350 BC

 HISTORY OF ANIMALS
 
 by Aristotle
 
 translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
 
 BOOK I




Part 1 

Of the parts of animals some are simple: to wit, all such as divide
into parts uniform with themselves, as flesh into flesh; others are
composite, such as divide into parts not uniform with themselves,
as, for instance, the hand does not divide into hands nor the face
into faces. 

And of such as these, some are called not parts merely, but limbs
or members. Such are those parts that, while entire in themselves,
have within themselves other diverse parts: as for instance, the head,
foot, hand, the arm as a whole, the chest; for these are all in themselves
entire parts, and there are other diverse parts belonging to them.

All those parts that do not subdivide into parts uniform with themselves
are composed of parts that do so subdivide, for instance, hand is
composed of flesh, sinews, and bones. Of animals, some resemble one
another in all their parts, while others have parts wherein they differ.
Sometimes the parts are identical in form or species, as, for instance,
one man's nose or eye resembles another man's nose or eye, flesh flesh,
and bone bone; and in like manner with a horse, and with all other
animals which we reckon to be of one and the same species: for as
the whole is to the whole, so each to each are the parts severally.
In other cases the parts are identical, save only for a difference
in the way of excess or defect, as is the case in such animals as
are of one and the same genus. By 'genus' I mean, for instance, Bird
or Fish, for each of these is subject to difference in respect of
its genus, and there are many species of fishes and of birds.

Within the limits of genera, most of the parts as a rule exhibit differences
through contrast of the property or accident, such as colour and shape,
to which they are subject: in that some are more and some in a less
degree the subject of the same property or accident; and also in the
way of multitude or fewness, magnitude or parvitude, in short in the
way of excess or defect. Thus in some the texture of the flesh is
soft, in others firm; some have a long bill, others a short one; some
have abundance of feathers, others have only a small quantity. It
happens further that some have parts that others have not: for instance,
some have spurs and others not, some have crests and others not; but
as a general rule, most parts and those that go to make up the bulk
of the body are either identical with one another, or differ from
one another in the way of contrast and of excess and defect. For 'the
more' and 'the less' may be represented as 'excess' or 'defect'.

Once again, we may have to do with animals whose parts are neither
identical in form nor yet identical save for differences in the way
of excess or defect: but they are the same only in the way of analogy,
as, for instance, bone is only analogous to fish-bone, nail to hoof,
hand to claw, and scale to feather; for what the feather is in a bird,
the scale is in a fish. 

The parts, then, which animals severally possess are diverse from,
or identical with, one another in the fashion above described. And
they are so furthermore in the way of local disposition: for many
animals have identical organs that differ in position; for instance,
some have teats in the breast, others close to the thighs.

Of the substances that are composed of parts uniform (or homogeneous)
with themselves, some are soft and moist, others are dry and solid.
The soft and moist are such either absolutely or so long as they are
in their natural conditions, as, for instance, blood, serum, lard,
suet, marrow, sperm, gall, milk in such as have it flesh and the like;
and also, in a different way, the superfluities, as phlegm and the
excretions of the belly and the bladder. The dry and solid are such
as sinew, skin, vein, hair, bone, gristle, nail, horn (a term which
as applied to the part involves an ambiguity, since the whole also
by virtue of its form is designated horn), and such parts as present
an analogy to these. 

Animals differ from one another in their modes of subsistence, in
their actions, in their habits, and in their parts. Concerning these
differences we shall first speak in broad and general terms, and subsequently
we shall treat of the same with close reference to each particular
genus. 

Differences are manifested in modes of subsistence, in habits, in
actions performed. For instance, some animals live in water and others
on land. And of those that live in water some do so in one way, and
some in another: that is to say, some live and feed in the water,
take in and emit water, and cannot live if deprived of water, as is
the case with the great majority of fishes; others get their food
and spend their days in the water, but do not take in water but air,
nor do they bring forth in the water. Many of these creatures are
furnished with feet, as the otter, the beaver, and the crocodile;
some are furnished with wings, as the diver and the grebe; some are
destitute of feet, as the water-snake. Some creatures get their living
in the water and cannot exist outside it: but for all that do not
take in either air or water, as, for instance, the sea-nettle and
the oyster. And of creatures that live in the water some live in the
sea, some in rivers, some in lakes, and some in marshes, as the frog
and the newt. 

Of animals that live on dry land some take in air and emit it, which
phenomena are termed 'inhalation' and 'exhalation'; as, for instance,
man and all such land animals as are furnished with lungs. Others,
again, do not inhale air, yet live and find their sustenance on dry
land; as, for instance, the wasp, the bee, and all other insects.
And by 'insects' I mean such creatures as have nicks or notches on
their bodies, either on their bellies or on both backs and bellies.

And of land animals many, as has been said, derive their subsistence
from the water; but of creatures that live in and inhale water not
a single one derives its subsistence from dry land. 

Some animals at first live in water, and by and by change their shape
and live out of water, as is the case with river worms, for out of
these the gadfly develops. 

Furthermore, some animals are stationary, and some are erratic. Stationary
animals are found in water, but no such creature is found on dry land.
In the water are many creatures that live in close adhesion to an
external object, as is the case with several kinds of oyster. And,
by the way, the sponge appears to be endowed with a certain sensibility:
as a proof of which it is alleged that the difficulty in detaching
it from its moorings is increased if the movement to detach it be
not covertly applied. 

Other creatures adhere at one time to an object and detach themselves
from it at other times, as is the case with a species of the so-called
sea-nettle; for some of these creatures seek their food in the night-time
loose and unattached. 

Many creatures are unattached but motionless, as is the case with
oysters and the so-called holothuria. Some can swim, as, for instance,
fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans, such as the crawfish. But some
of these last move by walking, as the crab, for it is the nature of
the creature, though it lives in water, to move by walking.

Of land animals some are furnished with wings, such as birds and bees,
and these are so furnished in different ways one from another; others
are furnished with feet. Of the animals that are furnished with feet
some walk, some creep, and some wriggle. But no creature is able only
to move by flying, as the fish is able only to swim, for the animals
with leathern wings can walk; the bat has feet and the seal has imperfect
feet. 

Some birds have feet of little power, and are therefore called Apodes.
This little bird is powerful on the wing; and, as a rule, birds that
resemble it are weak-footed and strong winged, such as the swallow
and the drepanis or (?) Alpine swift; for all these birds resemble
one another in their habits and in their plumage, and may easily be
mistaken one for another. (The apus is to be seen at all seasons,
but the drepanis only after rainy weather in summer; for this is the
time when it is seen and captured, though, as a general rule, it is
a rare bird.) 

Again, some animals move by walking on the ground as well as by swimming
in water. 

Furthermore, the following differences are manifest in their modes
of living and in their actions. Some are gregarious, some are solitary,
whether they be furnished with feet or wings or be fitted for a life
in the water; and some partake of both characters, the solitary and
the gregarious. And of the gregarious, some are disposed to combine
for social purposes, others to live each for its own self.

Gregarious creatures are, among birds, such as the pigeon, the crane,
and the swan; and, by the way, no bird furnished with crooked talons
is gregarious. Of creatures that live in water many kinds of fishes
are gregarious, such as the so-called migrants, the tunny, the pelamys,
and the bonito. 

Man, by the way, presents a mixture of the two characters, the gregarious
and the solitary. 

Social creatures are such as have some one common object in view;
and this property is not common to all creatures that are gregarious.
Such social creatures are man, the bee, the wasp, the ant, and the
crane. 

Again, of these social creatures some submit to a ruler, others are
subject to no governance: as, for instance, the crane and the several
sorts of bee submit to a ruler, whereas ants and numerous other creatures
are every one his own master. 

And again, both of gregarious and of solitary animals, some are attached
to a fixed home and others are erratic or nomad. 

Also, some are carnivorous, some graminivorous, some omnivorous: whilst
some feed on a peculiar diet, as for instance the bees and the spiders,
for the bee lives on honey and certain other sweets, and the spider
lives by catching flies; and some creatures live on fish. Again, some
creatures catch their food, others treasure it up; whereas others
do not so. 

Some creatures provide themselves with a dwelling, others go without
one: of the former kind are the mole, the mouse, the ant, the bee;
of the latter kind are many insects and quadrupeds. Further, in respect
to locality of dwelling place, some creatures dwell under ground,
as the lizard and the snake; others live on the surface of the ground,
as the horse and the dog. make to themselves holes, others do not

Some are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat; others live in the daylight.

Moreover, some creatures are tame and some are wild: some are at all
times tame, as man and the mule; others are at all times savage, as
the leopard and the wolf; and some creatures can be rapidly tamed,
as the elephant. 

Again, we may regard animals in another light. For, whenever a race
of animals is found domesticated, the same is always to be found in
a wild condition; as we find to be the case with horses, kine, swine,
(men), sheep, goats, and dogs. 

Further, some animals emit sound while others are mute, and some are
endowed with voice: of these latter some have articulate speech, while
others are inarticulate; some are given to continual chirping and
twittering some are prone to silence; some are musical, and some unmusical;
but all animals without exception exercise their power of singing
or chattering chiefly in connexion with the intercourse of the sexes.

Again, some creatures live in the fields, as the cushat; some on the
mountains, as the hoopoe; some frequent the abodes of men, as the
pigeon. 

Some, again, are peculiarly salacious, as the partridge, the barn-door
cock and their congeners; others are inclined to chastity, as the
whole tribe of crows, for birds of this kind indulge but rarely in
sexual intercourse. 

Of marine animals, again, some live in the open seas, some near the
shore, some on rocks. 

Furthermore, some are combative under offence; others are provident
for defence. Of the former kind are such as act as aggressors upon
others or retaliate when subjected to ill usage, and of the latter
kind are such as merely have some means of guarding themselves against
attack. 

Animals also differ from one another in regard to character in the
following respects. Some are good-tempered, sluggish, and little prone
to ferocity, as the ox; others are quick tempered, ferocious and unteachable,
as the wild boar; some are intelligent and timid, as the stag and
the hare; others are mean and treacherous, as the snake; others are
noble and courageous and high-bred, as the lion; others are thorough-bred
and wild and treacherous, as the wolf: for, by the way, an animal
is highbred if it come from a noble stock, and an animal is thorough-bred
if it does not deflect from its racial characteristics. 

Further, some are crafty and mischievous, as the fox; some are spirited
and affectionate and fawning, as the dog; others are easy-tempered
and easily domesticated, as the elephant; others are cautious and
watchful, as the goose; others are jealous and self-conceited, as
the peacock. But of all animals man alone is capable of deliberation.

Many animals have memory, and are capable of instruction; but no other
creature except man can recall the past at will. 

With regard to the several genera of animals, particulars as to their
habits of life and modes of existence will be discussed more fully
by and by. 

Part 2

Common to all animals are the organs whereby they take food and the
organs where into they take it; and these are either identical with
one another, or are diverse in the ways above specified: to wit, either
identical in form, or varying in respect of excess or defect, or resembling
one another analogically, or differing in position. 

Furthermore, the great majority of animals have other organs besides
these in common, whereby they discharge the residuum of their food:
I say, the great majority, for this statement does not apply to all.
And, by the way, the organ whereby food is taken in is called the
mouth, and the organ whereinto it is taken, the belly; the remainder
of the alimentary system has a great variety of names. 

Now the residuum of food is twofold in kind, wet and dry, and such
creatures as have organs receptive of wet residuum are invariably
found with organs receptive of dry residuum; but such as have organs
receptive of dry residuum need not possess organs receptive of wet
residuum. In other words, an animal has a bowel or intestine if it
have a bladder; but an animal may have a bowel and be without a bladder.
And, by the way, I may here remark that the organ receptive of wet
residuum is termed 'bladder', and the organ receptive of dry residuum
'intestine or 'bowel'. 

Part 3

Of animals otherwise, a great many have, besides the organs above-mentioned,
an organ for excretion of the sperm: and of animals capable of generation
one secretes into another, and the other into itself. The latter is
termed 'female', and the former 'male'; but some animals have neither
male nor female. Consequently, the organs connected with this function
differ in form, for some animals have a womb and others an organ analogous
thereto. 

The above-mentioned organs, then, are the most indispensable parts
of animals; and with some of them all animals without exception, and
with others animals for the most part, must needs be provided.

One sense, and one alone, is common to all animals-the sense of touch.
Consequently, there is no special name for the organ in which it has
its seat; for in some groups of animals the organ is identical, in
others it is only analogous. 

Part 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.

Part 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. 

Part 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.

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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'. 

Part 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.

Part 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. 

Part 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

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. In the male
these tusks are comparatively large and curved upwards; in the female,
they are comparatively small and point in the opposite direction;
that is, they look downwards towards the ground. The elephant is furnished
with teeth at birth, but the tusks are not then visible.

Part 6

The tongue of the elephant is exceedingly small, and situated far
back in the mouth, so that it is difficult to get a sight of it.

Part 7

Furthermore, animals differ from one another in the relative size
of their mouths. In some animals the mouth opens wide, as is the case
with the dog, the lion, and with all the saw-toothed animals; other
animals have small mouths, as man; and others have mouths of medium
capacity, as the pig and his congeners. 

(The Egyptian hippopotamus has a mane like a horse, is cloven-footed
like an ox, and is snub-nosed. It has a huckle-bone like cloven-footed
animals, and tusks just visible; it has the tail of a pig, the neigh
of a horse, and the dimensions of an ass. The hide is so thick that
spears are made out of it. In its internal organs it resembles the
horse and the ass.) 

Part 8

Some animals share the properties of man and the quadrupeds, as the
ape, the monkey, and the baboon. The monkey is a tailed ape. The baboon
resembles the ape in form, only that it is bigger and stronger, more
like a dog in face, and is more savage in its habits, and its teeth
are more dog-like and more powerful. 

Apes are hairy on the back in keeping with their quadrupedal nature,
and hairy on the belly in keeping with their human form-for, as was
said above, this characteristic is reversed in man and the quadruped-only
that the hair is coarse, so that the ape is thickly coated both on
the belly and on the back. Its face resembles that of man in many
respects; in other words, it has similar nostrils and ears, and teeth
like those of man, both front teeth and molars. Further, whereas quadrupeds
in general are not furnished with lashes on one of the two eyelids,
this creature has them on both, only very thinly set, especially the
under ones; in fact they are very insignificant indeed. And we must
bear in mind that all other quadrupeds have no under eyelash at all.

The ape has also in its chest two teats upon poorly developed breasts.
It has also arms like man, only covered with hair, and it bends these
legs like man, with the convexities of both limbs facing one another.
In addition, it has hands and fingers and nails like man, only that
all these parts are somewhat more beast-like in appearance. Its feet
are exceptional in kind. That is, they are like large hands, and the
toes are like fingers, with the middle one the longest of all, and
the under part of the foot is like a hand except for its length, and
stretches out towards the extremities like the palm of the hand; and
this palm at the after end is unusually hard, and in a clumsy obscure
kind of way resembles a heel. The creature uses its feet either as
hands or feet, and doubles them up as one doubles a fist. Its upper-arm
and thigh are short in proportion to the forearm and the shin. It
has no projecting navel, but only a hardness in the ordinary locality
of the navel. Its upper part is much larger than its lower part, as
is the case with quadrupeds; in fact, the proportion of the former
to the latter is about as five to three. Owing to this circumstance
and to the fact that its feet resemble hands and are composed in a
manner of hand and of foot: of foot in the heel extremity, of the
hand in all else-for even the toes have what is called a 'palm':-for
these reasons the animal is oftener to be found on all fours than
upright. It has neither hips, inasmuch as it is a quadruped, nor yet
a tail, inasmuch as it is a biped, except nor yet a tal by the way
that it has a tail as small as small can be, just a sort of indication
of a tail. The genitals of the female resemble those of the female
in the human species; those of the male are more like those of a dog
than are those of a man. 

Part 9

The monkey, as has been observed, is furnished with a tail. In all
such creatures the internal organs are found under dissection to correspond
to those of man. 

So much then for the properties of the organs of such animals as bring
forth their young into the world alive. 

Part 10

Oviparous and blooded quadrupeds-and, by the way, no terrestrial blooded
animal is oviparous unless it is quadrupedal or is devoid of feet
altogether-are furnished with a head, a neck, a back, upper and under
parts, the front legs and hind legs, and the part analogous to the
chest, all as in the case of viviparous quadrupeds, and with a tail,
usually large, in exceptional cases small. And all these creatures
are many-toed, and the several toes are cloven apart. Furthermore,
they all have the ordinary organs of sensation, including a tongue,
with the exception of the Egyptian crocodile. 

This latter animal, by the way, resembles certain fishes. For, as
a general rule, fishes have a prickly tongue, not free in its movements;
though there are some fishes that present a smooth undifferentiated
surface where the tongue should be, until you open their mouths wide
and make a close inspection. 

Again, oviparous blooded quadrupeds are unprovided with ears, but
possess only the passage for hearing; neither have they breasts, nor
a copulatory organ, nor external testicles, but internal ones only;
neither are they hair coated, but are in all cases covered with scaly
plates. Moreover, they are without exception saw-toothed.

River crocodiles have pigs' eyes, large teeth and tusks, and strong
nails, and an impenetrable skin composed of scaly plates. They see
but poorly under water, but above the surface of it with remarkable
acuteness. As a rule, they pass the day-time on land and the nighttime
in the water; for the temperature of the water is at night-time more
genial than that of the open air. 

Part 11

The chameleon resembles the lizard in the general configuration of
its body, but the ribs stretch downwards and meet together under the
belly as is the case with fishes, and the spine sticks up as with
the fish. Its face resembles that of the baboon. Its tail is exceedingly
long, terminates in a sharp point, and is for the most part coiled
up, like a strap of leather. It stands higher off the ground than
the lizard, but the flexure of the legs is the same in both creatures.
Each of its feet is divided into two parts, which bear the same relation
to one another that the thumb and the rest of the hand bear to one
another in man. Each of these parts is for a short distance divided
after a fashion into toes; on the front feet the inside part is divided
into three and the outside into two, on the hind feet the inside part
into two and the outside into three; it has claws also on these parts
resembling those of birds of prey. Its body is rough all over, like
that of the crocodile. Its eyes are situated in a hollow recess, and
are very large and round, and are enveloped in a skin resembling that
which covers the entire body; and in the middle a slight aperture
is left for vision, through which the animal sees, for it never covers
up this aperture with the cutaneous envelope. It keeps twisting its
eyes round and shifting its line of vision in every direction, and
thus contrives to get a sight of any object that it wants to see.
The change in its colour takes place when it is inflated with air;
it is then black, not unlike the crocodile, or green like the lizard
but black-spotted like the pard. This change of colour takes place
over the whole body alike, for the eyes and the tail come alike under
its influence. In its movements it is very sluggish, like the tortoise.
It assumes a greenish hue in dying, and retains this hue after death.
It resembles the lizard in the position of the oesophagus and the
windpipe. It has no flesh anywhere except a few scraps of flesh on
the head and on the jaws and near to the root of the tail. It has
blood only round about the heart, the eyes, the region above the heart,
and in all the veins extending from these parts; and in all these
there is but little blood after all. The brain is situated a little
above the eyes, but connected with them. When the outer skin is drawn
aside from off the eye, a something is found surrounding the eye,
that gleams through like a thin ring of copper. Membranes extend well
nigh over its entire frame, numerous and strong, and surpassing in
respect of number and relative strength those found in any other animal.
After being cut open along its entire length it continues to breathe
for a considerable time; a very slight motion goes on in the region
of the heart, and, while contraction is especially manifested in the
neighbourhood of the ribs, a similar motion is more or less discernible
over the whole body. It has no spleen visible. It hibernates, like
the lizard. 

Part 12

Birds also in some parts resemble the above mentioned animals; that
is to say, they have in all cases a head, a neck, a back, a belly,
and what is analogous to the chest. The bird is remarkable among animals
as having two feet, like man; only, by the way, it bends them backwards
as quadrupeds bend their hind legs, as was noticed previously. It
has neither hands nor front feet, but wings-an exceptional structure
as compared with other animals. Its haunch-bone is long, like a thigh,
and is attached to the body as far as the middle of the belly; so
like to a thigh is it that when viewed separately it looks like a
real one, while the real thigh is a separate structure betwixt it
and the shin. Of all birds those that have crooked talons have the
biggest thighs and the strongest breasts. All birds are furnished
with many claws, and all have the toes separated more or less asunder;
that is to say, in the greater part the toes are clearly distinct
from one another, for even the swimming birds, although they are web-footed,
have still their claws fully articulated and distinctly differentiated
from one another. Birds that fly high in air are in all cases four-toed:
that is, the greater part have three toes in front and one behind
in place of a heel; some few have two in front and two behind, as
the wryneck. 

This latter bird is somewhat bigger than the chaffinch, and is mottled
in appearance. It is peculiar in the arrangement of its toes, and
resembles the snake in the structure of its tongue; for the creature
can protrude its tongue to the extent of four finger-breadths, and
then draw it back again. Moreover, it can twist its head backwards
while keeping all the rest of its body still, like the serpent. It
has big claws, somewhat resembling those of the woodpecker. Its note
is a shrill chirp. 

Birds are furnished with a mouth, but with an exceptional one, for
they have neither lips nor teeth, but a beak. Neither have they ears
nor a nose, but only passages for the sensations connected with these
organs: that for the nostrils in the beak, and that for hearing in
the head. Like all other animals they all have two eyes, and these
are devoid of lashes. The heavy-bodied (or gallinaceous) birds close
the eye by means of the lower lid, and all birds blink by means of
a skin extending over the eye from the inner corner; the owl and its
congeners also close the eye by means of the upper lid. The same phenomenon
is observable in the animals that are protected by horny scutes, as
in the lizard and its congeners; for they all without exception close
the eye with the lower lid, but they do not blink like birds. Further,
birds have neither scutes nor hair, but feathers; and the feathers
are invariably furnished with quills. They have no tail, but a rump
with tail-feathers, short in such as are long-legged and web-footed,
large in others. These latter kinds of birds fly with their feet tucked
up close to the belly; but the small rumped or short-tailed birds
fly with their legs stretched out at full length. All are furnished
with a tongue, but the organ is variable, being long in some birds
and broad in others. Certain species of birds above all other animals,
and next after man, possess the faculty of uttering articulate sounds;
and this faculty is chiefly developed in broad-tongued birds. No oviparous
creature has an epiglottis over the windpipe, but these animals so
manage the opening and shutting of the windpipe as not to allow any
solid substance to get down into the lung. 

Some species of birds are furnished additionally with spurs, but no
bird with crooked talons is found so provided. The birds with talons
are among those that fly well, but those that have spurs are among
the heavy-bodied. 

Again, some birds have a crest. As a general rule the crest sticks
up, and is composed of feathers only; but the crest of the barn-door
cock is exceptional in kind, for, whereas it is not just exactly flesh,
at the same time it is not easy to say what else it is. 

Part 13

Of water animals the genus of fishes constitutes a single group apart
from the rest, and including many diverse forms. 

In the first place, the fish has a head, a back, a belly, in the neighbourhood
of which last are placed the stomach and viscera; and behind it has
a tail of continuous, undivided shape, but not, by the way, in all
cases alike. No fish has a neck, or any limb, or testicles at all,
within or without, or breasts. But, by the way this absence of breasts
may predicated of all non-viviparous animals; and in point of fact
viviparous animals are not in all cases provided with the organ, excepting
such as are directly viviparous without being first oviparous. Thus
the dolphin is directly viviparous, and accordingly we find it furnished
with two breasts, not situated high up, but in the neighbourhood of
the genitals. And this creature is not provided, like quadrupeds,
with visible teats, but has two vents, one on each flank, from which
the milk flows; and its young have to follow after it to get suckled,
and this phenomenon has been actually witnessed. 

Fishes, then, as has been observed, have no breasts and no passage
for the genitals visible externally. But they have an exceptional
organ in the gills, whereby, after taking the water in the mouth,
they discharge it again; and in the fins, of which the greater part
have four, and the lanky ones two, as, for instance, the eel, and
these two situated near to the gills. In like manner the grey mullet-as,
for instance, the mullet found in the lake at Siphae-have only two
fins; and the same is the case with the fish called Ribbon-fish. Some
of the lanky fishes have no fins at all, such as the muraena, nor
gills articulated like those of other fish. 

And of those fish that are provided with gills, some have coverings
for this organ, whereas all the selachians have the organ unprotected
by a cover. And those fishes that have coverings or opercula for the
gills have in all cases their gills placed sideways; whereas, among
selachians, the broad ones have the gills down below on the belly,
as the torpedo and the ray, while the lanky ones have the organ placed
sideways, as is the case in all the dog-fish. 

The fishing-frog has gills placed sideways, and covered not with a
spiny operculum, as in all but the selachian fishes, but with one
of skin. 

Morever, with fishes furnished with gills, the gills in some cases
are simple in others duplicate; and the last gill in the direction
of the body is always simple. And, again, some fishes have few gills,
and others have a great number; but all alike have the same number
on both sides. Those that have the least number have one gill on either
side, and this one duplicate, like the boar-fish; others have two
on either side, one simple and the other duplicate, like the conger
and the scarus; others have four on either side, simple, as the elops,
the synagris, the muraena, and the eel; others have four, all, with
the exception of the hindmost one, in double rows, as the wrasse,
the perch, the sheat-fish, and the carp. The dog-fish have all their
gills double, five on a side; and the sword-fish has eight double
gills. So much for the number of gills as found in fishes.

Again, fishes differ from other animals in more ways than as regards
the gills. For they are not covered with hairs as are viviparous land
animals, nor, as is the case with certain oviparous quadrupeds, with
tessellated scutes, nor, like birds, with feathers; but for the most
part they are covered with scales. Some few are rough-skinned, while
the smooth-skinned are very few indeed. Of the Selachia some are rough-skinned
and some smooth-skinned; and among the smooth-skinned fishes are included
the conger, the eel, and the tunny. 

All fishes are saw-toothed excepting the scarus; and the teeth in
all cases are sharp and set in many rows, and in some cases are placed
on the tongue. The tongue is hard and spiny, and so firmly attached
that fishes in many instances seem to be devoid of the organ altogether.
The mouth in some cases is wide-stretched, as it is with some viviparous
quadrupeds.... 

With regard to organs of sense, all save eyes, fishes possess none
of them, neither the organs nor their passages, neither ears nor nostrils;
but all fishes are furnished with eyes, and the eyes devoid of lids,
though the eyes are not hard; with regard to the organs connected
with the other senses, hearing and smell, they are devoid alike of
the organs themselves and of passages indicative of them.

Fishes without exception are supplied with blood. Some of them are
oviparous, and some viviparous; scaly fish are invariably oviparous,
but cartilaginous fishes are all viviparous, with the single exception
of the fishing-frog. 

Part 14

Of blooded animals there now remains the serpent genus. This genus
is common to both elements, for, while most species comprehended therein
are land animals, a small minority, to wit the aquatic species, pass
their lives in fresh water. There are also sea-serpents, in shape
to a great extent resembling their congeners of the land, with this
exception that the head in their case is somewhat like the head of
the conger; and there are several kinds of sea-serpent, and the different
kinds differ in colour; these animals are not found in very deep water.
Serpents, like fish, are devoid of feet. 

There are also sea-scolopendras, resembling in shape their land congeners,
but somewhat less in regard to magnitude. These creatures are found
in the neighbourhood of rocks; as compared with their land congeners
they are redder in colour, are furnished with feet in greater numbers
and with legs of more delicate structure. And the same remark applies
to them as to the sea-serpents, that they are not found in very deep
water. 

Of fishes whose habitat is in the vicinity of rocks there is a tiny
one, which some call the Echeneis, or 'ship-holder', and which is
by some people used as a charm to bring luck in affairs of law and
love. The creature is unfit for eating. Some people assert that it
has feet, but this is not the case: it appears, however, to be furnished
with feet from the fact that its fins resemble those organs.

So much, then, for the external parts of blooded animals, as regards
their numbers, their properties, and their relative diversities.

Part 15

As for the properties of the internal organs, these we must first
discuss in the case of the animals that are supplied with blood. For
the principal genera differ from the rest of animals, in that the
former are supplied with blood and the latter are not; and the former
include man, viviparous and oviparous quadrupeds, birds, fishes, cetaceans,
and all the others that come under no general designation by reason
of their not forming genera, but groups of which simply the specific
name is predicable, as when we say 'the serpent,' the 'crocodile'.

All viviparous quadrupeds, then, are furnished with an oesophagus
and a windpipe, situated as in man; the same statement is applicable
to oviparous quadrupeds and to birds, only that the latter present
diversities in the shapes of these organs. As a general rule, all
animals that take up air and breathe it in and out are furnished with
a lung, a windpipe, and an oesophagus, with the windpipe and oesophagus
not admitting of diversity in situation but admitting of diversity
in properties, and with the lung admitting of diversity in both these
respects. Further, all blooded animals have a heart and a diaphragm
or midriff; but in small animals the existence of the latter organ
is not so obvious owing to its delicacy and minute size.

In regard to the heart there is an exceptional phenomenon observable
in oxen. In other words, there is one species of ox where, though
not in all cases, a bone is found inside the heart. And, by the way,
the horse's heart also has a bone inside it. 

The genera referred to above are not in all cases furnished with a
lung: for instance, the fish is devoid of the organ, as is also every
animal furnished with gills. All blooded animals are furnished with
a liver. As a general rule blooded animals are furnished with a spleen;
but with the great majority of non-viviparous but oviparous animals
the spleen is so small as all but to escape observation; and this
is the case with almost all birds, as with the pigeon, the kite, the
falcon, the owl: in point of fact, the aegocephalus is devoid of the
organ altogether. With oviparous quadrupeds the case is much the same
as with the viviparous; that is to say, they also have the spleen
exceedingly minute, as the tortoise, the freshwater tortoise, the
toad, the lizard, the crocodile, and the frog. 

Some animals have a gall-bladder close to the liver, and others have
not. Of viviparous quadrupeds the deer is without the organ, as also
the roe, the horse, the mule, the ass, the seal, and some kinds of
pigs. Of deer those that are called Achainae appear to have gall in
their tail, but what is so called does resemble gall in colour, though
it is not so completely fluid, and the organ internally resembles
a spleen. 

However, without any exception, stags are found to have maggots living
inside the head, and the habitat of these creatures is in the hollow
underneath the root of the tongue and in the neighbourhood of the
vertebra to which the head is attached. These creatures are as large
as the largest grubs; they grow all together in a cluster, and they
are usually about twenty in number. 

Deer then, as has been observed, are without a gall-bladder; their
gut, however, is so bitter that even hounds refuse to eat it unless
the animal is exceptionally fat. With the elephant also the liver
is unfurnished with a gall-bladder, but when the animal is cut in
the region where the organ is found in animals furnished with it,
there oozes out a fluid resembling gall, in greater or less quantities.
Of animals that take in sea-water and are furnished with a lung, the
dolphin is unprovided with a gall-bladder. Birds and fishes all have
the organ, as also oviparous quadrupeds, all to a greater or a lesser
extent. But of fishes some have the organ close to the liver, as the
dogfishes, the sheat-fish, the rhine or angel-fish, the smooth skate,
the torpedo, and, of the lanky fishes, the eel, the pipe-fish, and
the hammer-headed shark. The callionymus, also, has the gall-bladder
close to the liver, and in no other fish does the organ attain so
great a relative size. Other fishes have the organ close to the gut,
attached to the liver by certain extremely fine ducts. The bonito
has the gall-bladder stretched alongside the gut and equalling it
in length, and often a double fold of it. others have the organ in
the region of the gut; in some cases far off, in others near; as the
fishing-frog, the elops, the synagris, the muraena, and the sword-fish.
Often animals of the same species show this diversity of position;
as, for instance, some congers are found with the organ attached close
to the liver, and others with it detached from and below it. The case
is much the same with birds: that is, some have the gall-bladder close
to the stomach, and others close to the gut, as the pigeon, the raven,
the quail, the swallow, and the sparrow; some have it near at once
to the liver and to the stomach as the aegocephalus; others have it
near at once to the liver and the gut, as the falcon and the kite.

Part 16

Again, all viviparous quadrupeds are furnished with kidneys and a
bladder. Of the ovipara that are not quadrupedal there is no instance
known of an animal, whether fish or bird, provided with these organs.
Of the ovipara that are quadrupedal, the turtle alone is provided
with these organs of a magnitude to correspond with the other organs
of the animal. In the turtle the kidney resembles the same organ in
the ox; that is to say, it looks one single organ composed of a number
of small ones. (The bison also resembles the ox in all its internal
parts). 

Part 17

With all animals that are furnished with these parts, the parts are
similarly situated, and with the exception of man, the heart is in
the middle; in man, however, as has been observed, the heart is placed
a little to the left-hand side. In all animals the pointed end of
the heart turns frontwards; only in fish it would at first sight seem
otherwise, for the pointed end is turned not towards the breast, but
towards the head and the mouth. And (in fish) the apex is attached
to a tube just where the right and left gills meet together. There
are other ducts extending from the heart to each of the gills, greater
in the greater fish, lesser in the lesser; but in the large fishes
the duct at the pointed end of the heart is a tube, white-coloured
and exceedingly thick. Fishes in some few cases have an oesophagus,
as the conger and the eel; and in these the organ is small.

In fishes that are furnished with an undivided liver, the organ lies
entirely on the right side; where the liver is cloven from the root,
the larger half of the organ is on the right side: for in some fishes
the two parts are detached from one another, without any coalescence
at the root, as is the case with the dogfish. And there is also a
species of hare in what is named the Fig district, near Lake Bolbe,
and elsewhere, which animal might be taken to have two livers owing
to the length of the connecting ducts, similar to the structure in
the lung of birds. 

The spleen in all cases, when normally placed, is on the left-hand
side, and the kidneys also lie in the same position in all creatures
that possess them. There have been known instances of quadrupeds under
dissection, where the spleen was on the right hand and the liver on
the left; but all such cases are regarded as supernatural.

In all animals the wind-pipe extends to the lung, and the manner how,
we shall discuss hereafter; and the oesophagus, in all that have the
organ, extends through the midriff into the stomach. For, by the way,
as has been observed, most fishes have no oesophagus, but the stomach
is united directly with the mouth, so that in some cases when big
fish are pursuing little ones, the stomach tumbles forward into the
mouth. 

All the afore-mentioned animals have a stomach, and one similarly
situated, that is to say, situated directly under the midriff; and
they have a gut connected therewith and closing at the outlet of the
residuum and at what is termed the 'rectum'. However, animals present
diversities in the structure of their stomachs. In the first place,
of the viviparous quadrupeds, such of the horned animals as are not
equally furnished with teeth in both jaws are furnished with four
such chambers. These animals, by the way, are those that are said
to chew the cud. In these animals the oesophagus extends from the
mouth downwards along the lung, from the midriff to the big stomach
(or paunch); and this stomach is rough inside and semi-partitioned.
And connected with it near to the entry of the oesophagus is what
from its appearance is termed the 'reticulum' (or honeycomb bag);
for outside it is like the stomach, but inside it resembles a netted
cap; and the reticulum is a great deal smaller than the stomach. Connected
with this is the 'echinus' (or many-plies), rough inside and laminated,
and of about the same size as the reticulum. Next after this comes
what is called the 'enystrum' (or abomasum), larger an longer than
the echinus, furnished inside with numerous folds or ridges, large
and smooth. After all this comes the gut. 

Such is the stomach of those quadrupeds that are horned and have an
unsymmetrical dentition; and these animals differ one from another
in the shape and size of the parts, and in the fact of the oesophagus
reaching the stomach centralwise in some cases and sideways in others.
Animals that are furnished equally with teeth in both jaws have one
stomach; as man, the pig, the dog, the bear, the lion, the wolf. (The
Thos, by the by, has all its internal organs similar to the wolf's.)

All these, then have a single stomach, and after that the gut; but
the stomach in some is comparatively large, as in the pig and bear,
and the stomach of the pig has a few smooth folds or ridges; others
have a much smaller stomach, not much bigger than the gut, as the
lion, the dog, and man. In the other animals the shape of the stomach
varies in the direction of one or other of those already mentioned;
that is, the stomach in some animals resembles that of the pig; in
others that of the dog, alike with the larger animals and the smaller
ones. In all these animals diversities occur in regard to the size,
the shape, the thickness or the thinness of the stomach, and also
in regard to the place where the oesophagus opens into it.

There is also a difference in structure in the gut of the two groups
of animals above mentioned (those with unsymmetrical and those with
symmetrical dentition) in size, in thickness, and in foldings.

The intestines in those animals whose jaws are unequally furnished
with teeth are in all cases the larger, for the animals themselves
are larger than those in the other category; for very few of them
are small, and no single one of the horned animals is very small.
And some possess appendages (or caeca) to the gut, but no animal that
has not incisors in both jaws has a straight gut. 

The elephant has a gut constricted into chambers, so constructed that
the animal appears to have four stomachs; in it the food is found,
but there is no distinct and separate receptacle. Its viscera resemble
those of the pig, only that the liver is four times the size of that
of the ox, and the other viscera in like proportion, while the spleen
is comparatively small. 

Much the same may be predicated of the properties of the stomach and
the gut in oviparous quadrupeds, as in the land tortoise, the turtle,
the lizard, both crocodiles, and, in fact, in all animals of the like
kind; that is to say, their stomach is one and simple, resembling
in some cases that of the pig, and in other cases that of the dog.

The serpent genus is similar and in almost all respects furnished
similarly to the saurians among land animals, if one could only imagine
these saurians to be increased in length and to be devoid of legs.
That is to say, the serpent is coated with tessellated scutes, and
resembles the saurian in its back and belly; only, by the way, it
has no testicles, but, like fishes, has two ducts converging into
one, and an ovary long and bifurcate. The rest of its internal organs
are identical with those of the saurians, except that, owing to the
narrowness and length of the animal, the viscera are correspondingly
narrow and elongated, so that they are apt to escape recognition from
the similarities in shape. Thus, the windpipe of the creature is exceptionally
long, and the oesophagus is longer still, and the windpipe commences
so close to the mouth that the tongue appears to be underneath it;
and the windpipe seems to project over the tongue, owing to the fact
that the tongue draws back into a sheath and does not remain in its
place as in other animals. The tongue, moreover, is thin and long
and black, and can be protruded to a great distance. And both serpents
and saurians have this altogether exceptional property in the tongue,
that it is forked at the outer extremity, and this property is the
more marked in the serpent, for the tips of his tongue are as thin
as hairs. The seal, also, by the way, has a split tongue.

The stomach of the serpent is like a more spacious gut, resembling
the stomach of the dog; then comes the gut, long, narrow, and single
to the end. The heart is situated close to the pharynx, small and
kidney-shaped; and for this reason the organ might in some cases appear
not to have the pointed end turned towards the breast. Then comes
the lung, single, and articulated with a membranous passage, very
long, and quite detached from the heart. The liver is long and simple;
the spleen is short and round: as is the case in both respects with
the saurians. Its gall resembles that of the fish; the water-snakes
have it beside the liver, and the other snakes have it usually beside
the gut. These creatures are all saw-toothed. Their ribs are as numerous
as the days of the month; in other words, they are thirty in number.

Some affirm that the same phenomenon is observable with serpents as
with swallow chicks; in other words, they say that if you prick out
a serpent's eyes they will grow again. And further, the tails of saurians
and of serpents, if they be cut off, will grow again. 

With fishes the properties of the gut and stomach are similar; that
is, they have a stomach single and simple, but variable in shape according
to species. For in some cases the stomach is gut-shaped, as with the
scarus, or parrot-fish; which fish, by the way, appears to be the
only fish that chews the cud. And the whole length of the gut is simple,
and if it have a reduplication or kink it loosens out again into a
simple form. 

An exceptional property in fishes and in birds for the most part is
the being furnished with gut-appendages or caeca. Birds have them
low down and few in number. Fishes have them high up about the stomach,
and sometimes numerous, as in the goby, the galeos, the perch, the
scorpaena, the citharus, the red mullet, and the sparus; the cestreus
or grey mullet has several of them on one side of the belly, and on
the other side only one. Some fish possess these appendages but only
in small numbers, as the hepatus and the glaucus; and, by the way,
they are few also in the dorado. These fishes differ also from one
another within the same species, for in the dorado one individual
has many and another few. Some fishes are entirely without the part,
as the majority of the selachians. As for all the rest, some of them
have a few and some a great many. And in all cases where the gut-appendages
are found in fish, they are found close up to the stomach.

In regard to their internal parts birds differ from other animals
and from one another. Some birds, for instance, have a crop in front
of the stomach, as the barn-door cock, the cushat, the pigeon, and
the partridge; and the crop consists of a large hollow skin, into
which the food first enters and where it lies ingested. Just where
the crop leaves the oesophagus it is somewhat narrow; by and by it
broadens out, but where it communicates with the stomach it narrows
down again. The stomach (or gizzard) in most birds is fleshy and hard,
and inside is a strong skin which comes away from the fleshy part.
Other birds have no crop, but instead of it an oesophagus wide and
roomy, either all the way or in the part leading to the stomach, as
with the daw, the raven, and the carrion-crow. The quail also has
the oesophagus widened out at the lower extremity, and in the aegocephalus
and the owl the organ is slightly broader at the bottom than at the
top. The duck, the goose, the gull, the catarrhactes, and the great
bustard have the oesophagus wide and roomy from one end to the other,
and the same applies to a great many other birds. In some birds there
is a portion of the stomach that resembles a crop, as in the kestrel.
In the case of small birds like the swallow and the sparrow neither
the oesophagus nor the crop is wide, but the stomach is long. Some
few have neither a crop nor a dilated oesophagus, but the latter is
exceedingly long, as in long necked birds, such as the porphyrio,
and, by the way, in the case of all these birds the excrement is unusually
moist. The quail is exceptional in regard to these organs, as compared
with other birds; in other words, it has a crop, and at the same time
its oesophagus is wide and spacious in front of the stomach, and the
crop is at some distance, relatively to its size, from the oesophagus
at that part. 

Further, in most birds, the gut is thin, and simple when loosened
out. The gut-appendages or caeca in birds, as has been observed, are
few in number, and are not situated high up, as in fishes, but low
down towards the extremity of the gut. Birds, then, have caeca-not
all, but the greater part of them, such as the barn-door cock, the
partridge, the duck, the night-raven, (the localus,) the ascalaphus,
the goose, the swan, the great bustard, and the owl. Some of the little
birds also have these appendages; but the caeca in their case are
exceedingly minute, as in the sparrow. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOK III

Part 1 

Now that we have stated the magnitudes, the properties, and the relative
differences of the other internal organs, it remains for us to treat
of the organs that contribute to generation. These organs in the female
are in all cases internal; in the male they present numerous diversities.

In the blooded animals some males are altogether devoid of testicles,
and some have the organ but situated internally; and of those males
that have the organ internally situated, some have it close to the
loin in the neighbourhood of the kidney and others close to the belly.
Other males have the organ situated externally. In the case of these
last, the penis is in some cases attached to the belly, whilst in
others it is loosely suspended, as is the case also with the testicles;
and, in the cases where the penis is attached to the belly, the attachment
varies accordingly as the animal is emprosthuretic or opisthuretic.

No fish is furnished with testicles, nor any other creature that has
gills, nor any serpent whatever: nor, in short, any animal devoid
of feet, save such only as are viviparous within themselves. Birds
are furnished with testicles, but these are internally situated, close
to the loin. The case is similar with oviparous quadrupeds, such as
the lizard, the tortoise and the crocodile; and among the viviparous
animals this peculiarity is found in the hedgehog. Others among those
creatures that have the organ internally situated have it close to
the belly, as is the case with the dolphin amongst animals devoid
of feet, and with the elephant among viviparous quadrupeds. In other
cases these organs are externally conspicuous. 

We have already alluded to the diversities observed in the attachment
of these organs to the belly and the adjacent region; in other words,
we have stated that in some cases the testicles are tightly fastened
back, as in the pig and its allies, and that in others they are freely
suspended, as in man. 

Fishes, then, are devoid of testicles, as has been stated, and serpents
also. They are furnished, however, with two ducts connected with the
midriff and running on to either side of the backbone, coalescing
into a single duct above the outlet of the residuum, and by 'above'
the outlet I mean the region near to the spine. These ducts in the
rutting season get filled with the genital fluid, and, if the ducts
be squeezed, the sperm oozes out white in colour. As to the differences
observed in male fishes of diverse species, the reader should consult
my treatise on Anatomy, and the subject will be hereafter more fully
discussed when we describe the specific character in each case.

The males of oviparous animals, whether biped or quadruped, are in
all cases furnished with testicles close to the loin underneath the
midriff. With some animals the organ is whitish, in others somewhat
of a sallow hue; in all cases it is entirely enveloped with minute
and delicate veins. From each of the two testicles extends a duct,
and, as in the case of fishes, the two ducts coalesce into one above
the outlet of the residuum. This constitutes the penis, which organ
in the case of small ovipara is inconspicuous; but in the case of
the larger ovipara, as in the goose and the like, the organ becomes
quite visible just after copulation. 

The ducts in the case of fishes and in biped and quadruped ovipara
are attached to the loin under the stomach and the gut, in betwixt
them and the great vein, from which ducts or blood-vessels extend,
one to each of the two testicles. And just as with fishes the male
sperm is found in the seminal ducts, and the ducts become plainly
visible at the rutting season and in some instances become invisible
after the season is passed, so also is it with the testicles of birds;
before the breeding season the organ is small in some birds and quite
invisible in others, but during the season the organ in all cases
is greatly enlarged. This phenomenon is remarkably illustrated in
the ring-dove and the partridge, so much so that some people are actually
of opinion that these birds are devoid of the organ in the winter-time.

Of male animals that have their testicles placed frontwards, some
have them inside, close to the belly, as the dolphin; some have them
outside, exposed to view, close to the lower extremity of the belly.
These animals resemble one another thus far in respect to this organ;
but they differ from one another in this fact, that some of them have
their testicles situated separately by themselves, while others, which
have the organ situated externally, have them enveloped in what is
termed the scrotum. 

Again, in all viviparous animals furnished with feet the following
properties are observed in the testicles themselves. From the aorta
there extend vein-like ducts to the head of each of the testicles,
and another two from the kidneys; these two from the kidneys are supplied
with blood, while the two from the aorta are devoid of it. From the
head of the testicle alongside of the testicle itself is a duct, thicker
and more sinewy than the other just alluded to-a duct that bends back
again at the end of the testicle to its head; and from the head of
each of the two testicles the two ducts extend until they coalesce
in front at the penis. The duct that bends back again and that which
is in contact with the testicle are enveloped in one and the same
membrane, so that, until you draw aside the membrane, they present
all the appearance of being a single undifferentiated duct. Further,
the duct in contact with the testicle has its moist content qualified
by blood, but to a comparatively less extent than in the case of the
ducts higher up which are connected with the aorta; in the ducts that
bend back towards the tube of the penis, the liquid is white-coloured.
There also runs a duct from the bladder, opening into the upper part
of the canal, around which lies, sheathwise, what is called the 'penis'.

All these descriptive particulars may be regarded by the light of
the accompanying diagram; wherein the letter A marks the starting-point
of the ducts that extend from the aorta; the letters KK mark the heads
of the testicles and the ducts descending thereunto; the ducts extending
from these along the testicles are marked MM; the ducts turning back,
in which is the white fluid, are marked BB; the penis D; the bladder
E; and the testicles XX. 

(By the way, when the testicles are cut off or removed, the ducts
draw upwards by contraction. Moreover, when male animals are young,
their owner sometimes destroys the organ in them by attrition; sometimes
they castrate them at a later period. And I may here add, that a bull
has been known to serve a cow immediately after castration, and actually
to impregnate her.) 

So much then for the properties of testicles in male animals.

In female animals furnished with a womb, the womb is not in all cases
the same in form or endowed with the same properties, but both in
the vivipara and the ovipara great diversities present themselves.
In all creatures that have the womb close to the genitals, the womb
is two-horned, and one horn lies to the right-hand side and the other
to the left; its commencement, however, is single, and so is the orifice,
resembling in the case of the most numerous and largest animals a
tube composed of much flesh and gristle. Of these parts one is termed
the hystera or delphys, whence is derived the word adelphos, and the
other part, the tube or orifice, is termed metra. In all biped or
quadruped vivipara the womb is in all cases below the midriff, as
in man, the dog, the pig, the horse, and the ox; the same is the case
also in all horned animals. At the extremity of the so-called ceratia,
or horns, the wombs of most animals have a twist or convolution.

In the case of those ovipara that lay eggs externally, the wombs are
not in all cases similarly situated. Thus the wombs of birds are close
to the midriff, and the wombs of fishes down below, just like the
wombs of biped and quadruped vivipara, only that, in the case of the
fish, the wombs are delicately formed, membranous, and elongated;
so much so that in extremely small fish, each of the two bifurcated
parts looks like a single egg, and those fishes whose egg is described
as crumbling would appear to have inside them a pair of eggs, whereas
in reality each of the two sides consists not of one but of many eggs,
and this accounts for their breaking up into so many particles.

The womb of birds has the lower and tubular portion fleshy and firm,
and the part close to the midriff membranous and exceedingly thin
and fine: so thin and fine that the eggs might seem to be outside
the womb altogether. In the larger birds the membrane is more distinctly
visible, and, if inflated through the tube, lifts and swells out;
in the smaller birds all these parts are more indistinct.

The properties of the womb are similar in oviparous quadrupeds, as
the tortoise, the lizard, the frog and the like; for the tube below
is single and fleshy, and the cleft portion with the eggs is at the
top close to the midriff. With animals devoid of feet that are internally
oviparous and viviparous externally, as is the case with the dogfish
and the other so-called Selachians (and by this title we designate
such creatures destitute of feet and furnished with gills as are viviparous),
with these animals the womb is bifurcate, and beginning down below
it extends as far as the midriff, as in the case of birds. There is
also a narrow part between the two horns running up as far as the
midriff, and the eggs are engendered here and above at the origin
of the midriff; afterwards they pass into the wider space and turn
from eggs into young animals. However, the differences in respect
to the wombs of these fishes as compared with others of their own
species or with fishes in general, would be more satisfactorily studied
in their various forms in specimens under dissection. 

The members of the serpent genus also present divergencies either
when compared with the above-mentioned creatures or with one another.
Serpents as a rule are oviparous, the viper being the only viviparous
member of the genus. The viper is, previously to external parturition,
oviparous internally; and owing to this perculiarity the properties
of the womb in the viper are similar to those of the womb in the selachians.
The womb of the serpent is long, in keeping with the body, and starting
below from a single duct extends continuously on both sides of the
spine, so as to give the impression of thus being a separate duct
on each side of the spine, until it reaches the midriff, where the
eggs are engendered in a row; and these eggs are laid not one by one,
but all strung together. (And all animals that are viviparous both
internally and externally have the womb situated above the stomach,
and all the ovipara underneath, near to the loin. Animals that are
viviparous externally and internally oviparous present an intermediate
arrangement; for the underneath portion of the womb, in which the
eggs are, is placed near to the loin, but the part about the orifice
is above the gut.) 

Further, there is the following diversity observable in wombs as compared
with one another: namely that the females of horned nonambidental
animals are furnished with cotyledons in the womb when they are pregnant,
and such is the case, among ambidentals, with the hare, the mouse,
and the bat; whereas all other animals that are ambidental, viviparous,
and furnished with feet, have the womb quite smooth, and in their
case the attachment of the embryo is to the womb itself and not to
any cotyledon inside it. 

The parts, then, in animals that are not homogeneous with themselves
and uniform in their texture, both parts external and parts internal,
have the properties above assigned to them. 

Part 2

In sanguineous animals the homogeneous or uniform part most universally
found is the blood, and its habitat the vein; next in degree of universality,
their analogues, lymph and fibre, and, that which chiefly constitutes
the frame of animals, flesh and whatsoever in the several parts is
analogous to flesh; then bone, and parts that are analogous to bone,
as fish-bone and gristle; and then, again, skin, membrane, sinew,
hair, nails, and whatever corresponds to these; and, furthermore,
fat, suet, and the excretions: and the excretions are dung, phlegm,
yellow bile, and black bile. 

Now, as the nature of blood and the nature of the veins have all the
appearance of being primitive, we must discuss their properties first
of all, and all the more as some previous writers have treated them
very unsatisfactorily. And the cause of the ignorance thus manifested
is the extreme difficulty experienced in the way of observation. For
in the dead bodies of animals the nature of the chief veins is undiscoverable,
owing to the fact that they collapse at once when the blood leaves
them; for the blood pours out of them in a stream, like liquid out
of a vessel, since there is no blood separately situated by itself,
except a little in the heart, but it is all lodged in the veins. In
living animals it is impossible to inspect these parts, for of their
very nature they are situated inside the body and out of sight. For
this reason anatomists who have carried on their investigations on
dead bodies in the dissecting room have failed to discover the chief
roots of the veins, while those who have narrowly inspected bodies
of living men reduced to extreme attenuation have arrived at conclusions
regarding the origin of the veins from the manifestations visible
externally. Of these investigators, Syennesis, the physician of Cyprus,
writes as follows:- 

'The big veins run thus:-from the navel across the loins, along the
back, past the lung, in under the breasts; one from right to left,
and the other from left to right; that from the left, through the
liver to the kidney and the testicle, that from the right, to the
spleen and kidney and testicle, and from thence to the penis.' Diogenes
of Apollonia writes thus:- 

'The veins in man are as follows:-There are two veins pre-eminent
in magnitude. These extend through the belly along the backbone, one
to right, one to left; either one to the leg on its own side, and
upwards to the head, past the collar bones, through the throat. From
these, veins extend all over the body, from that on the right hand
to the right side and from that on the left hand to the left side;
the most important ones, two in number, to the heart in the region
of the backbone; other two a little higher up through the chest in
underneath the armpit, each to the hand on its side: of these two,
one being termed the vein splenitis, and the other the vein hepatitis.
Each of the pair splits at its extremity; the one branches in the
direction of the thumb and the other in the direction of the palm;
and from these run off a number of minute veins branching off to the
fingers and to all parts of the hand. Other veins, more minute, extend
from the main veins; from that on the right towards the liver, from
that on the left towards the spleen and the kidneys. The veins that
run to the legs split at the juncture of the legs with the trunk and
extend right down the thigh. The largest of these goes down the thigh
at the back of it, and can be discerned and traced as a big one; the
second one runs inside the thigh, not quite as big as the one just
mentioned. After this they pass on along the knee to the shin and
the foot (as the upper veins were described as passing towards the
hands), and arrive at the sole of the foot, and from thence continue
to the toes. Moreover, many delicate veins separate off from the great
veins towards the stomach and towards the ribs. 

'The veins that run through the throat to the head can be discerned
and traced in the neck as large ones; and from each one of the two,
where it terminates, there branch off a number of veins to the head;
some from the right side towards the left, and some from the left
side towards the right; and the two veins terminate near to each of
the two ears. There is another pair of veins in the neck running along
the big vein on either side, slightly less in size than the pair just
spoken of, and with these the greater part of the veins in the head
are connected. This other pair runs through the throat inside; and
from either one of the two there extend veins in underneath the shoulder
blade and towards the hands; and these appear alongside the veins
splenitis and hepatitis as another pair of veins smaller in size.
When there is a pain near the surface of the body, the physician lances
these two latter veins; but when the pain is within and in the region
of the stomach he lances the veins splenitis and hepatitis. And from
these, other veins depart to run below the breasts. 

'There is also another pair running on each side through the spinal
marrow to the testicles, thin and delicate. There is, further, a pair
running a little underneath the cuticle through the flesh to the kidneys,
and these with men terminate at the testicle, and with women at the
womb. These veins are termed the spermatic veins. The veins that leave
the stomach are comparatively broad just as they leave; but they become
gradually thinner, until they change over from right to left and from
left to right. 

'Blood is thickest when it is imbibed by the fleshy parts; when it
is transmitted to the organs above-mentioned, it becomes thin, warm,
and frothy.' 

Part 3

Such are the accounts given by Syennesis and Diogenes. Polybus writes
to the following effect:- 

'There are four pairs of veins. The first extends from the back of
the head, through the neck on the outside, past the backbone on either
side, until it reaches the loins and passes on to the legs, after
which it goes on through the shins to the outer side of the ankles
and on to the feet. And it is on this account that surgeons, for pains
in the back and loin, bleed in the ham and in the outer side of the
ankle. Another pair of veins runs from the head, past ears, through
the neck; which veins are termed the jugular veins. This pair goes
on inside along the backbone, past the muscles of the loins, on to
the testicles, and onwards to the thighs, and through the inside of
the hams and through the shins down to the inside of the ankles and
to the feet; and for this reason, surgeons, for pains in the muscles
of the loins and in the testicles, bleed on the hams and the inner
side of the ankles. The third pair extends from the temples, through
the neck, in underneath the shoulder-blades, into the lung; those
from right to left going in underneath the breast and on to the spleen
and the kidney; those from left to right running from the lung in
underneath the breast and into the liver and the kidney; and both
terminate in the fundament. The fourth pair extend from the front
part of the head and the eyes in underneath the neck and the collar-bones;
from thence they stretch on through the upper part of the upper arms
to the elbows and then through the fore-arms on to the wrists and
the jointings of the fingers, and also through the lower part of the
upper-arms to the armpits, and so on, keeping above the ribs, until
one of the pair reaches the spleen and the other reaches the liver;
and after this they both pass over the stomach and terminate at the
penis.' 

The above quotations sum up pretty well the statements of all previous
writers. Furthermore, there are some writers on Natural History who
have not ventured to lay down the law in such precise terms as regards
the veins, but who all alike agree in assigning the head and the brain
as the starting-point of the veins. And in this opinion they are mistaken.

The investigation of such a subject, as has been remarked, is one
fraught with difficulties; but, if any one be keenly interested in
the matter, his best plan will be to allow his animals to starve to
emaciation, then to strangle them on a sudden, and thereupon to prosecute
his investigations. 

We now proceed to give particulars regarding the properties and functions
of the veins. There are two blood-vessels in the thorax by the backbone,
and lying to its inner side; and of these two the larger one is situated
to the front, and the lesser one is to the rear of it; and the larger
is situated rather to the right hand side of the body, and the lesser
one to the left; and by some this vein is termed the 'aorta', from
the fact that even in dead bodies part of it is observed to be full
of air. These blood-vessels have their origins in the heart, for they
traverse the other viscera, in whatever direction they happen to run,
without in any way losing their distinctive characteristic as blood-vessels,
whereas the heart is as it were a part of them (and that too more
in respect to the frontward and larger one of the two), owing to the
fact that these two veins are above and below, with the heart lying
midway. 

The heart in all animals has cavities inside it. In the case of the
smaller animals even the largest of the chambers is scarcely discernible;
the second larger is scarcely discernible in animals of medium size;
but in the largest animals all three chambers are distinctly seen.
In the heart then (with its pointed end directed frontwards, as has
been observed) the largest of the three chambers is on the right-hand
side and highest up; the least one is on the left-hand side; and the
medium-sized one lies in betwixt the other two; and the largest one
of the three chambers is a great deal larger than either of the two
others. All three, however, are connected with passages leading in
the direction of the lung, but all these communications are indistinctly
discernible by reason of their minuteness, except one. 

The great blood-vessel, then, is attached to the biggest of the three
chambers, the one that lies uppermost and on the right-hand side;
it then extends right through the chamber, coming out as blood-vessel
again; just as though the cavity of the heart were a part of the vessel,
in which the blood broadens its channel as a river that widens out
in a lake. The aorta is attached to the middle chamber; only, by the
way, it is connected with it by much narrower pipe. 

The great blood-vessel then passes through the heart (and runs from
the heart into the aorta). The great vessel looks as though made of
membrane or skin, while the aorta is narrower than it, and is very
sinewy; and as it stretches away to the head and to the lower parts
it becomes exceedingly narrow and sinewy. 

First of all, then, upwards from the heart there stretches a part
of the great blood-vessel towards the lung and the attachment of the
aorta, a part consisting of a large undivided vessel. But there split
off from it two parts; one towards the lung and the other towards
the backbone and the last vertebra of the neck. 

The vessel, then, that extends to the lung, as the lung itself is
duplicate, divides at first into two; and then extends along by every
pipe and every perforation, greater along the greater ones, lesser
along the less, so continuously that it is impossible to discern a
single part wherein there is not perforation and vein; for the extremities
are indistinguishable from their minuteness, and in point of fact
the whole lung appears to be filled with blood. 

The branches of the blood-vessels lie above the tubes that extend
from the windpipe. And that vessel which extends to the vertebra of
the neck and the backbone, stretches back again along the backbone;
as Homer represents in the lines:- 

(Antilochus, as Thoon turned him round), Transpierc'd his back with
a dishonest wound; The hollow vein that to the neck extends, Along
the chine, the eager javelin rends. 

From this vessel there extend small blood-vessels at each rib and
each vertebra; and at the vertebra above the kidneys the vessel bifurcates.
And in the above way the parts branch off from the great blood-vessel.

But up above all these, from that part which is connected with the
heart, the entire vein branches off in two directions. For its branches
extend to the sides and to the collarbones, and then pass on, in men
through the armpits to the arms, in quadrupeds to the forelegs, in
birds to the wings, and in fishes to the upper or pectoral fins. (See
diagram.) The trunks of these veins, where they first branch off,
are called the 'jugular' veins; and, where they branch off to the
neck the great vein run alongside the windpipe; and, occasionally,
if these veins are pressed externally, men, though not actually choked,
become insensible, shut their eyes, and fall flat on the ground. Extending
in the way described and keeping the windpipe in betwixt them, they
pass on until they reach the ears at the junction of the lower jaw
with the skull. Hence again they branch off into four veins, of which
one bends back and descends through the neck and the shoulder, and
meets the previous branching off of the vein at the bend of the arm,
while the rest of it terminates at the hand and fingers. (See diagram.)

Each vein of the other pair stretches from the region of the ear to
the brain, and branches off in a number of fine and delicate veins
into the so-called meninx, or membrane, which surrounds the brain.
The brain itself in all animals is destitute of blood, and no vein,
great or small, holds its course therein. But of the remaining veins
that branch off from the last mentioned vein some envelop the head,
others close their courses in the organs of sense and at the roots
of the teeth in veins exceedingly fine and minute. 

Part 4

And in like manner the parts of the lesser one of the two chief blood-vessels,
designated the aorta, branch off, accompanying the branches from the
big vein; only that, in regard to the aorta, the passages are less
in size, and the branches very considerably less than are those of
the great vein. So much for the veins as observed in the regions above
the heart. 

The part of the great vein that lies underneath the heart extends,
freely suspended, right through the midriff, and is united both to
the aorta and the backbone by slack membranous communications. From
it one vein, short and wide, extends through the liver, and from it
a number of minute veins branch off into the liver and disappear.
From the vein that passes through the liver two branches separate
off, of which one terminates in the diaphragm or so-called midriff,
and the other runs up again through the armpit into the right arm
and unites with the other veins at the inside of the bend of the arm;
and it is in consequence of this local connexion that, when the surgeon
opens this vein in the forearm, the patient is relieved of certain
pains in the liver; and from the left-hand side of it there extends
a short but thick vein to the spleen and the little veins branching
off it disappear in that organ. Another part branches off from the
left-hand side of the great vein, and ascends, by a course similar
to the course recently described, into the left arm; only that the
ascending vein in the one case is the vein that traverses the liver,
while in this case it is distinct from the vein that runs into the
spleen. Again, other veins branch off from the big vein; one to the
omentum, and another to the pancreas, from which vein run a number
of veins through the mesentery. All these veins coalesce in a single
large vein, along the entire gut and stomach to the oesophagus; about
these parts there is a great ramification of branch veins.

As far as the kidneys, each of the two remaining undivided, the aorta
and the big vein extend; and here they get more closely attached to
the backbone, and branch off, each of the two, into a A shape, and
the big vein gets to the rear of the aorta. But the chief attachment
of the aorta to the backbone takes place in the region of the heart;
and the attachment is effected by means of minute and sinewy vessels.
The aorta, just as it draws off from the heart, is a tube of considerable
volume, but, as it advances in its course, it gets narrower and more
sinewy. And from the aorta there extend veins to the mesentery just
like the veins that extend thither from the big vein, only that the
branches in the case of the aorta are considerably less in magnitude;
they are, indeed, narrow and fibrillar, and they end in delicate hollow
fibre-like veinlets. 

There is no vessel that runs from the aorta into the liver or the
spleen. 

From each of the two great blood-vessels there extend branches to
each of the two flanks, and both branches fasten on to the bone. Vessels
also extend to the kidneys from the big vein and the aorta; only that
they do not open into the cavity of the organ, but their ramifications
penetrate into its substance. From the aorta run two other ducts to
the bladder, firm and continuous; and there are other ducts from the
hollow of the kidneys, in no way communicating with the big vein.
From the centre of each of the two kidneys springs a hollow sinewy
vein, running along the backbone right through the loins; by and by
each of the two veins first disappears in its own flank, and soon
afterwards reappears stretching in the direction of the flank. The
extremities of these attach to the bladder, and also in the male to
the penis and in the female to the womb. From the big vein no vein
extends to the womb, but the organ is connected with the aorta by
veins numerous and closely packed. 

Furthermore, from the aorta and the great vein at the points of divarication
there branch off other veins. Some of these run to the groins-large
hollow veins-and then pass on down through the legs and terminate
in the feet and toes. And, again, another set run through the groins
and the thighs cross-garter fashion, from right to left and from left
to right, and unite in the hams with the other veins. 

In the above description we have thrown light upon the course of the
veins and their points of departure. 

In all sanguineous animals the case stands as here set forth in regard
to the points of departure and the courses of the chief veins. But
the description does not hold equally good for the entire vein-system
in all these animals. For, in point of fact, the organs are not identically
situated in them all; and, what is more, some animals are furnished
with organs of which other animals are destitute. At the same time,
while the description so far holds good, the proof of its accuracy
is not equally easy in all cases, but is easiest in the case of animals
of considerable magnitude and supplied abundantly with blood. For
in little animals and those scantily supplied with blood, either from
natural and inherent causes or from a prevalence of fat in the body,
thorough accuracy in investigation is not equally attainable; for
in the latter of these creatures the passages get clogged, like water-channels
choked with slush; and the others have a few minute fibres to serve
instead of veins. But in all cases the big vein is plainly discernible,
even in creatures of insignificant size. 

Part 5

The sinews of animals have the following properties. For these also
the point of origin is the heart; for the heart has sinews within
itself in the largest of its three chambers, and the aorta is a sinew-like
vein; in fact, at its extremity it is actually a sinew, for it is
there no longer hollow, and is stretched like the sinews where they
terminate at the jointings of the bones. Be it remembered, however,
that the sinews do not proceed in unbroken sequence from one point
of origin, as do the blood-vessels. 

For the veins have the shape of the entire body, like a sketch of
a mannikin; in such a way that the whole frame seems to be filled
up with little veins in attenuated subjects-for the space occupied
by flesh in fat individuals is filled with little veins in thin ones-whereas
the sinews are distributed about the joints and the flexures of the
bones. Now, if the sinews were derived in unbroken sequence from a
common point of departure, this continuity would be discernible in
attenuated specimens. 

In the ham, or the part of the frame brought into full play in the
effort of leaping, is an important system of sinews; and another sinew,
a double one, is that called 'the tendon', and others are those brought
into play when a great effort of physical strength is required; that
is to say, the epitonos or back-stay and the shoulder-sinews. Other
sinews, devoid of specific designation, are situated in the region
of the flexures of the bones; for all the bones that are attached
to one another are bound together by sinews, and a great quantity
of sinews are placed in the neighbourhood of all the bones. Only,
by the way, in the head there is no sinew; but the head is held together
by the sutures of the bones. 

Sinew is fissile lengthwise, but crosswise it is not easily broken,
but admits of a considerable amount of hard tension. In connexion
with sinews a liquid mucus is developed, white and glutinous, and
the organ, in fact, is sustained by it and appears to be substantially
composed of it. Now, vein may be submitted to the actual cautery,
but sinew, when submitted to such action, shrivels up altogether;
and, if sinews be cut asunder, the severed parts will not again cohere.
A feeling of numbness is incidental only to parts of the frame where
sinew is situated. 

There is a very extensive system of sinews connected severally with
the feet, the hands, the ribs, the shoulder-blades, the neck, and
the arms. 

All animals supplied with blood are furnished with sinews; but in
the case of animals that have no flexures to their limbs, but are,
in fact, destitute of either feet or hands, the sinews are fine and
inconspicuous; and so, as might have been anticipated, the sinews
in the fish are chiefly discernible in connexion with the fin.

Part 6

The ines (or fibrous connective tissue) are a something intermediate
between sinew and vein. Some of them are supplied with fluid, the
lymph; and they pass from sinew to vein and from vein to sinew. There
is another kind of ines or fibre that is found in blood, but not in
the blood of all animals alike. If this fibre be left in the blood,
the blood will coagulate; if it be removed or extracted, the blood
is found to be incapable of coagulation. While, however, this fibrous
matter is found in the blood of the great majority of animals, it
is not found in all. For instance, we fail to find it in the blood
of the deer, the roe, the antelope, and some other animals; and, owing
to this deficiency of the fibrous tissue, the blood of these animals
does not coagulate to the extent observed in the blood of other animals.
The blood of the deer coagulates to about the same extent as that
of the hare: that is to the blood in either case coagulates, but not
into a stiff or jelly-like substance, like the blood of ordinary animals,
but only into a flaccid consistency like that of milk which is not
subjected to the action of rennet. The blood of the antelope admits
of a firmer consistency in coagulation; for in this respect it resembles,
or only comes a little short of, the blood of sheep. Such are the
properties of vein, sinew, and fibrous tissue. 

Part 7

The bones in animals are all connected with one single bone, and are
interconnected, like the veins, in one unbroken sequence; and there
is no instance of a bone standing apart by itself. In all animals
furnished with bones, the spine or backbone is the point of origin
for the entire osseous system. The spine is composed of vertebrae,
and it extends from the head down to the loins. The vertebrae are
all perforated, and, above, the bony portion of the head is connected
with the topmost vertebrae, and is designated the 'skull'. And the
serrated lines on the skull are termed 'sutures'. 

The skull is not formed alike in all animals. In some animals the
skull consists of one single undivided bone, as in the case of the
dog; in others it is composite in structure, as in man; and in the
human species the suture is circular in the female, while in the male
it is made up of three separate sutures, uniting above in three-corner
fashion; and instances have been known of a man's skull being devoid
of suture altogether. The skull is composed not of four bones, but
of six; two of these are in the region of the ears, small in comparison
with the other four. From the skull extend the jaws, constituted of
bone. (Animals in general move the lower jaw; the river crocodile
is the only animal that moves the upper one.) In the jaws is the tooth-system;
and the teeth are constituted of bone, and are half-way perforated;
and the bone in question is the only kind of bone which it is found
impossible to grave with a graving tool. 

On the upper part of the course of the backbone are the collar-bones
and the ribs. The chest rests on ribs; and these ribs meet together,
whereas the others do not; for no animal has bone in the region of
the stomach. Then come the shoulder-bones, or blade-bones, and the
arm-bones connected with these, and the bones in the hands connected
with the bones of the arms. With animals that have forelegs, the osseous
system of the foreleg resembles that of the arm in man. 

Below the level of the backbone, after the haunch-bone, comes the
hip-socket; then the leg-bones, those in the thighs and those in the
shins, which are termed colenes or limb-bones, a part of which is
the ankle, while a part of the same is the so-called 'plectrum' in
those creatures that have an ankle; and connected with these bones
are the bones in the feet. 

Now, with all animals that are supplied with blood and furnished with
feet, and are at the same time viviparous, the bones do not differ
greatly one from another, but only in the way of relative hardness,
softness, or magnitude. A further difference, by the way, is that
in one and the same animal certain bones are supplied with marrow,
while others are destitute of it. Some animals might on casual observation
appear to have no marrow whatsoever in their bones: as is the case
with the lion, owing to his having marrow only in small amount, poor
and thin, and in very few bones; for marrow is found in his thigh
and armbones. The bones of the lion are exceptionally hard; so hard,
in fact, that if they are rubbed hard against one another they emit
sparks like flint-stones. The dolphin has bones, and not fish-spine.

Of the other animals supplied with blood, some differ but little,
as is the case with birds; others have systems analogous, as fishes;
for viviparous fishes, such as the cartilaginous species, are gristle-spined,
while the ovipara have a spine which corresponds to the backbone in
quadrupeds. This exceptional property has been observed in fishes,
that in some of them there are found delicate spines scattered here
and there throughout the fleshy parts. The serpent is similarly constructed
to the fish; in other words, his backbone is spinous. With oviparous
quadrupeds, the skeleton of the larger ones is more or less osseous;
of the smaller ones, more or less spinous. But all sanguineous animals
have a backbone of either one kind or other: that is, composed either
of bone or of spine. 

The other portions of the skeleton are found in some animals and not
found in others, but the presence or the absence of this and that
part carries with it, as a matter of course, the presence or the absence
of the bones or the spines corresponding to this or that part. For
animals that are destitute of arms and legs cannot be furnished with
limb-bones: and in like manner with animals that have the same parts,
but yet have them unlike in form; for in these animals the corresponding
bones differ from one another in the way of relative excess or relative
defect, or in the way of analogy taking the place of identity. So
much for the osseous or spinous systems in animals. 

Part 8

Gristle is of the same nature as bone, but differs from it in the
way of relative excess or relative defect. And just like bone, cartilage
also, if cut, does not grow again. In terrestrial viviparous sanguinea
the gristle formations are unperforated, and there is no marrow in
them as there is in bones; in the selachia, however--for, be it observed,
they are gristle-spined--there is found in the case of the flat space
in the region of the backbone, a gristle-like substance analogous
to bone, and in this gristle-like substance there is a liquid resembling
marrow. In viviparous animals furnished with feet, gristle formations
are found in the region of the ears, in the nostrils, and around certain
extremities of the bones. 

Part 9

Furthermore, there are parts of other kinds, neither identical with,
nor altogether diverse from, the parts above enumerated: such as nails,
hooves, claws, and horns; and also, by the way, beaks, such as birds
are furnished with-all in the several animals that are furnished therewithal.
All these parts are flexible and fissile; but bone is neither flexible
nor fissile, but frangible. 

And the colours of horns and nails and claw and hoof follow the colour
of the skin and the hair. For according as the skin of an animal is
black, or white, or of medium hue, so are the horns, the claws, or
the hooves, as the case may be, of hue to match. And it is the same
with nails. The teeth, however, follow after the bones. Thus in black
men, such as the Aethiopians and the like, the teeth and bones are
white, but the nails are black, like the whole of the skin.

Horns in general are hollow at their point of attachment to the bone
which juts out from the head inside the horn, but they have a solid
portion at the tip, and they are simple and undivided in structure.
In the case of the stag alone of all animals the horns are solid throughout,
and ramify into branches (or antlers). And, whereas no other animal
is known to shed its horns, the deer sheds its horns annually, unless
it has been castrated; and with regard to the effects of castration
in animals we shall have much to say hereafter. Horns attach rather
to the skin than to the bone; which will account for the fact that
there are found in Phrygia and elsewhere cattle that can move their
horns as freely as their ears. 

Of animals furnished with nails-and, by the way, all animals have
nails that have toes, and toes that have feet, except the elephant;
and the elephant has toes undivided and slightly articulated, but
has no nails whatsoever--of animals furnished with nails, some are
straight-nailed, like man; others are crooked nailed, as the lion
among animals that walk, and the eagle among animals that fly.

Part 10

The following are the properties of hair and of parts analogous to
hair, and of skin or hide. All viviparous animals furnished with feet
have hair; all oviparous animals furnished with feet have horn-like
tessellates; fishes, and fishes only, have scales-that is, such oviparous
fishes as have the crumbling egg or roe. For of the lanky fishes,
the conger has no such egg, nor the muraena, and the eel has no egg
at all. 

The hair differs in the way of thickness and fineness, and of length,
according to the locality of the part in which it is found, and according
to the quality of skin or hide on which it grows. For, as a general
rule, the thicker the hide, the harder and the thicker is the hair;
and the hair is inclined to grow in abundance and to a great length
in localities of the bodies hollow and moist, if the localities be
fitted for the growth of hair at all. The facts are similar in the
case of animals whether coated with scales or with tessellates. With
soft-haired animals the hair gets harder with good feeding, and with
hard-haired or bristly animals it gets softer and scantier from the
same cause. Hair differs in quality also according to the relative
heat or warmth of the locality: just as the hair in man is hard in
warm places and soft in cold ones. Again, straight hair is inclined
to be soft, and curly hair to be bristly. 

Part 11

Hair is naturally fissile, and in this respect it differs in degree
in diverse animals. In some animals the hair goes on gradually hardening
into bristle until it no longer resembles hair but spine, as in the
case of the hedgehog. And in like manner with the nails; for in some
animals the nail differs as regards solidity in no way from bone.

Of all animals man has the most delicate skin: that is, if we take
into consideration his relative size. In the skin or hide of all animals
there is a mucous liquid, scanty in some animals and plentiful in
others, as, for instance, in the hide of the ox; for men manufacture
glue out of it. (And, by the way, in some cases glue is manufactured
from fishes also.) The skin, when cut, is in itself devoid of sensation;
and this is especially the case with the skin on the head, owing to
there being no flesh between it and the skull. And wherever the skin
is quite by itself, if it be cut asunder, it does not grow together
again, as is seen in the thin part of the jaw, in the prepuce, and
the eyelid. In all animals the skin is one of the parts that extends
continuous and unbroken, and it comes to a stop only where the natural
ducts pour out their contents, and at the mouth and nails.

All sanguineous animals, then, have skin; but not all such animals
have hair, save only under the circumstances described above. The
hair changes its colour as animals grow old, and in man it turns white
or grey. With animals, in general, the change takes place, but not
very obviously, or not so obviously as in the case of the horse. Hair
turns grey from the point backwards to the roots. But, in the majority
of cases, grey hairs are white from the beginning; and this is a proof
that greyness of hair does not, as some believe to be the case, imply
withering or decrepitude, for no part is brought into existence in
a withered or decrepit condition. 

In the eruptive malady called the white-sickness all the hairs get
grey; and instances have been known where the hair became grey while
the patients were ill of the malady, whereas the grey hairs shed off
and black ones replaced them on their recovery. (Hair is more apt
to turn grey when it is kept covered than when exposed to the action
of the outer air.) In men, the hair over the temples is the first
to turn grey, and the hair in the front grows grey sooner than the
hair at the back; and the hair on the pubes is the last to change
colour. 

Some hairs are congenital, others grow after the maturity of the animal;
but this occurs in man only. The congenital hairs are on the head,
the eyelids, and the eyebrows; of the later growths the hairs on the
pubes are the first to come, then those under the armpits, and, thirdly,
those on the chin; for, singularly enough, the regions where congenital
growths and the subsequent growths are found are equal in number.
The hair on the head grows scanty and sheds out to a greater extent
and sooner than all the rest. But this remark applies only to hair
in front; for no man ever gets bald at the back of his head. Smoothness
on the top of the head is termed 'baldness', but smoothness on the
eyebrows is denoted by a special term which means 'forehead-baldness';
and neither of these conditions of baldness supervenes in a man until
he shall have come under the influence of sexual passion. For no boy
ever gets bald, no woman, and no castrated man. In fact, if a man
be castrated before reaching puberty, the later growths of hair never
come at all; and, if the operation take place subsequently, the aftergrowths,
and these only, shed off; or, rather, two of the growths shed off,
but not that on the pubes. 

Women do not grow hairs on the chin; except that a scanty beard grows
on some women after the monthly courses have stopped; and similar
phenomenon is observed at times in priestesses in Caria, but these
cases are looked upon as portentous with regard to coming events.
The other after-growths are found in women, but more scanty and sparse.
Men and women are at times born constitutionally and congenitally
incapable of the after-growths; and individuals that are destitute
even of the growth upon the pubes are constitutionally impotent.

Hair as a rule grows more or less in length as the wearer grows in
age; chiefly the hair on the head, then that in the beard, and fine
hair grows longest of all. With some people as they grow old the eyebrows
grow thicker, to such an extent that they have to be cut off; and
this growth is owing to the fact that the eyebrows are situated at
a conjuncture of bones, and these bones, as age comes on, draw apart
and exude a gradual increase of moisture or rheum. The eyelashes do
not grow in size, but they shed when the wearer comes first under
the influence of sexual feelings, and shed all the quicker as this
influence is the more powerful; and these are the last hairs to grow
grey. 

Hairs if plucked out before maturity grow again; but they do not grow
again if plucked out afterwards. Every hair is supplied with a mucous
moisture at its root, and immediately after being plucked out it can
lift light articles if it touch them with this mucus. 

Animals that admit of diversity of colour in the hair admit of a similar
diversity to start with in the skin and in the cuticle of the tongue.

In some cases among men the upper lip and the chin is thickly covered
with hair, and in other cases these parts are smooth and the cheeks
are hairy; and, by the way, smooth-chinned men are less inclined than
bearded men to baldness. 

The hair is inclined to grow in certain diseases, especially in consumption,
and in old age, and after death; and under these circumstances the
hair hardens concomitantly with its growth, and the same duplicate
phenomenon is observable in respect of the nails. 

In the case of men of strong sexual passions the congenital hairs
shed the sooner, while the hairs of the after-growths are the quicker
to come. When men are afflicted with varicose veins they are less
inclined to take on baldness; and if they be bald when they become
thus afflicted, they have a tendency to get their hair again.

If a hair be cut, it does not grow at the point of section; but it
gets longer by growing upward from below. In fishes the scales grow
harder and thicker with age, and when the amimal gets emaciated or
is growing old the scales grow harder. In quadrupeds as they grow
old the hair in some and the wool in others gets deeper but scantier
in amount: and the hooves or claws get larger in size; and the same
is the case with the beaks of birds. The claws also increase in size,
as do also the nails. 

Part 12

With regard to winged animals, such as birds, no creature is liable
to change of colour by reason of age, excepting the crane. The wings
of this bird are ash-coloured at first, but as it grows old the wings
get black. Again, owing to special climatic influences, as when unusual
frost prevails, a change is sometimes observed to take place in birds
whose plumage is of one uniform colour; thus, birds that have dusky
or downright black plumage turn white or grey, as the raven, the sparrow,
and the swallow; but no case has ever yet been known of a change of
colour from white to black. (Further, most birds change the colour
of their plumage at different seasons of the year, so much so that
a man ignorant of their habits might be mistaken as to their identity.)
Some animals change the colour of their hair with a change in their
drinking-water, for in some countries the same species of animal is
found white in one district and black in another. And in regard to
the commerce of the sexes, water in many places is of such peculiar
quality that rams, if they have intercourse with the female after
drinking it, beget black lambs, as is the case with the water of the
Psychrus (so-called from its coldness), a river in the district of
Assyritis in the Chalcidic Peninsula, on the coast of Thrace; and
in Antandria there are two rivers of which one makes the lambs white
and the other black. The river Scamander also has the reputation of
making lambs yellow, and that is the reason, they say, why Homer designates
it the 'Yellow River.' Animals as a general rule have no hair on their
internal surfaces, and, in regard to their extremities, they have
hair on the upper, but not on the lower side. 

The hare, or dasypod, is the only animal known to have hair inside
its mouth and underneath its feet. Further, the so-called mousewhale
instead of teeth has hairs in its mouth resembling pigs' bristles.

Hairs after being cut grow at the bottom but not at the top; if feathers
be cut off, they grow neither at top nor bottom, but shed and fall
out. Further, the bee's wing will not grow again after being plucked
off, nor will the wing of any creature that has undivided wings. Neither
will the sting grow again if the bee lose it, but the creature will
die of the loss. 

Part 13

In all sanguineous animals membranes are found. And membrane resembles
a thin close-textured skin, but its qualities are different, as it
admits neither of cleavage nor of extension. Membrane envelops each
one of the bones and each one of the viscera, both in the larger and
the smaller animals; though in the smaller animals the membranes are
indiscernible from their extreme tenuity and minuteness. The largest
of all the membranes are the two that surround the brain, and of these
two the one that lines the bony skull is stronger and thicker than
the one that envelops the brain; next in order of magnitude comes
the membrane that encloses the heart. If membrane be bared and cut
asunder it will not grow together again, and the bone thus stripped
of its membrane mortifies. 

Part 14

The omentum or caul, by the way, is membrane. All sanguineous animals
are furnished with this organ; but in some animals the organ is supplied
with fat, and in others it is devoid of it. The omentum has both its
starting-point and its attachment, with ambidental vivipara, in the
centre of the stomach, where the stomach has a kind of suture; in
non-ambidental vivipara it has its starting-point and attachment in
the chief of the ruminating stomachs. 

Part 15

The bladder also is of the nature of membrane, but of membrane peculiar
in kind, for it is extensile. The organ is not common to all animals,
but, while it is found in all the vivipara, the tortoise is the only
oviparous animal that is furnished therewithal. The bladder, like
ordinary membrane, if cut asunder will not grow together again, unless
the section be just at the commencement of the urethra: except indeed
in very rare cases, for instances of healing have been known to occur.
After death, the organ passes no liquid excretion; but in life, in
addition to the normal liquid excretion, it passes at times dry excretion
also, which turns into stones in the case of sufferers from that malady.
Indeed, instances have been known of concretions in the bladder so
shaped as closely to resemble cockleshells. 

Such are the properties, then, of vein, sinew and skin, of fibre and
membrane, of hair, nail, claw and hoof, of horns, of teeth, of beak,
of gristle, of bones, and of parts that are analogous to any of the
parts here enumerated. 

Part 16

Flesh, and that which is by nature akin to it in sanguineous animals,
is in all cases situated in between the skin and the bone, or the
substance analogous to bone; for just as spine is a counterpart of
bone, so is the flesh-like substance of animals that are constructed
a spinous system the counterpart of the flesh of animals constructed
on an osseous one. 

Flesh can be divided asunder in any direction, not lengthwise only
as is the case with sinew and vein. When animals are subjected to
emaciation the flesh disappears, and the creatures become a mass of
veins and fibres; when they are over fed, fat takes the place of flesh.
Where the flesh is abundant in an animal, its veins are somewhat small
and the blood abnormally red; the viscera also and the stomach are
diminutive; whereas with animals whose veins are large the blood is
somewhat black, the viscera and the stomach are large, and the flesh
is somewhat scanty. And animals with small stomachs are disposed to
take on flesh. 

Part 17

Again, fat and suet differ from one another. Suet is frangible in
all directions and congeals if subjected to extreme cold, whereas
fat can melt but cannot freeze or congeal; and soups made of the flesh
of animals supplied with fat do not congeal or coagulate, as is found
with horse-flesh and pork; but soups made from the flesh of animals
supplied with suet do coagulate, as is seen with mutton and goat's
flesh. Further, fat and suet differ as to their localities: for fat
is found between the skin and flesh, but suet is found only at the
limit of the fleshy parts. Also, in animals supplied with fat the
omentum or caul is supplied with fat, and it is supplied with suet
in animals supplied with suet. Moreover, ambidental animals are supplied
with fat, and non-ambidentals with suet. 

Of the viscera the liver in some animals becomes fatty, as, among
fishes, is the case with the selachia, by the melting of whose livers
an oil is manufactured. These cartilaginous fish themselves have no
free fat at all in connexion with the flesh or with the stomach. The
suet in fish is fatty, and does not solidify or congeal. All animals
are furnished with fat, either intermingled with their flesh, or apart.
Such as have no free or separate fat are less fat than others in stomach
and omentum, as the eel; for it has only a scanty supply of suet about
the omentum. Most animals take on fat in the belly, especially such
animals as are little in motion. 

The brains of animals supplied with fat are oily, as in the pig; of
animals supplied with suet, parched and dry. But it is about the kidneys
more than any other viscera that animals are inclined to take on fat;
and the right kidney is always less supplied with fat than the left
kidney, and, be the two kidneys ever so fat, there is always a space
devoid of fat in between the two. Animals supplied with suet are specially
apt to have it about the kidneys, and especially the sheep; for this
animal is apt to die from its kidneys being entirely enveloped. Fat
or suet about the kidney is superinduced by overfeeding, as is found
at Leontini in Sicily; and consequently in this district they defer
driving out sheep to pasture until the day is well on, with the view
of limiting their food by curtailment of the hours of pasture.

Part 18

The part around the pupil of the eye is fatty in all animals, and
this part resembles suet in all animals that possess such a part and
that are not furnished with hard eyes. 

Fat animals, whether male or female, are more or less unfitted for
breeding purposes. Animals are disposed to take on fat more when old
than when young, and especially when they have attained their full
breadth and their full length and are beginning to grow depthways.

Part 19

And now to proceed to the consideration of the blood. In sanguineous
animals blood is the most universal and the most indispensable part;
and it is not an acquired or adventitious part, but it is a consubstantial
part of all animals that are not corrupt or moribund. All blood is
contained in a vascular system, to wit, the veins, and is found nowhere
else, excepting in the heart. Blood is not sensitive to touch in any
animal, any more than the excretions of the stomach; and the case
is similar with the brain and the marrow. When flesh is lacerated,
blood exudes, if the animal be alive and unless the flesh be gangrened.
Blood in a healthy condition is naturally sweet to the taste, and
red in colour, blood that deteriorates from natural decay or from
disease more or less black. Blood at its best, before it undergoes
deterioration from either natural decay or from disease, is neither
very thick nor very thin. In the living animal it is always liquid
and warm, but, on issuing from the body, it coagulates in all cases
except in the case of the deer, the roe, and the like animals; for,
as a general rule, blood coagulates unless the fibres be extracted.
Bull's blood is the quickest to coagulate. 

Animals that are internally and externally viviparous are more abundantly
supplied with blood than the sanguineous ovipara. Animals that are
in good condition, either from natural causes or from their health
having been attended to, have the blood neither too abundant-as creatures
just after drinking have the liquid inside them in abundance-nor again
very scanty, as is the case with animals when exceedingly fat. For
animals in this condition have pure blood, but very little of it,
and the fatter an animal gets the less becomes its supply of blood;
for whatsoever is fat is destitute of blood. 

A fat substance is incorruptible, but blood and all things containing
it corrupt rapidly, and this property characterizes especially all
parts connected with the bones. Blood is finest and purest in man;
and thickest and blackest in the bull and the ass, of all vivipara.
In the lower and the higher parts of the body blood is thicker and
blacker than in the central parts. 

Blood beats or palpitates in the veins of all animals alike all over
their bodies, and blood is the only liquid that permeates the entire
frames of living animals, without exception and at all times, as long
as life lasts. Blood is developed first of all in the heart of animals
before the body is differentiated as a whole. If blood be removed
or if it escape in any considerable quantity, animals fall into a
faint or swoon; if it be removed or if it escape in an exceedingly
large quantity they die. If the blood get exceedingly liquid, animals
fall sick; for the blood then turns into something like ichor, or
a liquid so thin that it at times has been known to exude through
the pores like sweat. In some cases blood, when issuing from the veins,
does not coagulate at all, or only here and there. Whilst animals
are sleeping the blood is less abundantly supplied near the exterior
surfaces, so that, if the sleeping creature be pricked with a pin,
the blood does not issue as copiously as it would if the creature
were awake. Blood is developed out of ichor by coction, and fat in
like manner out of blood. If the blood get diseased, haemorrhoids
may ensue in the nostril or at the anus, or the veins may become varicose.
Blood, if it corrupt in the body, has a tendency to turn into pus,
and pus may turn into a solid concretion. 

Blood in the female differs from that in the male, for, supposing
the male and female to be on a par as regards age and general health,
the blood in the female is thicker and blacker than in the male; and
with the female there is a comparative superabundance of it in the
interior. Of all female animals the female in man is the most richly
supplied with blood, and of all female animals the menstruous discharges
are the most copious in woman. The blood of these discharges under
disease turns into flux. Apart from the menstrual discharges, the
female in the human species is less subject to diseases of the blood
than the male. 

Women are seldom afflicted with varicose veins, with haemorrhoids,
or with bleeding at the nose, and, if any of these maladies supervene,
the menses are imperfectly discharged. 

Blood differs in quantity and appearance according to age; in very
young animals it resembles ichor and is abundant, in the old it is
thick and black and scarce, and in middle-aged animals its qualities
are intermediate. In old animals the blood coagulates rapidly, even
blood at the surface of the body; but this is not the case with young
animals. Ichor is, in fact, nothing else but unconcocted blood: either
blood that has not yet been concocted, or that has become fluid again.

Part 20

We now proceed to discuss the properties of marrow; for this is one
of the liquids found in certain sanguineous animals. All the natural
liquids of the body are contained in vessels: as blood in veins, marrow
in bones other moistures in membranous structures of the skin

In young animals the marrow is exceedingly sanguineous, but, as animals
grow old, it becomes fatty in animals supplied with fat, and suet-like
in animals with suet. All bones, however, are not supplied with marrow,
but only the hollow ones, and not all of these. For of the bones in
the lion some contain no marrow at all, and some are only scantily
supplied therewith; and that accounts, as was previously observed,
for the statement made by certain writers that the lion is marrowless.
In the bones of pigs it is found in small quantities; and in the bones
of certain animals of this species it is not found at all.

These liquids, then, are nearly always congenital in animals, but
milk and sperm come at a later time. Of these latter, that which,
whensoever it is present, is secreted in all cases ready-made, is
the milk; sperm, on the other hand, is not secreted out in all cases,
but in some only, as in the case of what are designated thori in fishes.

Whatever animals have milk, have it in their breasts. All animals
have breasts that are internally and externally viviparous, as for
instance all animals that have hair, as man and the horse; and the
cetaceans, as the dolphin, the porpoise, and the whale-for these animals
have breasts and are supplied with milk. Animals that are oviparous
or only externally viviparous have neither breasts nor milk, as the
fish and the bird. 

All milk is composed of a watery serum called 'whey', and a consistent
substance called curd (or cheese); and the thicker the milk, the more
abundant the curd. The milk, then, of non-ambidentals coagulates,
and that is why cheese is made of the milk of such animals under domestication;
but the milk of ambidentals does not coagulate, nor their fat either,
and the milk is thin and sweet. Now the camel's milk is the thinnest,
and that of the human species next after it, and that of the ass next
again, but cow's milk is the thickest. Milk does not coagulate under
the influence of cold, but rather runs to whey; but under the influence
of heat it coagulates and thickens. As a general rule milk only comes
to animals in pregnancy. When the animal is pregnant milk is found,
but for a while it is unfit for use, and then after an interval of
usefulness it becomes unfit for use again. 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. 

Part 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.

Part 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

Part 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. 

Part 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.

Part 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.

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. 

Part 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. For while the capability of talking implies the capability
of uttering vocal sounds, the converse does not hold good. Men that
are born deaf are in all cases also dumb; that is, they can make vocal
sounds, but they cannot speak. Children, just as they have no control
over other parts, so have no control, at first, over the tongue; but
it is so far imperfect, and only frees and detaches itself by degrees,
so that in the interval children for the most part lisp and stutter.

Vocal sounds and modes of language differ according to locality. Vocal
sounds are characterized chiefly by their pitch, whether high or low,
and the kinds of sound capable of being produced are identical within
the limits of one and the same species; but articulate sound, that
one might reasonably designate 'language', differs both in various
animals, and also in the same species according to diversity of locality;
as for instance, some partridges cackle, and some make a shrill twittering
noise. Of little birds, some sing a different note from the parent
birds, if they have been removed from the nest and have heard other
birds singing; and a mother-nightingale has been observed to give
lessons in singing to a young bird, from which spectacle we might
obviously infer that the song of the bird was not equally congenital
with mere voice, but was something capable of modification and of
improvement. Men have the same voice or vocal sounds, but they differ
from one another in speech or language. 

The elephant makes a vocal sound of a windlike sort by the mouth alone,
unaided by the trunk, just like the sound of a man panting or sighing;
but, if it employ the trunk as well, the sound produced is like that
of a hoarse trumpet. 

Part 10

With regard to the sleeping and waking of animals, all creatures that
are red-blooded and provided with legs give sensible proof that they
go to sleep and that they waken up from sleep; for, as a matter of
fact, all animals that are furnished with eyelids shut them up when
they go to sleep. Furthermore, it would appear that not only do men
dream, but horses also, and dogs, and oxen; aye, and sheep, and goats,
and all viviparous quadrupeds; and dogs show their dreaming by barking
in their sleep. With regard to oviparous animals we cannot be sure
that they dream, but most undoubtedly they sleep. And the same may
be said of water animals, such as fishes, molluscs, crustaceans, to
wit crawfish and the like. These animals sleep without doubt, although
their sleep is of very short duration. The proof of their sleeping
cannot be got from the condition of their eyes-for none of these creatures
are furnished with eyelids-but can be obtained only from their motionless
repose. 

Apart from the irritation caused by lice and what are nicknamed fleas,
fish are met with in a state so motionless that one might easily catch
them by hand; and, as a matter of fact, these little creatures, if
the fish remain long in one position, will attack them in myriads
and devour them. For these parasites are found in the depths of the
sea, and are so numerous that they devour any bait made of fish's
flesh if it be left long on the ground at the bottom; and fishermen
often draw up a cluster of them, all clinging on to the bait.

But it is from the following facts that we may more reasonably infer
that fishes sleep. Very often it is possible to take a fish off its
guard so far as to catch hold of it or to give it a blow unawares;
and all the while that you are preparing to catch or strike it, the
fish is quite still but for a slight motion of the tail. And it is
quite obvious that the animal is sleeping, from its movements if any
disturbance be made during its repose; for it moves just as you would
expect in a creature suddenly awakened. Further, owing to their being
asleep, fish may be captured by torchlight. The watchmen in the tunny-fishery
often take advantage of the fish being asleep to envelop them in a
circle of nets; and it is quite obvious that they were thus sleeping
by their lying still and allowing the glistening under-parts of their
bodies to become visible, while the capture is taking Place. They
sleep in the night-time more than during the day; and so soundly at
night that you may cast the net without making them stir. Fish, as
a general rule, sleep close to the ground, or to the sand or to a
stone at the bottom, or after concealing themselves under a rock or
the ground. Flat fish go to sleep in the sand; and they can be distinguished
by the outlines of their shapes in the sand, and are caught in this
position by being speared with pronged instruments. The basse, the
chrysophrys or gilt-head, the mullet, and fish of the like sort are
often caught in the daytime by the prong owing to their having been
surprised when sleeping; for it is scarcely probable that fish could
be pronged while awake. Cartilaginous fish sleep at times so soundly
that they may be caught by hand. The dolphin and the whale, and all
such as are furnished with a blow-hole, sleep with the blow-hole over
the surface of the water, and breathe through the blow-hole while
they keep up a quiet flapping of their fins; indeed, some mariners
assure us that they have actually heard the dolphin snoring.

Molluscs sleep like fishes, and crustaceans also. It is plain also
that insects sleep; for there can be no mistaking their condition
of motionless repose. In the bee the fact of its being asleep is very
obvious; for at night-time bees are at rest and cease to hum. But
the fact that insects sleep may be very well seen in the case of common
every-day creatures; for not only do they rest at night-time from
dimness of vision (and, by the way, all hard-eyed creatures see but
indistinctly), but even if a lighted candle be presented they continue
sleeping quite as soundly. 

Of all animals man is most given to dreaming. Children and infants
do not dream, but in most cases dreaming comes on at the age of four
or five years. Instances have been known of full-grown men and women
that have never dreamed at all; in exceptional cases of this kind,
it has been observed that when a dream occurs in advanced life it
prognosticates either actual dissolution or a general break-up of
the system. 

So much then for sensation and for the phenomena of sleeping and of
awakening. 

Part 11

With regard to sex, some animals are divided into male and female,
but others are not so divided but can only be said in a comparative
way to bring forth young and to be pregnant. In animals that live
confined to one spot there is no duality of sex; nor is there such,
in fact, in any testaceans. In molluscs and in crustaceans we find
male and female: and, indeed, in all animals furnished with feet,
biped or quadruped; in short, in all such as by copulation engender
either live young or egg or grub. In the several genera, with however
certain exceptions, there either absolutely is or absolutely is not
a duality of sex. Thus, in quadrupeds the duality is universal, while
the absence of such duality is universal in testaceans, and of these
creatures, as with plants, some individuals are fruitful and some
are not their lying still 

But among insects and fishes, some cases are found wholly devoid of
this duality of sex. For instance, the eel is neither male nor female,
and can engender nothing. In fact, those who assert that eels are
at times found with hair-like or worm-like progeny attached, make
only random assertions from not having carefully noticed the locality
of such attachments. For no eel nor animal of this kind is ever viviparous
unless previously oviparous; and no eel was ever yet seen with an
egg. And animals that are viviparous have their young in the womb
and closely attached, and not in the belly; for, if the embryo were
kept in the belly, it would be subjected to the process of digestion
like ordinary food. When people rest duality of sex in the eel on
the assertion that the head of the male is bigger and longer, and
the head of the female smaller and more snubbed, they are taking diversity
of species for diversity of sex. 

There are certain fish that are nicknamed the epitragiae, or capon-fish,
and, by the way, fish of this description are found in fresh water,
as the carp and the balagrus. This sort of fish never has either roe
or milt; but they are hard and fat all over, and are furnished with
a small gut; and these fish are regarded as of super-excellent quality.

Again, just as in testaceans and in plants there is what bears and
engenders, but not what impregnates, so is it, among fishes, with
the psetta, the erythrinus, and the channe; for these fish are in
all cases found furnished with eggs. 

As a general rule, in red-blooded animals furnished with feet and
not oviparous, the male is larger and longer-lived than the female
(except with the mule, where the female is longer-lived and bigger
than the male); whereas in oviparous and vermiparous creatures, as
in fishes and in insects, the female is larger than the male; as,
for instance, with the serpent, the phalangium or venom-spider, the
gecko, and the frog. The same difference in size of the sexes is found
in fishes, as, for instance, in the smaller cartilaginous fishes,
in the greater part of the gregarious species, and in all that live
in and about rocks. The fact that the female is longer-lived than
the male is inferred from the fact that female fishes are caught older
than males. Furthermore, in all animals the upper and front parts
are better, stronger, and more thoroughly equipped in the male than
in the female, whereas in the female those parts are the better that
may be termed hinder-parts or underparts. And this statement is applicable
to man and to all vivipara that have feet. Again, the female is less
muscular and less compactly jointed, and more thin and delicate in
the hair-that is, where hair is found; and, where there is no hair,
less strongly furnished in some analogous substance. And the female
is more flaccid in texture of flesh, and more knock-kneed, and the
shin-bones are thinner; and the feet are more arched and hollow in
such animals as are furnished with feet. And with regard to voice,
the female in all animals that are vocal has a thinner and sharper
voice than the male; except, by the way, with kine, for the lowing
and bellowing of the cow has a deeper note than that of the bull.
With regard to organs of defence and offence, such as teeth, tusks,
horns, spurs, and the like, these in some species the male possesses
and the female does not; as, for instance, the hind has no horns,
and where the cock-bird has a spur the hen is entirely destitute of
the organ; and in like manner the sow is devoid of tusks. In other
species such organs are found in both sexes, but are more perfectly
developed in the male; as, for instance, the horn of the bull is more
powerful than the horn of the cow. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOK V

Part 1 

As to the parts internal and external that all animals are furnished
withal, and further as to the senses, to voice, and sleep, and the
duality sex, all these topics have now been touched upon. It now remains
for us to discuss, duly and in order, their several modes of propagation.

These modes are many and diverse, and in some respects are like, and
in other respects are unlike to one another. As we carried on our
previous discussion genus by genus, so we must attempt to follow the
same divisions in our present argument; only that whereas in the former
case we started with a consideration of the parts of man, in the present
case it behoves us to treat of man last of all because he involves
most discussion. We shall commence, then, with testaceans, and then
proceed to crustaceans, and then to the other genera in due order;
and these other genera are, severally, molluscs, and insects, then
fishes viviparous and fishes oviparous, and next birds; and afterwards
we shall treat of animals provided with feet, both such as are oviparous
and such as are viviparous, and we may observe that some quadrupeds
are viviparous, but that the only viviparous biped is man.

Now there is one property that animals are found to have in common
with plants. For some plants are generated from the seed of plants,
whilst other plants are self-generated through the formation of some
elemental principle similar to a seed; and of these latter plants
some derive their nutriment from the ground, whilst others grow inside
other plants, as is mentioned, by the way, in my treatise on Botany.
So with animals, some spring from parent animals according to their
kind, whilst others grow spontaneously and not from kindred stock;
and of these instances of spontaneous generation some come from putrefying
earth or vegetable matter, as is the case with a number of insects,
while others are spontaneously generated in the inside of animals
out of the secretions of their several organs. 

In animals where generation goes by heredity, wherever there is duality
of sex generation is due to copulation. In the group of fishes, however,
there are some that are neither male nor female, and these, while
they are identical generically with other fish, differ from them specifically;
but there are others that stand altogether isolated and apart by themselves.
Other fishes there are that are always female and never male, and
from them are conceived what correspond to the wind-eggs in birds.
Such eggs, by the way, in birds are all unfruitful; but it is their
nature to be independently capable of generation up to the egg-stage,
unless indeed there be some other mode than the one familiar to us
of intercourse with the male; but concerning these topics we shall
treat more precisely later on. In the case of certain fishes, however,
after they have spontaneously generated eggs, these eggs develop into
living animals; only that in certain of these cases development is
spontaneous, and in others is not independent of the male; and the
method of proceeding in regard to these matters will set forth by
and by, for the method is somewhat like to the method followed in
the case of birds. But whensoever creatures are spontaneously generated,
either in other animals, in the soil, or on plants, or in the parts
of these, and when such are generated male and female, then from the
copulation of such spontaneously generated males and females there
is generated a something-a something never identical in shape with
the parents, but a something imperfect. For instance, the issue of
copulation in lice is nits; in flies, grubs; in fleas, grubs egg-like
in shape; and from these issues the parent-species is never reproduced,
nor is any animal produced at all, but the like nondescripts only.

First, then, we must proceed to treat of 'covering' in regard to such
animals as cover and are covered; and then after this to treat in
due order of other matters, both the exceptional and those of general
occurrence. 

Part 2

Those animals, then, cover and are covered in which there is a duality
of sex, and the modes of covering in such animals are not in all cases
similar nor analogous. For the red-blooded animals that are viviparous
and furnished with feet have in all cases organs adapted for procreation,
but the sexes do not in all cases come together in like manner. Thus,
opisthuretic animals copulate with a rearward presentment, as is the
case with the lion, the hare, and the lynx; though, by the way, in
the case of the hare, the female is often observed to cover the male.

The case is similar in most other such animals; that is to say, the
majority of quadrupeds copulate as best they can, the male mounting
the female; and this is the only method of copulating adopted by birds,
though there are certain diversities of method observed even in birds.
For in some cases the female squats on the ground and the male mounts
on top of her, as is the case with the cock and hen bustard, and the
barn-door cock and hen; in other cases, the male mounts without the
female squatting, as with the male and female crane; for, with these
birds, the male mounts on to the back of the female and covers her,
and like the cock-sparrow consumes but very little time in the operation.
Of quadrupeds, bears perform the operation lying prone on one another,
in the same way as other quadrupeds do while standing up; that is
to say, with the belly of the male pressed to the back of the female.
Hedgehogs copulate erect, belly to belly. 

With regard to large-sized vivipara, the hind only very rarely sustains
the mounting of the stag to the full conclusion of the operation,
and the same is the case with the cow as regards the bull, owing to
the rigidity of the penis of the bull. In point of fact, the females
of these animals elicit the sperm of the male in the act of withdrawing
from underneath him; and, by the way, this phenomenon has been observed
in the case of the stag and hind, domesticated, of course. Covering
with the wolf is the same as with the dog. Cats do not copulate with
a rearward presentment on the part of the female, but the male stands
erect and the female puts herself underneath him; and, by the way,
the female cat is peculiarly lecherous, and wheedles the male on to
sexual commerce, and caterwauls during the operation. Camels copulate
with the female in a sitting posture, and the male straddles over
and covers her, not with the hinder presentment on the female's part
but like the other quadrupeds mentioned above, and they pass the whole
day long in the operation; when thus engaged they retire to lonely
spots, and none but their keeper dare approach them. And, be it observed,
the penis of the camel is so sinewy that bow-strings are manufactured
out of it. Elephants, also, copulate in lonely places, and especially
by river-sides in their usual haunts; the female squats down, and
straddles with her legs, and the male mounts and covers her. The seal
covers like all opisthuretic animals, and in this species the copulation
extends over a lengthened time, as is the case with the dog and bitch;
and the penis in the male seal is exceptionally large. 

Part 3

Oviparous quadrupeds cover one another in the same way. That is to
say, in some cases the male mounts the female precisely as in the
viviparous animals, as is observed in both the land and the sea tortoise....And
these creatures have an organ in which the ducts converge, and with
which they perform the act of copulation, as is also observed in the
toad, the frog, and all other animals of the same group.

Part 4

Long animals devoid of feet, like serpents and muraenae, intertwine
in coition, belly to belly. And, in fact, serpents coil round one
another so tightly as to present the appearance of a single serpent
with a pair of heads. The same mode is followed by the saurians; that
is to say, they coil round one another in the act of coition.

Part 5

All fishes, with the exception of the flat selachians, lie down side
by side, and copulate belly to belly. Fishes, however, that are flat
and furnished with tails-as the ray, the trygon, and the like-copulate
not only in this way, but also, where the tail from its thinness is
no impediment, by mounting of the male upon the female, belly to back.
But the rhina or angel-fish, and other like fishes where the tail
is large, copulate only by rubbing against one another sideways, belly
to belly. Some men assure us that they have seen some of the selachia
copulating hindways, dog and bitch. In the cartilaginous species the
female is larger than the male; and the same is the case with other
fishes for the most part. And among cartilaginous fishes are included,
besides those already named, the bos, the lamia, the aetos, the narce
or torpedo, the fishing-frog, and all the galeodes or sharks and dogfish.
Cartilaginous fishes, then, of all kinds, have in many instances been
observed copulating in the way above mentioned; for, by the way, in
viviparous animals the process of copulation is of longer duration
than in the ovipara. 

It is the same with the dolphin and with all cetaceans; that is to
say, they come side by side, male and female, and copulate, and the
act extends over a time which is neither short nor very long.

Again, in cartilaginous fishes the male, in some species, differs
from the female in the fact that he is furnished with two appendages
hanging down from about the exit of the residuum, and that the female
is not so furnished; and this distinction between the sexes is observed
in all the species of the sharks and dog-fish. 

Now neither fishes nor any animals devoid of feet are furnished with
testicles, but male serpents and male fishes have a pair of ducts
which fill with milt or sperm at the rutting season, and discharge,
in all cases, a milk-like juice. These ducts unite, as in birds; for
birds, by the way, have their testicles in their interior, and so
have all ovipara that are furnished with feet. And this union of the
ducts is so far continued and of such extension as to enter the receptive
organ in the female. 

In viviparous animals furnished with feet there is outwardly one and
the same duct for the sperm and the liquid residuum; but there are
separate ducts internally, as has been observed in the differentiation
of the organs. And with such animals as are not viviparous the same
passage serves for the discharge also of the solid residuum; although,
internally, there are two passages, separate but near to one another.
And these remarks apply to both male and female; for these animals
are unprovided with a bladder except in the case of the tortoise;
and the she-tortoise, though furnished with a bladder, has only one
passage; and tortoises, by the way, belong to the ovipara.

In the case of oviparous fishes the process of coition is less open
to observation. In point of fact, some are led by the want of actual
observation to surmise that the female becomes impregnated by swallowing
the seminal fluid of the male. And there can be no doubt that this
proceeding on the part of the female is often witnessed; for at the
rutting season the females follow the males and perform this operation,
and strike the males with their mouths under the belly, and the males
are thereby induced to part with the sperm sooner and more plentifully.
And, further, at the spawning season the males go in pursuit of the
females, and, as the female spawns, the males swallow the eggs; and
the species is continued in existence by the spawn that survives this
process. On the coast of Phoenicia they take advantage of these instinctive
propensities of the two sexes to catch both one and the other: that
is to say, by using the male of the grey mullet as a decoy they collect
and net the female, and by using the female, the male. 

The repeated observation of this phenomenon has led to the notion
that the process was equivalent to coition, but the fact is that a
similar phenomenon is observable in quadrupeds. For at the rutting
seasons both the males and the females take to running at their genitals,
and the two sexes take to smelling each other at those parts. (With
partridges, by the way, if the female gets to leeward of the male,
she becomes thereby impregnated. And often when they happen to be
in heat she is affected in this wise by the voice of the male, or
by his breathing down on her as he flies overhead; and, by the way,
both the male and the female partridge keep the mouth wide open and
protrude the tongue in the process of coition.) 

The actual process of copulation on the part of oviparous fishes is
seldom accurately observed, owing to the fact that they very soon
fall aside and slip asunder. But, for all that, the process has been
observed to take place in the manner above described. 

Part 6

Molluscs, such as the octopus, the sepia, and the calamary, have sexual
intercourse all in the same way; that is to say, they unite at the
mouth, by an interlacing of their tentacles. When, then, the octopus
rests its so-called head against the ground and spreads abroad its
tentacles, the other sex fits into the outspreading of these tentacles,
and the two sexes then bring their suckers into mutual connexion.

Some assert that the male has a kind of penis in one of his tentacles,
the one in which are the largest suckers; and they further assert
that the organ is tendinous in character, growing attached right up
to the middle of the tentacle, and that the latter enables it to enter
the nostril or funnel of the female. 

Now cuttle-fish and calamaries swim about closely intertwined, with
mouths and tentacles facing one another and fitting closely together,
and swim thus in opposite directions; and they fit their so-called
nostrils into one another, and the one sex swims backwards and the
other frontwards during the operation. And the female lays its spawn
by the so-called 'blow-hole'; and, by the way, some declare that it
is at this organ that the coition really takes place. 

Part 7

Crustaceans copulate, as the crawfish, the lobster, the carid and
the like, just like the opisthuretic quadrupeds, when the one animal
turns up its tail and the other puts his tail on the other's tail.
Copulation takes place in the early spring, near to the shore; and,
in fact, the process has often been observed in the case of all these
animals. Sometimes it takes place about the time when the figs begin
to ripen. Lobsters and carids copulate in like manner. 

Crabs copulate at the front parts of one another, belly to belly,
throwing their overlapping opercula to meet one another: first the
smaller crab mounts the larger at the rear; after he has mounted,
the larger one turns on one side. Now, the female differs in no respect
from the male except in the circumstance that its operculum is larger,
more elevated, and more hairy, and into this operculum it spawns its
eggs and in the same neighbourhood is the outlet of the residuum.
In the copulative process of these animals there is no protrusion
of a member from one animal into the other. 

Part 8

Insects copulate at the hinder end, and the smaller individuals mount
the larger; and the smaller individual is I I is the male. The female
pushes from underneath her sexual organ into the body of the male
above, this being the reverse of the operation observed in other creatures;
and this organ in the case of some insects appears to be disproportionately
large when compared to the size of the body, and that too in very
minute creatures; in some insects the disproportion is not so striking.
This phenomenon may be witnessed if any one will pull asunder flies
that are copulating; and, by the way, these creatures are, under the
circumstances, averse to separation; for the intercourse of the sexes
in their case is of long duration, as may be observed with common
everyday insects, such as the fly and the cantharis. They all copulate
in the manner above described, the fly, the cantharis, the sphondyle,
(the phalangium spider) any others of the kind that copulate at all.
The phalangia-that is to say, such of the species as spin webs-perform
the operation in the following way: the female takes hold of the suspended
web at the middle and gives a pull, and the male gives a counter pull;
this operation they repeat until they are drawn in together and interlaced
at the hinder ends; for, by the way, this mode of copulation suits
them in consequence of the rotundity of their stomachs. 

So much for the modes of sexual intercourse in all animals; but, with
regard to the same phenomenon, there are definite laws followed as
regards the season of the year and the age of the animal.

Animals in general seem naturally disposed to this intercourse at
about the same period of the year, and that is when winter is changing
into summer. And this is the season of spring, in which almost all
things that fly or walk or swim take to pairing. Some animals pair
and breed in autumn also and in winter, as is the case with certain
aquatic animals and certain birds. Man pairs and breeds at all seasons,
as is the case also with domesticated animals, owing to the shelter
and good feeding they enjoy: that is to say, with those whose period
of gestation is also comparatively brief, as the sow and the bitch,
and with those birds that breed frequently. Many animals time the
season of intercourse with a view to the right nurture subsequently
of their young. In the human species, the male is more under sexual
excitement in winter, and the female in summer. 

With birds the far greater part, as has been said, pair and breed
during the spring and early summer, with the exception of the halcyon.

The halcyon breeds at the season of the winter solstice. Accordingly,
when this season is marked with calm weather, the name of 'halcyon
days' is given to the seven days preceding, and to as many following,
the solstice; as Simonides the poet says: 

God lulls for fourteen days the winds to sleep In winter; and this
temperate interlude Men call the Holy Season, when the deep Cradles
the mother Halcyon and her brood. 

And these days are calm, when southerly winds prevail at the solstice,
northerly ones having been the accompaniment of the Pleiads. The halcyon
is said to take seven days for building her nest, and the other seven
for laying and hatching her eggs. In our country there are not always
halcyon days about the time of the winter solstice, but in the Sicilian
seas this season of calm is almost periodical. The bird lays about
five eggs. 

Part 9

(The aithyia, or diver, and the larus, or gull, lay their eggs on
rocks bordering on the sea, two or three at a time; but the gull lays
in the summer, and the diver at the beginning of spring, just after
the winter solstice, and it broods over its eggs as birds do in general.
And neither of these birds resorts to a hiding-place.) 

The halcyon is the most rarely seen of all birds. It is seen only
about the time of the setting of the Pleiads and the winter solstice.
When ships are lying at anchor in the roads, it will hover about a
vessel and then disappear in a moment, and Stesichorus in one of his
poems alludes to this peculiarity. The nightingale also breeds at
the beginning of summer, and lays five or six eggs; from autumn until
spring it retires to a hiding-place. 

Insects copulate and breed in winter also, that is when the weather
is fine and south winds prevail; such, I mean, as do not hibernate,
as the fly and the ant. The greater part of wild animals bring forth
once and once only in the year, except in the case of animals like
the hare, where the female can become superfoetally impregnated.

In like manner the great majority of fishes breed only once a year,
like the shoal-fishes (or, in other words, such as are caught in nets),
the tunny, the pelamys, the grey mullet, the chalcis, the mackerel,
the sciaena, the psetta and the like, with the exception of the labrax
or basse; for this fish (alone amongst those mentioned) breeds twice
a year, and the second brood is the weaker of the two. The trichias
and the rock-fishes breed twice a year; the red mullet breeds thrice
a year, and is exceptional in this respect. This conclusion in regard
to the red mullet is inferred from the spawn; for the spawn of the
fish may be seen in certain places at three different times of the
year. The scorpaena breeds twice a year. The sargue breeds twice,
in the spring and in the autumn. The saupe breeds once a year only,
in the autumn. The female tunny breeds only once a year, but owing
to the fact that the fish in some cases spawn early and in others
late, it looks as though the fish bred twice over. The first spawning
takes place in December before the solstice, and the latter spawning
in the spring. The male tunny differs from the female in being unprovided
with the fin beneath the belly which is called aphareus.

Part 10

Of cartilaginous fishes, the rhina or angelfish is the only one that
breeds twice; for it breeds at the beginning of autumn, and at the
setting of the Pleiads: and, of the two seasons, it is in better condition
in the autumn. It engenders at a birth seven or eight young. Certain
of the dog-fishes, for example the spotted dog, seem to breed twice
a month, and this results from the circumstance that the eggs do not
all reach maturity at the same time. 

Some fishes breed at all seasons, as the muraena. This animal lays
a great number of eggs at a time; and the young when hatched are very
small but grow with great rapidity, like the young of the hippurus,
for these fishes from being diminutive at the outset grow with exceptional
rapidity to an exceptional size. (Be it observed that the muraena
breeds at all seasons, but the hippurus only in the spring. The smyrus
differs from the smyraena; for the muraena is mottled and weakly,
whereas the smyrus is strong and of one uniform colour, and the colour
resembles that of the pine-tree, and the animal has teeth inside and
out. They say that in this case, as in other similar ones, the one
is the male, and the other the female, of a single species. They come
out on to the land, and are frequently caught.) Fishes, then, as a
general rule, attain their full growth with great rapidity, but this
is especially the case, among small fishes, with the coracine or crow-fish:
it spawns, by the way, near the shore, in weedy and tangled spots.
The orphus also, or sea-perch, is small at first, and rapidly attains
a great size. The pelamys and the tunny breed in the Euxine, and nowhere
else. The cestreus or mullet, the chrysophrys or gilt-head, and the
labrax or basse, breed best where rivers run into the sea. The orcys
or large-sized tunny, the scorpis, and many other species spawn in
the open sea. 

Part 11

Fish for the most part breed some time or other during the three months
between the middle of March and the middle of June. Some few breed
in autumn: as, for instance, the saupe and the sargus, and such others
of this sort as breed shortly before the autumn equinox; likewise
the electric ray and the angel-fish. Other fishes breed both in winter
and in summer, as was previously observed: as, for instance, in winter-time
the basse, the grey mullet, and the belone or pipe-fish; and in summer-time,
from the middle of June to the middle of July, the female tunny, about
the time of the summer solstice; and the tunny lays a sac-like enclosure
in which are contained a number of small eggs. The ryades or shoal-fishes
breed in summer. 

Of the grey mullets, the chelon begins to be in roe between the middle
of November and the middle of December; as also the sargue, and the
smyxon or myxon, and the cephalus; and their period of gestation is
thirty days. And, by the way, some of the grey mullet species are
not produced from copulation, but grow spontaneously from mud and
sand. 

As a general rule, then, fishes are in roe in the spring-time; while
some, as has been said, are so in summer, in autumn, or in winter.
But whereas the impregnation in the spring-time follows a general
law, impregnation in the other seasons does not follow the same rule
either throughout or within the limits of one genus; and, further,
conception in these variant seasons is not so prolific. And, indeed,
we must bear this in mind, that just as with plants and quadrupeds
diversity of locality has much to do not only with general physical
health but also with the comparative frequency of sexual intercourse
and generation, so also with regard to fishes locality of itself has
much to do not only in regard to the size and vigour of the creature,
but also in regard to its parturition and its copulations, causing
the same species to breed oftener in one place and seldomer in another.

Part 12

The molluscs also breed in spring. Of the marine molluscs one of the
first to breed is the sepia. It spawns at all times of the day and
its period of gestation is fifteen days. After the female has laid
her eggs, the male comes and discharges the milt over the eggs, and
the eggs thereupon harden. And the two sexes of this animal go about
in pairs, side by side; and the male is more mottled and more black
on the back than the female. 

The octopus pairs in winter and breeds in spring, lying hidden for
about two months. Its spawn is shaped like a vine-tendril, and resembles
the fruit of the white poplar; the creature is extraordinarily prolific,
for the number of individuals that come from the spawn is something
incalculable. The male differs from the female in the fact that its
head is longer, and that the organ called by the fishermen its penis,
in the tentacle, is white. The female, after laying her eggs, broods
over them, and in consequence gets out of condition, by reason of
not going in quest of food during the hatching period. 

The purple murex breeds about springtime, and the ceryx at the close
of the winter. And, as a general rule, the testaceans are found to
be furnished with their so-called eggs in spring-time and in autumn,
with the exception of the edible urchin; for this animal has the so-called
eggs in most abundance in these seasons, but at no season is unfurnished
with them; and it is furnished with them in especial abundance in
warm weather or when a full moon is in the sky. Only, by the way,
these remarks do not apply to the sea-urchin found in the Pyrrhaean
Straits, for this urchin is at its best for table purposes in the
winter; and these urchins are small but full of eggs. 

Snails are found by observations to become in all cases impregnated
about the same season. 

Part 13

(Of birds the wild species, as has been stated, as a general rule
pair and breed only once a year. The swallow, however, and the blackbird
breed twice. With regard to the blackbird, however, its first brood
is killed by inclemency of weather (for it is the earliest of all
birds to breed), but the second brood it usually succeeds in rearing.

Birds that are domesticated or that are capable of domestication breed
frequently, just as the common pigeon breeds all through the summer,
and as is seen in the barn-door hen; for the barn-door cock and hen
have intercourse, and the hen breeds, at all seasons alike: excepting
by the way, during the days about the winter solstice. 

Of the pigeon family there are many diversities; for the peristera
or common pigeon is not identical with the peleias or rock-pigeon.
In other words, the rock-pigeon is smaller than the common pigeon,
and is less easily domesticated; it is also black, and small, red-footed
and rough-footed; and in consequence of these peculiarities it is
neglected by the pigeon-fancier. The largest of all the pigeon species
is the phatta or ring-dove; and the next in size is the oenas or stock-dove;
and the stock-dove is a little larger than the common pigeon. The
smallest of all the species is the turtle-dove. Pigeons breed and
hatch at all seasons, if they are furnished with a sunny place and
all requisites; unless they are so furnished, they breed only in the
summer. The spring brood is the best, or the autumn brood. At all
events, without doubt, the produce of the hot season, the summer brood,
is the poorest of the three.) 

Part 14

Further, animals differ from one another in regard to the time of
life that is best adapted for sexual intercourse. 

To begin with, in most animals the secretion of the seminal fluid
and its generative capacity are not phenomena simultaneously manifested,
but manifested successively. Thus, in all animals, the earliest secretion
of sperm is unfruitful, or if it be fruitful the issue is comparatively
poor and small. And this phenomenon is especially observable in man,
in viviparous quadrupeds, and in birds; for in the case of man and
the quadruped the offspring is smaller, and in the case of the bird,
the egg. 

For animals that copulate, of one and the same species, the age for
maturity is in most species tolerably uniform, unless it occurs prematurely
by reason of abnormality, or is postponed by physical injury.

In man, then, maturity is indicated by a change of the tone of voice,
by an increase in size and an alteration in appearance of the sexual
organs, as also in an increase of size and alteration in appearance
of the breasts; and above all, in the hair-growth at the pubes. Man
begins to possess seminal fluid about the age of fourteen, and becomes
generatively capable at about the age of twenty-one years.

In other animals there is no hair-growth at the pubes (for some animals
have no hair at all, and others have none on the belly, or less on
the belly than on the back), but still, in some animals the change
of voice is quite obvious; and in some animals other organs give indication
of the commencing secretion of the sperm and the onset of generative
capacity. As a general rule the female is sharper-toned in voice than
the male, and the young animal than the elder; for, by the way, the
stag has a much deeper-toned bay than the hind. Moreover, the male
cries chiefly at rutting time, and the female under terror and alarm;
and the cry of the female is short, and that of the male prolonged.
With dogs also, as they grow old, the tone of the bark gets deeper.

There is a difference observable also in the neighings of horses.
That is to say, the female foal has a thin small neigh, and the male
foal a small neigh, yet bigger and deeper-toned than that of the female,
and a louder one as time goes on. And when the young male and female
are two years old and take to breeding, the neighing of the stallion
becomes loud and deep, and that of the mare louder and shriller than
heretofore; and this change goes on until they reach the age of about
twenty years; and after this time the neighing in both sexes becomes
weaker and weaker. 

As a rule, then, as was stated, the voice of the male differs from
the voice of the female, in animals where the voice admits of a continuous
and prolonged sound, in the fact that the note in the male voice is
more deep and bass; not, however, in all animals, for the contrary
holds good in the case of some, as for instance in kine: for here
the cow has a deeper note than the bull, and the calves a deeper note
than the cattle. And we can thus understand the change of voice in
animals that undergo gelding; for male animals that undergo this process
assume the characters of the female. 

The following are the ages at which various animals become capacitated
for sexual commerce. The ewe and the she-goat are sexually mature
when one year old, and this statement is made more confidently in
respect to the she-goat than to the ewe; the ram and the he-goat are
sexually mature at the same age. The progeny of very young individuals
among these animals differs from that of other males: for the males
improve in the course of the second year, when they become fully mature.
The boar and the sow are capable of intercourse when eight months
old, and the female brings forth when one year old, the difference
corresponding to her period of gestation. The boar is capable of generation
when eight months old, but, with a sire under a year in age, the litter
is apt to be a poor one. The ages, however, are not invariable; now
and then the boar and the sow are capable of intercourse when four
months old, and are capable of producing a litter which can be reared
when six months old; but at times the boar begins to be capable of
intercourse when ten months. He continues sexually mature until he
is three years old. The dog and the bitch are, as a rule, sexually
capable and sexually receptive when a year old, and sometimes when
eight months old; but the priority in date is more common with the
dog than with the bitch. The period of gestation with the bitch is
sixty days, or sixty-one, or sixty-two, or sixty-three at the utmost;
the period is never under sixty days, or, if it is, the litter comes
to no good. The bitch, after delivering a litter, submits to the male
in six months, but not before. The horse and the mare are, at the
earliest, sexually capable and sexually mature when two years old;
the issue, however, of parents of this age is small and poor. As a
general rule these animals are sexually capable when three years old,
and they grow better for breeding purposes until they reach twenty
years. The stallion is sexually capable up to the age of thirty-three
years, and the mare up to forty, so that, in point of fact, the animals
are sexually capable all their lives long; for the stallion, as a
rule, lives for about thirty-five years, and the mare for a little
over forty; although, by the way, a horse has known to live to the
age of seventy-five. The ass and the she-ass are sexually capable
when thirty months old; but, as a rule, they are not generatively
mature until they are three years old, or three years and a half.
An instance has been known of a she-ass bearing and bringing forth
a foal when only a year old. A cow has been known to calve when only
a year old, and the calf grew as big as might be expected, but no
more. So much for the dates in time at which these animals attain
to generative capacity. 

In the human species, the male is generative, at the longest, up to
seventy years, and the female up to fifty; but such extended periods
are rare. As a rule, the male is generative up to the age of sixty-five,
and to the age of forty-five the female is capable of conception.

The ewe bears up to eight years, and, if she be carefully tended,
up to eleven years; in fact, the ram and the ewe are sexually capable
pretty well all their lives long. He-goats, if they be fat, are more
or less unserviceable for breeding; and this, by the way, is the reason
why country folk say of a vine when it stops bearing that it is 'running
the goat'. However, if an over-fat he-goat be thinned down, he becomes
sexually capable and generative. 

Rams single out the oldest ewes for copulation, and show no regard
for the young ones. And, as has been stated, the issue of the younger
ewes is poorer than that of the older ones. 

The boar is good for breeding purposes until he is three years of
age; but after that age his issue deteriorates, for after that age
his vigour is on the decline. The boar is most capable after a good
feed, and with the first sow it mounts; if poorly fed or put to many
females, the copulation is abbreviated, and the litter is comparatively
poor. The first litter of the sow is the fewest in number; at the
second litter she is at her prime. The animal, as it grows old, continues
to breed, but the sexual desire abates. When they reach fifteen years,
they become unproductive, and are getting old. If a sow be highly
fed, it is all the more eager for sexual commerce, whether old or
young; but, if it be over-fattened in pregnancy, it gives the less
milk after parturition. With regard to the age of the parents, the
litter is the best when they are in their prime; but with regard to
the seasons of the year, the litter is the best that comes at the
beginning of winter; and the summer litter the poorest, consisting
as it usually does of animals small and thin and flaccid. The boar,
if it be well fed, is sexually capable at all hours, night and day;
but otherwise is peculiarly salacious early in the morning. As it
grows old the sexual passion dies away, as we have already remarked.
Very often a boar, when more or less impotent from age or debility,
finding itself unable to accomplish the sexual commerce with due speed,
and growing fatigued with the standing posture, will roll the sow
over on the ground, and the pair will conclude the operation side
by side of one another. The sow is sure of conception if it drops
its lugs in rutting time; if the ears do not thus drop, it may have
to rut a second time before impregnation takes place. 

Bitches do not submit to the male throughout their lives, but only
until they reach a certain maturity of years. As a general rule, they
are sexually receptive and conceptive until they are twelve years
old; although, by the way, cases have been known where dogs and bitches
have been respectively procreative and conceptive to the ages of eighteen
and even of twenty years. But, as a rule, age diminishes the capability
of generation and of conception with these animals as with all others.

The female of the camel is opisthuretic, and submits to the male in
the way above described; and the season for copulation in Arabia is
about the month of October. Its period of gestation is twelve months;
and it is never delivered of more than one foal at a time. The female
becomes sexually receptive and the male sexually capable at the age
of three years. After parturition, an interval of a year elapses before
the female is again receptive to the male. 

The female elephant becomes sexually receptive when ten years old
at the youngest, and when fifteen at the oldest; and the male is sexually
capable when five years old, or six. The season for intercourse is
spring. The male allows an interval of three years to elapse after
commerce with a female: and, after it has once impregnated a female,
it has no intercourse with her again. The period of gestation with
the female is two years; and only one young animal is produced at
a time, in other words it is uniparous. And the embryo is the size
of a calf two or three months old. 

Part 15

So much for the copulations of such animals as copulate.

We now proceed to treat of generation both with respect to copulating
and non-copulating animals, and we shall commence with discussing
the subject of generation in the case of the testaceans.

The testacean is almost the only genus that throughout all its species
is non-copulative. 

The porphyrae, or purple murices, gather together to some one place
in the spring-time, and deposit the so-called 'honeycomb'. This substance
resembles the comb, only that it is not so neat and delicate; and
looks as though a number of husks of white chick-peas were all stuck
together. But none of these structures has any open passage, and the
porphyra does not grow out of them, but these and all other testaceans
grow out of mud and decaying matter. The substance, is, in fact, an
excretion of the porphyra and the ceryx; for it is deposited by the
ceryx as well. Such, then, of the testaceans as deposit the honeycomb
are generated spontaneously like all other testaceans, but they certainly
come in greater abundance in places where their congeners have been
living previously. At the commencement of the process of depositing
the honeycomb, they throw off a slippery mucus, and of this the husklike
formations are composed. These formations, then, all melt and deposit
their contents on the ground, and at this spot there are found on
the ground a number of minute porphyrae, and porphyrae are caught
at times with these animalculae upon them, some of which are too small
to be differentiated in form. If the porphyrae are caught before producing
this honey-comb, they sometimes go through the process in fishing-creels,
not here and there in the baskets, but gathering to some one spot
all together, just as they do in the sea; and owing to the narrowness
of their new quarters they cluster together like a bunch of grapes.

There are many species of the purple murex; and some are large, as
those found off Sigeum and Lectum; others are small, as those found
in the Euripus, and on the coast of Caria. And those that are found
in bays are large and rough; in most of them the peculiar bloom from
which their name is derived is dark to blackness, in others it is
reddish and small in size; some of the large ones weigh upwards of
a mina apiece. But the specimens that are found along the coast and
on the rocks are small-sized, and the bloom in their case is of a
reddish hue. Further, as a general rule, in northern waters the bloom
is blackish, and in southern waters of a reddish hue. The murex is
caught in the spring-time when engaged in the construction of the
honeycomb; but it is not caught at any time about the rising of the
dog-star, for at that period it does not feed, but conceals itself
and burrows. The bloom of the animal is situated between the mecon
(or quasi-liver) and the neck, and the co-attachment of these is an
intimate one. In colour it looks like a white membrane, and this is
what people extract; and if it be removed and squeezed it stains your
hand with the colour of the bloom. There is a kind of vein that runs
through it, and this quasi-vein would appear to be in itself the bloom.
And the qualities, by the way, of this organ are astringent. It is
after the murex has constructed the honeycomb that the bloom is at
its worst. Small specimens they break in pieces, shells and all, for
it is no easy matter to extract the organ; but in dealing with the
larger ones they first strip off the shell and then abstract the bloom.
For this purpose the neck and mecon are separated, for the bloom lies
in between them, above the so-called stomach; hence the necessity
of separating them in abstracting the bloom. Fishermen are anxious
always to break the animal in pieces while it is yet alive, for, if
it die before the process is completed, it vomits out the bloom; and
for this reason the fishermen keep the animals in creels, until they
have collected a sufficient number and can attend to them at their
leisure. Fishermen in past times used not to lower creels or attach
them to the bait, so that very often the animal got dropped off in
the pulling up; at present, however, they always attach a basket,
so that if the animal fall off it is not lost. The animal is more
inclined to slip off the bait if it be full inside; if it be empty
it is difficult to shake it off. Such are the phenomena connected
with the porphyra or murex. 

The same phenomena are manifested by the ceryx or trumpet-shell; and
the seasons are the same in which the phenomena are observable. Both
animals, also, the murex and the ceryx, have their opercula similarly
situated-and, in fact, all the stromboids, and this is congenital
with them all; and they feed by protruding the so-called tongue underneath
the operculum. The tongue of the murex is bigger than one's finger,
and by means of it, it feeds, and perforates conchylia and the shells
of its own kind. Both the murex and the ceryx are long lived. The
murex lives for about six years; and the yearly increase is indicated
by a distinct interval in the spiral convolution of the shell.

The mussel also constructs a honeycomb. 
With regard to the limnostreae, or lagoon oysters, wherever you have
slimy mud there you are sure to find them beginning to grow. Cockles
and clams and razor-fishes and scallops row spontaneously in sandy
places. The pinna grows straight up from its tuft of anchoring fibres
in sandy and slimy places; these creatures have inside them a parasite
nicknamed the pinna-guard, in some cases a small carid and in other
cases a little crab; if the pinna be deprived of this pinna-guard
it soon dies. 

As a general rule, then, all testaceans grow by spontaneous generation
in mud, differing from one another according to the differences of
the material; oysters growing in slime, and cockles and the other
testaceans above mentioned on sandy bottoms; and in the hollows of
the rocks the ascidian and the barnacle, and common sorts, such as
the limpet and the nerites. All these animals grow with great rapidity,
especially the murex and the scallop; for the murex and the scallop
attain their full growth in a year. In some of the testaceans white
crabs are found, very diminutive in size; they are most numerous in
the trough shaped mussel. In the pinna also is found the so-called
pinna-guard. They are found also in the scallop and in the oyster;
these parasites never appear to grow in size. Fishermen declare that
the parasite is congenital with the larger animal. (Scallops burrow
for a time in the sand, like the murex., Shell-fish, then, grow in 
the way above mentioned; and some of them
grow in shallow water, some on the sea-shore, some in rocky places,
some on hard and stony ground, and some in sandy places.) Some shift
about from place to place, others remain permanent on one spot. Of
those that keep to one spot the pinnae are rooted to the ground; the
razor-fish and the clam keep to the same locality, but are not so
rooted; but still, if forcibly removed they die. 

(The star-fish is naturally so warm that whatever it lays hold of
is found, when suddenly taken away from the animal, to have undergone
a process like boiling. Fishermen say that the star-fish is a great
pest in the Strait of Pyrrha. In shape it resembles a star as seen
in an ordinary drawing. The so-called 'lungs' are generated spontaneously.
The shells that painters use are a good deal thicker, and the bloom
is outside the shell on the surface. These creatures are mostly found
on the coast of Caria.) 

The hermit-crab grows spontaneously out of soil and slime, and finds
its way into untenanted shells. As it grows it shifts to a larger
shell, as for instance into the shell of the nerites, or of the strombus
or the like, and very often into the shell of the small ceryx. After
entering new shell, it carries it about, and begins again to feed,
and, by and by, as it grows, it shifts again into another larger one.

Part 16

Moreover, the animals that are unfurnished with shells grow spontaneously,
like the testaceans, as, for instance, the sea-nettles and the sponges
in rocky caves. 

Of the sea-nettle, or sea-anemone, there are two species; and of these
one species lives in hollows and never loosens its hold upon the rocks,
and the other lives on smooth flat reefs, free and detached, and shifts
its position from time to time. (Limpets also detach themselves, and
shift from place to place.) 

In the chambered cavities of sponges pinna-guards or parasites are
found. And over the chambers there is a kind of spider's web, by the
opening and closing of which they catch mute fishes; that is to say,
they open the web to let the fish get in, and close it again to entrap
them. 

Of sponges there are three species; the first is of loose porous texture,
the second is close textured, the third, which is nicknamed 'the sponge
of Achilles', is exceptionally fine and close-textured and strong.
This sponge is used as a lining to helmets and greaves, for the purpose
of deadening the sound of the blow; and this is a very scarce species.
Of the close textured sponges such as are particularly hard and rough
are nicknamed 'goats'. 

Sponges grow spontaneously either attached to a rock or on sea-beaches,
and they get their nutriment in slime: a proof of this statement is
the fact that when they are first secured they are found to be full
of slime. This is characteristic of all living creatures that get
their nutriment by close local attachment. And, by the way, the close-textured
sponges are weaker than the more openly porous ones because their
attachment extends over a smaller area. 

It is said that the sponge is sensitive; and as a proof of this statement
they say that if the sponge is made aware of an attempt being made
to pluck it from its place of attachment it draws itself together,
and it becomes a difficult task to detach it. It makes a similar contractile
movement in windy and boisterous weather, obviously with the object
of tightening its hold. Some persons express doubts as to the truth
of this assertion; as, for instance, the people of Torone.

The sponge breeds parasites, worms, and other creatures, on which,
if they be detached, the rock-fishes prey, as they prey also on the
remaining stumps of the sponge; but, if the sponge be broken off,
it grows again from the remaining stump and the place is soon as well
covered as before. 

The largest of all sponges are the loose-textured ones, and these
are peculiarly abundant on the coast of Lycia. The softest are the
close-textured sponges; for, by the way, the so-called sponges of
Achilles are harder than these. As a general rule, sponges that are
found in deep calm waters are the softest; for usually windy and stormy
weather has a tendency to harden them (as it has to harden all similar
growing things), and to arrest their growth. And this accounts for
the fact that the sponges found in the Hellespont are rough and close-textured;
and, as a general rule, sponges found beyond or inside Cape Malea
are, respectively, comparatively soft or comparatively hard. But,
by the way, the habitat of the sponge should not be too sheltered
and warm, for it has a tendency to decay, like all similar vegetable-like
growths. And this accounts for the fact that the sponge is at its
best when found in deep water close to shore; for owing to the depth
of the water they enjoy shelter alike from stormy winds and from excessive
heat. 

Whilst they are still alive and before they are washed and cleaned,
they are blackish in colour. Their attachment is not made at one particular
spot, nor is it made all over their bodies; for vacant pore-spaces
intervene. There is a kind of membrane stretched over the under parts;
and in the under parts the points of attachment are the more numerous.
On the top most of the pores are closed, but four or five are open
and visible; and we are told by some that it is through these pores
that the animal takes its food. 

There is a particular species that is named the 'aplysia' or the 'unwashable',
from the circumstance that it cannot be cleaned. This species has
the large open and visible pores, but all the rest of the body is
close-textured; and, if it be dissected, it is found to be closer
and more glutinous than the ordinary sponge, and, in a word, something
lung like in consistency. And, on all hands, it is allowed that this
species is sensitive and long-lived. They are distinguished in the
sea from ordinary sponges from the circumstance that the ordinary
sponges are white while the slime is in them, but that these sponges
are under any circumstances black. 

And so much with regard to sponges and to generation in the testaceans.

Part 17

Of crustaceans, the female crawfish after copulation conceives and
retains its eggs for about three months, from about the middle of
May to about the middle of August; they then lay the eggs into the
folds underneath the belly, and their eggs grow like grubs. This same
phenomenon is observable in molluscs also, and in such fishes as are
oviparous; for in all these cases the egg continues to grow.

The spawn of the crawfish is of a loose or granular consistency, and
is divided into eight parts; for corresponding to each of the flaps
on the side there is a gristly formation to which the spawn is attached,
and the entire structure resembles a cluster of grapes; for each gristly
formation is split into several parts. This is obvious enough if you
draw the parts asunder; but at first sight the whole appears to be
one and indivisible. And the largest are not those nearest to the
outlet but those in the middle, and the farthest off are the smallest.
The size of the small eggs is that of a small seed in a fig; and they
are not quite close to the outlet, but placed middleways; for at both
ends, tailwards and trunkwards, there are two intervals devoid of
eggs; for it is thus that the flaps also grow. The side flaps, then,
cannot close, but by placing the end flap on them the animal can close
up all, and this end-flap serves them for a lid. And in the act of
laying its eggs it seems to bring them towards the gristly formations
by curving the flap of its tail, and then, squeezing the eggs towards
the said gristly formations and maintaining a bent posture, it performs
the act of laying. The gristly formations at these seasons increase
in size and become receptive of the eggs; for the animal lays its
eggs into these formations, just as the sepia lays its eggs among
twigs and driftwood. 

It lays its eggs, then, in this manner, and after hatching them for
about twenty days it rids itself of them all in one solid lump, as
is quite plain from outside. And out of these eggs crawfish form in
about fifteen days, and these crawfish are caught at times less then
a finger's breadth, or seven-tenths of an inch, in length. The animal,
then, lays its eggs before the middle of September, and after the
middle of that month throws off its eggs in a lump. With the humped
carids or prawns the time for gestation is four months or thereabouts.

Crawfish are found in rough and rocky places, lobsters in smooth places,
and neither crawfish nor lobsters are found in muddy ones; and this
accounts for the fact that lobsters are found in the Hellespont and
on the coast of Thasos, and crawfish in the neighbourhood of Sigeum
and Mount Athos. Fishermen, accordingly, when they want to catch these
various creatures out at sea, take bearings on the beach and elsewhere
that tell them where the ground at the bottom is stony and where soft
with slime. In winter and spring these animals keep in near to land,
in summer they keep in deep water; thus at various times seeking respectively
for warmth or coolness. 

The so-called arctus or bear-crab lays its eggs at about the same
time as the crawfish; and consequently in winter and in the spring-time,
before laying their eggs, they are at their best, and after laying
at their worst. 

They cast their shell in the spring-time (just as serpents shed their
so-called 'old-age' or slough), both directly after birth and in later
life; this is true both of crabs and crawfish. And, by the way, all
crawfish are long lived. 

Part 18

Molluscs, after pairing and copulation, lay a white spawn; and this
spawn, as in the case of the testacean, gets granular in time. The
octopus discharges into its hole, or into a potsherd or into any similar
cavity, a structure resembling the tendrils of a young vine or the
fruit of the white poplar, as has been previously observed. The eggs,
when the female has laid them, are clustered round the sides of the
hole. They are so numerous that, if they be removed they suffice to
fill a vessel much larger than the animal's body in which they were
contained. Some fifty days later, the eggs burst and the little polypuses
creep out, like little spiders, in great numbers; the characteristic
form of their limbs is not yet to be discerned in detail, but their
general outline is clear enough. And, by the way, they are so small
and helpless that the greater number perish; it is a fact that they
have been seen so extremely minute as to be absolutely without organization,
but nevertheless when touched they moved. The eggs of the sepia look
like big black myrtle-berries, and they are linked all together like
a bunch of grapes, clustered round a centre, and are not easily sundered
from one another: for the male exudes over them some moist glairy
stuff, which constitutes the sticky gum. These eggs increase in size;
and they are white at the outset, but black and larger after the sprinkling
of the male seminal fluid. 

When it has come into being the young sepia is first distinctly formed
inside out of the white substance, and when the egg bursts it comes
out. The inner part is formed as soon as the female lays the egg,
something like a hail-stone; and out of this substance the young sepia
grows by a head-attachment, just as young birds grow by a belly-attachment.
What is the exact nature of the navel-attachment has not yet been
observed, except that as the young sepia grows the white substance
grows less and less in size, and at length, as happens with the yolk
in the case of birds, the white substance in the case of the young
sepia disappears. In the case of the young sepia, as in the case of
the young of most animals, the eyes at first seem very large. To illustrate
this by way of a figure, let A represent the ovum, B and C the eyes,
and D the sepidium, or body of the little sepia. (See diagram.)

The female sepia goes pregnant in the spring-time, and lays its eggs
after fifteen days of gestation; after the eggs are laid there comes
in another fifteen days something like a bunch of grapes, and at the
bursting of these the young sepiae issue forth. But if, when the young
ones are fully formed, you sever the outer covering a moment too soon,
the young creatures eject excrement, and their colour changes from
white to red in their alarm. 

Crustaceans, then, hatch their eggs by brooding over them as they
carry them about beneath their bodies; but the octopus, the sepia,
and the like hatch their eggs without stirring from the spot where
they may have laid them, and this statement is particularly applicable
to the sepia; in fact, the nest of the female sepia is often seen
exposed to view close in to shore. The female octopus at times sits
brooding over her eggs, and at other times squats in front of her
hole, stretching out her tentacles on guard. 

The sepia lays her spawn near to land in the neighbourhood of sea-weed
or reeds or any off-sweepings such as brushwood, twigs, or stones;
and fishermen place heaps of faggots here and there on purpose, and
on to such heaps the female deposits a long continuous roe in shape
like a vine tendril. It lays or spirts out the spawn with an effort,
as though there were difficulty in the process. The female calamary
spawns at sea; and it emits the spawn, as does the sepia, in the mass.

The calamary and the cuttle-fish are short-lived, as, with few exceptions,
they never see the year out; and the same statement is applicable
to the octopus. 

From one single egg comes one single sepia; and this is likewise true
of the young calamary. 

The male calamary differs from the female; for if its gill-region
be dilated and examined there are found two red formations resembling
breasts, with which the male is unprovided. In the sepia, apart from
this distinction in the sexes, the male, as has been stated, is more
mottled than the female. 

Part 19

With regard to insects, that the male is less than the female and
that he mounts upon her back, and how he performs the act of copulation
and the circumstance that he gives over reluctantly, all this has
already been set forth, most cases of insect copulation this process
is speedily followed up by parturition. 

All insects engender grubs, with the exception of a species of butterfly;
and the female of this species lays a hard egg, resembling the seed
of the cnecus, with a juice inside it. But from the grub, the young
animal does not grow out of a mere portion of it, as a young animal
grows from a portion only of an egg, but the grub entire grows and
the animal becomes differentiated out of it. 

And of insects some are derived from insect congeners, as the venom-spider
and the common-spider from the venom-spider and the common-spider,
and so with the attelabus or locust, the acris or grasshopper, and
the tettix or cicada. Other insects are not derived from living parentage,
but are generated spontaneously: some out of dew falling on leaves,
ordinarily in spring-time, but not seldom in winter when there has
been a stretch of fair weather and southerly winds; others grow in
decaying mud or dung; others in timber, green or dry; some in the
hair of animals; some in the flesh of animals; some in excrements:
and some from excrement after it has been voided, and some from excrement
yet within the living animal, like the helminthes or intestinal worms.
And of these intestinal worms there are three species: one named the
flat-worm, another the round worm, and the third the ascarid. These
intestinal worms do not in any case propagate their kind. The flat-worm,
however, in an exceptional way, clings fast to the gut, and lays a
thing like a melon-seed, by observing which indication the physician
concludes that his patient is troubled with the worm. 

The so-called psyche or butterfly is generated from caterpillars which
grow on green leaves, chiefly leaves of the raphanus, which some call
crambe or cabbage. At first it is less than a grain of millet; it
then grows into a small grub; and in three days it is a tiny caterpillar.
After this it grows on and on, and becomes quiescent and changes its
shape, and is now called a chrysalis. The outer shell is hard, and
the chrysalis moves if you touch it. It attaches itself by cobweb-like
filaments, and is unfurnished with mouth or any other apparent organ.
After a little while the outer covering bursts asunder, and out flies
the winged creature that we call the psyche or butterfly. At first,
when it is a caterpillar, it feeds and ejects excrement; but when
it turns into the chrysalis it neither feeds nor ejects excrement.

The same remarks are applicable to all such insects as are developed
out of the grub, both such grubs as are derived from the copulation
of living animals and such as are generated without copulation on
the part of parents. For the grub of the bee, the anthrena, and the
wasp, whilst it is young, takes food and voids excrement; but when
it has passed from the grub shape to its defined form and become what
is termed a 'nympha', it ceases to take food and to void excrement,
and remains tightly wrapped up and motionless until it has reached
its full size, when it breaks the formation with which the cell is
closed, and issues forth. The insects named the hypera and the penia
are derived from similar caterpillars, which move in an undulatory
way, progressing with one part and then pulling up the hinder parts
by a bend of the body. The developed insect in each case takes its
peculiar colour from the parent caterpillar. 

From one particular large grub, which has as it were horns, and in
other respects differs from grubs in general, there comes, by a metamorphosis
of the grub, first a caterpillar, then the cocoon, then the necydalus;
and the creature passes through all these transformations within six
months. A class of women unwind and reel off the cocoons of these
creatures, and afterwards weave a fabric with the threads thus unwound;
a Coan woman of the name of Pamphila, daughter of Plateus, being credited
with the first invention of the fabric. After the same fashion the
carabus or stag-beetle comes from grubs that live in dry wood: at
first the grub is motionless, but after a while the shell bursts and
the stag-beetle issues forth. 

From the cabbage is engendered the cabbageworm, and from the leek
the prasocuris or leekbane; this creature is also winged. From the
flat animalcule that skims over the surface of rivers comes the oestrus
or gadfly; and this accounts for the fact that gadflies most abound
in the neighbourhood of waters on whose surface these animalcules
are observed. From a certain small, black and hairy caterpillar comes
first a wingless glow-worm; and this creature again suffers a metamorphosis,
and transforms into a winged insect named the bostrychus (or hair-curl).

Gnats grow from ascarids; and ascarids are engendered in the slime
of wells, or in places where there is a deposit left by the draining
off of water. This slime decays, and first turns white, then black,
and finally blood-red; and at this stage there originate in it, as
it were, little tiny bits of red weed, which at first wriggle about
all clinging together, and finally break loose and swim in the water,
and are hereupon known as ascarids. After a few days they stand straight
up on the water motionless and hard, and by and by the husk breaks
off and the gnats are seen sitting upon it, until the sun's heat or
a puff of wind sets them in motion, when they fly away. 

With all grubs and all animals that break out from the grub state,
generation is due primarily to the heat of the sun or to wind.

Ascarids are more likely to be found, and grow with unusual rapidity,
in places where there is a deposit of a mixed and heterogeneous kind,
as in kitchens and in ploughed fields, for the contents of such places
are disposed to rapid putrefaction. In autumn, also, owing to the
drying up of moisture, they grow in unusual numbers. 

The tick is generated from couch-grass. The cockchafer comes from
a grub that is generated in the dung of the cow or the ass. The cantharus
or scarabeus rolls a piece of dung into a ball, lies hidden within
it during the winter, and gives birth therein to small grubs, from
which grubs come new canthari. Certain winged insects also come from
the grubs that are found in pulse, in the same fashion as in the cases
described. 

Flies grow from grubs in the dung that farmers have gathered up into
heaps: for those who are engaged in this work assiduously gather up
the compost, and this they technically term 'working-up' the manure.
The grub is exceedingly minute to begin with; first even at this stage-it
assumes a reddish colour, and then from a quiescent state it takes
on the power of motion, as though born to it; it then becomes a small
motionless grub; it then moves again, and again relapses into immobility;
it then comes out a perfect fly, and moves away under the influence
of the sun's heat or of a puff of air. The myops or horse-fly is engendered
in timber. The orsodacna or budbane is a transformed grub; and this
grub is engendered in cabbage-stalks. The cantharis comes from the
caterpillars that are found on fig-trees or pear-trees or fir-trees--for
on all these grubs are engendered-and also from caterpillars found
on the dog-rose; and the cantharis takes eagerly to ill-scented substances,
from the fact of its having been engendered in ill-scented woods.
The conops comes from a grub that is engendered in the slime of vinegar.

And, by the way, living animals are found in substances that are usually
supposed to be incapable of putrefaction; for instance, worms are
found in long-lying snow; and snow of this description gets reddish
in colour, and the grub that is engendered in it is red, as might
have been expected, and it is also hairy. The grubs found in the snows
of Media are large and white; and all such grubs are little disposed
to motion. In Cyprus, in places where copper-ore is smelted, with
heaps of the ore piled on day after day, an animal is engendered in
the fire, somewhat larger than a blue bottle fly, furnished with wings,
which can hop or crawl through the fire. And the grubs and these latter
animals perish when you keep the one away from the fire and the other
from the snow. Now the salamander is a clear case in point, to show
us that animals do actually exist that fire cannot destroy; for this
creature, so the story goes, not only walks through the fire but puts
it out in doing so. 

On the river Hypanis in the Cimmerian Bosphorus, about the time of
the summer solstice, there are brought down towards the sea by the
stream what look like little sacks rather bigger than grapes, out
of which at their bursting issues a winged quadruped. The insect lives
and flies about until the evening, but as the sun goes down it pines
away, and dies at sunset having lived just one day, from which circumstance
it is called the ephemeron. 

As a rule, insects that come from caterpillars and grubs are held
at first by filaments resembling the threads of a spider's web.

Such is the mode of generation of the insects above enumerated. but
if the latter impregnation takes placeduring the change of the yellow

Part 20

The wasps that are nicknamed 'the ichneumons' (or hunters), less in
size, by the way, than the ordinary wasp, kill spiders and carry off
the dead bodies to a wall or some such place with a hole in it; this
hole they smear over with mud and lay their grubs inside it, and from
the grubs come the hunter-wasps. Some of the coleoptera and of the
small and nameless insects make small holes or cells of mud on a wall
or on a grave-stone, and there deposit their grubs. 

With insects, as a general rule, the time of generation from its commencement
to its completion comprises three or four weeks. With grubs and grub-like
creatures the time is usually three weeks, and in the oviparous insects
as a rule four. But, in the case of oviparous insects, the egg-formation
comes at the close of seven days from copulation, and during the remaining
three weeks the parent broods over and hatches its young; i.e. where
this is the result of copulation, as in the case of the spider and
its congeners. As a rule, the transformations take place in intervals
of three or four days, corresponding to the lengths of interval at
which the crises recur in intermittent fevers. 

So much for the generation of insects. Their death is due to the shrivelling
of their organs, just as the larger animals die of old age.

Winged insects die in autumn from the shrinking of their wings. The
myops dies from dropsy in the eyes. 

Part 21

With regard to the generation of bees different hypotheses are in
vogue. Some affirm that bees neither copulate nor give birth to young,
but that they fetch their young. And some say that they fetch their
young from the flower of the callyntrum; others assert that they bring
them from the flower of the reed, others, from the flower of the olive.
And in respect to the olive theory, it is stated as a proof that,
when the olive harvest is most abundant, the swarms are most numerous.
Others declare that they fetch the brood of the drones from such things
as above mentioned, but that the working bees are engendered by the
rulers of the hive. 

Now of these rulers there are two kinds: the better kind is red in
colour, the inferior kind is black and variegated; the ruler is double
the size of the working bee. These rulers have the abdomen or part
below the waist half as large again, and they are called by some the
'mothers', from an idea that they bear or generate the bees; and,
as a proof of this theory of their motherhood, they declare that the
brood of the drones appears even when there is no ruler-bee in the
hive, but that the bees do not appear in his absence. Others, again,
assert that these insects copulate, and that the drones are male and
the bees female. 

The ordinary bee is generated in the cells of the comb, but the ruler-bees
in cells down below attached to the comb, suspended from it, apart
from the rest, six or seven in number, and growing in a way quite
different from the mode of growth of the ordinary brood.

Bees are provided with a sting, but the drones are not so provided.
The rulers are provided with stings, but they never use them; and
this latter circumstance will account for the belief of some people
that they have no stings at all. 

Part 22

Of bees there are various species. The best kind is a little round
mottled insect; another is long, and resembles the anthrena; a third
is a black and flat-bellied, and is nick-named the 'robber'; a fourth
kind is the drone, the largest of all, but stingless and inactive.
And this proportionate size of the drone explains why some bee-masters
place a net-work in front of the hives; for the network is put to
keep the big drones out while it lets the little bees go in.

Of the king bees there are, as has been stated, two kinds. In every
hive there are more kings than one; and a hive goes to ruin if there
be too few kings, not because of anarchy thereby ensuing, but, as
we are told, because these creatures contribute in some way to the
generation of the common bees. A hive will go also to ruin if there
be too large a number of kings in it; for the members of the hives
are thereby subdivided into too many separate factions. 

Whenever the spring-time is late a-coming, and when there is drought
and mildew, then the progeny of the hive is small in number. But when
the weather is dry they attend to the honey, and in rainy weather
their attention is concentrated on the brood; and this will account
for the coincidence of rich olive-harvests and abundant swarms.

The bees first work at the honeycomb, and then put the pupae in it:
by the mouth, say those who hold the theory of their bringing them
from elsewhere. After putting in the pupae they put in the honey for
subsistence, and this they do in the summer and autumn; and, by the
way, the autumn honey is the better of the two. 

The honeycomb is made from flowers, and the materials for the wax
they gather from the resinous gum of trees, while honey is distilled
from dew, and is deposited chiefly at the risings of the constellations
or when a rainbow is in the sky: and as a general rule there is no
honey before the rising of the Pleiads. (The bee, then, makes the
wax from flowers. The honey, however, it does not make, but merely
gathers what is deposited out of the atmosphere; and as a proof of
this statement we have the known fact that occasionally bee-keepers
find the hives filled with honey within the space of two or three
days. Furthermore, in autumn flowers are found, but honey, if it be
withdrawn, is not replaced; now, after the withdrawal of the original
honey, when no food or very little is in the hives, there would be
a fresh stock of honey, if the bees made it from flowers.) Honey,
if allowed to ripen and mature, gathers consistency; for at first
it is like water and remains liquid for several days. If it be drawn
off during these days it has no consistency; but it attains consistency
in about twenty days. The taste of thyme-honey is discernible at once,
from its peculiar sweetness and consistency. 

The bee gathers from every flower that is furnished with a calyx or
cup, and from all other flowers that are sweet-tasted, without doing
injury to any fruit; and the juices of the flowers it takes up with
the organ that resembles a tongue and carries off to the hive.

Swarms are robbed of their honey on the appearance of the wild fig.
They produce the best larvae at the time the honey is a-making. The
bee carries wax and bees' bread round its legs, but vomits the honey
into the cell. After depositing its young, it broods over it like
a bird. The grub when it is small lies slantwise in the comb, but
by and by rises up straight by an effort of its own and takes food,
and holds on so tightly to the honeycomb as actually to cling to it.

The young of bees and of drones is white, and from the young come
the grubs; and the grubs grow into bees and drones. The egg of the
king bee is reddish in colour, and its substance is about as consistent
as thick honey; and from the first it is about as big as the bee that
is produced from it. From the young of the king bee there is no intermediate
stage, it is said, of the grub, but the bee comes at once.

Whenever the bee lays an egg in the comb there is always a drop of
honey set against it. The larva of the bee gets feet and wings as
soon as the cell has been stopped up with wax, and when it arrives
at its completed form it breaks its membrane and flies away. It ejects
excrement in the grub state, but not afterwards; that is, not until
it has got out of the encasing membrane, as we have already described.
If you remove the heads from off the larvae before the coming of the
wings, the bees will eat them up; and if you nip off the wings from
a drone and let it go, the bees will spontaneously bite off the wings
from off all the remaining drones. 

The bee lives for six years as a rule, as an exception for seven years.
If a swarm lasts for nine years, or ten, great credit is considered
due to its management. 

In Pontus are found bees exceedingly white in colour, and these bees
produce their honey twice a month. (The bees in Themiscyra, on the
banks of the river Thermodon, build honeycombs in the ground and in
hives, and these honeycombs are furnished with very little wax but
with honey of great consistency; and the honeycomb, by the way, is
smooth and level.) But this is not always the case with these bees,
but only in the winter season; for in Pontus the ivy is abundant,
and it flowers at this time of the year, and it is from the ivy-flower
that they derive their honey. A white and very consistent honey is
brought down from the upper country to Amisus, which is deposited
by bees on trees without the employment of honeycombs: and this kind
of honey is produced in other districts in Pontus. 

There are bees also that construct triple honeycombs in the ground;
and these honeycombs supply honey but never contain grubs. But the
honeycombs in these places are not all of this sort, nor do all the
bees construct them. 

Part 23

Anthrenae and wasps construct combs for their young. When they have
no king, but are wandering about in search of one, the anthrene constructs
its comb on some high place, and the wasp inside a hole. When the
anthrene and the wasp have a king, they construct their combs underground.
Their combs are in all cases hexagonal like the comb of the bee. They
are composed, however, not of wax, but of a bark-like filamented fibre,
and the comb of the anthrene is much neater than the comb of the wasp.
Like the bee, they put their young just like a drop of liquid on to
the side of the cell, and the egg clings to the wall of the cell.
But the eggs are not deposited in the cells simultaneously; on the
contrary, in some cells are creatures big enough to fly, in others
are nymphae, and in others are mere grubs. As in the case of bees,
excrement is observed only in the cells where the grubs are found.
As long as the creatures are in the nymph condition they are motionless,
and the cell is cemented over. In the comb of the anthrene there is
found in the cell of the young a drop of honey in front of it. The
larvae of the anthrene and the wasp make their appearance not in the
spring but in the autumn; and their growth is especially discernible
in times of full moon. And, by the way, the eggs and the grubs never
rest at the bottom of the cells, but always cling on to the side wall.

Part 24

There is a kind of humble-bee that builds a cone-shaped nest of clay
against a stone or in some similar situation, besmearing the clay
with something like spittle. And this nest or hive is exceedingly
thick and hard; in point of fact, one can hardly break it open with
a spike. Here the insects lay their eggs, and white grubs are produced
wrapped in a black membrane. Apart from the membrane there is found
some wax in the honeycomb; and this a wax is much sallower in hue
than the wax in the honeycomb of the bee. 

Part 25

Ants copulate and engender grubs; and these grubs attach themselves
to nothing in particular, but grow on and on from small and rounded
shapes until they become elongated and defined in shape: and they
are engendered in spring-time. 

Part 26

The land-scorpion also lays a number of egg shaped grubs, and broods
over them. When the hatching is completed, the parent animal, as happens
with the parent spider, is ejected and put to death by the young ones;
for very often the young ones are about eleven in number.

Part 27

Spiders in all cases copulate in the way above mentioned, and generate
at first small grubs. And these grubs metamorphose in their entirety,
and not partially, into spiders; for, by the way, the grubs are round-shaped
at the outset. And the spider, when it lays its eggs, broods over
them, and in three days the eggs or grubs take definite shape.

All spiders lay their eggs in a web; but some spiders lay in a small
and fine web, and others in a thick one; and some, as a rule, lay
in a round-shaped case or capsule, and some are only partially enveloped
in the web. The young grubs are not all developed at one and the same
time into young spiders; but the moment the development takes place,
the young spider makes a leap and begins to spin his web. The juice
of the grub, if you squeeze it, is the same as the juice found in
the spider when young; that is to say, it is thick and white.

The meadow spider lays its eggs into a web, one half of which is attached
to itself and the other half is free; and on this the parent broods
until the eggs are hatched. The phalangia lay their eggs in a sort
of strong basket which they have woven, and brood over it until the
eggs are hatched. The smooth spider is much less prolific than the
phalangium or hairy spider. These phalangia, when they grow to full
size, very often envelop the mother phalangium and eject and kill
her; and not seldom they kill the father-phalangium as well, if they
catch him: for, by the way, he has the habit of co-operating with
the mother in the hatching. The brood of a single phalangium is sometimes
three hundred in number. The spider attains its full growth in about
four weeks. 

Part 28

Grasshoppers (or locusts) copulate in the same way as other insects;
that is to say, with the lesser covering the larger, for the male
is smaller than the female. The females first insert the hollow tube,
which they have at their tails, in the ground, and then lay their
eggs: and the male, by the way, is not furnished with this tube. The
females lay their eggs all in a lump together, and in one spot, so
that the entire lump of eggs resembles a honeycomb. After they have
laid their eggs, the eggs assume the shape of oval grubs that are
enveloped by a sort of thin clay, like a membrane; in this membrane-like
formation they grow on to maturity. The larva is so soft that it collapses
at a touch. The larva is not placed on the surface of the ground,
but a little beneath the surface; and, when it reaches maturity, it
comes out of its clayey investiture in the shape of a little black
grasshopper; by and by, the skin integument strips off, and it grows
larger and larger. 

The grasshopper lays its eggs at the close of summer, and dies after
laying them. The fact is that, at the time of laying the eggs, grubs
are engendered in the region of the mother grasshopper's neck; and
the male grasshoppers die about the same time. In spring-time they
come out of the ground; and, by the way, no grasshoppers are found
in mountainous land or in poor land, but only in flat and loamy land,
for the fact is they lay their eggs in cracks of the soil. During
the winter their eggs remain in the ground; and with the coming of
summer the last year's larva develops into the perfect grasshopper.

Part 29

The attelabi or locusts lay their eggs and die in like manner after
laying them. Their eggs are subject to destruction by the autumn rains,
when the rains are unusually heavy; but in seasons of drought the
locusts are exceedingly numerous, from the absence of any destructive
cause, since their destruction seems then to be a matter of accident
and to depend on luck. 

Part 30

Of the cicada there are two kinds; one, small in size, the first to
come and the last to disappear; the other, large, the singing one
that comes last and first disappears. Both in the small and the large
species some are divided at the waist, to wit, the singing ones, and
some are undivided; and these latter have no song. The large and singing
cicada is by some designated the 'chirper', and the small cicada the
'tettigonium' or cicadelle. And, by the way, such of the tettigonia
as are divided at the waist can sing just a little. 

The cicada is not found where there are no trees; and this accounts
for the fact that in the district surrounding the city of Cyrene it
is not found at all in the plain country, but is found in great numbers
in the neighbourhood of the city, and especially where olive-trees
are growing: for an olive grove is not thickly shaded. And the cicada
is not found in cold places, and consequently is not found in any
grove that keeps out the sunlight. 

The large and the small cicada copulate alike, belly to belly. The
male discharges sperm into the female, as is the case with insects
in general, and the female cicada has a cleft generative organ; and
it is the female into which the male discharges the sperm.

They lay their eggs in fallow lands, boring a hole with the pointed
organ they carry in the rear, as do the locusts likewise; for the
locust lays its eggs in untilled lands, and this fact may account
for their numbers in the territory adjacent to the city of Cyrene.
The cicadae also lay their eggs in the canes on which husbandmen prop
vines, perforating the canes; and also in the stalks of the squill.
This brood runs into the ground. And they are most numerous in rainy
weather. The grub, on attaining full size in the ground, becomes a
tettigometra (or nymph), and the creature is sweetest to the taste
at this stage before the husk is broken. When the summer solstice
comes, the creature issues from the husk at night-time, and in a moment,
as the husk breaks, the larva becomes the perfect cicada. creature,
also, at once turns black in colour and harder and larger, and takes
to singing. In both species, the larger and the smaller, it is the
male that sings, and the female that is unvocal. At first, the males
are the sweeter eating; but, after copulation, the females, as they
are full then of white eggs. 

If you make a sudden noise as they are flying overhead they let drop
something like water. Country people, in regard to this, say that
they are voiding urine, ie. that they have an excrement, and that
they feed upon dew. 

If you present your finger to a cicada and bend back the tip of it
and then extend it again, it will endure the presentation more quietly
than if you were to keep your finger outstretched altogether; and
it will set to climbing your finger: for the creature is so weak-sighted
that it will take to climbing your finger as though that were a moving
leaf. 

Part 31

Of insects that are not carnivorous but that live on the juices of
living flesh, such as lice and fleas and bugs, all, without exception,
generate what are called 'nits', and these nits generate nothing.

Of these insects the flea is generated out of the slightest amount
of putrefying matter; for wherever there is any dry excrement, a flea
is sure to be found. Bugs are generated from the moisture of living
animals, as it dries up outside their bodies. Lice are generated out
of the flesh of animals. 

When lice are coming there is a kind of small eruption visible, unaccompanied
by any discharge of purulent matter; and, if you prick an animal when
in this condition at the spot of eruption, the lice jump out. In some
men the appearance of lice is a disease, in cases where the body is
surcharged with moisture; and, indeed, men have been known to succumb
to this louse-disease, as Alcman the poet and the Syrian Pherecydes
are said to have done. Moreover, in certain diseases lice appear in
great abundance. 

There is also a species of louse called the 'wild louse', and this
is harder than the ordinary louse, and there is exceptional difficulty
in getting the skin rid of it. Boys' heads are apt to be lousy, but
men's in less degree; and women are more subject to lice than men.
But, whenever people are troubled with lousy heads, they are less
than ordinarily troubled with headache. And lice are generated in
other animals than man. For birds are infested with them; and pheasants,
unless they clean themselves in the dust, are actually destroyed by
them. All other winged animals that are furnished with feathers are
similarly infested, and all hair-coated creatures also, with the single
exception of the ass, which is infested neither with lice nor with
ticks. 

Cattle suffer both from lice and from ticks. Sheep and goats breed
ticks, but do not breed lice. Pigs breed lice large and hard. In dogs
are found the flea peculiar to the animal, the Cynoroestes. In all
animals that are subject to lice, the latter originate from the animals
themselves. Moreover, in animals that bathe at all, lice are more
than usually abundant when they change the water in which they bathe.

In the sea, lice are found on fishes, but they are generated not out
of the fish but out of slime; and they resemble multipedal wood-lice,
only that their tail is flat. Sea-lice are uniform in shape and universal
in locality, and are particularly numerous on the body of the red
mullet. And all these insects are multipedal and devoid of blood.

The parasite that feeds on the tunny is found in the region of the
fins; it resembles a scorpion, and is about the size of a spider.
In the seas between Cyrene and Egypt there is a fish that attends
on the dolphin, which is called the 'dolphin's louse'. This fish gets
exceedingly fat from enjoying an abundance of food while the dolphin
is out in pursuit of its prey. 

Part 32

Other animalcules besides these are generated, as we have already
remarked, some in wool or in articles made of wool, as the ses or
clothes-moth. And these animalcules come in greater numbers if the
woollen substances are dusty; and they come in especially large numbers
if a spider be shut up in the cloth or wool, for the creature drinks
up any moisture that may be there, and dries up the woollen substance.
This grub is found also in men's clothes. 

A creature is also found in wax long laid by, just as in wood, and
it is the smallest of animalcules and is white in colour, and is designated
the acari or mite. In books also other animalcules are found, some
resembling the grubs found in garments, and some resembling tailless
scorpions, but very small. As a general rule we may state that such
animalcules are found in practically anything, both in dry things
that are becoming moist and in moist things that are drying, provided
they contain the conditions of life. 

There is a grub entitled the 'faggot-bearer', as strange a creature
as is known. Its head projects outside its shell, mottled in colour,
and its feet are near the end or apex, as is the case with grubs in
general; but the rest of its body is cased in a tunic as it were of
spider's web, and there are little dry twigs about it, that look as
though they had stuck by accident to the creature as it went walking
about. But these twig-like formations are naturally connected with
the tunic, for just as the shell is with the body of the snail so
is the whole superstructure with our grub; and they do not drop off,
but can only be torn off, as though they were all of a piece with
him, and the removal of the tunic is as fatal to this grub as the
removal of the shell would be to the snail. In course of time this
grub becomes a chrysalis, as is the case with the silkworm, and lives
in a motionless condition. But as yet it is not known into what winged
condition it is transformed. 

The fruit of the wild fig contains the psen, or fig-wasp. This creature
is a grub at first; but in due time the husk peels off and the psen
leaves the husk behind it and flies away, and enters into the fruit
of the fig-tree through its orifice, and causes the fruit not to drop
off; and with a view to this phenomenon, country folk are in the habit
of tying wild figs on to fig-trees, and of planting wild fig-trees
near domesticated ones. 

Part 33

In the case of animals that are quadrupeds and red-blooded and oviparous,
generation takes place in the spring, but copulation does not take
place in an uniform season. In some cases it takes place in the spring,
in others in summer time, and in others in the autumn, according as
the subsequent season may be favourable for the young. 

The tortoise lays eggs with a hard shell and of two colours within,
like birds' eggs, and after laying them buries them in the ground
and treads the ground hard over them; it then broods over the eggs
on the surface of the ground, and hatches the eggs the next year.
The hemys, or fresh-water tortoise, leaves the water and lays its
eggs. It digs a hole of a casklike shape, and deposits therein the
eggs; after rather less than thirty days it digs the eggs up again
and hatches them with great rapidity, and leads its young at once
off to the water. The sea-turtle lays on the ground eggs just like
the eggs of domesticated birds, buries the eggs in the ground, and
broods over them in the night-time. It lays a very great number of
eggs, amounting at times to one hundred. 

Lizards and crocodiles, terrestrial and fluvial, lay eggs on land.
The eggs of lizards hatch spontaneously on land, for the lizard does
not live on into the next year; in fact, the life of the animal is
said not to exceed six months. The river-crocodile lays a number of
eggs, sixty at the most, white in colour, and broods over them for
sixty days: for, by the way, the creature is very long-lived. And
the disproportion is more marked in this animal than in any other
between the smallness of the original egg and the huge size of the
full-grown animal. For the egg is not larger than that of the goose,
and the young crocodile is small, answering to the egg in size, but
the full-grown animal attains the length of twenty-six feet; in fact,
it is actually stated that the animal goes on growing to the end of
its days. 

Part 34

With regard to serpents or snakes, the viper is externally viviparous,
having been previously oviparous internally. The egg, as with the
egg of fishes, is uniform in colour and soft-skinned. The young serpent
grows on the surface of the egg, and, like the young of fishes, has
no shell-like envelopment. The young of the viper is born inside a
membrane that bursts from off the young creature in three days; and
at times the young viper eats its way out from the inside of the egg.
The mother viper brings forth all its young in one day, twenty in
number, and one at a time. The other serpents are externally oviparous,
and their eggs are strung on to one another like a lady's necklace;
after the dam has laid her eggs in the ground she broods over them,
and hatches the eggs in the following year. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOK VI

Part 1 

So much for the generative processes in snakes and insects, and also
in oviparous quadrupeds. Birds without exception lay eggs, but the
pairing season and the times of parturition are not alike for all.
Some birds couple and lay at almost any time in the year, as for instance
the barn-door hen and the pigeon: the former of these coupling and
laying during the entire year, with the exception of the month before
and the month after the winter solstice. Some hens, even in the high
breeds, lay a large quantity of eggs before brooding, amounting to
as many as sixty; and, by the way, the higher breeds are less prolific
than the inferior ones. The Adrian hens are small-sized, but they
lay every day; they are cross-tempered, and often kill their chickens;
they are of all colours. Some domesticated hens lay twice a day; indeed,
instances have been known where hens, after exhibiting extreme fecundity,
have died suddenly. Hens, then, lay eggs, as has been stated, at all
times indiscriminately; the pigeon, the ring-dove, the turtle-dove,
and the stock-dove lay twice a year, and the pigeon actually lays
ten times a year. The great majority of birds lay during the spring-time.
Some birds are prolific, and prolific in either of two ways-either
by laying often, as the pigeon, or by laying many eggs at a sitting,
as the barn-door hen. All birds of prey, or birds with crooked talons,
are unprolific, except the kestrel: this bird is the most prolific
of birds of prey; as many as four eggs have been observed in the nest,
and occasionally it lays even more. 

Birds in general lay their eggs in nests, but such as are disqualified
for flight, as the partridge and the quail, do not lay them in nests
but on the ground, and cover them over with loose material. The same
is the case with the lark and the tetrix. These birds hatch in sheltered
places; but the bird called merops in Boeotia, alone of all birds,
burrows into holes in the ground and hatches there. 

Thrushes, like swallows, build nests of clay, on high trees, and build
them in rows all close together, so that from their continuity the
structure resembles a necklace of nests. Of all birds that hatch for
themselves the hoopoe is the only one that builds no nest whatever;
it gets into the hollow of the trunk of a tree, and lays its eggs
there without making any sort of nest. The circus builds either under
a dwelling-roof or on cliffs. The tetrix, called ourax in Athens,
builds neither on the ground nor on trees, but on low-lying shrubs.

Part 2

The egg in the case of all birds alike is hard-shelled, if it be the
produce of copulation and be laid by a healthy hen-for some hens lay
soft eggs. The interior of the egg is of two colours, and the white
part is outside and the yellow part within. 

The eggs of birds that frequent rivers and marshes differ from those
of birds that live on dry land; that is to say, the eggs of waterbirds
have comparatively more of the yellow or yolk and less of the white.
Eggs vary in colour according to their kind. Some eggs are white,
as those of the pigeon and of the partridge; others are yellowish,
as the eggs of marsh birds; in some cases the eggs are mottled, as
the eggs of the guinea-fowl and the pheasant; while the eggs of the
kestrel are red, like vermilion. 

Eggs are not symmetrically shaped at both ends: in other words, one
end is comparatively sharp, and the other end is comparatively blunt;
and it is the latter end that protrudes first at the time of laying.
Long and pointed eggs are female; those that are round, or more rounded
at the narrow end, are male. Eggs are hatched by the incubation of
the mother-bird. In some cases, as in Egypt, they are hatched spontaneously
in the ground, by being buried in dung heaps. A story is told of a
toper in Syracuse, how he used to put eggs into the ground under his
rush-mat and to keep on drinking until he hatched them. Instances
have occurred of eggs being deposited in warm vessels and getting
hatched spontaneously. 

The sperm of birds, as of animals in general, is white. After the
female has submitted to the male, she draws up the sperm to underneath
her midriff. At first it is little in size and white in colour; by
and by it is red, the colour of blood; as it grows, it becomes pale
and yellow all over. When at length it is getting ripe for hatching,
it is subject to differentiation of substance, and the yolk gathers
together within and the white settles round it on the outside. When
the full time is come, the egg detaches itself and protrudes, changing
from soft to hard with such temporal exactitude that, whereas it is
not hard during the process of protrusion, it hardens immediately
after the process is completed: that is if there be no concomitant
pathological circumstances. Cases have occurred where substances resembling
the egg at a critical point of its growth-that is, when it is yellow
all over, as the yolk is subsequently-have been found in the cock
when cut open, underneath his midriff, just where the hen has her
eggs; and these are entirely yellow in appearance and of the same
size as ordinary eggs. Such phenomena are regarded as unnatural and
portentous. 

Such as affirm that wind-eggs are the residua of eggs previously begotten
from copulation are mistaken in this assertion, for we have cases
well authenticated where chickens of the common hen and goose have
laid wind-eggs without ever having been subjected to copulation. Wind-eggs
are smaller, less palatable, and more liquid than true eggs, and are
produced in greater numbers. When they are put under the mother bird,
the liquid contents never coagulate, but both the yellow and the white
remain as they were. Wind-eggs are laid by a number of birds: as for
instance by the common hen, the hen partridge, the hen pigeon, the
peahen, the goose, and the vulpanser. Eggs are hatched under brooding
hens more rapidly in summer than in winter; that is to say, hens hatch
in eighteen days in summer, but occasionally in winter take as many
as twenty-five. And by the way for brooding purposes some birds make
better mothers than others. If it thunders while a hen-bird is brooding,
the eggs get addled. Wind-eggs that are called by some cynosura and
uria are produced chiefly in summer. Wind-eggs are called by some
zephyr-eggs, because at spring-time hen-birds are observed to inhale
the breezes; they do the same if they be stroked in a peculiar way
by hand. Wind-eggs can turn into fertile eggs, and eggs due to previous
copulation can change breed, if before the change of the yellow to
the white the hen that contains wind-eggs, or eggs begotten of copulation
be trodden by another cock-bird. Under these circumstances the wind-eggs
turn into fertile eggs, and the previously impregnated eggs follow
the breed of the impregnator; but if the latter impregnation takes
place during the change of the yellow to the white, then no change
in the egg takes place: the wind-egg does not become a true egg, and
the true egg does not take on the breed of the latter impregnator.
If when the egg-substance is small copulation be intermitted, the
previously existing egg-substance exhibits no increase; but if the
hen be again submitted to the male the increase in size proceeds with
rapidity. 

The yolk and the white are diverse not only in colour but also in
properties. Thus, the yolk congeals under the influence of cold, whereas
the white instead of congealing is inclined rather to liquefy. Again,
the white stiffens under the influence of fire, whereas the yolk does
not stiffen; but, unless it be burnt through and through, it remains
soft, and in point of fact is inclined to set or to harden more from
the boiling than from the roasting of the egg. The yolk and the white
are separated by a membrane from one another. The so-called 'hail-stones',
or treadles, that are found at the extremity of the yellow in no way
contribute towards generation, as some erroneously suppose: they are
two in number, one below and the other above. If you take out of the
shells a number of yolks and a number of whites and pour them into
a sauce pan and boil them slowly over a low fire, the yolks will gather
into the centre and the whites will set all around them.

Young hens are the first to lay, and they do so at the beginning of
spring and lay more eggs than the older hens, but the eggs of the
younger hens are comparatively small. As a general rule, if hens get
no brooding they pine and sicken. After copulation hens shiver and
shake themselves, and often kick rubbish about all round them-and
this, by the way, they do sometimes after laying-whereas pigeons trail
their rumps on the ground, and geese dive under the water. Conception
of the true egg and conformation of the wind-egg take place rapidly
with most birds; as for instance with the hen-partridge when in heat.
The fact is that, when she stands to windward and within scent of
the male, she conceives, and becomes useless for decoy purposes: for,
by the way, the partridge appears to have a very acute sense of smell.

The generation of the egg after copulation and the generation of the
chick from the subsequent hatching of the egg are not brought about
within equal periods for all birds, but differ as to time according
to the size of the parent-birds. The egg of the common hen after copulation
sets and matures in ten days a general rule; the egg of the pigeon
in a somewhat lesser period. Pigeons have the faculty of holding back
the egg at the very moment of parturition; if a hen pigeon be put
about by any one, for instance if it be disturbed on its nest, or
have a feather plucked out, or sustain any other annoyance or disturbance,
then even though she had made up her mind to lay she can keep the
egg back in abeyance. A singular phenomenon is observed in pigeons
with regard to pairing: that is, they kiss one another just when the
male is on the point of mounting the female, and without this preliminary
the male would decline to perform his function. With the older males
the preliminary kiss is only given to begin with, and subsequently
sequently he mounts without previously kissing; with younger males
the preliminary is never omitted. Another singularity in these birds
is that the hens tread one another when a cock is not forthcoming,
after kissing one another just as takes place in the normal pairing.
Though they do not impregnate one another they lay more eggs under
these than under ordinary circumstances; no chicks, however, result
therefrom, but all such eggs are wind-eggs. 

Part 3

Generation from the egg proceeds in an identical manner with all birds,
but the full periods from conception to birth differ, as has been
said. With the common hen after three days and three nights there
is the first indication of the embryo; with larger birds the interval
being longer, with smaller birds shorter. Meanwhile the yolk comes
into being, rising towards the sharp end, where the primal element
of the egg is situated, and where the egg gets hatched; and the heart
appears, like a speck of blood, in the white of the egg. This point
beats and moves as though endowed with life, and from it two vein-ducts
with blood in them trend in a convoluted course (as the egg substance
goes on growing, towards each of the two circumjacent integuments);
and a membrane carrying bloody fibres now envelops the yolk, leading
off from the vein-ducts. A little afterwards the body is differentiated,
at first very small and white. The head is clearly distinguished,
and in it the eyes, swollen out to a great extent. This condition
of the eyes lat on for a good while, as it is only by degrees that
they diminish in size and collapse. At the outset the under portion
of the body appears insignificant in comparison with the upper portion.
Of the two ducts that lead from the heart, the one proceeds towards
the circumjacent integument, and the other, like a navel-string, towards
the yolk. The life-element of the chick is in the white of the egg,
and the nutriment comes through the navel-string out of the yolk.

When the egg is now ten days old the chick and all its parts are distinctly
visible. The head is still larger than the rest of its body, and the
eyes larger than the head, but still devoid of vision. The eyes, if
removed about this time, are found to be larger than beans, and black;
if the cuticle be peeled off them there is a white and cold liquid
inside, quite glittering in the sunlight, but there is no hard substance
whatsoever. Such is the condition of the head and eyes. At this time
also the larger internal organs are visible, as also the stomach and
the arrangement of the viscera; and veins that seem to proceed from
the heart are now close to the navel. From the navel there stretch
a pair of veins; one towards the membrane that envelops the yolk (and,
by the way, the yolk is now liquid, or more so than is normal), and
the other towards that membrane which envelops collectively the membrane
wherein the chick lies, the membrane of the yolk, and the intervening
liquid. (For, as the chick grows, little by little one part of the
yolk goes upward, and another part downward, and the white liquid
is between them; and the white of the egg is underneath the lower
part of the yolk, as it was at the outset.) On the tenth day the white
is at the extreme outer surface, reduced in amount, glutinous, firm
in substance, and sallow in colour. 

The disposition of the several constituent parts is as follows. First
and outermost comes the membrane of the egg, not that of the shell,
but underneath it. Inside this membrane is a white liquid; then comes
the chick, and a membrane round about it, separating it off so as
to keep the chick free from the liquid; next after the chick comes
the yolk, into which one of the two veins was described as leading,
the other one leading into the enveloping white substance. (A membrane
with a liquid resembling serum envelops the entire structure. Then
comes another membrane right round the embryo, as has been described,
separating it off against the liquid. Underneath this comes the yolk,
enveloped in another membrane (into which yolk proceeds the navel-string
that leads from the heart and the big vein), so as to keep the embryo
free of both liquids.) 

About the twentieth day, if you open the egg and touch the chick,
it moves inside and chirps; and it is already coming to be covered
with down, when, after the twentieth day is ast, the chick begins
to break the shell. The head is situated over the right leg close
to the flank, and the wing is placed over the head; and about this
time is plain to be seen the membrane resembling an after-birth that
comes next after the outermost membrane of the shell, into which membrane
the one of the navel-strings was described as leading (and, by the
way, the chick in its entirety is now within it), and so also is the
other membrane resembling an after-birth, namely that surrounding
the yolk, into which the second navel-string was described as leading;
and both of them were described as being connected with the heart
and the big vein. At this conjuncture the navel-string that leads
to the outer afterbirth collapses and becomes detached from the chick,
and the membrane that leads into the yolk is fastened on to the thin
gut of the creature, and by this time a considerable amount of the
yolk is inside the chick and a yellow sediment is in its stomach.
About this time it discharges residuum in the direction of the outer
after-birth, and has residuum inside its stomach; and the outer residuum
is white (and there comes a white substance inside). By and by the
yolk, diminishing gradually in size, at length becomes entirely used
up and comprehended within the chick (so that, ten days after hatching,
if you cut open the chick, a small remnant of the yolk is still left
in connexion with the gut), but it is detached from the navel, and
there is nothing in the interval between, but it has been used up
entirely. During the period above referred to the chick sleeps, wakes
up, makes a move and looks up and Chirps; and the heart and the navel
together palpitate as though the creature were respiring. So much
as to generation from the egg in the case of birds. 

Birds lay some eggs that are unfruitful, even eggs that are the result
of copulation, and no life comes from such eggs by incubation; and
this phenomenon is observed especially with pigeons. 

Twin eggs have two yolks. In some twin eggs a thin partition of white
intervenes to prevent the yolks mixing with each other, but some twin
eggs are unprovided with such partition, and the yokes run into one
another. There are some hens that lay nothing but twin eggs, and in
their case the phenomenon regarding the yolks has been observed. For
instance, a hen has been known to lay eighteen eggs, and to hatch
twins out of them all, except those that were wind-eggs; the rest
were fertile (though, by the way, one of the twins is always bigger
than the other), but the eighteenth was abnormal or monstrous.

Part 4

Birds of the pigeon kind, such as the ringdove and the turtle-dove,
lay two eggs at a time; that is to say, they do so as a general rule,
and they never lay more than three. The pigeon, as has been said,
lays at all seasons; the ring-dove and the turtle-dove lay in the
springtime, and they never lay more than twice in the same season.
The hen-bird lays the second pair of eggs when the first pair happens
to have been destroyed, for many of the hen-pigeons destroy the first
brood. The hen-pigeon, as has been said, occasionally lays three eggs,
but it never rears more than two chicks, and sometimes rears only
one; and the odd one is always a wind-egg. 

Very few birds propagate within their first year. All birds, after
once they have begun laying, keep on having eggs, though in the case
of some birds it is difficult to detect the fact from the minute size
of the creature. 

The pigeon, as a rule, lays a male and a female egg, and generally
lays the male egg first; after laying it allows a day's interval to
ensue and then lays the second egg. The male takes its turn of sitting
during the daytime; the female sits during the night. The first-laid
egg is hatched and brought to birth within twenty days; and the mother
bird pecks a hole in the egg the day before she hatches it out. The
two parent birds brood for some time over the chicks in the way in
which they brooded previously over the eggs. In all connected with
the rearing of the young the female parent is more cross-tempered
than the male, as is the case with most animals after parturition.
The hens lay as many as ten times in the year; occasional instances
have been known of their laying eleven times, and in Egypt they actually
lay twelve times. The pigeon, male and female, couples within the
year; in fact, it couples when only six months old. Some assert that
ringdoves and turtle-doves pair and procreate when only three months
old, and instance their superabundant numbers by way of proof of the
assertion. The hen-pigeon carries her eggs fourteen days; for as many
more days the parent birds hatch the eggs; by the end of another fourteen
days the chicks are so far capable of flight as to be overtaken with
difficulty. (The ring-dove, according to all accounts, lives up to
forty years. The partridge lives over sixteen., After one brood the
pigeon is ready for another within thirty days.) 

Part 5

The vulture builds its nest on inaccessible cliffs; for which reason
its nest and young are rarely seen. And therefore Herodorus, father
of Bryson the Sophist, declares that vultures belong to some foreign
country unknown to us, stating as a proof of the assertion that no
one has ever seen a vulture's nest, and also that vultures in great
numbers make a sudden appearance in the rear of armies. However, difficult
as it is to get a sight of it, a vulture's nest has been seen. The
vulture lays two eggs. 

(Carnivorous birds in general are observed to lay but once a year.
The swallow is the only carnivorous bird that builds a nest twice.
If you prick out the eyes of swallow chicks while they are yet young,
the birds will get well again and will see by and by.) 

Part 6

The eagle lays three eggs and hatches two of them, as it is said in
the verses ascribed to Musaeus: 

That lays three, hatches two, and cares for one. 

This is the case in most instances, though occasionally a brood of
three has been observed. As the young ones grow, the mother becomes
wearied with feeding them and extrudes one of the pair from the nest.
At the same time the bird is said to abstain from food, to avoid harrying
the young of wild animals. That is to say, its wings blanch, and for
some days its talons get turned awry. It is in consequence about this
time cross-tempered to its own young. The phene is said to rear the
young one that has been expelled the nest. The eagle broods for about
thirty days. 

The hatching period is about the same for the larger birds, such as
the goose and the great bustard; for the middle-sized birds it extends
over about twenty days, as in the case of the kite and the hawk. The
kite in general lays two eggs, but occasionally rears three young
ones. The so-called aegolius at times rears four. It is not true that,
as some aver, the raven lays only two eggs; it lays a larger number.
It broods for about twenty days and then extrudes its young. Other
birds perform the same operation; at all events mother birds that
lay several eggs often extrude one of their young. 

Birds of the eagle species are not alike in the treatment of their
young. The white-tailed eagle is cross, the black eagle is affectionate
in the feeding of the young; though, by the way, all birds of prey,
when their brood is rather forward in being able to fly, beat and
extrude them from the nest. The majority of birds other than birds
of prey, as has been said, also act in this manner, and after feeding
their young take no further care of them; but the crow is an exception.
This bird for a considerable time takes charge of her young; for,
even when her young can fly, she flies alongside of them and supplies
them with food. 

Part 7

The cuckoo is said by some to be a hawk transformed, because at the
time of the cuckoo's coming, the hawk, which it resembles, is never
seen; and indeed it is only for a few days that you will see hawks
about when the cuckoo's note sounds early in the season. The cuckoo
appears only for a short time in summer, and in winter disappears.
The hawk has crooked talons, which the cuckoo has not; neither with
regard to the head does the cuckoo resemble the hawk. In point of
fact, both as regards the head and the claws it more resembles the
pigeon. However, in colour and in colour alone it does resemble the
hawk, only that the markings of the hawk are striped, and of the cuckoo
mottled. And, by the way, in size and flight it resembles the smallest
of the hawk tribe, which bird disappears as a rule about the time
of the appearance of the cuckoo, though the two have been seen simultaneously.
The cuckoo has been seen to be preyed on by the hawk; and this never
happens between birds of the same species. They say no one has ever
seen the young of the cuckoo. The bird eggs, but does not build a
nest. Sometimes it lays its eggs in the nest of a smaller bird after
first devouring the eggs of this bird; it lays by preference in the
nest of the ringdove, after first devouring the eggs of the pigeon.
(It occasionally lays two, but usually one.) It lays also in the nest
of the hypolais, and the hypolais hatches and rears the brood. It
is about this time that the bird becomes fat and palatable. (The young
of hawks also get palatable and fat. One species builds a nest in
the wilderness and on sheer and inaccessible cliffs.) 

Part 8

With most birds, as has been said of the pigeon, the hatching is carried
on by the male and the female in turns: with some birds, however,
the male only sits long enough to allow the female to provide herself
with food. In the goose tribe the female alone incubates, and after
once sitting on the eggs she continues brooding until they are hatched.

The nests of all marsh-birds are built in districts fenny and well
supplied with grass; consequently, the mother-bird while sitting quiet
on her eggs can provide herself with food without having to submit
to absolute fasting. 

With the crow also the female alone broods, and broods throughout
the whole period; the male bird supports the female, bringing her
food and feeding her. The female of the ring-dove begins to brood
in the afternoon and broods through the entire night until breakfast-time
of the following day; the male broods during the rest of the time.
Partridges build a nest in two compartments; the male broods on the
one and the female on the other. After hatching, each of the parent
birds rears its brood. But the male, when he first takes his young
out of the nest, treads them. 

Part 9

Peafowl live for about twenty-five years, breed about the third year,
and at the same time take on their spangled plumage. They hatch their
eggs within thirty days or rather more. The peahen lays but once a
year, and lays twelve eggs, or may be a slightly lesser number: she
does not lay all the eggs there and then one after the other, but
at intervals of two or three days. Such as lay for the first time
lay about eight eggs. The peahen lays wind-eggs. They pair in the
spring; and laying begins immediately after pairing. The bird moults
when the earliest trees are shedding their leaves, and recovers its
plumage when the same trees are recovering their foliage. People that
rear peafowl put the eggs under the barn-door hen, owing to the fact
that when the peahen is brooding over them the peacock attacks her
and tries to trample on them; owing to this circumstance some birds
of wild varieties run away from the males and lay their eggs and brood
in solitude. Only two eggs are put under a barn-door hen, for she
could not brood over and hatch a large number. They take every precaution,
by supplying her with food, to prevent her going off the eggs and
discontinuing the brooding. 

With male birds about pairing time the testicles are obviously larger
than at other times, and this is conspicuously the case with the more
salacious birds, such as the barn-door cock and the cock partridge;
the peculiarity is less conspicuous in such birds as are intermittent
in regard to pairing. 

Part 10

So much for the conception and generation of birds. 
It has been previously stated that fishes are not all oviparous. Fishes
of the cartilaginous genus are viviparous; the rest are oviparous.
And cartilaginous fishes are first oviparous internally and subsequently
viviparous; they rear the embryos internally, the batrachus or fishing-frog
being an exception. 

Fishes also, as was above stated, are provided with wombs, and wombs
of diverse kinds. The oviparous genera have wombs bifurcate in shape
and low down in position; the cartilaginous genus have wombs shaped
like those of O birds. The womb, however, in the cartilaginous fishes
differs in this respect from the womb of birds, that with some cartilaginous
fishes the eggs do not settle close to the diaphragm but middle-ways
along the backbone, and as they grow they shift their position.

The egg with all fishes is not of two colours within but is of even
hue; and the colour is nearer to white than to yellow, and that both
when the young is inside it and previously as well. 

Development from the egg in fishes differs from that in birds in this
respect, that it does not exhibit that one of the two navel-strings
that leads off to the membrane that lies close under the shell, while
it does exhibit that one of the two that in the case of birds leads
off to the yolk. In a general way the rest of the development from
the egg onwards is identical in birds and fishes. That is to say,
development takes place at the upper part of the egg, and the veins
extend in like manner, at first from the heart; and at first the head,
the eyes, and the upper parts are largest; and as the creature grows
the egg-substance decreases and eventually disappears, and becomes
absorbed within the embryo, just as takes place with the yolk in birds.

The navel-string is attached a little way below the aperture of the
belly. When the creatures are young the navel-string is long, but
as they grow it diminishes in size; at length it gets small and becomes
incorporated, as was described in the case of birds. The embryo and
the egg are enveloped by a common membrane, and just under this is
another membrane that envelops the embryo by itself; and in between
the two membranes is a liquid. The food inside the stomach of the
little fishes resembles that inside the stomach of young chicks, and
is partly white and partly yellow. 

As regards the shape of the womb, the reader is referred to my treatise
on Anatomy. The womb, however, is diverse in diverse fishes, as for
instance in the sharks as compared one with another or as compared
with the skate. That is to say, in some sharks the eggs adhere in
the middle of the womb round about the backbone, as has been stated,
and this is the case with the dog-fish; as the eggs grow they shift
their place; and since the womb is bifurcate and adheres to the midriff,
as in the rest of similar creatures, the eggs pass into one or other
of the two compartments. This womb and the womb of the other sharks
exhibit, as you go a little way off from the midriff, something resembling
white breasts, which never make their appearance unless there be conception.

Dog-fish and skate have a kind of egg-shell, in the which is found
an egg-like liquid. The shape of the egg-shell resembles the tongue
of a bagpipe, and hair-like ducts are attached to the shell. With
the dog-fish which is called by some the 'dappled shark', the young
are born when the shell-formation breaks in pieces and falls out;
with the ray, after it has laid the egg the shell-formation breaks
up and the young move out. The spiny dog-fish has its close to the
midriff above the breast like formations; when the egg descends, as
soon as it gets detached the young is born. The mode of generation
is the same in the case of the fox-shark. 

The so-called smooth shark has its eggs in betwixt the wombs like
the dog-fish; these eggs shift into each of the two horns of the womb
and descend, and the young develop with the navel-string attached
to the womb, so that, as the egg-substance gets used up, the embryo
is sustained to all appearance just as in the case of quadrupeds.
The navel-string is long and adheres to the under part of the womb
(each navel-string being attached as it were by a sucker), and also
to the centre of the embryo in the place where the liver is situated.
If the embryo be cut open, even though it has the egg-substance no
longer, the food inside is egg-like in appearance. Each embryo, as
in the case of quadrupeds, is provided with a chorion and separate
membranes. When young the embryo has its head upwards, but downwards
when it gets strong and is completed in form. Males are generated
on the left-hand side of the womb, and females on the right-hand side,
and males and females on the same side together. If the embryo be
cut open, then, as with quadrupeds, such internal organs as it is
furnished with, as for instance the liver, are found to be large and
supplied with blood. 

All cartilaginous fishes have at one and the same time eggs above
close to the midriff (some larger, some smaller), in considerable
numbers, and also embryos lower down. And this circumstance leads
many to suppose that fishes of this species pair and bear young every
month, inasmuch as they do not produce all their young at once, but
now and again and over a lengthened period. But such eggs as have
come down below within the womb are simultaneously ripened and completed
in growth. 

Dog-fish in general can extrude and take in again their young, as
can also the angel-fish and the electric ray-and, by the way, a large
electric ray has been seen with about eighty embryos inside it-but
the spiny dogfish is an exception to the rule, being prevented by
the spine of the young fish from so doing. Of the flat cartilaginous
fish, the trygon and the ray cannot extrude and take in again in consequence
of the roughness of the tails of the young. The batrachus or fishing-frog
also is unable to take in its young owing to the size of the head
and the prickles; and, by the way, as was previously remarked, it
is the only one of these fishes that is not viviparous. 

So much for the varieties of the cartilaginous species and for their
modes of generation from the egg. 

Part 11

At the breeding season the sperm-ducts of the male are filled with
sperm, so much so that if they be squeezed the sperm flows out spontaneously
as a white fluid; the ducts are bifurcate, and start from the midriff
and the great vein. About this period the sperm-ducts of the male
are quite distinct (from the womb of the female) but at any other
than the actual breeding time their distinctness is not obvious to
a non-expert. The fact is that in certain fishes at certain times
these organs are imperceptible, as was stated regarding the testicles
of birds. 

Among other distinctions observed between the thoric ducts and the
womb-ducts is the circumstance that the thoric ducts are attached
to the loins, while the womb-ducts move about freely and are attached
by a thin membrane. The particulars regarding the thoric ducts may
be studied by a reference to the diagrams in my treatise on Anatomy.

Cartilaginous fishes are capable of superfoetation, and their period
of gestation is six months at the longest. The so-called starry dogfish
bears young the most frequently; in other words it bears twice a month.
The breeding season is in the month of Maemacterion. The dog-fish
as a general rule bear twice in the year, with the exception of the
little dog-fish, which bears only once a year. Some of them bring
forth in the springtime. The rhine, or angel-fish, bears its first
brood in the springtime, and its second in the autumn, about the winter
setting of the Pleiads; the second brood is the stronger of the two.
The electric ray brings forth in the late autumn. 

Cartilaginous fishes come out from the main seas and deep waters towards
the shore and there bring forth their young, and they do so for the
sake of warmth and by way of protection for their young.

Observations would lead to the general rule that no one variety of
fish pairs with another variety. The angel-fish, however, and the
batus or skate appear to pair with one another; for there is a fish
called the rhinobatus, with the head and front parts of the skate
and the after parts of the rhine or angel-fish, just as though it
were made up of both fishes together. 

Sharks then and their congeners, as the fox-shark and the dog-fish,
and the flat fishes, such as the electric ray, the ray, the smooth
skate, and the trygon, are first oviparous and then viviparous in
the way above mentioned, (as are also the saw-fish and the ox-ray.)

Part 12

The dolphin, the whale, and all the rest of the Cetacea, all, that
is to say, that are provided with a blow-hole instead of gills, are
viviparous. That is to say, no one of all these fishes is ever seen
to be supplied with eggs, but directly with an embryo from whose differentiation
comes the fish, just as in the case of mankind and the viviparous
quadrupeds. 

The dolphin bears one at a time generally, but occasionally two. The
whale bears one or at the most two, generally two. The porpoise in
this respect resembles the dolphin, and, by the way, it is in form
like a little dolphin, and is found in the Euxine; it differs, however,
from the dolphin as being less in size and broader in the back; its
colour is leaden-black. Many people are of opinion that the porpoise
is a variety of the dolphin. 

All creatures that have a blow-hole respire and inspire, for they
are provided with lungs. The dolphin has been seen asleep with his
nose above water, and when asleep he snores. 

The dolphin and the porpoise are provided with milk, and suckle their
young. They also take their young, when small, inside them. The young
of the dolphin grow rapidly, being full grown at ten years of age.
Its period of gestation is ten months. It brings forth its young summer,
and never at any other season; (and, singularly enough, under the
Dogstar it disappears for about thirty days). Its young accompany
it for a considerable period; and, in fact, the creature is remarkable
for the strength of its parental affection. It lives for many years;
some are known to have lived for more than twenty-five, and some for
thirty years; the fact is fishermen nick their tails sometimes and
set them adrift again, and by this expedient their ages are ascertained.

The seal is an amphibious animal: that is to say, it cannot take in
water, but breathes and sleeps and brings forth on dry land-only close
to the shore-as being an animal furnished with feet; it spends, however,
the greater part of its time in the sea and derives its food from
it, so that it must be classed in the category of marine animals.
It is viviparous by immediate conception and brings forth its young
alive, and exhibits an after-birth and all else just like a ewe. It
bears one or two at a time, and three at the most. It has two teats,
and suckles its young like a quadruped. Like the human species it
brings forth at all seasons of the year, but especially at the time
when the earliest kids are forthcoming. It conducts its young ones,
when they are about twelve days old, over and over again during the
day down to the sea, accustoming them by slow degrees to the water.
It slips down steep places instead of walking, from the fact that
it cannot steady itself by its feet. It can contract and draw itself
in, for it is fleshy and soft and its bones are gristly. Owing to
the flabbiness of its body it is difficult to kill a seal by a blow,
unless you strike it on the temple. It looks like a cow. The female
in regard to its genital organs resembles the female of the ray; in
all other respects it resembles the female of the human species.

So much for the phenomena of generation and of parturition in animals
that live in water and are viviparous either internally or externally.

Part 13

Oviparous fishes have their womb bifurcate and placed low down, as
was said previously-and, by the way, all scaly fish are oviparous,
as the basse, the mullet, the grey mullet, and the etelis, and all
the so-called white-fish, and all the smooth or slippery fish except
the eel-and their roe is of a crumbling or granular substance. This
appearance is due to the fact that the whole womb of such fishes is
full of eggs, so that in little fishes there seem to be only a couple
of eggs there; for in small fishes the womb is indistinguishable,
from its diminutive size and thin contexture. The pairing of fishes
has been discussed previously. 

Fishes for the most part are divided into males and females, but one
is puzzled to account for the erythrinus and the channa, for specimens
of these species are never caught except in a condition of pregnancy.

With such fish as pair, eggs are the result of copulation, but such
fish have them also without copulation; and this is shown in the case
of some river-fish, for the minnow has eggs when quite small,-almost,
one may say, as soon as it is born. These fishes shed their eggs little
by little, and, as is stated, the males swallow the greater part of
them, and some portion of them goes to waste in the water; but such
of the eggs as the female deposits on the spawning beds are saved.
If all the eggs were preserved, each species would be infinite in
number. The greater number of these eggs so deposited are not productive,
but only those over which the male sheds the milt or sperm; for when
the female has laid her eggs, the male follows and sheds its sperm
over them, and from all the eggs so besprinkled young fishes proceed,
while the rest are left to their fate. 

The same phenomenon is observed in the case of molluscs also; for
in the case of the cuttlefish or sepia, after the female has deposited
her eggs, the male besprinkles them. It is highly probable that a
similar phenomenon takes place in regard to molluscs in general, though
up to the present time the phenomenon has been observed only in the
case of the cuttlefish. 

Fishes deposit their eggs close in to shore, the goby close to stones;
and, by the way, the spawn of the goby is flat and crumbly. Fish in
general so deposit their eggs; for the water close in to shore is
warm and is better supplied with food than the outer sea, and serves
as a protection to the spawn against the voracity of the larger fish.
And it is for this reason that in the Euxine most fishes spawn near
the mouth of the river Thermodon, because the locality is sheltered,
genial, and supplied with fresh water. 

Oviparous fish as a rule spawn only once a year. The little phycis
or black goby is an exception, as it spawns twice; the male of the
black goby differs from the female as being blacker and having larger
scales. 

Fishes then in general produce their young by copulation, and lay
their eggs; but the pipefish, as some call it, when the time of parturition
arrives, bursts in two, and the eggs escape out. For the fish has
a diaphysis or cloven growth under the belly and abdomen (like the
blind snakes), and, after it has spawned by the splitting of this
diaphysis, the sides of the split grow together again. 

Development from the egg takes place similarly with fishes that are
oviparous internally and with fishes that are oviparous externally;
that is to say, the embryo comes at the upper end of the egg and is
enveloped in a membrane, and the eyes, large and spherical, are the
first organs visible. From this circumstance it is plain that the
assertion is untenable which is made by some writers, to wit, that
the young of oviparous fishes are generated like the grubs of worms;
for the opposite phenomena are observed in the case of these grubs,
in that their lower extremities are the larger at the outset, and
that the eyes and the head appear later on. After the egg has been
used up, the young fishes are like tadpoles in shape, and at first,
without taking any nutriment, they grow by sustenance derived from
the juice oozing from the egg; by and by, they are nourished up to
full growth by the river-waters. 

When the Euxine is 'purged' a substance called phycus is carried into
the Hellespont, and this substance is of a pale yellow colour. Some
writers aver that it is the flower of the phycus, from which rouge
is made; it comes at the beginning of summer. Oysters and the small
fish of these localities feed on this substance, and some of the inhabitants
of these maritime districts say that the purple murex derives its
peculiar colour from it. 

Part 14

Marsh-fishes and river-fishes conceive at the age of five months as
a general rule, and deposit their spawn towards the close of the year
without exception. And with these fishes, like as with the marine
fishes, the female does not void all her eggs at one time, nor the
male his sperm; but they are at all times more or less provided, the
female with eggs, and the male with sperm. The-carp spawns as the
seasons come round, five or six times, and follows in spawning the
rising of the greater constellations. The chalcis spawns three times,
and the other fishes once only in the year. They all spawn in pools
left by the overflowing of rivers, and near to reedy places in marshes;
as for instance the phoxinus or minnow and the perch. 

The glanis or sheat-fish and the perch deposit their spawn in one
continuous string, like the frog; so continuous, in fact, is the convoluted
spawn of the perch that, by reason of its smoothness, the fishermen
in the marshes can unwind it off the reeds like threads off a reel.
The larger individuals of the sheat-fish spawn in deep waters, some
in water of a fathom's depth, the smaller in shallower water, generally
close to the roots of the willow or of some other tree, or close to
reeds or to moss. At times these fishes intertwine with one another,
a big with a little one, and bring into juxtaposition the ducts-which
some writers designate as navels-at the point where they emit the
generative products and discharge the egg in the case of the female
and the milt in the case of the male. Such eggs as are besprinkled
with the milt grow, in a day or thereabouts, whiter and larger, and
in a little while afterwards the fish's eyes become visible for these
organs in all fishes, as for that matter in all other animals, are
early conspicuous and seem disproportionately big. But such eggs as
the milt fails to touch remain, as with marine fishes, useless and
infertile. From the fertile eggs, as the little fish grow, a kind
of sheath detaches itself; this is a membrane that envelops the egg
and the young fish. When the milt has mingled with the eggs, the resulting
product becomes very sticky or viscous, and adheres to the roots of
trees or wherever it may have been laid. The male keeps on guard at
the principal spawning-place, and the female after spawning goes away.

In the case of the sheat-fish the growth from the egg is exceptionally
slow, and, in consequence, the male has to keep watch for forty or
fifty days to prevent the-spawn being devoured by such little fishes
as chance to come by. Next in point of slowness is the generation
of the carp. As with fishes in general, so even with these, the spawn
thus protected disappears and gets lost rapidly. 

In the case of some of the smaller fishes when they are only three
days old young fishes are generated. Eggs touched by the male sperm
take on increase both the same day and also later. The egg of the
sheat-fish is as big as a vetch-seed; the egg of the carp and of the
carp-species as big as a millet-seed. 

These fishes then spawn and generate in the way here described. The
chalcis, however, spawns in deep water in dense shoals of fish; and
the so-called tilon spawns near to beaches in sheltered spots in shoals
likewise. The carp, the baleros, and fishes in general push eagerly
into the shallows for the purpose of spawning, and very often thirteen
or fourteen males are seen following a single female. When the female
deposits her spawn and departs, the males follow on and shed the milt.
The greater portion of the spawn gets wasted; because, owing to the
fact that the female moves about while spawning, the spawn scatters,
or so much of it as is caught in the stream and does not get entangled
with some rubbish. For, with the exception of the sheatfish, no fish
keeps on guard; unless, by the way, it be the carp, which is said
to remain on guard, if it so happen that its spawn lies in a solid
mass. 

All male fishes are supplied with milt, excepting the eel: with the
eel, the male is devoid of milt, and the female of spawn. The mullet
goes up from the sea to marshes and rivers; the eels, on the contrary,
make their way down from the marshes and rivers to the sea.

Part 15

The great majority of fish, then, as has been stated, proceed from
eggs. However, there are some fish that proceed from mud and sand,
even of those kinds that proceed also from pairing and the egg. This
occurs in ponds here and there, and especially in a pond in the neighbourhood
of Cnidos. This pond, it is said, at one time ran dry about the rising
of the Dogstar, and the mud had all dried up; at the first fall of
the rains there was a show of water in the pond, and on the first
appearance of the water shoals of tiny fish were found in the pond.
The fish in question was a kind of mullet, one which does not proceed
from normal pairing, about the size of a small sprat, and not one
of these fishes was provided with either spawn or milt. There are
found also in Asia Minor, in rivers not communicating with the sea,
little fishes like whitebait, differing from the small fry found near
Cnidos but found under similar circumstances. Some writers actually
aver that mullet all grow spontaneously. In this assertion they are
mistaken, for the female of the fish is found provided with spawn,
and the male with milt. However, there is a species of mullet that
grows spontaneously out of mud and sand. 

From the facts above enumerated it is quite proved that certain fishes
come spontaneously into existence, not being derived from eggs or
from copulation. Such fish as are neither oviparous nor viviparous
arise all from one of two sources, from mud, or from sand and from
decayed matter that rises thence as a scum; for instance, the so-called
froth of the small fry comes out of sandy ground. This fry is incapable
of growth and of propagating its kind; after living for a while it
dies away and another creature takes its place, and so, with short
intervals excepted, it may be said to last the whole year through.
At all events, it lasts from the autumn rising of Arcturus up to the
spring-time. As a proof that these fish occasionally come out of the
ground we have the fact that in cold weather they are not caught,
and that they are caught in warm weather, obviously coming up out
of the ground to catch the heat; also, when the fishermen use dredges
and the ground is scraped up fairly often, the fishes appear in larger
numbers and of superior quality. All other small fry are inferior
in quality owing to rapidity of growth. The fry are found in sheltered
and marshy districts, when after a spell of fine weather the ground
is getting warmer, as, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Athens,
at Salamis and near the tomb of Themistocles and at Marathon; for
in these districts the froth is found. It appears, then, in such districts
and during such weather, and occasionally appears after a heavy fall
of rain in the froth that is thrown up by the falling rain, from which
circumstance the substance derives its specific name. Foam is occasionally
brought in on the surface of the sea in fair weather. (And in this,
where it has formed on the surface, the so-called froth collects,
as grubs swarm in manure; for which-reason this fry is often brought
in from the open sea. The fish is at its best in quality and quantity
in moist warm weather.) 

The ordinary fry is the normal issue of parent fishes: the so-called
gudgeon-fry of small insignificant gudgeon-like fish that burrow under
the ground. From the Phaleric fry comes the membras, from the membras
the trichis, from the trichis the trichias, and from one particular
sort of fry, to wit from that found in the harbour of Athens, comes
what is called the encrasicholus, or anchovy. There is another fry,
derived from the maenis and the mullet. 

The unfertile fry is watery and keeps only a short time, as has been
stated, for at last only head and eyes are left. However, the fishermen
of late have hit upon a method of transporting it to a distance, as
when salted it keeps for a considerable time. 

Part 16

Eels are not the issue of pairing, neither are they oviparous; nor
was an eel ever found supplied with either milt or spawn, nor are
they when cut open found to have within them passages for spawn or
for eggs. In point of fact, this entire species of blooded animals
proceeds neither from pair nor from the egg. 

There can be no doubt that the case is so. For in some standing pools,
after the water has been drained off and the mud has been dredged
away, the eels appear again after a fall of rain. In time of drought
they do not appear even in stagnant ponds, for the simple reason that
their existence and sustenance is derived from rain-water.

There is no doubt, then, that they proceed neither from pairing nor
from an egg. Some writers, however, are of opinion that they generate
their kind, because in some eels little worms are found, from which
they suppose that eels are derived. But this opinion is not founded
on fact. Eels are derived from the so-called 'earth's guts' that grow
spontaneously in mud and in humid ground; in fact, eels have at times
been seen to emerge out of such earthworms, and on other occasions
have been rendered visible when the earthworms were laid open by either
scraping or cutting. Such earthworms are found both in the sea and
in rivers, especially where there is decayed matter: in the sea in
places where sea-weed abounds, and in rivers and marshes near to the
edge; for it is near to the water's edge that sun-heat has its chief
power and produces putrefaction. So much for the generation of the
eel. 

Part 17

Fish do not all bring forth their young at the same season nor all
in like manner, neither is the period of gestation for all of the
same duration. 

Before pairing the males and females gather together in shoals; at
the time for copulation and parturition they pair off. With some fishes
the time of gestation is not longer than thirty days, with others
it is a lesser period; but with all it extends over a number of days
divisible by seven. The longest period of gestation is that of the
species which some call a marinus. 

The sargue conceives during the month of Poseideon (or December),
and carries its spawn for thirty days; and the species of mullet named
by some the chelon, and the myxon, go with spawn at the same period
and over the same length of time. 

All fish suffer greatly during the period of gestation, and are in
consequence very apt to be thrown up on shore at this time. In some
cases they are driven frantic with pain and throw themselves on land.
At all events they are throughout this time continually in motion
until parturition is over (this being especially true of the mullet),
and after parturition they are in repose. With many fish the time
for parturition terminates on the appearance of grubs within the belly;
for small living grubs get generated there and eat up the spawn.

With shoal fishes parturition takes place in the spring, and indeed,
with most fishes, about the time of the spring equinox; with others
it is at different times, in summer with some, and with others about
the autumn equinox. 

The first of shoal fishes to spawn is the atherine, and it spawns
close to land; the last is the cephalus: and this is inferred from
the fact that the brood of the atherine appears first of all and the
brood of the cephalus last. The mullet also spawns early. The saupe
spawns usually at the beginning of summer, but occasionally in the
autumn. The aulopias, which some call the anthias, spawns in the summer.
Next in order of spawning comes the chrysophrys or gilthead, the basse,
the mormyrus, and in general such fish as are nicknamed 'runners'.
Latest in order of the shoal fish come the red mullet and the coracine;
these spawn in autumn. The red mullet spawns on mud, and consequently,
as the mud continues cold for a long while, spawns late in the year.
The coracine carries its spawn for a long time; but, as it lives usually
on rocky ground, it goes to a distance and spawns in places abounding
in seaweed, at a period later than the red mullet. The maenis spawns
about the winter solstice. Of the others, such as are pelagic spawn
for the most part in summer; which fact is proved by their not being
caught by fishermen during this period. 

Of ordinary fishes the most prolific is the sprat; of cartilaginous
fishes, the fishing-frog. Specimens, however, of the fishing-frog
are rare from the facility with which the young are destroyed, as
the female lays her spawn all in a lump close in to shore. As a rule,
cartilaginous fish are less prolific than other fish owing to their
being viviparous; and their young by reason of their size have a better
chance of escaping destruction. 

The so-called needle-fish (or pipe-fish) is late in spawning, and
the greater portion of them are burst asunder by the eggs before spawning;
and the eggs are not so many in number as large in size. The young
fish cluster round the parent like so many young spiders, for the
fish spawns on to herself; and, if any one touch the young, they swim
away. The atherine spawns by rubbing its belly against the sand.

Tunny fish also burst asunder by reason of their fat. They live for
two years; and the fishermen infer this age from the circumstance
that once when there was a failure of the young tunny fish for a year
there was a failure of the full-grown tunny the next summer. They
are of opinion that the tunny is a fish a year older than the pelamyd.
The tunny and the mackerel pair about the close of the month of Elaphebolion,
and spawn about the commencement of the month of Hecatombaeon; they
deposit their spawn in a sort of bag. The growth of the young tunny
is rapid. After the females have spawned in the Euxine, there comes
from the egg what some call scordylae, but what the Byzantines nickname
the 'auxids' or 'growers', from their growing to a considerable size
in a few days; these fish go out of the Pontus in autumn along with
the young tunnies, and enter Pontus in the spring as pelamyds. Fishes
as a rule take on growth with rapidity, but this is peculiarly the
case with all species of fish found in the Pontus; the growth, for
instance, of the amia-tunny is quite visible from day to day.

To resume, we must bear in mind that the same fish in the same localities
have not the same season for pairing, for conception, for parturition,
or for favouring weather. The coracine, for instance, in some places
spawns about wheat-harvest. The statements here given pretend only
to give the results of general observation. 

The conger also spawns, but the fact is not equally obvious in all
localities, nor is the spawn plainly visible owing to the fat of the
fish; for the spawn is lanky in shape as it is with serpents. However,
if it be put on the fire it shows its nature; for the fat evaporates
and melts, while the eggs dance about and explode with a crack. Further,
if you touch the substances and rub them with your fingers, the fat
feels smooth and the egg rough. Some congers are provided with fat
but not with any spawn, others are unprovided with fat but have egg-spawn
as here described. 

Part 18

We have, then, treated pretty fully of the animals that fly in the
air or swim in the water, and of such of those that walk on dry land
as are oviparous, to wit of their pairing, conception, and the like
phenomena; it now remains to treat of the same phenomena in connexion
with viviparous land animals and with man. 

The statements made in regard to the pairing of the sexes apply partly
to the particular kinds of animal and partly to all in general. It
is common to all animals to be most excited by the desire of one sex
for the other and by the pleasure derived from copulation. The female
is most cross-tempered just after parturition, the male during the
time of pairing; for instance, stallions at this period bite one another,
throw their riders, and chase them. Wild boars, though usually enfeebled
at this time as the result of copulation, are now unusually fierce,
and fight with one another in an extraordinary way, clothing themselves
with defensive armour, or in other words deliberately thickening their
hide by rubbing against trees or by coating themselves repeatedly
all over with mud and then drying themselves in the sun. They drive
one another away from the swine pastures, and fight with such fury
that very often both combatants succumb. The case is similar with
bulls, rams, and he-goats; for, though at ordinary times they herd
together, at breeding time they hold aloof from and quarrel with one
another. The male camel also is cross-tempered at pairing time if
either a man or a camel comes near him; as for a horse, a camel is
ready to fight him at any time. It is the same with wild animals.
The bear, the wolf, and the lion are all at this time ferocious towards
such as come in their way, but the males of these animals are less
given to fight with one another from the fact that they are at no
time gregarious. The she-bear is fierce after cubbing, and the bitch
after pupping. 

Male elephants get savage about pairing time, and for this reason
it is stated that men who have charge of elephants in India never
allow the males to have intercourse with the females; on the ground
that the males go wild at this time and turn topsy-turvy the dwellings
of their keepers, lightly constructed as they are, and commit all
kinds of havoc. They also state that abundancy of food has a tendency
to tame the males. They further introduce other elephants amongst
the wild ones, and punish and break them in by setting on the new-comers
to chastise the others. 

Animals that pair frequently and not at a single specific season,
as for instance animals domesticated by man, such as swine and dogs,
are found to indulge in such freaks to a lesser degree owing to the
frequency of their sexual intercourse. 

Of female animals the mare is the most sexually wanton, and next in
order comes the cow. In fact, the mare is said to go a-horsing; and
the term derived from the habits of this one animal serves as a term
of abuse applicable to such females of the human species as are unbridled
in the way of sexual appetite. This is the common phenomenon as observed
in the sow when she is said to go a-boaring. The mare is said also
about this time to get wind-impregnated if not impregnated by the
stallion, and for this reason in Crete they never remove the stallion
from the mares; for when the mare gets into this condition she runs
away from all other horses. The mares under these circumstances fly
invariably either northwards or southwards, and never towards either
east or west. When this complaint is on them they allow no one to
approach, until either they are exhausted with fatigue or have reached
the sea. Under either of these circumstances they discharge a certain
substance 'hippomanes', the title given to a growth on a new-born
foal; this resembles the sow-virus, and is in great request amongst
women who deal in drugs and potions. About horsing time the mares
huddle closer together, are continually switching their tails, their
neigh is abnormal in sound, and from the sexual organ there flows
a liquid resembling genital sperm, but much thinner than the sperm
of the male. It is this substance that some call hippomanes, instead
of the growth found on the foal; they say it is extremely difficult
to get as it oozes out only in small drops at a time. Mares also,
when in heat, discharge urine frequently, and frisk with one another.
Such are the phenomena connected with the horse. 

Cows go a-bulling; and so completely are they under the influence
of the sexual excitement that the herdsmen have no control over them
and cannot catch hold of them in the fields. Mares and kine alike,
when in heat, indicate the fact by the upraising of their genital
organs, and by continually voiding urine. Further, kine mount the
bulls, follow them about; and keep standing beside them. The younger
females both with horses and oxen are the first to get in heat; and
their sexual appetites are all the keener if the weather warm and
their bodily condition be healthy. Mares, when clipt of their coat,
have the sexual feeling checked, and assume a downcast drooping appearance.
The stallion recognizes by the scent the mares that form his company,
even though they have been together only a few days before breeding
time: if they get mixed up with other mares, the stallion bites and
drives away the interlopers. He feeds apart, accompanied by his own
troop of mares. Each stallion has assigned to him about thirty mares
or even somewhat more; when a strange stallion approaches, he huddles
his mares into a close ring, runs round them, then advances to the
encounter of the newcomer; if one of the mares make a movement, he
bites her and drives her back. The bull in breeding time begins to
graze with the cows, and fights with other bulls (having hitherto
grazed with them), which is termed by graziers 'herd-spurning'. Often
in Epirus a bull disappears for three months together. In a general
way one may state that of male animals either none or few herd with
their respective females before breeding time; but they keep separate
after reaching maturity, and the two sexes feed apart. Sows, when
they are moved by sexual desire, or are, as it is called, a-boaring,
will attack even human beings. 

With bitches the same sexual condition is termed 'getting into heat'.
The sexual organ rises at this time, and there is a moisture about
the parts. Mares drip with a white liquid at this season.

Female animals are subject to menstrual discharges, but never in such-abundance
as is the female of the human species. With ewes and she-goats there
are signs of menstruation in breeding time, just before the for submitting
to the male; after copulation also the signs are manifest, and then
cease for an interval until the period of parturition arrives; the
process then supervenes, and it is by this supervention that the shepherd
knows that such and such an ewe is about to bring forth. After parturition
comes copious menstruation, not at first much tinged with blood, but
deeply dyed with it by and by. With the cow, the she ass, and the
mare, the discharge is more copious actually, owing to their greater
bulk, but proportionally to the greater bulk it is far less copious.
The cow, for instance, when in heat, exhibits a small discharge to
the extent of a quarter of a pint of liquid or a little less; and
the time when this discharge takes place is the best time for her
to be covered by the bull. Of all quadrupeds the mare is the most
easily delivered of its young, exhibits the least amount of discharge
after parturition, and emits the least amount of blood; that is to
say, of all animals in proportion to size. With kine and mares menstruation
usually manifests itself at intervals of two, four, and six months;
but, unless one be constantly attending to and thoroughly acquainted
with such animals, it is difficult to verify the circumstance, and
the result is that many people are under the belief that the process
never takes place with these animals at all. 

With mules menstruation never takes place, but the urine of the female
is thicker than the urine of the male. As a general rule the discharge
from the bladder in the case of quadrupeds is thicker than it is in
the human species, and this discharge with ewes and she-goats is thicker
than with rams and he-goats; but the urine of the jackass is thicker
than the urine of the she-ass, and the urine of the bull is more pungent
than the urine of the cow. After parturition the urine of all quadrupeds
becomes thicker, especially with such animals as exhibit comparatively
slight discharges. At breeding time the milk become purulent, but
after parturition it becomes wholesome. During pregnancy ewes and
she-goats get fatter and eat more; as is also the case with cows,
and, indeed, with the females of all quadrupeds. 

In general the sexual appetites of animals are keenest in spring-time;
the time of pairing, however, is not the same for all, but is adapted
so as to ensure the rearing of the young at a convenient season.

Domesticated swine carry their young for four months, and bring forth
a litter of twenty at the utmost; and, by the way, if the litter be
exceedingly numerous they cannot rear all the young. As the sow grows
old she continues to bear, but grows indifferent to the boar; she
conceives after a single copulation, but they have to put the boar
to her repeatedly owing to her dropping after intercourse what is
called the sow-virus. This incident befalls all sows, but some of
them discharge the genital sperm as well. During conception any one
of the litter that gets injured or dwarfed is called an afterpig or
scut: such injury may occur at any part of the womb. After littering
the mother offers the foremost teat to the first-born. When the sow
is in heat, she must not at once be put to the boar, but only after
she lets her lugs drop, for otherwise she is apt to get into heat
again; if she be put to the boar when in full condition of heat, one
copulation, as has been said, is sufficient. It is as well to supply
the boar at the period of copulation with barley, and the sow at the
time of parturition with boiled barley. Some swine give fine litters
only at the beginning, with others the litters improve as the mothers
grow in age and size. It is said that a sow, if she have one of her
eyes knocked out, is almost sure to die soon afterwards. Swine for
the most part live for fifteen years, but some fall little short of
the twenty. 

Part 19

Ewes conceive after three or four copulations with the ram. If rain
falls after intercourse, the ram impregnates the ewe again; and it
is the same with the she-goat. The ewe bears usually two lambs, sometimes
three or four. Both ewe and she-goat carry their young for five months;
consequently wherever a district is sunny and the animals are used
to comfort and well fed, they bear twice in the year. The goat lives
for eight years and the sheep for ten, but in most cases not so long;
the bell-wether, however, lives to fifteen years. In every flock they
train one of the rams for bell-wether. When he is called on by name
by the shepherd, he takes the lead of the flock: and to this duty
the creature is trained from its earliest years. Sheep in Ethiopia
live for twelve or thirteen years, goats for ten or eleven. In the
case of the sheep and the goat the two sexes have intercourse all
their lives long. 

Twins with sheep and goats may be due to richness of pasturage, or
to the fact that either the ram or the he-goat is a twin-begetter
or that the ewe or the she-goat is a twin-bearer. Of these animals
some give birth to males and others to females; and the difference
in this respect depends on the waters they drink and also on the sires.
And if they submit to the male when north winds are blowing, they
are apt to bear males; if when south winds are blowing, females. Such
as bear females may get to bear males, due regard being paid to their
looking northwards when put to the male. Ewes accustomed to be put
to the ram early will refuse him if he attempt to mount them late.
Lambs are born white and black according as white or black veins are
under the ram's tongue; the lambs are white if the veins are white,
and black if the veins are black, and white and black if the veins
are white and black; and red if the veins are red. The females that
drink salted waters are the first to take the male; the water should
be salted before and after parturition, and again in the springtime.
With goats the shepherds appoint no bell-wether, as the animal is
not capable of repose but frisky and apt to ramble. If at the appointed
season the elders of the flock are eager for intercourse, the shepherds
say that it bodes well for the flock; if the younger ones, that the
flock is going to be bad. 

Part 20

Of dogs there are several breeds. Of these the Laconian hound of either
sex is fit for breeding purposes when eight months old: at about the
same age some dogs lift the leg when voiding urine. The bitch conceives
with one lining; this is clearly seen in the case where a dog contrives
to line a bitch by stealth, as they impregnate after mounting only
once. The Laconian bitch carries her young the sixth part of a year
or sixty days: or more by one, two, or three, or less by one; the
pups are blind for twelve days after birth. After pupping, the bitch
gets in heat again in six months, but not before. Some bitches carry
their young for the fifth part of the year or for seventy-two days;
and their pups are blind for fourteen days. Other bitches carry their
young for a quarter of a year or for three whole months; and the whelps
of these are blind for seventeen days. The bitch appears go in heat
for the same length of time. Menstruation continues for seven days,
and a swelling of the genital organ occurs simultaneously; it is not
during this period that the bitch is disposed to submit to the dog,
but in the seven days that follow. The bitch as a rule goes in heat
for fourteen days, but occasionally for sixteen. The birth-discharge
occurs simultaneously with the delivery of the whelps, and the substance
of it is thick and mucous. (The falling-off in bulk on the part of
the mother is not so great as might have been inferred from the size
of her frame.) The bitch is usually supplied with milk five days before
parturition; some seven days previously, some four; and the milk is
serviceable immediately after birth. The Laconian bitch is supplied
with milk thirty days after lining. The milk at first is thickish,
but gets thinner by degrees; with the bitch the milk is thicker than
with the female of any other animal excepting the sow and the hare.
When the bitch arrives at full growth an indication is given of her
capacity for the male; that is to say, just as occurs in the female
of the human species, a swelling takes place in the teats of the breasts,
and the breasts take on gristle. This incident, however, it is difficult
for any but an expert to detect, as the part that gives the indication
is inconsiderable. The preceding statements relate to the female,
and not one of them to the male. The male as a rule lifts his leg
to void urine when six months old; some at a later period, when eight
months old, some before they reach six months. In a general way one
may put it that they do so when they are out of puppyhood. The bitch
squats down when she voids urine; it is a rare exception that she
lifts the leg to do so. The bitch bears twelve pups at the most, but
usually five or six; occasionally a bitch will bear one only. The
bitch of the Laconian breed generally bears eight. The two sexes have
intercourse with each other at all periods of life. A very remarkable
phenomenon is observed in the case of the Laconian hound: in other
words, he is found to be more vigorous in commerce with the female
after being hard-worked than when allowed to live idle. 

The dog of the Laconian breed lives ten years, and the bitch twelve.
The bitch of other breeds usually lives for fourteen or fifteen years,
but some live to twenty; and for this reason certain critics consider
that Homer did well in representing the dog of Ulysses as having died
in his twentieth year. With the Laconian hound, owing to the hardships
to which the male is put, he is less long-lived than the female; with
other breeds the distinction as to longevity is not very apparent,
though as a general rule the male is the longer-lived. 

The dog sheds no teeth except the so-called 'canines'; these a dog
of either sex sheds when four months old. As they shed these only,
many people are in doubt as to the fact, and some people, owing to
their shedding but two and its being hard to hit upon the time when
they do so, fancy that the animal sheds no teeth at all; others, after
observing the shedding of two, come to the conclusion that the creature
sheds the rest in due turn. Men discern the age of a dog by inspection
of its teeth; with young dogs the teeth are white and sharp pointed,
with old dogs black and blunted. 

Part 21

The bull impregnates the cow at a single mount, and mounts with such
vigour as to weigh down the cow; if his effort be unsuccessful, the
cow must be allowed an interval of twenty days before being again
submitted. Bulls of mature age decline to mount the same cow several
times on one day, except, by the way, at considerable intervals. Young
bulls by reason of their vigour are enabled to mount the same cow
several times in one day, and a good many cows besides. The bull is
the least salacious of male animals.... The victor among the bulls
is the one that mounts the females; when he gets exhausted by his
amorous efforts, his beaten antagonist sets on him and very often
gets the better of the conflict. The bull and the cow are about a
year old when it is possible for them to have commerce with chance
of offspring: as a rule, however, they are about twenty months old,
but it is universally allowed that they are capable in this respect
at the age of two years. The cow goes with calf for nine months, and
she calves in the tenth month; some maintain that they go in calf
for ten months, to the very day. A calf delivered before the times
here specified is an abortion and never lives, however little premature
its birth may have been, as its hooves are weak and imperfect. The
cow as a rule bears but one calf, very seldom two; she submits to
the bull and bears as long as she lives. 

Cows live for about fifteen years, and the bulls too, if they have
been castrated; but some live for twenty years or even more, if their
bodily constitutions be sound. The herdsmen tame the castrated bulls,
and give them an office in the herd analogous to the office of the
bell-wether in a flock; and these bulls live to an exceptionally advanced
age, owing to their exemption from hardship and to their browsing
on pasture of good quality. The bull is in fullest vigour when five
years old, which leads the critics to commend Homer for applying to
the bull the epithets of 'five-year-old', or 'of nine seasons', which
epithets are alike in meaning. The ox sheds his teeth at the age of
two years, not all together but just as the horse sheds his. When
the animal suffers from podagra it does not shed the hoof, but is
subject to a painful swelling in the feet. The milk of the cow is
serviceable after parturition, and before parturition there is no
milk at all. The milk that first presents itself becomes as hard as
stone when it clots; this result ensues unless it be previously diluted
with water. Oxen younger than a year old do not copulate unless under
circumstances of an unnatural and portentous kind: instances have
been recorded of copulation in both sexes at the age of four months.
Kine in general begin to submit to the male about the month of Thargelion
or of Scirophorion; some, however, are capable of conception right
on to the autumn. When kine in large numbers receive the bull and
conceive, it is looked upon as prognostic of rain and stormy weather.
Kine herd together like mares, but in lesser degree. 

Part 22

In the case of horses, the stallion and the mare are first fitted
for breeding purposes when two years old. Instances, however, of such
early maturity are rare, and their young are exceptionally small and
weak; the ordinary age for sexual maturity is three years, and from
that age to twenty the two sexes go on improving in the quality of
their offspring. The mare carries her foal for eleven months, and
casts it in the twelfth. It is not a fixed number of days that the
stallion takes to impregnate the mare; it may be one, two, three,
or more. An ass in covering will impregnate more expeditiously than
a stallion. The act of intercourse with horses is not laborious as
it is with oxen. In both sexes the horse is the most salacious of
animals next after the human species. The breeding faculties of the
younger horses may be stimulated beyond their years if they be supplied
with good feeding in abundance. The mare as a rule bears only one
foal; occasionally she has two, but never more. A mare has been known
to cast two mules; but such a circumstance was regarded as unnatural
and portentous. 

The horse then is first fitted for breeding purposes at the age of
two and a half years, but achieves full sexual maturity when it has
ceased to shed teeth, except it be naturally infertile; it must be
added, however, that some horses have been known to impregnate the
mare while the teeth were in process of shedding. 

The horse has forty teeth. It sheds its first set of four, two from
the upper jaw and two from the lower, when two and a half years old.
After a year's interval, it sheds another set of four in like manner,
and another set of four after yet another year's interval; after arriving
at the age of four years and six months it sheds no more. An instance
has occurred where a horse shed all his teeth at once, and another
instance of a horse shedding all his teeth with his last set of four;
but such instances are very rare. It consequently happens that a horse
when four and a half years old is in excellent condition for breeding
purposes. 

The older horses, whether of the male or female, are the more generatively
productive. Horses will cover mares from which they have been foaled
and mares which they have begotten; and, indeed, a troop of horses
is only considered perfect when such promiscuity of intercourse occurs.
Scythians use pregnant mares for riding when the embryo has turned
rather soon in the womb, and they assert that thereby the mothers
have all the easier delivery. Quadrupeds as a rule lie down for parturition,
and in consequence the young of them all come out of the womb sideways.
The mare, however, when the time for parturition arrives, stands erect
and in that posture casts its foal. 

The horse in general lives for eighteen or twenty years; some horses
live for twenty-five or even thirty, and if a horse be treated with
extreme care, it may last on to the age of fifty years; a horse, however,
when it reaches thirty years is regarded as exceptionally old. The
mare lives usually for twenty-five years, though instances have occurred
of their attaining the age of forty. The male is less long-lived than
the female by reason of the sexual service he is called on to render;
and horses that are reared in a private stable live longer than such
as are reared in troops. The mare attains her full length and height
at five years old, the stallion at six; in another six years the animal
reaches its full bulk, and goes on improving until it is twenty years
old. The female, then, reaches maturity more rapidly than the male,
but in the womb the case is reversed, just as is observed in regard
to the sexes of the human species; and the same phenomenon is observed
in the case of all animals that bear several young. 

The mare is said to suckle a mule-foal for six months, but not to
allow its approach for any longer on account of the pain it is put
to by the hard tugging of the young; an ordinary foal it allows to
suck for a longer period. 

Horse and mule are at their best after the shedding of the teeth.
After they have shed them all, it is not easy to distinguish their
age; hence they are said to carry their mark before the shedding,
but not after. However, even after the shedding their age is pretty
well recognized by the aid of the canines; for in the case of horses
much ridden these teeth are worn away by attrition caused by the insertion
of the bit; in the case of horses not ridden the teeth are large and
detached, and in young horses they are sharp and small. 

The male of the horse will breed at all seasons and during its whole
life; the mare can take the horse all its life long, but is not thus
ready to pair at all seasons unless it be held in check by a halter
or some other compulsion be brought to bear. There is no fixed time
at which intercourse of the two sexes cannot take place; and accordingly
intercourse may chance to take place at a time that may render difficult
the rearing of the future progeny. In a stable in Opus there was a
stallion that used to serve mares when forty years old: his fore legs
had to be lifted up for the operation. 

Mares first take the horse in the spring-time. After a mare has foaled
she does not get impregnated at once again, but only after a considerable
interval; in fact, the foals will be all the better if the interval
extend over four or five years. It is, at all events, absolutely necessary
to allow an interval of one year, and for that period to let her lie
fallow. A mare, then, breeds at intervals; a she-ass breeds on and
on without intermission. Of mares some are absolutely sterile, others
are capable of conception but incapable of bringing the foal to full
term; it is said to be an indication of this condition in a mare,
that her foal if dissected is found to have other kidney-shaped substances
round about its kidneys, presenting the appearance of having four
kidneys. 

After parturition the mare at once swallows the after-birth, and bites
off the growth, called the 'hippomanes', that is found on the forehead
of the foal. This growth is somewhat smaller than a dried fig; and
in shape is broad and round, and in colour black. If any bystander
gets possession of it before the mare, and the mare gets a smell of
it, she goes wild and frantic at the smell. And it is for this reason
that venders of drugs and simples hold the substance in high request
and include it among their stores. 

If an ass cover a mare after the mare has been covered by a horse,
the ass will destroy the previously formed embryo. 

(Horse-trainers do not appoint a horse as leader to a troop, as herdsmen
appoint a bull as leader to a herd, and for this reason that the horse
is not steady but quick-tempered and skittish.) 

Part 23

The ass of both sexes is capable of breeding, and sheds its first
teeth at the age of two and a half years; it sheds its second teeth
within six months, its third within another six months, and the fourth
after the like interval. These fourth teeth are termed the gnomons
or age-indicators. 

A she-ass has been known to conceive when a year old, and the foal
to be reared. After intercourse with the male it will discharge the
genital sperm unless it be hindered, and for this reason it is usually
beaten after such intercourse and chased about. It casts its young
in the twelfth month. It usually bears but one foal, and that is its
natural number, occasionally however it bears twins. The ass if it
cover a mare destroys, as has been said, the embryo previously begotten
by the horse; but, after the mare has been covered by the ass, the
horse supervening will not spoil the embryo. The she-ass has milk
in the tenth month of pregnancy. Seven days after casting a foal the
she-ass submits to the male, and is almost sure to conceive if put
to the male on this particular day; the same result, however, is quite
possible later on. The she-ass will refuse to cast her foal with any
one looking on or in the daylight and just before foaling she has
to be led away into a dark place. If the she-ass has had young before
the shedding of the index-teeth, she will bear all her life through;
but if not, then she will neither conceive nor bear for the rest of
her days. The ass lives for more than thirty years, and the she-ass
lives longer than the male. 

When there is a cross between a horse and a she-ass or a jackass and
a mare, there is much greater chance of a miscarriage than where the
commerce is normal. The period for gestation in the case of a cross
depends on the male, and is just what it would have been if the male
had had commerce with a female of his own kind. In regard to size,
looks, and vigour, the foal is more apt to resemble the mother than
the sire. If such hybrid connexions be continued without intermittence,
the female will soon go sterile; and for this reason trainers always
allow of intervals between breeding times. A mare will not take the
ass, nor a she ass the horse, unless the ass or she-ass shall have
been suckled by a mare; and for this reason trainers put foals of
the she-ass under mares, which foals are technically spoken of as
'mare-suckled'. These asses, thus reared, mount the mares in the open
pastures, mastering them by force as the stallions do. 

Part 24

A mule is fitted for commerce with the female after the first shedding
of its teeth, and at the age of seven will impregnate effectually;
and where connexion has taken place with a mare, a 'hinny' has been
known to be produced. After the seventh year it has no further intercourse
with the female. A female mule has been known to be impregnated, but
without the impregnation being followed up by parturition. In Syrophoenicia
she-mules submit to the mule and bear young; but the breed, though
it resembles the ordinary one, is different and specific. The hinny
or stunted mule is foaled by a mare when she has gone sick during
gestation, and corresponds to the dwarf in the human species and to
the after-pig or scut in swine; and as is the case with dwarfs, the
sexual organ of the hinny is abnormally large. 

The mule lives for a number of years. There are on record cases of
mules living to the age of eighty, as did one in Athens at the time
of the building of the temple; this mule on account of its age was
let go free, but continued to assist in dragging burdens, and would
go side by side with the other draught-beasts and stimulate them to
their work; and in consequence a public decree was passed forbidding
any baker driving the creature away from his bread-tray. The she-mule
grows old more slowly than the mule. Some assert that the she-mule
menstruates by the act of voiding her urine, and that the mule owes
the prematurity of his decay to his habit of smelling at the urine.
So much for the modes of generation in connexion with these animals.

Part 25

Breeders and trainers can distinguish between young and old quadrupeds.
If, when drawn back from the jaw, the skin at once goes back to its
place, the animal is young; if it remains long wrinkled up, the animal
is old. 

Part 26

The camel carries its young for ten months, and bears but one at a
time and never more; the young camel is removed from the mother when
a year old. The animal lives for a long period, more than fifty years.
It bears in spring-time, and gives milk until the time of the next
conception. Its flesh and milk are exceptionally palatable. The milk
is drunk mixed with water in the proportion of either two to one or
three to one. 

Part 27

The elephant of either sex is fitted for breeding before reaching
the age of twenty. The female carries her young, according to some
accounts, for two and a half years; according to others, for three
years; and the discrepancy in the assigned periods is due to the fact
that there are never human eyewitnesses to the commerce between the
sexes. The female settles down on its rear to cast its young, and
obviously suffers greatly during the process. The young one, immediately
after birth, sucks the mother, not with its trunk but with the mouth;
and can walk about and see distinctly the moment it is born.

Part 28

The wild sow submits to the boar at the beginning of winter, and in
the spring-time retreats for parturition to a lair in some district
inaccessible to intrusion, hemmed in with sheer cliffs and chasms
and overshadowed by trees. The boar usually remains by the sow for
thirty days. The number of the litter and the period gestation is
the same as in the case of the domesticated congener. The sound of
the grunt also is similar; only that the sow grunts continually, and
the boar but seldom. Of the wild boars such as are castrated grow
to the largest size and become fiercest: to which circumstance Homer
alludes when he says:- 

'He reared against him a wild castrated boar: it was not like a food-devouring
brute, but like a forest-clad promontory.' 

Wild boars become castrated owing to an itch befalling them in early
life in the region of the testicles, and the castration is superinduced
by their rubbing themselves against the trunks of trees.

Part 29

The hind, as has been stated, submits to the stag as a rule only under
compulsion, as she is unable to endure the male often owing to the
rigidity of the penis. However, they do occasionally submit to the
stag as the ewe submits ram; and when they are in heat the hinds avoid
one another. The stag is not constant to one particular hind, but
after a while quits one and mates with others. The breeding time is
after the rising of Arcturus, during the months of Boedromion and
Maimacterion. The period of gestation lasts for eight months. Conception
comes on a few days after intercourse; and a number of hinds can be
impregnated by a single male. The hind, as a rule, bears but one fawn,
although instances have been known of her casting two. Out of dread
of wild beasts she casts her young by the side of the high-road. The
young fawn grows with rapidity. Menstruation occurs at no other time
with the hind; it takes place only after parturition, and the substance
is phlegm-like. 

The hind leads the fawn to her lair; this is her place of refuge,
a cave with a single inlet, inside which she shelters herself against
attack. 

Fabulous stories are told concerning the longevity of the animal,
but the stories have never been verified, and the brevity of the period
of gestation and the rapidity of growth in the fawn would not lead
one to attribute extreme longevity to this creature. 

In the mountain called Elaphoeis or Deer Mountain, which is in Arginussa
in Asia Minor-the place, by the way, where Alcibiades was assassinated-all
the hinds have the ear split, so that, if they stray to a distance,
they can be recognized by this mark; and the embryo actually has the
mark while yet in the womb of the mother. 

The hind has four teats like the cow. After the hinds have become
pregnant, the males all segregate one by one, and in consequence of
the violence of their sexual passions they keep each one to himself,
dig a hole in the ground, and bellow from time to time; in all these
particulars they resemble the goat, and their foreheads from getting
wetted become black, as is also the case with the goat. In this way
they pass the time until the rain falls, after which time they turn
to pasture. The animal acts in this way owing to its sexual wantonness
and also to its obesity; for in summer-time it becomes so exceptionally
fat as to be unable to run: in fact at this period they can be overtaken
by the hunters that pursue them on foot in the second or third run;
and, by the way, in consequence of the heat of the weather and their
getting out of breath they always make for water in their runs. In
the rutting season, the flesh of the deer is unsavoury and rank, like
the flesh of the he-goat. In winter-time the deer becomes thin and
weak, but towards the approach of the spring he is at his best for
running. When on the run the deer keeps pausing from time to time,
and waits until his pursuer draws upon him, whereupon he starts off
again. This habit appears due to some internal pain: at all events,
the gut is so slender and weak that, if you strike the animal ever
so softly, it is apt to break asunder, though the hide of the animal
remains sound and uninjured. 

Part 30

Bears, as has been previously stated, do not copulate with the male
mounting the back of the female, but with the female lying down under
the male. The she-bear goes with young for thirty days. She brings
forth sometimes one cub, sometimes two cubs, and at most five. Of
all animals the newly born cub of the she bear is the smallest in
proportion to the size of the mother; that is to say, it is larger
than a mouse but smaller than a weasel. It is also smooth and blind,
and its legs and most of its organs are as yet inarticulate. Pairing
takes Place in the month of Elaphebolion, and parturition about the
time for retiring into winter quarters; about this time the bear and
the she-bear are at the fattest. After the she-bear has reared her
young, she comes out of her winter lair in the third month, when it
is already spring. The female porcupine, by the way, hibernates and
goes with young the same number of days as the she-bear, and in all
respects as to parturition resembles this animal. When a she-bear
is with young, it is a very hard task to catch her. 

Part 31

It has already been stated that the lion and lioness copulate rearwards,
and that these animals are opisthuretic. They do not copulate nor
bring forth at all seasons indiscriminately, but once in the year
only. The lioness brings forth in the spring, generally two cubs at
a time, and six at the very most; but sometimes only one. The story
about the lioness discharging her womb in the act of parturition is
a pure fable, and was merely invented to account for the scarcity
of the animal; for the animal is, as is well known, a rare animal,
and is not found in many countries. In fact, in the whole of Europe
it is only found in the strip between the rivers Achelous and Nessus.
The cubs of the lioness when newly born are exceedingly small, and
can scarcely walk when two months old. The Syrian lion bears cubs
five times: five cubs at the first litter, then four, then three,
then two, and lastly one; after this the lioness ceases to bear for
the rest of her days. The lioness has no mane, but this appendage
is peculiar to the lion. The lion sheds only the four so-called canines,
two in the upper jaw and two in the lower; and it sheds them when
it is six months old. 

Part 32

The hyena in colour resembles the wolf, but is more shaggy, and is
furnished with a mane running all along the spine. What is recounted
concerning its genital organs, to the effect that every hyena is furnished
with the organ both of the male and the female, is untrue. The fact
is that the sexual organ of the male hyena resembles the same organ
in the wolf and in the dog; the part resembling the female genital
organ lies underneath the tail, and does to some extent resemble the
female organ, but it is unprovided with duct or passage, and the passage
for the residuum comes underneath it. The female hyena has the part
that resembles the organ of the male, and, as in the case of the male,
has it underneath her tail, unprovided with duct or passage; and after
it the passage for the residuum, and underneath this the true female
genital organ. The female hyena has a womb, like all other female
animals of the same kind. It is an exceedingly rare circumstance to
meet with a female hyena. At least a hunter said that out of eleven
hyenas he had caught, only one was a female. 

Part 33

Hares copulate in a rearward posture, as has been stated, for the
animal is opisthuretic. They breed and bear at all seasons, superfoetate
during pregnancy, and bear young every month. They do not give birth
to their young ones all together at one time, but bring them forth
at intervals over as many days as the circumstances of each case may
require. The female is supplied with milk before parturition; and
after bearing submits immediately to the male, and is capable of conception
while suckling her young. The milk in consistency resembles sow's
milk. The young are born blind, as is the case with the greater part
Of the fissipeds or toed animals. 

Part 34

The fox mounts the vixen in copulation, and the vixen bears young
like the she-bear; in fact, her young ones are even more inarticulately
formed. Before parturition she retires to sequestered places, so that
it is a great rarity for a vixen to be caught while pregnant. After
parturition she warms her young and gets them into shape by licking
them. She bears four at most at a birth. 

Part 35

The wolf resembles the dog in regard to the time of conception and
parturition, the number of the litter, and the blindness of the newborn
young. The sexes couple at one special period, and the female brings
forth at the beginning of the summer. There is an account given of
the parturition of the she-wolf that borders on the fabulous, to the
effect that she confines her lying-in to within twelve particular
days of the year. And they give the reason for this in the form of
a myth, viz. that when they transported Leto in so many days from
the land of the Hyperboreans to the island of Delos, she assumed the
form of a she-wolf to escape the anger of Here. Whether the account
be correct or not has not yet been verified; I give it merely as it
is currently told. There is no more of truth in the current statement
that the she-wolf bears once and only once in her lifetime.

The cat and the ichneumon bear as many young as the dog, and live
on the same food; they live about six years. The cubs of the panther
are born blind like those of the wolf, and the female bears four at
the most at one birth. The particulars of conception are the same
for the thos, or civet, as for the dog; the cubs of the animal are
born blind, and the female bears two, or three, or four at a birth.
It is long in the body and low in stature; but not withstanding the
shortness of its legs it is exceptionally fleet of foot, owing to
the suppleness of its frame and its capacity for leaping.

Part 36

There is found in Syria a so-called mule. It is not the same as the
cross between the horse and ass, but resembles it just as a wild ass
resembles the domesticated congener, and derives its name from the
resemblance. Like the wild ass, this wild mule is remarkable for its
speed. The animals of this species interbreed with one another; and
a proof of this statement may be gathered from the fact that a certain
number of them were brought into Phrygia in the time of Pharnaces,
the father of Pharnabazus, and the animal is there still. The number
originally introduced was nine, and there are three there at the present
day. 

Part 37

The phenomena of generation in regard to the mouse are the most astonishing
both for the number of the young and for the rapidity of recurrence
in the births. On one occasion a she-mouse in a state of pregnancy
was shut up by accident in a jar containing millet-seed, and after
a little while the lid of the jar was removed and upwards of one hundred
and twenty mice were found inside it. 

The rate of propagation of field mice in country places, and the destruction
that they cause, are beyond all telling. In many places their number
is so incalculable that but very little of the corn-crop is left to
the farmer; and so rapid is their mode of proceeding that sometimes
a small farmer will one day observe that it is time for reaping, and
on the following morning, when he takes his reapers afield, he finds
his entire crop devoured. Their disappearance is unaccountable: in
a few days not a mouse will there be to be seen. And yet in the time
before these few days men fail to keep down their numbers by fumigating
and unearthing them, or by regularly hunting them and turning in swine
upon them; for pigs, by the way, turn up the mouse-holes by rooting
with their snouts. Foxes also hunt them, and the wild ferrets in particular
destroy them, but they make no way against the prolific qualities
of the animal and the rapidity of its breeding. When they are super-abundant,
nothing succeeds in thinning them down except the rain; but after
heavy rains they disappear rapidly. 

In a certain district of Persia when a female mouse is dissected the
female embryos appear to be pregnant. Some people assert, and positively
assert, that a female mouse by licking salt can become pregnant without
the intervention of the male. 

Mice in Egypt are covered with bristles like the hedgehog. There is
also a different breed of mice that walk on their two hind-legs; their
front legs are small and their hind-legs long; the breed is exceedingly
numerous. There are many other breeds of mice than are here referred
to. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

BOOK VII

Part 1 

As to Man's growth, first within his mother's womb and afterward
to old age, the course of nature, in so far as man is specially concerned,
is after the following manner. And, by the way, the difference of
male and female and of their respective organs has been dealt with
heretofore. When twice seven years old, in the most of cases, the
male begins to engender seed; and at the same time hair appears upon
the pubes, in like manner, so Alcmaeon of Croton remarks, as plants
first blossom and then seed. About the same time, the voice begins
to alter, getting harsher and more uneven, neither shrill as formerly
nor deep as afterward, nor yet of any even tone, but like an instrument
whose strings are frayed and out of tune; and it is called, by way
of by-word, the bleat of the billy-goat. Now this breaking of the
voice is the more apparent in those who are making trial of their
sexual powers; for in those who are prone to lustfulness the voice
turns into the voice of a man, but not so in the continent. For if
a lad strive diligently to hinder his voice from breaking, as some
do of those who devote themselves to music, the voice lasts a long
while unbroken and may even persist with little change. And the breasts
swell and likewise the private parts, altering in size and shape.
(And by the way, at this time of life those who try by friction to
provoke emission of seed are apt to experience pain as well as voluptuous
sensations.) At the same age in the female, the breasts swell and
the so-called catamenia commence to flow; and this fluid resembles
fresh blood. There is another discharge, a white one, by the way,
which occurs in girls even at a very early age, more especially if
their diet be largely of a fluid nature; and this malady causes arrest
of growth and loss of flesh. In the majority of cases the catamenia
are noticed by the time the breasts have grown to the height of two
fingers' breadth. In girls, too, about this time the voice changes
to a deeper note; for while in general the woman's voice is higher
than the man's, so also the voices of girls are pitched in a higher
key than the elder women's, just as the boy's are higher than the
men's; and the girls' voices are shriller than the boys', and a maid's
flute is tuned sharper than a lad's. 

Girls of this age have much need of surveillance. For then in particular
they feel a natural impulse to make usage of the sexual faculties
that are developing in them; so that unless they guard against any
further impulse beyond that inevitable one which their bodily development
of itself supplies, even in the case of those who abstain altogether
from passionate indulgence, they contract habits which are apt to
continue into later life. For girls who give way to wantonness grow
more and more wanton; and the same is true of boys, unless they be
safeguarded from one temptation and another; for the passages become
dilated and set up a local flux or running, and besides this the recollection
of pleasure associated with former indulgence creates a longing for
its repetition. 

Some men are congenitally impotent owing to structural defect; and
in like manner women also may suffer from congenital incapacity. Both
men and women are liable to constitutional change, growing healthier
or more sickly, or altering in the way of leanness, stoutness, and
vigour; thus, after puberty some lads who were thin before grow stout
and healthy, and the converse also happens; and the same is equally
true of girls. For when in boy or girl the body is loaded with superfluous
matter, then, when such superfluities are got rid of in the spermatic
or catamenial discharge, their bodies improve in health and condition
owing to the removal of what had acted as an impediment to health
and proper nutrition; but in such as are of opposite habit their bodies
become emaciated and out of health, for then the spermatic discharge
in the one case and the catamenial flow in the other take place at
the cost of natural healthy conditions. 

Furthermore, in the case of maidens the condition of the breasts is
diverse in different individuals, for they are sometimes quite big
and sometimes little; and as a general rule their size depends on
whether or not the body was burthened in childhood with superfluous
material. For when the signs of womanhood are nigh but not come, the
more there be of moisture the more will it cause the breasts to swell,
even to the bursting point; and the result is that the breasts remain
during after-life of the bulk that they then acquired. And among men,
the breasts grow more conspicuous and more like to those of women,
both in young men and old, when the individual temperament is moist
and sleek and the reverse of sinewy, and all the more among the dark-complexioned
than the fair. 

At the outset and till the age of one and twenty the spermatic discharge
is devoid of fecundity; afterwards it becomes fertile, but young men
and women produce undersized and imperfect progeny, as is the case
also with the common run of animals. Young women conceive readily,
but, having conceived, their labour in childbed is apt to be difficult.

The frame fails of reaching its full development and ages quickly
in men of intemperate lusts and in women who become mothers of many
children; for it appears to be the case that growth ceases when the
woman has given birth to three children. Women of a lascivious disposition
grow more sedate and virtuous after they have borne several children.

After the age of twenty-one women are fully ripe for child-bearing,
but men go on increasing in vigour. When the spermatic fluid is of
a thin consistency it is infertile; when granular it is fertile and
likely to produce male children, but when thin and unclotted it is
apt to produce female offspring. And it is about this time of life
that in men the beard makes its appearance. 

Part 2

The onset of the catamenia in women takes place towards the end of
the month; and on this account the wiseacres assert that the moon
is feminine, because the discharge in women and the waning of the
moon happen at one and the same time, and after the wane and the discharge
both one and the other grow whole again. (In some women the catamenia
occur regularly but sparsely every month, and more abundantly every
third month.) With those in whom the ailment lasts but a little while,
two days or three, recovery is easy; but where the duration is longer,
the ailment is more troublesome. For women are ailing during these
days; and sometimes the discharge is sudden and sometimes gradual,
but in all cases alike there is bodily distress until the attack be
over. In many cases at the commencement of the attack, when the discharge
is about to appear, there occur spasms and rumbling noises within
the womb until such time as the discharge manifests itself.

Under natural conditions it is after recovery from these symptoms
that conception takes place in women, and women in whom the signs
do not manifest themselves for the most part remain childless. But
the rule is not without exception, for some conceive in spite of the
absence of these symptoms; and these are cases in which a secretion
accumulates, not in such a way as actually to issue forth, but in
amount equal to the residuum left in the case of child-bearing women
after the normal discharge has taken place. And some conceive while
the signs are on but not afterwards, those namely in whom the womb
closes up immediately after the discharge. In some cases the menses
persist during pregnancy up to the very last; but the result in these
cases is that the offspring are poor, and either fail to survive or
grow up weakly. 

In many cases, owing to excessive desire, arising either from youthful
impetuosity or from lengthened abstinence, prolapsion of the womb
takes place and the catamenia appear repeatedly, thrice in the month,
until conception occurs; and then the womb withdraws upwards again
to its proper place... 

As we have remarked above, the discharge is wont to be more abundant
in women than in the females of any other animals. In creatures that
do not bring forth their young alive nothing of the sort manifests
itself, this particular superfluity being converted into bodily substance;
and by the way, in such animals the females are sometimes larger than
the males; and moreover, the material is used up sometimes for scutes
and sometimes for scales, and sometimes for the abundant covering
of feathers, whereas in the vivipara possessed of limbs it is turned
into hair and into bodily substance (for man alone among them is smooth-
skinned), and into urine, for this excretion is in the majority of such animals
thick and copious. Only in the case of women is the superfluity turned
into a discharge instead of being utilized in these other ways.

There is something similar to be remarked of men: for in proportion
to his size man emits more seminal fluid than any other animal (for
which reason man is the smoothest of animals), especially such men
as are of a moist habit and not over corpulent, and fair men in greater
degree than dark. It is likewise with women; for in the stout, great
part of the excretion goes to nourish the body. In the act of intercourse,
women of a fair complexion discharge a more plentiful secretion than
the dark; and furthermore, a watery and pungent diet conduces to this
phenomenon. 

Part 3

It is a sign of conception in women when the place is dry immediately
after intercourse. If the lips of the orifice be smooth conception
is difficult, for the matter slips off; and if they be thick it is
also difficult. But if on digital examination the lips feel somewhat
rough and adherent, and if they be likewise thin, then the chances
are in favour of conception. Accordingly, if conception be desired,
we must bring the parts into such a condition as we have just described;
but if on the contrary we want to avoid conception then we must bring
about a contrary disposition. Wherefore, since if the parts be smooth
conception is prevented, some anoint that part of the womb on which
the seed falls with oil of cedar, or with ointment of lead or with
frankincense, commingled with olive oil. If the seed remain within
for seven days then it is certain that conception has taken place;
for it is during that period that what is known as effluxion takes
place. 

In most cases the menstrual discharge recurs for some time after conception
has taken place, its duration being mostly thirty days in the case
of a female and about forty days in the case of a male child. After
parturition also it is common for the discharge to be withheld for
an equal number of days, but not in all cases with equal exactitude.
After conception, and when the above-mentioned days are past, the
discharge no longer takes its natural course but finds its way to
the breasts and turns to milk. The first appearance of milk in the
breasts is scant in quantity and so to speak cobwebby or interspersed
with little threads. And when conception has taken place, there is
apt to be a sort of feeling in the region of the flanks, which in
some cases quickly swell up a little, especially in thin persons,
and also in the groin. 

In the case of male children the first movement usually occurs on
the right-hand side of the womb and about the fortieth day, but if
the child be a female then on the left-hand side and about the ninetieth
day. However, we must by no means assume this to be an accurate statement
of fact, for there are many exceptions, in which the movement is manifested
on the right-hand side though a female child be coming, and on the
left-hand side though the infant be a male. And in short, these and
all suchlike phenomena are usually subject to differences that may
be summed up as differences of degree. 

About this period the embryo begins to resolve into distinct parts,
it having hitherto consisted of a fleshlike substance without distinction
of parts. 

What is called effluxion is a destruction of the embryo within the
first week, while abortion occurs up to the fortieth day; and the
greater number of such embryos as perish do so within the space of
these forty days. 

In the case of a male embryo aborted at the fortieth day, if it be
placed in cold water it holds together in a sort of membrane, but
if it be placed in any other fluid it dissolves and disappears. If
the membrane be pulled to bits the embryo is revealed, as big as one
of the large kind of ants; and all the limbs are plain to see, including
the penis, and the eyes also, which as in other animals are of great
size. But the female embryo, if it suffer abortion during the first
three months, is as a rule found to be undifferentiated; if however
it reach the fourth month it comes to be subdivided and quickly attains
further differentiation. In short, while within the womb, the female
infant accomplishes the whole development of its parts more slowly
than the male, and more frequently than the man-child takes ten months
to come to perfection. But after birth, the females pass more quickly
than the males through youth and maturity and age; and this is especially
true of those that bear many children, as indeed I have already said.

Part 4

When the womb has conceived the seed, straightway in the majority
of cases it closes up until seven months are fulfilled; but in the
eighth month it opens, and the embryo, if it be fertile, descends
in the eighth month. But such embryos as are not fertile but are devoid
of breath at eight months old, their mothers do not bring into the
world by parturition at eight months, neither does the embryo descend
within the womb at that period nor does the womb open. And it is a
sign that the embryo is not capable of life if it be formed without
the above-named circumstances taking place. 

After conception women are prone to a feeling of heaviness in all
parts of their bodies, and for instance they experience a sensation
of darkness in front of the eyes and suffer also from headache. These
symptoms appear sooner or later, sometimes as early as the tenth day,
according as the patient be more or less burthened with superfluous
humours. Nausea also and sickness affect the most of women, and especially
such as those that we have just now mentioned, after the menstrual
discharge has ceased and before it is yet turned in the direction
of the breasts. 

Moreover, some women suffer most at the beginning of their pregnancy
and some at a later period when the embryo has had time to grow; and
in some women it is a common occurrence to suffer from strangury towards
the end of their time. As a general rule women who are pregnant of
a male child escape comparatively easily and retain a comparatively
healthy look, but it is otherwise with those whose infant is a female;
for these latter look as a rule paler and suffer more pain, and in
many cases they are subject to swellings of the legs and eruptions
on the body. Nevertheless the rule is subject to exceptions.

Women in pregnancy are a prey to all sorts of longings and to rapid
changes of mood, and some folks call this the 'ivy-sickness'; and
with the mothers of female infants the longings are more acute, and
they are less contented when they have got what they desired.

In a certain few cases the patient feels unusually well during pregnancy.
The worst time of all is just when the child's hair is beginning to
grow. 

In pregnant women their own natural hair is inclined to grow thin
and fall out, but on the other hand hair tends to grow on parts of
the body where it was not wont to be. As a general rule, a man-child
is more prone to movement within its mother's womb than a female child,
and it is usually born sooner. And labour in the case of female children
is apt to be protracted and sluggish, while in the case of male children
it is acute and by a long way more difficult. Women who have connexion
with their husbands shortly before childbirth are delivered all the
more quickly. Occasionally women seem to be in the pains of labour
though labour has not in fact commenced, what seemed like the commencement
of labour being really the result of the foetus turning its head.

Now all other animals bring the time of pregnancy to an end in a uniform
way; in other words, one single term of pregnancy is defined for each
of them. But in the case of mankind alone of all animals the times
are diverse; for pregnancy may be of seven months' duration, or of
eight months or of nine, and still more commonly of ten months, while
some few women go even into the eleventh month. 

Children that come into the world before seven months can under no
circumstances survive. The seven-months' children are the earliest
that are capable of life, and most of them are weakly-for which reason,
by the way, it is customary to swaddle them in wool,-and many of them
are born with some of the orifices of the body imperforate, for instance
the ears or the nostrils. But as they get bigger they become more
perfectly developed, and many of them grow up. 

In Egypt, and in some other places where the women are fruitful and
are wont to bear and bring forth many children without difficulty,
and where the children when born are capable of living even if they
be born subject to deformity, in these places the eight-months' children
live and are brought up, but in Greece it is only a few of them that
survive while most perish. And this being the general experience,
when such a child does happen to survive the mother is apt to think
that it was not an eight months' child after all, but that she had
conceived at an earlier period without being aware of it.

Women suffer most pain about the fourth and the eighth months, and
if the foetus perishes in the fourth or in the eighth month the mother
also succumbs as a general rule; so that not only do the eight-months'
children not live, but when they die their mothers are in great danger
of their own lives. In like manner children that are apparently born
at a later term than eleven months are held to be in doubtful case;
inasmuch as with them also the beginning of conception may have escaped
the notice of the mother. What I mean to say is that often the womb
gets filled with wind, and then when at a later period connexion and
conception take place, they think that the former circumstance was
the beginning of conception from the similarity of the symptoms that
they experienced. 

Such then are the differences between mankind and other animals in
regard to the many various modes of completion of the term of pregnancy.
Furthermore, some animals produce one and some produce many at a birth,
but the human species does sometimes the one and sometimes the other.
As a general rule and among most nations the women bear one child
a birth; but frequently and in many lands they bear twins, as for
instance in Egypt especially. Sometimes women bring forth three and
even four children, and especially in certain parts of the world,
as has already been stated. The largest number ever brought forth
is five, and such an occurrence has been witnessed on several occasions.
There was once upon a time a certain women who had twenty children
at four births; each time she had five, and most of them grew up.

Now among other animals, if a pair of twins happen to be male and
female they have as good a chance of surviving as though both had
been males or both females; but among mankind very few twins survive
if one happen to be a boy and the other a girl. 

Of all animals the woman and the mare are most inclined to receive
the commerce of the male during pregnancy; while all other animals
when they are pregnant avoid the male, save those in which the phenomenon
of superfoetation occurs, such as the hare. Unlike that animal, the
mare after once conceiving cannot be rendered pregnant again, but
brings forth one foal only, at least as a general rule; in the human
species cases of superfoetation are rare, but they do happen now and
then. 

An embryo conceived some considerable time after a previous conception
does not come to perfection, but gives rise to pain and causes the
destruction of the earlier embryo; and, by the way, a case has been
known to occur where owing to this destructive influence no less than
twelve embryos conceived by superfoetation have been discharged. But
if the second conception take place at a short interval, then the
mother bears that which was later conceived, and brings forth the
two children like actual twins, as happened, according to the legend,
in the case of Iphicles and Hercules. The following also is a striking
example: a certain woman, having committed adultery, brought forth
the one child resembling her husband and the other resembling the
adulterous lover. 

The case has also occurred where a woman, being pregnant of twins,
has subsequently conceived a third child; and in course of time she
brought forth the twins perfect and at full term, but the third a
five-months' child; and this last died there and then. And in another
case it happened that the woman was first delivered of a seven-months'
child, and then of two which were of full term; and of these the first
died and the other two survived. 

Some also have been known to conceive while about to miscarry, and
they have lost the one child and been delivered of the other.

If women while going with child cohabit after the eighth month the
child is in most cases born covered over with a slimy fluid. Often
also the child is found to be replete with food of which the mother
had partaken. 

Part 5

When women have partaken of salt in overabundance their children are
apt to be born destitute of nails. 

Milk that is produced earlier than the seventh month is unfit for
use; but as soon as the child is fit to live the milk is fit to use.
The first of the milk is saltish, as it is likewise with sheep. Most
women are sensibly affected by wine during pregnancy, for if they
partake of it they grow relaxed and debilitated. 

The beginning of child-bearing in women and of the capacity to procreate
in men, and the cessation of these functions in both cases, coincide
in the one case with the emission of seed and in the other with the
discharge of the catamenia: with this qualification that there is
a lack of fertility at the commencement of these symptoms, and again
towards their close when the emissions become scanty and weak. The
age at which the sexual powers begin has been related already. As
for their end, the menstrual discharges ceases in most women about
their fortieth year; but with those in whom it goes on longer it lasts
even to the fiftieth year, and women of that age have been known to
bear children. But beyond that age there is no case on record.

Part 6

Men in most cases continue to be sexually competent until they are
sixty years old, and if that limit be overpassed then until seventy
years; and men have been actually known to procreate children at seventy
years of age. With many men and many women it so happens that they
are unable to produce children to one another, while they are able
to do so in union with other individuals. The same thing happens with
regard to the production of male and female offspring; for sometimes
men and women in union with one another produce male children or female,
as the case may be, but children of the opposite sex when otherwise
mated. And they are apt to change in this respect with advancing age:
for sometimes a husband and wife while they are young produce female
children and in later life male children; and in other cases the very
contrary occurs. And just the same thing is true in regard to the
generative faculty: for some while young are childless, but have children
when they grow older; and some have children to begin with, and later
on no more. 

There are certain women who conceive with difficulty, but if they
do conceive, bring the child to maturity; while others again conceive
readily, but are unable to bring the child to birth. Furthermore,
some men and some women produce female offspring and some male, as
for instance in the story of Hercules, who among all his two and seventy
children is said to have begotten but one girl. Those women who are
unable to conceive, save with the help of medical treatment or some
other adventitious circumstance, are as a general rule apt to bear
female children rather than male. 

It is a common thing with men to be at first sexually competent and
afterwards impotent, and then again to revert to their former powers.

From deformed parents come deformed children, lame from lame and blind
from blind, and, speaking generally, children often inherit anything
that is peculiar in their parents and are born with similar marks,
such as pimples or scars. Such things have been known to be handed
down through three generations; for instance, a certain man had a
mark on his arm which his son did not possess, but his grandson had
it in the same spot though not very distinct. 

Such cases, however, are few; for the children of cripples are mostly
sound, and there is no hard and fast rule regarding them. While children
mostly resemble their parents or their ancestors, it sometimes happens
that no such resemblance is to be traced. But parents may pass on
resemblance after several generations, as in the case of the woman
in Elis, who committed adultery with a negro; in this case it was
not the woman's own daughter but the daughter's child that was a blackamoor.

As a rule the daughters have a tendency to take after the mother,
and the boys after the father; but sometimes it is the other way,
the boys taking after the mother and the girls after the father. And
they may resemble both parents in particular features. 

There have been known cases of twins that had no resemblance to one
another, but they are alike as a general rule. There was once upon
a time a woman who had intercourse with her husband a week after giving
birth to a child and she conceived and bore a second child as like
the first as any twin. Some women have a tendency to produce children
that take after themselves, and others children that take after the
husband; and this latter case is like that of the celebrated mare
in Pharsalus, that got the name of the Honest Wife. 

Part 7

In the emission of sperm there is a preliminary discharge of air,
and the outflow is manifestly caused by a blast of air; for nothing
is cast to a distance save by pneumatic pressure. After the seed reaches
the womb and remains there for a while, a membrane forms around it;
for when it happens to escape before it is distinctly formed, it looks
like an egg enveloped in its membrane after removal of the eggshell;
and the membrane is full of veins. 

All animals whatsoever, whether they fly or swim or walk upon dry
land, whether they bring forth their young alive or in the egg, develop
in the same way: save only that some have the navel attached to the
womb, namely the viviparous animals, and some have it attached to
the egg, and some to both parts alike, as in a certain sort of fishes.
And in some cases membranous envelopes surround the egg, and in other
cases the chorion surrounds it. And first of all the animal develops
within the innermost envelope, and then another membrane appears around
the former one, which latter is for the most part attached to the
womb, but is in part separated from it and contains fluid. In between
is a watery or sanguineous fluid, which the women folk call the forewaters.

Part 8

All animals, or all such as have a navel, grow by the navel. And the
navel is attached to the cotyledon in all such as possess cotyledons,
and to the womb itself by a vein in all such as have the womb smooth.
And as regards their shape within the womb, the four-footed animals
all lie stretched out, and the footless animals lie on their sides,
as for instance fishes; but two-legged animals lie in a bent position,
as for instance birds; and human embryos lie bent, with nose between
the knees and eyes upon the knees, and the ears free at the sides.

All animals alike have the head upwards to begin with; but as they
grow and approach the term of egress from the womb they turn downwards,
and birth in the natural course of things takes place in all animals
head foremost; but in abnormal cases it may take place in a bent position,
or feet foremost. 

The young of quadrupeds when they are near their full time contain
excrements, both liquid and in the form of solid lumps, the latter
in the lower part of the bowel and the urine in the bladder.

In those animals that have cotyledons in the womb the cotyledons grow
less as the embryo grows bigger, and at length they disappear altogether.
The navel-string is a sheath wrapped about blood-vessels which have
their origin in the womb, from the cotyledons in those animals which
possess them and from a blood-vessel in those which do not. In the
larger animals, such as the embryos of oxen, the vessels are four
in number, and in smaller animals two; in the very little ones, such
as fowls, one vessel only. 

Of the four vessels that run into the embryo, two pass through the
liver where the so-called gates or 'portae' are, running in the direction
of the great vein, and the other two run in the direction of the aorta
towards the point where it divides and becomes two vessels instead
of one. Around each pair of blood-vessels are membranes, and surrounding
these membranes is the navel-string itself, after the manner of a
sheath. And as the embryo grows, the veins themselves tend more and
more to dwindle in size. And also as the embryo matures it comes down
into the hollow of the womb and is observed to move here, and sometimes
rolls over in the vicinity of the groin. 

Part 9

When women are in labour, their pains determine towards many divers
parts of the body, and in most cases to one or other of the thighs.
Those are the quickest to be delivered who experience severe pains
in the region of the belly; and parturition is difficult in those
who begin by suffering pain in the loins, and speedy when the pain
is abdominal. If the child about to be born be a male, the preliminary
flood is watery and pale in colour, but if a girl it is tinged with
blood, though still watery. In some cases of labour these latter phenomena
do not occur, either one way or the other. 

In other animals parturition is unaccompanied by pain, and the dam
is plainly seen to suffer but moderate inconvenience. In women, however,
the pains are more severe, and this is especially the case in persons
of sedentary habits, and in those who are weak-chested and short of
breath. Labour is apt to be especially difficult if during the process
the woman while exerting force with her breath fails to hold it in.

First of all, when the embryo starts to move and the membranes burst,
there issues forth the watery flood; then afterwards comes the embryo,
while the womb everts and the afterbirth comes out from within.

Part 10

The cutting of the navel-string, which is the nurse's duty, is a matter
calling for no little care and skill. For not only in cases of difficult
labour must she be able to render assistance with skilful hand, but
she must also have her wits about her in all contingencies, and especially
in the operation of tying the cord. For if the afterbirth have come
away, the navel is ligatured off from the afterbirth with a woollen
thread and is then cut above the ligature; and at the place where
it has been tied it heals up, and the remaining portion drops off.
(If the ligature come loose the child dies from loss of blood.) But
if the afterbirth has not yet come away, but remains after the child
itself is extruded, it is cut away within after the ligaturing of
the cord. 

It often happens that the child appears to have been born dead when
it is merely weak, and when before the umbilical cord has been ligatured,
the blood has run out into the cord and its surroundings. But experienced
midwives have been known to squeeze back the blood into the child's
body from the cord, and immediately the child that a moment before
was bloodless came back to life again. 

It is the natural rule, as we have mentioned above, for all animals
to come into the world head foremost, and children, moreover, have
their hands stretched out by their sides. And the child gives a cry
and puts its hands up to its mouth as soon as it issues forth.

Moreover the child voids excrement sometimes at once, sometimes a
little later, but in all cases during the first day; and this excrement
is unduly copious in comparison with the size of the child; it is
what the midwives call the meconium or 'poppy-juice'. In colour it
resembles blood, extremely dark and pitch-like, but later on it becomes
milky, for the child takes at once to the breast. Before birth the
child makes no sound, even though in difficult labour it put forth
its head while the rest of the body remains within. 

In cases where flooding takes place rather before its time, it is
apt to be followed by difficult parturition. But if discharge take
place after birth in small quantity, and in cases where it only takes
place at the beginning and does not continue till the fortieth day,
then in such cases women make a better recovery and are the sooner
ready to conceive again. 

Until the child is forty days old it neither laughs nor weeps during
waking hours, but of nights it sometimes does both; and for the most
part it does not even notice being tickled, but passes most of its
time in sleep. As it keeps on growing, it gets more and more wakeful;
and moreover it shows signs of dreaming, though it is long afterwards
before it remembers what it dreams. 

In other animals there is no contrasting difference between one bone
and another, but all are properly formed; but in children the front
part of the head is soft and late of ossifying. And by the way, some
animals are born with teeth, but children begin to cut their teeth
in the seventh month; and the front teeth are the first to come through,
sometimes the upper and sometimes the lower ones. And the warmer the
nurses' milk so much the quicker are the children's teeth to come.

Part 11

After parturition and the cleasing flood the milk comes in plenty,
and in some women it flows not only from the nipples but at divers
parts of the breasts, and in some cases even from the armpits. And
for some time afterwards there continue to be certain indurated parts
of the breast called strangalides, or 'knots', which occur when it
so happens that the moisture is not concocted, or when it finds no
outlet but accumulates within. For the whole breast is so spongy that
if a woman in drinking happen to swallow a hair, she gets a pain in
her breast, which ailment is called 'trichia'; and the pain lasts
till the hair either find its own way out or be sucked out with the
milk. Women continue to have milk until their next conception; and
then the milk stops coming and goes dry, alike in the human species
and in the quadrupedal vivipara. So long as there is a flow of milk
the menstrual purgations do not take place, at least as a general
rule, though the discharge has been known to occur during the period
of suckling. For, speaking generally, a determination of moisture
does not take place at one and the same time in several directions;
as for instance the menstrual purgations tend to be scanty in persons
suffering from haemorrhoids. And in some women the like happens owing
to their suffering from varices, when the fluids issue from the pelvic
region before entering into the womb. And patients who during suppression
of the menses happen to vomit blood are no whit the worse.

Part 12

Children are very commonly subject to convulsions, more especially
such of them as are more than ordinarily well-nourished on rich or
unusually plentiful milk from a stout nurse. Wine is bad for infants,
in that it tends to excite this malady, and red wine is worse than
white, especially when taken undiluted; and most things that tend
to induce flatulency are also bad, and constipation too is prejudicial.
The majority of deaths in infancy occur before the child is a week
old, hence it is customary to name the child at that age, from a belief
that it has now a better chance of survival. This malady is worst
at the full of the moon; and by the way, it is a dangerous symptom
when the spasms begin in the child's back. 

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BOOK VIII

Part 1 

We have now discussed the physical characteristics of animals and
their methods of generation. Their habits and their modes of living
vary according to their character and their food. 

In the great majority of animals there are traces of psychical qualities
or attitudes, which qualities are more markedly differentiated in
the case of human beings. For just as we pointed out resemblances
in the physical organs, so in a number of animals we observe gentleness
or fierceness, mildness or cross temper, courage, or timidity, fear
or confidence, high spirit or low cunning, and, with regard to intelligence,
something equivalent to sagacity. Some of these qualities in man,
as compared with the corresponding qualities in animals, differ only
quantitatively: that is to say, a man has more or less of this quality,
and an animal has more or less of some other; other qualities in man
are represented by analogous and not identical qualities: for instance,
just as in man we find knowledge, wisdom, and sagacity, so in certain
animals there exists some other natural potentiality akin to these.
The truth of this statement will be the more clearly apprehended if
we have regard to the phenomena of childhood: for in children may
be observed the traces and seeds of what will one day be settled psychological
habits, though psychologically a child hardly differs for the time
being from an animal; so that one is quite justified in saying that,
as regards man and animals, certain psychical qualities are identical
with one another, whilst others resemble, and others are analogous
to, each other. 

Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life
in such a way that it is impossible to determine the exact line of
demarcation, nor on which side thereof an intermediate form should
lie. Thus, next after lifeless things in the upward scale comes the
plant, and of plants one will differ from another as to its amount
of apparent vitality; and, in a word, the whole genus of plants, whilst
it is devoid of life as compared with an animal, is endowed with life
as compared with other corporeal entities. Indeed, as we just remarked,
there is observed in plants a continuous scale of ascent towards the
animal. So, in the sea, there are certain objects concerning which
one would be at a loss to determine whether they be animal or vegetable.
For instance, certain of these objects are fairly rooted, and in several
cases perish if detached; thus the pinna is rooted to a particular
spot, and the solen (or razor-shell) cannot survive withdrawal from
its burrow. Indeed, broadly speaking, the entire genus of testaceans
have a resemblance to vegetables, if they be contrasted with such
animals as are capable of progression. 

In regard to sensibility, some animals give no indication whatsoever
of it, whilst others indicate it but indistinctly. Further, the substance
of some of these intermediate creatures is fleshlike, as is the case
with the so-called tethya (or ascidians) and the acalephae (or sea-anemones);
but the sponge is in every respect like a vegetable. And so throughout
the entire animal scale there is a graduated differentiation in amount
of vitality and in capacity for motion. 

A similar statement holds good with regard to habits of life. Thus
of plants that spring from seed the one function seems to be the reproduction
of their own particular species, and the sphere of action with certain
animals is similarly limited. The faculty of reproduction, then, is
common to all alike. If sensibility be superadded, then their lives
will differ from one another in respect to sexual intercourse through
the varying amount of pleasure derived therefrom, and also in regard
to modes of parturition and ways of rearing their young. Some animals,
like plants, simply procreate their own species at definite seasons;
other animals busy themselves also in procuring food for their young,
and after they are reared quit them and have no further dealings with
them; other animals are more intelligent and endowed with memory,
and they live with their offspring for a longer period and on a more
social footing. 

The life of animals, then, may be divided into two acts-procreation
and feeding; for on these two acts all their interests and life concentrate.
Their food depends chiefly on the substance of which they are severally
constituted; for the source of their growth in all cases will be this
substance. And whatsoever is in conformity with nature is pleasant,
and all animals pursue pleasure in keeping with their nature.

Part 2

Animals are also differentiated locally: that is to say, some live
upon dry land, while others live in the water. And this differentiation
may be interpreted in two different ways. Thus, some animals are termed
terrestrial as inhaling air, and others aquatic as taking in water;
and there are others which do not actually take in these elements,
but nevertheless are constitutionally adapted to the cooling influence,
so far as is needful to them, of one element or the other, and hence
are called terrestrial or aquatic though they neither breathe air
nor take in water. Again, other animals are so called from their finding
their food and fixing their habitat on land or in water: for many
animals, although they inhale air and breed on land, yet derive their
food from the water, and live in water for the greater part of their
lives; and these are the only animals to which as living in and on
two elements the term 'amphibious' is applicable. There is no animal
taking in water that is terrestrial or aerial or that derives its
food from the land, whereas of the great number of land animals inhaling
air many get their food from the water; moreover some are so peculiarly
organized that if they be shut off altogether from the water they
cannot possibly live, as for instance, the so-called sea-turtle, the
crocodile, the hippopotamus, the seal, and some of the smaller creatures,
such as the fresh-water tortoise and the frog: now all these animals
choke or drown if they do not from time to time breathe atmospheric
air: they breed and rear their young on dry land, or near the land,
but they pass their lives in water. 

But the dolphin is equipped in the most remarkable way of all animals:
the dolphin and other similar aquatic animals, including the other
cetaceans which resemble it; that is to say, the whale, and all the
other creatures that are furnished with a blow-hole. One can hardly
allow that such an animal is terrestrial and terrestrial only, or
aquatic and aquatic only, if by terrestrial we mean an animal that
inhales air, and if by aquatic we mean an animal that takes in water.
For the fact is the dolphin performs both these processes: he takes
in water and discharges it by his blow-hole, and he also inhales air
into his lungs; for, by the way, the creature is furnished with this
organ and respires thereby, and accordingly, when caught in the nets,
he is quickly suffocated for lack of air. He can also live for a considerable
while out of the water, but all this while he keeps up a dull moaning
sound corresponding to the noise made by air-breathing animals in
general; furthermore, when sleeping, the animal keeps his nose above
water, and he does so that he may breathe the air. Now it would be
unreasonable to assign one and the same class of animals to both categories,
terrestrial and aquatic, seeing that these categories are more or
less exclusive of one another; we must accordingly supplement our
definition of the term 'aquatic' or 'marine'. For the fact is, some
aquatic animals take in water and discharge it again, for the same
reason that leads air-breathing animals to inhale air: in other words,
with the object of cooling the blood. Others take in water as incidental
to their mode of feeding; for as they get their food in the water
they cannot but take in water along with their food, and if they take
in water they must be provided with some organ for discharging it.
Those blooded animals, then, that use water for a purpose analogous
to respiration are provided with gills; and such as take in water
when catching their prey, with the blow-hole. Similar remarks are
applicable to molluscs and crustaceans; for again it is by way of
procuring food that these creatures take in water. 

Aquatic in different ways, the differences depending on bodily relation
to external te