
HISTORY OF ANIMALS
350 BC
ARISTOTLE
384 BC - 322 BC
Translated by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
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by Aristotle
BOOK FOUR
Part 1
We have now treated, in regard to blooded
animals of the parts they have in common
and of the parts peculiar to this genus or
that, and of the parts both composite and
simple, whether without or within. We now
proceed to treat of animals devoid of blood.
These animals are divided into several genera.
One genus consists of so-called 'molluscs';
and by the term 'mollusc' we mean an animal
that, being devoid of blood, has its flesh-like
substance outside, and any hard structure
it may happen to have, inside-in this respect
resembling the red-blooded animals, such
as the genus of the cuttle-fish.
Another genus is that of the malacostraca.
These are animals that have their hard structure
outside, and their soft or fleshlike substance
inside, and the hard substance belonging
to them has to be crushed rather than shattered;
and to this genus belongs the crawfish and
the crab.
A third genus is that of the ostracoderms
or 'testaceans'. These are animals that have
their hard substance outside and their flesh-like
substance within, and their hard substance
can be shattered but not crushed; and to
this genus belong the snail and the oyster.
The fourth genus is that of insects; and
this genus comprehends numerous and dissimilar
species. Insects are creatures that, as the
name implies, have nicks either on the belly
or on the back, or on both belly and back,
and have no one part distinctly osseous and
no one part distinctly fleshy, but are throughout
a something intermediate between bone and
flesh; that is to say, their body is hard
all through, inside and outside. Some insects
are wingless, such as the iulus and the centipede;
some are winged, as the bee, the cockchafer,
and the wasp; and the same kind is in some
cases both winged and wingless, as the ant
and the glow- worm.
In molluscs the external parts are as follows:
in the first place, the so-called feet; secondly,
and attached to these, the head; thirdly,
the mantle-sac, containing the internal parts,
and incorrectly designated by some writers
the head; and, fourthly, fins round about
the sac. (See diagram.) In all molluscs the
head is found to be between the feet and
the belly. All molluscs are furnished with
eight feet, and in all cases these feet are
severally furnished with a double row of
suckers, with the exception of one single
species of poulpe or octopus. The sepia,
the small calamary and the large calamary
have an exceptional organ in a pair of long
arms or tentacles, having at their extremities
a portion rendered rough by the presence
of two rows of suckers; and with these arms
or tentacles they apprehend their food and
draw it into their mouths, and in stormy
weather they cling by them to a rock and
sway about in the rough water like ships
lying at anchor. They swim by the aid of
the fins that they have about the sac. In
all cases their feet are furnished with suckers.
The octopus, by the way, uses his feelers
either as feet or hands; with the two which
stand over his mouth he draws in food, and
the last of his feelers he employs in the
act of copulation; and this last one, by
the way, is extremely sharp, is exceptional
as being of a whitish colour, and at its
extremity is bifurcate; that is to say, it
has an additional something on the rachis,
and by rachis is meant the smooth surface
or edge of the arm on the far side from the
suckers. (See diagram.)
In front of the sac and over the feelers
they have a hollow tube, by means of which
they discharge any sea-water that they may
have taken into the sac of the body in the
act of receiving food by the mouth. They
can shift the tube from side to side, and
by means of it they discharge the black liquid
peculiar to the animal.
Stretching out its feet, it swims obliquely
in the direction of the so-called head, and
by this mode of swimming it can see in front,
for its eyes are at the top, and in this
attitude it has its mouth at the rear. The
'head', while the creature is alive, is hard,
and looks as though it were inflated. It
apprehends and retains objects by means of
the under-surface of its arms, and the membrane
in between its feet is kept at full tension;
if the animal get on to the sand it can no
longer retain its hold.
There is a difference between the octopus
and the other molluscs above mentioned: the
body of the octopus is small, and his feet
are long, whereas in the others the body
is large and the feet short; so short, in
fact, that they cannot walk on them. Compared
with one another, the teuthis, or calamary,
is long-shaped, and the sepia flat-shaped;
and of the calamaries the so-called teuthus
is much bigger than the teuthis; for teuthi
have been found as much as five ells long.
Some sepiae attain a length of two ells,
and the feelers of the octopus are sometimes
as long, or even longer. The species teuthus
is not a numerous one; the teuthus differs
from the teuthis in shape; that is, the sharp
extremity of the teuthus is broader than
that of the other, and, further, the encircling
fin goes all round the trunk, whereas it
is in part lacking in the teuthis; both animals
are pelagic.
In all cases the head comes after the feet,
in the middle of the feet that are called
arms or feelers. There is here situated a
mouth, and two teeth in the mouth; and above
these two large eyes, and betwixt the eyes
a small cartilage enclosing a small brain;
and within the mouth it has a minute organ
of a fleshy nature, and this it uses as a
tongue, for no other tongue does it possess.
Next after this, on the outside, is what
looks like a sac; the flesh of which it is
made is divisible, not in long straight strips,
but in annular flakes; and all molluscs have
a cuticle around this flesh. Next after or
at the back of the mouth comes a long and
narrow oesophagus, and close after that a
crop or craw, large and spherical, like that
of a bird; then comes the stomach, like the
fourth stomach in ruminants; and the shape
of it resembles the spiral convolution in
the trumpet-shell; from the stomach there
goes back again, in the direction of the
mouth, thin gut, and the gut is thicker than
the oesophagus. (See diagram.)
Molluscs have no viscera, but they have what
is called a mytis, and on it a vessel containing
a thick black juice; in the sepia or cuttle-fish
this vessel is the largest, and this juice
is most abundant. All molluscs, when frightened,
discharge such a juice, but the discharge
is most copious in the cuttle-fish. The mytis,
then, is situated under the mouth, and the
oesophagus runs through it; and down below
at the point to which the gut extends is
the vesicle of the black juice, and the animal
has the vesicle and the gut enveloped in
one and the same membrane, and by the same
membrane, same orifice discharges both the
black juice and the residuum. The animals
have also certain hair-like or furry growths
in their bodies.
In the sepia, the teuthis, and the teuthus
the hard parts are within, towards the back
of the body; those parts are called in one
the sepium, and in the other the 'sword'.
They differ from one another, for the sepium
in the cuttle-fish and teuthus is hard and
flat, being a substance intermediate between
bone and fishbone, with (in part) a crumbling,
spongy texture, but in the teuthis the part
is thin and somewhat gristly. These parts
differ from one another in shape, as do also
the bodies of the animals. The octopus has
nothing hard of this kind in its interior,
but it has a gristly substance round the
head, which, if the animal grows old, becomes
hard.
The females differ from the males. The males
have a duct in under the oesophagus, extending
from the mantle-cavity to the lower portion
of the sac, and there is an organ to which
it attaches, resembling a breast;
(see diagram) in the female there are two
of these organs, situated higher up; (see
diagram) with both sexes there are underneath
these organs certain red formations. The
egg of the octopus is single, uneven on its
surface, and of large size; the fluid substance
within is all uniform in colour, smooth,
and in colour white; the size of the egg
is so great as to fill a vessel larger than
the creature's head. The sepia has two sacs,
and inside them a number of eggs, like in
appearance to white hailstones. For the disposition
of these parts I must refer to my anatomical
diagrams.
The males of all these animals differ from
the females, and the difference between the
sexes is most marked in the sepia; for the
back of the trunk, which is blacker than
the belly, is rougher in the male than in
the female, and in the male the back is striped,
and the rump is more sharply pointed.
There are several species of the octopus.
One keeps close to the surface, and is the
largest of them all, and near the shore the
size is larger than in deep water; and there
are others, small, variegated in colour,
which are not articles of food. There are
two others, one called the heledone, which
differs from its congeners in the length
of its legs and in having one row of suckers-all
the rest of the molluscs having two,-the
other nicknamed variously the bolitaina or
the 'onion,' and the ozolis or the 'stinkard'.
There are two others found in shells resembling
those of the testaceans. One of them is nicknamed
by some persons the nautilus or the pontilus,
or by others the 'polypus' egg'; and the
shell of this creature is something like
a separate valve of a deep scallop-shell.
This polypus lives very often near to the
shore, and is apt to be thrown up high and
dry on the beach; under these circumstances
it is found with its shell detached, and
dies by and by on dry land. These polypods
are small, and are shaped, as regards the
form of their bodies, like the bolbidia.
There is another polypus that is placed within
a shell like a snail; it never comes out
of the shell, but lives inside the shell
like the snail, and from time to time protrudes
its feelers.
So much for molluscs.
Part 2
With regard to the Malacostraca or crustaceans,
one species is that of the crawfish, and
a second, resembling the first, is that of
the lobster; the lobster differing from the
crawfish in having claws, and in a few other
respects as well. Another species is that
of the carid, and another is that of the
crab, and there are many kinds both of carid
and of crab.
Of carids there are the so-called cyphae,
or 'hunch-backs', the crangons, or squillae,
and the little kind, or shrimps, and the
little kind do not develop into a larger
kind.
Of the crab, the varieties are indefinite
and incalculable. The largest of all crabs
is one nicknamed Maia, a second variety is
the pagarus and the crab of Heracleotis,
and a third variety is the fresh-water crab;
the other varieties are smaller in size and
destitute of special designations. In the
neighbourhood of Phoenice there are found
on the beach certain crabs that are nicknamed
the 'horsemen', from their running with such
speed that it is difficult to overtake them;
these crabs, when opened, are usually found
empty, and this emptiness may be put down
to insufficiency of nutriment. (There is
another variety, small like the crab, but
resembling in shape the lobster.) All these
animals, as has been stated, have their hard
and shelly part outside, where the skin is
in other animals, and the fleshy part inside;
and the belly is more or less provided with
lamellae, or little flaps, and the female
here deposits her spawn.
The crawfishes have five feet on either side,
including the claws at the end; and in like
manner the crabs have ten feet in all, including
the claws. Of the carids, the hunch-backed,
or prawns, have five feet on either side,
which are sharp-pointed-those towards the
head; and five others on either side in the
region of the belly, with their extremities
flat; they are devoid of flaps on the under
side such as the crawfish has, but on the
back they resemble the crawfish. (See diagram.)It
is very different with the crangon, or squilla;
it has four front legs on either side, then
three thin ones close behind on either side,
and the rest of the body is for the most
part devoid of feet. (See diagram.) Of all
these animals the feet bend out obliquely,
as is the case with insects; and the claws,
where claws are found, turn inwards. The
crawfish has a tail, and five fins on it;
and the round-backed carid has a tail and
four fins; the squilla also has fins at the
tail on either side. In the case of both
the hump-backed carid and the squilla the
middle art of the tail is spinous: only that
in the squilla the part is flattened and
in the carid it is sharp-pointed. Of all
animals of this genus the crab is the only
one devoid of a rump; and, while the body
of the carid and the crawfish is elongated,
that of the crab is rotund.
In the crawfish the male differs from the
female: in the female the first foot is bifurcate,
in the male it is undivided; the belly-fins
in the female are large and overlapping on
the neck, while in the male they are smaller
and do not overlap; and, further, on the
last feet of the male there are spur-like
projections, large and sharp, which projections
in the female are small and smooth. Both
male and female have two antennae in front
of the eyes, large and rough, and other antennae
underneath, small and smooth. The eyes of
all these creatures are hard and beady, and
can move either to the inner or to the outer
side. The eyes of most crabs have a similar
facility of movement, or rather, in the crab
this facility is developed in a higher degree.
(See diagram.)
The lobster is all over grey-coloured, with
a mottling of black. Its under or hinder
feet, up to the big feet or claws, are eight
in number; then come the big feet, far larger
and flatter at the tips than the same organs
in the crawfish; and these big feet or claws
are exceptional in their structure, for the
right claw has the extreme flat surface long
and thin, while the left claw has the corresponding
surface thick and round. Each of the two
claws, divided at the end like a pair of
jaws, has both below and above a set of teeth:
only that in the right claw they are all
small and saw-shaped, while in the left claw
those at the apex are saw-shaped and those
within are molar-shaped, these latter being,
in the under part of the cleft claw, four
teeth close together, and in the upper part
three teeth, not close together. Both right
and left claws have the upper part mobile,
and bring it to bear against the lower one,
and both are curved like bandy-legs, being
thereby adapted for apprehension and constriction.
Above the two large claws come two others,
covered with hair, a little underneath the
mouth; and underneath these the gill-like
formations in the region of the mouth, hairy
and numerous. These organs the animal keeps
in perpetual motion; and the two hairy feet
it bends and draws in towards its mouth.
The feet near the mouth are furnished also
with delicate outgrowing appendages. Like
the crawfish, the lobster has two teeth,
or mandibles, and above these teeth are its
antennae, long, but shorter and finer by
far than those of the crawfish, and then
four other antennae similar in shape, but
shorter and finer than the others. Over these
antennae come the eyes, small and short,
not large like the eyes of the crawfish.
Over the eyes is a peaky rough projection
like a forehead, larger than the same part
in the crawfish; in fact, the frontal part
is more pointed and the thorax is much broader
in the lobster than in the crawfish, and
the body in general is smoother and more
full of flesh. Of the eight feet, four are
bifurcate at the extremities, and four are
undivided. The region of the so-called neck
is outwardly divided into five divisions,
and sixthly comes the flattened portion at
the end, and this portion has five flaps,
or tail-fins; and the inner or under parts,
into which the female drops her spawn, are
four in number and hairy, and on each of
the aforesaid parts is a spine turned outwards,
short and straight. The body in general and
the region of the thorax in particular are
smooth, not rough as in the crawfish; but
on the large claws the outer portion has
larger spines. There is no apparent difference
between the male and female, for they both
have one claw, whichever it may be, larger
than the other, and neither male nor female
is ever found with both claws of the same
size.
All crustaceans take in water close by the
mouth. The crab discharges it, closing up,
as it does so, a small portion of the same,
and the crawfish discharges it by way of
the gills; and, by the way, the gill-shaped
organs in the crawfish are very numerous.
The following properties are common to all
crustaceans: they have in all cases two teeth,
or mandibles (for the front teeth in the
crawfish are two in number), and in all cases
there is in the mouth a small fleshy structure
serving for a tongue; and the stomach is
close to the mouth, only that the crawfish
has a little oesophagus in front of the stomach,
and there is a straight gut attached to it.
This gut, in the crawfish and its congeners,
and in the carids, extends in a straight
line to the tail, and terminates where the
animal discharges the residuum, and where
the female deposits her spawn; in the crab
it terminates where the flap is situated,
and in the centre of the flap. (And by the
way, in all these animals the spawn is deposited
outside.) Further, the female has the place
for the spawn running along the gut. And,
again, all these animals have, more or less,
an organ termed the 'mytis', or 'poppyjuice'.
We must now proceed to review their several
differentiae. The crawfish then, as has been
said, has two teeth, large and hollow, in
which is contained a juice resembling the
mytis, and in between the teeth is a fleshy
substance, shaped like a tongue. After the
mouth comes a short oesophagus, and then
a membranous stomach attached to the oesophagus,
and at the orifice Of the stomach are three
teeth, two facing one another and a third
standing by itself underneath. Coming off
at a bend from the stomach is a gut, simple
and of equal thickness throughout the entire
length of the body until it reaches the anal
vent.
These are all common properties of the crawfish,
the carid, and the crab; for the crab, be
it remembered, has two teeth.
Again, the crawfish has a duct attached all
the way from the chest to the anal vent;
and this duct is connected with the ovary
in the female, and with the seminal ducts
in the male. This passage is attached to
the concave surface of the flesh in such
a way that the flesh is in betwixt the duct
and the gut; for the gut is related to the
convexity and this duct to the concavity,
pretty much as is observed in quadrupeds.
And the duct is identical in both the sexes;
that is to say, the duct in both is thin
and white, and charged with a sallow-coloured
moisture, and is attached to the chest.
(The following are the properties of the
egg and of the convolutes in the carid.)
The male, by the way, differs from the female
in regard to its flesh, in having in connexion
with the chest two separate and distinct
white substances, resembling in colour and
conformation the tentacles of the cuttle-fish,
and they are convoluted like the 'poppy'
or quasi-liver of the trumpet-shell. These
organs have their starting-point in 'cotyledons'
or papillae, which are situated under the
hindmost feet; and hereabouts the flesh is
red and blood-coloured, but is slippery to
the touch and in so far unlike flesh. Off
from the convolute organ at the chest branches
off another coil about as thick as ordinary
twine; and underneath there are two granular
seminal bodies in juxta-position with the
gut. These are the organs of the male. The
female has red-coloured eggs, which are adjacent
to the stomach and to each side of the gut
all along to the fleshy parts, being enveloped
in a thin membrane.
Such are the parts, internal and external,
of the carid.
Part 3
The inner organs of sanguineous animals happen
to have specific designations; for these
animals have in all cases the inner viscera,
but this is not the case with the bloodless
animals, but what they have in common with
red-blooded animals is the stomach, the oesophagus,
and the gut.
With regard to the crab, it has already been
stated that it has claws and feet, and their
position has been set forth; furthermore,
for the most part they have the right claw
bigger and stronger than the left. It has
also been stated' that in general the eyes
of the crab look sideways. Further, the trunk
of the crab's body is single and undivided,
including its head and any other part it
may possess. Some crabs have eyes placed
sideways on the upper part, immediately under
the back, and standing a long way apart,
and some have their eyes in the centre and
close together, like the crabs of Heracleotis
and the so-called 'grannies'. The mouth lies
underneath the eyes, and inside it there
are two teeth, as is the case with the crawfish,
only that in the crab the teeth are not rounded
but long; and over the teeth are two lids,
and in betwixt them are structures such as
the crawfish has besides its teeth. The crab
takes in water near by the mouth, using the
lids as a check to the inflow, and discharges
the water by two passages above the mouth,
closing by means of the lids the way by which
it entered; and the two passage-ways are
underneath the eyes. When it has taken in
water it closes its mouth by means of both
lids, and ejects the water in the way above
described. Next after the teeth comes the
oesophagus, very short, so short in fact
that the stomach seems to come straightway
after the mouth. Next after the oesophagus
comes the stomach, two-horned, to the centre
of which is attached a simple and delicate
gut; and the gut terminates outwards, at
the operculum, as has been previously stated.
(The crab has the parts in between the lids
in the neighbourhood of the teeth similar
to the same parts in the crawfish.) Inside
the trunk is a sallow juice and some few
little bodies, long and white, and others
spotted red. The male differs from the female
in size and breadth, and in respect of the
ventral flap; for this is larger in the female
than in the male, and stands out further
from the trunk, and is more hairy (as is
the case also with the female in the crawfish).
So much, then, for the organs of the malacostraca
or crustacea.
Part 4
With the ostracoderma, or testaceans, such
as the land-snails and the sea-snails, and
all the 'oysters' so-called, and also with
the sea-urchin genus, the fleshy part, in
such as have flesh, is similarly situated
to the fleshy part in the crustaceans; in
other words, it is inside the animal, and
the shell is outside, and there is no hard
substance in the interior. As compared with
one another the testaceans present many diversities
both in regard to their shells and to the
flesh within. Some of them have no flesh
at all, as the sea-urchin; others have flesh,
but it is inside and wholly hidden, except
the head, as in the land-snails, and the
so-called cocalia, and, among pelagic animals,
in the purple murex, the ceryx or trumpet-shell,
the sea-snail, and the spiral-shaped testaceans
in general. Of the rest, some are bivalved
and some univalved; and by 'bivalves' I mean
such as are enclosed within two shells, and
by 'univalved' such as are enclosed within
a single shell, and in these last the fleshy
part is exposed, as in the case of the limpet.
Of the bivalves, some can open out, like
the scallop and the mussel; for all such
shells are grown together on one side and
are separate on the other, so as to open
and shut. Other bivalves are closed on both
sides alike, like the solen or razor-fish.
Some testaceans there are, that are entirely
enveloped in shell and expose no portion
of their flesh outside, as the tethya or
ascidians.
Again, in regard to the shells themselves,
the testaceans present differences when compared
with one another. Some are smooth-shelled,
like the solen, the mussel, and some clams,
viz. those that are nicknamed 'milkshells',
while others are rough-shelled, such as the
pool-oyster or edible oyster, the pinna,
and certain species of cockles, and the trumpet
shells; and of these some are ribbed, such
as the scallop and a certain kind of clam
or cockle, and some are devoid of ribs, as
the pinna and another species of clam. Testaceans
also differ from one another in regard to
the thickness or thinness of their shell,
both as regards the shell in its entirety
and as regards specific parts of the shell,
for instance, the lips; for some have thin-lipped
shells, like the mussel, and others have
thick-lipped shells, like the oyster. A property
common to the above mentioned, and, in fact,
to all testaceans, is the smoothness of their
shells inside. Some also are capable of motion,
like the scallop, and indeed some aver that
scallops can actually fly, owing to the circumstance
that they often jump right out of the apparatus
by means of which they are caught; others
are incapable of motion and are attached
fast to some external object, as is the case
with the pinna. All the spiral-shaped testaceans
can move and creep, and even the limpet relaxes
its hold to go in quest of food. In the case
of the univalves and the bivalves, the fleshy
substance adheres to the shell so tenaciously
that it can only be removed by an effort;
in the case of the stromboids, it is more
loosely attached. And a peculiarity of all
the stromboids is the spiral twist of the
shell in the part farthest away from the
head; they are also furnished from birth
with an operculum. And, further, all stromboid
testaceans have their shells on the right
hand side, and move not in the direction
of the spire, but the opposite way. Such
are the diversities observed in the external
parts of these animals.
The internal structure is almost the same
in all these creatures, and in the stromboids
especially; for it is in size that these
latter differ from one another, and in accidents
of the nature of excess or defect. And there
is not much difference between most of the
univalves and bivalves; but, while those
that open and shut differ from one another
but slightly, they differ considerably from
such as are incapable of motion. And this
will be illustrated more satisfactorily hereafter.
The spiral-shaped testaceans are all similarly
constructed, but differ from one another,
as has been said, in the way of excess or
defect (for the larger species have larger
and more conspicuous organs, and the smaller
have smaller and less conspicuous), and,
furthermore, in relative hardness or softness,
and in other such accidents or properties.
All the stromboids, for instance, have the
flesh that extrudes from the mouth of the
shell, hard and stiff; some more, and some
less. From the middle of this protrudes the
head and two horns, and these horns are large
in the large species, but exceedingly minute
in the smaller ones. The head protrudes from
them all in the same way; and, if the animal
be alarmed, the head draws in again. Some
of these creatures have a mouth and teeth,
as the snail; teeth sharp, and small, and
delicate. They have also a proboscis just
like that of the fly; and the proboscis is
tongue-shaped. The ceryx and the purple murex
have this organ firm and solid; and just
as the myops, or horse-fly, and the oestrus,
or gadfly, can pierce the skin of a quadruped,
so is that proboscis proportionately stronger
in these testaceans; for they bore right
through the shells of other shell-fish on
which they prey. The stomach follows close
upon the mouth, and, by the way, this organ
in the snail resembles a bird's crop. Underneath
come two white firm formations, mastoid or
papillary in form; and similar formations
are found in the cuttle-fish also, only that
they are of a firmer consistency in the cuttle-fish.
After the stomach comes an oesophagus, simple
and long, extending to the poppy or quasi-liver,
which is in the innermost recess of the shell.
All these statements may be verified in the
case of the purple murex and the ceryx by
observation within the whorl of the shell.
What comes next to the oesophagus is the
gut; in fact, the gut is continuous with
the oesophagus, and runs its whole length
uncomplicated to the outlet of the residuum.
The gut has its point of origin in the region
of the coil of the mecon, or so-called 'poppy',
and is wider hereabouts (for remember, the
mecon is for the most part a sort of excretion
in all testaceans); it then takes a bend
and runs up again towards the fleshy part,
and terminates by the side of the head, where
the animal discharges its residuum; and this
holds good in the case of all stromboid testaceans,
whether terrestrial or marine. From the stomach
there is drawn in a parallel direction with
the oesophagus, in the larger snails, a long
white duct enveloped in a membrane, resembling
in colour the mastoid formations higher up;
and in it are nicks or interruptions, as
in the egg-mass of the crawfish, only, by
the way, the duct of which we are treating
is white and the egg-mass of the crawfish
is red. This formation has no outlet nor
duct, but is enveloped in a thin membrane
with a narrow cavity in its interior. And
from the gut downward extend black and rough
formations, in close connexion, something
like the formations in the tortoise, only
not so black. Marine snails, also, have these
formations, and the white ones, only that
the formations are smaller in the smaller
species.
The non-spiral univalves and bivalves are
in some respect similar in construction,
and in some respects dissimilar, to the spiral
testaceans. They all have a head and horns,
and a mouth, and the organ resembling a tongue;
but these organs, in the smaller species,
are indiscernible owing to the minuteness
of these animals, and some are indiscernible
even in the larger species when dead, or
when at rest and motionless. They all have
the mecon, or poppy, but not all in the same
place, nor of equal size, nor similarly open
to observation; thus, the limpets have this
organ deep down in the bottom of the shell,
and the bivalves at the hinge connecting
the two valves. They also have in all cases
the hairy growths or beards, in a circular
form, as in the scallops. And, with regard
to the so-called 'egg', in those that have
it, when they have it, it is situated in
one of the semi-circles of the periphery,
as is the case with the white formation in
the snail; for this white formation in the
snail corresponds to the so-called egg of
which we are speaking. But all these organs,
as has been stated, are distinctly traceable
in the larger species, while in the small
ones they are in some cases almost, and in
others altogether, indiscernible. Hence they
are most plainly visible in the large scallops;
and these are the bivalves that have one
valve flat-shaped, like the lid of a pot.
The outlet of the excretion is in all these
animals (save for the exception to be afterwards
related) on one side; for there is a passage
whereby the excretion passes out.
(And, remember, the mecon or poppy, as has
been stated, is an excretion in all these
animals-an excretion enveloped in a membrane.)
The so-called egg has no outlet in any of
these creatures, but is merely an excrescence
in the fleshy mass; and it is not situated
in the same region with the gut, but the
'egg' is situated on the right-hand side
and the gut on the left. Such are the relations
of the anal vent in most of these animals;
but in the case of the wild limpet (called
by some the 'sea-ear'), the residuum issues
beneath the shell, for the shell is perforated
to give an outlet. In this particular limpet
the stomach is seen coming after the mouth,
and the egg-shaped formations are discernible.
But for the relative positions of these parts
you are referred to my Treatise on Anatomy.
The so-called carcinium or hermit crab is
in a way intermediate between the crustaceans
and the testaceans. In its nature it resembles
the crawfish kind, and it is born simple
of itself, but by its habit of introducing
itself into a shell and living there it resembles
the testaceans, and so appears to partake
of the characters of both kinds. In shape,
to give a simple illustration, it resembles
a spider, only that the part below the head
and thorax is larger in this creature than
in the spider. It has two thin red horns,
and underneath these horns two long eyes,
not retreating inwards, nor turning sideways
like the eyes of the crab, but protruding
straight out; and underneath these eyes the
mouth, and round about the mouth several
hair-like growths, and next after these two
bifurcate legs or claws, whereby it draws
in objects towards itself, and two other
legs on either side, and a third small one.
All below the thorax is soft, and when opened
in dissection is found to be sallow-coloured
within. From the mouth there runs a single
passage right on to the stomach, but the
passage for the excretions is not discernible.
The legs and the thorax are hard, but not
so hard as the legs and the thorax of the
crab. It does not adhere to its shell like
the purple murex and the ceryx, but can easily
slip out of it. It is longer when found in
the shell of the stromboids than when found
in the shell of the neritae.
And, by the way, the animal found in the
shell of the neritae is a separate species,
like to the other in most respects; but of
its bifurcate feet or claws, the right-hand
one is small and the left-hand one is large,
and it progresses chiefly by the aid of this
latter and larger one. (In the shells of
these animals, and in certain others, there
is found a parasite whose mode of attachment
is similar. The particular one which we have
just described is named the cyllarus.)
The nerites has a smooth large round shell,
and resembles the ceryx in shape, only the
poppy-juice is, in its case, not black but
red. It clings with great force near the
middle. In calm weather, then, they go free
afield, but when the wind blows the carcinia
take shelter against the rocks: the neritae
themselves cling fast like limpets; and the
same is the case with the haemorrhoid or
aporrhaid and all others of the like kind.
And, by the way, they cling to the rock,
when they turn back their operculum, for
this operculum seems like a lid; in fact
this structure represents the one part, in
the stromboids, of that which in the bivalves
is a duplicate shell. The interior of the
animal is fleshy, and the mouth is inside.
And it is the same with the haemorrhoid,
the purple murex, and all suchlike animals.
Such of the little crabs as have the left
foot or claw the bigger of the two are found
in the neritae, but not in the stromboids.
are some snail-shells which have inside them
creatures resembling those little crayfish
that are also found in fresh water. These
creatures, however, differ in having the
part inside the shells But as to the characters,
you are referred to my Treatise on Anatomy.
Part 5
The urchins are devoid of flesh, and this
is a character peculiar to them; and while
they are in all cases empty and devoid of
any flesh within, they are in all cases furnished
with the black formations. There are several
species of the urchin, and one of these is
that which is made use of for food; this
is the kind in which are found the so-called
eggs, large and edible, in the larger and
smaller specimens alike; for even when as
yet very small they are provided with them.
There are two other species, the spatangus,
and the so-called bryssus, these animals
are pelagic and scarce. Further, there are
the echinometrae, or 'mother-urchins', the
largest in size of all the species. In addition
to these there is another species, small
in size, but furnished with large hard spines;
it lives in the sea at a depth of several
fathoms; and is used by some people as a
specific for cases of strangury. In the neighbourhood
of Torone there are sea-urchins of a white
colour, shells, spines, eggs and all, and
that are longer than the ordinary sea-urchin.
The spine in this species is not large nor
strong, but rather limp; and the black formations
in connexion with the mouth are more than
usually numerous, and communicate with the
external duct, but not with one another;
in point of fact, the animal is in a manner
divided up by them. The edible urchin moves
with greatest freedom and most often; and
this is indicated by the fact that these
urchins have always something or other on
their spines.
All urchins are supplied with eggs, but in
some of the species the eggs are exceedingly
small and unfit for food. Singularly enough,
the urchin has what we may call its head
and mouth down below, and a place for the
issue of the residuum up above; (and this
same property is common to all stromboids
and to limpets). For the food on which the
creature lives lies down below; consequently
the mouth has a position well adapted for
getting at the food, and the excretion is
above, near to the back of the shell. The
urchin has, also, five hollow teeth inside,
and in the middle of these teeth a fleshy
substance serving the office of a tongue.
Next to this comes the oesophagus, and then
the stomach, divided into five parts, and
filled with excretion, all the five parts
uniting at the anal vent, where the shell
is perforated for an outlet. Underneath the
stomach, in another membrane, are the so-called
eggs, identical in number in all cases, and
that number is always an odd number, to wit
five. Up above, the black formations are
attached to the starting-point of the teeth,
and they are bitter to the taste, and unfit
for food. A similar or at least an analogous
formation is found in many animals; as, for
instance, in the tortoise, the toad, the
frog, the stromboids, and, generally, in
the molluscs; but the formation varies here
and there in colour, and in all cases is
altogether uneatable, or more or less unpalatable.
In reality the mouth-apparatus of the urchin
is continuous from one end to the other,
but to outward appearance it is not so, but
looks like a horn lantern with the panes
of horn left out. The urchin uses its spines
as feet; for it rests its weight on these,
and then moving shifts from place to place.
Part 6
The so-called tethyum or ascidian has of
all these animals the most remarkable characteristics.
It is the only mollusc that has its entire
body concealed within its shell, and the
shell is a substance intermediate between
hide and shell, so that it cuts like a piece
of hard leather. It is attached to rocks
by its shell, and is provided with two passages
placed at a distance from one another, very
minute and hard to see, whereby it admits
and discharges the sea-water; for it has
no visible excretion (whereas of shell fish
in general some resemble the urchin in this
matter of excretion, and others are provided
with the so-called mecon, or poppy- juice).
If the animal be opened, it is found to have,
in the first place, a tendinous membrane
running round inside the shell-like substance,
and within this membrane is the flesh-like
substance of the ascidian, not resembling
that in other molluscs; but this flesh, to
which I now allude, is the same in all ascidia.
And this substance is attached in two places
to the membrane and the skin, obliquely;
and at the point of attachment the space
is narrowed from side to side, where the
fleshy substance stretches towards the passages
that lead outwards through the shell; and
here it discharges and admits food and liquid
matter, just as it would if one of the passages
were a mouth and the other an anal vent;
and one of the passages is somewhat wider
than the other Inside it has a pair of cavities,
one on either side, a small partition separating
them; and one of these two cavities contains
the liquid. The creature has no other organ
whether motor or sensory, nor, as was said
in the case of the others, is it furnished
with any organ connected with excretion,
as other shell-fish are. The colour of the
ascidian is in some cases sallow, and in
other cases red.
There is, furthermore, the genus of the sea-nettles,
peculiar in its way. The sea-nettle, or sea-anemone,
clings to rocks like certain of the testaceans,
but at times relaxes its hold. It has no
shell, but its entire body is fleshy. It
is sensitive to touch, and, if you put your
hand to it, it will seize and cling to it,
as the cuttlefish would do with its feelers,
and in such a way as to make the flesh of
your hand swell up. Its mouth is in the centre
of its body, and it lives adhering to the
rock as an oyster to its shell. If any little
fish come up against it it it clings to it;
in fact, just as I described it above as
doing to your hand, so it does to anything
edible that comes in its way; and it feeds
upon sea-urchins and scallops. Another species
of the sea-nettle roams freely abroad. The
sea-nettle appears to be devoid altogether
of excretion, and in this respect it resembles
a plant.
Of sea-nettles there are two species, the
lesser and more edible, and the large hard
ones, such as are found in the neighbourhood
of Chalcis. In winter time their flesh is
firm, and accordingly they are sought after
as articles of food, but in summer weather
they are worthless, for they become thin
and watery, and if you catch at them they
break at once into bits, and cannot be taken
off the rocks entire; and being oppressed
by the heat they tend to slip back into the
crevices of the rocks.
So much for the external and the internal
organs of molluscs, crustaceans, and testaceans.
Part 7
We now proceed to treat of insects in like
manner. This genus comprises many species,
and, though several kinds are clearly related
to one another, these are not classified
under one common designation, as in the case
of the bee, the drone, the wasp, and all
such insects, and again as in the case of
those that have their wings in a sheath or
shard, like the cockchafer, the carabus or
stag-beetle, the cantharis or blister-beetle,
and the like.
Insects have three parts common to them all;
the head, the trunk containing the stomach,
and a third part in betwixt these two, corresponding
to what in other creatures embraces chest
and back. In the majority of insects this
intermediate part is single; but in the long
and multipedal insects it has practically
the same number of segments as of nicks.
All insects when cut in two continue to live,
excepting such as are naturally cold by nature,
or such as from their minute size chill rapidly;
though, by the way, wasps notwithstanding
their small size continue living after severance.
In conjunction with the middle portion either
the head or the stomach can live, but the
head cannot live by itself. Insects that
are long in shape and many-footed can live
for a long while after being cut in twain,
and the severed portions can move in either
direction, backwards or forwards; thus, the
hinder portion, if cut off, can crawl either
in the direction of the section or in the
direction of the tail, as is observed in
the scolopendra.
All insects have eyes, but no other organ
of sense discernible, except that some insects
have a kind of a tongue corresponding to
a similar organ common to all testaceans;
and by this organ such insects taste and
imbibe their food. In some insects this organ
is soft; in other insects it is firm; as
it is, by the way, in the purple-fish, among
testaceans. In the horsefly and the gadfly
this organ is hard, and indeed it is hard
in most insects. In point of fact, such insects
as have no sting in the rear use this organ
as a weapon, (and, by the way, such insects
as are provided with this organ are unprovided
with teeth, with the exception of a few insects);
the fly by a touch can draw blood with this
organ, and the gnat can prick or sting with
it.
Certain insects are furnished with prickers
or stings. Some insects have the sting inside,
as the bee and the wasp, others outside,
as the scorpion; and, by the way, this is
the only insect furnished with a long tail.
And, further, the scorpion is furnished with
claws, as is also the creature resembling
a scorpion found within the pages of books.
In addition to their other organs, flying
insects are furnished with wings. Some insects
are dipterous or double-winged, as the fly;
others are tetrapterous or furnished with
four wings, as the bee; and, by the way,
no insect with only two wings has a sting
in the rear. Again, some winged insects have
a sheath or shard for their wings, as the
cockchafer; whereas in others the wings are
unsheathed, as in the bee. But in the case
of all alike, flight is in no way modified
by tail-steerage, and the wing is devoid
of quill-structure or division of any kind.
Again, some insects have antennae in front
of their eyes, as the butterfly and the horned
beetle. Such of them as have the power of
jumping have the hinder legs the longer;
and these long hind-legs whereby they jump
bend backwards like the hind-legs of quadrupeds.
All insects have the belly different from
the back; as, in fact, is the case with all
animals. The flesh of an insect's body is
neither shell-like nor is it like the internal
substance of shell-covered animals, nor is
it like flesh in the ordinary sense of the
term; but it is a something intermediate
in quality. Wherefore they have nor spine,
nor bone, nor sepia-bone, nor enveloping
shell; but their body by its hardness is
its own protection and requires no extraneous
support. However, insects have a skin; but
the skin is exceedingly thin. These and such-like
are the external organs of insects.
Internally, next after the mouth, comes a
gut, in the majority of cases straight and
simple down to the outlet of the residuum:
but in a few cases the gut is coiled. No
insect is provided with any viscera, or is
supplied with fat; and these statements apply
to all animals devoid of blood. Some have
a stomach also, and attached to this the
rest of the gut, either simple or convoluted
as in the case of the acris or grasshopper.
The tettix or cicada, alone of such creatures
(and, in fact, alone of all creatures), is
unprovided with a mouth, but it is provided
with the tongue-like formation found in insects
furnished with frontward stings; and this
formation in the cicada is long, continuous,
and devoid of any split; and by the aid of
this the creature feeds on dew, and on dew
only, and in its stomach no excretion is
ever found. Of the cicada there are several
kinds, and they differ from one another in
relative magnitude, and in this respect that
the achetes or chirper is provided with a
cleft or aperture under the hypozoma and
has in it a membrane quite discernible, whilst
the membrane is indiscernible in the tettigonia.
Furthermore, there are some strange creatures
to be found in the sea, which from their
rarity we are unable to classify. Experienced
fishermen affirm, some that they have at
times seen in the sea animals like sticks,
black, rounded, and of the same thickness
throughout; others that they have seen creatures
resembling shields, red in colour, and furnished
with fins packed close together; and others
that they have seen creatures resembling
the male organ in shape and size, with a
pair of fins in the place of the testicles,
and they aver that on one occasion a creature
of this description was brought up on the
end of a nightline.
So much then for the parts, external and
internal, exceptional and common, of all
animals.
Part 8
We now proceed to treat of the senses; for
there are diversities in animals with regard
to the senses, seeing that some animals have
the use of all the senses, and others the
use of a limited number of them. The total
number of the senses (for we have no experience
of any special sense not here included),
is five: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and
touch.
Man, then, and all vivipara that have feet,
and, further, all red-blooded ovipara, appear
to have the use of all the five senses, except
where some isolated species has been subjected
to mutilation, as in the case of the mole.
For this animal is deprived of sight; it
has no eyes visible, but if the skin-a thick
one, by the way-be stripped off the head,
about the place in the exterior where eyes
usually are, the eyes are found inside in
a stunted condition, furnished with all the
parts found in ordinary eyes; that is to
say, we find there the black rim, and the
fatty part surrounding it; but all these
parts are smaller than the same parts in
ordinary visible eyes. There is no external
sign of the existence of these organs in
the mole, owing to the thickness of the skin
drawn over them, so that it would seem that
the natural course of development were congenitally
arrested; (for extending from the brain at
its junction with the marrow are two strong
sinewy ducts running past the sockets of
the eyes, and terminating at the upper eye-teeth).
All the other animals of the kinds above
mentioned have a perception of colour and
of sound, and the senses of smell and taste;
the fifth sense, that, namely, of touch,
is common to all animals whatsoever.
In some animals the organs of sense are plainly
discernible; and this is especially the case
with the eyes. For animals have a special
locality for the eyes, and also a special
locality for hearing: that is to say, some
animals have ears, while others have the
passage for sound discernible. It is the
same with the sense of smell; that is to
say, some animals have nostrils, and others
have only the passages for smell, such as
birds. It is the same also with the organ
of taste, the tongue. Of aquatic red-blooded
animals, fishes possess the organ of taste,
namely the tongue, but it is in an imperfect
and amorphous form, in other words it is
osseous and undetached. In some fish the
palate is fleshy, as in the fresh-water carp,
so that by an inattentive observer it might
be mistaken for a tongue.
There is no doubt but that fishes have the
sense of taste, for a great number of them
delight in special flavours; and fishes freely
take the hook if it be baited with a piece
of flesh from a tunny or from any fat fish,
obviously enjoying the taste and the eating
of food of this kind. Fishes have no visible
organs for hearing or for smell; for what
might appear to indicate an organ for smell
in the region of the nostril has no communication
with the brain. These indications, in fact,
in some cases lead nowhere, like blind alleys,
and in other cases lead only to the gills;
but for all this fishes undoubtedly hear
and smell. For they are observed to run away
from any loud noise, such as would be made
by the rowing of a galley, so as to become
easy of capture in their holes; for, by the
way, though a sound be very slight in the
open air, it has a loud and alarming resonance
to creatures that hear under water. And this
is shown in the capture of the dolphin; for
when the hunters have enclosed a shoal of
these fishes with a ring of their canoes,
they set up from inside the canoes a loud
splashing in the water, and by so doing induce
the creatures to run in a shoal high and
dry up on the beach, and so capture them
while stupefied with the noise. And yet,
for all this, the dolphin has no organ of
hearing discernible. Furthermore, when engaged
in their craft, fishermen are particularly
careful to make no noise with oar or net;
and after they have spied a shoal, they let
down their nets at a spot so far off that
they count upon no noise being likely to
reach the shoal, occasioned either by oar
or by the surging of their boats through
the water; and the crews are strictly enjoined
to preserve silence until the shoal has been
surrounded. And, at times, when they want
the fish to crowd together, they adopt the
stratagem of the dolphin-hunter; in other
words they clatter stones together, that
the fish may, in their fright, gather close
into one spot, and so they envelop them within
their nets. (Before surrounding them, then,
they preserve silence, as was said; but,
after hemming the shoal in, they call on
every man to shout out aloud and make any
kind of noise; for on hearing the noise and
hubbub the fish are sure to tumble into the
nets from sheer fright.) Further, when fishermen
see a shoal of fish feeding at a distance,
disporting themselves in calm bright weather
on the surface of the water, if they are
anxious to descry the size of the fish and
to learn what kind of a fish it is, they
may succeed in coming upon the shoal whilst
yet basking at the surface if they sail up
without the slightest noise, but if any man
make a noise previously, the shoal will be
seen to scurry away in alarm. Again, there
is a small river-fish called the cottus or
bullhead; this creature burrows under a rock,
and fishers catch it by clattering stones
against the rock, and the fish, bewildered
at the noise, darts out of its hiding-place.
From these facts it is quite obvious that
fishes can hear; and indeed some people,
from living near the sea and frequently witnessing
such phenomena, affirm that of all living
creatures the fish is the quickest of hearing.
And, by the way, of all fishes the quickest
of hearing are the cestreus or mullet, the
chremps, the labrax or basse, the salpe or
saupe, the chromis or sciaena, and such like.
Other fishes are less quick of hearing, and,
as might be expected, are more apt to be
found living at the bottom of the sea.
The case is similar in regard to the sense
of smell. Thus, as a rule, fishes will not
touch a bait that is not fresh, neither are
they all caught by one and the same bait,
but they are severally caught by baits suited
to their several likings, and these baits
they distinguish by their sense of smell;
and, by the way, some fishes are attracted
by malodorous baits, as the saupe, for instance,
is attracted by excrement. Again, a number
of fishes live in caves; and accordingly
fishermen, when they want to entice them
out, smear the mouth of a cave with strong-smelling
pickles, and the fish are Soon attracted
to the smell. And the eel is caught in a
similar way; for the fisherman lays down
an earthen pot that has held pickles, after
inserting a 'weel' in the neck thereof. As
a general rule, fishes are especially attracted
by savoury smells. For this reason, fishermen
roast the fleshy parts of the cuttle-fish
and use it as bait on account of its smell,
for fish are peculiarly attracted by it;
they also bake the octopus and bait their
fish-baskets or weels with it, entirely,
as they say, on account of its smell. Furthermore,
gregarious fishes, if fish washings or bilge-water
be thrown overboard, are observed to scud
off to a distance, from apparent dislike
of the smell. And it is asserted that they
can at once detect by smell the presence
of their own blood; and this faculty is manifested
by their hurrying off to a great distance
whenever fish-blood is spilt in the sea.
And, as a general rule, if you bait your
weel with a stinking bait, the fish refuse
to enter the weel or even to draw near; but
if you bait the weel with a fresh and savoury
bait, they come at once from long distances
and swim into it. And all this is particularly
manifest in the dolphin; for, as was stated,
it has no visible organ of hearing, and yet
it is captured when stupefied with noise;
and so, while it has no visible organ for
smell, it has the sense of smell remarkably
keen. It is manifest, then, that the animals
above mentioned are in possession of all
the five senses.
All other animals may, with very few exceptions,
be comprehended within four genera: to wit,
molluscs, crustaceans, testaceans, and insects.
Of these four genera, the mollusc, the crustacean,
and the insect have all the senses: at all
events, they have sight, smell, and taste.
As for insects, both winged and wingless,
they can detect the presence of scented objects
afar off, as for instance bees and snipes
detect the presence of honey at a distance;
and do so recognizing it by smell. Many insects
are killed by the smell of brimstone; ants,
if the apertures to their dwellings be smeared
with powdered origanum and brimstone, quit
their nests; and most insects may be banished
with burnt hart's horn, or better still by
the burning of the gum styrax. The cuttle-fish,
the octopus, and the crawfish may be caught
by bait. The octopus, in fact, clings so
tightly to the rocks that it cannot be pulled
off, but remains attached even when the knife
is employed to sever it; and yet, if you
apply fleabane to the creature, it drops
off at the very smell of it. The facts are
similar in regard to taste. For the food
that insects go in quest of is of diverse
kinds, and they do not all delight in the
same flavours: for instance, the bee never
settles on a withered or wilted flower, but
on fresh and sweet ones; and the conops or
gnat settles only on acrid substances and
not on sweet. The sense of touch, by the
way, as has been remarked, is common to all
animals. Testaceans have the senses of smell
and taste. With regard to their possession
of the sense of smell, that is proved by
the use of baits, e. g. in the case of the
purple-fish; for this creature is enticed
by baits of rancid meat, which it perceives
and is attracted to from a great distance.
The proof that it possesses a sense of taste
hangs by the proof of its sense of smell;
for whenever an animal is attracted to a
thing by perceiving its smell, it is sure
to like the taste of it. Further, all animals
furnished with a mouth derive pleasure or
pain from the touch of sapid juices.
With regard to sight and hearing, we cannot
make statements with thorough confidence
or on irrefutable evidence. However, the
solen or razor-fish, if you make a noise,
appears to burrow in the sand, and to hide
himself deeper when he hears the approach
of the iron rod (for the animal, be it observed,
juts a little out of its hole, while the
greater part of the body remains within),-and
scallops, if you present your finger near
their open valves, close them tight again
as though they could see what you were doing.
Furthermore, when fishermen are laying bait
for neritae, they always get to leeward of
them, and never speak a word while so engaged,
under the firm impression that the animal
can smell and hear; and they assure us that,
if any one speaks aloud, the creature makes
efforts to escape. With regard to testaceans,
of the walking or creeping species the urchin
appears to have the least developed sense
of smell; and, of the stationary species,
the ascidian and the barnacle.
So much for the organs of sense in the general
run of animals. We now proceed to treat of
voice.
Part 9
Voice and sound are different from one another;
and language differs from voice and sound.
The fact is that no animal can give utterance
to voice except by the action of the pharynx,
and consequently such animals as are devoid
of lung have no voice; and language is the
articulation of vocal sounds by the instrumentality
of the tongue. Thus, the voice and larynx
can emit vocal or vowel sounds; non-vocal
or consonantal sounds are made by the tongue
and the lips; and out of these vocal and
non-vocal sounds language is composed. Consequently,
animals that have no tongue at all or that
have a tongue not freely detached, have neither
voice nor language; although, by the way,
they may be enabled to make noises or sounds
by other organs than the tongue.
Insects, for instance, have no voice and
no language, but they can emit sound by internal
air or wind, though not by the emission of
air or wind; for no insects are capable of
respiration. But some of them make a humming
noise, like the bee and the other winged
insects; and others are said to sing, as
the cicada. And all these latter insects
make their special noises by means of the
membrane that is underneath the 'hypozoma'-those
insects, that is to say, whose body is thus
divided; as for instance, one species of
cicada, which makes the sound by means of
the friction of the air. Flies and bees,
and the like, produce their special noise
by opening and shutting their wings in the
act of flying; for the noise made is by the
friction of air between the wings when in
motion. The noise made by grasshoppers is
produced by rubbing or reverberating with
their long hind-legs.
No mollusc or crustacean can produce any
natural voice or sound. Fishes can produce
no voice, for they have no lungs, nor windpipe
and pharynx; but they emit certain inarticulate
sounds and squeaks, which is what is called
their 'voice', as the lyra or gurnard, and
the sciaena (for these fishes make a grunting
kind of noise) and the caprus or boar-fish
in the river Achelous, and the chalcis and
the cuckoo-fish; for the chalcis makes a
sort piping sound, and the cuckoo-fish makes
a sound greatly like the cry of the cuckoo,
and is nicknamed from the circumstance. The
apparent voice in all these fishes is a sound
caused in some cases by a rubbing motion
of their gills, which by the way are prickly,
or in other cases by internal parts about
their bellies; for they all have air or wind
inside them, by rubbing and moving which
they produce the sounds. Some cartilaginous
fish seem to squeak.
But in these cases the term 'voice' is inappropriate;
the more correct expression would be 'sound'.
For the scallop, when it goes along supporting
itself on the water, which is technically
called 'flying', makes a whizzing sound;
and so does the sea-swallow or flying-fish:
for this fish flies in the air, clean out
of the water, being furnished with fins broad
and long. Just then as in the flight of birds
the sound made by their wings is obviously
not voice, so is it in the case of all these
other creatures.
The dolphin, when taken out of the water,
gives a squeak and moans in the air, but
these noises do not resemble those above
mentioned. For this creature has a voice
(and can therefore utter vocal or vowel sounds),
for it is furnished with a lung and a windpipe;
but its tongue is not loose, nor has it lips,
so as to give utterance to an articulate
sound (or a sound of vowel and consonant
in combination.)
Of animals which are furnished with tongue
and lung, the oviparous quadrupeds produce
a voice, but a feeble one; in some cases,
a shrill piping sound, like the serpent;
in others, a thin faint cry; in others, a
low hiss, like the tortoise. The formation
of the tongue in the frog is exceptional.
The front part of the tongue, which in other
animals is detached, is tightly fixed in
the frog as it is in all fishes; but the
part towards the pharynx is freely detached,
and may, so to speak, be spat outwards, and
it is with this that it makes its peculiar
croak. The croaking that goes on in the marsh
is the call of the males to the females at
rutting time; and, by the way, all animals
have a special cry for the like end at the
like season, as is observed in the case of
goats, swine, and sheep. (The bull-frog makes
its croaking noise by putting its under jaw
on a level with the surface of the water
and extending its upper jaw to its utmost
capacity. The tension is so great that the
upper jaw becomes transparent, and the animal's
eyes shine through the jaw like lamps; for,
by the way, the commerce of the sexes takes
place usually in the night time.) Birds can
utter vocal sounds; and such of them can
articulate best as have the tongue moderately
flat, and also such as have thin delicate
tongues. In some cases, the male and the
female utter the same note; in other cases,
different notes. The smaller birds are more
vocal and given to chirping than the larger
ones; but in the pairing season every species
of bird becomes particularly vocal. Some
of them call when fighting, as the quail,
others cry or crow when challenging to combat,
as the partridge, or when victorious, as
the barn-door cock. In some cases cock-birds
and hens sing alike, as is observed in the
nightingale, only that the hen stops singing
when brooding or rearing her young; in other
birds, the cocks sing more than the hens;
in fact, with barn-door fowls and quails,
the cock sings and the hen does not.
Viviparous quadrupeds utter vocal sounds
of different kinds, but they have no power
of converse. In fact, this power, or language,
is peculiar to man. For while the capability
of talking implies the capability of uttering
vocal sounds, the converse does not hold
good. Men that are born deaf are in all cases
also dumb; that is, they can make vocal sounds,
but they cannot speak. Children, just as
they have no control over other parts, so
have no control, at first, over the tongue;
but it is so far imperfect, and only frees
and detaches itself by degrees, so that in
the interval children for the most part lisp
and stutter.
Vocal sounds and modes of language differ
according to locality. Vocal sounds are characterized
chiefly by their pitch, whether high or low,
and the kinds of sound capable of being produced
are identical within the limits of one and
the same species; but articulate sound, that
one might reasonably designate 'language',
differs both in various animals, and also
in the same species according to diversity
of locality; as for instance, some partridges
cackle, and some make a shrill twittering
noise. Of little birds, some sing a different
note from the parent birds, if they have
been removed from the nest and have heard
other birds singing; and a mother-nightingale
has been observed to give lessons in singing
to a young bird, from which spectacle we
might obviously infer that the song of the
bird was not equally congenital with mere
voice, but was something capable of modification
and of improvement. Men have the same voice
or vocal sounds, but they differ from one
another in speech or language.
The elephant makes a vocal sound of a windlike
sort by the mouth alone, unaided by the trunk,
just like the sound of a man panting or sighing;
but, if it employ the trunk as well, the
sound produced is like that of a hoarse trumpet.
Part 10
With regard to the sleeping and waking of
animals, all creatures that are red-blooded
and provided with legs give sensible proof
that they go to sleep and that they waken
up from sleep; for, as a matter of fact,
all animals that are furnished with eyelids
shut them up when they go to sleep. Furthermore,
it would appear that not only do men dream,
but horses also, and dogs, and oxen; aye,
and sheep, and goats, and all viviparous
quadrupeds; and dogs show their dreaming
by barking in their sleep. With regard to
oviparous animals we cannot be sure that
they dream, but most undoubtedly they sleep.
And the same may be said of water animals,
such as fishes, molluscs, crustaceans, to
wit crawfish and the like. These animals
sleep without doubt, although their sleep
is of very short duration. The proof of their
sleeping cannot be got from the condition
of their eyes-for none of these creatures
are furnished with eyelids-but can be obtained
only from their motionless repose.
Apart from the irritation caused by lice
and what are nicknamed fleas, fish are met
with in a state so motionless that one might
easily catch them by hand; and, as a matter
of fact, these little creatures, if the fish
remain long in one position, will attack
them in myriads and devour them. For these
parasites are found in the depths of the
sea, and are so numerous that they devour
any bait made of fish's flesh if it be left
long on the ground at the bottom; and fishermen
often draw up a cluster of them, all clinging
on to the bait.
But it is from the following facts that we
may more reasonably infer that fishes sleep.
Very often it is possible to take a fish
off its guard so far as to catch hold of
it or to give it a blow unawares; and all
the while that you are preparing to catch
or strike it, the fish is quite still but
for a slight motion of the tail. And it is
quite obvious that the animal is sleeping,
from its movements if any disturbance be
made during its repose; for it moves just
as you would expect in a creature suddenly
awakened. Further, owing to their being asleep,
fish may be captured by torchlight. The watchmen
in the tunny-fishery often take advantage
of the fish being asleep to envelop them
in a circle of nets; and it is quite obvious
that they were thus sleeping by their lying
still and allowing the glistening under-parts
of their bodies to become visible, while
the capture is taking Place. They sleep in
the night-time more than during the day;
and so soundly at night that you may cast
the net without making them stir. Fish, as
a general rule, sleep close to the ground,
or to the sand or to a stone at the bottom,
or after concealing themselves under a rock
or the ground. Flat fish go to sleep in the
sand; and they can be distinguished by the
outlines of their shapes in the sand, and
are caught in this position by being speared
with pronged instruments. The basse, the
chrysophrys or gilt-head, the mullet, and
fish of the like sort are often caught in
the daytime by the prong owing to their having
been surprised when sleeping; for it is scarcely
probable that fish could be pronged while
awake. Cartilaginous fish sleep at times
so soundly that they may be caught by hand.
The dolphin and the whale, and all such as
are furnished with a blow-hole, sleep with
the blow-hole over the surface of the water,
and breathe through the blow-hole while they
keep up a quiet flapping of their fins; indeed,
some mariners assure us that they have actually
heard the dolphin snoring.
Molluscs sleep like fishes, and crustaceans
also. It is plain also that insects sleep;
for there can be no mistaking their condition
of motionless repose. In the bee the fact
of its being asleep is very obvious; for
at night- time bees are at rest and cease
to hum. But the fact that insects sleep may
be very well seen in the case of common every-day
creatures; for not only do they rest at night-time
from dimness of vision (and, by the way,
all hard-eyed creatures see but indistinctly),
but even if a lighted candle be presented
they continue sleeping quite as soundly.
Of all animals man is most given to dreaming.
Children and infants do not dream, but in
most cases dreaming comes on at the age of
four or five years. Instances have been known
of full-grown men and women that have never
dreamed at all; in exceptional cases of this
kind, it has been observed that when a dream
occurs in advanced life it prognosticates
either actual dissolution or a general break-up
of the system.
So much then for sensation and for the phenomena
of sleeping and of awakening.
Part 11
With regard to sex, some animals are divided
into male and female, but others are not
so divided but can only be said in a comparative
way to bring forth young and to be pregnant.
In animals that live confined to one spot
there is no duality of sex; nor is there
such, in fact, in any testaceans. In molluscs
and in crustaceans we find male and female:
and, indeed, in all animals furnished with
feet, biped or quadruped; in short, in all
such as by copulation engender either live
young or egg or grub. In the several genera,
with however certain exceptions, there either
absolutely is or absolutely is not a duality
of sex. Thus, in quadrupeds the duality is
universal, while the absence of such duality
is universal in testaceans, and of these
creatures, as with plants, some individuals
are fruitful and some are not their lying
still
But among insects and fishes, some cases
are found wholly devoid of this duality of
sex. For instance, the eel is neither male
nor female, and can engender nothing. In
fact, those who assert that eels are at times
found with hair-like or worm-like progeny
attached, make only random assertions from
not having carefully noticed the locality
of such attachments. For no eel nor animal
of this kind is ever viviparous unless previously
oviparous; and no eel was ever yet seen with
an egg. And animals that are viviparous have
their young in the womb and closely attached,
and not in the belly; for, if the embryo
were kept in the belly, it would be subjected
to the process of digestion like ordinary
food. When people rest duality of sex in
the eel on the assertion that the head of
the male is bigger and longer, and the head
of the female smaller and more snubbed, they
are taking diversity of species for diversity
of sex.
There are certain fish that are nicknamed
the epitragiae, or capon-fish, and, by the
way, fish of this description are found in
fresh water, as the carp and the balagrus.
This sort of fish never has either roe or
milt; but they are hard and fat all over,
and are furnished with a small gut; and these
fish are regarded as of super-excellent quality.
Again, just as in testaceans and in plants
there is what bears and engenders, but not
what impregnates, so is it, among fishes,
with the psetta, the erythrinus, and the
channe; for these fish are in all cases found
furnished with eggs.
As a general rule, in red-blooded animals
furnished with feet and not oviparous, the
male is larger and longer-lived than the
female (except with the mule, where the female
is longer-lived and bigger than the male);
whereas in oviparous and vermiparous creatures,
as in fishes and in insects, the female is
larger than the male; as, for instance, with
the serpent, the phalangium or venom-spider,
the gecko, and the frog. The same difference
in size of the sexes is found in fishes,
as, for instance, in the smaller cartilaginous
fishes, in the greater part of the gregarious
species, and in all that live in and about
rocks. The fact that the female is longer-
lived than the male is inferred from the
fact that female fishes are caught older
than males. Furthermore, in all animals the
upper and front parts are better, stronger,
and more thoroughly equipped in the male
than in the female, whereas in the female
those parts are the better that may be termed
hinder-parts or underparts. And this statement
is applicable to man and to all vivipara
that have feet. Again, the female is less
muscular and less compactly jointed, and
more thin and delicate in the hair-that is,
where hair is found; and, where there is
no hair, less strongly furnished in some
analogous substance. And the female is more
flaccid in texture of flesh, and more knock-kneed,
and the shin-bones are thinner; and the feet
are more arched and hollow in such animals
as are furnished with feet. And with regard
to voice, the female in all animals that
are vocal has a thinner and sharper voice
than the male; except, by the way, with kine,
for the lowing and bellowing of the cow has
a deeper note than that of the bull.
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