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1. Of the parts of other animals some are common to them all, as I have said before, and some belong to particular classes, and they agree and differ in the manner often before mentioned. For almost all animals which differ in kind, have also their parts different in form, and there are some which have only a proportionate resemblance, but differ in kind, and others agree in kind, but not in form, and many parts belong to some which others have not. Viviparous quadrupeds have a head and neck, and all the parts of the head, but they differ from each other in their forms. The lion has one bone in the neck, but has no vertebr, and when laid open its internal parts are like those of a dog.
2. Viviparous quadrupeds have fore-legs instead of arms, and in all quadrupeds, especially those which have the fore-feet much divided, they are analogous to hands, for they use them as hands, and the left legs are less at liberty than in men, except in the elephant, and this animal has the toes less perfectly jointed, and its fore-legs much larger than the hind ones; it has five toes, and short ankles to its hind legs. It has a trunk of such a nature and length as to be able to use it for a hand, and it drinks and eats by stretching this into its mouth; this also it lifts up to its driver, and pulls up trees with it; with this organ it breathes as it walks through the water. The extremity of the proboscis is curved, but without joints, for it is cartilaginous.
3. Man is the only ambidextrous animal. All animals have their chest analogous to man, but not similar to his, for he has a wide chest, and theirs is narrow: no animal but man has pectoral mamm; the elephant has two mamm, but not on the breast, though they are in that direction.
4. All animals, excepting the elephant, bend both their fore and hind legs in contrary directions, and also contrary to the way in which a man's limbs are bent. For in viviparous quadrupeds, except the elephant, the joints of the [Pg 25] fore-legs are bent forwards, and those of the hind-legs backwards, and they have the hollow part of their circumference opposite to each other: the elephant is not constructed as some have said, but is able to sit down, and bend his legs, but, from his great weight, is unable to bend them on both sides at once, but leans either to the right side or the left, and sleeps in this position, but its hind legs are bent like a man's.
5. In oviparous quadrupeds, as the crocodile, lizard, and such like, both the fore and hind legs are bent forwards, inclining a little to the side, and likewise also in other animals with more than four feet, except that the middle joint of their last pair of legs is always doubtful, and is rather bent towards the side. And man also has both the flexures of his limbs in the same direction, and those of his arms and legs contrary to each other, for he bends the arm backwards, except that the external part of the arm is a little inclined inwards, towards the side; the legs bend forwards.
6. No animal bends the joints both of its fore and hind legs backwards. The flexure of the cubitus and fore-leg is in a contrary direction to the flexure of the shoulder in all animals, and the flexure of the knee is contrary to that of the hip; so that since man bends his joints in the contrary direction to many animals, those which have such joints as man's also bend them in a contrary direction to many animals. Birds bend their limbs in a direction similar to that of quadrupeds, for being bipeds, they bend their legs backwards, and have wings instead of arms, or fore-legs, and these bend forwards.
7. The seal is like a maimed quadruped, for immediately beneath the scapula it has feet like hands, as are also those of the bear, for they are five-fingered, and each of the fingers has three joints, and a small claw: the hind feet are five-fingered, and each of the fingers has joints and claws like those upon the fore-feet; in shape they are very like the tail of a fish.
8. The movements of animals, whether they have four feet or more, are in the direction of the longer diameter of their bodies, and thus also they stand, the commencement of motion is always on the right side of their bodies. The lion and the camel, both the Arabian and Bactrian, walk with the hind-foot following the fore-foot on the same side, and this means that the right foot is not put before the left, but follows it.
[Pg 26]1. Whatever parts a man has before, a quadruped has beneath: those that are behind in man, form the quadruped's back; most animals have a tail, the seal has a small one, like that of a stag; hereafter we shall speak of apelike animals. All viviparous quadrupeds are, so to say, rough, with hair, and not like man, who, except on his head, has not much hair on his body, and what there is, is very fine; but his head is more massy than that of other animals.
2. And all creatures that have their upper part rough with hair, are quite smooth, or only slightly rough beneath; but man is contrary to this: and again, each eyelid in man is furnished, with lashes, and he has hair on the cheek, and pubes; other animals are not so furnished, having no hair on the lower eyelid, or only a few hairs under the eyelid.
3. But some hairy quadrupeds are rough all over, as the hog, the bear, and the dog; the neck of others is the roughest part, as in those which have a mane, like the lion; in others which have a mane, the back of the neck from the head to the point of the shoulder is hairy, as the horse and the mule, and among wild animals with horns, the bonassus. The hipellaphus,[31] as it is called, has a mane upon the point of its shoulder, and so has the pardium,[32] though both these have a thin mane from the head to the shoulder, and the hipellaphus has a beard upon its larynx.
4. Both of these are horned, and have a cloven hoof: the female hipellaphus has no horns, it is about the size of a stag; there are hipellaphi in the country of the Arachot, where also are buffaloes. The wild differ as much from domesticated oxen, as wild hogs from tame ones; for they are black, and of great strength; their nose is curved like an eagle's beak, and their horns lie backwards; the horns of the hipellaphus are very like those of the dorcas:[33] the elephant is the least hairy of all quadrupeds. The tails of animals are like their bodies in roughness, and smoothness, in as many as have tails in proportion to their size, for some have very small tails.
[Pg 27]5. Camels have a part peculiar to themselves, called the hump upon the back; the Bactrian camel differs from the Arabian; the one has two humps, the other but one; and they have another hump below, like the one on their back, upon which the rest of their body is supported, when they go down upon their knees. The camel has four mamm, like the cow, and a tail like an ass, and the pudendum is behind; it has but one knee in each leg, and not many joints, as some persons say; this appearance arises from the position of the abdomen. It has a talus like that of an ox, misshapen, and small in proportion to its size.
6. The hoof is cloven; it has not teeth in both jaws. The cloven hoof is formed in this manner; the lower part is somewhat cloven, as far as the second joint of the toes, but the upper part is four-cleft as far as the first joint of the toes; there is a membrane uniting the cloven parts as in geese, the foot is fleshy underneath like that of a bear, wherefore, when camels are used in war, and become footsore, their drivers put them on leather shoes. All quadrupeds have their legs bony and sinewy and without flesh, that is all animals with feet are so formed, excepting man, and they are without hips; this is particularly the case with birds. But on the contrary, the hips, thighs, and legs of man are more fleshy than almost any other part of his body, for even the calf of his leg is fleshy.
7. Some sanguineous and viviparous quadrupeds have many divisions in the foot, like the hands and feet of man; for some, as the lion, the dog, and the panther, have many divisions of the foot; others are cloven-footed, and instead of nails have hoofs, as the sheep, the goat, the stag, and the river-horse. Some are without divisions in the foot, as the solidunguli, the horse, and the mule. The genus of swine belongs to both classes; for in Illyria, Ponia, and other places, there are swine with a solid hoof. Those with a two-cleft hoof have two divisions, before and behind; in those with a solid hoof this is continuous.
8. Some animals have horns, others have none; most of those with horns have also cloven feet, as the ox, the stag, and the goat. We have never seen an animal with a solid hoof with two horns, and there are only a few that have a solid hoof and one horn, as the Indian ass, and the oryx.[34] [Pg 28] Of all animals with a solid hoof, the Indian ass alone has a talus. Swine, as I said before, belong to both classes, so that they have not a well-formed astragulus.
9. Many animals with cloven hoofs have a talus; no animals with their feet in many divisions have a talus, nor has man. The lynx has as it were half a talus, and so has the lion, but it is more intricate, as some pretend. The talus is always in the hind leg, and it is placed upright upon the gamb, with the lower part outwards, and the upper part inwards; the parts called Coa[35] turned inwards towards each other, and the Chia turned outwards, and the projecting portions upwards. This is the position of the talus, in all animals which are furnished with this part. Some animals have a cloven hoof, and a mane, and two horns turned towards each other, as the bonassus, an animal which inhabits the country between Ponia and Media.
10. All animals with horns are four-footed, unless there is any animal which metaphorically, and for the sake of a word, is said to have horns, as they say that the serpents in the neighbourhood of Thebes in Egypt have, though it is nothing more than an appendage, that is called a horn. The stag is the only animal that has solid horns, the horns of all other animals are hollow for a part of their length, and solid at the extremity; the hollow part is principally formed of skin, and round this is arranged the solid part, as in the horns of oxen. The stag is the only animal which casts its horns; they are reproduced; this takes place every year after the animal has attained the age of two years; other animals never lose their horns unless destroyed by violence.
1. The parts of the mamm also, and the organs of generation, are different in man and in other animals. For some have the mamm forward on or near the breast, and two mamm with two nipples, as man and the elephant, as I said before, for the elephant has two mamm near the arm-pits; in the female they are small, and do not bear any proportion to the size of the animal, so that they are scarcely visible in a side view; the males also have mamm as well as the females, but they are exceedingly small.
[Pg 29]2. The bear has four, other animals have two mamm upon the thighs, and two nipples like sheep; others have four nipples, as the cow; some animals have not their nipples on the breast and thighs, but on the abdomen, as the dog and the hog, they have many nipples, but not all of the same size; other animals also have more than two, as the panther, which has four on the abdomen; the lioness has two on the abdomen, the camel has two mamm and four nipples, like the cow.
3. Among animals with a solid hoof the males have no mamm, except some horses which bear a resemblance to their dams. Some males have the penis external, as man, and the horse, and many others; some internal, as the dolphin. Of those animals in which it is external, some have it in front, as those which I have named; and some of these have both the penis and testicles loose, as in man; others have them close to the abdomen; some have them more, others less loose, for this part is not equally free in the boar and the horse.
4. The elephant has a penis like a horse, but small and less in proportion to the size of its body; its testicles are not external but internal, and near the kidneys, wherefore also the work of copulation is quickly performed. The female has the pudendum in the same position as the udder of the sheep, and when excited with desire, it is lifted up outwards, so as to be ready for copulation with the male; and the orifice of the pudendum is very wide. Most animals have the penis in the same direction, but some are retromingent, as the lynx, lion, camel, and hare. In some males, as I have said, the direction of the penis is different, but all females are retromingent, for even in the female elephant the pudendum is placed under the thighs, as in other animals.
5. The penis is very different in different animals, for in some it is cartilaginous and fleshy, as in man; the fleshy part does not swell, but the cartilaginous portion is erected; in others it is sinewy, as the camel and the stag; in others it is bony, as the fox and the wolf, the weasel and the martin, for the martin also has a bony penis.
6. Again, man being a perfect animal, has the upper part of his body less than the lower part; the contrary is the case with other sanguineous animals: by the upper portion of his body we mean the portion of his body from the head to [Pg 30] the anus, and by the lower, the parts from hence downwards. In those animals which have feet the hind leg is the lower part of the body in point of size; and in those without legs, the same relation is observed in their various kinds of tails. Such is the nature of perfected animals, but they differ in the development of their parts. Man in the young state has the upper part of his body greater than the lower; but as he grows the proportion of his parts changes, wherefore also he is the only animal which does not move in the same way when young and when grown up, for at first a child crawls like a four-footed animal.
7. Some animals grow in the same proportion throughout, as the dog—others when they are first born have their upper part proportionally less than the lower, but as they approach maturity, the upper parts increase in size, as in the lophuri, for in these animals the part from the hoof to the haunch never grows after their birth.
8. There is a great difference in the teeth of animals, both among themselves and from the human type; all viviparous and sanguineous quadrupeds have teeth; some have teeth in both jaws, which others have not; this is the first distinction. Those which have horns do not possess teeth in both jaws, for they have no front teeth in the upper jaw. There are others, as the camel, which, though it has no horns, has not teeth in the upper jaw.
9. Some animals have tusks like the boar, others have not; some have pointed teeth, as the lion, panther, and dog; the teeth of others have an even surface, as the ox and the horse. Animals with pointed teeth have their teeth fitting into each other; no animal has both tusks and horns, neither those with pointed teeth nor any others. Most animals have their front teeth sharp, and their hind teeth flat; all the teeth of the seal are sharp pointed, showing an approximation to the race of fishes, for all fishes have pointed teeth.
10. None of these genera have a double row of teeth. But, if we may believe Ctesias, there are some which have this peculiarity, for he mentions an Indian animal called martichora, which had three rows of teeth in each jaw; it is as large and as rough as a lion, and has similar feet, but its ears and face are like those of a man; its eye is grey, and its body red; it has a tail like a land scorpion, in which there [Pg 31] is a sting; it darts forth the spines with which it is covered instead of hair, and it utters a noise resembling the united sound of a pipe and a trumpet; it is not less swift of foot than a stag, and is wild, and devours men.
11. Man sheds his teeth, and so do other animals, as the horse, the mule, and the ass; man sheds his front teeth, but no animal sheds the molar teeth; swine do not shed any of their teeth. About dogs, there is some doubt; some persons think they do not shed their teeth at all, others that they shed only the canine teeth; but it has been observed that they do shed their teeth like men: perhaps it has escaped notice, because they do not shed them before the inner ones, which are similar, are grown up.
12. And it is probable that the same takes place in other wild animals, since they are said only to shed their canine teeth. Young dogs are known from old ones by their teeth, for young dogs have sharp white teeth, old dogs have them black and blunted. The horse is in this respect different from all other animals; for while the teeth in other animals become darker as they grow older, in the horse they become more white.
13. Those which are called canine teeth are placed between the cutting and the molar teeth, and partake of the nature of both, for they are wide below, but sharp at the top. The male has more teeth than the female in mankind, and sheep, and goats, and swine. This has not been observed in other animals. Those persons which have the greatest number of teeth are the longest lived; those which have them widely separated, smaller, and more scattered, are generally more short lived.
14. The last molar teeth, which are called wisdom teeth, appear, both in the male and female about the age of twenty, and some women cut the molar teeth at eighty years of age, causing great pain in the extremity of the jaw, and some men also: this happens with persons who do not cut their wise teeth at the proper age.
15. The elephant has four teeth on each side, with which he grinds his food, for he reduces his food very small, like meal. Besides these, he has two tusks: in the male these are large, and turned upwards; in the female they are small, and bent in the contrary direction. The elephant has teeth as soon [Pg 32] as it is born; but the tusks are small, and therefore inconspicuous at first. It has so small a tongue within its mouth, that it is difficult to see it.
1. Animals have very differently-sized mouths, for some have wide, open mouths, as the dog, the lion, and all animals with pointed teeth; other animals have a small mouth, as man, or a moderately-sized one, as the swine. The Egyptian river-horse has a mane like a horse, and a cloven hoof like the ox; it has a flat face; the talus is like that of other animals with cloven hoofs, and it has large projecting teeth; it has a tail like a hog, and utters a sound like the neighing of a horse; it is about the size of an ass, and its skin is so thick that shields are made of it; its intestines are like those of a horse or ass.
1. Some animals unite in their nature the characteristics of man and quadrupeds, as apes, monkeys, and cynocephali. The monkey is an ape with a tail; cynocephali have the same form as apes, but are larger and stronger, and their faces are more like dogs' faces; they are naturally fierce, and their teeth are more like dogs' teeth, and stronger than in other genera.
2. The apes are hairy in their upper parts, so as to bear some resemblance to quadrupeds, and also in the lower, because they are like men, for in this particular, as I said before, there is a difference in men and brutes; their hair is coarse, and apes are rough both above and below. They bear a strong likeness to men in their face, for their nostrils, ears, and teeth, both the fore and back teeth, are like his; and as for eye-lashes, though other animals are entirely without them, the ape has them on the lower eye-lid; they are, however, very thin, and altogether small.
3. Upon the breast are two small mamm, with two nipples; the arms are like those of man, but hairy; both the arms and legs are bent like those of man, the curves of the limbs being turned towards each other. Besides these, it has hands, fingers, and nails like those of man, but all indicating an approximation to the brute; their feet are peculiar, for they [Pg 33] are like great hands. The fingers upon them are like those on the hands, and the middle one is the longest; the sole of the foot is like a hand, except that it extends the whole length of the hand like a palm, and is hard at the extremity, and is a bad and obscure representation of a heel.
4. The feet are used for both the purposes of hands and feet, and are bent like hands. The humerus and the femur are short compared with the cubitus and the leg. The navel is not prominent, and there is a hard place about the region of the navel. Like quadrupeds, the upper part of the body is much larger than the lower, almost in the proportion of five to three, and the feet are like hands, and as it were made up of hands and feet, a foot as far as the extremity of the heel, and the remainder like a hand, for the fingers are furnished with something like a palm.
5. The ape passes more of its time as a quadruped than a biped, and like a quadruped, it has no nates, nor has it a tail like a biped, but only something in representation of a tail. The pudendum of the female resembles that of a woman; that of the male is more like a dog's. The monkey, as I said before, has a tail, and all the internal parts of the body are like those of man. The external parts of viviparous quadrupeds are of this nature.
1. Oviparous and sanguineous quadrupeds (for no sanguineous land animal that is not either a quadruped or apodal is oviparous) have a head, neck, back, upper and lower parts of the body, and fore and hind legs, and something resembling a breast, like oviparous quadrupeds: most of them also have a large tail, some a small one; all of them have many toes and divided feet, and all the organs of sense, and a tongue, except the Egyptian crocodile. And in this respect it resembles some fishes, for the tongue of fishes is thorny, and not free, and in some the place for the tongue is altogether smooth, and without division (so that nothing is visible), unless the lips are drawn aside.
2. They have no ears, only a passage for hearing; neither have they any mamm, and the penis and testicles are internal, and not external. They have no hair, but are covered with scales, and all are furnished with sharp teeth. The [Pg 34] river-crocodiles have eyes like hogs, and great sharp teeth, strong claws, and an unbroken scaly skin. In the water their sight is imperfect, but very good on land. They pass the greatest part of the day on land, and of the night in the water, for they cannot bear the cold air.
1. The chameleon has the whole of its body like that of a lizard, and the ribs, descending downwards, are joined together on the hypogastric region, like those of fish, and the back-bone stands up, like that of a fish; its face is like that of the chropithecus.[36] It has a very long tail; the extremity is very smooth, and rolled together like a thong. It is raised, upon longer legs than a lizard; the joints of the legs are bent in the same direction as the lizard's.
2. Each of its feet is divided into two parts, having the same relation to each other as our thumbs have to the rest of the hand: and, for a short distance, each of these is divided into toes; in the fore-feet the internal part has three, the external two toes; in the hind feet the internal part has two, and the external three toes; there is a claw upon each of its toes like that of birds of prey; its whole body is rough, like the crocodile.
3. Its eyes are placed in a hollow, and are very large and round; surrounded with skin like the rest of its body, and in the middle is left a small aperture through which it sees; this is never covered with skin. The eye is turned round in a circle, and it can direct its vision to any side, so that it can see where it will. The change in the colour of its skin takes place when it is filled with air. It can acquire either a black colour, like that of the crocodile, or ochreous, like that of the lizard, or spotted with black, like the panther; and this change takes place over the whole body, for the eyes also change like the rest of the body, and so does the tail.
4. Its movements are slow, like those of the tortoise; when dying, it becomes ochreous, and retains this colour after death. The sophagus and trachea of the chameleon are similar to the same parts in lizards; it has no flesh, except a little on the head and cheeks, and upon the appendage at the end of its tail. It has no blood, except about the heart, and [Pg 35] eyes, and the parts above the heart, and the veins that extend from these: and even in these there is very little blood.
5. The brain lies a little above the eyes, and is continuous with them; and when the outside skin of the eye is taken away, a bright object shines through it, like a bright ring of brass. Through the whole of its body many strong membranes are extended, which are much stronger than in other animals. It breathes strongly for some time after it has been dissected, and there are some slight movements of the heart; it also continues to contract its sides, but not the other parts of the body. It has no distinct spleen; and it hides itself in rocks like the lizard.
1. Birds also have many parts like the animals described above. For all these have a head, neck, back, and under parts of the body, and something resembling a breast. They have two legs, and thus resemble men more than other animals, except that the joints bend backwards like those of quadrupeds, as I said before. They have neither hands, nor fore-feet, but wings; herein they differ from all other animals. Again, the hip is like a thigh, large and united as far as the middle of the abdomen, so as to look like a thigh, when it is separated from the rest of the body; and the thigh where it is joined to the leg is another part. The class of birds with crooked claws have the largest thigh, and stronger breasts than others.
2. All birds have claws and many divisions of the foot; in most of them the toes are quite separate; but the swimmers have their feet covered with a web, but even these have distinct and jointed toes. All birds that fly high in the air have four toes; and, generally, these are placed three forwards, and one backward, like a heel; a few birds have two toes turned forwards and two backwards, as the bird called jynx.[37] This bird is somewhat larger than the spize,[38] and is variegated in appearance. The formation of its toes is peculiar, and so is that of its tongue, which is like a serpent's. This it can project from its mouth, as much as the width of four fingers, and draw it in again. Like a snake it can turn its neck quite round, whilst the rest of its body is perfectly [Pg 36] still. It has large claws, like those of the colius,[39] and it hisses with its voice.
3. Birds have a mouth, but its construction is peculiar, for they have neither lips nor teeth, but a beak, and neither ears nor nostrils, but only passages for these organs, for the nostrils in the beak, and for the ears in the head. They have two eyes like other animals, without eyelashes; when heavy with sleep, they close their eyes with the lower eyelid; and all possess a nictitating membrane, which closes the eye. The owl-like birds also use the upper eyelid. The same is the nature of the scaly animals, as the saurians, and others of this class; all of them close their eyes with the lower eyelid, but they do not all wink like birds. Again, birds have neither scales nor hair, but feathers; all the feathers have a stem.
4. Birds have no tail, but a rump; in birds with long legs, or palmated feet, this is short, in others it is large. These last, when they fly, keep their legs close to the body, but the others stretch them out behind them. All birds have a tongue, but this differs in various kinds: some have it large, others small. Next after man, some birds articulate words better than any other animals; this is particularly the case with those with broad tongues. No oviparous animal has an epiglottis on its trachea: but it can close and open the passage, so as to prevent any heavy thing finding its way into the lungs.
5. Some tribes of birds have spurs; this is never the case with those which have crooked claws. Those with crooked claws are more active in flight; those which have spurs, are heavier in their make.
6. Some birds have a crest, mostly formed of erect feathers; the domestic fowl, alone, is peculiar, for its crest is neither flesh, nor very unlike flesh.
1. Among aquatic animals, there is one class of fish, which embraces many forms, and is separated from other animals, for it has a head, and upper and lower parts, in which last are the stomach and bowels, and a continuous and undivided tail. This is not alike in all. They have neither neck nor limb, nor internal and external testicles, nor mamm, nor [Pg 37] has any other animal mamm that is not viviparous, nor indeed all viviparous animals, but those only that are internally viviparous, and not first of all oviparous. For the dolphin is a viviparous animal, wherefore it has two mamm, not indeed above, but near the organs of reproduction. It has not evident nipples, but, as it were, a stream flowing from each side. From these the milk exudes, and the young ones suck as they follow the mother. This has been distinctly observed by some persons.
2. But fish, as we have observed, have neither mamm nor any external passage for the genital organs. In the branchia they have a distinctive organ, through which they eject the water they have received into their mouths; and they have fins, most fishes have four, but the long fishes, as the eel, have only two placed near the branchia, and in this respect the cestreus,[40] a fish in the lake of Siph, is similar to the eel,[41] and so is the fish called tnia.[42] Some of these long fish have no fins, as the murna, nor have they divided branchia like other fish.
3. Some fish with branchia have coverings over their branchi; in all the cartilaginous fishes they are uncovered. All fishes that have coverings have the branchia placed on their sides; among the cartilaginous fishes some are broad in the lowest part, as the narce[43] and the batos;[44] some very long in the sides, as all the galeodea.[45] In the batracus,[46] although the branchia are on the sides, they are covered with a coriaceous, not a prickly membrane, like those of fishes which are not cartilaginous.
4. In some fishes with branchia they are single, in others double, but the last towards the body is always single. Some have but few branchia, others have many; but their number is always equal on both sides, and those with the smallest number have always one on each side; this is double in the capros;[47] others have two on each side, sometimes these are single, sometimes double, as in the conger[48] and the scarus;[49] others have four simple branchia on each side, as the ellops,[50] synagris, murna, and eel; others have [Pg 38] four, all divided except the last, as the cichle,[51] perca,[52] glanis,[53] and cyprinus;[54] all the galeodea have five double branchia on each side, the xiphias[55] has eight, which are double. This is the manner and number of the branchia of fishes.
5. And fish differ in other respects besides their gills, for they have no hair like viviparous quadrupeds, nor scaly plates like oviparous quadrupeds, nor feathers like birds, but the greater number of them are covered with scales; some of them are rough, and a very few are smooth. Some cartilaginous fishes are rough, others smooth. Congers, eels, and tunnies are smooth. All fish except the scarus have pointed teeth, and all have sharp teeth, some several rows of them, and teeth on the tongue; they have also a hard prickly tongue, so united to the mouth as sometimes to appear without a tongue.
6. The mouth of some fishes is wide, like viviparous quadrupeds. They have no external organs of sense, nor even passages for smelling or hearing; but all have eyes without eyelids, though their eyes are not hard. All fishes are sanguineous; some are oviparous, others viviparous; all those that are covered with scales are oviparous. The cartilaginous fishes are all viviparous, except the batrachus.
1. The remaining class of sanguineous animals is that of serpents; these partake of both characters. The greater portion of them inhabit the land, a few inhabiting water are found in rivers. There are also serpents in the sea very like those on land, except in their head, which is more like that of the conger. There are many genera of sea-serpents, and they are of all kinds of colours; they do not exist in the deepest part of the ocean. Serpents are apodal, like fishes.
2. There are also marine scolopendr,[56] very like those on land, but rather less; they live in rocky places; in colour they are redder, and they have more feet, and slighter legs than in the terrestrial species. These also, like the serpents, are not found in deep places.
3. And there is a small fish which lives among the rocks, which some call echineis;[57] some people use it for trials and philtres; it is not fit for food. Some people say it [Pg 39] has feet, but it has none; the fins, however, are like feet, which gives it this appearance. I have now described the external parts of sanguineous animals, their nature, and their number, and the differences which occur amongst them.
1. First of all we will speak of the internal parts of sanguineous animals, for the greatest number of genera differ from other animals, some being sanguineous, others ex-sanguineous. The sanguineous genera are man, viviparous and oviparous quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and whales, and perhaps others that are anonymous, because they do not form a genus, but simply species amongst each other, as the serpent and the crocodile.
2. All viviparous quadrupeds have an sophagus and trachea, situated as in man, and so have oviparous quadrupeds and birds, though there is some difference in the formation of these parts; all that breathe by inhaling and exhaling air have lungs, trachea, and sophagus. The position of the sophagus and trachea, though similar, is not the same, nor are the lungs alike in all, nor similar in position.
3. All sanguineous animals have a heart, and a division in the middle of the body, called a diaphragm. In small animals its smallness and thinness render it less apparent. The heart of the ox is peculiar; for there is a kind of ox, though not the whole genus, which has a bone in its heart, and there is also a bone in the heart of the horse.
4. Not all animals have lungs, fish and those with gills have no lungs. All sanguineous animals have a liver, generally a spleen also; but in oviparous animals that are not viviparous, the spleen is so small as nearly to escape notice, as in most birds, the pigeon, kite,[58] hawk,[59] and owl. The gocephalus[60] has none at all. Oviparous quadrupeds are of the same nature, for they have a very small spleen, as the tortoise, emys,[61] phryne, lizard, crocodile, and frog.
5. Some animals have a gall upon the liver, others none. Among viviparous quadrupeds the stag[62] has none, nor the deer,[63] horse, mule, ass, seal, and some swine. The Achanian stag appears to have the gall in the tail; that which they call [Pg 40] gall in these animals resembles it in colour, but it is not liquid like gall, but more like the spleen in its internal structure.
6. All, while they are alive, have worms[64] in the head; they are produced in the hollow part under the hypoglottis, and near the vertebr, where the head is joined on. In size they resemble very large maggots; they are numerous, and continuous, in number not generally more than twenty. Stags, as I have observed, have no gall, but their intestines are so bitter that dogs will not eat them if the deer are fat.
7. The elephant also has a liver without a gall, but when the part where the gall is attached in other animals, is cut open, a quantity of fluid like bile, more or less abundant, runs out. Among those animals which inhale sea-water, and have lungs, the dolphin has no gall. All birds and fishes have galls, and all oviparous quadrupeds, to speak of them at once, have a gall, greater or less; but in some fishes it is placed upon the liver, as the galeodea, glanis, rine,[65] leiobatus,[66] narce, and in some long fish, as the eel, belone,[67] and zygna;[68] and the callionymus[69] has a gall upon the liver, larger in proportion to its size than any other fish. Others have a gall upon the intestines, extending from the liver by several thin passages; the amia[70] has it stretched out upon the intestines, and equal to them in length, and many times folded upon it. Other fish have the gall upon the intestines, some at a greater, others at a less distance, as the batrachus, elops, synagris, murna, xiphias.
8. And the same genus often appears to have the gall extended in both directions, as the conger, in some individuals it is turned towards the liver, in others suspended before the liver. The same structure is observed in birds, for some have the gall turned towards the stomach, and others towards the entrails, as the pigeon, crow, quail, swallow, sparrow; in others it is directed both towards the liver and the stomach, as the gocephalus; in others, as the hawk and kite, it is directed towards the liver and the intestines.
1. All viviparous quadrupeds have kidneys and a bladder, but some oviparous animals have neither, as birds and [Pg 41] fishes, and among oviparous quadrupeds the marine turtle is the only one that has them at all proportionate to its size. The marine turtle has the kidneys like those of oxen, and that of the ox is like a great many kidneys joined together. In all its internal parts, the bonassus[71] is like the ox.
2. The position which these parts occupy is the same in all animals, and the heart is in the middle of the body of all creatures, except man. In him it is inclined towards the left side; and, as it was before observed, the apex of the heart is directed forward in all, but in fishes it does not appear to be so, for the apex of the heart is not directed towards the chest, but towards the mouth and head, and the top of the heart is suspended from the place where the right and left branchia are joined to each other, and there are also other passages which extend from the heart to each of the branchia, greater towards the larger branchia, and less towards the smaller; but that to the top of the heart in great fishes is a thick white tube.
3. A few fishes, as the conger and the eel, have an sophagus, but even in these it is very small; in some of the fish that have a liver, it is placed on the right side, and has no lobes; in others, it is divided from the commencement; and the greater part is on the right side. For in some fish each part of the liver hangs down, and the divisions are not united at their origin, as in the tribe of fish called galeodea, and in a species of hare which is found near the lake of Bolba, in the place called Sycine, and in other places, so that one might suppose that they had two livers, on account of the distances at which the passages unite, as in the lungs of birds.
4. In all animals the spleen is naturally situated on the left side. The case has occurred that an animal having been opened, has been observed to have the spleen on the right side and the liver on the left, but such appearances are considered ominous. In all animals the trachea reaches to the lungs (its nature will be described in another place); and the sophagus, in all that have this part, reaches to the stomach through the diaphragm. For most fishes (as I observed before) have no sophagus, but the stomach is united directly with the mouth. So that it often happens that, when great [Pg 42] fishes are pursuing small ones, the stomach falls forward into the mouth.
5. All the animals that have been mentioned have a stomach, and in the same situation, for it is universally placed under the diaphragm, and an intestine follows it, and ends in the exit for the food which is called the anus. But the stomach of different animals is variously formed, for in the first place viviparous horned quadrupeds, which have not teeth in both jaws, have four such passages, and those animals are said to ruminate. For the sophagus, commencing in the mouth, extends to the parts just below the lungs, and passes through the diaphragm to the great stomach.
6. The internal part of this is rough, and folded together; and it is united, near the junction of the stomach, to the part which, from its appearance, is called the net, for the exterior is like a stomach, but the inside resembles the meshes of a net; in point of size, the net is much less than the stomach. Next to this is the part called echinus, because internally it is rough and channelled; it is nearly the same size as the net. Next to the echinus is the enystrum, which is both larger and longer than the echinus, and internally covered with many large and smooth folds; after this are the entrails.
7. This is the nature of the stomach of animals with horns, and no teeth in the upper jaw. But they differ from each other in the form and size of these parts; and because the sophagus is sometimes united to the middle, and sometimes to the side of the stomach. Most animals which have teeth in both jaws have but one stomach, as the man, dog, bear, lion, and the wolf. The thos[72] has all its intestines like a wolf. All these have but one stomach, to which the bowel is united. But in some of these the stomach is larger, as the hog and the bear; that of the hog is marked with a few smooth lines. In other animals the stomach is less, not indeed much larger than the intestine, as the dog, lion, and man. In the forms of their bowels other animals are divided into two classes, resembling these types; for in some the stomach resembles a dog's, in others a hog's, both the greater and lesser animals in the same way; and the stomachs of various animals differ in size, form, thickness, thinness, and the position of the junction of the sophagus.
[Pg 43]8. And the nature of the bowels differs in the before-named animals, those, namely, which have not, and those which have teeth in both jaws, in size, thickness, and folding. The intestines of the ruminants are all large, and so are the animals themselves; there are a few small animals of this class, and there is no horned animal which is very small. And some have appendages to the intestines, for none of the animals with teeth in both jaws have straight intestines. There are enlargements in the bowels of the elephant, which give it the appearance of having four stomachs; in these the food is detained, and apart from these there is no receptacle for the food. Its intestines are very like those of the hog, except that the liver is four times greater than that of the ox, and other parts also; the spleen is small in proportion to its size.
9. The stomach and intestines of oviparous quadrupeds bear a similar proportion to each other, as in the land and marine tortoise, the lizard, and both kinds of crocodiles,[73] and similar quadrupeds; for they have one simple stomach, in some it is like that of the hog, in others like that of the dog.
10. The class of serpents in almost every part of their body resemble the saurians, which have feet, and are oviparous, if we add to their length, and take away the feet; for snakes are covered with scales, and have their upper and lower parts like saurians, except that they have no testicles, but, like fish, two passages united in one, and a large and cloven uterus, but in other respects their intestines are so like those of saurians, except that from their elongated figure their intestines are long and narrow, that they might be mistaken for them, from their similarity.
11. For the trachea is very long, and the sophagus still longer, and the commencement of the trachea is close to the mouth, so that the tongue appears to lie beneath it. The trachea appears to be above the tongue because this last can be retracted, and is not always in one position, as in other animals. Their tongue is long, thin, and black, and can be put forth for some distance. The tongue of serpents and saurians is distinct from that of all other animals, for the extremity of the tongue is cloven; this is most remarkable in serpents, for the extremities of their [Pg 44] tongues are like hairs. The seal also has a forked tongue. The serpent has a stomach like a very wide entrail, like that of the dog, afterwards a very long and thin intestine, which is alike to its extremity.
12. Behind the pharynx is a small kidney-shaped heart, so that at times the apex does not appear to be directed towards the chest, next to this is a single lung, divided by a muscular passage, very long, and descending a long distance from the breast. The liver is long and simple, the spleen small and round, like that of the saurians. The gall resembles that of fish, in water serpents it is situated on the liver, in others generally upon the intestines. They all have pointed teeth, and as many ribs as there are days in the month, for they have thirty. Some persons say that in one respect serpents resemble the young of the swallow, for if their eyes are pierced with a pointed instrument, they will grow again, and if the tails of serpents or lizards be cut off, they will be reproduced.
13. The same remarks will apply to the intestines and stomachs of fishes, for they have one simple stomach, but it differs in form, for in some fishes it is like a bowel, as in the one called scarus, and this is the only fish that appears to ruminate, and the size of the intestines is simple and folded together, for it can be resolved into one, by unfolding it. The appendages of the stomach appear to be peculiar to fishes and birds, for birds have them above the stomach, and few in number, but in fish they are above, and around the stomach. Some have many appendages, as the gobius,[74] galeus,[75] perca, scorpios,[76] citharus,[77] trigla,[78] and sparus.[79] But the cestreus has many on one side of the stomach, and only one on the other. Some have only a few, as the hepatus[80] and the glaucus,[81] and the chrysophrys[82] also has only a few, but some individuals differ from others, for one chrysophrys has many, another has only a few. There are some fish which have none of them, as most of the cartilaginous genera; others have a few, and some a great many, and all fish have these appendages very near the stomach itself.
[Pg 45]14. Birds have their internal parts different from each other and from other animals; for some have before the stomach a crop, as the domestic fowl, pigeon, dove, and partridge. The crop is a large and hollow skin, into which the food is received before it is digested. Hence from the sophagus it is narrower, then wider, and where it descends into the stomach it is smaller.
15. In most birds the stomach is fleshy and thick, and on the outside there is a strong skin, which is separated from the fleshy part. Some birds have no crop, but instead of it a wide sophagus, either wholly so, or in the part extending to the stomach, as in the colus,[83] raven, and crow. The quail has the lower part of the sophagus broad, the gocephalus has it small but wider, and so has the owl. But the duck, goose, gull, diver, and bustard, have a wide and broad sophagus, and so have many other birds.
16. And some have a part of the stomach itself like a crop, as the cenchreis;[84] and there are some which have neither sophagus nor a wide crop, but a large stomach; these are small birds like the swallow, and the sparrow. A few have neither a crop, nor a wide sophagus, but a very long one; these are birds with a long neck, as the porphyrion.[85] Almost all these emit a moister excrement than other birds.
17. The quail has these peculiarities, for it has a crop, and before the stomach a wide and broad sophagus. And the crop is at a great distance from the part of the sophagus before the belly, considering the size of the bird. Birds have generally a small intestine, which is single when unfolded, and birds have appendages, a few, as I have said, and not placed above, as in fish, but below, near the end of the intestine. Some birds have not these appendages, though they generally have them, as the domestic fowl, partridge, duck, night-raven,[86] localus,[87] ascalaphus,[88] goose, bustard, owl. Some of the small birds have them, but they are very minute, as the sparrow.
