex is to
a great extent fleshy and close in texture, and in the cavities of the
heart are sinews. As a rule the heart is situated in the middle of the
chest in animals that have a chest, and in man it is situated a little
to the left-hand side, leaning a little way from the division of the
breasts towards the left breast in the upper part of the chest.
The heart is not large, and in its general shape it is not
elongated; in fact, it is somewhat round in form: only, be it
remembered, it is sharp-pointed at the bottom. It has three cavities,
as has been said: the right-hand one the largest of the three, the
left-hand one the least, and the middle one intermediate in size. All
these cavities, even the two small ones, are connected by passages
with the lung, and this fact is rendered quite plain in one of the
cavities. And below, at the point of attachment, in the largest cavity
there is a connexion with the great vein [near which the mesentery
lies]; and in the middle one there is a connexion with the aorta.
Canals lead from the heart into the lung, and branch off just as the
windpipe does, running all over the lung parallel with the passages
from the windpipe. The canals from the heart are uppermost; and there
is no common passage, but the passages through their having a common
wall receive the breath and pass it on to the heart; and one of the
passages conveys it to the right cavity, and the other to the left.
With regard to the great vein and the aorta we shall, by and by,
treat of them together in a discussion devoted to them and to them
alone.
In all animals that are furnished with a lung, and that are both
internally and externally viviparous, the lung is of all organs the
most richly supplied with blood; for the lung is throughout spongy in
texture, and along by every single pore in it go branches from the
great vein. Those who imagine it to be empty are altogether mistaken;
and they are led into their error by their observation of lungs
removed from animals under dissection, out of which organs the blood
had all escaped immediately after death.
Of the other internal organs the heart alone contains blood. And the
lung has blood not in itself but in its veins, but the heart has blood
in itself; for in each of its three cavities it has blood, but the
thinnest blood is what it has in its central cavity.
Under the lung comes the thoracic diaphragm or midriff, attached to
the ribs, the hypochondria and the backbone, with a thin membrane in
the middle of it. It has veins running through it; and the diaphragm
in the case of man is thicker in proportion to the size of his frame
than in other animals.
Under the diaphragm on the right-hand side lies the 'liver', and on
the left-hand side the 'spleen', alike in all animals that are
provided with these organs in an ordinary and not preternatural way;
for, be it observed, in some quadrupeds these organs have been found
in a transposed position. These organs are connected with the stomach
by the caul.
To outward view the spleen of man is narrow and long, resembling the
self-same organ in the pig. The liver in the great majority of animals
is not provided with a 'gall-bladder'; but the latter is present in
some. The liver of a man is round-shaped, and resembles the same organ
in the ox. And, by the way, the absence above referred to of a
gall-bladder is at times met with in the practice of augury. For
instance, in a certain district of the Chalcidic settlement in Euboea
the sheep are devoid of gall-bladders; and in Naxos nearly all the
quadrupeds have one so large that foreigners when they offer sacrifice
with such victims are bewildered with fright, under the impression
that the phenomenon is not due to natural causes, but bodes some
mischief to the individual offerers of the sacrifice.
Again, the liver is attached to the great vein, but it has no
communication with the aorta; for the vein that goes off from the
great vein goes right through the liver, at a point where are the
so-called 'portals' of the liver. The spleen also is connected only
with the great vein, for a vein extends to the spleen off from it.
After these organs come the 'kidneys', and these are placed close to
the backbone, and resemble in character the same organ in kine. In all
animals that are provided with this organ, the right kidney is
situated higher up than the other. It has also less fatty substance
than the left-hand one and is less moist. And this phenomenon also is
observable in all the other animals alike.
Furthermore, passages or ducts lead into the kidneys both from the
great vein and from the aorta, only not into the cavity. For, by the
way, there is a cavity in the middle of the kidney, bigger in some
creatures and less in others; but there is none in the case of the
seal. This latter animal has kidneys resembling in shape the identical
organ in kine, but in its case the organs are more solid than in any
other known creature. The ducts that lead into the kidneys lose
themselves in the substance of the kidneys themselves; and the proof
that they extend no farther rests on the fact that they contain no
blood, nor is any clot found therein. The kidneys, however, have, as
has been said, a small cavity. From this cavity in the kidney there
lead two considerable ducts or ureters into the bladder; and others
spring from the aorta, strong and continuous. And to the middle of
each of the two kidneys is attached a hollow sinewy vein, stretching
right along the spine through the narrows; by and by these veins are
lost in either loin, and again become visible extending to the flank.
And these off-branchings of the veins terminate in the bladder. For
the bladder lies at the extremity, and is held in position by the
ducts stretching from the kidneys, along the stalk that extends to the
urethra; and pretty well all round it is fastened by fine sinewy
membranes, that resemble to some extent the thoracic diaphragm. The
bladder in man is, proportionately to his size, tolerably large.
To the stalk of the bladder the private part is attached, the
external orifices coalescing; but a little lower down, one of the
openings communicates with the testicles and the other with the
bladder. The penis is gristly and sinewy in its texture. With it are
connected the testicles in male animals, and the properties of these
organs we shall discuss in our general account of the said organ.
All these organs are similar in the female; for there is no
difference in regard to the internal organs, except in respect to the
womb, and with reference to the appearance of this organ I must refer
the reader to diagrams in my 'Anatomy'. The womb, however, is
situated over the bowel, and the bladder lies over the womb. But we
must treat by and by in our pages of the womb of all female animals
viewed generally. For the wombs of all female animals are not
identical, neither do their local dispositions coincide.
These are the organs, internal and external, of man, and such is
their nature and such their local disposition.
Book II
1
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With regard to animals in general, some parts or organs are common
to all, as has been said, and some are common only to particular
genera; the parts, moreover, are identical with or different from one
another on the lines already repeatedly laid down. For as a general
rule all animals that are generically distinct have the majority of
their parts or organs different in form or species; and some of them
they have only analogically similar and diverse in kind or genus,
while they have others that are alike in kind but specifically
diverse; and many parts or organs exist in some animals, but not in
others.
For instance, viviparous quadrupeds have all a head and a neck, and
all the parts or organs of the head, but they differ each from other
in the shapes of the parts. The lion has its neck composed of one
single bone instead of vertebrae; but, when dissected, the animal is
found in all internal characters to resemble the dog.
The quadrupedal vivipara instead of arms have forelegs. This is true
of all quadrupeds, but such of them as have toes have, practically
speaking, organs analogous to hands; at all events, they use these
fore-limbs for many purposes as hands. And they have the limbs on the
left-hand side less distinct from those on the right than man.
The fore-limbs then serve more or less the purpose of hands in
quadrupeds, with the exception of the elephant. This latter animal has
its toes somewhat indistinctly defined, and its front legs are much
bigger than its hinder ones; it is five-toed, and has short ankles to
its hind feet. But it has a nose such in properties and such in size
as to allow of its using the same for a hand. For it eats and drinks
by lifting up its food with the aid of this organ into its mouth, and
with the same organ it lifts up articles to the driver on its back;
with this organ it can pluck up trees by the roots, and when walking
through water it spouts the water up by means of it; and this organ is
capable of being crooked or coiled at the tip, but not of flexing like
a joint, for it is composed of gristle.
Of all animals man alone can learn to make equal use of both hands.
All animals have a part analogous to the chest in man, but not
similar to his; for the chest in man is broad, but that of all other
animals is narrow. Moreover, no other animal but man has breasts in
front; the elephant, certainly, has two breasts, not however in the
chest, but near it.
Moreover, also, animals have the flexions of their fore and hind
limbs in directions opposite to one another, and in directions the
reverse of those observed in the arms and legs of man; with the
exception of the elephant. In other words, with the viviparous
quadrupeds the front legs bend forwards and the hind ones backwards,
and the concavities of the two pairs of limbs thus face one another.
The elephant does not sleep standing, as some were wont to assert,
but it bends its legs and settles down; only that in consequence of
its weight it cannot bend its leg on both sides simultaneously, but
falls into a recumbent position on one side or the other, and in this
position it goes to sleep. And it bends its hind legs just as a man
bends his legs.
In the case of the ovipara, as the crocodile and the lizard and the
like, both pairs of legs, fore and hind, bend forwards, with a slight
swerve on one side. The flexion is similar in the case of the
multipeds; only that the legs in between the extreme ends always move
in a manner intermediate between that of those in front and those
behind, and accordingly bend sideways rather than backwards or
forwards. But man bends his arms and his legs towards the same point,
and therefore in opposite ways: that is to say, he bends his arms
backwards, with just a slight inclination inwards, and his legs
frontwards. No animal bends both its fore-limbs and hind-limbs
backwards; but in the case of all animals the flexion of the shoulders
is in the opposite direction to that of the elbows or the joints of
the forelegs, and the flexure in the hips to that of the knees of the
hind-legs: so that since man differs from other animals in flexion,
those animals that possess such parts as these move them contrariwise
to man.
Birds have the flexions of their limbs like those of the quadrupeds;
for, although bipeds, they bend their legs backwards, and instead of
arms or front legs have wings which bend frontwards.
The seal is a kind of imperfect or crippled quadruped; for just
behind the shoulder-blade its front feet are placed, resembling hands,
like the front paws of the bear; for they are furnished with five
toes, and each of the toes has three flexions and a nail of
inconsiderable size. The hind feet are also furnished with five toes;
in their flexions and nails they resemble the front feet, and in shape
they resemble a fish's tail.
The movements of animals, quadruped and multiped, are crosswise, or
in diagonals, and their equilibrium in standing posture is maintained
crosswise; and it is always the limb on the right-hand side that is
the first to move. The lion, however, and the two species of camels,
both the Bactrian and the Arabian, progress by an amble; and the
action so called is when the animal never overpasses the right foot
with the left, but always follows close upon it.
Whatever parts men have in front, these parts quadrupeds have below,
in or on the belly; and whatever parts men have behind, these parts
quadrupeds have above on their backs. Most quadrupeds have a tail; for
even the seal has a tiny one resembling that of the stag. Regarding
the tails of the pithecoids we must give their distinctive properties
by and by.
All viviparous quadrupeds are hair-coated, whereas man has only a
few short hairs excepting on the head, but, so far as the head is
concerned, he is hairier than any other animal. Further, of
hair-coated animals, the back is hairier than the belly, which latter
is either comparatively void of hair or smooth and void of hair
altogether. With man the reverse is the case.
Man also has upper and lower eyelashes, and hair under the armpits
and on the pubes. No other animal has hair in either of these
localities, or has an under eyelash; though in the case of some
animals a few straggling hairs grow under the eyelid.
Of hair-coated quadrupeds some are hairy all over the body, as the
pig, the bear, and the dog; others are especially hairy on the neck
and all round about it, as is the case with animals that have a shaggy
mane, such as the lion; others again are especially hairy on the upper
surface of the neck from the head as far as the withers, namely, such
as have a crested mane, as in the case with the horse, the mule, and,
among the undomesticated horned animals, the bison.
The so-called hippelaphus also has a mane on its withers, and the
animal called pardion, in either case a thin mane extending from the
head to the withers; the hippelaphus has, exceptionally, a beard by
the larynx. Both these animals have horns and are cloven-footed; the
female, however, of the hippelaphus has no horns. This latter animal
resembles the stag in size; it is found in the territory of the
Arachotae, where the wild cattle also are found.
Wild cattle differ from their domesticated congeners just as the
wild boar differs from the domesticated one. That is to say they are
black, strong looking, with a hook-nosed muzzle, and with horns lying
more over the back. The horns of the hippelaphus resemble those of the
gazelle.
The elephant, by the way, is the least hairy of all quadrupeds. With
animals, as a general rule, the tail corresponds with the body as
regards thickness or thinness of hair-coating; that is, with animals
that have long tails, for some creatures have tails of altogether
insignificant size.
Camels have an exceptional organ wherein they differ from all other
animals, and that is the so-called 'hump' on their back. The Bactrian
camel differs from the Arabian; for the former has two humps and the
latter only one, though it has, by the way, a kind of a hump below
like the one above, on which, when it kneels, the weight of the whole
body rests. The camel has four teats like the cow, a tail like that of
an ass, and the privy parts of the male are directed backwards. It has
one knee in each leg, and the flexures of the limb are not manifold,
as some say, although they appear to be so from the constricted shape
of the region of the belly. It has a huckle-bone like that of kine,
but meagre and small in proportion to its bulk. It is cloven-footed,
and has not got teeth in both jaws; and it is cloven-footed in the
following way: at the back there is a slight cleft extending as far up
as the second joint of the toes; and in front there are small hooves
on the tip of the first joint of the toes; and a sort of web passes
across the cleft, as in geese. The foot is fleshy underneath, like
that of the bear; so that, when the animal goes to war, they protect
its feet, when they get sore, with sandals.
The legs of all quadrupeds are bony, sinewy, and fleshless; and in
point of fact such is the case with all animals that are furnished
with feet, with the exception of man. They are also unfurnished with
buttocks; and this last point is plain in an especial degree in birds.
It is the reverse with man; for there is scarcely any part of the body
in which man is so fleshy as in the buttock, the thigh, and the calf;
for the part of the leg called gastrocnemia or 'calf' is fleshy.
Of blooded and viviparous quadrupeds some have the foot cloven into
many parts, as is the case with the hands and feet of man (for some
animals, by the way, are many-toed, as the lion, the dog, and the
pard); others have feet cloven in twain, and instead of nails have
hooves, as the sheep, the goat, the deer, and the hippopotamus; others
are uncloven of foot, such for instance as the solid-hooved animals,
the horse and the mule. Swine are either cloven-footed or
uncloven-footed; for there are in Illyria and in Paeonia and elsewhere
solid-hooved swine. The cloven-footed animals have two clefts behind;
in the solid-hooved this part is continuous and undivided.
Furthermore, of animals some are horned, and some are not so. The
great majority of the horned animals are cloven-footed, as the ox, the
stag, the goat; and a solid-hooved animal with a pair of horns has
never yet been met with. But a few animals are known to be
singled-horned and single-hooved, as the Indian ass; and one, to wit
the oryx, is single-horned and cloven-hooved.
Of all solid-hooved animals the Indian ass alone has an astragalus
or huckle-bone; for the pig, as was said above, is either solid-hooved
or cloven-footed, and consequently has no well-formed huckle-bone. Of
the cloven-footed many are provided with a huckle-bone. Of the
many-fingered or many-toed, no single one has been observed to have a
huckle-bone, none of the others any more than man. The lynx, however,
has something like a hemiastragal, and the lion something resembling
the sculptor's 'labyrinth'. All the animals that have a huckle-bone
have it in the hinder legs. They have also the bone placed straight up
in the joint; the upper part, outside; the lower part, inside; the
sides called Coa turned towards one another, the sides called Chia
outside, and the keraiae or 'horns' on the top. This, then, is the
position of the huckle-bone in the case of all animals provided with
the part.
Some animals are, at one and the same time, furnished with a mane
and furnished also with a pair of horns bent in towards one another,
as is the bison (or aurochs), which is found in Paeonia and Maedica.
But all animals that are horned are quadrupedal, except in cases where
a creature is said metaphorically, or by a figure of speech, to have
horns; just as the Egyptians describe the serpents found in the
neighbourhood of Thebes, while in point of fact the creatures have
merely protuberances on the head sufficiently large to suggest such an
epithet.
Of horned animals the deer alone has a horn, or antler, hard and
solid throughout. The horns of other animals are hollow for a certain
distance, and solid towards the extremity. The hollow part is derived
from the skin, but the core round which this is wrapped- the hard
part- is derived from the bones; as is the case with the horns of
oxen. The deer is the only animal that sheds its horns, and it does so
annually, after reaching the age of two years, and again renews them.
All other animals retain their horns permanently, unless the horns be
damaged by accident.
Again, with regard to the breasts and the generative organs, animals
differ widely from one another and from man. For instance, the breasts
of some animals are situated in front, either in the chest or near to
it, and there are in such cases two breasts and two teats, as is the
case with man and the elephant, as previously stated. For the elephant
has two breasts in the region of the axillae; and the female elephant
has two breasts insignificant in size and in no way proportionate to
the bulk of the entire frame, in fact, so insignificant as to be
invisible in a sideways view; the males also have breasts, like the
females, exceedingly small. The she-bear has four breasts. Some
animals have two breasts, but situated near the thighs, and teats,
likewise two in number, as the sheep; others have four teats, as the
cow. Some have breasts neither in the chest nor at the thighs, but in
the belly, as the dog and pig; and they have a considerable number of
breasts or dugs, but not all of equal size. Thus the she-pard has four
dugs in the belly, the lioness two, and others more. The she-camel,
also, has two dugs and four teats, like the cow. Of solid-hooved
animals the males have no dugs, excepting in the case of males that
take after the mother, which phenomenon is observable in horses.
Of male animals the genitals of some are external, as is the case
with man, the horse, and most other creatures; some are internal, as
with the dolphin. With those that have the organ externally placed,
the organ in some cases is situated in front, as in the cases already
mentioned, and of these some have the organ detached, both penis and
testicles, as man; others have penis and testicles closely attached to
the belly, some more closely, some less; for this organ is not
detached in the wild boar nor in the horse.
The penis of the elephant resembles that of the horse; compared with
the size of the animal it is disproportionately small; the testicles
are not visible, but are concealed inside in the vicinity of the
kidneys; and for this reason the male speedily gives over in the act
of intercourse. The genitals of the female are situated where the
udder is in sheep; when she is in heat, she draws the organ back and
exposes it externally, to facilitate the act of intercourse for the
male; and the organ opens out to a considerable extent.
With most animals the genitals have the position above assigned; but
some animals discharge their urine backwards, as the lynx, the lion,
the camel, and the hare. Male animals differ from one another, as has
been said, in this particular, but all female animals are
retromingent: even the female elephant like other animals, though she
has the privy part below the thighs.
In the male organ itself there is a great diversity. For in some
cases the organ is composed of flesh and gristle, as in man; in such
cases, the fleshy part does not become inflated, but the gristly part
is subject to enlargement. In other cases, the organ is composed of
fibrous tissue, as with the camel and the deer; in other cases it is
bony, as with the fox, the wolf, the marten, and the weasel; for this
organ in the weasel has a bone.
When man has arrived at maturity, his upper part is smaller than the
lower one, but with all other blooded animals the reverse holds good.
By the 'upper' part we mean all extending from the head down to the
parts used for excretion of residuum, and by the 'lower' part all
else. With animals that have feet the hind legs are to be rated as the
lower part in our comparison of magnitudes, and with animals devoid of
feet, the tail, and the like.
When animals arrive at maturity, their properties are as above
stated; but they differ greatly from one another in their growth
towards maturity. For instance, man, when young, has his upper part
larger than the lower, but in course of growth he comes to reverse
this condition; and it is owing to this circumstance that- an
exceptional instance, by the way- he does not progress in early life
as he does at maturity, but in infancy creeps on all fours; but some
animals, in growth, retain the relative proportion of the parts, as
the dog. Some animals at first have the upper part smaller and the
lower part larger, and in course of growth the upper part gets to be
the larger, as is the case with the bushy-tailed animals such as the
horse; for in their case there is never, subsequently to birth, any
increase in the part extending from the hoof to the haunch.
Again, in respect to the teeth, animals differ greatly both from one
another and from man. All animals that are quadrupedal, blooded and
viviparous, are furnished with teeth; but, to begin with, some are
double-toothed (or fully furnished with teeth in both jaws), and some
are not. For instance, horned quadrupeds are not double-toothed; for
they have not got the front teeth in the upper jaw; and some hornless
animals, also, are not double-toothed, as the camel. Some animals have
tusks, like the boar, and some have not. Further, some animals are
saw-toothed, such as the lion, the pard, and the dog; and some have
teeth that do not interlock but have flat opposing crowns, as the
horse and the ox; and by 'saw-toothed' we mean such animals as
interlock the sharp-pointed teeth in one jaw between the sharp-pointed
ones in the other. No animal is there that possesses both tusks and
horns, nor yet do either of these structures exist in any animal
possessed of 'saw-teeth'. The front teeth are usually sharp, and the
back ones blunt. The seal is saw-toothed throughout, inasmuch as he is
a sort of link with the class of fishes; for fishes are almost all
saw-toothed.
No animal of these genera is provided with double rows of teeth.
There is, however, an animal of the sort, if we are to believe
Ctesias. He assures us that the Indian wild beast called the
'martichoras' has a triple row of teeth in both upper and lower jaw;
that it is as big as a lion and equally hairy, and that its feet
resemble those of the lion; that it resembles man in its face and
ears; that its eyes are blue, and its colour vermilion; that its tail
is like that of the land-scorpion; that it has a sting in the tail,
and has the faculty of shooting off arrow-wise the spines that are
attached to the tail; that the sound of its voice is a something
between the sound of a pan-pipe and that of a trumpet; that it can run
as swiftly as deer, and that it is savage and a man-eater.
Man sheds his teeth, and so do other animals, as the horse, the
mule, and the ass. And man sheds his front teeth; but there is no
instance of an animal that sheds its molars. The pig sheds none of its
teeth at all.
2
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With regard to dogs some doubts are entertained, as some contend
that they shed no teeth whatever, and others that they shed the
canines, but those alone; the fact being, that they do shed their
teeth like man, but that the circumstance escapes observation, owing
to the fact that they never shed them until equivalent teeth have
grown within the gums to take the place of the shed ones. We shall be
justified in supposing that the case is similar with wild beasts in
general; for they are said to shed their canines only. Dogs can be
distinguished from one another, the young from the old, by their
teeth; for the teeth in young dogs are white and sharp-pointed; in old
dogs, black and blunt.
3
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In this particular, the horse differs entirely from animals in
general: for, generally speaking, as animals grow older their teeth
get blacker, but the horse's teeth grow whiter with age.
The so-called 'canines' come in between the sharp teeth and the
broad or blunt ones, partaking of the form of both kinds; for they are
broad at the base and sharp at the tip.
Males have more teeth than females in the case of men, sheep, goats,
and swine; in the case of other animals observations have not yet been
made: but the more teeth they have the more long-lived are they, as a
rule, while those are short-lived in proportion that have teeth fewer
in number and thinly set.
4
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The last teeth to come in man are molars called 'wisdom-teeth',
which come at the age of twenty years, in the case of both sexes.
Cases have been known in women upwards of eighty years old where at
the very close of life the wisdom-teeth have come up, causing great
pain in their coming; and cases have been known of the like phenomenon
in men too. This happens, when it does happen, in the case of people
where the wisdom-teeth have not come up in early years.
5
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The elephant has four teeth on either side, by which it munches its
food, grinding it like so much barley-meal, and, quite apart from
these, it has its great teeth, or tusks, two in number. In the male
these tusks are comparatively large and curved upwards; in the female,
they are comparatively small and point in the opposite direction; that
is, they look downwards towards the ground. The elephant is furnished
with teeth at birth, but the tusks are not then visible.
6
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The tongue of the elephant is exceedingly small, and situated far
back in the mouth, so that it is difficult to get a sight of it.
7
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Furthermore, animals differ from one another in the relative size of
their mouths. In some animals the mouth opens wide, as is the case
with the dog, the lion, and with all the saw-toothed animals; other
animals have small mouths, as man; and others have mouths of medium
capacity, as the pig and his congeners.
[The Egyptian hippopotamus has a mane like a horse, is cloven-footed
like an ox, and is snub-nosed. It has a huckle-bone like cloven-footed
animals, and tusks just visible; it has the tail of a pig, the neigh
of a horse, and the dimensions of an ass. The hide is so thick that
spears are made out of it. In its internal organs it resembles the
horse and the ass.]
8
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Some animals share the properties of man and the quadrupeds, as the
ape, the monkey, and the baboon. The monkey is a tailed ape. The
baboon resembles the ape in form, only that it is bigger and stronger,
more like a dog in face, and is more savage in its habits, and its
teeth are more dog-like and more powerful.
Apes are hairy on the back in keeping with their quadrupedal nature,
and hairy on the belly in keeping with their human form- for, as was
said above, this characteristic is reversed in man and the quadruped-
only that the hair is coarse, so that the ape is thickly coated both
on the belly and on the back. Its face resembles that of man in many
respects; in other words, it has similar nostrils and ears, and teeth
like those of man, both front teeth and molars. Further, whereas
quadrupeds in general are not furnished with lashes on one of the two
eyelids, this creature has them on both, only very thinly set,
especially the under ones; in fact they are very insignificant indeed.
And we must bear in mind that all other quadrupeds have no under
eyelash at all.
The ape has also in its chest two teats upon poorly developed
breasts. It has also arms like man, only covered with hair, and it
bends these legs like man, with the convexities of both limbs facing
one another. In addition, it has hands and fingers and nails like man,
only that all these parts are somewhat more beast-like in appearance.
Its feet are exceptional in kind. That is, they are like large hands,
and the toes are like fingers, with the middle one the longest of all,
and the under part of the foot is like a hand except for its length,
and stretches out towards the extremities like the palm of the hand;
and this palm at the after end is unusually hard, and in a clumsy
obscure kind of way resembles a heel. The creature uses its feet
either as hands or feet, and doubles them up as one doubles a fist.
Its upper-arm and thigh are short in proportion to the forearm and the
shin. It has no projecting navel, but only a hardness in the ordinary
locality of the navel. Its upper part is much larger than its lower
part, as is the case with quadrupeds; in fact, the proportion of the
former to the latter is about as five to three. Owing to this
circumstance and to the fact that its feet resemble hands and are
composed in a manner of hand and of foot: of foot in the heel
extremity, of the hand in all else- for even the toes have what is
called a 'palm':- for these reasons the animal is oftener to be found
on all fours than upright. It has neither hips, inasmuch as it is a
quadruped, nor yet a tail, inasmuch as it is a biped, except by the
way that it has a tail as small as small can be, just a sort of
indication of a tail. The genitals of the female resemble those of the
female in the human species; those of the male are more like those of
a dog than are those of a man.
9
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The monkey, as has been observed, is furnished with a tail. In all
such creatures the internal organs are found under dissection to
correspond to those of man.
So much then for the properties of the organs of such animals as
bring forth their young into the world alive.
10
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Oviparous and blooded quadrupeds- and, by the way, no terrestrial
blooded animal is oviparous unless it is quadrupedal or is devoid of
feet altogether- are furnished with a head, a neck, a back, upper and
under parts, the front legs and hind legs, and the part analogous to
the chest, all as in the case of viviparous quadrupeds, and with a
tail, usually large, in exceptional cases small. And all these
creatures are many-toed, and the several toes are cloven apart.
Furthermore, they all have the ordinary organs of sensation, including
a tongue, with the exception of the Egyptian crocodile.
This latter animal, by the way, resembles certain fishes. For, as a
general rule, fishes have a prickly tongue, not free in its movements;
though there are some fishes that present a smooth undifferentiated
surface where the tongue should be, until you open their mouths wide
and make a close inspection.
Again, oviparous blooded quadrupeds are unprovided with ears, but
possess only the passage for hearing; neither have they breasts, nor a
copulatory organ, nor external testicles, but internal ones only;
neither are they hair-coated, but are in all cases covered with scaly
plates. Moreover, they are without exception saw-toothed.
River crocodiles have pigs' eyes, large teeth and tusks, and strong
nails, and an impenetrable skin composed of scaly plates. They see but
poorly under water, but above the surface of it with remarkable
acuteness. As a rule, they pass the day-time on land and the
night-time in the water; for the temperature of the water is at
night-time more genial than that of the open air.
11
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The chameleon resembles the lizard in the general configuration of
its body, but the ribs stretch downwards and meet together under the
belly as is the case with fishes, and the spine sticks up as with the
fish. Its face resembles that of the baboon. Its tail is exceedingly
long, terminates in a sharp point, and is for the most part coiled up,
like a strap of leather. It stands higher off the ground than the
lizard, but the flexure of the legs is the same in both creatures.
Each of its feet is divided into two parts, which bear the same
relation to one another that the thumb and the rest of the hand bear
to one another in man. Each of these parts is for a short distance
divided after a fashion into toes; on the front feet the inside part
is divided into three and the outside into two, on the hind feet the
inside part into two and the outside into three; it has claws also on
these parts resembling those of birds of prey. Its body is rough all
over, like that of the crocodile. Its eyes are situated in a hollow
recess, and are very large and round, and are enveloped in a skin
resembling that which covers the entire body; and in the middle a
slight aperture is left for vision, through which the animal sees, for
it never covers up this aperture with the cutaneous envelope. It keeps
twisting its eyes round and shifting its line of vision in every
direction, and thus contrives to get a sight of any object that it
wants to see. The change in its colour takes place when it is inflated
with air; it is then black, not unlike the crocodile, or green like
the lizard but black-spotted like the pard. This change of colour
takes place over the whole body alike, for the eyes and the tail come
alike under its influence. In its movements it is very sluggish, like
the tortoise. It assumes a greenish hue in dying, and retains this hue
after death. It resembles the lizard in the position of the oesophagus
and the windpipe. It has no flesh anywhere except a few scraps of
flesh on the head and on the jaws and near to the root of the tail. It
has blood only round about the heart, the eyes, the region above the
heart, and in all the veins extending from these parts; and in all
these there is but little blood after all. The brain is situated a
little above the eyes, but connected with them. When the outer skin is
drawn aside from off the eye, a something is found surrounding the
eye, that gleams through like a thin ring of copper. Membranes extend
well nigh over its entire frame, numerous and strong, and surpassing
in respect of number and relative strength those found in any other
animal. After being cut open along its entire length it continues to
breathe for a considerable time; a very slight motion goes on in the
region of the heart, and, while contraction is especially manifested
in the neighbourhood of the ribs, a similar motion is more or less
discernible over the whole body. It has no spleen visible. It
hibernates, like the lizard.
12
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Birds also in some parts resemble the above-mentioned animals; that
is to say, they have in all cases a head, a neck, a back, a belly, and
what is analogous to the chest. The bird is remarkable among animals
as having two feet, like man; only, by the way, it bends them
backwards as quadrupeds bend their hind legs, as was noticed
previously. It has neither hands nor front feet, but wings- an
exceptional structure as compared with other animals. Its haunch-bone
is long, like a thigh, and is attached to the body as far as the
middle of the belly; so like to a thigh is it that when viewed
separately it looks like a real one, while the real thigh is a
separate structure betwixt it and the shin. Of all birds those that
have crooked talons have the biggest thighs and the strongest breasts.
All birds are furnished with many claws, and all have the toes
separated more or less asunder; that is to say, in the greater part
the toes are clearly distinct from one another, for even the swimming
birds, although they are web-footed, have still their claws fully
articulated and distinctly differentiated from one another. Birds that
fly high in air are in all cases four-toed: that is, the greater part
have three toes in front and one behind in place of a heel; some few
have two in front and two behind, as the wryneck.
This latter bird is somewhat bigger than the chaffinch, and is
mottled in appearance. It is peculiar in the arrangement of its toes,
and resembles the snake in the structure of its tongue; for the
creature can protrude its tongue to the extent of four
finger-breadths, and then draw it back again. Moreover, it can twist
its head backwards while keeping all the rest of its body still, like
the serpent. It has big claws, somewhat resembling those of the
woodpecker. Its note is a shrill chirp.
Birds are furnished with a mouth, but with an exceptional one, for
they have neither lips nor teeth, but a beak. Neither have they ears
nor a nose, but only passages for the sensations connected with these
organs: that for the nostrils in the beak, and that for hearing in the
head. Like all other animals they all have two eyes, and these are
devoid of lashes. The heavy-bodied (or gallinaceous) birds close the
eye by means of the lower lid, and all birds blink by means of a skin
extending over the eye from the inner corner; the owl and its
congeners also close the eye by means of the upper lid. The same
phenomenon is observable in the animals that are protected by horny
scutes, as in the lizard and its congeners; for they all without
exception close the eye with the lower lid, but they do not blink like
birds.
Further, birds have neither scutes nor hair, but feathers; and the
feathers are invariably furnished with quills. They have no tail, but
a rump with tail-feathers, short in such as are long-legged and
web-footed, large in others. These latter kinds of birds fly with
their feet tucked up close to the belly; but the small-rumped or
short-tailed birds fly with their legs stretched out at full length.
All are furnished with a tongue, but the organ is variable, being long
in some birds and broad in others. Certain species of birds above all
other animals, and next after man, possess the faculty of uttering
articulate sounds; and this faculty is chiefly developed in
broad-tongued birds. No oviparous creature has an epiglottis over the
windpipe, but these animals so manage the opening and shutting of the
windpipe as not to allow any solid substance to get down into the
lung.
Some species of birds are furnished additionally with spurs, but no
bird with crooked talons is found so provided. The birds with talons
are among those that fly well, but those that have spurs are among the
heavy-bodied.
Again, some birds have a crest. As a general rule the crest sticks
up, and is composed of feathers only; but the crest of the barn-door
cock is exceptional in kind, for, whereas it is not just exactly
flesh, at the same time it is not easy to say what else it is.
13
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Of water animals the genus of fishes constitutes a single group
apart from the rest, and including many diverse forms.
In the first place, the fish has a head, a back, a belly, in the
neighbourhood of which last are placed the stomach and viscera; and
behind it has a tail of continuous, undivided shape, but not, by the
way, in all cases alike. No fish has a neck, or any limb, or testicles
at all, within or without, or breasts. But, by the way this absence of
breasts may predicated of all non-viviparous animals; and in point of
fact viviparous animals are not in all cases provided with the organ,
excepting such as are directly viviparous without being first
oviparous. Thus the dolphin is directly viviparous, and accordingly we
find it furnished with two breasts, not situated high up, but in the
neighbourhood of the genitals. And this creature is not provided, like
quadrupeds, with visible teats, but has two vents, one on each flank,
from which the milk flows; and its young have to follow after it to
get suckled, and this phenomenon has been actually witnessed.
Fishes, then, as has been observed, have no breasts and no passage
for the genitals visible externally. But they have an exceptional
organ in the gills, whereby, after taking the water in by the mouth,
they discharge it again; and in the fins, of which the greater part
have four, and the lanky ones two, as, for instance, the eel, and
these two situated near to the gills. In like manner the grey mullet-
as, for instance, the mullet found in the lake at Siphae- have only
two fins; and the same is the case with the fish called Ribbon-fish.
Some of the lanky fishes have no fins at all, such as the muraena, nor
gills articulated like those of other fish.
And of those fish that are provided with gills, some have coverings
for this organ, whereas all the selachians have the organ unprotected
by a cover. And those fishes that have coverings or opercula for the
gills have in all cases their gills placed sideways; whereas, among
selachians, the broad ones have the gills down below on the belly, as
the torpedo and the ray, while the lanky ones have the organ placed
sideways, as is the case in all the dog-fish.
The fishing-frog has gills placed sideways, and covered not with a
spiny operculum, as in all but the selachian fishes, but with one of
skin.
Moreover, with fishes furnished with gills, the gills in some cases
are simple in others duplicate; and the last gill in the direction of
the body is always simple. And, again, some fishes have few gills, and
others have a great number; but all alike have the same number on both
sides. Those that have the least number have one gill on either side,
and this one duplicate, like the boar-fish; others have two on either
side, one simple and the other duplicate, like the conger and the
scarus; others have four on either side, simple, as the elops, the
synagris, the muraena, and the eel; others have four, all, with the
exception of the hindmost one, in double rows, as the wrasse, the
perch, the sheat-fish, and the carp. The dog-fish have all their gills
double, five on a side; and the sword-fish has eight double gills. So
much for the number of gills as found in fishes.
Again, fishes differ from other animals in more ways than as regards
the gills. For they are not covered with hairs as are viviparous land
animals, nor, as is the case with certain oviparous quadrupeds, with
tessellated scutes, nor, like birds, with feathers; but for the most
part they are covered with scales. Some few are rough-skinned, while
the smooth-skinned are very few indeed. Of the Selachia some are
rough-skinned and some smooth-skinned; and among the smooth-skinned
fishes are included the conger, the eel, and the tunny.
All fishes are saw-toothed excepting the scarus; and the teeth in
all cases are sharp and set in many rows, and in some cases are placed
on the tongue. The tongue is hard and spiny, and so firmly attached
that fishes in many instances seem to be devoid of the organ
altogether. The mouth in some cases is wide-stretched, as it is with
some viviparous quadrupeds....
With regard to organs of sense, all save eyes, fishes possess none
of them, neither the organs nor their passages, neither ears nor
nostrils; but all fishes are furnished with eyes, and the eyes devoid
of lids, though the eyes are not hard; with regard to the organs
connected with the other senses, hearing and smell, they are devoid
alike of the organs themselves and of passages indicative of them.
Fishes without exception are supplied with blood. Some of them are
oviparous, and some viviparous; scaly fish are invariably oviparous,
but cartilaginous fishes are all viviparous, with the single exception
of the fishing-frog.
14
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Of blooded animals there now remains the serpent genus. This genus
is common to both elements, for, while most species comprehended
therein are land animals, a small minority, to wit the aquatic
species, pass their lives in fresh water. There are also sea-serpents,
in shape to a great extent resembling their congeners of the land,
with this exception that the head in their case is somewhat like the
head of the conger; and there are several kinds of sea-serpent, and
the different kinds differ in colour; these animals are not found in
very deep water. Serpents, like fish, are devoid of feet.
There are also sea-scolopendras, resembling in shape their land
congeners, but somewhat less in regard to magnitude. These creatures
are found in the neighbourhood of rocks; as compared with their land
congeners they are redder in colour, are furnished with feet in
greater numbers and with legs of more delicate structure. And the same
remark applies to them as to the sea-serpents, that they are not found
in very deep water.
Of fishes whose habitat is in the vicinity of rocks there is a tiny
one, which some call the Echeneis, or 'ship-holder', and which is by
some people used as a charm to bring luck in affairs of law and love.
The creature is unfit for eating. Some people assert that it has feet,
but this is not the case: it appears, however, to be furnished with
feet from the fact that its fins resemble those organs.
So much, then, for the external parts of blooded animals, as regards
their numbers, their properties, and their relative diversities.
15
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As for the properties of the internal organs, these we must first
discuss in the case of the animals that are supplied with blood. For
the principal genera differ from the rest of animals, in that the
former are supplied with blood and the latter are not; and the former
include man, viviparous and oviparous quadrupeds, birds, fishes,
cetaceans, and all the others that come under no general designation
by reason of their not forming genera, but groups of which simply the
specific name is predicable, as when we say 'the serpent,' the
'crocodile'.
All viviparous quadrupeds, then, are furnished with an oesophagus
and a windpipe, situated as in man; the same statement is applicable
to oviparous quadrupeds and to birds, only that the latter present
diversities in the shapes of these organs. As a general rule, all
animals that take up air and breathe it in and out are furnished with
a lung, a windpipe, and an oesophagus, with the windpipe and
oesophagus not admitting of diversity in situation but admitting of
diversity in properties, and with the lung admitting of diversity in
both these respects. Further, all blooded animals have a heart and a
diaphragm or midriff; but in small animals the existence of the latter
organ is not so obvious owing to its delicacy and minute size.
In regard to the heart there is an exceptional phenomenon observable
in oxen. In other words, there is one species of ox where, though not
in all cases, a bone is found inside the heart. And, by the way, the
horse's heart also has a bone inside it.
The genera referred to above are not in all cases furnished with a
lung: for instance, the fish is devoid of the organ, as is also every
animal furnished with gills. All blooded animals are furnished with a
liver. As a general rule blooded animals are furnished with a spleen;
but with the great majority of non-viviparous but oviparous animals
the spleen is so small as all but to escape observation; and this is
the case with almost all birds, as with the pigeon, the kite, the
falcon, the owl: in point of fact, the aegocephalus is devoid of the
organ altogether. With oviparous quadrupeds the case is much the same
as with the viviparous; that is to say, they also have the spleen
exceedingly minute, as the tortoise, the freshwater tortoise, the
toad, the lizard, the crocodile, and the frog.
Some animals have a gall-bladder close to the liver, and others have
not. Of viviparous quadrupeds the deer is without the organ, as also
the roe, the horse, the mule, the ass, the seal, and some kinds of
pigs. Of deer those that are called Achainae appear to have gall in
their tail, but what is so called does resemble gall in colour, though
it is not so completely fluid, and the organ internally resembles a
spleen.
However, without any exception, stags are found to have maggots
living inside the head, and the habitat of these creatures is in the
hollow underneath the root of the tongue and in the neighbourhood of
the vertebra to which the head is attached. These creatures are as
large as the largest grubs; they grow all together in a cluster, and
they are usually about twenty in number.
Deer then, as has been observed, are without a gall-bladder; their
gut, however, is so bitter that even hounds refuse to eat it unless
the animal is exceptionally fat. With the elephant also the liver is
unfurnished with a gall-bladder, but when the animal is cut in the
region where the organ is found in animals furnished with it, there
oozes out a fluid resembling gall, in greater or less quantities. Of
animals that take in sea-water and are furnished with a lung, the
dolphin is unprovided with a gall-bladder. Birds and fishes all have
the organ, as also oviparous quadrupeds, all to a greater or a lesser
extent. But of fishes some have the organ close to the liver, as the
dog-fishes, the sheat-fish, the rhine or angel-fish, the smooth skate,
the torpedo, and, of the lanky fishes, the eel, the pipe-fish, and the
hammer-headed shark. The callionymus, also, has the gall-bladder close
to the liver, and in no other fish does the organ attain so great a
relative size. Other fishes have the organ close to the gut, attached
to the liver by certain extremely fine ducts. The bonito has the
gall-bladder stretched alongside the gut and equalling it in length,
and often a double fold of it. Others have the organ in the region of
the gut; in some cases far off, in others near; as the fishing-frog,
the elops, the synagris, the muraena, and the sword-fish. Often
animals of the same species show this diversity of position; as, for
instance, some congers are found with the organ attached close to the
liver, and others with it detached from and below it. The case is much
the same with birds: that is, some have the gall-bladder close to the
stomach, and others close to the gut, as the pigeon, the raven, the
quail, the swallow, and the sparrow; some have it near at once to the
liver and to the stomach as the aegocephalus; others have it near at
once to the liver and the gut, as the falcon and the kite.
16
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Again, all viviparous quadrupeds are furnished with kidneys and a
bladder. Of the ovipara that are not quadrupedal there is no instance
known of an animal, whether fish or bird, provided with these organs.
Of the ovipara that are quadrupedal, the turtle alone is provided with
these organs of a magnitude to correspond with the other organs of the
animal. In the turtle the kidney resembles the same organ in the ox;
that is to say, it looks like one single organ composed of a number of
small ones. [The bison also resembles the ox in all its internal
parts].
17
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With all animals that are furnished with these parts, the parts are
similarly situated, and with the exception of man, the heart is in the
middle; in man, however, as has been observed, the heart is placed a
little to the left-hand side. In all animals the pointed end of the
heart turns frontwards; only in fish it would at first sight seem
otherwise, for the pointed end is turned not towards the breast, but
towards the head and the mouth. And (in fish) the apex is attached to
a tube just where the right and left gills meet together. There are
other ducts extending from the heart to each of the gills, greater in
the greater fish, lesser in the lesser; but in the large fishes the
duct at the pointed end of the heart is a tube, white-coloured and
exceedingly thick.
Fishes in some few cases have an oesophagus, as the conger and the
eel; and in these the organ is small.
In fishes that are furnished with an undivided liver, the organ lies
entirely on the right side; where the liver is cloven from the root,
the larger half of the organ is on the right side: for in some fishes
the two parts are detached from one another, without any coalescence
at the root, as is the case with the dog-fish. And there is also a
species of hare in what is named the Fig district, near Lake Bolbe,
and elsewhere, which animal might be taken to have two livers owing to
the length of the connecting ducts, similar to the structure in the
lung of birds.
The spleen in all cases, when normally placed, is on the left-hand
side, and the kidneys also lie in the same position in all creatures
that possess them. There have been known instances of quadrupeds under
dissection, where the spleen was on the right hand and the liver on
the left; but all such cases are regarded as supernatural.
In all animals the windpipe extends to the lung, and the manner how,
we shall discuss hereafter; and the oesophagus, in all that have the
organ, extends through the midriff into the stomach. For, by the way,
as has been observed, most fishes have no oesophagus, but the stomach
is united directly with the mouth, so that in some cases when big fish
are pursuing little ones, the stomach tumbles forward into the mouth.
All the afore-mentioned animals have a stomach, and one similarly
situated, that is to say, situated directly under the midriff; and
they have a gut connected therewith and closing at the outlet of the
residuum and at what is termed the 'rectum'. However, animals present
diversities in the structure of their stomachs. In the first place, of
the viviparous quadrupeds, such of the horned animals as are not
equally furnished with teeth in both jaws are furnished with four such
chambers. These animals, by the way, are those that are said to chew
the cud. In these animals the oesophagus extends from the mouth
downwards along the lung, from the midriff to the big stomach (or
paunch); and this stomach is rough inside and semi-partitioned. And
connected with it near to the entry of the oesophagus is what from its
appearance is termed the 'reticulum' (or honeycomb bag); for outside
it is like the stomach, but inside it resembles a netted cap; and the
reticulum is a great deal smaller than the stomach. Connected with
this is the 'echinus' (or many-plies), rough inside and laminated, |
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