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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. With regard
to organs |