No More Learning

4

Every animal is supplied with moisture, and, if the animal be
deprived of the same by natural causes or artificial means, death
ensues: further, every animal has another part in which the moisture
is contained. These parts are blood and vein, and in other animals
there is something to correspond; but in these latter the parts are
imperfect, being merely fibre and serum or lymph.

Touch has its seat in a part uniform and homogeneous, as in the
flesh or something of the kind, and generally, with animals supplied
with blood, in the parts charged with blood. In other animals it has
its seat in parts analogous to the parts charged with blood; but in
all cases it is seated in parts that in their texture are homogeneous.

The active faculties, on the contrary, are seated in the parts
that are heterogeneous: as, for instance, the business of preparing
the food is seated in the mouth, and the office of locomotion in the
feet, the wings, or in organs to correspond.

Again, some animals are supplied with blood, as man, the horse,
and all such animals as are, when full-grown, either destitute of
feet, or two-footed, or four-footed; other animals are bloodless, such
as the bee and the wasp, and, of marine animals, the cuttle-fish,
the crawfish, and all such animals as have more than four feet.

5

Again, some animals are viviparous, others oviparous, others
vermiparous or 'grub-bearing'. Some are viviparous, such as man, the
horse, the seal, and all other animals that are hair-coated, and, of
marine animals, the cetaceans, as the dolphin, and the so-called
Selachia. (Of these latter animals, some have a tubular air-passage
and no gills, as the dolphin and the whale: the dolphin with the
air-passage going through its back, the whale with the air-passage
in its forehead; others have uncovered gills, as the Selachia, the
sharks and rays. )

What we term an egg is a certain completed result of conception
out of which the animal that is to be develops, and in such a way that
in respect to its primitive germ it comes from part only of the egg,
while the rest serves for food as the germ develops. A 'grub' on the
other hand is a thing out of which in its entirety the animal in its
entirety develops, by differentiation and growth of the embryo.

Of viviparous animals, some hatch eggs in their own interior,
as creatures of the shark kind; others engender in their interior a
live foetus, as man and the horse. When the result of conception is
perfected, with some animals a living creature is brought forth,
with others an egg is brought to light, with others a grub. Of the
eggs, some have egg-shells and are of two different colours within,
such as birds' eggs; others are soft-skinned and of uniform colour, as
the eggs of animals of the shark kind. Of the grubs, some are from the
first capable of movement, others are motionless. However, with regard
to these phenomena we shall speak precisely hereafter when we come
to treat of Generation.

Furthermore, some animals have feet and some are destitute
thereof. Of such as have feet some animals have two, as is the case
with men and birds, and with men and birds only; some have four, as
the lizard and the dog; some have more, as the centipede and the
bee; but allsoever that have feet have an even number of them.

Of swimming creatures that are destitute of feet, some have
winglets or fins, as fishes: and of these some have four fins, two
above on the back, two below on the belly, as the gilthead and the
basse; some have two only,-to wit, such as are exceedingly long and
smooth, as the eel and the conger; some have none at all, as the
muraena, but use the sea just as snakes use dry ground-and by the way,
snakes swim in water in just the same way. Of the shark-kind some have
no fins, such as those that are flat and long-tailed, as the ray and
the sting-ray, but these fishes swim actually by the undulatory motion
of their flat bodies; the fishing frog, however, has fins, and so
likewise have all such fishes as have not their flat surfaces
thinned off to a sharp edge.

Of those swimming creatures that appear to have feet, as is the
case with the molluscs, these creatures swim by the aid of their
feet and their fins as well, and they swim most rapidly backwards in
the direction of the trunk, as is the case with the cuttle-fish or
sepia and the calamary; and, by the way, neither of these latter can
walk as the poulpe or octopus can.

The hard-skinned or crustaceous animals, like the crawfish,
swim by the instrumentality of their tail-parts; and they swim most
rapidly tail foremost, by the aid of the fins developed upon that
member. The newt swims by means of its feet and tail; and its tail
resembles that of the sheatfish, to compare little with great.

Of animals that can fly some are furnished with feathered wings,
as the eagle and the hawk; some are furnished with membranous wings,
as the bee and the cockchafer; others are furnished with leathern
wings, as the flying fox and the bat. All flying creatures possessed
of blood have feathered wings or leathern wings; the bloodless
creatures have membranous wings, as insects. The creatures that have
feathered wings or leathern wings have either two feet or no feet at
all: for there are said to be certain flying serpents in Ethiopia that
are destitute of feet.

Creatures that have feathered wings are classed as a genus
under the name of 'bird'; the other two genera, the leathern-winged
and membrane-winged, are as yet without a generic title.

Of creatures that can fly and are bloodless some are coleopterous
or sheath-winged, for they have their wings in a sheath or shard, like
the cockchafer and the dung-beetle; others are sheathless, and of
these latter some are dipterous and some tetrapterous: tetrapterous,
such as are comparatively large or have their stings in the tail,
dipterous, such as are comparatively small or have their stings in
front. The coleoptera are, without exception, devoid of stings; the
diptera have the sting in front, as the fly, the horsefly, the gadfly,
and the gnat.

Bloodless animals as a general rule are inferior in point of size
to blooded animals; though, by the way, there are found in the sea
some few bloodless creatures of abnormal size, as in the case of
certain molluscs. And of these bloodless genera, those are the largest
that dwell in milder climates, and those that inhabit the sea are
larger than those living on dry land or in fresh water.

All creatures that are capable of motion move with four or more
points of motion; the blooded animals with four only: as, for
instance, man with two hands and two feet, birds with two wings and
two feet, quadrupeds and fishes severally with four feet and four
fins. Creatures that have two winglets or fins, or that have none at
all like serpents, move all the same with not less than four points of
motion; for there are four bends in their bodies as they move, or
two bends together with their fins. Bloodless and many footed animals,
whether furnished with wings or feet, move with more than four
points of motion; as, for instance, the dayfly moves with four feet
and four wings: and, I may observe in passing, this creature is
exceptional not only in regard to the duration of its existence,
whence it receives its name, but also because though a quadruped it
has wings also.

All animals move alike, four-footed and many-footed; in other
words, they all move cross-corner-wise. And animals in general have
two feet in advance; the crab alone has four.

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
oyster; another of the soft-shell kind, not as yet designated by a
single term, such as the spiny crawfish and the various kinds of crabs
and lobsters; and another of molluscs, as the two kinds of calamary
and the cuttle-fish; that of insects is different. All these latter
creatures are bloodless, and such of them as have feet have a goodly
number of them; and of the insects some have wings as well as feet.

Of the other animals the genera are not extensive. For in them
one species does not comprehend many species; but in one case, as man,
the species is simple, admitting of no differentiation, while other
cases admit of differentiation, but the forms lack particular
designations.

So, for instance, creatures that are qudapedal and unprovided
with wings are blooded without exception, but some of them are
viviparous, and some oviparous. Such as are viviparous are
hair-coated, and such as are oviparous are covered with a kind of
tessellated hard substance; and the tessellated bits of this substance
are, as it were, similar in regard to position to a scale.

An animal that is blooded and capable of movement on dry land,
but is naturally unprovided with feet, belongs to the serpent genus;
and animals of this genus are coated with the tessellated horny
substance. Serpents in general are oviparous; the adder, an
exceptional case, is viviparous: for not all viviparous animals are
hair-coated, and some fishes also are viviparous.

All animals, however, that are hair-coated are viviparous. For,
by the way, one must regard as a kind of hair such prickly hairs as
hedgehogs and porcupines carry; for these spines perform the office of
hair, and not of feet as is the case with similar parts of
sea-urchins.

In the genus that combines all viviparous quadrupeds are many
species, but under no common appellation. They are only named as it
were one by one, as we say man, lion, stag, horse, dog, and so on;
though, by the way, there is a sort of genus that embraces all
creatures that have bushy manes and bushy tails, such as the horse,
the ass, the mule, the jennet, and the animals that are called Hemioni
in Syria,-from their externally resembling mules, though they are
not strictly of the same species. And that they are not so is proved
by the fact that they mate with and breed from one another. For all
these reasons, we must take animals species by species, and discuss
their peculiarities severally'

These preceding statements, then, have been put forward thus in a
general way, as a kind of foretaste of the number of subjects and of
the properties that we have to consider in order that we may first get
a clear notion of distinctive character and common properties. By
and by we shall discuss these matters with greater minuteness.

After this we shall pass on to the discussion of causes. For to do
this when the investigation of the details is complete is the proper
and natural method, and that whereby the subjects and the premisses of
our argument will afterwards be rendered plain.

In the first place we must look to the constituent parts of
animals. For it is in a way relative to these parts, first and
foremost, that animals in their entirety differ from one another:
either in the fact that some have this or that, while they have not
that or this; or by peculiarities of position or of arrangement; or by
the differences that have been previously mentioned, depending upon
diversity of form, or excess or defect in this or that particular,
on analogy, or on contrasts of the accidental qualities.

To begin with, we must take into consideration the parts of
Man. For, just as each nation is wont to reckon by that monetary
standard with which it is most familiar, so must we do in other
matters. And, of course, man is the animal with which we are all of us
the most familiar.

Now the parts are obvious enough to physical perception. However,
with the view of observing due order and sequence and of combining
rational notions with physical perception, we shall proceed to
enumerate the parts: firstly, the organic, and afterwards the simple
or non-composite.

7

The chief parts into which the body as a whole is subdivided,
are the head, the neck, the trunk (extending from the neck to the
privy parts), which is called the thorax, two arms and two legs.

Of the parts of which the head is composed the hair-covered
portion is called the 'skull'. The front portion of it is termed
'bregma' or 'sinciput', developed after birth-for it is the last of
all the bones in the body to acquire solidity,-the hinder part is
termed the 'occiput', and the part intervening between the sinciput
and the occiput is the 'crown'. The brain lies underneath the
sinciput; the occiput is hollow. The skull consists entirely of thin
bone, rounded in shape, and contained within a wrapper of fleshless
skin.

The skull has sutures: one, of circular form, in the case of
women; in the case of men, as a general rule, three meeting at a
point. Instances have been known of a man's skull devoid of suture
altogether. In the skull the middle line, where the hair parts, is
called the crown or vertex. In some cases the parting is double;
that is to say, some men are double crowned, not in regard to the bony
skull, but in consequence of the double fall or set of the hair.

8

The part that lies under the skull is called the 'face': but in
the case of man only, for the term is not applied to a fish or to an
ox. In the face the part below the sinciput and between the eyes is
termed the forehead. When men have large foreheads, they are slow to
move; when they have small ones, they are fickle; when they have broad
ones, they are apt to be distraught; when they have foreheads
rounded or bulging out, they are quick-tempered.

9

Underneath the forehead are two eyebrows. Straight eyebrows are
a sign of softness of disposition; such as curve in towards the
nose, of harshness; such as curve out towards the temples, of humour
and dissimulation; such as are drawn in towards one another, of
jealousy.

Under the eyebrows come the eyes. These are naturally two in
number. Each of them has an upper and a lower eyelid, and the hairs on
the edges of these are termed 'eyelashes'. The central part of the eye
includes the moist part whereby vision is effected, termed the
'pupil', and the part surrounding it called the 'black'; the part
outside this is the 'white'. A part common to the upper and lower
eyelid is a pair of nicks or corners, one in the direction of the
nose, and the other in the direction of the temples. When these are
long they are a sign of bad disposition; if the side toward the
nostril be fleshy and comb-like, they are a sign of dishonesty.

All animals, as a general rule, are provided with eyes, excepting
the ostracoderms and other imperfect creatures; at all events, all
viviparous animals have eyes, with the exception of the mole. And
yet one might assert that, though the mole has not eyes in the full
sense, yet it has eyes in a kind of a way. For in point of absolute
fact it cannot see, and has no eyes visible externally; but when the
outer skin is removed, it is found to have the place where eyes are
usually situated, and the black parts of the eyes rightly situated,
and all the place that is usually devoted on the outside to eyes:
showing that the parts are stunted in development, and the skin
allowed to grow over.

10

Of the eye the white is pretty much the same in all creatures; but
what is called the black differs in various animals. Some have the rim
black, some distinctly blue, some greyish-blue, some greenish; and
this last colour is the sign of an excellent disposition, and is
particularly well adapted for sharpness of vision. Man is the only, or
nearly the only, creature, that has eyes of diverse colours.
Animals, as a rule, have eyes of one colour only. Some horses have
blue eyes.

Of eyes, some are large, some small, some medium-sized; of these,
the medium-sized are the best. Moreover, eyes sometimes protrude,
sometimes recede, sometimes are neither protruding nor receding. Of
these, the receding eye is in all animals the most acute; but the last
kind are the sign of the best disposition. Again, eyes are sometimes
inclined to wink under observation, sometimes to remain open and
staring, and sometimes are disposed neither to wink nor stare. The
last kind are the sign of the best nature, and of the others, the
latter kind indicates impudence, and the former indecision.

11

Furthermore, there is a portion of the head, whereby an animal
hears, a part incapable of breathing, the 'ear'. I say 'incapable of
breathing', for Alcmaeon is mistaken when he says that goats inspire
through their ears. Of the ear one part is unnamed, the other part
is called the 'lobe'; and it is entirely composed of gristle and
flesh. The ear is constructed internally like the trumpet-shell, and
the innermost bone is like the ear itself, and into it at the end
the sound makes its way, as into the bottom of a jar. This
receptacle does not communicate by any passage with the brain, but
does so with the palate, and a vein extends from the brain towards it.
The eyes also are connected with the brain, and each of them lies at
the end of a little vein. Of animals possessed of ears man is the only
one that cannot move this organ. Of creatures possessed of hearing,
some have ears, whilst others have none, but merely have the
passages for ears visible, as, for example, feathered animals or
animals coated with horny tessellates.

Viviparous animals, with the exception of the seal, the dolphin,
and those others which after a similar fashion to these are cetaceans,
are all provided with ears; for, by the way, the shark-kind are also
viviparous. Now, the seal has the passages visible whereby it hears;
but the dolphin can hear, but has no ears, nor yet any passages
visible. But man alone is unable to move his ears, and all other
animals can move them. And the ears lie, with man, in the same
horizontal plane with the eyes, and not in a plane above them as is
the case with some quadrupeds. Of ears, some are fine, some are
coarse, and some are of medium texture; the last kind are best for
hearing, but they serve in no way to indicate character. Some ears are
large, some small, some medium-sized; again, some stand out far,
some lie in close and tight, and some take up a medium position; of
these such as are of medium size and of medium position are
indications of the best disposition, while the large and outstanding
ones indicate a tendency to irrelevant talk or chattering. The part
intercepted between the eye, the ear, and the crown is termed the
'temple'. Again, there is a part of the countenance that serves as a
passage for the breath, the 'nose'. For a man inhales and exhales by
this organ, and sneezing is effected by its means: which last is an
outward rush of collected breath, and is the only mode of breath
used as an omen and regarded as supernatural. Both inhalation and
exhalation go right on from the nose towards the chest; and with the
nostrils alone and separately it is impossible to inhale or exhale,
owing to the fact that the inspiration and respiration take place from
the chest along the windpipe, and not by any portion connected with
the head; and indeed it is possible for a creature to live without
using this process of nasal respiration.

Again, smelling takes place by means of the nose,-smelling, or the
sensible discrimination of odour. And the nostril admits of easy
motion, and is not, like the ear, intrinsically immovable. A part of
it, composed of gristle, constitutes, a septum or partition, and
part is an open passage; for the nostril consists of two separate
channels. The nostril (or nose) of the elephant is long and strong,
and the animal uses it like a hand; for by means of this organ it
draws objects towards it, and takes hold of them, and introduces its
food into its mouth, whether liquid or dry food, and it is the only
living creature that does so.

Furthermore, there are two jaws; the front part of them
constitutes the chin, and the hinder part the cheek. All animals
move the lower jaw, with the exception of the river crocodile; this
creature moves the upper jaw only.

Next after the nose come two lips, composed of flesh, and
facile of motion. The mouth lies inside the jaws and lips. Parts of
the mouth are the roof or palate and the pharynx.

The part that is sensible of taste is the tongue. The sensation
has its seat at the tip of the tongue; if the object to be tasted be
placed on the flat surface of the organ, the taste is less sensibly
experienced. The tongue is sensitive in all other ways wherein flesh
in general is so: that is, it can appreciate hardness, or warmth and
cold, in any part of it, just as it can appreciate taste. The tongue
is sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, and sometimes of medium width;
the last kind is the best and the clearest in its discrimination of
taste. Moreover, the tongue is sometimes loosely hung, and sometimes
fastened: as in the case of those who mumble and who lisp.

The tongue consists of flesh, soft and spongy, and the so-called
'epiglottis' is a part of this organ.

That part of the mouth that splits into two bits is called the
'tonsils'; that part that splits into many bits, the 'gums'. Both
the tonsils and the gums are composed of flesh. In the gums are teeth,
composed of bone.

Inside the mouth is another part, shaped like a bunch of
grapes, a pillar streaked with veins. If this pillar gets relaxed
and inflamed it is called 'uvula' or 'bunch of grapes', and it then
has a tendency to bring about suffocation.

12

The neck is the part between the face and the trunk. Of this the
front part is the larynx land the back part the ur The front part,
composed of gristle, through which respiration and speech is effected,
is termed the 'windpipe'; the part that is fleshy is the oesophagus,
inside just in front of the chine. The part to the back of the neck is
the epomis, or 'shoulder-point'.

These then are the parts to be met with before you come to the
thorax.

To the trunk there is a front part and a back part. Next after
the neck in the front part is the chest, with a pair of breasts. To
each of the breasts is attached a teat or nipple, through which in the
case of females the milk percolates; and the breast is of a spongy
texture. Milk, by the way, is found at times in the male; but with the
male the flesh of the breast is tough, with the female it is soft
and porous.

13

Next after the thorax and in front comes the 'belly', and its root
the 'navel'. Underneath this root the bilateral part is the 'flank':
the undivided part below the navel, the 'abdomen', the extremity of
which is the region of the 'pubes'; above the navel the
'hypochondrium'; the cavity common to the hypochondrium and the
flank is the gut-cavity.

Serving as a brace girdle to the hinder parts is the pelvis,
and hence it gets its name (osphus), for it is symmetrical
(isophues) in appearance; of the fundament the part for resting on
is termed the 'rump', and the part whereon the thigh pivots is
termed the 'socket' (or acetabulum).

The 'womb' is a part peculiar to the female; and the 'penis' is
peculiar to the male. This latter organ is external and situated at
the extremity of the trunk; it is composed of two separate parts: of
which the extreme part is fleshy, does not alter in size, and is
called the glans; and round about it is a skin devoid of any
specific title, which integument if it be cut asunder never grows
together again, any more than does the jaw or the eyelid. And the
connexion between the latter and the glans is called the frenum. The
remaining part of the penis is composed of gristle; it is easily
susceptible of enlargement; and it protrudes and recedes in the
reverse directions to what is observable in the identical organ in
cats. Underneath the penis are two 'testicles', and the integument
of these is a skin that is termed the 'scrotum'.

Testicles are not identical with flesh, and are not altogether
diverse from it. But by and by we shall treat in an exhaustive way
regarding all such parts.

14

The privy part of the female is in character opposite to that of
the male. In other words, the part under the pubes is hollow or
receding, and not, like the male organ, protruding. Further, there
is an 'urethra' outside the womb; which organ serves as a passage
for the sperm of the male, and as an outlet for liquid excretion to
both sexes).

The part common to the neck and chest is the 'throat'; the
'armpit' is common to side, arm, and shoulder; and the 'groin' is
common to thigh and abdomen. The part inside the thigh and buttocks is
the 'perineum', and the part outside the thigh and buttocks is the
'hypoglutis'.

The front parts of the trunk have now been enumerated.

The part behind the chest is termed the 'back'.

15

Parts of the back are a pair of 'shoulderblades', the
'back-bone', and, underneath on a level with the belly in the trunk,
the 'loins'. Common to the upper and lower part of the trunk are the
'ribs', eight on either side, for as to the so-called seven-ribbed
Ligyans we have not received any trustworthy evidence.

Man, then, has an upper and a lower part, a front and a back
part, a right and a left side. Now the right and the left side are
pretty well alike in their parts and identical throughout, except that
the left side is the weaker of the two; but the back parts do not
resemble the front ones, neither do the lower ones the upper: only
that these upper and lower parts may be said to resemble one another
thus far, that, if the face be plump or meagre, the abdomen is plump
or meagre to correspond; and that the legs correspond to the arms, and
where the upper arm is short the thigh is usually short also, and
where the feet are small the hands are small correspondingly.

Of the limbs, one set, forming a pair, is 'arms'. To the arm
belong the 'shoulder', 'upper-arm', 'elbow', 'fore-arm', and 'hand'.
To the hand belong the 'palm', and the five 'fingers'. The part of the
finger that bends is termed 'knuckle', the part that is inflexible
is termed the 'phalanx'. The big finger or thumb is single-jointed,
the other fingers are double jointed. The bending both of the arm
and of the finger takes place from without inwards in all cases; and
the arm bends at the elbow. The inner part of the hand is termed the
palm', and is fleshy and divided by joints or lines: in the case of
long-lived people by one or two extending right across, in the case of
the short-lived by two, not so extending. The joint between hand and
arm is termed the 'wrist'. The outside or back of the hand is
sinewy, and has no specific designation.

There is another duplicate limb, the 'leg'. Of this limb the
double-knobbed part is termed the 'thigh-bone', the sliding part of
the 'kneecap', the double-boned part the 'leg'; the front part of this
latter is termed the 'shin', and the part behind it the 'calf',
wherein the flesh is sinewy and venous, in some cases drawn upwards
towards the hollow behind the knee, as in the case of people with
large hips, and in other cases drawn downwards. The lower extremity of
the shin is the 'ankle', duplicate in either leg. The part of the limb
that contains a multiplicity of bones is the 'foot'. The hinder part
of the foot is the 'heel'; at the front of it the divided part
consists of 'toes', five in number; the fleshy part underneath is
the 'ball'; the upper part or back of the foot is sinewy and has no
particular appellation; of the toe, one portion is the 'nail' and
another the 'joint', and the nail is in all cases at the extremity;
and toes are without exception single jointed. Men that have the
inside or sole of the foot clumsy and not arched, that is, that walk
resting on the entire under-surface of their feet, are prone to
roguery. The joint common to thigh and shin is the 'knee'.

These, then, are the parts common to the male and the female sex.
The relative position of the parts as to up and down, or to front
and back, or to right and left, all this as regards externals might
safely be left to mere ordinary perception. But for all that, we
must treat of them for the same reason as the one previously brought
forward; that is to say, we must refer to them in order that a due and
regular sequence may be observed in our exposition, and in order
that by the enumeration of these obvious facts due attention may be
subsequently given to those parts in men and other animals that are
diverse in any way from one another.

In man, above all other animals, the terms 'upper' and 'lower'
are used in harmony with their natural positions; for in him, upper
and lower have the same meaning as when they are applied to the
universe as a whole. In like manner the terms, 'in front', 'behind',
'right' and 'left', are used in accordance with their natural sense.
But in regard to other animals, in some cases these distinctions do
not exist, and in others they do so, but in a vague way. For instance,
the head with all animals is up and above in respect to their
bodies; but man alone, as has been said, has, in maturity, this part
uppermost in respect to the material universe.

Next after the head comes the neck, and then the chest and the
back: the one in front and the other behind. Next after these come the
belly, the loins, the sexual parts, and the haunches; then the thigh
and shin; and, lastly, the feet.

The legs bend frontwards, in the direction of actual progression,
and frontwards also lies that part of the foot which is the most
effective of motion, and the flexure of that part; but the heel lies
at the back, and the anklebones lie laterally, earwise. The arms are
situated to right and left, and bend inwards: so that the
convexities formed by bent arms and legs are practically face to
face with one another in the case of man.

As for the senses and for the organs of sensation, the eyes,
the nostrils, and the tongue, all alike are situated frontwards; the
sense of hearing, and the organ of hearing, the ear, is situated
sideways, on the same horizontal plane with the eyes. The eyes in
man are, in proportion to his size, nearer to one another than in
any other animal.

Of the senses man has the sense of touch more refined than any
animal, and so also, but in less degree, the sense of taste; in the
development of the other senses he is surpassed by a great number of
animals.

16

The parts, then, that are externally visible are arranged in the
way above stated, and as a rule have their special designations, and
from use and wont are known familiarly to all; but this is not the
case with the inner parts. For the fact is that the inner parts of man
are to a very great extent unknown, and the consequence is that we
must have recourse to an examination of the inner parts of other
animals whose nature in any way resembles that of man.

In the first place then, the brain lies in the front part of the
head. And this holds alike with all animals possessed of a brain;
and all blooded animals are possessed thereof, and, by the way,
molluscs as well. But, taking size for size of animal, the largest
brain, and the moistest, is that of man. Two membranes enclose it: the
stronger one near the bone of the skull; the inner one, round the
brain itself, is finer. The brain in all cases is bilateral. Behind
this, right at the back, comes what is termed the 'cerebellum',
differing in form from the brain as we may both feel and see.
The back of the head is with all animals empty and hollow,
whatever be its size in the different animals. For some creatures have
big heads while the face below is small in proportion, as is the
case with round-faced animals; some have little heads and long jaws,
as is the case, without exception, among animals of the
mane-and-tail species.

The brain in all animals is bloodless, devoid of veins, and
naturally cold to the touch; in the great majority of animals it has a
small hollow in its centre. The brain-caul around it is reticulated
with veins; and this brain-caul is that skin-like membrane which
closely surrounds the brain. Above the brain is the thinnest and
weakest bone of the head, which is termed or 'sinciput'.

From the eye there go three ducts to the brain: the largest and
the medium-sized to the cerebellum, the least to the brain itself; and
the least is the one situated nearest to the nostril. The two
largest ones, then, run side by side and do not meet; the medium-sized
ones meet-and this is particularly visible in fishes,-for they lie
nearer than the large ones to the brain; the smallest pair are the
most widely separate from one another, and do not meet.

Inside the neck is what is termed the oesophagus (whose other
name is derived oesophagus from its length and narrowness), and the
windpipe. The windpipe is situated in front of the oesophagus in all
animals that have a windpipe, and all animals have one that are
furnished with lungs. The windpipe is made up of gristle, is sparingly
supplied with blood, and is streaked all round with numerous minute
veins; it is situated, in its upper part, near the mouth, below the
aperture formed by the nostrils into the mouth-an aperture through
which, when men, in drinking, inhale any of the liquid, this liquid
finds its way out through the nostrils. In betwixt the two openings
comes the so-called epiglottis, an organ capable of being drawn over
and covering the orifice of the windpipe communicating with the mouth;
the end of the tongue is attached to the epiglottis. In the other
direction the windpipe extends to the interval between the lungs,
and hereupon bifurcates into each of the two divisions of the lung;
for the lung in all animals possessed of the organ has a tendency to
be double. In viviparous animals, however, the duplication is not so
plainly discernible as in other species, and the duplication is
least discernible in man. And in man the organ is not split into
many parts, as is the case with some vivipara, neither is it smooth,
but its surface is uneven.

In the case of the ovipara, such as birds and oviparous
quadrupeds, the two parts of the organ are separated to a distance
from one another, so that the creatures appear to be furnished with
a pair of lungs; and from the windpipe, itself single, there branch
off two separate parts extending to each of the two divisions of the
lung. It is attached also to the great vein and to what is
designated the 'aorta'. When the windpipe is charged with air, the air
passes on to the hollow parts of the lung. These parts have divisions,
composed of gristle, which meet at an acute angle; from the
divisions run passages through the entire lung, giving off smaller and
smaller ramifications. The heart also is attached to the windpipe,
by connexions of fat, gristle, and sinew; and at the point of juncture
there is a hollow. When the windpipe is charged with air, the entrance
of the air into the heart, though imperceptible in some animals, is
perceptible enough in the larger ones. Such are the properties of
the windpipe, and it takes in and throws out air only, and takes in
nothing else either dry or liquid, or else it causes you pain until
you shall have coughed up whatever may have gone down.

The oesophagus communicates at the top with the mouth, close to
the windpipe, and is attached to the backbone and the windpipe by
membranous ligaments, and at last finds its way through the midriff
into the belly. It is composed of flesh-like substance, and is elastic
both lengthways and breadthways.

The stomach of man resembles that of a dog; for it is not much
bigger than the bowel, but is somewhat like a bowel of more than usual
width; then comes the bowel, single, convoluted, moderately wide.
The lower part of the gut is like that of a pig; for it is broad,
and the part from it to the buttocks is thick and short. The caul,
or great omentum, is attached to the middle of the stomach, and
consists of a fatty membrane, as is the case with all other animals
whose stomachs are single and which have teeth in both jaws.

The mesentery is over the bowels; this also is membranous and
broad, and turns to fat. It is attached to the great vein and the
aorta, and there run through it a number of veins closely packed
together, extending towards the region of the bowels, beginning
above and ending below.

So much for the properties of the oesophagus, the windpipe, and
the stomach.

17

The heart has three cavities, and is situated above the lung at
the division of the windpipe, and is provided with a fatty and thick
membrane where it fastens on to the great vein and the aorta. It
lies with its tapering portion upon the aorta, and this portion is
similarly situated in relation to the chest in all animals that have a
chest. In all animals alike, in those that have a chest and in those
that have none, the apex of the heart points forwards, although this
fact might possibly escape notice by a change of position under
dissection. The rounded end of the heart is at the top. The apex is to
a great extent fleshy and close in texture, and in the cavities of the
heart are sinews. As a rule the heart is situated in the middle of the
chest in animals that have a chest, and in man it is situated a little
to the left-hand side, leaning a little way from the division of the
breasts towards the left breast in the upper part of the chest.

The heart is not large, and in its general shape it is not
elongated; in fact, it is somewhat round in form: only, be it
remembered, it is sharp-pointed at the bottom. It has three
cavities, as has been said: the right-hand one the largest of the
three, the left-hand one the least, and the middle one intermediate in
size. All these cavities, even the two small ones, are connected by
passages with the lung, and this fact is rendered quite plain in one
of the cavities. And below, at the point of attachment, in the largest
cavity there is a connexion with the great vein (near which the
mesentery lies); and in the middle one there is a connexion with the
aorta.

Canals lead from the heart into the lung, and branch off just
as the windpipe does, running all over the lung parallel with the
passages from the windpipe. The canals from the heart are uppermost;
and there is no common passage, but the passages through their
having a common wall receive the breath and pass it on to the heart;
and one of the passages conveys it to the right cavity, and the
other to the left.

With regard to the great vein and the aorta we shall, by and
by, treat of them together in a discussion devoted to them and to them
alone. In all animals that are furnished with a lung, and that are
both internally and externally viviparous, the lung is of all organs
the most richly supplied with blood; for the lung is throughout spongy
in texture, and along by every single pore in it go branches from
the great vein. Those who imagine it to be empty are altogether
mistaken; and they are led into their error by their observation of
lungs removed from animals under dissection, out of which organs the
blood had all escaped immediately after death.

Of the other internal organs the heart alone contains blood.
And the lung has blood not in itself but in its veins, but the heart
has blood in itself; for in each of its three cavities it has blood,
but the thinnest blood is what it has in its central cavity.

Under the lung comes the thoracic diaphragm or midriff,
attached to the ribs, the hypochondria and the backbone, with a thin
membrane in the middle of it. It has veins running through it; and the
diaphragm in the case of man is thicker in proportion to the size of
his frame than in other animals.

Under the diaphragm on the right-hand side lies the 'liver',
and on the left-hand side the 'spleen', alike in all animals that
are provided with these organs in an ordinary and not preternatural
way; for, be it observed, in some quadrupeds these organs have been
found in a transposed position. These organs are connected with the
stomach by the caul.

To outward view the spleen of man is narrow and long,
resembling the self-same organ in the pig. The liver in the great
majority of animals is not provided with a 'gall-bladder'; but the
latter is present in some. The liver of a man is round-shaped, and
resembles the same organ in the ox. And, by the way, the absence above
referred to of a gall-bladder is at times met with in the practice
of augury. For instance, in a certain district of the Chalcidic
settlement in Euboea the sheep are devoid of gall-bladders; and in
Naxos nearly all the quadrupeds have one so large that foreigners when
they offer sacrifice with such victims are bewildered with fright,
under the impression that the phenomenon is not due to natural causes,
but bodes some mischief to the individual offerers of the sacrifice.

Again, the liver is attached to the great vein, but it has no
communication with the aorta; for the vein that goes off from the
great vein goes right through the liver, at a point where are the
so-called 'portals' of the liver. The spleen also is connected only
with the great vein, for a vein extends to the spleen off from it.

After these organs come the 'kidneys', and these are placed close
to the backbone, and resemble in character the same organ in kine.
In all animals that are provided with this organ, the right kidney
is situated higher up than the other. It has also less fatty substance
than the left-hand one and is less moist. And this phenomenon also
is observable in all the other animals alike.

Furthermore, passages or ducts lead into the kidneys both from
the great vein and from the aorta, only not into the cavity. For, by
the way, there is a cavity in the middle of the kidney, bigger in some
creatures and less in others; but there is none in the case of the
seal. This latter animal has kidneys resembling in shape the identical
organ in kine, but in its case the organs are more solid than in any
other known creature. The ducts that lead into the kidneys lose
themselves in the substance of the kidneys themselves; and the proof
that they extend no farther rests on the fact that they contain no
blood, nor is any clot found therein. The kidneys, however, have, as
has been said, a small cavity. From this cavity in the kidney there
lead two considerable ducts or ureters into the bladder; and others
spring from the aorta, strong and continuous. And to the middle of
each of the two kidneys is attached a hollow sinewy vein, stretching
right along the spine through the narrows; by and by these veins are
lost in either loin, and again become visible extending to the
flank. And these off-branchings of the veins terminate in the bladder.
For the bladder lies at the extremity, and is held in position by
the ducts stretching from the kidneys, along the stalk that extends to
the urethra; and pretty well all round it is fastened by fine sinewy
membranes, that resemble to some extent the thoracic diaphragm. The
bladder in man is, proportionately to his size, tolerably large.

To the stalk of the bladder the private part is attached, the
external orifices coalescing; but a little lower down, one of the
openings communicates with the testicles and the other with the
bladder. The penis is gristly and sinewy in its texture. With it are
connected the testicles in male animals, and the properties of these
organs we shall discuss in our general account of the said organ.

All these organs are similar in the female; for there is no
difference in regard to the internal organs, except in respect to
the womb, and with reference to the appearance of this organ I must
refer the reader to diagrams in my 'Anatomy'. The womb, however, is
situated over the bowel, and the bladder lies over the womb. But we
must treat by and by in our pages of the womb of all female animals
viewed generally. For the wombs of all female animals are not
identical, neither do their local dispositions coincide.

These are the organs, internal and external, of man, and such
is their nature and such their local disposition.

Book II

1

With regard to animals in general, some parts or organs are
common to all, as has been said, and some are common only to
particular genera; the parts, moreover, are identical with or
different from one another on the lines already repeatedly laid
down. For as a general rule all animals that are generically
distinct have the majority of their parts or organs different in
form or species; and some of them they have only analogically
similar and diverse in kind or genus, while they have others that
are alike in kind but specifically diverse; and many parts or organs
exist in some animals, but not in others.

For instance, viviparous quadrupeds have all a head and a neck,
and all the parts or organs of the head, but they differ each from
other in the shapes of the parts. The lion has its neck composed of
one single bone instead of vertebrae; but, when dissected, the
animal is found in all internal characters to resemble the dog.

The quadrupedal vivipara instead of arms have forelegs. This is
true of all quadrupeds, but such of them as have toes have,
practically speaking, organs analogous to hands; at all events, they
use these fore-limbs for many purposes as hands. And they have the
limbs on the left-hand side less distinct from those on the right than
man.

The fore-limbs then serve more or less the purpose of hands in
quadrupeds, with the exception of the elephant. This latter animal has
its toes somewhat indistinctly defined, and its front legs are much
bigger than its hinder ones; it is five-toed, and has short ankles
to its hind feet. But it has a nose such in properties and such in
size as to allow of its using the same for a hand. For it eats and
drinks by lifting up its food with the aid of this organ into its
mouth, and with the same organ it lifts up articles to the driver on
its back; with this organ it can pluck up trees by the roots, and when
walking through water it spouts the water up by means of it; and
this organ is capable of being crooked or coiled at the tip, but not
of flexing like a joint, for it is composed of gristle.

Of all animals man alone can learn to make equal use of both
hands.

All animals have a part analogous to the chest in man, but not
similar to his; for the chest in man is broad, but that of all other
animals is narrow. Moreover, no other animal but man has breasts in
front; the elephant, certainly, has two breasts, not however in the
chest, but near it.

Moreover, also, animals have the flexions of their fore and
hind limbs in directions opposite to one another, and in directions
the reverse of those observed in the arms and legs of man; with the
exception of the elephant. In other words, with the viviparous
quadrupeds the front legs bend forwards and the hind ones backwards,
and the concavities of the two pairs of limbs thus face one another.

The elephant does not sleep standing, as some were wont to
assert, but it bends its legs and settles down; only that in
consequence of its weight it cannot bend its leg on both sides
simultaneously, but falls into a recumbent position on one side or the
other, and in this position it goes to sleep. And it bends its hind
legs just as a man bends his legs.

In the case of the ovipara, as the crocodile and the lizard and
the like, both pairs of legs, fore and hind, bend forwards, with a
slight swerve on one side. The flexion is similar in the case of the
multipeds; only that the legs in between the extreme ends always
move in a manner intermediate between that of those in front and those
behind, and accordingly bend sideways rather than backwards or
forwards. But man bends his arms and his legs towards the same
point, and therefore in opposite ways: that is to say, he bends his
arms backwards, with just a slight inclination inwards, and his legs
frontwards. No animal bends both its fore-limbs and hind-limbs
backwards; but in the case of all animals the flexion of the shoulders
is in the opposite direction to that of the elbows or the joints of
the forelegs, and the flexure in the hips to that of the knees of
the hind-legs: so that since man differs from other animals in
flexion, those animals that possess such parts as these move them
contrariwise to man.

Birds have the flexions of their limbs like those of the
quadrupeds; for, although bipeds, they bend their legs backwards,
and instead of arms or front legs have wings which bend frontwards.

The seal is a kind of imperfect or crippled quadruped; for just
behind the shoulder-blade its front feet are placed, resembling hands,
like the front paws of the bear; for they are furnished with five
toes, and each of the toes has three flexions and a nail of
inconsiderable size. The hind feet are also furnished with five
toes; in their flexions and nails they resemble the front feet, and in
shape they resemble a fish's tail.

The movements of animals, quadruped and multiped, are crosswise,
or in diagonals, and their equilibrium in standing posture is
maintained crosswise; and it is always the limb on the right-hand side
that is the first to move. The lion, however, and the two species of
camels, both the Bactrian and the Arabian, progress by an amble; and
the action so called is when the animal never overpasses the right
with the left, but always follows close upon it.

Whatever parts men have in front, these parts quadrupeds have
below, in or on the belly; and whatever parts men have behind, these
parts quadrupeds have above on their backs. Most quadrupeds have a
tail; for even the seal has a tiny one resembling that of the stag.
Regarding the tails of the pithecoids we must give their distinctive
properties by and by animal

All viviparous quadrupeds are hair-coated, whereas man has only a
few short hairs excepting on the head, but, so far as the head is
concerned, he is hairier than any other animal. Further, of
hair-coated animals, the back is hairier than the belly, which
latter is either comparatively void of hair or smooth and void of hair
altogether. With man the reverse is the case.

Man also has upper and lower eyelashes, and hair under the
armpits and on the pubes. No other animal has hair in either of
these localities, or has an under eyelash; though in the case of
some animals a few straggling hairs grow under the eyelid.

Of hair-coated quadrupeds some are hairy all over the body, as
the pig, the bear, and the dog; others are especially hairy on the
neck and all round about it, as is the case with animals that have a
shaggy mane, such as the lion; others again are especially hairy on
the upper surface of the neck from the head as far as the withers,
namely, such as have a crested mane, as in the case with the horse,
the mule, and, among the undomesticated horned animals, the bison.

The so-called hippelaphus also has a mane on its withers, and the
animal called pardion, in either case a thin mane extending from the
head to the withers; the hippelaphus has, exceptionally, a beard by
the larynx. Both these animals have horns and are cloven-footed; the
female, however, of the hippelaphus has no horns. This latter animal
resembles the stag in size; it is found in the territory of the
Arachotae, where the wild cattle also are found. Wild cattle differ
from their domesticated congeners just as the wild boar differs from
the domesticated one. That is to say they are black, strong looking,
with a hook-nosed muzzle, and with horns lying more over the back. The
horns of the hippelaphus resemble those of the gazelle.

The elephant, by the way, is the least hairy of all quadrupeds.
With animals, as a general rule, the tail corresponds with the body as
regards thickness or thinness of hair-coating; that is, with animals
that have long tails, for some creatures have tails of altogether
insignificant size.

Camels have an exceptional organ wherein they differ from all
other animals, and that is the so-called 'hump' on their back. The
Bactrian camel differs from the Arabian; for the former has two
humps and the latter only one, though it has, by the way, a kind of
a hump below like the one above, on which, when it kneels, the
weight of the whole body rests. The camel has four teats like the cow,
a tail like that of an ass, and the privy parts of the male are
directed backwards. It has one knee in each leg, and the flexures of
the limb are not manifold, as some say, although they appear to be
so from the constricted shape of the region of the belly. It has a
huckle-bone like that of kine, but meagre and small in proportion to
its bulk. It is cloven-footed, and has not got teeth in both jaws; and
it is cloven footed in the following way: at the back there is a
slight cleft extending as far up as the second joint of the toes;
and in front there are small hooves on the tip of the first joint of
the toes; and a sort of web passes across the cleft, as in geese.
The foot is fleshy underneath, like that of the bear; so that, when
the animal goes to war, they protect its feet, when they get sore,
with sandals.

The legs of all quadrupeds are bony, sinewy, and fleshless; and
in point of fact such is the case with all animals that are
furnished with feet, with the exception of man. They are also
unfurnished with buttocks; and this last point is plain in an especial
degree in birds. It is the reverse with man; for there is scarcely any
part of the body in which man is so fleshy as in the buttock, the
thigh, and the calf; for the part of the leg called gastroenemia or is
fleshy.

Of blooded and viviparous quadrupeds some have the foot cloven
into many parts, as is the case with the hands and feet of man (for
some animals, by the way, are many-toed, as the lion, the dog, and the
pard); others have feet cloven in twain, and instead of nails have
hooves, as the sheep, the goat, the deer, and the hippopotamus; others
are uncloven of foot, such for instance as the solid-hooved animals,
the horse and the mule. Swine are either cloven-footed or
uncloven-footed; for there are in Illyria and in Paeonia and elsewhere
solid-hooved swine. The cloven-footed animals have two clefts
behind; in the solid-hooved this part is continuous and undivided.

Furthermore, of animals some are horned, and some are not so.
The great majority of the horned animals are cloven-footed, as the ox,
the stag, the goat; and a solid-hooved animal with a pair of horns has
never yet been met with. But a few animals are known to be
singled-horned and single-hooved, as the Indian ass; and one, to wit
the oryx, is single horned and cloven-hooved.

Of all solid-hooved animals the Indian ass alone has an astragalus
or huckle-bone; for the pig, as was said above, is either solid-hooved
or cloven-footed, and consequently has no well-formed huckle-bone.
Of the cloven footed many are provided with a huckle-bone. Of the
many-fingered or many-toed, no single one has been observed to have
a huckle-bone, none of the others any more than man. The lynx,
however, has something like a hemiastragal, and the lion something
resembling the sculptor's 'labyrinth'. All the animals that have a
huckle-bone have it in the hinder legs. They have also the bone placed
straight up in the joint; the upper part, outside; the lower part,
inside; the sides called Coa turned towards one another, the sides
called Chia outside, and the keraiae or 'horns' on the top. This,
then, is the position of the hucklebone in the case of all animals
provided with the part.

Some animals are, at one and the same time, furnished with a mane
and furnished also with a pair of horns bent in towards one another,
as is the bison (or aurochs), which is found in Paeonia and Maedica.
But all animals that are horned are quadrupedal, except in cases where
a creature is said metaphorically, or by a figure of speech, to have
horns; just as the Egyptians describe the serpents found in the
neighbourhood of Thebes, while in point of fact the creatures have
merely protuberances on the head sufficiently large to suggest such an
epithet.

Of horned animals the deer alone has a horn, or antler, hard
and solid throughout. The horns of other animals are hollow for a
certain distance, and solid towards the extremity. The hollow part
is derived from the skin, but the core round which this is wrapped-the
hard part-is derived from the bones; as is the case with the horns
of oxen. The deer is the only animal that sheds its horns, and it does
so annually, after reaching the age of two years, and again renews
them. All other animals retain their horns permanently, unless the
horns be damaged by accident.

Again, with regard to the breasts and the generative organs,
animals differ widely from one another and from man. For instance, the
breasts of some animals are situated in front, either in the chest
or near to it, and there are in such cases two breasts and two
teats, as is the case with man and the elephant, as previously stated.
For the elephant has two breasts in the region of the axillae; and the
female elephant has two breasts insignificant in size and in no way
proportionate to the bulk of the entire frame, in fact, so
insignificant as to be invisible in a sideways view; the males also
have breasts, like the females, exceedingly small. The she-bear has
four breasts. Some animals have two breasts, but situated near the
thighs, and teats, likewise two in number, as the sheep; others have
four teats, as the cow. Some have breasts neither in the chest nor
at the thighs, but in the belly, as the dog and pig; and they have a
considerable number of breasts or dugs, but not all of equal size.
Thus the shepard has four dugs in the belly, the lioness two, and
others more. The she-camel, also, has two dugs and four teats, like
the cow. Of solid-hooved animals the males have no dugs, excepting
in the case of males that take after the mother, which phenomenon is
observable in horses.

Of male animals the genitals of some are external, as is the case
with man, the horse, and most other creatures; some are internal, as
with the dolphin. With those that have the organ externally placed,
the organ in some cases is situated in front, as in the cases
already mentioned, and of these some have the organ detached, both
penis and testicles, as man; others have penis and testicles closely
attached to the belly, some more closely, some less; for this organ is
not detached in the wild boar nor in the horse.

The penis of the elephant resembles that of the horse; compared
with the size of the animal it is disproportionately small; the
testicles are not visible, but are concealed inside in the vicinity of
the kidneys; and for this reason the male speedily gives over in the
act of intercourse. The genitals of the female are situated where
the udder is in sheep; when she is in heat, she draws the organ back
and exposes it externally, to facilitate the act of intercourse for
the male; and the organ opens out to a considerable extent.

With most animals the genitals have the position above
assigned; but some animals discharge their urine backwards, as the
lynx, the lion, the camel, and the hare. Male animals differ from
one another, as has been said, in this particular, but all female
animals are retromingent: even the female elephant like other animals,
though she has the privy part below the thighs.

In the male organ itself there is a great diversity. For in some
cases the organ is composed of flesh and gristle, as in man; in such
cases, the fleshy part does not become inflated, but the gristly
part is subject to enlargement. In other cases, the organ is
composed of fibrous tissue, as with the camel and the deer; in other
cases it is bony, as with the fox, the wolf, the marten, and the
weasel; for this organ in the weasel has a bone.

When man has arrived at maturity, his upper part is smaller
than the lower one, but with all other blooded animals the reverse
holds good. By the 'upper' part we mean all extending from the head
down to the parts used for excretion of residuum, and by the 'lower'
part else. With animals that have feet the hind legs are to be rated
as the lower part in our comparison of magnitudes, and with animals
devoid of feet, the tail, and the like.

When animals arrive at maturity, their properties are as above
stated; but they differ greatly from one another in their growth
towards maturity. For instance, man, when young, has his upper part
larger than the lower, but in course of growth he comes to reverse
this condition; and it is owing to this circumstance that-an
exceptional instance, by the way-he does not progress in early life as
he does at maturity, but in infancy creeps on all fours; but some
animals, in growth, retain the relative proportion of the parts, as
the dog. Some animals at first have the upper part smaller and the
lower part larger, and in course of growth the upper part gets to be
the larger, as is the case with the bushy-tailed animals such as the
horse; for in their case there is never, subsequently to birth, any
increase in the part extending from the hoof to the haunch.

Again, in respect to the teeth, animals differ greatly both
from one another and from man. All animals that are quadrupedal,
blooded and viviparous, are furnished with teeth; but, to begin
with, some are double-toothed (or fully furnished with teeth in both
jaws), and some are not. For instance, horned quadrupeds are not
double-toothed; for they have not got the front teeth in the upper
jaw; and some hornless animals, also, are not double toothed, as the
camel. Some animals have tusks, like the boar, and some have not.
Further, some animals are saw-toothed, such as the lion, the pard, and
the dog; and some have teeth that do not interlock but have flat
opposing crowns, as the horse and the ox; and by 'saw-toothed' we mean
such animals as interlock the sharp-pointed teeth in one jaw between
the sharp-pointed ones in the other. No animal is there that possesses
both tusks and horns, nor yet do either of these structures exist in
any animal possessed of 'saw-teeth'. The front teeth are usually
sharp, and the back ones blunt. The seal is saw-toothed throughout,
inasmuch as he is a sort of link with the class of fishes; for
fishes are almost all saw-toothed.

No animal of these genera is provided with double rows of
teeth. There is, however, an animal of the sort, if we are to
believe Ctesias. He assures us that the Indian wild beast called the
'martichoras' has a triple row of teeth in both upper and lower jaw;
that it is as big as a lion and equally hairy, and that its feet
resemble those of the lion; that it resembles man in its face and
ears; that its eyes are blue, and its colour vermilion; that its
tail is like that of the land-scorpion; that it has a sting in the
tail, and has the faculty of shooting off arrow-wise the spines that
are attached to the tail; that the sound of its voice is a something
between the sound of a pan-pipe and that of a trumpet; that it can run
as swiftly as deer, and that it is savage and a man-eater.

Man sheds his teeth, and so do other animals, as the horse, the
mule, and the ass. And man sheds his front teeth; but there is no
instance of an animal that sheds its molars. The pig sheds none of its
teeth at all.

2

With regard to dogs some doubts are entertained, as some contend
that they shed no teeth whatever, and others that they shed the
canines, but those alone; the fact being, that they do shed their
teeth like man, but that the circumstance escapes observation, owing
to the fact that they never shed them until equivalent teeth have
grown within the gums to take the place of the shed ones. We shall
be justified in supposing that the case is similar with wild beasts in
general; for they are said to shed their canines only. Dogs can be
distinguished from one another, the young from the old, by their
teeth; for the teeth in young dogs are white and sharp-pointed; in old
dogs, black and blunt.

3

In this particular, the horse differs entirely from animals in
general: for, generally speaking, as animals grow older their teeth
get blacker, but the horse's teeth grow whiter with age.

The so-called 'canines' come in between the sharp teeth and the
broad or blunt ones, partaking of the form of both kinds; for they are
broad at the base and sharp at the tip.

Males have more teeth than females in the case of men, sheep,
goats, and swine; in the case of other animals observations have not
yet been made: but the more teeth they have the more long-lived are
they, as a rule, while those are short-lived in proportion that have
teeth fewer in number and thinly set.

4

The last teeth to come in man are molars called 'wisdom-teeth',
which come at the age of twenty years, in the case of both sexes.
Cases have been known in women upwards. of eighty years old where at
the very close of life the wisdom-teeth have come up, causing great
pain in their coming; and cases have been known of the like phenomenon
in men too. This happens, when it does happen, in the case of people
where the wisdom-teeth have not come up in early years.

5

The elephant has four teeth on either side, by which it munches
its food, grinding it like so much barley-meal, and, quite apart
from these, it has its great teeth, or tusks, two in number.