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1. We have hitherto treated of sanguineous animals, the parts possessed by all as well as those which are peculiar to each class, and of their heterogeneous and homogeneous, their external and internal parts. We are now about to treat of ex-sanguineous animals. There are many classes of these, first of all the mollusca.[99] These are ex-sanguineous animals, which have their fleshy parts external, and their hard parts internal, like sanguineous animals, as the whole tribe of cuttle-fish. Next the malacostraca, these are animals which have their hard parts external, and their interior parts soft and fleshy; their hard parts are rather liable to contusion than brittle, as the class of carabi and cancri.
2. Another class is that of the testacea. These are animals which have their internal parts fleshy, and their external parts hard, brittle, and fragile, but not liable to contusion. Snails and oysters are instances of this class.
3. The fourth class is that of insects, which includes many dissimilar forms. Insects are animals which, as their name signifies, are insected either in their lower or upper part, or in both; they have neither distinct flesh nor bone, but something between both, for their body is equally hard internally and externally. There are apterous insects, as the julus and scolopendra; and winged, as the bee, cockchafer, and wasp; and in some kinds there are both winged and apterous insects; ants, for example, are both winged and apterous, and so is the glowworm.
4. These are the parts of animals of the class mollusca (malacia); first the feet, as they are called, next to these the head, continuous with them; the third part is the abdomen, which contains the viscera. Some persons, speaking incorrectly, call this the head. The fins are placed in a circle round this abdomen. It happens in many of the malacia that the head is placed between the feet and the abdomen.
[Pg 74]5. All the polypi, except one kind, have eight feet, with a double row of suckers. The sepia,[100] teuthis,[101] and teuthos[102] possess as a characteristic part two long proboscidiform members, which have rough suckers at their extremities, with which they seize their food and bring it to their mouth; and when a storm arises they weather it out, fastening these members upon a rock, like an anchor. They swim by means of the fin-like members which are attached to the abdomen. There are suckers upon all their feet.
6. The polypus[103] uses its tentacula both as feet and hands, for it brings its food to its mouth with the two that are above the mouth, and it uses the last of its tentacula, which is the sharpest of all, in the act of coition; this is the only one which is at all white, and it is divided at the extremity, it is placed upon the back; and the smooth part, in front of which are the acetabula, is called the back. In front of the abdomen, and above the tentacula, they have a hollow tube, by which they eject the sea-water which they have received into the abdomen, if any enters through the mouth. This part varies in position, and is sometimes on the right side, sometimes on the left, and by this its ink is ejected.
7. It swims sideways upon the part called the head, stretching out its feet; as it swims it is able to see forwards, for the eyes are upwards, and the mouth is placed behind. As long as it is alive the head is hard, as if it were inflated; it touches and holds with its tentacula bent downwards, a membrane is extended throughout, between the feet, if it falls into the sand, it can no longer hold by it.
8. The polypus and the above-mentioned malacia differ from each other; the abdomen of the polypus is small, and the feet are large; but of the others, the abdomen is large, and the feet small, so that they cannot walk upon them. They have also differences among each other; the teuthis is the smallest, the sepia wider; the teuthos is much larger than the teuthis, for it reaches the length of five cubits. Some sepi are two cubits long, and the tentacula of the polypus are as long, and even larger in size.
9. The class of the teuthos is rare, and differs in form from [Pg 75] the teuthis, for the extremity of the teuthos is wider; and, again, the fin is placed round the whole abdomen, but it is wanting in the teuthis. It is a marine animal, as well as the teuthis. After the feet, the head of all these animals is placed in the middle of the feet, which are called tentacula; one part of this is the mouth, in which are two teeth; above these are two large eyes; between these is a small cartilage, containing a small brain.
10. In the mouth is a small piece of flesh, for these animals have no tongue, but use this instead of a tongue. After this, on the outside, the abdomen is apparent. The flesh of this can be divided, not in a straight line, but in a circle. All the malacia have a skin around this part. After the mouth, they have a long and narrow sophagus; and continuous with this is a large round crop, like that of a bird; this contains the stomach, like a net. Its form is spiral, like the helix of a whelk; from this a thin intestine turns back, to the vicinity of the mouth. The intestine is thicker than the stomach.
11. The malacia have no viscus, except that which is called the mytis,[104] and the ink which is upon it. The most abundant and largest of all is that of the sepia; all exclude this ink, when alarmed, but especially the sepia; the mytis lies beneath the mouth; and through this the sophagus passes; and where the intestine turns back the ink is beneath, and the same membrane surrounds both the ink and the intestine. The same orifice serves for the emission of the ink and the fces.
12. There are some appearances of hair[105] in their bodies; the sepia, teuthis, and teuthos, have a hard part upon the forward part of the body; the one is called sepium (the bone of the cuttle-fish), the other xiphus (the pen of the loligo). These two are different; for that of the sepia is strong and wide, partaking of the nature of spine and bone, and it contains a spongy, friable substance; but the pen of the teuthis is thin, and cartilaginous. In their form also they correspond with the differences of the animals themselves. [Pg 76] The polypus has no hard internal part, but a portion of cartilage round the head, which becomes hard as they grow old.
13. The females also differ from the males, for the latter have a passage beneath the sophagus, extending from the brain to the lowest part of the body. That part to which it reaches is like a teat. In the female there are two such organs, which are placed above. In both sexes, some small red bodies are placed under these. The polypus has one capsule of eggs, which is uneven on the surface; it is large; internally it is all of a white colour, and smooth. The multitude of the ova is so great as to fill a vessel larger than the head of the polypus.
14. The sepia has two capsules, and many eggs are in them, like white hailstones. The position of each of these parts may be seen in anatomical diagrams. In all these creatures the male differs from the female, and especially in the sepia. The fore part of the abdomen of the male is always darker than the back; and more rough than in the female, and variegated with stripes, and the extremity of the body is more acute.
15. There are many kinds of polypus; one, which is the largest of all, is very common. Those near land are larger than those which are caught out at sea. There are smaller kinds, which are variegated; these are not articles of food; and two others, one of which is called eledone,[106] differs in the length of its feet, and is the only one of the malacia with a single row of suckers, for all the rest have two; the other is called bolitna,[107] and sometimes ozolis.
16. There are two other kinds which dwell in shells, which some persons call nautilus[108] (and nauticus), and others call it the egg of the polypus; its shell is like that of the hollow pecten, and not like that which has its shells close together.[109] This animal generally feeds near the land; when it is thrown upon the shore by the waves, after its shell has fallen off, it cannot escape, and dies upon the land. These animals are small in form, like the bolitna; and there is another,[110] which [Pg 77] inhabits a shell like a snail. This animal never leaves its shell, but remains in it, like the snail, and sometimes stretches out its tentacula. Let thus much be said about the malacia.
1. Of the malocostraca, there is one genus, of carabi,[111] and another, very like it, of astaci;[112] these differ from the carabi, which have no claws, and in some other respects. There is a third genus, of carides,[113] and a fourth, of carcini.[114] There are more genera of carides, and of carcini; for among the carides are the cyph,[115] the crangon,[116] and a small species, for these never grow large.
2. The family of carcini is more various, and not so easily enumerated; the largest genus is that called maia,[117] the next to this the pagurus,[118] and the Heracleot carcini; and, again, those that live in rivers. The other genera are small, and have not received any name. On the Phenician coast there are some that they call horsemen, because they run so fast that it is difficult to catch them, and when opened, they are empty, because they have no pasture. There is another small genus like carcini, but in shape they resemble astaci.
3. All these creatures, as I observed before, have their hard and shelly coats on the outsides of their bodies in the place of skin, the fleshy part is internal. Their under parts resemble plates, upon which the females deposit their ova; the carabi have five feet on each side, including the claws; the carcini, also, have in all ten feet, including the claws, which are last. Of the carides, the cypha have five on each side; those near the head are sharp, and five others on each side of the stomach have flat extremities; they have no plates upon the under part of their body; those on the upper part are like the carabi.
4. The crangon is different, for it has, first of all, four plates on each side, and, afterwards, three slight ones, continuous with those on each side, and the greater part of the remainder of its body is apodal; all the feet are directed outwards to the side, like those of insects; but the claws, in those that have them, all turned inwards. The carabus [Pg 78] also has a tail, and five fin-like appendages. The cypha, among the carides, has a tail, with four fin-like appendages. The crangon has fin-like processes on each side of the tail, and the middle of them is spinous on both sides; but this part is wide in the crangon, and sharp in the cypha. The carcini alone are without a tail; the body of the carabi and carides is elongated, that of the carcini is rounded.
5. The male carabus is different from the female, for the female has the first foot divided; in the male it is formed of a single claw, and the fin-like process on the lower part is large in the female, and interchanged with each other in the neck; in the male they are small and not interchanged. In the male, also, the last feet are furnished with large and sharp processes like spurs; in the female these are small and smooth. They all have two large and rough processes, like horns, before their eyes, and two, smaller and smooth, below.
6. The eyes of all these animals are hard, and capable of motion, inwards, outwards, and to the side; the same is the nature of the carcini, in which they are even more moveable. In colour the astacus is all of a dull white, sprinkled with black; it has eight small feet, as far as the large ones; after these the large feet are far greater and wider at the extremity than in the carabus, and they are unequal in size; for on the right side the broad part at the end is long and smooth, on the left side the same part is thick and round; they are both divided from the extremity like a jaw, with teeth above and below, only that in those on the right the teeth are all small and sharp, and they are sharp at the extremity of the left side; in the middle they are like molar teeth; in the lower part are four close together, but in the upper part three, but not close together.
7. In both claws the upper part is moved and pressed down upon the lower; both are placed sideways in position, as if intended by nature for seizure and pressure; above these large feet are two rough ones, a little below the mouth; and still lower, the branchial organs around the mouth, which are rough and numerous, and these are continually in motion; it bends and approximates its two rough feet towards its mouth; the feet near the mouth have smooth appendages.
8. It has two teeth like the carabus, above these the long [Pg 79] horns, much shorter and smoother than in the carabus; four others of the same form as these, but still shorter and smoother; and above these are placed its eyes, which are small and short, and not large like those of the carabus. The part above the eyes is acute and rough, as it were a forehead, and larger than in the carabus: on the whole, the head is sharper and the thorax much wider than in the carabus, and its whole body is more fleshy and soft: of its right feet, four are divided at the extremity, and four not divided.
9. The part called the neck is externally divided into five portions, the sixth and last division is wide and has five plates; in the inside are four rough plates, upon which the females deposit their ova. On the outside of each of these which have been mentioned, there is a short and straight spine, and the whole body, with the part called the thorax, is smooth, and not rough as in the carabus. On the outside of the large feet there are great spines. The female does not in any way differ from the male, for whether the male or female have larger claws, they are never both of them equal.
10. All these animals take in sea-water through their mouths; the carcini also exhale a small portion of that which they have taken in, and the carabi do this through the branchiform appendages, for the carabi have many branchiform appendages. All these animals have two teeth: the carabi have two front teeth, and then a fleshy mouth instead of a tongue, from this an sophagus continued on to the stomach. And the carabi have a small sophagus before the stomach, and from this a straight intestine is continued. In the caraboid animals and the carides, this is continued to the tail in a straight passage, by which they eject their excrements, and deposit their ova. In the carcini this is in the middle of the folded part, for the place wherein they deposit their ova is external in these also.
11. All the females also, besides the intestines, have a place for their ova, and the part called mytis[119] or mecon, which is greater or less, and the peculiar differences may be learned by studying the individual cases. The carabi, as I have observed, have two large and hollow teeth, in which there is [Pg 80] a juice resembling the mytis, and, between the teeth, a piece of flesh resembling a tongue; from the mouth a short sophagus extends to a membranous stomach; in the part of this nearest the mouth are three teeth, two opposite and one below.
12. And from the side of the stomach there is a simple intestine, which is of equal thickness throughout, reaching to the anus. All these parts belong to the carabi, carides, and carcini; and, besides these, the carabi have a passage suspended from the breast and reaching to the anus; in the female this performs the office of a uterus, in the male it contains the spermatic fluid. This passage is in the cavity of the flesh, so as to appear to be between portions of the flesh, for the intestine is toward the curved part, but the passage towards the cavity in the same way as in quadrupeds. In the male this part differs in nothing from the female, for both are smooth and white, and contain an ochreous fluid, and in both sexes it is appended to the breast.
13. The ova and spirals occupy the same position in the carides. The male is distinguished from the female by having in the flesh upon the breast two distinct white bodies, in colour and position like the tentacula of the sepia; these appendages are spiriform, like the mecon of the whelk; their origin is from the acetabula, which are placed under the last feet. These contain a red sanguineous flesh, which is smooth to the touch, and not like flesh. From the whelk-like appendage there is another spiral fold, about as thick as a thread, below which there are two sand-like bodies appended to the intestine, containing a seminal fluid. These are found in the male, but the female has ova of a red colour; these are joined to the abdomen, and on each side of the intestine to the fleshy part of the body, enclosed in a thin membrane. These are their internal and external parts.
1. It happens that all the internal parts of sanguineous animals have names, for all these have the internal viscera; but the same parts of exsanguineous animals have no names, but both classes have in common the stomach, sophagus, and intestines. I have before spoken of the carcini, and their [Pg 81] legs and feet, and how many they have, and in what direction, and that, for the most part, they have the right claw larger and stronger than the left; I have also mentioned their eyes, and that most of them are able to see sideways. The mass of their body is undivided, and so is their head, and any other part.
2. In some the eyes are placed immediately below the upper part, and generally far apart; in some they are placed in the middle, and near together, as in the Heracleot carcini and the maia. The mouth is placed below the eyes, and contains two teeth, as in the carabus, but they are long and not round, and over these there are two coverings, between which are the appendages, which the carabus also possesses.
3. They receive water through their mouth, opening the opercula, and emit it again by the upper passage of the mouth, closing the opercula by which it entered; these are immediately beneath the eyes, and when they take in water they close the mouth with both opercula, and thus eject again the sea-water. Next to the teeth is a very short sophagus, so that the mouth appears joined to the stomach, and from this proceeds a divided stomach, from the middle of which is a single thin intestine; this intestine ends externally beneath the folding of the extremity, as I said before. Between the opercula there is something resembling the appendages to the teeth of the carabi; within the abdomen is an ochreous chyme, and some small elongated white bodies, and other red ones scattered through it. The male differs from the female in length and width, and in the abdominal covering, for this is longer in the female, farther from the body, and more thick-set with appendages, as in the female carabi. The parts of the malacostraca are of this nature.
1. The testacea, as cochle,[120] and cochli,[121] and all that are called ostrea,[122] and the family of echini, are composed of flesh, and this flesh is like that of the malacostraci, for it is internal; but the shell is external, and they have no hard internal part. But they have many differences amongst themselves, both in regard to their external shells and their [Pg 82] internal flesh, for some of them have no flesh at all, as the echinus; in others it is entirely internal and out of sight, except the head, as the land snails and those called coccalia,[123] and in the sea the purpura[124] and the ceryx,[125] the cochlus, and all the turbinated shells.
2. Of the rest some are bivalves, others univalves. I call those bivalves which are enclosed in two shells; the univalves are enclosed in one shell, and the fleshy part is uncovered, as the lepas.[126] Some of the bivalves can open, as the pectens and mya, for all these are joined on one side, and separated on the other, so as to shut and open. There are other bivalves which are joined on both sides, as the solen; others which are entirely enclosed in their shells, and have no external naked flesh, as those which are called tethya.[127]
3. And there is a great difference amongst the shells themselves, for some are smooth, as the solen, mya, and some conch, called by some persons galaces;[128] other shells are rough, as the limnostrea,[129] pinn, some kinds of conch, and the whelk; and of these some are marked with ridges, as the pecten and a kind of concha, others are without ridges, as the pinna and another species of concha. They also differ in thickness and thinness, both in the whole shell and in certain parts of the shell, as about the edges, for in some the edges are thin, as the mya; others are thick-edged, as the limnostrea.
4. Some of them are capable of motion, as the pecten, for some persons say that the pectens can fly, for that they sometimes leap out of the instrument by which they are taken. Others, as the pinna, cannot move from the point of attachment; all the turbinated shells can move and crawl; the lepas (patella) also feeds by going from place to place. It is common to all those with hard shells to have them smooth in the inside.
5. Both in univalves and bivalves the fleshy part is united to the shell, so that it can only be separated by force; it is more easily separated from the turbinated shells; it is a characteristic of all these shells, that the base of the shell has the helix directed from the head. All of them from their birth have an operculum; all the turbinated testacea are [Pg 83] right-handed, and move, not in the direction of the helix, but the contrary way.
6. The external parts of these creatures are thus distinguished; the nature of their internal structure is similar in all, especially in the turbinated animals, for they differ in size and in the relations of excess, the univalves and bivalves do not exhibit many differences. Most of them have but few distinctive marks from each other, but they differ more from the immovable creatures. This will be more evident from the following considerations. In nature they are all alike, the difference, as before said, is in excess; for in larger species the parts are more conspicuous, and less so in those that are smaller. They differ also in hardness and softness, and such like affections.
7. For all have on the outside of the shell, in the mouth, a hard piece of flesh, some more, some less; from the middle of this are the head and the two horns; these are large in larger species, in the little ones they are very small. The head is protruded in the same manner in all of them, and when the creature is alarmed it is again retracted; some have a mouth and teeth, as the snail, which has small, sharp, and smooth teeth.
8. They have also a proboscis, like that of the fly, and this organ is like a tongue. In the ceryx and the purpura this organ is hard, like that of the myops and strus, with which they pierce through the skins of quadrupeds; but this is more powerful in strength, for they can pierce through the shells of the baits. The stomach is joined quite closely to the mouth; the stomach of the cochlus is like the crop of a bird; below this there are two hard white substances like nipples, which also exist in the sepia, but are much harder.
9. From the stomach a long, simple intestine reaches as far as the spiral, which is on the extremity of the body. These are distinct, and in the purpura and the ceryx are in the helix of the shell. The bowel is continuous with the intestine. The intestine and bowels are joined together, and are quite simple, to the anus. The origin of the bowel is around the helix of the mecon,[130] and here it is wider. The mecon is, as it were, a superfluous part in all testacea, afterwards another bend causes it to return to the fleshy part; the end of [Pg 84] the entrail, where the fces are emitted, is near the head, and is alike in all turbinated shells, whether terrestrial or marine.
10. In the larger cochli a long white passage, contained in a membrane, and in colour resembling the upper mastoid appendages, is joined from the stomach to the sophagus, and it is divided into segments like the ovum of the carabus, except that it is white, while the other is red. It has neither exit nor passage, but it is contained in a thin membrane, which has a narrow cavity. From the intestine black and rough bodies descend continuously, like those in the tortoise, but they are less black.
11. Both these and white bodies occur in the marine cochli, but they are less in the smaller kinds. The univalves and bivalves are in some respects like these, and in others they are different, for they have a head, horns, and mouth, and something like a tongue, though in smaller species these are inconspicuous from their minute size, and they are not discernible when the animals are dead or at rest. They all contain the mecon, but not in the same position, nor of the same size, nor equally conspicuous. In the lepas it is in the bottom of the shell, in the bivalves near the hinge.
12. They all have hair-like appendages placed in a circle, and so have the pectens, and that which is called the ovarium in those that have it; where it is possessed, it is placed in a circle on the other side of the circumference, like the white portion in the cochli, for this is alike in all. All these parts, as I have said, are conspicuous in the larger kinds, but in smaller not at all, or scarcely so, wherefore they are most conspicuous in the larger pectens, and these have one valve flat like an operculum.
13. The anus is placed in the side in some of these creatures, for this is where the excrement passes out. The mecon, as I have said, is a superfluous part enclosed in a thin membrane in all of them; that which is called the ovarium has no passage in any of them, but it swells out in the flesh. This is not placed upon the intestine, for the ovarium is on the right side and the intestine on the left; the anus is the same as in others; but in the wild patella, as some persons call it, or the sea-ear (haliotis), as it is named by others, the excrement passes out below the shell, for the shell is perforated. The stomach also is distinct behind the mouth, and so is the ovarium [Pg 85] in this animal. The position of all these parts may be seen in dissections.
14. The creature called carcinium[131] resembles both the malacostraca and the testacea, for this in its nature is similar to the animals that are like carabi, and it is born naked (not covered with a shell). But because it makes its way into a shell, and lives in it, it resembles the testacea, and for these reasons it partakes of the character of both classes. Its shape, to speak plainly, is that of a spider, except that the lower part of the head and thorax is larger.
15. It has two thin red horns, and two large eyes below these, not within nor turned on one side, like those of the crab, but straight forwards. Below these is the mouth, and round it many hair-like appendages; next to these, two divided feet with which it seizes its prey, and two besides these on each side, and a third pair smaller. Below the thorax the whole creature is soft, and when laid open is yellow within.
16. From the mouth is a passage as far as the stomach; but the anus is indistinct; the feet and the thorax are hard, but less so than those of the cancri; it is not united with the shell like the purpura and ceryx, but is easily liberated from it. The individuals which inhabit the shells of the strombus are longer than those in the shells of the nerita.
17. The kind which inhabits the nerita is different, though very like in other respects, for the right divided foot is small, and the left one large, and it walks more upon this than the other; and a similar animal is found in the conch, though they are united to their shells very firmly; this animal is called cyllarus.[132] The nerita has a smooth, large, round shell, in form resembling that of the ceryx, but the mecon is not black, but red; it is strongly united in the middle.
18. In fine weather they seek their food at liberty, and if a storm arises, the carcinia hide themselves under a stone, and the nerit attach themselves to it like the patella, the hmorrhois, and all that class, for they become attached to the rock, where they close their operculum, for this resembles a lid; for that part which is in both sides in the bivalves is joined to one side in the turbinated shells: the interior is fleshy, and in this the mouth is placed.
[Pg 86]19. The nature of the hmorrhois, the purpura, and all such animals is the same. But those which have the left foot greater are not found in the shells of the strombus, but in the nerit. There are some cochli which contain an animal like the small astacus, which is found in rivers; but they differ from them in having the inner part of the shell soft. Their form may be seen by examining dissections.
1. The echini contain no flesh, but this part is peculiar, for they are all of them void of flesh, and are filled with a black substance. There are many kinds of echinus, one of which is eatable; in this one the ova are large and eatable, both in the greater and the less.
2. And there are two other kinds, the spatangus and that called bryttus; these are inhabitants of the sea, and rare. Those which are called echinometr[133] are the largest of all. Besides this, there is another small species, which has long and sharp spines; this is procured from the sea, in many fathoms water, and some persons use it for stranguary.
3. Around Torona there are white marine echini, which have shells, and prickles, and ova, and are longer than others; but the prickle is neither large nor strong, but soft, and the black parts from the mouth are more in number, and united to the outward passage, but distinct among themselves, and by these the animal is as it were divided. The eatable kinds are particularly and especially active, and it is a sign of them; for they have always something adhering to their spines.
4. They all contain ova, but in some they are very small, and not eatable: that which is called the head and mouth in the echinus is downwards, and the anus placed upwards. The same thing occurs in the turbinated shells, and the patella; for their food is placed below them, so that the mouth is towards the food, and the anus at or on the upper part of the shell.
5. The echinus has five hollow internal teeth, in the midst of these a portion of flesh like a tongue; next to this is the sophagus; then the stomach, in five divisions, full of fculent matter: all its cavities unite in one, near the anus, where the shell is perforated. Beneath the stomach, in another [Pg 87] membrane, are the ova, the same number in all, they are five in number, and uneven.
6. The black substance is joined above to the origin of the teeth, this black substance is bitter and not eatable; in many animals there is either this substance or its analogue, for it is found in tortoises, toads, frogs, turbinated shells, and in the malacia; these parts differ in colour, but are entirely or nearly uneatable. The body of the echinus is undivided from beginning to end, but the shell is not so when seen through, for it is like a lantern, with no skin around it. The echinus uses its spines as feet, for it moves along by leaning upon them and moving them.
1. The creatures called tethya[134] have a most distinct character, for in these alone is the whole body concealed in a shell. Their shell is intermediate between skin and shell, so that it can be cut like hard leather: this shell-like substance is attached to rocks; in it there are two perforations, quite distant from each other, and not easily seen, by which it excludes and receives water, for it has no visible excrement as other testacea, neither like the echinus, nor the substance called mecon.
2. When laid open, there is first of all a sinewy membrane lining the shell-like substance, within this the fleshy substance of the tethyon. Unlike any other creature, its flesh, however, is alike throughout, and it is united in two places to the membrane and the skin from the side, and at its points of union it is narrower on each side; by these places it reaches to the external perforations which pass through the shell; there it both parts with and receives food and moisture, as if one were the mouth, the other the anus, the one is thick, the other thinner.
3. Internally there is a cavity at each end, and a passage passes through it; there is a fluid in both the cavities. Besides this, it has no sensitive or organic member, nor is there any excrementitious matter, as I said before. The colour of the tethyon is partly ochreous, partly red.
4. The class acalephe[135] is peculiar; it adheres to rocks like some of the testacea, but at times it is washed off. It is not [Pg 88] covered with a shell, but its whole body is fleshy; it is sensitive, and seizes upon the hand that touches it, and it holds fast, like the polypus does with its tentacula, so as to make the flesh swell up. It has a central mouth, and lives upon the rock, as well as upon shell-fish, and if any small fish falls in its way, it lays hold of it as with a hand, and if any eatable thing falls in its way it devours it.
5. One species is free, and feeds upon anything it meets with, even pectens and echini; it appears to have no visible excrement, and in this respect it resembles plants. There are two kinds of acalephe, some small and more eatable, others large and hard, such as are found near Chalcis. During winter their flesh is compact, wherefore in this season they are caught and eaten; in summer time they perish, for they become soft; if they are touched they soon melt down, and cannot by any means be taken away. When suffering from heat, they prefer getting under stones. I have now treated of malacia, malacostraca, testacea, and of their external and internal parts.
1. Insects must now be treated of in the same manner. This is a class which contains many forms, and no common name has been given to unite those that are naturally related, as the bee, anthrene,[136] and wasp, and such like; again, those which have their wings enclosed in a case, as the melolontha,[137] carabus,[138] cantharis, and such like. The common parts of all insects are three—the head, the abdomen, and the third, which is between these, such as in other animals is the breast and back. In many insects this is one, but in the long insects with many legs, the middle parts are equal to the number of segments.
2. All insects survive being divided, except those which are naturally cold, or soon become so from their small size, so that wasps live after they are cut asunder; either the head or the abdomen will live if united to the thorax, but the head will not live alone. Those which are long, and have many feet, will survive division for a considerable time; both the extremities are capable of motion, for they walk both upon the part cut off and upon the tail, as that which is called scolopendra. All of them have eyes, but no other [Pg 89] manifest organs of sense, except that some have a tongue. All the testacea have this organ, which serves the double purpose of tasting and drawing food into the mouth.
3. In some of them this organ is soft; in others very strong, as in the purpura; in the myops and strus this member is strong, and in a great many more; for this member is used as a weapon by all those that have no caudal sting.
4. Those with this weapon have no small external teeth, for flies draw blood by touching with this organ, and gnats sting with it. Some insects also have stings, which are either internal, as in bees and wasps, or external, as in the scorpion. This last is the only insect that has a long tail; it has claws, and so has the little scorpion-like creature[139] found in books. The winged insects, in addition to other parts, have wings. Some have two wings, as the flies; others four, as the bees; none of the diptera have a caudal sting. Some of the winged insects have elytra on their wings, as the melolontha; and others no elytra, as the bee. Insects do not direct their flight with their tail, and their wings have neither shaft nor division.
5. Some have a horn before their eyes, as the psych[140] and carabi. Of the jumping insects, some have their hind-legs larger; others have the organs of jumping bent backwards, like the legs of quadrupeds. In all, the upper part is different from the lower, like other animals.
6. The flesh of their bodies is neither testaceous nor like the internal parts of testacea, but between the two. Wherefore, also, they have neither spine nor bone, as the sepia; nor are they surrounded with a shell. For the body is its own protection by its hardness, and requires no other support; and they have a very thin skin. This is the nature of their external parts.
7. Internally, immediately after the mouth, there is an intestine which in most insects passes straight and simply to the anus, in a few it is convoluted; these have no bones nor fat, neither has any other exsanguineous animal. Some have a stomach, and from this the remainder of the intestine is either simple or convoluted, as in the acris.[141] The [Pg 90] tettix (grasshopper) alone of this, or any other class of living creatures, has no mouth; but, like those with a caudal sting, it has the appearance of a tongue, long, continuous, and undivided, and with this it feeds upon the dew alone. There is no excrement in the stomach. There are many kinds of these creatures, they differ in being greater or less; those called achetae are divided beneath the diaphragm, and have a conspicuous membrane, which the tettigonia has not.
8. There are many other creatures in the sea which it is not possible to arrange in any class from their scarcity. For some experienced fishermen say they have seen in the sea creatures like small beams, black and round, and of the same thickness throughout; others like shields, of a red colour, with many fins; others[142] like the human penis in appearance and size, but instead of testicles they had two fins, and that such have been taken on the extremity of grappling irons. This is the nature of the internal and external parts of all animals of every kind, both those which are peculiar to certain species, and those which are common to all.
1. We must now treat of the Senses: for they are not alike in all, but some have all the senses, and some fewer. They are mostly five in number; seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, touch, and besides these there are none peculiar to any creatures. Man, then, and all viviparous animals with feet, besides all sanguineous and viviparous animals, have all these, unless they are undeveloped in any particular kind, as in the mole.
2. For this creature has no sight, it has no apparent eyes, but when the thick skin which surrounds the head is taken away, in the place where the eyes ought to be on the outside, are the undeveloped internal eyes, which have all the parts of true eyes, for they have both the iris of the eye, and within the iris the part called the pupil, and the white; but all these are less than in true eyes. On the outside there is no appearance of these parts, from the thickness of the skin, as if the nature of the eye had been destroyed at birth; for there are two sinewy and strong passages proceeding from the brain, where it unites with [Pg 91] the spinal cord, reaching from the socket of the eye, and ending upon the upper sharp teeth.
3. All other animals are endued with the perception of colours, sounds, smells, and taste. All animals have the fifth sense, which is called touch. In some animals the organs of sense are very distinct, and especially the eyes, for they have a definite place, and so has the hearing. For some animals have ears, and others open perforations: so also of the sense of smelling, some animals have nostrils, others passages, as the whole class of birds. In the same way the tongue is the organ of taste.
4. In aquatic animals and those called fish, the tongue is still the organ of taste, though it is indistinct, for it is bony, and not capable of free motion. In some fish the roof of the mouth is fleshy, as in some cyprini among river fish, so that, without careful examination, it appears like a tongue. That they have the sense of taste is quite clear, for many of them delight in peculiar food, and they will more readily seize upon a bait formed of the amia and other fat fishes, as if they delighted in the taste and eating of such baits.
5. They have no evident organ of hearing and smelling, for the passages which exist about the region of the nostrils in some fish do not appear to pass to the brain, but some of them are blind, and others lead to the gills; it is evident, however, that they both hear and smell, for they escape from loud noises, such as the oars of the triremes, so as to be easily captured in their hiding-places.
6. For if the external noise is not loud, yet to all aquatic animals that are capable of hearing, it appears harsh and very loud; and this takes place in hunting dolphins, for when they have enclosed them with their canoes, they make a noise from them in the sea, and the dolphins, crowded together, are obliged to leap upon the land, and, being stunned with the noise, are easily captured, although even dolphins have no external organs of hearing.
7. And again in fishing, the fishermen are careful to avoid making a noise with their oars or net when they perceive many fish collected in one place; they make a signal, and let down their nets in such a place that no sound of the oar or the motion of the waters should reach the place [Pg 92] where the fish are collected, and the sailors are commanded to row in the greatest silence until they have enclosed them.
8. Sometimes, when they wish to drive them together, they proceed as in dolphin catching, for they make a noise with stones that they may be alarmed and collected together, and thus they are enclosed in a net. Before their inclosure, as it was said, they prevent a noise, but as soon as they have enclosed them, they direct the sailors to shout and make a noise, for they fall down with fear when they hear the noise and tumult.
9. And when the fishers observe large shoals at a distance, collected on the surface in calm, fine weather, and wish to know their size, and of what kind they are, if they can approach them in silence, they avoid their notice, and catch them while they are on the surface. If any noise is made before they reach them, they may be seen in flight. In the rivers, also, there are little fish under the stones, which some persons call cotti:[143] from their dwelling beneath rocks, they catch them by striking the rocks with stones, and the fishes fall down frightened when they hear the noise, being stunned by it. It is evident, from these considerations, that fishes have the sense of hearing.
10. There are persons who say that fish have more acute ears than other animals, and that, from dwelling near the sea, they have often remarked it. Those fish which have the most acute ears are the cestreus[144] (chremps),[145] labrax,[146] salpe,[147] chromis,[148] and all such fishes; in others the sense of hearing less acute, because they live in the deeper parts of the ocean.
11. Their nature of smelling is the same, for the greater number of fishes will not take a bait that is not quite fresh; others are less particular. All fish will not take the same bait, but only particular baits, which they distinguish by the smell; for some are taken with stinking baits, as the salpe with dung. Many fish also live in the holes of rocks, and when the fishermen want to entice them out, they anoint the mouths of these holes with salted scents, to which they readily come.
[Pg 93]12. The eel also is enticed out in this way, for they place a pitcher of salt food, covering the mouth of the pitcher with another vessel pierced with holes, and the eels are quickly drawn forth by the smell of the bait. Baits made of the roasted flesh of the cuttle fish, on account of its strong smell, attract fish very readily. They say they put the roasted flesh of the polypus upon their hooks for nothing but its strong smell.
13. And the fish called rhyades,[149] when the washings of fish or of ftid drains are emptied into the water, make their escape as if smelling the ftid odour. They say that fish soon smell the blood of their own kind; this is plain from their hastening from any place where the blood of fishes may be. On the whole, if any one use a putrid bait, the fish will not come near it; but if a fresh strong-smelling bait is used, they will come to it from a great distance.
14. This is especially observable in what was said of dolphins, for these creatures have not external organs of hearing, but are captured by being stunned with a noise, as was before observed; neither have they any external organs of smell, yet their scent is acute. Therefore, it is evident that all creatures have these senses. Other kinds of animals are divided into four classes; and these contain the multitude of remaining animals, namely, the malacia, malacostraca, testacea, and insects.
15. Of these the malacia, the malacostraca, and insects have all the senses, for they can see, smell, and taste. Insects, whether they have wings or are apterus, can smell from a great distance, as the bee and the cnips[150] scent honey, for they perceive it from a long distance, as if they discovered it by the scent. Many of them perish by the fumes of sulphur: ants leave their hills when origanum and sulphur are sprinkled upon them. Almost all of them escape from the fumes of burnt stags' horns, but most of all do they avoid the smell of burnt styrax.
16. The sepia, also, the polypus, and the carabus are caught with baits; the polypus holds the bait so fast that it holds on even when cut: if a person hold conyza to them, they let go as soon as they smell it. So, also, of the sense of taste, for they follow different kinds of food, and do not [Pg 94] all prefer the same food, as the bee approaches nothing that is putrid, only sweet things; the gnat not what is sweet, but what is acid.
17. As I before observed, the sense of touch belongs to all animals. The testacea have the senses of smelling and tasting. This is plain from the baits used, as those for the purpur; for this creature is caught with putrid substances, and will be attracted from a great distance to such baits, as if by the sense of smell. It is evident from what follows that they possess the sense of taste; for whatever they select by smell, they all love to taste.
18. And all animals with mouths receive pain or pleasure from the contact of food. But, concerning the senses of sight and hearing, it is not possible to say anything certain, or very distinct; the solens, if a person touch them, appear to retract themselves, and try to escape when they see an instrument approaching them, for a small portion of them is beyond the shell, the remainder as it were in a retreat; the pectens, also, if a finger is brought near them, open and shut themselves as if they could see.
19. Those who seek for nerit do not approach them with the wind, when they seek them for baits, nor do they speak, but come silently, as if the creatures could both smell and hear; they say that if they speak, they get away. Of all testacea, the echinus appears to have the best sense of smell amongst those that can move, and the tethya and balanus in those that are fixed. This is the nature of the organs of sense in all animals.
1. The following is the nature of the voice of animals, for there is a distinction between voice and sound. Speech, again, is different from these. Voice is due to no other part except the pharynx, the creatures, therefore, without lungs are also without voice. Speech is the direction of the voice by the tongue; the vowels are uttered by the voice and the larynx, the mutes by the tongue and the lips; speech is made up of these: wherefore, no animals can speak that have not a tongue, nor if their tongue is confined.
2. The power of uttering a sound is connected with other parts also; insects have neither voice nor speech, but make [Pg 95] a sound with the air within them, not with that which is external, for some of them breathe not, some of them buzz, as the bee with its wings, and others are said to sing, as the grasshopper. All these make a noise with the membrane which is beneath the division of their body in those which have a division, as some families of grasshoppers by the friction of the air. These insects, bees, and all other insects raise and depress their wings in flight, for the sound is the friction of the air within them. Locusts produce a sound by rubbing themselves with their legs, which are adapted for leaping. None of the malacia utter any sound or natural voice, nor do the malacostraca.
3. Fish also are mute, for they have neither lungs, trachea, nor pharynx. Some of them utter a sound and a squeak; these are said to have a voice, as the lyra[151] and chromi,[152] for these utter, as it were, a grunt; so does the capros, a fish of the Achelous, the chalceus[153] and coccyx,[154] for the one utters a sound like hissing, the other a noise like that of the cuckoo, from whence also its name is derived. Some of these utter their apparent voice by the friction of their gills, for these places are spinous, in others the sound is internal, near the stomach. For each of them has an organ of breathing, which causes a sound when it is pressed and moved about.
4. Some of the selachea also appear to whistle, but they cannot be correctly said to utter a voice, only to make a sound. The pectens also make a whizzing noise when they are borne upon the surface of the water, or flying, as it is called; and so do the sea-swallows,[155] for they also fly through the air in the same way, not touching the sea, for they have wide and long fins. As the sound made by birds flying through the air is not a voice, so neither can either of these be properly so called. The dolphin also utters a whistle and lows when it comes out of the water into the air, in a different way from the animals above-mentioned—for this is a true voice, for it has lungs and a trachea, but its tongue is not free, nor has it any lips so as to make an articulate sound.
5. The oviparous quadrupeds, with a tongue and lungs, [Pg 96] utter a sound, though it is a weak one. Some of them hiss like serpents; others have a small weak voice, others, as the tortoise, utter a small hiss. The tongue of the frog is peculiar, for the fore-part of it is fixed, like that of a fish; but the part near the pharynx is free and folded up. With this it utters its peculiar sound. The male frogs make a croaking in the water when they invite the females to coition.
6. All animals utter a voice to invite the society and proximity of their kind, as the hog, the goat, and the sheep. The frog croaks by making its lower jaw of equal length, and stretching the upper one above the water. Their eyes appear like lights, their cheeks being swelled out with the vehemence of their croaking; for their copulation is generally performed in the night. The class of birds utter a voice: those which have a moderately wide tongue have the best voice; those also in which the tongue is thin. In some kinds both male and female have the same voice; in others it is different: the smaller kinds have more variety in their voice, and make more use of it, than the larger tribes.
7. All birds become more noisy at the season of coition. Some utter a cry when they are fighting, as the quail; others when they are going to fight, as the partridge; or when they have obtained a victory, as the cock. In some kinds both male and female sing, as the nightingale; but the female nightingale does not sing while she is sitting or feeding her young: in some the males alone, as the quail and the cock; the female has no voice. Viviparous quadrupeds utter different voices; none can speak—for this is the characteristic of man, for all that have a language have a voice, but not all that have a voice have also a language.
8. All that are born dumb, and all children, utter sounds, but have no language; for, as children are not complete in their other parts, so their tongue is not perfect at first; it becomes more free afterwards, so that they stammer and lisp. Both voices and language differ in different places.
9. The voice is most conspicuous in its acuteness or depth, but the form does not differ in the same species of animals; the mode of articulation differs, and this might be called speech, for it differs in different animals, and in the same genera in different places, as among partridges, for in some [Pg 97] places they cackle, in others whistle. Small birds do not utter the same voice as their parents, if they are brought up away from them, and have only heard other singing birds. For the nightingale has been observed instructing her young, so that the voice and speech are not naturally alike, but are capable of formation. And men also have all the same voice, however much they may differ in language. The elephant utters a voice by breathing through its mouth, making no use of its nose, as when a man breathes forth a sigh; but with its nose it makes a noise like the hoarse sound of a trumpet.
1. Concerning the sleep and wakefulness of animals. It is quite manifest that all viviparous animals with feet both sleep and are awake; for all that have eyelids sleep with the eyes closed; and not only men appear to dream, but horses, oxen, sheep, goats, dogs, and all viviparous quadrupeds. Dogs show this by barking in their sleep. It is not clear whether oviparous animals dream, but it is quite plain that they sleep.
2. And so it is in aquatic animals, as fish, the malacia, the malacostraca, the carabi, and such like creatures. The sleep of all these animals is short: it is plain that they do sleep, though we can form no conclusion from their eyes, for they have no eyelids, but from their not being alarmed; for if fish are not tormented with lice, and what are called psylli, they may be captured without alarming them, so that they can be even taken with the hand. And if fish remain at rest during the night a great multitude of these creatures fall upon and devour them.
3. They are found in such numbers at the bottom of the sea as to devour any bait made of fish that remains any length of time upon the ground; fishermen frequently draw them out hanging like globes around the bait. The following considerations will serve still more to confirm our suppositions that fishes sleep; for it is often possible to fall upon the fish so stealthily as to take by the hand, or even strike them during this time; they are quite quiet, and exhibit no signs of motion except with their tails, which they move gently. It is evident, also, that they sleep, from their starting if [Pg 98] anything moves while they are asleep, for they start as if they were waked out of sleep.
4. They are also taken by torchlight while asleep; those who are seeking for thynni surround them while asleep; it is evident that they can be captured from their stillness, and the half-open white (of their eyes). They sleep more by night than by day, so that they do not move when they are struck; they generally sleep holding by the ground, or the sand, or a stone, at the bottom, concealing themselves beneath a rock, or a portion of the shore. The flat fishes sleep in the sand; they are recognized by their form in the sand, and are taken by striking them with a spear with three points. The labrax, chrysophrys, cestreus, and such-like fish are often taken with the same kind of weapon while asleep in the day time, but if not taken then, none of them can be captured with such a spear.
5. The selache sleep so soundly that they may be taken with the hand; the dolphin, whale, and all that have a blow-hole, sleep with this organ above the surface of the sea, so that they can breathe, while gently moving their fins, and some persons have even heard the dolphin snore. The malacia sleep in the same manner as fish, and so do the malacostraca. It is evident from the following considerations that insects sleep; for they evidently remain at rest without motion; this is particularly plain in bees, for they remain quiet, and cease to hum during the night. This is also evident from those insects with which we are most familiar, for they not only remain quiet during the night because they cannot see distinctly, for all creatures with hard eyes have indistinct vision, but they seem no less quiet when the light of a lamp is set before them.
6. Man sleeps the most of all animals. Infants and young children do not dream at all, but dreaming begins in most at about four or five years old. There have been men and women who have never dreamt at all; sometimes such persons, when they have advanced in age, begin to dream; this has preceded a change in their body, either for death or infirmity. This, then, is the manner of sensation, sleep and wakefulness.
[Pg 99]1. In some animals the sexes are distinct, in others they are not so, these are said to beget and be with young by a likeness to other creatures. There is neither male nor female in fixed animals, nor in testacea. In the malacia and malacostraca there are male and female individuals, and in all animals with feet, whether they have two or four, which produce either an animal, an egg, or a worm from coition.
2. In other kinds the sexes are either single or not single; as in all quadrupeds there is the male and female, in the testacea it is not so, for as some vegetables are fertile and others barren, so it is in these. Among insects and fishes there are some that have no differences of this kind, as the eel is neither male nor female, nor is anything produced from them.
3. But those persons who say that some eels appear to have creatures like worms, of the size of a hair, attached to them, speak without observation, not having seen how they really are; for none of these creatures are viviparous without being first oviparous, none of them have ever been observed to contain ova; those that are viviparous have the embryo attached to the uterus, and not to the abdomen, for there it would be digested like food. The distinction made between the so-called male and female eel that the male has a larger and longer head, and that the head of the female is smaller, and more rounded, is a generic, and not a sexual distinction.
4. There are some fish called epitragi, and among fresh-water fish the cyprinus and balagrus are of the same nature, which never have ova or semen; those which are firm and fat, and have a small intestine, appear to be the best. There are creatures, such as the testacea, and plants, which beget, and produce young, but have no organ of coition; and so also in fishes the psetus,[156] erythrhinus,[157] and the channa. All these appear to have ova.
5. In sanguineous animals with feet that are not oviparous, the males are generally larger and longer lived than [Pg 100] the females, except the hemionus, but the females of this animal are both larger and longer lived; in oviparous and viviparous animals, as in fish and insects, the females are larger than the males, as the serpent, phalangium,[158] ascalabotes,[159] and frog; in fish likewise, as in most of the small gregarious selache, and all that inhabit rocks.
6. It is evident that female fishes have longer lives than males, because females are caught of a greater age than the males; the upper and more forward parts of all animals are larger and stronger, and more firmly built in the male; the hinder and lower parts in the female. This is the case in the human subject, and all viviparous animals with feet: the female is less sinewy, the joints are weaker, and the hairs finer, in those with hair; in those without hair, its analogues are of the same nature; the female has softer flesh and weaker knees than the male, the legs are slighter; the feet of females are more graceful, in all that have these members.
7. All females, also, have a smaller and more acute voice than the males, but in oxen the females utter a deeper sound than the males; the parts denoting strength, as the teeth, tusks, horns, and spurs, and such other parts, are possessed by the males, but not by the females, as the roe-deer has none, and the hens of some birds with spurs have none; the sow has no tusks: in some animals they exist in both sexes, only stronger and longer in the males, as the horns of bulls are stronger than those of cows.
