No More Learning

In the case of female animals not pregnant a small quantity
of milk has been procured by the 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 an
irritation amounting to pain; hereupon they milk 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 he-goat was milked by its dugs
(for it has, by the way, 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 supernatural and fraught with
omen as to futurity, 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, 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 abundant. The best milk for clotting is not
only that where the cheese is most abundant, but that also where the
cheese is driest.

Now some animals produce not only enough milk to rear their young,
but a superfluous amount for general use, 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, by the way, and milk
of the she-ass are mixed in with Phrygian cheese. And there is more
cheese in cow's milk than in goat's milk; for graziers tell us that
from nine gallons of goat's milk they can 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 withal, and no
superfluous amount and none fitted for cheese-making, as is the case
with all animals that have more than two breasts or dugs; for with
none of such animals is milk 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 washed and
rinsed, and the rinsing put into a little milk, and if this be mixed
with other milk it curdles Rennet is a kind of milk, for it is found
in the stomach of the animal while it is yet suckling.

21

Rennet then consists of milk with an admixture of fire, 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 the longer it is kept; and cow's
rennet, after being kept a good while, 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 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 of the ass, all the
quadrupeds in Epirus are of large size, and relatively, the cattle and
the dogs are the largest. Now large animals require abundant
pasture, and this country supplies just such pasturage, and also
supplies diverse 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.

Some pasture quenches milk, as Median grass or lucerne, and that
especially in ruminants; other feeding renders it copious, as
cytisus and vetch; only, by the way, cytisus in flower is not
recommended, as it has burning properties, and vetch is not good for
pregnant kine, as it causes increased difficulty in parturition.
However, beasts that have access to good feeding, as they are
benefited thereby in regard to pregnancy, so also being well nourished
produce milk in plenty. Some of the leguminous plants bring milk in
abundance, as for instance, a large feed of beans with the ewe, the
common she-goat, the cow, and the small she-goat; for this feeding
makes them drop their udders. And, by the way, the pointing of the
udder to the ground before parturition is a sign of there being plenty
of milk coming.

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 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 swarthy women give healthier milk than fair
ones. Milk that is richest in cheese is the most nutritious, but
milk with a scanty supply of cheese 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 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.

Sperm issues from the body white and consistent, if it be healthy,
and after 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
compact. Sperm capable of impregnating or of fructification sinks in
water; sperm incapable Of producing that result dissolves away. But
there is no truth in what Ctesias has written about the sperm of the
elephant.

Book IV

1

We have now treated, in regard to blooded animals of the parts
they have in common and of the parts peculiar to this genus or that,
and of the parts both composite and simple, whether without or within.
We now proceed to treat of animals devoid of blood. These animals
are divided into several genera.

One genus consists of so-called 'molluscs'; and by the term
'mollusc' we mean an animal that, being devoid of blood, has its
flesh-like substance outside, and any hard structure it may happen
to have, inside-in this respect resembling the red-blooded animals,
such as the genus of the cuttle-fish.

Another genus is that of the malacostraca. These are animals
that have their hard structure outside, and their soft or fleshlike
substance inside, and the hard substance belonging to them has to be
crushed rather than shattered; and to this genus belongs the
crawfish and the crab.

A third genus is that of the ostracoderms or 'testaceans'. These
are animals that have their hard substance outside and their
flesh-like substance within, and their hard substance can be shattered
but not crushed; and to this genus belong the snail and the oyster.

The fourth genus is that of insects; and this genus comprehends
numerous and dissimilar species. Insects are creatures that, as the
name implies, have nicks either on the belly or on the back, or on
both belly and back, and have no one part distinctly osseous and no
one part distinctly fleshy, but are throughout a something
intermediate between bone and flesh; that is to say, their body is
hard all through, inside and outside. Some insects are wingless,
such as the iulus and the centipede; some are winged, as the bee,
the cockchafer, and the wasp; and the same kind is in some cases
both winged and wingless, as the ant and the glow-worm.

In molluscs the external parts are as follows: in the first place,
the so-called feet; secondly, and attached to these, the head;
thirdly, the mantle-sac, containing the internal parts, and
incorrectly designated by some writers the head; and, fourthly, fins
round about the sac. (See diagram. ) In all molluscs the head is found
to be between the feet and the belly. All molluscs are furnished with
eight feet, and in all cases these feet are severally furnished with
a double row of suckers, with the exception of one single species of
poulpe or octopus. The sepia, the small calamary and the large
calamary have an exceptional organ in a pair of long arms or
tentacles, having at their extremities a portion rendered rough by
the presence of two rows of suckers; and with these arms or tentacles
they apprehend their food and draw it into their mouths, and in
stormy weather they cling by them to a rock and sway about in the
rough water like ships lying at anchor. They swim by the aid of the
fins that they have about the sac. In all cases their feet are
furnished with suckers.

The octopus, by the way, uses his feelers either as feet or hands;
with the two which stand over his mouth he draws in food, and the last
of his feelers he employs in the act of copulation; and this last one,
by the way, is extremely sharp, is exceptional as being of a whitish
colour, and at its extremity is bifurcate; that is to say, it has an
additional something on the rachis, and by rachis is meant the
smooth surface or edge of the arm on the far side from the suckers.
(See diagram. )

In front of the sac and over the feelers they have a hollow
tube, by means of which they discharge any sea-water that they may
have taken into the sac of the body in the act of receiving food by
the mouth. They can shift the tube from side to side, and by means
of it they discharge the black liquid peculiar to the animal.

Stretching out its feet, it swims obliquely in the direction of
the so-called head, and by this mode of swimming it can see in
front, for its eyes are at the top, and in this attitude it has its
mouth at the rear. The 'head', while the creature is alive, is hard,
and looks as though it were inflated. It apprehends and retains
objects by means of the under-surface of its arms, and the membrane in
between its feet is kept at full tension; if the animal get on to
the sand it can no longer retain its hold.

There is a difference between the octopus and the other molluscs
above mentioned: the body of the octopus is small, and his feet are
long, whereas in the others the body is large and the feet short; so
short, in fact, that they cannot walk on them. Compared with one
another, the teuthis, or calamary, is long-shaped, and the sepia
flat-shaped; and of the calamaries the so-called teuthus is much
bigger than the teuthis; for teuthi have been found as much as five
ells long. Some sepiae attain a length of two ells, and the feelers of
the octopus are sometimes as long, or even longer. The species teuthus
is not a numerous one; the teuthus differs from the teuthis in
shape; that is, the sharp extremity of the teuthus is broader than
that of the other, and, further, the encircling fin goes all round the
trunk, whereas it is in part lacking in the teuthis; both animals
are pelagic.

In all cases the head comes after the feet, in the middle of the
feet that are called arms or feelers. There is here situated a
mouth, and two teeth in the mouth; and above these two large eyes, and
betwixt the eyes a small cartilage enclosing a small brain; and within
the mouth it has a minute organ of a fleshy nature, and this it uses
as a tongue, for no other tongue does it possess. Next after this,
on the outside, is what looks like a sac; the flesh of which it is
made is divisible, not in long straight strips, but in annular flakes;
and all molluscs have a cuticle around this flesh. Next after or at
the back of the mouth comes a long and narrow oesophagus, and close
after that a crop or craw, large and spherical, like that of a bird;
then comes the stomach, like the fourth stomach in ruminants; and
the shape of it resembles the spiral convolution in the trumpet-shell;
from the stomach there goes back again, in the direction of the mouth,
thin gut, and the gut is thicker than the oesophagus. (See diagram. )

Molluscs have no viscera, but they have what is called a
mytis, and on it a vessel containing a thick black juice; in the sepia
or cuttle-fish this vessel is the largest, and this juice is most
abundant. All molluscs, when frightened, discharge such a juice, but
the discharge is most copious in the cuttle-fish. The mytis, then,
is situated under the mouth, and the oesophagus runs through it; and
down below at the point to which the gut extends is the vesicle of the
black juice, and the animal has the vesicle and the gut enveloped in
one and the same membrane, and by the same membrane, same orifice
discharges both the black juice and the residuum. The animals have
also certain hair-like or furry growths in their bodies.

In the sepia, the teuthis, and the teuthus the hard parts are
within, towards the back of the body; those parts are called in one
the sepium, and in the other the 'sword'. They differ from one
another, for the sepium in the cuttle-fish and teuthus is hard and
flat, being a substance intermediate between bone and fishbone, with
(in part) a crumbling, spongy texture, but in the teuthis the part
is thin and somewhat gristly. These parts differ from one another in
shape, as do also the bodies of the animals. The octopus has nothing
hard of this kind in its interior, but it has a gristly substance
round the head, which, if the animal grows old, becomes hard.

The females differ from the males. The males have a duct in
under the oesophagus, extending from the mantle-cavity to the lower
portion of the sac, and there is an organ to which it attaches,
resembling a breast; (see diagram) in the female there are two of
these organs, situated higher up; (see diagram) with both sexes there
are underneath these organs certain red formations. The egg of the
octopus is single, uneven on its surface, and of large size; the
fluid substance within is all uniform in colour, smooth, and in
colour white; the size of the egg is so great as to fill a vessel
larger than the creature's head. The sepia has two sacs, and inside
them a number of eggs, like in appearance to white hailstones. For
the disposition of these parts I must refer to my anatomical
diagrams.

The males of all these animals differ from the females, and the
difference between the sexes is most marked in the sepia; for the back
of the trunk, which is blacker than the belly, is rougher in the
male than in the female, and in the male the back is striped, and
the rump is more sharply pointed.

There are several species of the octopus. One keeps close to the
surface, and is the largest of them all, and near the shore the size
is larger than in deep water; and there are others, small,
variegated in colour, which are not articles of food. There are two
others, one called the heledone, which differs from its congeners in
the length of its legs and in having one row of suckers-all the rest
of the molluscs having two,-the other nicknamed variously the
bolitaina or the 'onion,' and the ozolis or the 'stinkard'.

There are two others found in shells resembling those of the
testaceans. One of them is nicknamed by some persons the nautilus or
the pontilus, or by others the 'polypus' egg'; and the shell of this
creature is something like a separate valve of a deep scallop-shell.
This polypus lives very often near to the shore, and is apt to be
thrown up high and dry on the beach; under these circumstances it is
found with its shell detached, and dies by and by on dry land. These
polypods are small, and are shaped, as regards the form of their
bodies, like the bolbidia. There is another polypus that is placed
within a shell like a snail; it never comes out of the shell, but
lives inside the shell like the snail, and from time to time protrudes
its feelers.

So much for molluscs.

2

With regard to the Malacostraca or crustaceans, one species is
that of the crawfish, and a second, resembling the first, is that of
the lobster; the lobster differing from the crawfish in having
claws, and in a few other respects as well. Another species is that of
the carid, and another is that of the crab, and there are many kinds
both of carid and of crab.

Of carids there are the so-called cyphae, or 'hunch-backs', the
crangons, or squillae, and the little kind, or shrimps, and the little
kind do not develop into a larger kind.

Of the crab, the varieties are indefinite and incalculable. The
largest of all crabs is one nicknamed Maia, a second variety is the
pagarus and the crab of Heracleotis, and a third variety is the
fresh-water crab; the other varieties are smaller in size and
destitute of special designations. In the neighbourhood of Phoenice
there are found on the beach certain crabs that are nicknamed the
'horsemen', from their running with such speed that it is difficult to
overtake them; these crabs, when opened, are usually found empty,
and this emptiness may be put down to insufficiency of nutriment.
(There is another variety, small like the crab, but resembling in
shape the lobster. ) All these animals, as has been stated, have
their hard and shelly part outside, where the skin is in other
animals, and the fleshy part inside; and the belly is more or less
provided with lamellae, or little flaps, and the female here
deposits her spawn.

The crawfishes have five feet on either side, including the
claws at the end; and in like manner the crabs have ten feet in all,
including the claws. Of the carids, the hunch-backed, or prawns,
have five feet on either side, which are sharp-pointed-those towards
the head; and five others on either side in the region of the belly,
with their extremities flat; they are devoid of flaps on the under
side such as the crawfish has, but on the back they resemble the
crawfish. (See diagram. )It is very different with the crangon, or
squilla; it has four front legs on either side, then three thin ones
close behind on either side, and the rest of the body is for the most
part devoid of feet. (See diagram. ) Of all these animals the feet
bend out obliquely, as is the case with insects; and the claws, where
claws are found, turn inwards. The crawfish has a tail, and five fins
on it; and the round-backed carid has a tail and four fins; the
squilla also has fins at the tail on either side. In the case of both
the hump-backed carid and the squilla the middle art of the tail is
spinous: only that in the squilla the part is flattened and in the
carid it is sharp-pointed. Of all animals of this genus the crab is
the only one devoid of a rump; and, while the body of the carid and
the crawfish is elongated, that of the crab is rotund.

In the crawfish the male differs from the female: in the female
the first foot is bifurcate, in the male it is undivided; the
belly-fins in the female are large and overlapping on the neck,
while in the male they are smaller and do not overlap; and, further,
on the last feet of the male there are spur-like projections, large
and sharp, which projections in the female are small and smooth.
Both male and female have two antennae in front of the eyes, large and
rough, and other antennae underneath, small and smooth. The eyes of
all these creatures are hard and beady, and can move either to the
inner or to the outer side. The eyes of most crabs have a similar
facility of movement, or rather, in the crab this facility is
developed in a higher degree. (See diagram. )

The lobster is all over grey-coloured, with a mottling of black.
Its under or hinder feet, up to the big feet or claws, are eight in
number; then come the big feet, far larger and flatter at the tips
than the same organs in the crawfish; and these big feet or claws
are exceptional in their structure, for the right claw has the extreme
flat surface long and thin, while the left claw has the
corresponding surface thick and round. Each of the two claws,
divided at the end like a pair of jaws, has both below and above a set
of teeth: only that in the right claw they are all small and
saw-shaped, while in the left claw those at the apex are saw-shaped
and those within are molar-shaped, these latter being, in the under
part of the cleft claw, four teeth close together, and in the upper
part three teeth, not close together. Both right and left claws have
the upper part mobile, and bring it to bear against the lower one, and
both are curved like bandy-legs, being thereby adapted for
apprehension and constriction. Above the two large claws come two
others, covered with hair, a little underneath the mouth; and
underneath these the gill-like formations in the region of the
mouth, hairy and numerous. These organs the animal keeps in
perpetual motion; and the two hairy feet it bends and draws in towards
its mouth. The feet near the mouth are furnished also with delicate
outgrowing appendages. Like the crawfish, the lobster has two teeth,
or mandibles, and above these teeth are its antennae, long, but
shorter and finer by far than those of the crawfish, and then four
other antennae similar in shape, but shorter and finer than the
others. Over these antennae come the eyes, small and short, not
large like the eyes of the crawfish. Over the eyes is a peaky rough
projection like a forehead, larger than the same part in the crawfish;
in fact, the frontal part is more pointed and the thorax is much
broader in the lobster than in the crawfish, and the body in general
is smoother and more full of flesh. Of the eight feet, four are
bifurcate at the extremities, and four are undivided. The region of
the so-called neck is outwardly divided into five divisions, and
sixthly comes the flattened portion at the end, and this portion has
five flaps, or tail-fins; and the inner or under parts, into which the
female drops her spawn, are four in number and hairy, and on each of
the aforesaid parts is a spine turned outwards, short and straight.
The body in general and the region of the thorax in particular are
smooth, not rough as in the crawfish; but on the large claws the outer
portion has larger spines. There is no apparent difference between the
male and female, for they both have one claw, whichever it may be,
larger than the other, and neither male nor female is ever found
with both claws of the same size.

All crustaceans take in water close by the mouth. The crab
discharges it, closing up, as it does so, a small portion of the same,
and the crawfish discharges it by way of the gills; and, by the way,
the gill-shaped organs in the crawfish are very numerous.

The following properties are common to all crustaceans: they
have in all cases two teeth, or mandibles (for the front teeth in
the crawfish are two in number), and in all cases there is in the
mouth a small fleshy structure serving for a tongue; and the stomach
is close to the mouth, only that the crawfish has a little
oesophagus in front of the stomach, and there is a straight gut
attached to it. This gut, in the crawfish and its congeners, and in
the carids, extends in a straight line to the tail, and terminates
where the animal discharges the residuum, and where the female
deposits her spawn; in the crab it terminates where the flap is
situated, and in the centre of the flap. (And by the way, in all these
animals the spawn is deposited outside. ) Further, the female has the
place for the spawn running along the gut. And, again, all these
animals have, more or less, an organ termed the 'mytis', or
'poppyjuice'.

We must now proceed to review their several differentiae.

The crawfish then, as has been said, has two teeth, large and
hollow, in which is contained a juice resembling the mytis, and in
between the teeth is a fleshy substance, shaped like a tongue. After
the mouth comes a short oesophagus, and then a membranous stomach
attached to the oesophagus, and at the orifice Of the stomach are
three teeth, two facing one another and a third standing by itself
underneath. Coming off at a bend from the stomach is a gut, simple and
of equal thickness throughout the entire length of the body until it
reaches the anal vent.

These are all common properties of the crawfish, the carid, and
the crab; for the crab, be it remembered, has two teeth.

Again, the crawfish has a duct attached all the way from the chest
to the anal vent; and this duct is connected with the ovary in the
female, and with the seminal ducts in the male. This passage is
attached to the concave surface of the flesh in such a way that the
flesh is in betwixt the duct and the gut; for the gut is related to
the convexity and this duct to the concavity, pretty much as is
observed in quadrupeds. And the duct is identical in both the sexes;
that is to say, the duct in both is thin and white, and charged with a
sallow-coloured moisture, and is attached to the chest.

(The following are the properties of the egg and of the convolutes
in the carid. )

The male, by the way, differs from the female in regard to its
flesh, in having in connexion with the chest two separate and distinct
white substances, resembling in colour and conformation the
tentacles of the cuttle-fish, and they are convoluted like the 'poppy'
or quasi-liver of the trumpet-shell. These organs have their
starting-point in 'cotyledons' or papillae, which are situated under
the hindmost feet; and hereabouts the flesh is red and blood-coloured,
but is slippery to the touch and in so far unlike flesh. Off from
the convolute organ at the chest branches off another coil about as
thick as ordinary twine; and underneath there are two granular seminal
bodies in juxta-position with the gut. These are the organs of the
male. The female has red-coloured eggs, which are adjacent to the
stomach and to each side of the gut all along to the fleshy parts,
being enveloped in a thin membrane.

Such are the parts, internal and external, of the carid.

3

The inner organs of sanguineous animals happen to have specific
designations; for these animals have in all cases the inner viscera,
but this is not the case with the bloodless animals, but what they
have in common with red-blooded animals is the stomach, the
oesophagus, and the gut.

With regard to the crab, it has already been stated that it has
claws and feet, and their position has been set forth; furthermore,
for the most part they have the right claw bigger and stronger than
the left. It has also been stated' that in general the eyes of the
crab look sideways. Further, the trunk of the crab's body is single
and undivided, including its head and any other part it may possess.
Some crabs have eyes placed sideways on the upper part, immediately
under the back, and standing a long way apart, and some have their
eyes in the centre and close together, like the crabs of Heracleotis
and the so-called 'grannies'. The mouth lies underneath the eyes,
and inside it there are two teeth, as is the case with the crawfish,
only that in the crab the teeth are not rounded but long; and over the
teeth are two lids, and in betwixt them are structures such as the
crawfish has besides its teeth. The crab takes in water near by the
mouth, using the lids as a check to the inflow, and discharges the
water by two passages above the mouth, closing by means of the lids
the way by which it entered; and the two passage-ways are underneath
the eyes. When it has taken in water it closes its mouth by means of
both lids, and ejects the water in the way above described. Next after
the teeth comes the oesophagus, very short, so short in fact that
the stomach seems to come straightway after the mouth. Next after
the oesophagus comes the stomach, two-horned, to the centre of which
is attached a simple and delicate gut; and the gut terminates
outwards, at the operculum, as has been previously stated. (The crab
has the parts in between the lids in the neighbourhood of the teeth
similar to the same parts in the crawfish. ) Inside the trunk is a
sallow juice and some few little bodies, long and white, and others
spotted red. The male differs from the female in size and breadth, and
in respect of the ventral flap; for this is larger in the female
than in the male, and stands out further from the trunk, and is more
hairy (as is the case also with the female in the crawfish).

So much, then, for the organs of the malacostraca or crustacea.

4

With the ostracoderma, or testaceans, such as the land-snails
and the sea-snails, and all the 'oysters' so-called, and also with the
sea-urchin genus, the fleshy part, in such as have flesh, is similarly
situated to the fleshy part in the crustaceans; in other words, it
is inside the animal, and the shell is outside, and there is no hard
substance in the interior. As compared with one another the testaceans
present many diversities both in regard to their shells and to the
flesh within. Some of them have no flesh at all, as the sea-urchin;
others have flesh, but it is inside and wholly hidden, except the
head, as in the land-snails, and the so-called cocalia, and, among
pelagic animals, in the purple murex, the ceryx or trumpet-shell,
the sea-snail, and the spiral-shaped testaceans in general. Of the
rest, some are bivalved and some univalved; and by 'bivalves' I mean
such as are enclosed within two shells, and by 'univalved' such as are
enclosed within a single shell, and in these last the fleshy part is
exposed, as in the case of the limpet. Of the bivalves, some can
open out, like the scallop and the mussel; for all such shells are
grown together on one side and are separate on the other, so as to
open and shut. Other bivalves are closed on both sides alike, like the
solen or razor-fish. Some testaceans there are, that are entirely
enveloped in shell and expose no portion of their flesh outside, as
the tethya or ascidians.

Again, in regard to the shells themselves, the testaceans
present differences when compared with one another. Some are
smooth-shelled, like the solen, the mussel, and some clams, viz. those
that are nicknamed 'milkshells', while others are rough-shelled,
such as the pool-oyster or edible oyster, the pinna, and certain
species of cockles, and the trumpet shells; and of these some are
ribbed, such as the scallop and a certain kind of clam or cockle,
and some are devoid of ribs, as the pinna and another species of clam.
Testaceans also differ from one another in regard to the thickness
or thinness of their shell, both as regards the shell in its
entirety and as regards specific parts of the shell, for instance, the
lips; for some have thin-lipped shells, like the mussel, and others
have thick-lipped shells, like the oyster. A property common to the
above mentioned, and, in fact, to all testaceans, is the smoothness of
their shells inside. Some also are capable of motion, like the
scallop, and indeed some aver that scallops can actually fly, owing to
the circumstance that they often jump right out of the apparatus by
means of which they are caught; others are incapable of motion and are
attached fast to some external object, as is the case with the
pinna. All the spiral-shaped testaceans can move and creep, and even
the limpet relaxes its hold to go in quest of food. In the case of the
univalves and the bivalves, the fleshy substance adheres to the
shell so tenaciously that it can only be removed by an effort; in
the case of the stromboids, it is more loosely attached. And a
peculiarity of all the stromboids is the spiral twist of the shell
in the part farthest away from the head; they are also furnished
from birth with an operculum. And, further, all stromboid testaceans
have their shells on the right hand side, and move not in the
direction of the spire, but the opposite way. Such are the diversities
observed in the external parts of these animals.

The internal structure is almost the same in all these
creatures, and in the stromboids especially; for it is in size that
these latter differ from one another, and in accidents of the nature
of excess or defect. And there is not much difference between most
of the univalves and bivalves; but, while those that open and shut
differ from one another but slightly, they differ considerably from
such as are incapable of motion. And this will be illustrated more
satisfactorily hereafter.

The spiral-shaped testaceans are all similarly constructed, but
differ from one another, as has been said, in the way of excess or
defect (for the larger species have larger and more conspicuous
organs, and the smaller have smaller and less conspicuous), and,
furthermore, in relative hardness or softness, and in other such
accidents or properties. All the stromboids, for instance, have the
flesh that extrudes from the mouth of the shell, hard and stiff;
some more, and some less. From the middle of this protrudes the head
and two horns, and these horns are large in the large species, but
exceedingly minute in the smaller ones. The head protrudes from them
all in the same way; and, if the animal be alarmed, the head draws
in again. Some of these creatures have a mouth and teeth, as the
snail; teeth sharp, and small, and delicate. They have also a
proboscis just like that of the fly; and the proboscis is
tongue-shaped. The ceryx and the purple murex have this organ firm and
solid; and just as the myops, or horse-fly, and the oestrus, or
gadfly, can pierce the skin of a quadruped, so is that proboscis
proportionately stronger in these testaceans; for they bore right
through the shells of other shell-fish on which they prey. The stomach
follows close upon the mouth, and, by the way, this organ in the snail
resembles a bird's crop.
Underneath come two white firm formations,
mastoid or papillary in form; and similar formations are found in
the cuttle-fish also, only that they are of a firmer consistency in
the cuttle-fish. After the stomach comes an oesophagus, simple and
long, extending to the poppy or quasi-liver, which is in the innermost
recess of the shell. All these statements may be verified in the
case of the purple murex and the ceryx by observation within the whorl
of the shell. What comes next to the oesophagus is the gut; in fact,
the gut is continuous with the oesophagus, and runs its whole length
uncomplicated to the outlet of the residuum. The gut has its point
of origin in the region of the coil of the mecon, or so-called
'poppy', and is wider hereabouts (for remember, the mecon is for the
most part a sort of excretion in all testaceans); it then takes a bend
and runs up again towards the fleshy part, and terminates by the
side of the head, where the animal discharges its residuum; and this
holds good in the case of all stromboid testaceans, whether
terrestrial or marine. From the stomach there is drawn in a parallel
direction with the oesophagus, in the larger snails, a long white duct
enveloped in a membrane, resembling in colour the mastoid formations
higher up; and in it are nicks or interruptions, as in the egg-mass of
the crawfish, only, by the way, the duct of which we are treating is
white and the egg-mass of the crawfish is red. This formation has no
outlet nor duct, but is enveloped in a thin membrane with a narrow
cavity in its interior. And from the gut downward extend black and
rough formations, in close connexion, something like the formations in
the tortoise, only not so black. Marine snails, also, have these
formations, and the white ones, only that the formations are smaller
in the smaller species.

The non-spiral univalves and bivalves are in some respect
similar in construction, and in some respects dissimilar, to the
spiral testaceans. They all have a head and horns, and a mouth, and
the organ resembling a tongue; but these organs, in the smaller
species, are indiscernible owing to the minuteness of these animals,
and some are indiscernible even in the larger species when dead, or
when at rest and motionless. They all have the mecon, or poppy, but
not all in the same place, nor of equal size, nor similarly open to
observation; thus, the limpets have this organ deep down in the bottom
of the shell, and the bivalves at the hinge connecting the two valves.
They also have in all cases the hairy growths or beards, in a circular
form, as in the scallops. And, with regard to the so-called 'egg',
in those that have it, when they have it, it is situated in one of the
semi-circles of the periphery, as is the case with the white formation
in the snail; for this white formation in the snail corresponds to the
so-called egg of which we are speaking. But all these organs, as has
been stated, are distinctly traceable in the larger species, while
in the small ones they are in some cases almost, and in others
altogether, indiscernible. Hence they are most plainly visible in
the large scallops; and these are the bivalves that have one valve
flat-shaped, like the lid of a pot. The outlet of the excretion is
in all these animals (save for the exception to be afterwards related)
on one side; for there is a passage whereby the excretion passes
out. (And, remember, the mecon or poppy, as has been stated, is an
excretion in all these animals-an excretion enveloped in a
membrane. ) The so-called egg has no outlet in any of these
creatures, but is merely an excrescence in the fleshy mass; and it
is not situated in the same region with the gut, but the 'egg' is
situated on the right-hand side and the gut on the left. Such are
the relations of the anal vent in most of these animals; but in the
case of the wild limpet (called by some the 'sea-ear'), the residuum
issues beneath the shell, for the shell is perforated to give an
outlet. In this particular limpet the stomach is seen coming after the
mouth, and the egg-shaped formations are discernible. But for the
relative positions of these parts you are referred to my Treatise on
Anatomy.

The so-called carcinium or hermit crab is in a way intermediate
between the crustaceans and the testaceans. In its nature it resembles
the crawfish kind, and it is born simple of itself, but by its habit
of introducing itself into a shell and living there it resembles the
testaceans, and so appears to partake of the characters of both kinds.
In shape, to give a simple illustration, it resembles a spider, only
that the part below the head and thorax is larger in this creature
than in the spider. It has two thin red horns, and underneath these
horns two long eyes, not retreating inwards, nor turning sideways like
the eyes of the crab, but protruding straight out; and underneath
these eyes the mouth, and round about the mouth several hair-like
growths, and next after these two bifurcate legs or claws, whereby
it draws in objects towards itself, and two other legs on either side,
and a third small one. All below the thorax is soft, and when opened
in dissection is found to be sallow-coloured within. From the mouth
there runs a single passage right on to the stomach, but the passage
for the excretions is not discernible. The legs and the thorax are
hard, but not so hard as the legs and the thorax of the crab. It
does not adhere to its shell like the purple murex and the ceryx,
but can easily slip out of it. It is longer when found in the shell of
the stromboids than when found in the shell of the neritae.

And, by the way, the animal found in the shell of the neritae is a
separate species, like to the other in most respects; but of its
bifurcate feet or claws, the right-hand one is small and the left-hand
one is large, and it progresses chiefly by the aid of this latter
and larger one. (In the shells of these animals, and in certain
others, there is found a parasite whose mode of attachment is similar.
The particular one which we have just described is named the
cyllarus. )

The nerites has a smooth large round shell, and resembles the
ceryx in shape, only the poppy-juice is, in its case, not black but
red. It clings with great force near the middle. In calm weather,
then, they go free afield, but when the wind blows the carcinia take
shelter against the rocks: the neritae themselves cling fast like
limpets; and the same is the case with the haemorrhoid or aporrhaid
and all others of the like kind. And, by the way, they cling to the
rock, when they turn back their operculum, for this operculum seems
like a lid; in fact this structure represents the one part, in the
stromboids, of that which in the bivalves is a duplicate shell. The
interior of the animal is fleshy, and the mouth is inside. And it is
the same with the haemorrhoid, the purple murex, and all suchlike
animals.

Such of the little crabs as have the left foot or claw the
bigger of the two are found in the neritae, but not in the stromboids.
are some snail-shells which have inside them creatures resembling
those little crayfish that are also found in fresh water. These
creatures, however, differ in having the part inside the shells But as
to the characters, you are referred to my Treatise on Anatomy.

5

The urchins are devoid of flesh, and this is a character
peculiar to them; and while they are in all cases empty and devoid
of any flesh within, they are in all cases furnished with the black
formations. There are several species of the urchin, and one of
these is that which is made use of for food; this is the kind in which
are found the so-called eggs, large and edible, in the larger and
smaller specimens alike; for even when as yet very small they are
provided with them. There are two other species, the spatangus, and
the so-called bryssus, these animals are pelagic and scarce.
Further, there are the echinometrae, or 'mother-urchins', the
largest in size of all the species. In addition to these there is
another species, small in size, but furnished with large hard
spines; it lives in the sea at a depth of several fathoms; and is used
by some people as a specific for cases of strangury. In the
neighbourhood of Torone there are sea-urchins of a white colour,
shells, spines, eggs and all, and that are longer than the ordinary
sea-urchin. The spine in this species is not large nor strong, but
rather limp; and the black formations in connexion with the mouth
are more than usually numerous, and communicate with the external
duct, but not with one another; in point of fact, the animal is in a
manner divided up by them. The edible urchin moves with greatest
freedom and most often; and this is indicated by the fact that these
urchins have always something or other on their spines.

All urchins are supplied with eggs, but in some of the species the
eggs are exceedingly small and unfit for food. Singularly enough,
the urchin has what we may call its head and mouth down below, and a
place for the issue of the residuum up above; (and this same
property is common to all stromboids and to limpets). For the food
on which the creature lives lies down below; consequently the mouth
has a position well adapted for getting at the food, and the excretion
is above, near to the back of the shell. The urchin has, also, five
hollow teeth inside, and in the middle of these teeth a fleshy
substance serving the office of a tongue. Next to this comes the
oesophagus, and then the stomach, divided into five parts, and
filled with excretion, all the five parts uniting at the anal vent,
where the shell is perforated for an outlet. Underneath the stomach,
in another membrane, are the so-called eggs, identical in number in
all cases, and that number is always an odd number, to wit five. Up
above, the black formations are attached to the starting-point of
the teeth, and they are bitter to the taste, and unfit for food. A
similar or at least an analogous formation is found in many animals;
as, for instance, in the tortoise, the toad, the frog, the stromboids,
and, generally, in the molluscs; but the formation varies here and
there in colour, and in all cases is altogether uneatable, or more
or less unpalatable. In reality the mouth-apparatus of the urchin is
continuous from one end to the other, but to outward appearance it
is not so, but looks like a horn lantern with the panes of horn left
out. The urchin uses its spines as feet; for it rests its weight on
these, and then moving shifts from place to place.

6

The so-called tethyum or ascidian has of all these animals the
most remarkable characteristics. It is the only mollusc that has its
entire body concealed within its shell, and the shell is a substance
intermediate between hide and shell, so that it cuts like a piece of
hard leather. It is attached to rocks by its shell, and is provided
with two passages placed at a distance from one another, very minute
and hard to see, whereby it admits and discharges the sea-water; for
it has no visible excretion (whereas of shell fish in general some
resemble the urchin in this matter of excretion, and others are
provided with the so-called mecon, or poppy-juice). If the animal be
opened, it is found to have, in the first place, a tendinous
membrane running round inside the shell-like substance, and within
this membrane is the flesh-like substance of the ascidian, not
resembling that in other molluscs; but this flesh, to which I now
allude, is the same in all ascidia. And this substance is attached
in two places to the membrane and the skin, obliquely; and at the
point of attachment the space is narrowed from side to side, where the
fleshy substance stretches towards the passages that lead outwards
through the shell; and here it discharges and admits food and liquid
matter, just as it would if one of the passages were a mouth and the
other an anal vent; and one of the passages is somewhat wider than the
other Inside it has a pair of cavities, one on either side, a small
partition separating them; and one of these two cavities contains
the liquid. The creature has no other organ whether motor or
sensory, nor, as was said in the case of the others, is it furnished
with any organ connected with excretion, as other shell-fish are.
The colour of the ascidian is in some cases sallow, and in other cases
red.

There is, furthermore, the genus of the sea-nettles, peculiar in
its way. The sea-nettle, or sea-anemone, clings to rocks like
certain of the testaceans, but at times relaxes its hold. It has no
shell, but its entire body is fleshy. It is sensitive to touch, and,
if you put your hand to it, it will seize and cling to it, as the
cuttlefish would do with its feelers, and in such a way as to make the
flesh of your hand swell up. Its mouth is in the centre of its body,
and it lives adhering to the rock as an oyster to its shell. If any
little fish come up against it it it clings to it; in fact, just as
I described it above as doing to your hand, so it does to anything
edible that comes in its way; and it feeds upon sea-urchins and
scallops. Another species of the sea-nettle roams freely abroad. The
sea-nettle appears to be devoid altogether of excretion, and in this
respect it resembles a plant.

Of sea-nettles there are two species, the lesser and more
edible, and the large hard ones, such as are found in the
neighbourhood of Chalcis. In winter time their flesh is firm, and
accordingly they are sought after as articles of food, but in summer
weather they are worthless, for they become thin and watery, and if
you catch at them they break at once into bits, and cannot be taken
off the rocks entire; and being oppressed by the heat they tend to
slip back into the crevices of the rocks.

So much for the external and the internal organs of molluscs,
crustaceans, and testaceans.

7

We now proceed to treat of insects in like manner. This genus
comprises many species, and, though several kinds are clearly
related to one another, these are not classified under one common
designation, as in the case of the bee, the drone, the wasp, and all
such insects, and again as in the case of those that have their
wings in a sheath or shard, like the cockchafer, the carabus or
stag-beetle, the cantharis or blister-beetle, and the like.

Insects have three parts common to them all; the head, the trunk
containing the stomach, and a third part in betwixt these two,
corresponding to what in other creatures embraces chest and back. In
the majority of insects this intermediate part is single; but in the
long and multipedal insects it has practically the same number of
segments as of nicks.

All insects when cut in two continue to live, excepting such as
are naturally cold by nature, or such as from their minute size
chill rapidly; though, by the way, wasps notwithstanding their small
size continue living after severance. In conjunction with the middle
portion either the head or the stomach can live, but the head cannot
live by itself. Insects that are long in shape and many-footed can
live for a long while after being cut in twain, and the severed
portions can move in either direction, backwards or forwards; thus,
the hinder portion, if cut off, can crawl either in the direction of
the section or in the direction of the tail, as is observed in the
scolopendra.

All insects have eyes, but no other organ of sense discernible,
except that some insects have a kind of a tongue corresponding to a
similar organ common to all testaceans; and by this organ such insects
taste and imbibe their food. In some insects this organ is soft; in
other insects it is firm; as it is, by the way, in the purple-fish,
among testaceans. In the horsefly and the gadfly this organ is hard,
and indeed it is hard in most insects. In point of fact, such
insects as have no sting in the rear use this organ as a weapon, (and,
by the way, such insects as are provided with this organ are
unprovided with teeth, with the exception of a few insects); the fly
by a touch can draw blood with this organ, and the gnat can prick or
sting with it.

Certain insects are furnished with prickers or stings. Some
insects have the sting inside, as the bee and the wasp, others
outside, as the scorpion; and, by the way, this is the only insect
furnished with a long tail. And, further, the scorpion is furnished
with claws, as is also the creature resembling a scorpion found within
the pages of books.

In addition to their other organs, flying insects are furnished
with wings. Some insects are dipterous or double-winged, as the fly;
others are tetrapterous or furnished with four wings, as the bee; and,
by the way, no insect with only two wings has a sting in the rear.
Again, some winged insects have a sheath or shard for their wings,
as the cockchafer; whereas in others the wings are unsheathed, as in
the bee. But in the case of all alike, flight is in no way modified by
tail-steerage, and the wing is devoid of quill-structure or division
of any kind.

Again, some insects have antennae in front of their eyes, as the
butterfly and the horned beetle. Such of them as have the power of
jumping have the hinder legs the longer; and these long hind-legs
whereby they jump bend backwards like the hind-legs of quadrupeds. All
insects have the belly different from the back; as, in fact, is the
case with all animals. The flesh of an insect's body is neither
shell-like nor is it like the internal substance of shell-covered
animals, nor is it like flesh in the ordinary sense of the term; but
it is a something intermediate in quality. Wherefore they have nor
spine, nor bone, nor sepia-bone, nor enveloping shell; but their
body by its hardness is its own protection and requires no
extraneous support. However, insects have a skin; but the skin is
exceedingly thin. These and such-like are the external organs of
insects.

Internally, next after the mouth, comes a gut, in the majority
of cases straight and simple down to the outlet of the residuum: but
in a few cases the gut is coiled. No insect is provided with any
viscera, or is supplied with fat; and these statements apply to all
animals devoid of blood. Some have a stomach also, and attached to
this the rest of the gut, either simple or convoluted as in the case
of the acris or grasshopper.

The tettix or cicada, alone of such creatures (and, in fact, alone
of all creatures), is unprovided with a mouth, but it is provided with
the tongue-like formation found in insects furnished with frontward
stings; and this formation in the cicada is long, continuous, and
devoid of any split; and by the aid of this the creature feeds on dew,
and on dew only, and in its stomach no excretion is ever found. Of the
cicada there are several kinds, and they differ from one another in
relative magnitude, and in this respect that the achetes or chirper is
provided with a cleft or aperture under the hypozoma and has in it a
membrane quite discernible, whilst the membrane is indiscernible in
the tettigonia.

Furthermore, there are some strange creatures to be found in the
sea, which from their rarity we are unable to classify. Experienced
fishermen affirm, some that they have at times seen in the sea animals
like sticks, black, rounded, and of the same thickness throughout;
others that they have seen creatures resembling shields, red in
colour, and furnished with fins packed close together; and others that
they have seen creatures resembling the male organ in shape and
size, with a pair of fins in the place of the testicles, and they aver
that on one occasion a creature of this description was brought up
on the end of a nightline.

So much then for the parts, external and internal, exceptional and
common, of all animals.

8

We now proceed to treat of the senses; for there are diversities
in animals with regard to the senses, seeing that some animals have
the use of all the senses, and others the use of a limited number of
them. The total number of the senses (for we have no experience of any
special sense not here included), is five: sight, hearing, smell,
taste, and touch.

Man, then, and all vivipara that have feet, and, further, all
red-blooded ovipara, appear to have the use of all the five senses,
except where some isolated species has been subjected to mutilation,
as in the case of the mole. For this animal is deprived of sight; it
has no eyes visible, but if the skin-a thick one, by the way-be
stripped off the head, about the place in the exterior where eyes
usually are, the eyes are found inside in a stunted condition,
furnished with all the parts found in ordinary eyes; that is to say,
we find there the black rim, and the fatty part surrounding it; but
all these parts are smaller than the same parts in ordinary visible
eyes. There is no external sign of the existence of these organs in
the mole, owing to the thickness of the skin drawn over them, so
that it would seem that the natural course of development were
congenitally arrested; (for extending from the brain at its junction
with the marrow are two strong sinewy ducts running past the sockets
of the eyes, and terminating at the upper eye-teeth). All the other
animals of the kinds above mentioned have a perception of colour and
of sound, and the senses of smell and taste; the fifth sense, that,
namely, of touch, is common to all animals whatsoever.

In some animals the organs of sense are plainly discernible; and
this is especially the case with the eyes. For animals have a
special locality for the eyes, and also a special locality for
hearing: that is to say, some animals have ears, while others have the
passage for sound discernible. It is the same with the sense of smell;
that is to say, some animals have nostrils, and others have only the
passages for smell, such as birds. It is the same also with the
organ of taste, the tongue. Of aquatic red-blooded animals, fishes
possess the organ of taste, namely the tongue, but it is in an
imperfect and amorphous form, in other words it is osseous and
undetached. In some fish the palate is fleshy, as in the fresh-water
carp, so that by an inattentive observer it might be mistaken for a
tongue.

There is no doubt but that fishes have the sense of taste, for a
great number of them delight in special flavours; and fishes freely
take the hook if it be baited with a piece of flesh from a tunny or
from any fat fish, obviously enjoying the taste and the eating of food
of this kind. Fishes have no visible organs for hearing or for
smell; for what might appear to indicate an organ for smell in the
region of the nostril has no communication with the brain. These
indications, in fact, in some cases lead nowhere, like blind alleys,
and in other cases lead only to the gills; but for all this fishes
undoubtedly hear and smell. For they are observed to run away from any
loud noise, such as would be made by the rowing of a galley, so as
to become easy of capture in their holes; for, by the way, though a
sound be very slight in the open air, it has a loud and alarming
resonance to creatures that hear under water. And this is shown in the
capture of the dolphin; for when the hunters have enclosed a shoal
of these fishes with a ring of their canoes, they set up from inside
the canoes a loud splashing in the water, and by so doing induce the
creatures to run in a shoal high and dry up on the beach, and so
capture them while stupefied with the noise. And yet, for all this,
the dolphin has no organ of hearing discernible. Furthermore, when
engaged in their craft, fishermen are particularly careful to make
no noise with oar or net; and after they have spied a shoal, they
let down their nets at a spot so far off that they count upon no noise
being likely to reach the shoal, occasioned either by oar or by the
surging of their boats through the water; and the crews are strictly
enjoined to preserve silence until the shoal has been surrounded. And,
at times, when they want the fish to crowd together, they adopt the
stratagem of the dolphin-hunter; in other words they clatter stones
together, that the fish may, in their fright, gather close into one
spot, and so they envelop them within their nets. (Before
surrounding them, then, they preserve silence, as was said; but, after
hemming the shoal in, they call on every man to shout out aloud and
make any kind of noise; for on hearing the noise and hubbub the fish
are sure to tumble into the nets from sheer fright. ) Further, when
fishermen see a shoal of fish feeding at a distance, disporting
themselves in calm bright weather on the surface of the water, if they
are anxious to descry the size of the fish and to learn what kind of a
fish it is, they may succeed in coming upon the shoal whilst yet
basking at the surface if they sail up without the slightest noise,
but if any man make a noise previously, the shoal will be seen to
scurry away in alarm. Again, there is a small river-fish called the
cottus or bullhead; this creature burrows under a rock, and fishers
catch it by clattering stones against the rock, and the fish,
bewildered at the noise, darts out of its hiding-place. From these
facts it is quite obvious that fishes can hear; and indeed some
people, from living near the sea and frequently witnessing such
phenomena, affirm that of all living creatures the fish is the
quickest of hearing. And, by the way, of all fishes the quickest of
hearing are the cestreus or mullet, the chremps, the labrax or
basse, the salpe or saupe, the chromis or sciaena, and such like.
Other fishes are less quick of hearing, and, as might be expected, are
more apt to be found living at the bottom of the sea.

The case is similar in regard to the sense of smell. Thus, as a
rule, fishes will not touch a bait that is not fresh, neither are they
all caught by one and the same bait, but they are severally caught
by baits suited to their several likings, and these baits they
distinguish by their sense of smell; and, by the way, some fishes
are attracted by malodorous baits, as the saupe, for instance, is
attracted by excrement. Again, a number of fishes live in caves; and
accordingly fishermen, when they want to entice them out, smear the
mouth of a cave with strong-smelling pickles, and the fish are Soon
attracted to the smell. And the eel is caught in a similar way; for
the fisherman lays down an earthen pot that has held pickles, after
inserting a 'weel' in the neck thereof. As a general rule, fishes
are especially attracted by savoury smells. For this reason, fishermen
roast the fleshy parts of the cuttle-fish and use it as bait on
account of its smell, for fish are peculiarly attracted by it; they
also bake the octopus and bait their fish-baskets or weels with it,
entirely, as they say, on account of its smell. Furthermore,
gregarious fishes, if fish washings or bilge-water be thrown
overboard, are observed to scud off to a distance, from apparent
dislike of the smell. And it is asserted that they can at once
detect by smell the presence of their own blood; and this faculty is
manifested by their hurrying off to a great distance whenever
fish-blood is spilt in the sea. And, as a general rule, if you bait
your weel with a stinking bait, the fish refuse to enter the weel or
even to draw near; but if you bait the weel with a fresh and savoury
bait, they come at once from long distances and swim into it. And
all this is particularly manifest in the dolphin; for, as was
stated, it has no visible organ of hearing, and yet it is captured
when stupefied with noise; and so, while it has no visible organ for
smell, it has the sense of smell remarkably keen. It is manifest,
then, that the animals above mentioned are in possession of all the
five senses.

All other animals may, with very few exceptions, be comprehended
within four genera: to wit, molluscs, crustaceans, testaceans, and
insects. Of these four genera, the mollusc, the crustacean, and the
insect have all the senses: at all events, they have sight, smell, and
taste. As for insects, both winged and wingless, they can detect the
presence of scented objects afar off, as for instance bees and
snipes detect the presence of honey at a distance; and do so
recognizing it by smell. Many insects are killed by the smell of
brimstone; ants, if the apertures to their dwellings be smeared with
powdered origanum and brimstone, quit their nests; and most insects
may be banished with burnt hart's horn, or better still by the burning
of the gum styrax. The cuttle-fish, the octopus, and the crawfish
may be caught by bait. The octopus, in fact, clings so tightly to
the rocks that it cannot be pulled off, but remains attached even when
the knife is employed to sever it; and yet, if you apply fleabane to
the creature, it drops off at the very smell of it. The facts are
similar in regard to taste. For the food that insects go in quest of
is of diverse kinds, and they do not all delight in the same flavours:
for instance, the bee never settles on a withered or wilted flower,
but on fresh and sweet ones; and the conops or gnat settles only on
acrid substances and not on sweet. The sense of touch, by the way,
as has been remarked, is common to all animals. Testaceans have the
senses of smell and taste. With regard to their possession of the
sense of smell, that is proved by the use of baits, e. g. in the case
of the purple-fish; for this creature is enticed by baits of rancid
meat, which it perceives and is attracted to from a great distance.
The proof that it possesses a sense of taste hangs by the proof of its
sense of smell; for whenever an animal is attracted to a thing by
perceiving its smell, it is sure to like the taste of it. Further, all
animals furnished with a mouth derive pleasure or pain from the
touch of sapid juices.

With regard to sight and hearing, we cannot make statements with
thorough confidence or on irrefutable evidence. However, the solen
or razor-fish, if you make a noise, appears to burrow in the sand, and
to hide himself deeper when he hears the approach of the iron rod (for
the animal, be it observed, juts a little out of its hole, while the
greater part of the body remains within),-and scallops, if you present
your finger near their open valves, close them tight again as though
they could see what you were doing. Furthermore, when fishermen are
laying bait for neritae, they always get to leeward of them, and never
speak a word while so engaged, under the firm impression that the
animal can smell and hear; and they assure us that, if any one
speaks aloud, the creature makes efforts to escape. With regard to
testaceans, of the walking or creeping species the urchin appears to
have the least developed sense of smell; and, of the stationary
species, the ascidian and the barnacle.

So much for the organs of sense in the general run of animals.
We now proceed to treat of voice.

9

Voice and sound are different from one another; and language
differs from voice and sound. The fact is that no animal can give
utterance to voice except by the action of the pharynx, and
consequently such animals as are devoid of lung have no voice; and
language is the articulation of vocal sounds by the instrumentality of
the tongue. Thus, the voice and larynx can emit vocal or vowel sounds;
non-vocal or consonantal sounds are made by the tongue and the lips;
and out of these vocal and non-vocal sounds language is composed.
Consequently, animals that have no tongue at all or that have a tongue
not freely detached, have neither voice nor language; although, by the
way, they may be enabled to make noises or sounds by other organs than
the tongue.

Insects, for instance, have no voice and no language, but they can
emit sound by internal air or wind, though not by the emission of
air or wind; for no insects are capable of respiration. But some of
them make a humming noise, like the bee and the other winged
insects; and others are said to sing, as the cicada. And all these
latter insects make their special noises by means of the membrane that
is underneath the 'hypozoma'-those insects, that is to say, whose body
is thus divided; as for instance, one species of cicada, which makes
the sound by means of the friction of the air. Flies and bees, and the
like, produce their special noise by opening and shutting their
wings in the act of flying; for the noise made is by the friction of
air between the wings when in motion. The noise made by grasshoppers
is produced by rubbing or reverberating with their long hind-legs.

No mollusc or crustacean can produce any natural voice or sound.
Fishes can produce no voice, for they have no lungs, nor windpipe
and pharynx; but they emit certain inarticulate sounds and squeaks,
which is what is called their 'voice', as the lyra or gurnard, and the
sciaena (for these fishes make a grunting kind of noise) and the
caprus or boar-fish in the river Achelous, and the chalcis and the
cuckoo-fish; for the chalcis makes a sort piping sound, and the
cuckoo-fish makes a sound greatly like the cry of the cuckoo, and is
nicknamed from the circumstance. The apparent voice in all these
fishes is a sound caused in some cases by a rubbing motion of their
gills, which by the way are prickly, or in other cases by internal
parts about their bellies; for they all have air or wind inside
them, by rubbing and moving which they produce the sounds. Some
cartilaginous fish seem to squeak.

But in these cases the term 'voice' is inappropriate; the more
correct expression would be 'sound'. For the scallop, when it goes
along supporting itself on the water, which is technically called
'flying', makes a whizzing sound; and so does the sea-swallow or
flying-fish: for this fish flies in the air, clean out of the water,
being furnished with fins broad and long. Just then as in the flight
of birds the sound made by their wings is obviously not voice, so is
it in the case of all these other creatures.

The dolphin, when taken out of the water, gives a squeak and moans
in the air, but these noises do not resemble those above mentioned.
For this creature has a voice (and can therefore utter vocal or
vowel sounds), for it is furnished with a lung and a windpipe; but its
tongue is not loose, nor has it lips, so as to give utterance to an
articulate sound (or a sound of vowel and consonant in combination. )

Of animals which are furnished with tongue and lung, the oviparous
quadrupeds produce a voice, but a feeble one; in some cases, a
shrill piping sound, like the serpent; in others, a thin faint cry; in
others, a low hiss, like the tortoise. The formation of the tongue
in the frog is exceptional. The front part of the tongue, which in
other animals is detached, is tightly fixed in the frog as it is in
all fishes; but the part towards the pharynx is freely detached, and
may, so to speak, be spat outwards, and it is with this that it
makes its peculiar croak. The croaking that goes on in the marsh is
the call of the males to the females at rutting time; and, by the way,
all animals have a special cry for the like end at the like season, as
is observed in the case of goats, swine, and sheep. (The bull-frog
makes its croaking noise by putting its under jaw on a level with
the surface of the water and extending its upper jaw to its utmost
capacity. The tension is so great that the upper jaw becomes
transparent, and the animal's eyes shine through the jaw like lamps;
for, by the way, the commerce of the sexes takes place usually in
the night time. ) Birds can utter vocal sounds; and such of them can
articulate best as have the tongue moderately flat, and also such as
have thin delicate tongues. In some cases, the male and the female
utter the same note; in other cases, different notes. The smaller
birds are more vocal and given to chirping than the larger ones; but
in the pairing season every species of bird becomes particularly
vocal. Some of them call when fighting, as the quail, others cry or
crow when challenging to combat, as the partridge, or when victorious,
as the barn-door cock. In some cases cock-birds and hens sing alike,
as is observed in the nightingale, only that the hen stops singing
when brooding or rearing her young; in other birds, the cocks sing
more than the hens; in fact, with barn-door fowls and quails, the cock
sings and the hen does not.

Viviparous quadrupeds utter vocal sounds of different kinds, but
they have no power of converse. In fact, this power, or language, is
peculiar to man.