[486a5] 1 · 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.
[10] And of such as these, some are called not parts merely, but members. Such are those parts that, while entire in themselves, have within themselves other 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 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.
[15] Of animals, some resemble one another in all their parts, while others have parts wherein they differ. Sometimes the parts are identical in form, 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 [20] 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.
[486b5] Among them, most of the parts as a rule exhibit differences through contrariety of properties, such as colour and shape, in that some are more and some in a less degree the subject of the same property; and also in the way of multitude or fewness, magnitude or smallness, in short in the way of excess or defect. Thus in [10] 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, even in the cases we are considering, 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 [15] of contrariety and of excess and defect. For the more and the less may be represented as excess and defect.
There are some animals whose parts are neither identical in form nor differing 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 [20] 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 parts that differ in position; for instance, some have teats in the breast, others close to the thighs. [487a1]
Of the substances that are composed of parts uniform with themselves, some are soft and moist, others are dry and solid. The 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 waste products, as phlegm and the excretions of the belly and the [5] 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, when the whole also by virtue of its form is designated horn),1 and such parts as present an analogy to these. [10]
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, and in actions as follows: some animals live in water and others on land. And of those that live in [15] 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 [20] 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 [25] instance, the sea-anemone 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 land some take in air and emit it, which phenomena are termed inhalation’ and ‘exhalation’; as, for instance, man and all such land animals [30] 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 notches on their bodies, either on their bellies or on both backs and bellies.
[487b1] And of land animals many, as has been said, derive their subsistence from the water; but of creatures that live in and inhale water none derives its subsistence from the land.
Some animals at first live in water, and by and by change their shape and live [5] out of water, as is the case with river worms—for out of these the gadfly develops.2
Furthermore, some animals are stationary, and some move about. Stationary animals are found in water, but no such creature is found on land. In the water are many creatures that live in close adhesion to an external object, as is the case with [10] several kinds of shellfish. (The sponge actually appears to be endowed with a certain sensibility: as a sign of which it is alleged that the difficulty in detaching it is increased if the movement is 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-anemone; 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 [15] the so-called holothuria. Some can swim, as, for instance, fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans, such as the crayfish. But some 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 [20] 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.3 This [25] 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 swift; for all these birds resemble one another in their habits and in their wings and look like one another. (The apous is to be seen at all seasons, but the swift only after rainy [30] 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, many animals move by walking as well as by swimming.
Furthermore, the following differences are manifest in their modes of living and in their actions. Some are gregarious, some are solitary, whether they be [488a1] furnished with feet or wings or be fitted for a life in the water; and some partake of both characters. And of the gregarious, some are social, others independent.
Gregarious creatures are, among birds, such as the pigeon, the crane, and the swan (no bird furnished with crooked talons is gregarious). Of creatures that live in [5] water many kinds of fishes are gregarious, such as the so-called migrants, the tunny, the pelamys, and the bonito.
Man partakes of both characters.
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. [10]
Again, of these social creatures some submit to a ruler, others are subject to no rule: as, for instance, the crane and the several sorts of bee submit to a ruler, whereas ants and numerous other creatures are subject to no rule.
And again, both of gregarious and of solitary animals, some are attached to a fixed home and others are nomadic.
Also, some are carnivorous, some graminivorous, some omnivorous: whilst [15] 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.
Some creatures provide themselves with a dwelling, others go without one: of [20] 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 themselves holes, others do not do so.4
Some are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat; others live in the daylight. [25]
Moreover, some creatures are tame and some are wild: some are at all times tame, as the jennet and the mule; others are at all times wild, 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, cattle, pigs, donkeys,5 sheep, goats, and dogs. [30]
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 noisy, 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. [488b1]
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 and the cockerel; others are inclined to chastity, as the whole tribe of crows, for birds of this kind indulge but [5] 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, others defensive. 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 have some means of guarding themselves against [10] attack.
Animals also differ from one another in regard to character in the following respects. Some are good-tempered, sluggish, and not prone to ferocity, as the ox; [15] others are quick-tempered, ferocious and unteachable, as the wild boar; some are intelligent and timid, as the stag and the hare;6 others are mean and treacherous, as the snake; others are free and courageous and high-bred, as the lion; others are thorough-bred and wild and treacherous, as the wolf. (An animal is high-bred if it come from a good stock, and an animal is thorough-bred if it does not deflect from its natural characteristics.)
[20] 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.
[25] 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 characters and ways of life will be discussed more precisely later on.
2 · Common to all animals are the parts by which and the parts into which [30] they take food; 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 parts besides these in common, whereby they discharge the residuum of their food—but this is not true of [489a1] all. The part by which food is taken in is called the mouth, and the part into which it is taken, the belly; the remainder has a great variety of names.
Now the residuum of food is twofold in kind and such creatures as have parts receptive of wet residuum are found with parts receptive of dry residuum too; but [5] such as have the latter do not all have the former. That is why an animal has a belly if it has a bladder; but those that have a belly do not all have a bladder. For the part receptive of wet residuum is termed ‘bladder’, and that of dry residuum ‘belly’.
3 · Of the rest, a great many have, besides the parts above-mentioned, a part [10] for the emission of the sperm; and of animals capable of generation one emits 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 parts connected with this function differ in form; for some animals have a womb and others an organ analogous thereto.
The above-mentioned parts, then, are the most indispensable for animals; and [15] with some of them all animals, and with others animals for the most part, are provided.
One sense, and one alone, is common to all animals—the sense of touch. Consequently, there is no special name for the part in which it has its seat; for in some groups of animals it is identical, in others it is analogous.
4 · Every animal is supplied with moisture, and if the animal be deprived of [20] the same by natural causes or by violence, 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 fibre and serum.
Touch has its seat in a part uniform with itself as in the flesh or something of the kind, and generally, with animals supplied with blood, in the parts charged with [25] 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 are uniform with themselves.
The active faculties, on the contrary, are seated in the parts that are not uniform: 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 [30] 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 crayfish, and all such animals as have more than four feet.
5 · Again, some animals are viviparous, others oviparous, other vermiparous. Some are viviparous, such as man, the horse, the seal, and all other animals that are [489b1] 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, [5] 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—from a part of it at first, while the rest serves for food as it 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. [10]
Of viviparous animals, some hatch eggs in their own interior, as the selachia; others engender in their interior, 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, such as birds’ eggs; others are [15] soft-skinned and of uniform colour, as the eggs of the selachia. Of the grubs, some are from the first capable of movement, others are motionless. However, with regard to these phenomena we must speak precisely hereafter when we come to treat of generation.
Furthermore, some animals have feet and some do not. Of such as have feet, some animals have two, as is the case with men and birds only; some have four, as [20] the lizard and the dog; some have more, as the centipede and the bee; but all have an even number of feet.
Of swimming creatures that are destitute of feet, some have fins, as fishes: and of these some have four fins, two above on the back, two below on the belly, as the [25] 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 and others that use the sea just as snakes use dry ground—and snakes swim in water in [30] just the same way. Of the selachia 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 means 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 [490a1] the cuttle-fish and the calamary; but neither of these latter can walk as the octopus can.
The hard-skinned animals, like the crayfish, swim by 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 [5] 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. Those possessed of blood have feathered wings or leathern wings; the bloodless [10] creatures have membranous wings, as insects. The creatures that have feathered wings or leathern wings all have either two feet or no feet at all:7 for there are said to be certain flying serpents in Ethiopia of this sort.
Creatures that have feathered wings are classed as a genus under the name of ‘bird’; the other two genera have no single name.
Of creatures that can fly and are bloodless some are coleopterous; for they [15] have their wings in a sheath or shard, like the cockchafer and the dung beetle; others are sheathless, and of these latter some are dipterous and some tetrapterous: tetrapterous, such as are large or have their stings in the tail, dipterous, such as are small or have their stings in front. The coleoptera are, without exception, devoid of [20] stings; the diptera have the sting in front, as the fly, the horsefly, the gadfly, and the gnat.
Bloodless animals are all inferior in point of size to blooded animals; but there are found in the sea some few bloodless creatures of larger size, as in the case of certain molluscs. And of these bloodless genera, those are the largest that dwell in [25] 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 [30] with four feet and four fins. Creatures that have two fins, or that have none at all like serpents, move all the same with four points of motion; for they have four joints, or two plus their fins. Bloodless 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—for this creature is exceptional not only in [490b1] 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; they all move cross-corner-wise. And animals in general have two feet in advance; the crab alone has [5] four.
6 · 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 the shell-fish; [10] another of the soft-shell kind, not designated by a single term, such as the crayfish 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 are bloodless, and such of them as have feet have a large number of them; and of the [15] 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 species lack particular designations.
So, for instance, creatures that are quadrupedal and unprovided with wings [20] 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 have a horny tessellation—the tessellation holds the place of scales.
An animal that is blooded and terrestrial, but is naturally unprovided with feet, belongs to the serpent genus; and animals of this genus possess tessellation. Serpents in general are oviparous; the adder alone is viviparous; for not all [25] viviparous animals are hair-coated, and some fishes also are viviparous.
All animals, however, that are hair-coated are viviparous. For 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 in [30] 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 man is—e.g. the lion, the stag, the horse, the dog, and so on; though there is actually8 a single genus in the case of the so-called bushy-tailed animals, such as the horse, the [491a1] ass, the mule, the jennet, and the animals that are called mules in Syria,—from their resembling mules, though they are not strictly of the same species, for they mate with and breed from one another.
For all these reasons, we must take animals species by species, and discuss [5] 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 their actual differences and common properties. By and by we shall discuss these matters with [10] greater accuracy.
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 natural method; for from them the subjects and the premisses of our proof become clear.
In the first place we must look to the constituent parts of animals. For it is [15] 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 form, on excess, on analogy, or on contrariety of qualities.
To begin with, we must take into consideration the parts of man. For, just as [20] any group tests coinage against that with which it is most familiar, so must we do in other matters. And, of course, man is the animal with which we are the most familiar.
Now the parts are obvious enough to perception. However, with the view of observing due order and sequence and of combining reason with perception, we [25] shall proceed to enumerate the parts: firstly, the organic, and afterwards the uniform.
7 · The chief parts into which the body as a whole is divided, are the head, the neck, the thorax, two arms and two legs.
[30] Of the parts of which the head is composed the hair-covered portion is called the skull. The front portion of it is termed the 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 [491b1] 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 seen of a man’s [5] skull devoid of suture altogether. In the skull the middle line, where the hair parts, is called the crown. 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 parting of the hair.
8 · The part that lies below the skull is called the face: but in the case of man [10] 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; when they have small ones, they are quickly moved; when they have broad ones, they are apt to be distraught; when they have foreheads rounded, they are quick-tempered.9
9 · Underneath the forehead are two eyebrows. Straight eyebrows are a sign [15] of softness of disposition; such as curve in towards the nose, of harshness; such as curve out towards the temples, of humour and dissimulation.
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 inner part of the eye includes the moist part whereby vision is [20] effected, termed the pupil, and the part surrounding it called the iris; the part outside this is the white. A part common to the upper and lower eyelid is a pair of nicks, 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, as in the case of kites,10 they are a sign of dishonesty. [25]
All the other animals 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 way. For in point of fact it cannot see, [30] 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 · Of the eye the white is pretty much the same in all creatures; but what is called the iris differs. In some it is black, in some distinctly blue, in some [492a1] greyish-blue, in 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. [5] The others 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, [10] eyes are sometimes inclined to blink, sometimes to stare, and sometimes neither. The last kind are the sign of the best nature, and of the others, the latter kind indicates impudence, and the former indecision.
11 · Furthermore, there is a portion of the head, whereby an animal hears, a part incapable of breathing, the ear. For Alcmaeon is mistaken when he says that goats inspire through their ears. Of the ear one part is unnamed, the other part is [15] 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 a jar. This does not communicate by any passage with the brain, but does so with the palate, and a vein [20] 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.11 Of animals possessed of ears man is the only one that cannot move this part. Of creatures possessed of hearing, some have [25] ears, whilst others have none, but merely have the passages for ears visible, as, for example, feathered animals or animals with horny tessellation.
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 the shark-kind are also viviparous. But man alone does not move his ears. [30] Now, the seal has the passages visible whereby it hears; but the dolphin can hear, but has no ears. All other animals can move them.]12 And the ears lie on the same circumference as the eyes, and not in a plane above them as is the case with some quadrupeds. Of ears, some are smooth, some are shaggy, and some are of medium texture; the last kind are best for hearing, but they serve in no way to indicate [492b1] character. Some ears are large, some small, some medium-sized; again, some stand out far, some not at all, and some take up a medium position; of these the medium sort are indications of the best disposition, while the large and outstanding ones indicate a tendency to irrelevant talk or chattering. The part between the eye, the ear, and the crown is termed the temple.
[5] 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—this 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 towards the chest; and with the nostrils alone and separately [10] 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 its nose.
Again, smelling takes place by means of the nose—that is, perception of odour. [15] 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, and part is an open passage; for the nostril consists of two separate channels. The nostril 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 [20] 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 the animals move the lower jaw, with the exception of the river-crocodile; this creature moves the upper jaw only.
[25] 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 and the pharynx.
The part that is sensible of taste is the tongue. The sensation has its seat at the tip—if something is placed on the flat surface of the organ, the taste is less. The tongue can also perceive everything that flesh in general can—e.g. hardness, or warmth and cold, in any part of it, just as it can appreciate taste. The tongue is [30] sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, and sometimes of medium width; the last kind is the best and the clearest. 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 [493a1] 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 moistened and inflamed it is called the uvula, and it then has a tendency to bring about suffocation.13
12 · The neck is the part between the face and the trunk. [Of this the front [5] part is the larynx and the back part the gullet.]14 The front part, composed of gristle, through which respiration and speech is effected, is termed the wind-pipe; the part that is fleshy is the gullet, inside just in front of the chine. The part to the back of the neck is the shoulder-point.
These then are the parts to be met with before you come to the thorax. [10]
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 nipple, through which in the case of females the milk percolates; and the breast is soft. Milk is found at times in the male; but with the male the flesh of the breast is [15] tough, with the female it is spongy and porous.
13 · Next after the thorax and in front comes the stomach, and its root the navel. Underneath this root the bilateral part is the flank; the undivided part below the navel is the abdomen, the extremity of which is the region of the pubes; and above the navel the hypochondrium; the part common to the hypochondrium and [20] the flank is the gut-cavity.
Serving as a brace-girdle to the hinder parts is the pelvis, and hence it gets its name (ὀσφύς), for it is symmetrical (ἰσoφυές) in appearance; of the fundament the part for resting on is termed the buttock, and the part whereon the thigh pivots is termed the socket.
The womb is a part peculiar to the female; and the penis is peculiar to the male. [25] 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, hardly alters in size, and is called the glans; and round about it is a skin devoid of any specific title, which never grows together again if it is cut any more than does the jaw or the eyelid. And the connexion between the latter and the glans is called the frenum. The [30] remaining part of the penis is composed of gristle; it is easily susceptible of enlargement; and it protrudes and recedes in the opposite way to that of the cat.15 Underneath the penis are two testicles, and the integument of these is a skin that is termed the scrotum.
[493b1] Testicles are not identical with flesh, and are not altogether diverse from it. But by and by we shall treat in an accurate way regarding all such parts.
14 · 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, and not, like the male organ, protruding. Further, there is an urethra outside the womb which serves as a passage [5] 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 [10] buttocks is the hypoglutis.
The front parts of the trunk have now been enumerated.
The part behind the chest is termed the back.
15 · Parts of the back are a pair of shoulder-blades, the back-bone, and, underneath on a level with the stomach 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 [15] 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 [20] 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 [25] 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, forearm, and hand. To the hand belong the palm, and the five fingers. The part of the finger that bends is the knuckle, the part that is inflexible is the phalanx. The thumb is single-jointed, the other fingers are double-jointed. The [30] bending both of the arm and of the finger takes place inwards in all cases; and the arm bends at the elbow. The inner part of the hand is the palm, and is fleshy and divided by joints: in the case of long-lived people by one or two extending right [494a1] across, in the case of the short-lived by two, not so extending. The joint between hand and arm is the wrist. The outside or back of the hand is sinewy, and has no specific designation.
There is another two-parted limb, the leg. Of this limb the double-knobbed [5] part is the thigh, the sliding part is the knee-cap, the double-boned part is the lower leg; the front part of this latter is the shin, and the part behind it is 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 [10] 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 at the top is sinewy and has no particular appellation; of the toe, one portion is the nail and another the joint, and [15] the nail is in all cases at the extremity; and toes are without exception single-jointed. Men that have the inside of the foot thick 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 [20] 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 underlying our previous remarks; 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 their enumeration due attention may be subsequently given to those parts in men and other animals [25] that are diverse in any way from one another.
In man, above all other animals, the upper and lower parts are arranged in accordance with their natural positions; for in him, upper and lower are the same as in the case of the universe as a whole. In like manner the parts in front, behind, right [30] and left, are in accordance with nature. 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 universe. [494b1]
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 stomach, 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 [5] frontwards also lies that part of the foot which is the most effective of motion, and its bending; 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 [10] 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 circumference with the eyes. The [15] eyes in man are, in proportion to his size, nearer to one another than in any other animal.
Of man’s senses, touch is the most accurate; taste is second; in the others, man is surpassed by a great number of animals.
16 · The parts, then, that are externally visible are arranged in the way [20] 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.
[25] 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 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 [30] stronger one is nearer the bone; the 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 [495a1] 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 with bushy tails.
[5] 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 caul around it is veined; and this brain-caul is that skin-like membrane which closely [10] surrounds the brain. Above the brain is the thinnest and weakest bone of the head, which is termed the 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 [15] 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 name, ‘gullet’ [20] (στόμαχoς), 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 [25] 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, choke on 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 [30] 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 [495b1] 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 [5] 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 [10] 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 [15] 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 gullet communicates at the top with the mouth, close to the windpipe, and [20] 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 [25] 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 is attached to the middle of the stomach, and consists of a fatty membrane, as is the [30] 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 [496a1] bowels, beginning above and ending below.
So much for the properties of the oesophagus, the windpipe, and the stomach.
17 · 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 [5] 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 [10] 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, [15] 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 [20] somewhat round in form: only 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 [25] 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.16
Passages 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 [30] 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 alone.
In all animals that are furnished with a lung, and that are both internally and [496b1] externally viviparous, the lung is of all parts 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 [5] from animals under dissection, out of which organs the blood has 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 [10] 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 thick in [15] proportion to the size of his frame.
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 a natural and not a monstrous way; for in some quadrupeds these organs have been found in a transposed position. These organs are connected with the stomach by the [20] caul.
To outward view the spleen of man is narrow and long, resembling that of the pig. The liver for the most part and in most animals is provided with a gall-bladder; but the latter is absent in some. The liver of a man is round-shaped, and resembles that of the ox. This occurs in the case of sacrificial animals too; e.g. in a certain [25] 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 are astounded, under the impression that this is not the animals’ nature but a sign peculiar to themselves.
Again, the liver is attached to the great vein, but it has no communication with [30] 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 the ox. In all animals that are provided with this organ, the right kidney is situated higher up than the other. It [497a1] has also less fatty substance than the left-hand one and is less moist. And this is found in all the other animals alike.
Furthermore, passages lead into the kidneys both from the great vein and from the aorta, only not into the cavity. For there is a cavity in the middle of the kidney, [5] bigger in some creatures and less in others; but there is none in the case of the seal. This latter animal has kidneys resembling those of the ox, but more solid than in any other creature. The passages that lead into the kidneys lose themselves in the substance of the kidneys themselves; and a sign that they extend no farther rests on [10] the fact that they17 contain no blood, nor is any clot found therein. The kidneys, however, have, as has been said, a small cavity.18 From this cavity in the kidney there lead two considerable passages 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; [15] 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 [20] fastened by fine sinewy membranes, that resemble to some extent the thoracic diaphragm. The bladder in man is tolerably large.
To the stalk of the bladder the private part is attached, the endmost part of it [25] being a single united orifice; 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. With it are connected the testicles in male animals, and the properties of these organs we shall discuss in our general account.
All these organs are similar in the female; for there is no difference in regard to [30] the internal organs, except in respect to the womb. The appearance of this organ can be investigated from the diagrams in the Anatomies; its position is over the bowel, and the bladder lies over the womb. But we must treat by and by 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 [497b1] and such their local disposition.
1 · 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 [10] have the majority of their parts different in form; and some of them they have only analogically similar and diverse in genus, while they have others that are alike in genus but specifically diverse; and many exist in some animals, but not in others.
For instance, viviparous quadrupeds have all a head and a neck, and all the [15] parts 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 opened up, the animal is found in all internal characteristics to resemble the dog.
The quadruped vivipara instead of arms have forelegs. This is true of all quadrupeds, but such of them as have toes have, practically speaking, organs [20] analogous to hands; at all events, they use these fore-limbs for many purposes as hands—except for the elephant.
This 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. [25] But it has a nose of such a sort and size as to allow of its being used as a hand. For it eats and drinks by lifting up its food with the aid of this organ into its mouth, and it lifts up articles to its driver and it pulls up trees, and when walking through water it spouts the water up by means of it; and this organ bends but is not jointed, for it is [30] 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, [498a1] not however in the chest, but near it.
Moreover, animals have the flexions of their fore and hind limbs in directions opposite to one another, and in directions opposite to the joints in man; with the [5] exception of the elephant. For 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 is not as some used to assert, but it bends its legs and settles [10] down; only that in consequence of its weight it cannot bend its legs 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 ovipara, as the crocodile and the lizard and the like, both pairs of [15] legs, fore and hind, bend forwards, with a slight swerve to one side. The flexion is similar in the case of the multipeds; only that the legs in between the extreme ends always move in an intermediate manner and bend sideways rather. But man bends his arms and his legs towards the same point, and therefore in opposite ways: he bends his arms backwards, with just a slight inclination inwards, and his legs [20] 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, in the hind legs, the flexure in the [25] hips to that of the knees: 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 [30] have wings which bend frontwards.
The seal is a kind of imperfect 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, and in their [498b1] flexions and nails they resemble the front feet; but in shape they resemble a fish’s tail.
The movements of animals, quadruped and multiped, are crosswise and they [5] stand in this way; 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 camel, both the Bactrian and the Arabian, progress laterally; and in lateral progress sometimes1 the right foot is not advanced before the left but follows it. [10]
Whatever parts men have in front, these parts quadrupeds have below, on the belly: and whatever parts men have behind, these parts quadrupeds have 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 [15] 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 the other hair-coated animals, the back is hairier and the belly is either entirely smooth or less hairy; but with man the reverse is the [20] 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 a lower eyelash; though in the case of some animals soft hairs grow below the eyelid. [25]
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, [30] namely, such as have a crested mane, as is 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 [499a1] 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.
[5] 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 is the least hairy of all quadrupeds. With animals, as a general [10] 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 part wherein they differ from all other quadrupeds, and that is the so-called hump on their back. The Bactrian camel [15] differs from the Arabian; for the former has two humps and the latter only one, though it has 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 [20] knee in each leg, and not, as some say, several joints, although they appear to have several because of the constricted shape of the region of the belly. It has a huckle-bone like that of the ox, 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 [25] 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 is a long cleft, extending as far as the first joint of the toes, but superficial; and there is something actually between the clefts, as in geese. The foot is fleshy underneath, like that of the bear; so that, when the animal [30] 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 [499b1] 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 lower leg; for [5] the part of the lower leg called the 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 are many-toed, as the lion, the dog, and the leopard); others have feet cloven in two, and [10] instead of nails have hooves, as the sheep, the goat, the deer, and the hippopotamus; others are uncloven, such for instance as the solid-hooved animals, the horse and the mule. Swine may be either cloven-footed or uncloven-footed; for there are in Illyria and in Paeonia and elsewhere solid-hooved swine. The cloven-footed animals have [15] two clefts behind; in the solid-hooved this part is continuous.
Furthermore, of animals some are horned, and some are not so. The great majority of the horned animals are cloven-footed by nature, 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 single-horned and single-hooved, as the Indian ass; and the oryx is single-horned and cloven-hooved.
[20] Of all solid-hooved animals the Indian ass alone has a 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 hucklebone. Of those whose feet are cloven in many parts, none has been observed to have a huckle-bone, none of the others any more than man. The lynx, however, has one like a half huckle-bone, and the lion has one like the ‘labyrinth’ used in sculpting. [25] All the animals that have a huckle-bone have it in the hind legs. They have also the bone placed straight up in the joint; the upper part, outside; the lower part, inside; the sides called Coa inside and turned towards one another, the sides called Chia outside, and the horns on the top. This, then, is the position of the huckle-bone in the [30] 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, [500a1] 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 [5] neighbourhood of Thebes, which have protuberances sufficiently large to suggest such an epithet.
Of horned animals the deer alone has a horn 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 [10] 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 [15] widely from one another and from man. For instance, the breasts of some animals are situated in front, either on 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 [20] 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 [25] breasts neither on the chest nor at the thighs, but on the belly, as the dog and pig; and they have a considerable number of breasts, but not all of equal size. Thus the she-leopard has four on the belly, the lioness two, and others more. The she-camel, also, has two breasts and four teats, like the cow. Of solid-hooved animals the males [30] have no breasts, 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 many 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 [500b1] in the cases already mentioned, and of these some have the organ hanging loose, both penis and testicles, as man; others have penis and testicles closely attached to [5] the belly, some more closely, some less; for this organ is not equally loose in the wild boar and 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 inside in the vicinity of the kidneys; and for this reason the male speedily gives over [10] 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 [15] 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 urinate backwards: even the female elephant, like other animals, though she has the privy part below the thighs.
[20] 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 sinewy, as with the camel and the deer; in other cases it is bony, as with the [25] fox, the wolf, the marten, and the weasel; for this organ in the weasel has a bone.
Furthermore, 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 everything extending from the head down to the parts used for [30] 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 [501a1] he comes to reverse this condition; and that is why man alone 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 [5] 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; 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 [10] with teeth; but, to begin with, some have teeth in both jaws, and some do not. For instance, horned quadrupeds do not; for they have not got the front teeth in the upper jaw; and some hornless animals, also, do not have teeth in both jaws, as the [15] camel. Some animals have tusks, like the boar, and some have not. Further, some animals are saw-toothed, such as the lion, the leopard, and the dog; and some have teeth that do not interlock, as the horse and the ox; and by ‘saw-toothed’ we mean such animals as interlock the sharp-pointed teeth. No animal possesses both tusks and horns, nor yet do either of these exist in any animal possessed of saw-teeth. The front teeth are usually sharp, and the back ones flat. The seal is saw-toothed [20] 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 [25] Indian 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 [30] the tail, and has the faculty of shooting off the spines that are attached to the tail; that the sound of its voice is a something between the sound of a pipe and that of a trumpet; that it can run as swiftly as a deer, and that it is savage and a man-eater.2 [501b1]
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 · With regard to dogs some doubts are entertained, as some contend that [5] they shed no teeth whatever, and others that they shed the canines only; but it has been observed that they do shed their teeth like man, but that the circumstance escapes notice, owing to the fact that they never shed them until equivalent teeth have grown up under them. 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. [10] Young can be distinguished from old by their teeth; for the teeth in young dogs are white and sharp-pointed; in old dogs, black and blunted.
3 · In this particular, the horse differs from the other animals; for, generally [15] 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 flat ones, partaking of the form of both kinds; for they are flat below and sharp above.
Males have more teeth than females in the case of men, sheep, goats, and [20] swine; in the case of other animals observations have not yet been made. Those that have more teeth are longer-lived as a rule; those with fewer teeth more thinly set are shorter-lived as a rule.
4 · The last teeth to come in man are molars called wisdom-teeth, which [25] come at the age of twenty years, in the case of both sexes. Cases have been known in women of eighty years old where molars have come up at the ends of the jaw, causing great pain in their coming; and cases have been known of the like phenomenon in men too. This happens in the case of people whose wisdom-teeth have not come up in early years.
[30] 5 · 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 two great teeth. In the male these are comparatively large and curved upwards; in the female, [502a1] they are comparatively small and point in the opposite direction; that is, they look downwards. The elephant is furnished with teeth at birth, but the tusks are not then visible.
6 · The tongue of the elephant is exceedingly small, and back in the mouth, so that it is difficult to get a sight of it.
[5] 7 · Furthermore, animals differ from one another in the size of their mouths. In some animals the mouth opens wide, as in 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 [10] 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 [15] the horse and the ass.]3
8 · 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 [20] 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 [25] 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; for it has similar nostrils and ears, and teeth like those [30] 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 and very short. The other quadrupeds have no under eyelash at all.
The ape has also in its chest two teats upon small breasts. It has also arms like [502b1] man, only covered with hair, and it bends both these and its 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 [5] 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 rough 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 [10] 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 five to three. Owing to this circumstance and to the fact [15] 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 [20] upright. It has neither hips, inasmuch as it is a quadruped, nor yet a tail, inasmuch as it is a biped, except a very small one—a sort of hint 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 · 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 [25] man.
So much then for the properties of the parts of such animals as bring forth their young into the world alive.
10 · Oviparous and blooded quadrupeds—and 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 [30] the part analogous to the chest, all as in the case of viviparous quadrupeds, and with a tail, usually large, in a few 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. [503a1]
This latter animal 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 draw their lips right back.
Again, all these animals are unprovided with ears, but possess only the passage [5] for hearing; neither have they breasts, nor a copulatory organ, nor visible external testicles, but internal ones only; neither are they hair-coated, but are in all cases covered with horny tessellations. Moreover, they are all saw-toothed.
River crocodiles have pigs’ eyes, large teeth and tusks, and strong nails, and an [10] impenetrable skin composed of horny tessellations. They see 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 it is warmer than the open air.
11 · The chameleon resembles the lizard in the general configuration of its [15] body, but the ribs stretch downwards and meet together under the belly as is the case with fishes, and the spike sticks up as with the fish. Its face resembles that of [20] the baboon. Its tail is exceedingly long, terminates in a fine 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 [25] 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. [30] 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 rest of its 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 its skin. It [503b1] 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 [5] crocodile, or green like the lizard but black-spotted like the leopard. This change of colour takes place over the whole body, for the eyes and tail come alike under its influence. In its movements it is very sluggish, like the tortoise. It assumes a [10] greenish hue in dying, and retains this hue after death. It resembles the lizard in the position of the gullet 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 [15] 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, something is found surrounding the eye, that [20] gleams through like a thin ring of copper. Membranes extend pretty well over its entire frame, numerous and strong, and surpassing those found in any other animal. After being cut open along its entire length it continues to breathe for a [25] 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 · Birds also in some parts resemble the above-mentioned animals; that is [30] 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; but it bends them backward as quadrupeds do, as was noticed previously. It has neither hands nor front feet, but wings which mark it off from other animals. Its [504a1] haunch-bone is long, like a thigh, and is attached to the body as far as the middle of the belly; so that when viewed separately it looks like a thigh, while a real thigh is a separate structure extending to the shin. Of all birds those that have crooked talons [5] have the biggest thighs and the strongest breasts. All birds are furnished with many claws, and all have the toes separated more or less; for in the greater part the toes are distinct from one another, and the swimming birds, although they are web-footed, have still their claws fully articulated and separated from one another. Birds that fly high are in all cases four toed; for 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, [10] 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 [15] four inches 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 [20] 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 birds close the eye by means of the [25] 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 have horny tessellations, as in the lizard and its congeners; for they all close the eye with the lower lid, but they do not blink like birds.
Further, birds have neither tessellations nor hair, but feathers; and the feathers [30] are invariably furnished with quills. They have no tail, but a rump with tailfeathers, 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 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 [504b1] 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 [5] 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. In some the crest sticks up, and is composed of [10] feathers only; but the crest of the cock is exceptional in kind, for it is not flesh but something like flesh.
13 · Of water animals the genus of fishes constitutes a single group apart from the rest, and including many diverse forms.
The fish has a head, a back, a belly, in the neighbourhood of which last are [15] placed the stomach and viscera; and behind it has a tail of continuous, undivided shape, but not in all cases alike. No fish has a neck, or any limb or testicles at all, within or without, or breasts. This is true not only of all non-viviparous animals: [20] viviparous animals are not in all cases provided with the organ, but only those which 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 neighborhood of the genitals. And this creature is not provided, like [25] 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 by some people.
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, [30] 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.
[505a1] 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 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 [5] case in all the dog-fish.
The fishing-frog has gills placed sideways, and covered not with a spiny cover, 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 other duplicate; and the last gill in the direction of the body is always simple. And, [10] 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, [15] 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 [20] 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 tessellations, nor, like birds, with feathers; [25] 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 except 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 [30] devoid of the organ altogether. The mouth in some cases is wide-stretched, as it is with some viviparous quadrupeds. . . .4
As to the sense-organs, except for eyes fish have none that are apparent—neither the organ itself nor its passages—either for hearing or for smelling; but all fishes are furnished with eyes, and the eyes devoid of lids, though the eyes are not [505b1] hard.
Fishes without exception are supplied with blood. Some of them are oviparous, and some viviparous; scaly fish are invariably oviparous, but the Selachia are all viviparous with the exception of the fishing-frog.
14 · Of blooded animals there now remains the serpent genus. This genus is [5] 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 they differ in colour; [10] these animals are not found in very deep water. Serpents, like fish, are devoid of feet.
There are also sea-millipedes resembling in shape their land congers, 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 [15] 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 ‘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 [20] 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.5
So much, then for the external parts of blooded animals, as regards their numbers, their properties, and their relative diversities.
15 · As for the properties of the internal parts, these we must first discuss in [25] 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 are the oviparous and viviparous quadrupeds, birds, fishes, cetaceans,6 and all the others that come under no general designation by reason of [30] their being no genus but a simple species covering the individual cases, e.g. man.7
All viviparous quadrupeds, then, are furnished with a gullet and a windpipe, situated as in man; the same statement is applicable to oviparous quadrupeds and to [506a1] 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 a gullet, with the windpipe and gullet not admitting of diversity in situation but admitting of diversity in properties, and with the lung [5] 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 heart8 there is an exceptional phenomenon observable in oxen. For there is one species of ox where, though not in all cases, a bone is found inside [10] the heart. And the horse’s heart also has a bone inside it.9
They 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 [15] 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; and the aegocephalus is devoid of the organ altogether. With oviparous quadrupeds the case is much the same; that is to say, they also have the spleen exceedingly minute, as the tortoise, [20] the freshwater tortoise, the toad, the lizard, the crocodile, and the frog.
Some animals have a gallbladder 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 [25] colour, though it is not so completely fluid, and the organ internally resembles a spleen.
However, all deer 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 [30] the largest grubs; they grow altogether in a cluster, and they are usually about twenty in number.10
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 [506b1] exceptionally fat. With the elephant also the liver is unfurnished with a gallbladder, 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 [5] 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 angel-fish, the smooth skate, the torpedo, and the lanky fishes, the eel, the pipe-fish, and the hammer-headed shark. The callionymus, also, has the gall-bladder close to the [10] 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; [15] 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 genus 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 [20] 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 · Again, all viviparous quadrupeds are furnished with kidneys and a [25] bladder. Of the ovipara that are not quadrupedal there is no instance 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 [30] parts.]11
17 · 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, [507a1] 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 the apex is attached to a tube just where the [5] 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 a gullet, as the conger and the eel; and in these [10] 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 [15] also a species of hare in what is named the Fig district, near Lake Bolbe, and elsewhere, which might be taken to have two livers owing to the length of the connecting ducts, similar to the structure in the lung of birds.
[20] The spleen in all cases is by nature 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 monstrosities.
In all animals the wind-pipe extends to the lung, and the manner how, we shall [25] discuss hereafter; and the gullet, in all that have the organ, extends through the diaphragm into the stomach. For, as has been observed, most fishes have no gullet, but the stomach is united directly with the mouth, so that in some cases when big [30] 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 food 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 furnished [35] with teeth in both jaws are furnished with four such chambers. These animals are those that are said to chew the cud. In these animals the gullet extends from the [507b1] mouth downwards along the lung, from the midriff to the big stomach; and this stomach is rough inside and partitioned. And connected with it near to the entry of the gullet is what from its appearance is termed the hair-net; for outside it is like the [5] stomach, but inside it resembles a knotted hair-net; and the hair-net is a great deal smaller than the stomach. Connected with this is the many-plies, rough inside and laminated, and of about the same size as the hair-net. Next after this comes what is [10] called the abomasum, larger and longer than the many-plies, furnished inside with numerous folds, large and smooth. After all this comes the gut.
Such is the stomach of those quadrupeds that are horned and do not have teeth in both jaws; and these animals differ one from another in the shape and size of the parts, and in the fact of the gullet reaching the stomach centrally in some cases and [15] sideways in others. Animals that are furnished equally with teeth in both jaws have one stomach; as man, the pig, the dog, the bear, the lion, the wolf. The stoat has all its internal organs similar to the wolf’s.
All these, then have a single stomach, and after that the gut; but the stomach in some is comparatively large, as in the pig and bear, and the stomach of the pig [20] has a few smooth folds; others have a much smaller stomach, not much bigger than the gut, as the lion, the dog, and man. In the other animals the shape of the stomach varies in the direction of one or other of those already mentioned; that is, the stomach in some animals resembles that of the pig; in others that of the dog, alike [25] with the larger animals and the smaller ones. In all these animals diversities occur in regard to the size, the shape, the thickness or the thinness of the stomach, and also in regard to the place where the gullet opens into it.12
There is also a difference in the nature of the gut of the two groups of animals above mentioned (those which have teeth in both jaws and those which do not) in size, in thickness, and in foldings. [30]
The intestines in those animals which do not have teeth in both jaws are in all cases the larger, for the animals themselves are larger than those in the other category; for few of them are small, and no single one of the horned animals is very small. And some possess appendages to the gut, but no animal that does not have teeth in both jaws has a straight gut.
The elephant has a constricted gut, so that the animal appears to have four [35] stomachs; in it the food is found, but there is no distinct and separate receptacle. Its viscera resemble those of the pig, only that the liver is four times the size of that of [508a1] the ox, and the other viscera in like proportion, while the spleen is comparatively small.
Much the same may be said of the stomach and the gut in oviparous quadrupeds, as in the land tortoise, the turtle, the lizard, both crocodiles, and in [5] fact, in all animals of the like kind; that is to say, their stomach is one and simple, resembling in some cases that of the pig and in other cases that of the dog.
The serpent genus is similar and in almost all respects furnished similarly to the lizards among oviparous land animals, if one were to increase their length and [10] remove their feet. That is to say, the serpent is coated with the tessellations, and resembles the lizard in its back and belly; but it has no testicles, but, like fishes, has two ducts converging into one, and an ovary long and bifurcate. The rest of its internal organs are identical with those of the lizard, except that, owing to the [15] narrowness and length of the animal, the viscera are correspondingly narrow and elongated, so that they are apt to escape recognition from the similarities in shape. Thus, the windpipe of the creature is exceptionally long, and the gullet is longer still, and the windpipe commences so close to the mouth that the tongue appears to [20] be underneath it; and the windpipe seems to project over the tongue, owing to the fact that the tongue draws back into a sheath and does not remain in its place as in other animals. The tongue, moreover, is thin and long and black, and can be protruded to a great distance. And both serpents and lizards have this altogether exceptional property in the tongue, that it is forked at the end, and this property is [25] the more marked in the serpent, for the tips of its tongue are as thin as hairs. The seal, also, has a split tongue.
The stomach of the serpent is more like a more spacious gut, resembling the stomach of the dog; then comes the gut, long, narrow, and single to the end. The [30] heart is situated close to the pharynx, small and kidney-shaped; and for this reason the organ might in some cases appear not to have the pointed end turned towards the breast. Then comes the lung, single, and articulated with a fibrous passage, very long, and quite detached from the heart. The liver is long and simple; the spleen is short and round: as in the case in both respects with the lizard. Its gall resembles that of the fish; the water-snakes have it beside the liver, and the other snakes have [508b1] it usually beside the gut. These creatures are all saw-toothed. Their ribs are as numerous as the days of the month; in other words, they are thirty in number.
Some affirm that the same phenomenon is observable with serpents as with [5] swallow-chicks: they say that if you prick out a serpent’s eyes they will grow again. And further, the tails of lizards and of serpents, if they be cut off, will grow again.13
With fishes the properties of the gut and stomach are similar; that is, they have [10] a stomach single and simple, but variable in shape. For in some cases the stomach is gut-shaped,14 as with the scarus—which appears to be the only fish that chews the cud. And the whole length of the gut is simple, and if it has a reduplication it loosens out again into a simple form.
An exceptional property in fishes and in birds for the most part is the being [15] furnished with gut-appendages. Birds have them low down and few in number. Fishes have them high up about the stomach, and sometimes numerous, as in the goby, the burbot,15 the perch, the scorpaena, the citharus, the red mullet, and the sparus; the grey mullet has several of them on one side of the belly, and on the other [20] side only one. Some fish possess these appendages but only in small numbers, as the hepatus and the glaucus; and they are few also in the dorado. These fishes differ also from one another, for in the dorado one individual has many and another few. Some fishes are entirely without the part, as the majority of the selachians. As for all the rest, some of them have a few and some a great many. And in all fish the [25] gut-appendages are found close up to the stomach.
In regard to their internal parts birds differ from other animals and from one another. Some birds, for instance, have a crop in front of the stomach, as the cock, the cushat, the pigeon, and the partridge; and the crop consists of a large hollow [30] skin, into which the food first enters and where it lies undigested. Just where the crop leaves the gullet it is somewhat narrow; by and by it broadens out but where it communicates with the stomach it narrows down again. The stomach in most birds is fleshy and hard, and inside is a strong skin which comes away from the fleshy part. Other birds have no crop, but instead of it a gullet wide and roomy, either all [509a1] the way or in the part leading to the stomach, as with the daw, the raven, and the carrion-crow. The quail also has the gullet widened out at the lower extremity, and in the aegocephalus and the owl the organ is slightly broader at the bottom. The duck, the goose, the gull, the catarrhactes, and the great bustard have the gullet [5] wide and roomy from one end to the other, and the same applies to a great many other birds. In some birds there is a portion of the stomach that resembles a crop, as in the kestrel. In the case of small birds like the swallow and the sparrow neither the gullet nor the crop is wide, but the stomach is long. Some few have neither a crop [10] nor a dilated gullet, but the latter is exceedingly long, as in long-necked birds, such as the porphyrio; and in the case of all these birds the excrement is unusually moist. The quail is exceptional in regard to these organs, as compared with other birds; for [15] it has a crop, and at the same time its gullet is wide and spacious in front of the stomach, and the crop is at some distance, relatively to its size, from the gullet at that part.
Further, in most birds, the gut is thin, and simple, when loosened out. The gut-appendages in birds, as has been observed, are few in number, and are not situated high up, as in fishes, but low down towards the extremity of the gut. Not all [20] birds have them, but most do such as the cock, the partridge, the duck, the night-raven, the localus,16 the ascalaphus, the goose, the swan, the great bustard, and the owl. Some of the little birds also have these appendages, but very small ones, as in the sparrow.
1 · Now that we have stated the magnitudes, the properties, and the relative differences of the other internal organs, it remains for us to treat of the organs that contribute to generation. These organs in the female are in all cases internal; in the [30] male they present numerous diversities.
In the blooded animals some males are altogether devoid of testicles, and some have the organ but situated internally; and of those males that have the organ internally situated, some have it close to the loin in the neighbourhood of the kidney [509b1] and others close to the belly. Other males have the organ situated externally. In the case of these last, the penis is in some cases attached to the belly, whilst in others it is loosely suspended, as is the case also with the testicles; and, in the cases where the penis is attached to the belly, the attachment varies accordingly as the animal urinates forwards or backwards.
No fish is furnished with testicles, nor any other creature that has gills, nor any serpent whatever: nor, in short, any animal devoid of feet, save such only as are [5] viviparous within themselves. Birds are furnished with testicles, but these are internally situated, close to the loin. The case is similar with oviparous quadrupeds, such as the lizard, the tortoise and the crocodile; and among the viviparous animals this peculiarity is found in the hedgehog. Others among those creatures that have the organ internally situated have it close to the belly, as in the case with the dolphin [10] amongst animals devoid of feet, and with the elephant among viviparous quadrupeds. In other cases these organs are externally conspicuous.
We have already alluded to the diversities observed in the attachment of these organs to the belly and the adjacent region: in some cases the testicles are connected closely at the back and do not hang free, as in the pig, and in others they are freely suspended, as in man. [15]
Fishes, then, are devoid of testicles, as has been stated, and serpents also. They are furnished, however, with two ducts connected with the midriff and running on to either side of the backbone, coalescing into a single duct above the outlet of the residuum, and by ‘above’ the outlet I mean the region near to the spine. These ducts [20] in the rutting season get filled with the genital fluid, and, if the ducts be squeezed, the sperm oozes out white in colour. As to the differences observed in male fishes of diverse species, the reader should consult the Anatomies, and the subject will be hereafter more accurately discussed when we describe the specific character in each case.
[25] The males of oviparous animals, whether biped or quadruped, are in all cases furnished with testicles close to the loin underneath the midriff. With some animals the organ is whitish, in others somewhat of a sallow hue; in all cases it is enveloped with minute and delicate veins. From each of the two testicles extends a duct, and, as in the case of fishes, the two ducts coalesce into one above the outlet of the [30] residuum. This constitutes the penis, which in the case of small ovipara is inconspicuous; but in the case of the larger ovipara, as in the goose and the like, the organ becomes quite visible just after copulation.
The ducts both in fishes and in these animals are attached to the loin under the stomach between the gut and the great vein, from which ducts extend, one to each of [510a1] the two testicles. And just as with fishes the genital fluid is found in the ducts, and the ducts become plainly visible at the rutting season and in some instances become invisible after the season is passed, so also is it with the testicles of birds; before copulation the organ is small in some birds and quite invisible in others, but during [5] copulation the organ is greatly enlarged. This phenomenon is remarkably illustrated in the ring-dove and the partridge, so much so that some people are actually of opinion that these birds are devoid of testicles in the winter-time.
Of male animals that have their testicles placed frontwards, some have them inside, close to the belly, as the dolphin; some have them outside, exposed to view, close to the lower extremity of the belly. These animals resemble one another thus [10] far in respect to this organ; but they differ from one another in the fact, that some of them have their testicles situated separately by themselves, while others, which have the organ situated externally, have them enveloped in what is termed the scrotum.1
In all viviparous animals furnished with feet the following properties are observed in the testicles themselves. From the aorta there extend vein-like ducts to [15] the head of each of the testicles, and another two from the kidneys; these two are supplied with blood, while the two from the aorta are devoid of it. From the head of the testicle alongside of the testicle itself is a duct, thicker and more sinewy that the others, that bends back again at the end of the testicle to its head; and from the head [20] of each of the two testicles the two ducts extend until they coalesce in front at the penis. The duct that bends back again and that which is in contact with the testicle are enveloped in one and the same membrane, so that, until you draw aside the membrane, they seem to be a single duct. Further, the duct in contact with the [25] testicle has its moist content qualified by blood, but to a comparatively lesser extent than in the case of the ducts higher up which are connected with the aorta;2 in the ducts that bend back towards the tube of the penis, the liquid is white-coloured. There also runs a duct from the bladder, opening into the upper part of the tube, around which lies, sheath-wise, what is called the penis.
[30] All this may be studied by the light of the accompanying diagram; wherein the letter A marks the starting-point of the ducts that extend from the aorta; the letters KK mark the heads of the testicles and the ducts descending to them; the ducts extending from these along the testicles are marked ΩΩ the ducts turning back, in which is the white fluid, are marked BB; the penis Δ; the bladder E; and the testicles ΨΨ.
If the testicles themselves are cut off or removed, the ducts draw upwards by [510b1] contraction. Moreover, when male animals are young, people sometimes destroy the testicles by rubbing; sometimes they castrate them at a later period. And I may here add, that a bull has been known to serve a cow immediately after castration, and actually to impregnate her.
So much then for the properties of testicles in animals. [5]
In animals furnished with a womb, the womb is not in all cases the same in form or endowed with the same properties, but both in the vivipara and the ovipara great diversities present themselves. In all creatures that have the womb close to the genitals, the womb is forked and one fork lies to the right-hand side and the other to [10] the left; its commencement, however, is single, and so is the orifice, resembling in the case of the most numerous and largest animals a tube composed of much flesh and gristle. Of these parts one is termed the hystera or delphys, whence is derived ἀδελφός, and the other part, the tube or orifice, is termed metra. In all biped or [15] quadruped vivipara the womb is in all cases below the midriff, as in man, the dog, the pig, the horse, and the ox; the same is the case also in all horned animals. At the extremity of the so-called horns, the wombs of most animals have a convolution.
In the case of those ovipara that lay eggs externally, the wombs are not in all [20] cases similarly situated. Thus the wombs of birds are close to the midriff, and the wombs of fishes down below, just like the wombs of biped and quadruped vivipara, only that, in the case of the fish, the wombs are delicately formed, membranous, and elongated; so much so that in extremely small fish, each of the two bifurcated parts [25] looks like a single egg, and those fishes whose egg is described as crumbling would appear to have inside them a pair of eggs, whereas in reality each of the two sides consists not of one but of many eggs, and this accounts for their breaking up into so many particles.
The womb of birds has the lower and tubular portion fleshy and firm, and the part close to the midriff membranous and exceedingly fine: so fine that the eggs might seem to be outside the womb altogether. In the larger birds the membrane is [30] more distinctly visible, and, if inflated through the tube, lifts and swells out; in the smaller birds all these parts are more indistinct.
The properties of the womb are similar in oviparous quadrupeds, as the tortoise, the lizard, the frog and the like; for the tube below is single and fleshy, and [511a1] the cleft portion with the eggs is at the top close to the midriff. With animals devoid of feet that are internally oviparous and viviparous externally, as is the case with the dogfish and the other so-called Selachians (and by this title we designate such [5] creatures destitute of feet and furnished with gills as are viviparous), with these animals the womb is bifurcate, and beginning down below3 it extends as far as the midriff, as in the case of birds. There is4 also a narrow part between the two forks running up as far as the midriff,5 and the eggs are engendered here and6 above at the [10] origin of the midriff; afterwards they pass into the wider space and turn from eggs into young animals. However, the differences in respect to the wombs of these fishes as compared with one another and with fishes in general, would be more accurately studied in their various forms in the Anatomies.
The members of the serpent genus also present divergencies either when [15] compared with the above-mentioned creatures or with one another. Serpents as a rule are oviparous, the viper being the only viviparous member of the genus though it is first internally oviparous; and owing to this peculiarity the properties of the womb in the viper are similar to those of the womb in the selachians. The womb of the serpent is long, in keeping with the body, and starting below from a single duct [20] extends continuously on both sides of the spine, so as to give the impression of thus being a separate duct on each side of the spine, until it reaches the midriff, where the eggs are engendered in a row; and these eggs are laid not one by one, but all strung together. [And all animals that are viviparous both internally and externally have the womb situated above the stomach, and all the ovipara underneath, near to [25] the loin. Animals that are viviparous externally and internally oviparous present an intermediate arrangement; for the underneath portion of the womb, in which the eggs are, is placed near to the loin, but the part about the orifice is above the gut.]7
Further, there is the following diversity observable in wombs as compared with one another: namely that the females of horned animals which do not have teeth in [30] both jaws are furnished with cotyledons in the womb when they are pregnant, and such is the case, among animals with teeth in both jaws, with the hare, the mouse, and the bat; whereas all other animals that have teeth in both jaws, and are viviparous and furnished with feet, have the womb quite smooth, and in their case the attachment of the embryo is to the womb itself and not to any cotyledon.
The parts, then, in animals that are not uniform, both parts external and parts internal, have the properties above assigned to them.
[511b1] 2 · In sanguineous animals the uniform part most universally found is the blood, and its habitat the vein; next in degree of universality, their analogues, lymph [5] and fibre, and, that which chiefly constitutes the body of animals, flesh and whatsoever in the several parts is analogous to flesh; then bone, and parts that are analogous to bone, as fish-bone and gristle; and then, again, skin, membrane, sinew, hair, nails, and whatever corresponds to these; and, furthermore, fat, suet, and the [10] excretions—dung, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.
Now, as the nature of blood and the nature of the veins have all the appearance of being fundamental, we must discuss their properties first of all, and all the more as some previous writers have treated them very unsatisfactorily. And the cause of the ignorance is the extreme difficulty experienced in the way of observation. For in [15] the dead bodies of animals the nature of the chief veins is undiscoverable, owing to the fact that they in particular collapse at once when the blood leaves them; for the blood pours out of them in a stream, like liquid out of a vessel, since there is no blood separately situated by itself, except a little in the heart, but it is all lodged in the veins. In living animals it is impossible to inspect these parts, for of their very nature [20] they are internal. For this reason those who have carried on their investigations on dead and dissected bodies have failed to discover the chief sources of the veins, while those who have narrowly inspected bodies of living men reduced to extreme attenuation have arrived at conclusions regarding the origin of the veins from the manifestations then visible externally. Syennesis, the physician of Cyprus, writes as follows:— [25]
‘The big veins run thus:—from the eye, across the eyebrow, along the back, past the lung, in under the breasts; one from right to left, and the other from left to right; that from the left, through the liver to the kidney and the testicle, that from the right, to the spleen and kidney and testicle, and thence to the penis’.
Diogenes of Apollonia writes thus:— [30]
‘The veins in man are as follows:—There are two veins pre-eminent in magnitude. These extend through the belly along the backbone, one to right, one to left; either one to the leg on its own side, and upwards to the head, past the collar bones, through the throat. From these, veins extend all over the body, from that on [512a1] the right hand to the right side and from that on the left hand to the left side; the most important ones, two in number, to the heart in the region of the backbone; others a little higher up through the chest in underneath the armpit, each to the hand on its own side, one being termed the splenetic, and the other the hepatitic. [5] Each of the pair splits at its extremity; the one branches in the direction of the thumb and the other in the direction of the palm; and from these run off a number of minute veins branching off to the fingers and to all parts of the hand. Other veins, more minute, extend from the main veins; from that on the right towards the liver, [10] from that on the left towards the spleen and the kidneys. The veins that run to the legs split at the juncture of the legs with the trunk and extend right down the thigh. The largest of these goes down the thigh at the back of it, and can be discerned as a big one; the second one runs inside the thigh, not quite as big as the one just [15] mentioned. After this they pass on along the knee to the shin and the foot, like those which lead towards the hands8 and arrive at the sole of the foot, and from thence continue to the toes. Moreover, many delicate veins separate off from the great veins towards the stomach and the ribs. [20]
‘The veins that run through the throat to the head can be discerned in the neck as large ones; and from each one of the two, where it terminates, there branch off a number of veins to the head those from the right side towards the left, and those from the left side towards the right; and the two veins terminate near to the ears. There is another vein in the neck running along the big vein on either side, slightly [25] less in size than it, and with these the greater part of the veins in the head are connected. They run through the throat inside; and from either one of the two there extend veins in underneath the shoulder blade and towards the hands; and these appear alongside the splenetic and hepatitic veins as another pair of veins smaller in [30] size. When there is a pain near the surface of the body, the physician lances these two latter veins; but when the pain is in the region of the stomach he lances the splenetic and hepatitic veins. And from these, other veins depart to run below the breasts.
[512b1] ‘There is also another pair running on each side through the spinal marrow to the testicles, thin and delicate. There is, further, a pair running beneath the skin through the flesh to the kidneys, and these with men terminate at the testicle, and with women at the womb. These are termed the spermatic veins.9 The veins that [5] leave the stomach are comparatively broad just as they leave; but they become thinner, until they change over from right to left and from left to right.
‘Blood is thickest when it is imbibed by the fleshy parts; when it is transmitted [10] to the regions above-mentioned, it becomes thin, warm, and frothy’.
3 · Such are the accounts given by Syennesis and Diogenes. Polybus writes to the following effect:—
‘There are four pairs of veins. The first extends from the back of the head, [15] through the neck on the outside, past the backbone on either side, until it reaches the loins and passes on to the legs, after which it goes on through the shins to the outer side of the ankles and on to the feet. And it is on this account that surgeons, for pains in the back and loin, bleed in the ham and in the outer side of the ankle. [20] Another pair of veins runs from the head, past the ears, through the neck: they are termed the jugular veins. This pair goes on inside along the backbone, past the muscles of the loins, on to the testicles, and onwards to the thighs, and through the inside of the hams and through the shins down to the inside of the ankles and to the [25] feet; and for this reason, surgeons, for pains in the muscles of the loins and in the testicles, bleed on the hams and the inner side of the ankles. The third pair extends from the temples, through the neck, in underneath the shoulder-blades, into the lung; the one running from right to left in underneath the breast and on to the spleen [30] and the kidney; the other from left to right from the lung in underneath the breast and into the liver and the kidney; and both terminate in the rectum. The fourth pair [513a1] extend from the front part of the head and the eyes in underneath the neck and the collar-bones; from thence they stretch on through the upper part of the upper arms to the elbows and then through the fore-arms on to the wrists and the jointings of [5] the fingers, and also through the lower part of the upper-arms to the armpits, and so on, keeping above the ribs, until one of the pair reaches the spleen and the other reaches the liver; and after this they both pass over the stomach and terminate at the penis’.
That, pretty well, is what others have said. There are also some writers on [10] nature who have not dealt in such precise terms with the veins, but who all alike agree in assigning the head and the brain as the starting-point of the veins. And in this opinion they are mistaken.
The investigation of such a subject, as has been remarked, is one fraught with difficulties; but, if any one is keenly interested in the matter, he will get an adequate grasp of it only if he studies strangled animals which have been previously emaciated. [15]
The nature of the veins is as follows. There are two veins in the thorax by the backbone, and lying to its inner side; and of these two the larger one is situated to the front, and the lesser one is to the rear of it; and the larger is situated rather to the right-hand side of the body, and the lesser one to the left; and by some this vein is termed the aorta, from the fact that even in dead bodies they have observed the [20] sinewy part of it. These have their origins in the heart, for they traverse the other viscera, in whatever direction they happen to run, without in any way losing their distinctive characteristic as veins, whereas the heart is as it were a part of them (and that too more in respect to the frontward and larger one of the two), owing to the [25] fact that these two veins are above and below, with the heart lying midway.
The heart in all animals has cavities inside it. In the case of the very small animals the largest of the chambers is scarcely discernible; the second larger is scarcely discernible in animals of medium size; but in the largest animals all three [30] chambers are distinctly seen. In the heart then (with its pointed end directed frontwards, as has been observed) the largest of the three chambers is on the right-hand side and highest up; the least one is on the left-hand side; and the medium-sized one lies between the other two; and the largest one of the three chambers is a great deal larger than either of the two others. All three, however, are [35] connected with passages leading in the direction of the lung, but all these communications are indistinctly discernible by reason of their minuteness, except [513b1] one.
The great vein, then, is attached to the biggest of the three chambers, the one that lies uppermost and on the right-hand side; it then extends right through the chamber, coming out as a vein again; just as though the cavity were a part of the vessel, in which the blood forms a lake. The aorta is attached to the middle [5] chamber; but the arrangement is dissimilar, and it is connected with it by a much narrower pipe.
The vein then passes through the heart and a passage runs from the heart into the aorta. The great vein looks as though made of membrane or skin, while the aorta is narrower than it, and is very sinewy; and as it stretches away to the head and to [10] the lower parts it becomes exceedingly narrow and sinewy.
First of all, then, upwards from the heart there stretches a part of the great vein towards the lung and the attachment of the aorta, a large undivided vessel. But there split off from it two parts; one towards the lung and the other towards the [15] backbone and the last vertebra of the neck.
The vein that extends to the lung, as the lung itself is duplicate, divides at first into two; and then extends along by every pipe and every perforation, greater along the greater ones, lesser along the less, so that it is impossible to discern a single part [20] wherein there is not both perforation and vein; for the extremities are indistinguishable from their minuteness, and the whole lung appears to be filled with blood. The passages from the vein lie above the tubes that extend from the windpipe. And the vein which extends to the vertebra of the neck and the backbone, stretches back [25] again along the backbone; as Homer represents in the lines:—
which runs along the back right to the neck.10
[30] From this vessel there extend small veins past each rib and each vertebra; and at the vertebra above the kidneys the vessel bifurcates. And in the above way the parts branch off from the great blood-vessel.
But up above all these, from that part which is connected with the heart, the entire vein branches off in two directions. The one set extend to the sides and to the collar-bones, and then pass on through the armpits, in men to the arms, in [514a1] quadrupeds to the forelegs, in birds to the wings, and in fishes to the upper fins. The origins of these veins, where they first branch off, are called the jugular veins; and [5] where they branch off to the neck they run alongside the windpipe; and, occasionally, if these veins are pressed externally, men, though not actually choked, become insensible, shut their eyes, and fall to the ground. Extending in the way described and keeping the windpipe in between them, they pass on until they reach the ears at [10] the junction of the lower jaw with the skull. Hence again they branch off into four veins, of which one bends back and descends through the neck and the shoulder, and meets the previous branching off of the vein at the bend of the arm, while the rest of it terminates at the hand and fingers.
[15] Each vein of the other pair stretches from the region of the ear to the brain, and branches off in a number of fine and delicate veins into the so-called meninx which surrounds the brain. The brain itself in all animals is destitute of blood, and no vein, [20] great or small terminates there. But of the remaining veins that branch off from the last-mentioned vein some encircle the head, others end their courses in the organs of sense and at the teeth in exceedingly fine small veins.
4 · And in like manner the parts of the lesser vein, designated the aorta, [25] branch off, accompanying the branches from the big vein; only that, in regard to the aorta, the passages are less in size, and the branches very considerably less than are those of the great vein. So much for the veins as observed in the regions above the heart.
[30] The part of the great vein that lies underneath the heart extends, freely suspended, right through the midriff, and is united both to the aorta and the backbone by slack membranous passages. From it one vein, short and wide, extends through the liver, and from it a number of minute veins branch off into the liver and [35] disappear. From the vein that passes through the liver two branches separate off, of which one terminates in the diaphragm or so-called midriff, and the other runs up [514b1] again through the armpit into the right arm and unites with the other veins at the inside of the bend of the arm; and that is why when the surgeon opens this vein, the patient is relieved of certain pains in the liver; and from the left-hand side of it there extends a short but thick vein to the spleen and the little veins branching off it [5] disappear in that organ. Another part branches off from the left-hand side of the great vein, and ascends in the same way into the left arm; only that in the one case it is the vein that traverses the liver, while in this case it is distinct from the vein that runs into the spleen.
Again, other veins branch off from the big vein; one to the omentum, and [10] another to the pancreas, from which vein run a number of veins through the mesentery. All these veins terminate in a single large vein, which extends along the entire gut and stomach to the oesophagus; about these parts many veins branch off. [15]
As far as the kidneys, each of the two remaining undivided, the aorta and the big vein extend; and here they get more closely attached to the backbone, and branch off, each of the two, into a Λ shape, and the big vein gets to the rear of the aorta. But the chief attachment of the aorta to the backbone takes place in the [20] region of the heart; and the attachment is effected by means of minute and sinewy vessels. The aorta, just as it draws off from the heart, is a tube of considerable volume, but, as it advances in its course, it gets narrower and more sinewy. And from the aorta there extend veins to the mesentery just like the veins from the big vein, only that they are considerably less in magnitude; they are, indeed, narrow and [25] fibrous, and they end in delicate and complex fibre-like veinlets.
There is no vessel that runs from the aorta into the liver or the spleen.
From each of the two great blood-vessels there extend branches to each of the two flanks, and both branches fasten on to the bone. Vessels also extend to the [30] kidneys from the big vein and the aorta; only that they do not open into the cavity but into the body of the kidney. From the aorta run two other ducts to the bladder, firm and continuous; and there are other ducts from the hollow of the kidneys, in no way communicating with the big vein. From the centre of each of the two kidneys [35] springs a hollow sinewy vein, running along the backbone right through the narrow parts; by and by each of the two veins first disappears in its own flank, and soon [515a1] afterwards reappears stretching in the direction of the flank.11 The extremities of these attach to the bladder,12 and also in the male to the penis and in the female to the womb. From the big vein no vein extends to the womb, but the organ is [5] connected with the aorta by veins numerous and closely packed.
Furthermore, from the aorta and the great vein at the points of branching there come other veins. Some of these run first to the groins—large hollow veins—and then pass on down through the legs and terminate in the feet and toes. And, again, another set run through the groins and the thighs, from right to left and [10] from left to right, and unite in the hams with the other veins.
In the above description we have thrown light upon the course of the veins and their points of departure.
In all sanguineous animals the case stands as here set forth in regard to the points of departure and the chief veins. But the description does not hold equally [15] good for the entire vein-system in all these animals. For, in point of fact, the parts are not identically situated in them all, nor do all animals have the same parts. Furthermore, things are not equally clear in all cases—they are clearest in the case of animals of considerable magnitude and supplied abundantly with blood. For in [20] little animals and those scantily supplied with blood, either from natural causes or from a prevalence of fat in the body, it is less easy to discover the arrangement; for in the latter of these creatures the passages get clogged, like water-channels choked [25] with mud; and the others have a few minute fibres instead of veins. But in all cases the big vein is plainly discernible, even in creatures of insignificant size.
5 · The sinews of animals are arranged as follows. For these also the point of origin is the heart; for the heart has sinews within itself in the largest of its three [30] chambers, and the aorta is a sinew-like vein; in fact, at its extremity it is actually a sinew, for it is there no longer hollow, and is stretched like the sinews where they terminate at the jointings of the bones. Nevertheless, the sinews do not proceed in unbroken sequence from one point of origin, as do the blood-vessels.
For the veins have the shape of the entire body, like a sketch of a mannikin; in [515b1] such a way that the whole frame seems to be filled up with little veins in very attenuated subjects—for the space occupied by flesh in fat individuals is filled with little veins in thin ones—whereas the sinews are distributed about the joints and the [5] flexures of the bones. Now, if the sinews were continuous, this continuity would be discernible in attenuated specimens.
In the ham, or the part which controls the act of jumping, is an important system of sinews; and another sinew, a double one, is that called the tendon, and others are those brought into play when a great effort of physical strength is required; that is to say, the epitonos and the shoulder-sinews. Other sinews, devoid [10] of specific designation, are situated in the region of the flexures of the bones; for all the bones that are attached to one another are bound together by sinews, and a great quantity of sinews are placed in the neighbourhood of all the bones. But in the head there is no sinew; but the head is held together by the sutures of the bones.
[15] Sinew is fissile lengthwise, but crosswise it is not easily broken, but admits of a considerable amount of tension. Around the sinews a liquid mucus is developed, white and glutinous, and they are sustained by it and appear to be composed of it. Now, vein may be cauterized, but sinew, when cauterized, is completely destroyed; [20] and, if sinews be cut asunder, the severed parts will not again cohere. A feeling of numbness is incidental only to parts of the frame where sinew is situated.
There is a very extensive system of sinews connected severally with the feet, the hands, the ribs, the shoulder-blades, the neck, and the arms.
All animals supplied with blood are furnished with sinews; but in the case of animals that have no flexures to their limbs, but are destitute of feet and hands, the [25] sinews are fine and inconspicuous; and so the sinews in the fish are chiefly discernible.
6 · Fibres are intermediate between sinew and vein. Some of them are supplied with fluid, the lymph; and they pass from sinew to vein and from vein to [30] sinew. There is another kind of fibre that is found in blood, but not in the blood of all animals alike. If this fibre be left in the blood, the blood will coagulate; if it be removed, the blood does not coagulate. While, however, this fibrous matter is found in the blood of the great majority of animals, it is not found in the blood of the deer, the roe, the antelope, and some other animals; and so the blood of these animals does not coagulate to the extent observed in the blood of other animals. The blood of the [516a1] deer coagulates to about the same extent as that of the hare: that is to say, the blood in either case coagulates, but not into a stiff substance, like the blood of ordinary animals, but only into a flaccid consistency like that of milk which is not subjected to the action of rennet. The blood of the antelope admits of a firmer consistency in [5] coagulation; for in this respect it resembles, or only comes a little short of, the blood of sheep. Such are the properties of vein, sinew, and fibrous tissue.
7 · The bones in animals are all connected with one single bone, and are continuous with one another, like the veins and there is no instance of a bone standing apart by itself.
In all animals furnished with bones, the backbone is the point of origin. The [10] spine is composed of vertebrae, and it extends from the head down to the loins. The vertebrae are all perforated, and, above, the bony portion of the head is connected with the topmost vertebrae, and is designated the skull. And the serrated lines on the skull are termed sutures. [15]
The skull is not formed alike in all animals. In some animals the skull consists of one single bone, as in the case of the dog; in others it is composite in structure, as in man; and in the human species the suture is circular in the female, while in the male it is made up of three separate sutures, uniting above in three-corner fashion; and instances have been known of a man’s skull being devoid of suture altogether. [20] The skull is composed not of four bones, but of six; two of these are in the region of the ears, small in comparison with the other four. From the skull extend the jaws, constituted of bone. [Animals in general move the lower jaw; the river-crocodile is [25] the only animal that moves the upper one.]13 In the jaws is the tooth-system; and the teeth are constituted of bone, and are partly perforated, partly not; and this is the only kind of bone which it is impossible to grave with a graving tool.
On the upper part of the course of the backbone14 are the collar-bones and the ribs. The chest rests on ribs; and these ribs meet together, whereas the others do not; [30] for no animal has bone in the region of the stomach. Then come the shoulder-bones, or blade-bones, and the arm-bones connected with these, and the bones in the hands connected with the bones of the arms. With animals that have forelegs, the bones of the foreleg resemble those of the arm in man.
At the lower end of the backbone, after the haunch-bone, comes the hip-socket; [35] then the leg-bones, those in the thighs and those in the shins, which are termed limb-bones, a part of which is the ankle, while a part of the same is the so-called [516b1] plectrum in those creatures that have an ankle;15 and connected with these bones are the bones in the feet.
Now, with all animals that are supplied with blood and furnished with feet, and are at the same time viviparous, the bones do not differ greatly one from another, but only in the way of relative hardness, softness, or magnitude. Again, in [5] one and the same animal certain bones are supplied with marrow, while others are destitute of it. Some animals might appear to have no marrow whatsoever in their bones—e.g. the lion—since they have marrow only in small amount, poor and thin, and in very few bones; for marrow is found in the thigh and arm-bones. The bones of [10] the lion are exceptionally hard; so hard, in fact, that if they are rubbed against one another they emit sparks like flint-stones. The dolphin has bones, and not fish-spine.
Of the other animals supplied with blood, some differ but little, as is the case [15] with birds; others have systems analogous, as fishes; for viviparous fishes, such as the Selachia, are gristle-spined, while the ovipara have a spine which corresponds to the backbone in quadrupeds. This exceptional property has been observed in fishes, that in some of them there are found delicate spines scattered here and there throughout the fleshy parts. The serpent is similarly constructed to the fish; in other [20] words, his backbone is spinous. With oviparous quadrupeds, the skeleton of the larger ones is more osseous; of the smaller ones, more spinous. But all sanguineous animals have a backbone of either one kind or other: that is, composed either of bone or of spine.
The other portions of the skeleton are found in some animals and not found in [25] others, but the presence or the absence of this and that part carries with it, as a matter of course, the presence or the absence of the bones. For animals that are destitute of arms and legs cannot be furnished with limb-bones; and in like manner with animals that have the same parts, but yet have them unlike in form; for in these animals the bones differ in the way of excess or defect, or in the way of analogy. So [30] much for the osseous systems in animals.
8 · Gristle is of the same nature as bone, but differs from it in the way of excess or defect. And just like bone, cartilage also, if cut, does not grow again. In [35] terrestrial viviparous sanguinea the gristle formations are unperforated, and there is no marrow in them as there is in bones; in the selachia, however—for they are [517a1] gristle-spined—there is found16 in region of the backbone, a gristle-like substance analogous to bone, and in this there is a liquid resembling marrow. In viviparous animals furnished with feet, gristle formations are found in the region of the ears, in [5] the nostrils, and around certain extremities of the bones.
9 · Furthermore, there are parts of other kinds, neither identical with, nor altogether diverse from, the parts above enumerated: such as nails, hooves, claws, and horns; and also, beaks, such as birds are furnished with—all in the several [10] animals that are furnished therewith. All these parts are flexible and fissile; but bone is neither flexible nor fissile, but frangible.
And the colours of horns and nails and claw and hoof follow the colour of the skin and the hair. For according as the skin of an animal is black, or white, or of [15] medium hue, so are the horns, the claws, or the hooves, as the case may be, of hue to match. And it is the same with nails. The teeth, however, follow after the bones. Thus in black men, such as the Aethiopians and the like, the teeth and bones are white, but the nails are black, like the whole of the skin. [20]
Horns in general are hollow at their point of attachment to the bone which juts out from the head inside the horn, but they have a solid portion at the tip, and they are simple in structure. In the case of the stag alone of all animals the horns are solid throughout, and ramify into branches. And, whereas no other animal is known to shed its horns, the deer sheds its horns annually, unless it has been castrated; and [25] with regard to the effects of castration in animals we shall speak hereafter. Horns attach rather to the skin than to the bone; which will account for the fact that there are found in Phrygia and elsewhere cattle that can move their horns as freely as their ears.
Of animals furnished with nails—and all animals have nails that have toes, [30] and toes that have feet,17 except the elephant; and the elephant has toes undivided and slightly articulated, but has no nails whatsoever—of animals furnished with nails, some are straight-nailed, like man; others are crooked-nailed, as the lion [517b1] among animals that walk, and the eagle among animals that fly.
10 · The following are the properties of hair and of parts analogous to hair, and of skin. All viviparous animals furnished with feet have hair; all oviparous animals furnished with feet have horn-like tessellates; fishes, and fishes only, have [5] scales—that is, such oviparous fishes as have the crumbling egg. For the lanky fishes, the conger has no such egg, nor the muraena, and the eel has no egg at all.
The hair differs in the way of thickness and fineness, and of length, according to the locality of the part in which it is found, and according to the quality of skin on [10] which it grows. For, as a general rule, the thicker the hide, the harder and the thicker is the hair; and the hair is inclined to grow in abundance and to a great length in localities of the bodies hollow and moist, if the localities be fitted for the growth of hair at all. The facts are similar in the case of animals coated with scales or with tessellates. With soft-haired animals the hair gets harder with good feeding, [15] and with bristly animals it gets softer and scantier from the same cause. Hair differs in quality also according to the heat or coldness of the locality: just as the hair in man is hard in warm places and soft in cold ones. Again, straight hair is inclined to be soft, and curly hair to be bristly. [20]
11 · Hair is naturally fissile, and in this respect it differs in degree in diverse animals. In some animals the hair goes on gradually hardening into bristle until it no longer resembles hair but spine, as in the case of the hedgehog. And in like manner with the nails; for in some animals the nail differs as regards hardness in no [25] way from bone.
Of all animals man has the most delicate skin: that is, if we take into consideration his relative size. In the skin of all animals there is a mucous liquid, scanty in some animals and plentiful in others, as, for instance, in the hide of the ox; [30] for men manufacture glue out of it. (In some places glue is manufactured from fishes also.)18 The skin, when cut, is in itself devoid of sensation; and this is especially the case with the skin on the head, owing to there being no flesh between [518a1] it and the skull. And wherever the skin is quite by itself, if it be cut asunder, it does not grow together again, as is seen in the thin part of the jaw, in the prepuce, and the eyelid. In all animals the skin is one of the parts that extends continuous and unbroken, and it comes to a stop only where the natural ducts pour out their contents, and at the mouth and nails.
[5] All sanguineous animals, then, have skin; but not all such animals have hair, save only under the circumstances described above. The hair changes its colour as animals grow old, and in man it turns white. With animals, in general, the change takes place, but not very obviously except in the case of the horse. Hair turns grey from the point backwards to the roots. But, in the majority of cases, grey hairs are [10] white from the beginning; and this is a proof that greyness of hair does not, as some believe to be the case, imply withering; for no part is brought into existence in a withered condition.
In the eruptive malady called the white-sickness all the hairs get grey; and instances have been known where the hair became grey while the patients were ill of the malady, whereas the grey hairs shed off and black ones replaced them on their [15] recovery. [Hair is more apt to turn grey when it is kept covered than when exposed to the action of the outer air.]19 In men, the hair over the temples is the first to turn grey, and the hair in the front grows grey sooner than the hair at the back; and the hair on the pubes is the last to change colour.
Some hairs are congenital, others grow after the maturity of the animal; but [20] this occurs in man only. The congenital hairs are on the head, the eyelids, and the eyebrows; of the later growths the hairs on the pubes are the first to come, then those under the armpits, and, thirdly, those on the chin; for the regions where congenital growths and the subsequent growths are found are equal in number. The [25] hair on the head grows scanty and sheds out to a greater extent and sooner than all the rest. But this remark applies only to hair in front; for no man ever gets bald at the back of his head. Smoothness on the top of the head is termed baldness, but smoothness on the eyebrows is called anaphalanthiasis; and neither of these conditions of baldness supervenes in a man until he has entered upon sexual activity. [30] For no boy ever gets bald, no woman, and no castrated man. In fact, if a man be castrated before reaching puberty, the later growths of hair never come at all; and, if the operation take place subsequently, the after-growths, and these only, shed off, except that on the pubes.
Women do not grow hairs on the chin; except that a scanty beard grows on some women after the monthly periods have stopped; and a similar phenomenon is observed at times in priestesses in Caria, but these cases are looked upon as portentous with regard to coming events. The other after-growths are found in [518b1] women, but more scanty and sparse. Men and women are at times born incapable of the after-growths; and of them, those who are destitute even of the growth upon the pubes are constitutionally impotent.
Hair as a rule grows more or less in length as the wearer grows in age; chiefly [5] the hair on the head, then that in the beard, and fine hair grows longest of all. With some people as they grow old the eyebrows grow thicker, to such an extent that they have to be cut off; and this growth is owing to the fact that the eyebrows are situated at a conjuncture of bones, and these bones, as age comes on, draw apart and exude a gradual increase of moisture. The eyelashes do not grow in size, but they shed when [10] the wearer enters on sexual activity, and shed all the quicker as this activity is the more powerful; and these are the last hairs to grow grey.
Hairs if plucked out before maturity grow again; but they do not grow again if plucked out afterwards. Every hair is supplied with a mucous moisture at its root, and immediately after being plucked out it can lift light articles if it touch them with this mucus.
Animals that admit of diversity of colour in the hair admit of a similar [15] diversity to start with in the skin and in the cuticle of the tongue.
In some cases the upper lip and the chin is thickly covered with hair, and in other cases these parts are smooth and the cheeks are hairy; and smooth-chinned men are less inclined to baldness.
The hair is inclined to grow in certain diseases, especially in consumption, and [20] in old age, and after death; and under these circumstances the hair hardens, and the same phenomenon is observable in respect of the nails.
In the case of men of strong sexual passions the congenital hairs shed the sooner, while the hairs of the aftergrowths are the quicker to come. When men are [25] afflicted with varicose veins they are less inclined to take on baldness; and if they be bald when they become thus afflicted, some get their hair again.
If a hair be cut, it does not grow at the point of section; but it gets longer by growing upward from below. In fishes the scales grow harder and thicker, and when the animal gets emaciated or is growing old the scales grow harder. In quadrupeds [30] as they grow old the hair in some and the wool in others gets deeper but scantier in amount: and the hooves or claws get larger in size; and the same is the case with the beaks of birds. The claws also increase in size, as do also the nails.
12 · With regard to winged animals, such as birds, no creature is liable to [519a1] change of colour by reason of age, excepting the crane. The wings of this bird are ash-coloured at first, but as it grows old the wings get black. Again, owing to special climatic influences, as when unusual frost prevails, a change is sometimes observed to take place in birds whose plumage is of one uniform colour; thus, birds that have dark or black plumage turn white, as the raven, the sparrow, and the swallow; but [5] no case has been known of a change of colour from white to black. [Further, most birds change the colour of their plumage at different seasons of the year, so much so that a man ignorant of their habits might be mistaken as to their identity.]20
[10] Some animals change the colour of their hair with a change in their drinking-water, for the same species of animal is found white in one district and black in another. And in regard to the commerce of the sexes, water in many places is of such peculiar quality that rams, if they have intercourse with the female after drinking it, beget black lambs, as is the case with the water of the Psychrus, a river [15] in the district of Assyritis in the Chalcidic Peninsula, on the coast of Thrace; and in Antandria there are two rivers of which one makes the lambs white and the other black. The river Scamander also has the reputation of making lambs yellow, and that is the reason, they say, why Homer designates it the Yellow River instead of the Scamander.21
[20] Animals as a general rule have no hair on their internal surfaces, and, in regard to their extremities, they have hair on the upper, but not on the lower side.
The hare is the only animal to have hair inside its mouth and underneath its feet. Further, the moustache-whale22 instead of teeth has hairs in its mouth resembling pigs’ bristles.
[25] Hairs after being cut grow at the bottom but not at the top; if feathers be cut off, they grow neither at top nor bottom, but shed and fall out. Further, the bee’s wing will not grow again after being plucked off, nor will the wing of any creature that has undivided wings. Neither will the sting grow again if the bee lose it, but the creature will die of the loss.
[30] 13 · In all sanguineous animals membranes are found. And membrane resembles a thin close-textured skin, but its qualities are different, as it admits neither of cleavage nor of extension. Membrane envelops each one of the bones and each one of the viscera, both in the larger and the smaller animals; though in the [519b1] smaller animals the membranes are indiscernible from their extreme tenuity and minuteness. The largest of all the membranes are the two that surround the brain, and of these two the one that lines the bony skull is stronger and thicker than the one that envelops the brain; next in order of magnitude comes the membrane that [5] encloses the heart. If membrane be bared and cut asunder it will not grow together again, and the bone thus stripped of its membrane mortifies.
14 · The omentum is membrane. All sanguineous animals are furnished with this organ; but in some animals it is supplied with fat, and in others it is devoid of it. The omentum has both its starting-point and its attachment, with ambidental [10] vivipara, in the centre of the stomach, where the stomach has a kind of suture; in non-ambidental vivipara it has its starting-point and attachment in the chief of the stomachs.
15 · The bladder also is of the nature of membrane, but of membrane peculiar in kind, for it is extensile. The organ is not common to all animals, but, while it is found in all the vivipara, the tortoise is the only oviparous animal that is [15] furnished therewith. The bladder if cut asunder will not grow together again, unless the section be just at the commencement of the urethra: except indeed in very rare cases, for instances of healing have been known to occur. After death, the organ passes no liquid excretion; but in life it passes at times dry excretion also, which turns into stones in the case of sufferers from that malady. Indeed, instances have [20] been known of concretions in the bladder indistinguishable from cockle-shells.
Such are the properties, then, of vein, sinew and skin, of fibre and membrane, of hair, nail, claw and hoof, of horns, of teeth, of beak, of gristle, of bones, and of parts that are analogous to these. [25]
16 · Flesh, and that which is by nature akin to it in sanguineous animals, is in all cases situated in between the skin and the bone, or the substance analogous to bone; for just as spine is a counterpart of bone, so is the flesh-like substance to flesh, in the case of animals that have bones and spine. [30]
Flesh can be divided asunder in any direction, not lengthwise only as is the case with sinew and vein. When animals are subjected to emaciation the flesh disappears, and the creatures become a mass of veins and fibres; when they are over fed, fat takes the place of flesh. Where the flesh is abundant in an animal, its veins are somewhat small and the blood abnormally red; the viscera also and the stomach [520a1] are diminutive; whereas with animals whose veins are large the blood is somewhat black, the viscera and the stomach are large, and the flesh is somewhat scanty. And animals with small stomachs are disposed to take on flesh. [5]
17 · Again, fat and suet differ from one another. Suet is frangible in all directions and congeals if subjected to extreme cold, whereas fat can melt but cannot congeal; and soups made of the flesh of animals supplied with fat do not congeal, as is found with horse-flesh and pork; but soups made from the flesh of animals supplied with suet do coagulate, as is seen with mutton and goat’s flesh. [10] Further, fat and suet differ as to their localities; for fat is found between the skin and flesh, but suet is found only at the limit of the fleshy parts. Also, in animals supplied with fat the omentum is supplied with fat, and it is supplied with suet in animals supplied with suet. Moreover, ambidental animals are supplied with fat, and non-ambidentals with suet. [15]
Of the viscera the liver in some animals becomes fatty, as, among fishes, is the case with the selachia, by the melting of whose livers an oil is manufactured. The selachia themselves have no free fat at all in connexion with the flesh or with the stomach. The suet in fish is fatty, and does not congeal. All animals are furnished [20] with fat, either intermingled with their flesh, or apart. Such as have no free fat are less fat than others in stomach and omentum, as the eel; for it has only a scanty supply of suet about the omentum. Most animals take on fat in the belly, especially [25] such animals as are little in motion.
The brains of animals supplied with fat are oily, as in the pig; of animals supplied with suet, dry. But it is about the kidneys more than any other viscera that animals are inclined to take on fat; and the right kidney is always less supplied with [30] fat, and, be the two kidneys ever so fat, there is always a space devoid of fat in between the two. Animals supplied with suet are specially apt to have it about the kidneys, and especially the sheep; for this animal is apt to die from its kidneys being entirely enveloped. Fat about the kidney is induced by overfeeding, as is found at [520b1] Leontini in Sicily; and consequently in this district they defer driving out sheep to pasture until the day is well on, to reduce the amount they eat.
18 · The part around the pupil of the eye is fatty in all animals, and this part [5] resembles suet in all animals that possess such a part and that are not furnished with hard eyes.
Fat animals, whether male or female, are poor breeders. Animals are disposed to take on fat more when old than when young, and especially when they have attained their full breadth and their full length and are beginning to grow depth-ways.
[10] 19 · And now to proceed to the consideration of the blood. In sanguineous animals blood is the most universal and the most indispensable part; and it is not an acquired part, but it belongs to all animals that are not moribund. All blood is contained in a vascular system, to wit, the veins, and is found nowhere else, excepting in the heart. Blood is not sensitive to touch in any animal, any more than [15] the excretions of the stomach; and the case is similar with the brain and the marrow. When flesh is lacerated, blood exudes, if the animal be alive and unless the flesh be gangrened. Blood in a healthy condition is naturally sweet to the taste, and red in [20] colour; blood that deteriorates from natural decay or from disease is more or less black. Blood at its best, before it undergoes deterioration from either natural decay or disease, is neither very thick nor very thin. In the living animal it is always liquid and warm, but, on issuing from the body, it coagulates in all cases except in the case [25] of the deer, the roe, and the like animals; for, as a general rule, blood coagulates unless the fibres be extracted. Bull’s blood is the quickest to coagulate.
Animals that are internally and externally viviparous are more abundantly supplied with blood than the sanguineous ovipara. Animals that are in good condition, either from natural causes or from their health having been attended to, [30] have the blood neither too abundant—as it is in creatures that have recently taken a drink—nor again very scanty, as is the case with animals when exceedingly fat. For animals in this condition have pure blood, but very little of it, and the fatter an animal gets the less becomes its supply of blood; for whatsoever is fat is destitute of [521a1] blood.
A fat substance is incorruptible, but blood and all things containing it corrupt rapidly, and this property characterizes especially all parts connected with the bones. Blood is finest and purest in man; and thickest and blackest in the bull and [5] the ass, of all vivipara. In the lower and the higher parts of the body blood is thicker and blacker.
Blood palpitates in the veins of all animals alike all over their bodies, and blood is the only liquid that permeates the entire frames of living animals, without exception and at all times, as long as life lasts. Blood is developed first of all in the heart of animals before the body is differentiated as a whole. If blood be removed or [10] if it escape in any considerable quantity, animals fall into a faint; if it be removed in an exceedingly large quantity they die. If the blood get exceedingly liquid, animals fall sick; for the blood then turns into something like ichor, and gets so thin that it at times has been known to exude through the pores like sweat. In some cases blood, when issuing from the veins, does not coagulate at all, or only here and there. Whilst [15] animals are sleeping the blood is less abundantly supplied near the exterior surfaces, so that, if the sleeping creature be pricked with a pin, the blood does not issue as copiously. Blood is developed out of ichor by concoction, and fat in like manner out of blood. If the blood get diseased, haemorrhoids may ensue in the [20] nostril or at the anus, or the veins may become varicose. Blood, if it corrupt in the body, has a tendency to turn into pus, and pus may turn into a solid concretion.
Blood in the female differs from that in the male, for, supposing the male and female to be on a par as regards age and health, the blood in the female is thicker and blacker than in the male; and with the female there is less on the surface and [25] more internally. Of all female animals the female in man is the most richly supplied with blood, and of all animals the menstruous discharges are the most copious in woman. The blood of these discharges under disease turns into flux. Women are less subject to other diseases. Women are seldom afflicted with varicose veins, with [30] haemorrhoids, or with bleeding at the nose, and, if any of these maladies supervene, the menses are imperfectly discharged.
Blood differs in quantity and appearance according to age; in very young animals it resembles ichor and is abundant, in the old it is thick and black and scarce, and in middle-aged animals its qualities are intermediate. In old animals the [521b1] blood coagulates rapidly, even blood at the surface of the body; but this is not the case with young animals. Ichor is unconcocted blood: either blood that has not yet been concocted, or that has become fluid again.
20 · We now proceed to marrow; for this is one of the liquids found in certain sanguineous animals. All the natural liquids of the body are contained in vessels: as [5] blood in veins, marrow in bones [and other moistures in membranous structures of the skin or gut].23
In young animals the marrow is exceedingly sanguineous, but, as animals grow old, it becomes fatty in animals supplied with fat, and suet-like in animals with suet. [10] All bones, however, are not supplied with marrow, but only the hollow ones, and not all of these. For of the bones in the lion some contain no marrow at all, and some are only scantily supplied therewith; and that accounts, as was previously observed, for the statement made by certain writers that the lion is marrowless. In the bones of pigs it is found in small quantities; and in the bones of certain animals of this species [15] it is not found at all.
These liquids, then, are nearly always congenital in animals, but milk and sperm come at a later time. Of these latter, that which, whensoever it is present, is secreted in all cases ready-made, is the milk; sperm, on the other hand, is not like [20] that in all cases, but in some only, as in the case of what are designated thori in fishes.
Whatever animals have milk, have it in their breasts. All animals have breasts that are internally and externally viviparous, as for instance all animals that have hair, as man and the horse; and the cetaceans, as the dolphin, the porpoise, and the whale—for these animals have breasts and are supplied with milk. Animals that are [25] oviparous or only externally viviparous have neither breasts nor milk, as the fish and the bird.
All milk is composed of a watery serum called whey, and a consistent substance called curd; and the thicker the milk, the more abundant the curd. The milk, then, of non-ambidentals coagulates, and that is why cheese is made of the [30] milk of such animals under domestication; but the milk of ambidentals does not coagulate, nor their fat either, and the milk is thin and sweet. Now the camel’s milk is the thinnest, and that of the horse next after it, and that of the ass next again, but cow’s milk is the thickest. Milk does not coagulate under the influence of cold, but [522a1] rather runs to whey; but under the influence of heat it coagulates and thickens. As a general rule milk only comes to animals in pregnancy. When the animal is pregnant milk is found, but at first—and then again later—it is unfit for use. In the case of female animals not pregnant a small quantity of milk has been procured by the [5] employment of special food, and cases have been actually known where women advanced in years on being submitted to the process of milking have produced milk, and in some cases have produced it in sufficient quantities to enable them to suckle an infant.
The people that live on and about Mount Oeta take such she-goats as decline the male and rub their udders hard with nettles to cause pain; hereupon they milk [10] the animals, procuring at first a liquid resembling blood, then a liquid mixed with purulent matter, and eventually milk, as freely as from females submitting to the male.
As a general rule, milk is not found in the male of man or of any other animal, though from time to time it has been found in a male; for instance, once in Lemnos a [15] he-goat was milked by its dugs (for it has two dugs close to the penis), and was milked to such effect that cheese was made of the produce, and the same phenomenon was repeated in a male of its own begetting. Such occurrences, however, are regarded as portents, and in point of fact when the Lemnian owner of the animal inquired of the oracle, the god informed him that the portent foreshadowed the acquisition of a fortune. With some men, after puberty, a [20] little milk can be produced by squeezing the breasts; cases have been known where on their being subjected to a prolonged milking process a considerable quantity of milk has been educed.
In milk there is a fatty element, which in clotted milk gets to resemble oil. Goat’s milk is mixed with sheep’s milk in Sicily, and wherever sheep’s milk is fat. The best milk for clotting is not only that where the curd is most abundant, but that also where it is driest. [25]
Now some animals produce more than enough milk to rear their young, and this is useful for cheese-making and for storage. This is especially the case with the sheep and the goat, and next in degree with the cow. Mare’s milk and milk of the she-ass are mixed in with Phrygian cheese. And there is more curd in cow’s milk than in goat’s milk; for graziers tell us that from nine gallons of goat’s milk they can [30] get nineteen cheeses at an obol apiece, and from the same amount of cow’s milk, thirty. Other animals give only enough of milk to rear their young, and no superfluous amount and none fitted for cheese-making, as is the case with all animals that have more than two breasts; for with none of such animals is milk [522b1] produced in superabundance or used for the manufacture of cheese.
The juice of the fig and rennet are employed to curdle milk. The fig-juice is first squeezed out into wool; the wool is then rinsed into a little milk, and if this be mixed with other milk it curdles it. Rennet is a kind of milk; for it is found in the [5] stomach of the animal while it is yet suckling.
21 · Rennet then consists of milk with an admixture of fire,24 which comes from the natural heat of the animal, as the milk is concocted. All ruminating animals produce rennet, and, of ambidentals, the hare. Rennet improves in quality [10] the longer it is kept; and this sort, and also hare’s rennet, is good for diarrhoea, and the best of all rennet is that of the young deer.
In milk-producing animals the comparative amount of the yield varies with the size of the animal and the diversities of pasturage. For instance, there are in Phasis [15] small cattle that in all cases give a copious supply of milk, and the large cows in Epirus yield each one daily some nine gallons of milk, and half of this from each pair of teats, and the milker has to stand erect, stooping forward a little, as otherwise, if he were seated, he would be unable to reach up to the teats. But, with the exception [20] of the ass, all the quadrupeds in Epirus are of large size, and the cattle and the dogs are the largest. Now large animals require abundant pasture, and this country supplies just such pasturage, and also supplies pasture grounds to suit the diverse seasons of the year. The cattle are particularly large, and likewise the sheep of the so-called Pyrrhic breed, the name being given in honour of King Pyrrhus. [25]
Some pasture quenches milk, as lucerne, and that especially in ruminants; other feeding renders it copious, as cytisus and vetch; but cytisus in flower is not recommended, as it has burning properties, and vetch is not good for pregnant cattle, as it causes increased difficulty in parturition. However, beasts that can eat [30] plentifully, as they are benefited thereby in regard to pregnancy, so also being well nourished produce milk in plenty. Some of the plants that cause flatulence bring milk, as for instance, a large feed of beans with the ewe, the she-goat, the cow, and the young she-goat; for this feeding makes them drop their udders. And the pointing [523a1] of the udder to the ground before parturition is a sign of there being plenty of milk.
Milk remains for a long time in the female, if she be kept from the male and be properly fed, and, of quadrupeds, this is especially true of the ewe; for the ewe can [5] be milked for eight months. As a general rule, ruminating animals give milk in abundance, and milk fitted for cheese manufacture. In the neighbourhood of Torone cows run dry for a few days before calving, and have milk all the rest of the time. In women, milk of a livid colour is better than white for nursing purposes; and [10] dark women give healthier milk than fair ones. Milk that is richest in curd is the most nutritious, but milk with a scanty supply of curd is the more wholesome for children.
22 · All sanguineous animals eject sperm. As to what, and how, it contributes to generation, these questions will be discussed in another treatise. Taking the [15] size of his body into account, man emits more sperm than any other animal. In hairy-coated animals the sperm is sticky, but in other animals it is not so. It is white in all cases, and Herodotus is under a misapprehension when he states that the Aethiopians eject black sperm.25
Sperm issues from the body white and consistent, if it be healthy, and after [20] quitting the body becomes thin and black. In frosty weather it does not coagulate, but gets exceedingly thin and watery both in colour and consistency; but it coagulates and thickens under the influence of heat. If it be long in the womb before issuing out, it comes more than usually thick; and sometimes it comes out dry and [25] compact. Fertile sperm sinks in water; infertile sperm dissolves away. There is no truth in what Ctesias has written about the sperm of the elephant.