part in an imperfect state? The first surmise which I have mentioned

would appear, indeed, to be much nearer the truth, were it not the

case that here another difficulty meets us—the circumstance that

sometimes, at the extremity of the combs, there are produced bees of

a larger size, which put the others to flight. This noxious bee bears

the name of _œstrus_,[53] and how is it possible that it should ever

be produced, if it is the fact that the bees themselves form their

progeny?[54]

A fact, however, that is well ascertained, is, that bees sit,[55] like

the domestic fowl, that which is hatched by them at first having

the appearance of a white maggot, and lying across and adhering so

tenaciously to the wax as to seem to be part of it. The king, however,

from the earliest moment, is of the colour of honey, just as though he

were made of the choicest flowers, nor has he at any time the form of

a grub, but from the very first is provided with wings.[56] The rest

of the bees, as soon as they begin to assume a shape, have the name of

_nymphæ_,[57] while the drones are called _sirenes_, or _cephenes_. If

a person takes off the head of either kind before the wings are formed,

the rest of the body is considered a most choice morsel by the parents.

In process of time the parent bees instil nutriment into them, and

sit upon them, making on this occasion a loud humming noise, for the

purpose, it is generally supposed, of generating that warmth which is

so requisite for hatching the young. At length the membrane in which

each of them is enveloped, as though it lay in an egg, bursts asunder,

and the whole swarm comes to light.

This circumstance was witnessed at the suburban retreat of a man of

consular dignity near Rome, whose hives were made of transparent

lantern horn: the young were found to be developed in the space of

forty-five days. In some combs, there is found what is known by the

name of “nail” wax;[58] it is bitter and hard, and is only met with

when the bees have failed to hatch their young, either from disease

or a natural sterility, it is the abortion, in fact, of the bees. The

young ones, the moment they are hatched, commence working with their

parents, as though in a course of training, and the newly-born king is

accompanied by a multitude of his own age.

That the supply may not run short, each swarm rears several kings; but

afterwards, when this progeny begins to arrive at a mature age, with

one accord[59] they put to death the inferior ones, lest they should

create discord in the swarm.[60] There are two sorts of king bees;

those of a reddish colour are better than the black and mottled ones.

The kings have always a peculiar form of their own, and are double the

size of any of the rest; their wings are shorter[61] than those of the

others, their legs are straight, their walk more upright, and they have

a white spot on the forehead, which bears some resemblance to a diadem:

they differ, too, very much from the rest of the community, in their

bright and shining appearance.

CHAP. 17. (17.)—THE MODE OF GOVERNMENT OF THE BEES.

Let a man employ himself, forsooth, in the enquiry whether there has

been only one Hercules, how many fathers Liber there have been, and all

the other questions which are buried deep in the mould of antiquity!

Here behold a tiny object, one to be met with at most of our country

retreats, and numbers of which are always at hand, and yet, after all,

it is not agreed among authors whether or not the king[62] is the only

one among them that is provided with no sting, and is possessed of no

other arms than those afforded him by his majestic office, or whether

Nature has granted him a sting, and has only denied him the power of

making use of it; it being a well-known fact, that the ruling bee

never does use a sting. The obedience which his subjects manifest in

his presence is quite surprising. When he goes forth, the whole swarm

attends him, throngs about him, surrounds him, protects him, and will

not allow him to be seen. At other times, when the swarm is at work

within, the king is seen to visit the works, and appears to be giving

his encouragement, being himself the only one that is exempt from work:

around him are certain other bees which act as body-guards and lictors,

the careful guardians of his authority. The king never quits the hive

except when the swarm is about to depart; a thing which may be known

a long time beforehand, as for some days a peculiar buzzing noise is

to be heard within, which denotes that the bees are waiting for a

favourable day, and making all due preparations for their departure. On

such an occasion, if care is taken to deprive the king of one of his

wings, the swarm will not fly away. When they are on the wing, every

one is anxious to be near him, and takes a pleasure in being seen in

the performance of its duty. When he is weary, they support him on

their shoulders; and when he is quite tired, they carry him outright.

If one of them falls in the rear from weariness, or happens to go

astray, it is able to follow the others by the aid of its acuteness

of smell. Wherever the king bee happens to settle, that becomes the

encampment of all.

CHAP. 18.—HAPPY OMENS SOMETIMES AFFORDED BY A SWARM OF BEES.

And then, too, it is that they afford presages both of private and

public interest, clustering, as they do, like a bunch of grapes, upon

houses or temples; presages, in fact, that are often accounted for by

great events. Bees settled upon the lips of Plato when still an infant

even, announcing thereby the sweetness of that persuasive eloquence for

which he was so noted. Bees settled, too, in the camp of the chieftain

Drusus when he gained the brilliant victory at Arbalo;[63] a proof,

indeed, that the conjectures of soothsayers are not by any means

infallible, seeing that they are of opinion that this is always of evil

augury. When their leader is withheld from them, the swarm can always

be detained; and when lost, it will disperse and take its departure to

find other kings. Without a king, in fact, they cannot exist, and it

is with the greatest reluctance that they put them to death when there

are several; they prefer, too, to destroy the cells of the young ones,

if they find reason to despair of providing food; in such case they

then expel the drones. And yet, with regard to the last, I find that

some doubts are entertained; and that there are some authors who are

of opinion that they form a peculiar species, like that bee, the very

largest among them all, which is known by the name of the “thief,”[64]

because it furtively devours the honey; it is distinguished by its

black colour and the largeness of its body. It is a well-known fact,

however, that the bees are in the habit of killing the drones. These

last have no king of their own; but how it is that they are produced

without a sting, is a matter still undetermined.

In a wet spring the young swarms are more numerous; in a dry one the

honey is most abundant. If food happens to fail the inhabitants of any

particular hive, the swarm makes a concerted attack upon a neighbouring

one, with the view of plundering it. The swarm that is thus attacked,

at once ranges itself in battle array, and if the bee-keeper should

happen to be present, that side which perceives itself favoured by

him will refrain from attacking him. They often fight, too, for other

reasons as well, and the two generals are to be seen drawing up their

ranks in battle array against their opponents. The dispute generally

arises in culling from the flowers, when each, the moment that it is

in danger, summons its companions to its aid. The battle, however, is

immediately put an end to by throwing dust[65] among them, or raising

a smoke; and if milk or honey mixed with water is placed before them,

they speedily become reconciled.

CHAP. 19. (18.)—THE VARIOUS KINDS OF BEES.

There are field bees also, and wild bees, ungainly in appearance,

and much more irascible than the others, but remarkable for their

laboriousness and the excellence of their work. Of domestic bees there

are two sorts; the best are those with short bodies, speckled all over,

and of a compact round shape. Those that are long, and resemble the

wasp in appearance, are an inferior kind; and of these last, the very

worst of all are those which have the body covered with hair. In Pontus

there is a kind of white bee, which makes honey twice a month. On the

banks of the river Thermodon there are two kinds found, one of which

makes honey in the trees, the other under ground: they form a triple

row of combs, and produce honey in the greatest abundance.

Nature has provided bees with a sting, which is inserted in the abdomen

of the insect. There are some who think that at the first blow which

they inflict with this weapon they will instantly die,[66] while

others, again, are of opinion that such is not the case, unless the

animal drives it so deep as to cause a portion of the intestines to

follow; and they assert, also, that after they have thus lost their

sting they become drones,[67] and make no honey, being thus castrated,

so to say, and equally incapable of inflicting injury, and of making

themselves useful by their labours. We have instances stated of horses

being killed by bees.

They have a great aversion to bad smells, and fly away from them; a

dislike which extends to artificial perfumes even. Hence it is that

they will attack persons who smell of unguents. They themselves, also,

are exposed to the attacks of wasps and hornets, which belong to the

same class, but are of a degenerate[68] nature; these wage continual

warfare against them, as also does a species of gnat, which is known by

the name of “mulio;”[69] swallows, too, and various other birds prey

upon them. Frogs lie in wait for them when in quest of water, which,

in fact, is their principal occupation at the time they are rearing

their young. And it is not only the frog that frequents ponds and

streams that is thus injurious to them, but the bramble-frog as well,

which will come to the hives even in search of them, and, crawling up

to the entrance, breathe through the apertures; upon hearing which, a

bee flies to the spot, and is snapped up in an instant. It is generally

stated that frogs are proof against the sting of the bee. Sheep, too,

are peculiarly dangerous to them, as they have the greatest difficulty

in extricating themselves from the fleece. The smell of crabs,[70] if

they happen to be cooked in their vicinity, is fatal to them.

CHAP. 20.—THE DISEASES OF BEES.

Bees are also by nature liable to certain diseases of their own. The

sign that they are diseased, is a kind of torpid, moping sadness: on

such occasions, they are to be seen bringing out those that are sick

before the hives, and placing them in the warm sun, while others,

again, are providing them with food. Those that are dead they carry

away from the hive, and attend the bodies, paying their last duties, as

it were, in funeral procession. If the king should happen to be carried

off by the pestilence, the swarm remains plunged in grief and listless

inactivity; it collects no more food, and ceases to issue forth from

its abode; the only thing that it does is to gather around the body,

and to emit a melancholy humming noise. Upon such occasions, the usual

plan is to disperse the swarm and take away the body; for otherwise

they would continue listlessly gazing upon it, and so prolong their

grief. Indeed, if due care is not taken to come to their aid, they will

die of hunger. It is from their cheerfulness, in fact, and their bright

and sleek appearance that we usually form an estimate as to their

health.

(19) There are certain maladies, also, which affect their productions;

when they do not fill their combs, the disease under which they are

labouring is known by the name of _claros_,[71] and if they fail to

rear their young, they are suffering from the effects of that known as

_blapsigonia_.[72]

CHAP. 21.—THINGS THAT ARE NOXIOUS TO BEES.

Echo, or the noise made by the reverberation of the air, is also

injurious to bees, as it dismays them by its redoubled sounds; fogs,

also, are noxious to them. Spiders, too, are especially hostile to

bees; when they have gone so far as to build their webs within the

hive, the death of the whole swarm is the result. The common and

ignoble moth,[73] too, that is to be seen fluttering about a burning

candle, is deadly to them, and that in more ways than one. It devours

the wax, and leaves its ordure behind it, from which the maggot known

to us as the “teredo” is produced; besides which, wherever it goes, it

drops the down from off its wings, and thereby thickens the threads of

the cobwebs. The teredo is also engendered in the wood of the hive,

and then it proves especially destructive to the wax. Bees are the

victims, also, of their own greediness, for when they glut themselves

overmuch with the juices of the flowers, in the spring season more

particularly, they are troubled with flux and looseness. Olive oil is

fatal[74] to not only bees, but all other insects as well, and more

especially if they are placed in the sun, after the head has been

immersed in it. Sometimes, too, they themselves are the cause of their

own destruction; as, for instance, when they see preparations being

made for taking their honey, and immediately fall to devouring it with

the greatest avidity. In other respects they are remarkable for their

abstemiousness, and they will expel those that are inclined to be

prodigal and voracious, no less than those that are sluggish and idle.

Their own honey even may be productive of injury to them; for if they

are smeared with it on the fore-part of the body, it is fatal to them.

Such are the enemies, so numerous are the accidents—and how small a

portion of them have I here enumerated!—to which a creature that proves

so bountiful to us is exposed. In the appropriate place[75] we will

treat of the proper remedies; for the present the nature of them is our

subject.

CHAP. 22. (20.)—HOW TO KEEP BEES TO THE HIVE.

The clapping of the hands and the tinkling of brass afford bees great

delight, and it is by these means that they are brought together; a

strong proof, in fact, that they are possessed of the sense of hearing.

When their work is completed, their offspring brought forth, and all

their duties fulfilled, they still have certain formal exercises to

perform, ranging abroad throughout the country, and soaring aloft in

the air, wheeling round and round as they fly, and then, when the hour

for taking their food has come, returning home. The extreme period of

their life, supposing that they escape accident and the attacks of

their enemies, is only seven years; a hive, it is said, never lasts

more than ten.[76] There are some persons, who think that, when dead,

if they are preserved in the house throughout the winter, and then

exposed to the warmth of the spring sun, and kept hot all day in the

ashes of fig-tree wood, they will come to life again.

CHAP. 23.—METHODS OF RENEWING THE SWARM.

These persons say also, that if the swarm is entirely lost, it may be

replaced by the aid of the belly[77] of an ox newly killed, covered

over with dung. Virgil also says[78] that this may be done with the

body of a young bull, in the same way that the carcase of the horse

produces wasps and hornets, and that of the ass beetles, Nature herself

effecting these changes of one substance into another. But in all

these last, sexual intercourse is to be perceived as well, though the

characteristics of the offspring are pretty much the same as those of

the bee.

CHAP. 24. (21.)—WASPS AND HORNETS: ANIMALS WHICH APPROPRIATE WHAT

BELONGS TO OTHERS.

Wasps build their nests of mud in lofty places,[79] and make wax

therein: hornets, on the other hand, build in holes or under ground.

With these two kinds the cells are also hexagonal, but, in other

respects, though made of the bark of trees, they strongly resemble the

substance of a spider’s web. Their young also are found at irregular

intervals, and are of unshapely appearance; while one is able to fly,

another is still a mere pupa, and a third only in the maggot state.

It is in the autumn, too, and not in the spring, that all their young

are produced; and they grow during the full moon more particularly.

The wasp which is known as the ichneumon,[80] a smaller kind than

the others, kills one kind of spider in particular, known as the

phalangium; after which it carries the body to its nest, covers it over

with a sort of gluey substance, and then sits and hatches from it its

young.[81] In addition to this, they are all of them carnivorous, while

on the other hand bees will touch no animal substance whatever. Wasps

more particularly pursue the larger flies, and after catching them cut

off the head and carry away the remaining portion of the body.

Wild hornets live in the holes of trees, and in winter, like other

insects, keep themselves concealed; their life does not exceed two

years in length. It is not unfrequently that their sting is productive

of an attack of fever, and there are authors who say that thrice nine

stings will suffice to kill a man. Of the other hornets, which seem

not to be so noxious, there are two kinds; the working ones, which

are smaller in size and die in the winter; and the parent hornets,

which live two years; these last, indeed, are quite harmless.[82] In

spring they build their nests, which have generally four entrances,

and here it is that the working hornets are produced: after these

have been hatched they form other nests of larger size, in which to

bring forth the parents of the future generation. From this time the

working hornets begin to follow their vocation, and apply themselves to

supplying the others with food. The parent hornets are of larger size

than the others, and it is very doubtful whether they have a sting, as

it is never to be seen protruded. These races, too, have their drones.

Some persons are of opinion that all these insects lose their stings

in the winter. Neither hornets nor wasps have a king, nor do they

ever congregate in swarms; but their numbers are recruited by fresh

offspring from time to time.

CHAP. 25. (22.)—THE BOMBYX OF ASSYRIA.

A fourth class of this kind[83] of insect is the bombyx,[84] which is a

native of Assyria, and is of larger size than any of those which have

been previously mentioned. They construct their nests of a kind of mud

which has the appearance of salt, and then fasten them to a stone,

where they become so hard, that it is scarcely possible to penetrate

them with a dart even. In these nests they make wax, in larger

quantities than bees, and the grub which they then produce is larger.

CHAP. 26.—THE LARVÆ OF THE SILK-WORM—WHO FIRST INVENTED SILK CLOTHS.

There is another class also of these insects produced in quite a

different manner. These last spring from a grub of larger size, with

two horns of very peculiar appearance. The larva then becomes a

caterpillar, after which it assumes the state in which it is known

as _bombylis_, then that called _necydalus_, and after that, in six

months, it becomes a silk-worm.[85] These insects weave webs similar

to those of the spider, the material of which is used for making the

more costly and luxurious garments of females, known as “bombycina.”

Pamphile, a woman of Cos,[86] the daughter of Platea, was the first[87]

person who discovered the art of unravelling these webs and spinning a

tissue therefrom; indeed, she ought not to be deprived of the glory of

having discovered the art of making vestments which, while they cover a

woman, at the same moment reveal her naked charms.

CHAP. 27. (23.)—THE SILK-WORM OF COS—HOW THE COAN VESTMENTS ARE MADE.

The silk-worm, too, is said to be a native of the isle of Cos, where

the vapours of the earth give new life to the flowers of the cypress,

the terebinth, the ash, and the oak which have been beaten down by

the showers. At first they assume the appearance of small butterflies

with naked bodies, but soon after, being unable to endure the cold,

they throw out bristly hairs, and assume quite a thick coat against

the winter, by rubbing off the down that covers the leaves, by the

aid of the roughness of their feet. This they compress into balls by

carding it with their claws, and then draw it out and hang it between

the branches of the trees, making it fine by combing it out as it were:

last of all, they take and roll it round their body, thus forming a

nest in which they are enveloped. It is in this state that they are

taken; after which they are placed in earthen vessels in a warm place,

and fed upon bran. A peculiar sort of down soon shoots forth upon the

body, on being clothed with which they are sent to work upon another

task. The cocoons[88] which they have begun to form are rendered soft

and pliable by the aid of water, and are then drawn out into threads

by means of a spindle made of a reed. Nor, in fact, have the men even

felt ashamed to make use[89] of garments formed of this material, in

consequence of their extreme lightness in summer: for, so greatly have

manners degenerated in our day, that, so far from wearing a cuirass,

a garment even is found to be too heavy. The produce of the Assyrian

silk-worm, however, we have till now left to the women only.

CHAP. 28. (24.)—SPIDERS; THE KINDS THAT MAKE WEBS; THE MATERIALS USED

BY THEM IN SO DOING.

It is by no means an absurdity to append to the silk-worm an account

of the spider, a creature which is worthy of our especial admiration.

There are numerous kinds of spiders, however, which it will not be

necessary here to mention, from the fact of their being so well known.

Those that bear the name of _phalangium_ are of small size, with bodies

spotted and running to a point; their bite is venomous, and they leap

as they move from place to place. Another kind, again, is black, and

the fore-legs are remarkable for their length. They have all of them

three joints in the legs. The smaller kind of wolf-spider[90] does not

make a web, but the larger ones make their holes in the earth, and

spread their nets at the narrow entrance thereof. A third kind, again,

is remarkable for the skill which it displays in its operations. These

spin a large web, and the abdomen suffices to supply the material

for so extensive a work, whether it is that, at stated periods the

excrements are largely secreted in the abdomen, as Democritus thinks,

or that the creature has in itself a certain faculty of secreting[91]

a peculiar sort of woolly substance. How steadily does it work with

its claws, how beautifully rounded and how equal are the threads as it

forms its web, while it employs the weight of its body as an equipoise!

It begins at the middle to weave its web, and then extends it by adding

the threads in rings around, like a warp upon the woof: forming the

meshes at equal intervals, but continually enlarging them as the web

increases in breadth, it finally unites them all by an indissoluble

knot. With what wondrous art does it conceal the snares that lie in

wait for its prey in its checkered nettings! How little, too, would it

seem that there is any such trap laid in the compactness of its web

and the tenacious texture of the woof, which would appear of itself

to be finished and arranged by the exercise of the very highest art!

How loose, too, is the body of the web as it yields to the blasts,

and how readily does it catch all objects which come in its way! You

would fancy that it had left, quite exhausted, the thrums of the upper

portion of its net unfinished where they are spread across; it is with

the greatest difficulty that they are to be perceived, and yet the

moment that an object touches them, like the lines of the hunter’s

net, they throw it into the body of the web. With what architectural

skill, too, is its hole arched over, and how well defended by a nap of

extra thickness against the cold! How carefully, too, it retires into a

corner, and appears intent upon anything but what it really is, all the

while that it is so carefully shut up from view, that it is impossible

to perceive whether there is anything within or not! And then too, how

extraordinary the strength of the web! When is the wind ever known to

break it, or what accumulation of dust is able to weigh it down?

The spider often spreads its web right across between two trees, when

plying its art and learning how to spin; and then, as to its length,

the thread extends from the very top of the tree to the ground, while

the insect springs up again in an instant from the earth, and travels

aloft by the very self-same thread, thus mounting at the same moment

and spinning its threads. When its prey falls into its net, how on the

alert it is, and with what readiness it runs to seize it! Even though

it should be adhering to the very edge of its web, the insect always

runs instantly to the middle, as it is by these means that it can most

effectually shake the web, and so successfully entangle its prey. When

the web is torn, the spider immediately sets about repairing it, and

that so neatly, that nothing like patching can ever be seen. The spider

lies in wait even for the young of the lizard, and after enveloping the

head of the animal, bites its lips; a sight by no means unworthy of

the amphitheatre itself, when it is one’s good fortune to witness it.

Presages also are drawn from the spider; for when a river is about to

swell, it will suspend its web higher than usual. In calm weather these

insects do not spin, but when it is cloudy they do, and hence it is,

that a great number of cobwebs is a sure sign of showery weather. It

is generally supposed that it is the female spider that spins, and the

male that lies in wait for prey, thus making an equal division of their

duties.

CHAP. 29.—THE GENERATION OF SPIDERS.

Spiders couple[92] backwards, and produce maggots like eggs; for I

ought not to defer making some mention of this subject, seeing, in

fact, that of most insects there is hardly anything else to be said.

All these eggs they lay in their webs, but scattered about, as they

leap from place to place while laying them. The phalangium is the only

spider that lays a considerable number of them, in a hole; and as

soon as ever the progeny is hatched it devours its mother, and very

often the male parent as well, for that, too, aids in the process of

incubation. These last produce as many as three hundred eggs, the

others a smaller number. Spiders take three days to hatch their eggs.

They come to their full growth in twenty-eight days.

CHAP. 30. (25.)—SCORPIONS.

In a similar manner to the spider, the land scorpion also produces

maggots[93] similar to eggs, and dies in a similar manner. This animal

is a dangerous scourge, and has a venom like that of the serpent; with

the exception that its effects are far more[94] painful, as the person

who is stung will linger for three days before death ensues. The sting

is invariably fatal to virgins, and nearly always so to matrons. It is

so to men also, in the morning, when the animal has issued from its

hole in a fasting state, and has not yet happened to discharge its

poison by any accidental stroke. The tail is always ready to strike,

and ceases not for an instant to menace, so that no opportunity may

possibly be missed. The animal strikes too with a sidelong blow, or

else by turning the tail upwards. Apollodorus informs us, that the

poison which they secrete is of a white colour, and he has divided

them into nine classes, distinguished mostly by their colours—to very

little purpose, however, for it is impossible to understand which among

these it is that he has pronounced to be the least dangerous. He says,

also, that some of them have a double sting, and that the males—for he

asserts that they are engendered by the union of the sexes—are the most

dangerous. These may easily be known, he says, by their slender form

and greater length. He states, also, that they all of them have venom

in the middle of the day, when they have been warmed by the heat of the

sun, as, also, when they are thirsty—their thirst, indeed, can never be

quenched. It is an ascertained fact, that those which have seven joints

in the tail are the most[95] deadly; the greater part, however, have

but six.

For this pest of Africa, the southern winds have provided means of

flight as well, for as the breeze bears them along, they extend

their arms and ply them like so many oars in their flight; the same

Apollodorus, however, asserts that there are some which really have

wings.[96] The Psylli, who for their own profit have been in the habit

of importing the poisons of other lands among us, and have thus filled

Italy with the pests which belong to other regions, have made attempts

to import the flying scorpion as well, but it has been found that

it cannot live further north than the latitude of Sicily. However,

they[97] are sometimes to be seen in Italy, but are quite harmless

there; they are found, also, in many other places, the vicinity of

Pharos, in Egypt, for instance. In Scythia, the scorpion is able to

kill the swine even with its sting, an animal which, in general, is

proof against poisons of this kind in a remarkable degree. When stung,

those swine which are black die more speedily than others, and more

particularly if they happen to throw themselves into the water. When a

person has been stung, it is generally supposed that he may be cured

by drinking the ashes of the scorpion[98] mixed with wine. It is the

belief also that there is nothing more baneful to the scorpion and

the stellio,[99] than to dip them in oil. This last animal is also

dangerous to all other creatures, except those which, like itself,

are destitute of blood: in figure it strongly resembles the common

lizard. For the most part, also, the scorpion does no injury to any

animal which is bloodless. Some writers, too, are of opinion that the

scorpion devours its offspring, and that the one among the young which

is the most adroit avails itself of its sole mode of escape, by placing

itself on the back of the mother, and thus finding a place where it is

in safety from the tail and the sting. The one that thus escapes, they

say, becomes the avenger of the rest, and at last, taking advantage of

its elevated position, puts its parents to death. The scorpion produces

eleven at a birth.

CHAP. 31. (26.)—THE STELLIO.

The stellio[100] has in some measure the same nature as the chameleon,

as it lives upon nothing but dew, and such spiders[101] as it may

happen to find.

CHAP. 32.—THE GRASSHOPPER: THAT IT HAS NEITHER MOUTH NOR OUTLET FOR

FOOD.

The cicada[102] also lives in a similar manner, and is divided into

two kinds. The smaller kind are born the first and die the last, and

are without a voice. The others are of the flying kind, and have a

note; there are two sorts, those known as _achetæ_, and the smaller

ones called _tettigonia_: these last have the loudest voice. In both of

these last-mentioned kinds, it is the male that sings, while the female

is silent. There are nations in the east that feed upon these insects,

the Parthians even, wealthy and affluent as they are. They prefer the

male before it has had sexual intercourse, and the female after; and

they take[103] their eggs, which are white. They engender with the

belly upwards. Upon the back they have a sharp-edged instrument,[104]

by means of which they excavate a hole to breed in, in the ground. The

young is, at first, a small maggot in appearance, after which the larva

assumes the form in which it is known as the _tettigometra_.[105] It

bursts its shell about the time of the summer solstice, and then takes

to flight, which always happens in the night. The insect, at first, is

black and hard.

This is the only living creature that has no mouth; though it has

something instead which bears a strong resemblance to the tongues of

those insects which carry a sting in the mouth: this organ is situate

in the breast[106] of the animal, and is employed by it in sucking

up the dew. The corselet itself forms a kind of pipe; and it is by

means of this that the achetæ utter their note, as already mentioned.

Beyond this, they have no viscera in the abdomen. When surprised, they

spring upwards, and eject a kind of liquid, which, indeed, is our only

proof that they live upon dew. This, also, is the only animal that

has no outlet for the evacuations of the body. Their powers of sight

are so bad, that if a person contracts his finger, and then suddenly

extends it close to them, they will come upon it just as though it

were a leaf. Some authors divide these animals into two kinds, the

“surcularia,”[107] which is the largest, and the “frumentaria,”[108] by

many known as the “avenaria;”[109] this last makes its appearance just

as the corn is turning dry in the ear.

(27.) The grasshopper is not a native of countries that are bare of

trees—hence it is that there are none in the vicinity of the city of

Cyrene—nor, in fact, is it produced in champaign countries, or in cool

and shady thickets. They will take to some places much more readily

than others. In the district of Miletus they are only to be found in

some few spots; and in Cephallenia, there is a river which runs through

the country, on one side of which they are not to be found, while on

the other they exist in vast numbers. In the territory of Rhegium,

again, none of the grasshoppers have any note, while beyond the river,

in the territory of Locri,[110] they sing aloud. Their wings are formed

similarly to those of bees, but are larger, in proportion to the body.

CHAP. 33. (28.)—THE WINGS OF INSECTS.[111]

There are some insects which have two wings, flies, for instance;

others, again, have four, like the bee. The wings of the grasshopper

are membranous. Those insects which are armed with a sting in the

abdomen, have four wings. None of those which have a sting in the

mouth, have more than two wings. The former have received the sting for

the purpose of defending themselves, the latter for the supplying of

their wants. If pulled from off the body, the wings of an insect will

not grow again; no insect which has a sting inserted in its body, has

two wings only.

CHAP. 34.—THE BEETLE. THE GLOW-WORM. OTHER KINDS OF BEETLES.

Some insects, for the preservation of their wings, are covered with a

crust;[112] the beetle, for instance, the wing of which is peculiarly

fine and frail. To these insects a sting has been denied by Nature;

but in one large kind[113] we find horns of a remarkable length,

two-pronged at the extremities, and forming pincers, which the animal

closes when it is its intention to bite. These beetles are suspended

from the neck of infants by way of remedy against certain maladies:

Nigidius calls them “lucani.” There is another kind[114] of beetle,

again, which, as it goes backwards with its feet, rolls the dung into

large pellets, and then deposits in them the maggots which form its

young, as in a sort of nest, to protect them against the rigours of

winter. Some, again, fly with a loud buzzing or a drony noise, while

others[115] burrow numerous holes in the hearths and out in the fields,

and their shrill chirrup is to be heard at night.

The glow-worm, by the aid of the colour of its sides[116] and haunches,

sends forth at night a light which resembles that of fire; being

resplendent, at one moment, as it expands its wings,[117] and then

thrown into the shade the instant it has shut them. These insects are

never to be seen before the grass of the pastures has come to maturity,

nor yet after the hay has been cut. On the other hand, it is the nature

of the black beetle[118] to seek dark corners, and to avoid the light:

it is mostly found in baths, being produced from the humid vapours

which arise therefrom. There are some beetles also, belonging to the

same species, of a golden colour and very large size, which burrow[119]

in dry ground, and construct small combs of a porous nature, and very

like sponge; these they fill with a poisonous kind of honey. In Thrace,

near Olynthus, there is a small locality, the only one in which this

animal cannot exist; from which circumstance it has received the name

of “Cantharolethus.”[120]

The wings of all insects are formed without[121] any division in them,

and they none of them have a tail,[122] with the exception of the

scorpion; this, too, is the only one among them that has arms,[123]

together with a sting in the tail. As to the rest of the insects, some

of them have the sting in the mouth, the gad-fly for instance, or the

“tabanus,” as some persons choose to call it: the same is the case,

too, with the gnat and some kinds of flies. All these insects have

their stings situate in the mouth instead[124] of a tongue; but in

some the sting is not pointed, being formed not for pricking, but for

the purpose of suction: this is the case more especially with flies,

in which it is clear that the tongue[125] is nothing more than a tube.

These insects, too, have no teeth. Others, again, have little horns

protruding in front of the eyes, but without any power in them; the

butterfly, for instance. Some insects are destitute of wings, such as

the scolopendra, for instance.[126]

CHAP. 35.—LOCUSTS.

Those insects which have feet, move sideways. Some of them have the

hind feet longer than the fore ones, and curving outwards, the locust,

for example.

(29.) These creatures lay their eggs in large masses, in the autumn,

thrusting the end of the tail into holes which they form in the

ground. These eggs remain underground throughout the winter, and in

the ensuing year, at the close of spring, small locusts issue from

them, of a black colour, and crawling along without legs[127] and

wings. Hence it is that a wet spring destroys their eggs, while, if it

is dry, they multiply in great abundance. Some persons maintain that

they breed twice a year, and die the same number of times; that they

bring forth at the rising[128] of the Vergiliæ, and die at the rising

of the Dog-star,[129] after which others spring up in their places:

according to some, it is at the setting[130] of Arcturus that the

second litter is produced. That the mothers die the moment they have

brought forth, is a well-known fact, for a little worm immediately

grows about the throat, which chokes them: at the same time, too, the

males perish as well. This insect, which thus dies through a cause

apparently so trifling, is able to kill a serpent by itself, when it

pleases, by seizing its jaws with its teeth.[131] Locusts are only

produced in champaign places, that are full of chinks and crannies. In

India, it is said that they attain the length of three[132] feet, and

that the people dry the legs and thighs, and use them for saws. There

is another mode, also, in which these creatures perish; the winds carry

them off in vast swarms, upon which they fall into the sea or standing

waters, and not, as the ancients supposed, because their wings have

been drenched by the dampness of the night. The same authors have also

stated, that they are unable to fly during the night, in consequence of

the cold, being ignorant of the fact, that they travel over lengthened

tracts of sea for many days together, a thing the more to be wondered

at, as they have to endure hunger all the time as well, for this it is

which causes them to be thus seeking pastures in other lands. This is

looked upon as a plague[133] inflicted by the anger of the gods; for as

they fly they appear to be larger than they really are, while they make

such a loud noise with their wings, that they might be readily supposed

to be winged creatures of quite another species. Their numbers, too,

are so vast, that they quite darken the sun; while the people below are

anxiously following them with the eye, to see if they are about to make

a descent, and so cover their lands. After all, they have the requisite

energies for their flight; and, as though it had been but a trifling

matter to pass over the seas, they cross immense tracts of country, and

cover them in clouds which bode destruction to the harvests. Scorching

numerous objects by their very contact, they eat away everything with

their teeth, the very doors of the houses even.

Those from Africa are the ones which chiefly devastate Italy; and more

than once the Roman people have been obliged to have recourse to the

Sibylline Books, to learn what remedies to employ under their existing

apprehensions of impending famine. In the territory of Cyrenaica[134]

there is a law, which even compels the people to make war, three times

a year, against the locusts, first, by crushing their eggs, next by

killing the young, and last of all by killing those of full growth;

and he who fails to do so, incurs the penalty of being treated as a

deserter. In the island of Lemnos also, there is a certain measure

fixed by law, which each individual is bound to fill with locusts which

he has killed, and then bring it to the magistrates. It is for this

reason, too, that they pay such respect to the jack-daw, which flies

to meet the locusts, and kills them in great numbers. In Syria, also,

the people are placed under martial law, and compelled to kill them:

in so many countries does this dreadful pest prevail. The Parthians

look upon them as a choice food,[135] and the grasshopper as well. The

voice of the locust appears to proceed from the back part of the head.

It is generally believed that in this place, where the shoulders join

on to the body, they have, as it were, a kind of teeth, and that it

is by grinding these against each other that they produce the harsh

noise which they make. It is more especially about the two equinoxes

that they are to be heard, in the same way that we hear the chirrup of

the grasshopper about the summer solstice. The coupling of locusts is

similar to that of all other insects that couple, the female supporting

the male, and turning back the extremity of the tail towards him; it is

only after a considerable time that they separate. In all these kinds

of insects the male is of smaller size than the female.

CHAP. 36. (30.)—ANTS.

The greater part of the insects produce a maggot. Ants also produce

one in spring, which is similar to an egg,[136] and they work in

common, like bees; but whereas the last make their food, the former

only store[137] it away. If a person only compares the burdens which

the ants carry with the size of their bodies, he must confess that

there is no animal which, in proportion, is possessed of a greater

degree of strength. These burdens they carry with the mouth, but when

it is too large to admit of that, they turn their backs to it, and push

it onwards with their feet, while they use their utmost energies with

their shoulders. These insects, also, have a political community among

themselves, and are possessed of both memory and foresight. They gnaw

each grain before they lay it by, for fear lest it should shoot while

under ground; those grains, again, which are too large for admission,

they divide at the entrance of their holes; and those which have become

soaked by the rain, they bring out and dry.[138] They work, too, by

night, during the full moon; but when there is no moon, they cease

working. And then, too, in their labours, what ardour they display,

what wondrous carefulness! Because they collect their stores from

different quarters, in ignorance of the proceedings of one another,

they have certain days set apart for holding a kind of market, on which

they meet together and take stock.[139] What vast throngs are then to

be seen hurrying together, what anxious enquiries appear to be made,

and what earnest parleys[140] are going on among them as they meet! We

see even the very stones worn away by their footsteps, and roads beaten

down by being the scene of their labours. Let no one be in doubt,

then, how much assiduity and application, even in the very humblest

of objects, can upon every occasion effect! Ants are the only living

beings, besides man, that bestow burial on the dead. In Sicily there

are no winged ants to be found.

(31.) The horns of an Indian ant, suspended in the temple of Hercules,

at Erythræ,[141] have been looked upon as quite miraculous for their

size. This ant excavates gold from holes, in a country in the north

of India, the inhabitants of which are known as the Dardæ. It has the

colour of a cat, and is in size as large as an Egyptian wolf.[142] This

gold, which it extracts in the winter, is taken by the Indians during

the heats of summer, while the ants are compelled, by the excessive

warmth, to hide themselves in their holes. Still, however, on being

aroused by catching the scent of the Indians, they sally forth, and

frequently tear them to pieces, though provided with the swiftest

camels for the purpose of flight; so great is their fleetness, combined

with their ferocity and their passion for gold!

CHAP. 37. (32.)—THE CHRYSALIS.

Many insects, however, are engendered in a different manner; and some

more especially from dew. This dew settles upon the radish[143] leaf in

the early days of spring; but when it has been thickened by the action

of the sun, it becomes reduced to the size of a grain of millet. From

this a small grub afterwards arises, which, at the end of three days,

becomes transformed into a caterpillar. For several successive days it

still increases in size, but remains motionless, and covered with a

hard husk. It moves only when touched, and is covered with a web like

that of the spider. In this state it is called a chrysalis, but after

the husk is broken, it flies forth in the shape of a butterfly.

CHAP. 38. (33.)—ANIMALS WHICH BREED IN WOOD.

In the same manner, also, some animals are generated in the earth

from rain, and some, again, in wood. And not only wood-worms[144]

are produced in wood, but gad-flies also and other insects issue

from it, whenever there is an excess of moisture; just as in man,

tape-worms[145] are sometimes found, as much as three hundred feet or

more in length.

CHAP. 39.—INSECTS THAT ARE PARASITES OF MAN. WHICH IS THE SMALLEST OF

ANIMALS? ANIMALS FOUND IN WAX EVEN.

Then, too, in dead carrion there are certain animals produced, and in

the hair, too, of living men. It was through such vermin as this that

the Dictator Sylla,[146] and Alcman, one of the most famous of the

Grecian poets, met their deaths. These insects infest birds too, and

are apt to kill the pheasant, unless it takes care to bathe itself in

the dust. Of the animals that are covered with hair, it is supposed

that the ass and the sheep are the only ones that are exempt from

these vermin. They are produced, also, in certain kinds of cloth, and

more particularly those made of the wool of sheep which have been

killed by the wolf. I find it stated, also, by authors, that some

kinds of water[147] which we use for bathing are more productive of

these parasites than others. Even wax is found to produce mites, which

are supposed to be the very smallest of all living creatures. Other

insects, again, are engendered from filth, acted upon by the rays of

the sun—these fleas are called “petauristæ,”[148] from the activity

which they display in their hind legs. Others, again, are produced with

wings, from the moist dust that is found lying in holes and corners.

CHAP. 40. (34.)—AN ANIMAL WHICH HAS NO PASSAGE FOR THE EVACUATIONS.

There is an animal,[149] also, that is generated in the summer, which

has its head always buried deep in the skin [of a beast], and so,

living on its blood, swells to a large size. This is the only living

creature that has no outlet[150] for its food; hence, when it has

overgorged itself, it bursts asunder, and thus its very aliment is

made the cause of its death. This insect never breeds on beasts of

burden, but is very commonly seen on oxen, and sometimes on dogs,

which, indeed, are subject to every species of vermin. With sheep and

goats, it is the only parasite. The thirst, too, for blood displayed by

leeches, which we find in marshy waters, is no less singular; for these

will thrust the entire head into the flesh in quest of it. There is a

winged insect[151] which peculiarly infests dogs, and more especially

attacks them with its sting about the ears, where they are unable to

defend themselves with their teeth.

CHAP. 41. (35.)—MOTHS, CANTHARIDES, GNATS—AN INSECT THAT BREEDS IN THE

SNOW.

Dust, too, is productive of worms[152] in wools and cloths, and this

more especially if a spider should happen to be enclosed in them: for,

being sensible of thirst, it sucks up all the moisture, and thereby

increases the dryness of the material. These will breed in paper also.

There is one kind which carries with it its husk, in the same manner

as the snail, only that the feet are to be seen. If deprived of it, it

does not survive; and when it is fully developed, the insect becomes a

chrysalis. The wild fig-tree produces gnats,[153] known as “ficarii;”

and the little grubs of the fig-tree, the pear-tree, the pine, the

wild rose, and the common rose produce cantharides,[154] when fully

developed. These insects, which are venomous, carry with them their

antidote; for their wings are useful in medicine,[155] while the rest

of the body is deadly. Again, liquids turned sour will produce other

kinds of gnats, and white grubs are to be found in snow that has lain

long on the ground, while those that lie above are of a reddish[156]

colour—indeed, the snow itself becomes red after it has lain some time

on the ground. These grubs are covered with a sort of hair, are of a

rather large size, and in a state of torpor.

CHAP. 42. (36.)—AN ANIMAL FOUND IN FIRE—THE PYRALLIS OR PYRAUSTA.

That element, also, which is so destructive to matter, produces certain

animals; for in the copper-smelting furnaces of Cyprus, in the very

midst of the fire, there is to be seen flying about a four-footed

animal with wings, the size of a large fly: this creature is called the

“pyrallis,” and by some the “pyrausta.” So long as it remains in the

fire it will live, but if it comes out and flies a little distance from

it, it will instantly die.

CHAP. 43.—THE ANIMAL CALLED HEMEROBION.

The Hypanis, a river of Pontus, brings down in its waters, about

the time of the summer solstice, small membranous particles, like a

grape-stone in appearance; from which there issues an animal[157] with

four legs and with wings, similar to the one just mentioned. It does

not, however, live more than a single day, from which circumstance it

has obtained the name of “hemerobion.”[158] The life of other insects

of a similar nature is regulated from its beginning to its end by

multiples of seven. Thrice seven days is the duration of the life of

the gnat and of the maggot, while those that are viviparous live four

times seven days, and their various changes and transformations take

place in periods of three or four days. The other insects of this kind

that are winged, generally die in the autumn, the gad-fly becoming

quite blind[159] even before it dies. Flies which have been drowned in

water, if they are covered with ashes,[160] will return to life.

CHAP. 44. (37.)—THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF ALL ANIMALS

CONSIDERED LIMB BY LIMB. THOSE WHICH HAVE TUFTS AND CRESTS.

In addition to what is already stated, we will add an account of every

part of the body of an animal, taken limb by limb.

All those which have blood, have a head as well. A small number of

animals, and those only among the birds, have tufts of various kinds

upon the head. The phœnix[161] has a long row of feathers on it, from

the middle of which arises another row; peacocks have a hairy tuft,

resembling a bushy shrub; the stymphalis[162] has a sort of pointed

crest, and the pheasant, again, small horns. Added to these, there

is the lark, a little bird, which, from the appearance of its tuft,

was formerly called “galerita,” but has since received the Gallic

name of “alauda,”[163] a name which it has transferred to one of our

legions.[164] We have already made mention, also, of one bird[165]

to which Nature has given a crest, which it can fold or unfold at

pleasure: the birds of the coot kind[166] have also received from

her a crest, which takes its rise at the beak, and runs along the

middle of the head; while the pie of Mars, and the Balearic crane, are

furnished with pointed tufts. But the most remarkable feature of all,

is the crest which we see attached to the heads of our domestic fowls,

substantial and indented like a saw; we cannot, in fact, strictly call

it flesh, nor can we pronounce it to be cartilage or a callosity, but

must admit that it is something of a nature peculiar to itself. As to

the crests of dragons, there is no one to be found who ever saw one.

CHAP. 45.—THE VARIOUS KINDS OF HORNS. ANIMALS IN WHICH THEY ARE

MOVEABLE.

Horns, too, of various forms have been granted to many animals of the

aquatic, marine, and reptile kind, but those which are more properly

understood under that name belong to the quadrupeds only; for I look

upon the tales of Actæon and of Cippus even, in Latin story, as nothing

more nor less than fables.[167] And, indeed, in no department of her

works has Nature displayed a greater capriciousness. In providing

animals with these weapons, she has made merry at their expense; for

some she has spread them out in branches, the stag, for instance; to

others she has given them in a more simple form, as in the “subulo,”

so called from the resemblance of its horns to a “subula,”[168] or

shoemaker’s awl. In others, again, she has flattened them in the shape

of a man’s hand, with the fingers extended, from which circumstance

the animal has received the name of “platyceros.”[169] To the roe-buck

she has given branching horns, but small, and has made them so as not

to fall off and be cast each year; while to the ram she has given

them of a contorted and spiral form, as though she were providing it

with a cæstus for offence. The horns of the bull, again, are upright

and threatening. In this last kind, the females, too, are provided

with them, while in most it is only the males. The chamois has them,

curving backwards; while in the fallow deer[170] they bend forward. The

strepsiceros,[171] which in Africa bears the name of addax, has horns

erect and spiral, grooved and tapering to a sharp point, so much so,

that you would almost take them to be the sides of a lyre.[172] In the

oxen of Phrygia, the horns are moveable,[173] like the ears; and among

the cattle of the Troglodytæ, they are pointed downwards to the ground,

for which reason it is that they are obliged to feed with the head on

one side. Other animals, again, have a single horn, and that situate in

the middle of the head, or else on the nose, as already stated.[174]

Then, again, in some animals the horns are adapted for butting, and

in others for goring; with some they are curved inwards, with others

outwards, and with others, again, they are fitted for tossing: all

which objects are effected in various ways, the horns either lying

backwards, turning from, or else towards each other, and in all cases

running to a sharp point. In one kind, also, the horns are used for the

purpose of scratching the body, instead of hands.

In snails the horns are fleshy, and are thus adapted for the purpose

of feeling the way, which is also the case with the cerastes;[175]

some reptiles, again, have only one horn, though the snail has always

two, suited for protruding and withdrawing. The barbarous nations of

the north drink from the horns of the urus,[176] a pair of which will

hold a couple of urnæ:[177] other tribes, again, point their spears

with them. With us they are cut into laminæ, upon which they become

transparent; indeed, the rays of a light placed within them may be

seen to a much greater distance than without. They are used also for

various appliances of luxury, either coloured or varnished, or else

for those kinds of paintings which are known as “cestrota,”[178] or

horn-pictures. The horns of all animals are hollow within, it being

only at the tip that they are solid: the only exception is the stag,

the horn of which is solid throughout, and is cast every year. When

the hoofs of oxen are worn to the quick, the husbandmen have a method

of curing them, by anointing the horns of the animal with grease. The

substance of the horns is so ductile, that even while upon the body of

the living animal, they can be bent by being steeped in boiling wax,

and if they are split down when they are first shooting, they may be

twisted different ways, and so appear to be four in number upon one

head. In females the horns are generally thinner than in the males, as

is the case, also, with most kinds of wool-bearing animals.

No individuals, however, among sheep, or hinds, nor yet any that have

the feet divided into toes, or that have solid hoofs, are furnished

with horns; with the sole exception of the Indian ass,[179] which is

armed with a single horn. To the beasts that are cloven-footed Nature

has granted two horns, but to those that have fore-teeth in the upper

jaw, she has given none. Those persons who entertain the notion that

the substance of these teeth is expended in the formation of the

horns, are easily to be refuted, if we only consider the case of the

hind, which has no more teeth than the male, and yet is without horns

altogether. In the stag the horn is only imbedded in the skin, but in

the other[180] animals it adheres to the bone.

CHAP. 46.—THE HEADS OF ANIMALS. THOSE WHICH HAVE NONE.

The head of the fish is very large in proportion to the rest of the

body, probably, to facilitate its diving under water. Animals of the

oyster and the sponge kind have no head, which is the case, also, with

most of the other kinds, whose only sense is that of touch. Some,

again, have the head blended with the body, the crab, for instance.

CHAP. 47.—THE HAIR.

Of all animals man has the longest hair upon the head; which is the

case more especially with those nations where the men and women in

common leave the hair to grow, and do not cut it. Indeed, it is from

this fact, that the inhabitants of the Alps have obtained from us the

name of “Capillati,”[181] as also those of Gallia, “Comata.”[182]

There is, however, a great difference in this respect according to

the various countries. In the island of Myconus,[183] the people are

born without hair, just as at Caunus the inhabitants are afflicted

with the spleen from their birth.[184] There are some animals, also,

that are naturally bald, such as the ostrich, for instance, and the

aquatic raven, which last has thence derived its Greek[185] name. It

is but rarely that the hair falls off in women, and in eunuchs such

is never known to be the case; nor yet does any person lose it before

having known sexual intercourse.[186] The hair does not fall off below

the brain, nor yet beneath the crown of the head, or around the ears

and the temples. Man is the only animal that becomes bald, with the

exception, of course, of such animals as are naturally so. Man and the

horse are the only creatures whose hair turns grey; but with man this

is always the case, first in the fore-part of the head, and then in the

hinder part.

CHAP. 48.—THE BONES OF THE HEAD.

Some few persons only are double-crowned. The bones of the head are

flat, thin, devoid of marrow, and united with sutures indented like a

comb. When broken asunder they cannot be united, but the extraction

of a small portion is not necessarily fatal, as a fleshy cicatrix

forms, and so makes good the loss. We have already mentioned, in their

respective[187] places, that the skull of the bear is the weakest of

all, and that of the parrot the hardest.

CHAP. 49.—THE BRAIN.

The brain exists in all animals which have blood, and in those sea

animals as well, which we have already mentioned as mollusks, although

they are destitute of blood, the polypus, for instance. Man, however,

has, in proportion to his body, the most voluminous brain of all.

This, too, is the most humid, and the coldest of all the viscera, and

is enveloped above and below with two membranous integuments, for

either of which to be broken is fatal. In addition to these facts, we

may remark that the brain is larger in men than in women. In man the

brain is destitute of blood and veins, and in other animals it has

no fat. Those who are well informed on the subject, tell us that the

brain is quite a different substance from the marrow, seeing that on

being boiled it only becomes harder. In the very middle of the brain

of every animal there are small bones found. Man is the only animal in

which it is known to palpitate[188] during infancy; and it does not

gain its proper consistency until after the child has made its first

attempt to speak. The brain is the most elevated of all the viscera,

and the nearest to the roof of the head; it is equally devoid of flesh,

blood, and excretions. The senses hold this organ as their citadel; it

is in this that are centred all the veins which spring from the heart;

it is here that they terminate; this is the very culminating point

of all, the regulator of the understanding. With all animals it is

advanced to the fore-part of the head, from the fact that the senses

have a tendency to the direction in which we look. From the brain

proceeds sleep, and its return it is that causes the head to nod. Those

creatures, in fact, which have no brain, never sleep. It is said that

stags[189] have in the head certain small maggots, twenty in number:

they are situate in the empty space that lies beneath the tongue, and

around the joints by which the head is united to the body.

CHAP. 50.—THE EARS. ANIMALS WHICH HEAR WITHOUT EARS OR APERTURES.

Man is the only animal the ears of which are immoveable. It is from

the natural flaccidity of the ear, that the surname of _Flaccus_ is

derived. There is no part of the body that creates a more enormous

expense for our women, in the pearls which are suspended from them.

In the East, too, it is thought highly becoming for the men, even, to

wear gold rings in their ears. Some animals have large, and others

small ears. The stag alone has them cut and divided, as it were; in

the field-mouse they have a velvet surface. All the animals that are

viviparous have ears of some kind or other, with the sole exception of

the sea-calf, the dolphin, the fishes which we have mentioned[190]

as cartilaginous, and the viper. These animals have only cavities

instead of ears, with the exception of the cartilaginous fishes and

the dolphin, which last, however, it is quite clear possesses the

sense of hearing, for it is charmed by singing, and is often taken

while enraptured with the melody: how it is that it does hear, is

quite marvellous. These animals, too, have not the slightest trace of

olfactory organs, and yet they have a most acute sense of smell.

Among the winged animals, only the horned owl and the long-eared owl

have feathers which project like ears, the rest having only cavities

for the purpose of hearing; the same is the case, also, with the scaly

animals and the serpents. Among horses and beasts of burden of all

kinds, it is the ears which indicate the natural feelings; when the

animal is weary, they are drooping and flaccid; when it is startled,

they quiver to and fro; when it is enraged, they are pricked up; and

when it is ailing, they are pendant.

CHAP. 51.—THE FACE, THE FOREHEAD, AND THE EYE-BROWS.

Man is the only creature that has a face, the other animals having

only a muzzle or a beak. Other animals have a forehead as well, but

it is only on the forehead of man that is depicted sorrow, gladness,

compassion, or severity. It is the forehead that is the index of the

mind. Man has eyebrows, also, which move together or alternately;

these, too, serve in some measure as indications of the feelings. Do

we deny or do we assent, it is the eyebrows, mostly, that indicate

our intentions. Feelings of pride may be generated elsewhere, but it

is here that they have their principal abode; it is in the heart that

they take their rise, but it is to the eyebrows that they mount, and

here they take up their position. In no part of the body could they

meet with a spot more lofty and more precipitous, in which to establish

themselves free from all control.

CHAP. 52.—THE EYES—ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO EYES, OR HAVE ONLY ONE EYE.

Below the forehead are the eyes, which form the most precious portion

of the human body, and which, by the enjoyment of the blessings of

sight, distinguish life from death. Eyes, however, have not been

granted to all animals; oysters have none, but, with reference to some

of the shell-fish, the question is still doubtful; for if we move the

fingers before a scallop half open, it will immediately close its

shell, apparently from seeing them, while the solen[191] will start

away from an iron instrument when placed near it. Among quadrupeds

the mole[192] has no sight, though it has something that bears a

resemblance to eyes, if we remove the membrane that is extended in

front of them. Among birds also, it is said that a species of heron,

which is known as the “leucus,”[193] is wanting of one eye: a bird

of most excellent augury, when it flies towards the south or north,

for it is said that it portends thereby that there is about to be an

end of perils and alarms. Nigidius says also, that neither locusts

nor grasshoppers have eyes. In snails,[194] the two small horns with

which they feel their way, perform the duties of eyes. Neither the

mawworm[195] nor any other kind of worm has eyes.

CHAP. 53.—THE DIVERSITY OF THE COLOUR OF THE EYES.

The eyes vary in colour in the human race only; in all other animals

they are of one uniform colour peculiar to the kind, though there

are some horses that have eyes of an azure colour. But in man the

varieties and diversities are most numerous; the eyes being either

large, of middling size, remarkably small, or remarkably prominent.

These last are generally supposed to be very weak, while those which

are deep-seated are considered the best, as is the case also with those

which in colour resemble the eyes of the goat.

CHAP. 54.—THE THEORY OF SIGHT—PERSONS WHO CAN SEE BY NIGHT.

In addition to this, there are some persons who can see to a very

great distance, while there are others, again, who can only distinguish

objects when brought quite close to them. The vision of many stands in

need of the rays of the sun; such persons cannot see on a cloudy day,

nor yet after the sun has set. Others, again, have bad sight in the

day-time, but a sight superior to that of others by night. Of persons

having double pupils, or the evil eye, we have already spoken[196] at

sufficient length. Blue[197] eyes are the best for seeing in the dark.

It is said that Tiberius Cæsar, like no other human being, was so

endowed by Nature, that on awaking in the night[198] he could for

a few moments distinguish objects just as well as in the clearest

daylight, but that by degrees he would find his sight again enveloped

in darkness. The late Emperor Augustus had azure eyes like those of

some horses, the white being larger than with other men; he used to be

very angry if a person stared intently at them for this peculiarity.

Claudius Cæsar had at the corners of the eyes a white fleshy substance,

covered with veins, which would occasionally become suffused with

blood; with the Emperor Caius[199] they had a fixed, steady gaze,

while Nero could see nothing distinctly without winking, and having

it brought close to his eyes. The Emperor Caius had twenty pairs of

gladiators in his training-school, and of all these there were only

two who did not wink the eyes when a menacing gesture was made close

to them: hence it was that these men were invincible. So difficult a

matter is it for a man to keep his eyes from winking: indeed, to wink

is so natural to many, that they cannot desist from it; such persons we

generally look upon as the most timid.

No persons have the eye all of one colour; that of the middle of

the eye is always different from the white which surrounds it. In

all animals there is no part in the whole body that is a stronger

exponent of the feelings, and in man more especially, for it is

from the expression of the eye that we detect clemency, moderation,

compassion, hatred, love, sadness, and joy. From the eyes, too, the

various characters of persons are judged of, according as they are

ferocious, menacing, sparkling, sedate, leering, askance, downcast,

or languishing. Beyond a doubt it is in the eyes that the mind has its

abode: sometimes the look is ardent, sometimes fixed and steady, at

other times the eyes are humid, and at others, again, half closed. From

these it is that the tears of pity flow, and when we kiss them we seem

to be touching the very soul. It is the eyes that weep, and from them

proceed those streams that moisten our cheeks as they trickle down.

And what is this liquid that is always so ready and in such abundance

in our moments of grief, and where is it kept in reserve at other

times? It is by the aid of the mind that we see, by the aid of the

mind that we enjoy perception; while the eyes, like so many vessels,

as it were, receive its visual faculties and transmit them. Hence it

is that profound thought renders a man blind for the time, the powers

of sight being withdrawn from external objects and thrown inward: so,

too, in epilepsy, the mind is covered with darkness, while the eyes,

though open, are able to see nothing. In addition to this, it is the

fact that hares, as well as many human beings, can sleep with the eyes

open, a thing which the Greeks express by the term κορυβαντιᾷν. Nature

has composed the eye of numerous membranes of remarkable thinness,

covering them with a thick coat to ensure their protection against heat

and cold. This coat she purifies from time to time by the lachrymal

humours, and she has made the surface lubricous and slippery, to

protect the eye against the effects of a sudden shock.

CHAP. 55.—THE NATURE OF THE PUPIL—EYES WHICH DO NOT SHUT.

In the midst of the cornea of the eye Nature has formed a window in the

pupil, the small dimensions of which do not permit the sight to wander

at hazard and with uncertainty, but direct it as straight as though it

were through a tube, and at the same time ensure its avoidance of all

shocks communicated by foreign bodies. The pupils are surrounded by

a black circle in some persons, while it is of a yellowish cast with

others, and azure again with others. By this happy combination the

light is received by the eye upon the white that lies around the pupil,

and its reflection being thus tempered, it fails to impede or confuse

the sight by its harshness. So complete a mirror, too, does the eye

form, that the pupil, small as it is, is able to reflect the entire

image of a man. This[200] is the reason why most birds, when held in

the hand of a person, will more particularly peck at his eyes; for

seeing their own likeness reflected in the pupils, they are attracted

to it by what seem to be the objects of their natural affection.

It is only some few beasts of burden that are subject to maladies of

the eyes towards the increase of the moon: but it is man alone that is

rescued from blindness by the discharge of the humours[201] that have

caused it. Many persons have had their sight restored after being blind

for twenty years; while others, again, have been denied this blessing

from their very birth, without there being any blemish in the eyes.

Many persons, again, have suddenly lost their sight from no apparent

cause, and without any preceding injury. The most learned authors say

that there are veins which communicate from the eye to the brain, but

I am inclined to think that the communication is with the stomach; for

it is quite certain that a person never loses the eye without feeling

sickness at the stomach. It is an important and sacred duty, of high

sanction among the Romans, to close[202] the eyes of the dead, and then

again to open them when the body is laid on the funeral pile, the usage

having taken its rise in the notion of its being improper that the

eyes of the dead should be beheld by man, while it is an equally great

offence to hide them from the view of heaven. Man is the only living

creature the eyes of which are subject to deformities, from which, in

fact, arose the family names of “Strabo”[203] and “Pætus.”[204] The

ancients used to call a man who was born with only one eye, “cocles,”

and “ocella,” a person whose eyes were remarkably small. “Luscinus”

was the surname given to one who happened to have lost one eye by an

accident.

The eyes of animals that see at night in the dark, cats, for instance,

are shining and radiant, so much so, that it is impossible to look upon

them; those of the she-goat, too, and the wolf are resplendent, and

emit a light like fire. The eyes of the sea-calf and the hyæna change

successively to a thousand colours; and the eyes, when dried, of most

of the fishes will give out light in the dark, just in the same way as

the trunk of the oak when it has become rotten with extreme old age.

We have already mentioned[205] the fact, that animals which turn, not

the eyes but the head, for the purpose of looking round, are never

known to wink. It is said,[206] too, that the chameleon is able to

roll the eye-balls completely round. Crabs look sideways, and have the

eyes enclosed beneath a thin crust. Those of craw-fish and shrimps are

very hard and prominent, and lie in a great measure beneath a defence

of a similar nature. Those animals, however, the eyes of which are

hard, have worse sight than those of which the eyes are formed of a

humid substance. It is said that if the eyes are taken away from the

young of serpents and of the swallow,[207] they will grow again. In

all insects and in animals covered with a shell, the eyes move just

in the same way as the ears of quadrupeds do; those among them which

have a brittle[208] covering have the eyes hard. All animals of this

nature, as well as fishes and insects, are destitute of eye-lids, and

their eyes have no covering; but in all there is a membrane that is

transparent like glass, spread over them.

CHAP. 56.—THE HAIR OF THE EYE-LIDS; WHAT ANIMALS ARE WITHOUT THEM.

ANIMALS WHICH CAN SEE ON ONE SIDE ONLY.

Man has lashes on the eye-lids on either side; and women even make

it their daily care to stain them;[209] so ardent are they in the

pursuit of beauty, that they must even colour their very eyes. It was

with another view, however, that Nature had provided the hair of the

eyelids—they were to have acted, so to say, as a kind of rampart for

the protection of the sight, and as an advanced bulwark against the

approach of insects or other objects which might accidentally come

in their way. It is not without some reason that it is said that the

eyelashes[210] fall off with those persons who are too much given to

venereal pleasures. Of the other animals, the only ones that have

eyelashes are those that have hair on the rest of the body as well;

but the quadrupeds have them on the upper eyelid only, and the birds

on the lower one: the same is the case also with those which have a

soft skin, such as the serpent, and those among the quadrupeds that are

oviparous, the lizard, for instance. The ostrich is the only one among

the birds that, like man, has eyelashes on either side.

CHAP. 57.—ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO EYELIDS.

All birds, however, have not eyelids: hence it is, that those which are

viviparous have no nictation of the eye. The heavier kinds of birds

shut the eye by means of the lower eyelid, and they wink by drawing

forward a membrane which lies in the corner of the eye. Pigeons,

and other birds of a similar nature, shut the two eyelids; but the

quadrupeds which are oviparous, such, for instance, as the tortoise

and the crocodile, have only the lower eyelid moveable, and never

wink, in consequence of the hardness of the eye. The edge of the upper

eyelid was by the ancients called “cilium,” from which comes our word

“supercilia.[211]” If the eyelid happens to be severed by a wound it

will not reunite,[212] which is the case also with some few other parts

of the human body.

CHAP. 58.—THE CHEEKS.

Below the eyes are the cheeks, a feature which is found in man only.

From the ancients they received the name of “genæ,” and by the laws of

the Twelve Tables, women were forbidden to tear them.[213] The cheeks

are the seat of bashfulness; it is on them more particularly that

blushes are to be seen.

CHAP. 59.—THE NOSTRILS.

Within the cheeks is the mouth, which gives such strong indications

of the feelings of joyousness and laughter; and above it, but in man

only, is the nose, which modern notions have stamped as the exponent

of sarcasm and ridicule.[214] In no other animal but man, is the nose

thus prominent; birds, serpents, and fishes, have no nostrils, but

apertures only for the purpose of smell. It is from the peculiarity of

the nose that are derived the surnames of “Simus”[215] and “Silo.”

Children born in the seventh month often have the ears and the nostrils

imperforate.

CHAP. 60.—THE MOUTH; THE LIPS; THE CHIN; AND THE JAW-BONE.

It is from the “labia,” or lips, that the Brocchi[216] have received

the surname of Labeo. All animals that are viviparous have a mouth that

is either well-formed, or harshly defined, as the case may be. Instead

of lips and mouth, the birds have a beak that is horny and sharp at the

end. With birds that live by rapine, the beak is hooked inwards, but

with those which gather and peck only, it is straight: those animals,

again, which root up grass or puddle in the mud, have the muzzle broad,

like swine. The beasts of burden employ the mouth in place of hands in

gathering their food, while those which live by rapine and slaughter

have it wider than the rest. No animal, with the exception of man, has

either chin or cheek-bones. The crocodile is the only animal that has

the upper jaw-bone[217] moveable; among the land quadrupeds it is the

same as with other animals, except that they can move it obliquely.

CHAP. 61.—THE TEETH; THE VARIOUS KINDS OF TEETH; IN WHAT ANIMALS THEY

ARE NOT ON BOTH SIDES OF THE MOUTH: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE HOLLOW TEETH.

Teeth are arranged in three different ways, serrated, in one continuous

row, or else protruding from the mouth. When serrated they unite

together, just like those of a comb, in order that they may not be worn

by rubbing against one another, as in serpents, fishes, and dogs,[218]

for instance. In some creatures they are set in one continuous row,

man and the horse, for instance; while in the wild boar, the elephant,

and the hippopotamus, they protrude from the mouth.[219] Among those

set in one continuous row, the teeth which divide the food are broad

and sharp, while those which grind it are double; the teeth which lie

between the incisive and the molar teeth, are those known as the canine

or dog-teeth; these are by far the largest in those animals which have

serrated teeth. Those animals which have continuous rows of teeth,

have them either situate on both sides of the mouth, as in the horse,

or else have no fore-teeth in the upper part of the mouth, as is the

case with oxen, sheep, and all the animals that ruminate. The she-goat

has no upper teeth, except the two front ones. No animals which have

serrated teeth, have them protruding[220] from the mouth; among these,

too, the females rarely have them; and to those that do have them, they

are of no[221] use: hence it is, that while the boar strikes, the sow

bites. No animal with horns has projecting teeth; and all such teeth

are hollow, while in other animals the teeth are solid. All[222] fish

have the teeth serrated, with the exception of the scarus,[223] this

being the only one among the aquatic animals that has them level[224]

at the edges. In addition to this, there are many fishes that have

teeth upon the tongue and over the whole of the mouth, in order that,

by the multitude of the bites which they inflict, they may soften those

articles of food which they could not possibly manage by tearing. Many

animals, also, have teeth in the palate, and even in the tail;[225]

in addition to which, some have them inclining to the interior of the

mouth, that the food may not fall out, the animal itself having no

other means of retaining it there.

CHAP. 62.—THE TEETH OF SERPENTS; THEIR POISON. A BIRD WHICH HAS TEETH.

The asp also, and other serpents, have similar teeth; but in the

upper jaw, on the right and left, they have two of extreme length,

which are perforated with a small tube in the interior, just like

the sting of the scorpion, and it is through these that they eject

their venom. The writers who have made the most diligent enquiries

on the subject, inform us that this venom is nothing but the gall of

the serpent, and that it is conveyed to the mouth by certain veins

which run beneath the spine; indeed, there are some who state that

there is only one poison-fang, and that being barbed at the end, it is

bent backwards when the animal has inflicted a bite. Other writers,

however, affirm that on such an occasion the fang falls out, as it is

very easily displaced, but that it soon grows[226] again; this tooth,

they say, is thus wanting in the serpents which we see handled about by

persons.[227] It is also stated that this fang exists in the tail of

the scorpion, and that most of these animals have no less than three.

The teeth of the viper are concealed in the gums: the animal, being

provided with a similar venom, exercises the pressure of its fangs for

the purpose of instilling the poison in its bite.

No winged creatures have teeth, with the sole exception of the bat.

The camel is the only one among the animals without horns, that has

no fore-teeth[228] in the upper jaw. None of the horned animals have

serrated[229] teeth. Snails, too, have teeth; a proof of which are

the vetches which we find gnawed away by snails of the very smallest

size. To assert that among marine animals, those that have shells, and

those that are cartilaginous have fore-teeth, and that the sea-urchin

has five teeth, I am very much surprised how such a notion could have

possibly[230] arisen. With insects the sting supplies the place of

teeth; the ape has teeth just like those in man.[231] The elephant

has in the interior of the mouth fourteen teeth, adapted for chewing,

in addition to those which protrude; in the male these are curved

inwards, but in the female they are straight, and project outwards.

The sea-mouse,[232] a fish which goes before the balæna, has no teeth

at all, but in place of them, the interior of the mouth is lined with

bristles, as well as the tongue and palate. Among the smaller land

quadrupeds, the two fore-teeth in each jaw are the longest.

CHAP. 63.—WONDERFUL CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH THE TEETH.

The other animals are born with[233] teeth, whereas man has them only

at the seventh[234] month after his birth. While other[235] animals

keep their teeth to the time of their death, man, the lion, the beasts

of burden, the dog, and the ruminating animals, all change them; the

lion and the dog, however, change none[236] but the canine teeth. The

canine tooth of the wolf, on the right side, is held in high esteem

as an amulet.[237] There is no animal that changes the maxillary

teeth, which stand beyond the canine teeth. With man, the last teeth,

which are known as the “genuini,” or cheek teeth,[238] come about the

twentieth year, and with many men, and females as well, so late even as

the eightieth; but this only in the case of those who have not had them

in their youth. It is a well-known fact, that the teeth are sometimes

shed in old age, and replaced by others. Mucianus has stated that he,

himself, saw one Zocles, a native of Samothrace, who had a new set of

teeth when he was past his one hundred and fourth year. In addition

to these facts, in man males have more teeth than females,[239] which

is the case also in sheep, goats, and swine. Timarchus, the son of

Nicocles the Paphian, had a double[240] row of teeth in his jaws: the

same person had a brother also who never changed his front teeth, and,

consequently, wore them to the very stumps. There is an instance,

also, of a man having a tooth growing in the palate.[241] The canine

teeth,[242] when lost by any accident, are never known to come again.

While in all other animals the teeth grow of a tawny colour with old

age, with the horse, and him only, they become whiter the older he

grows.

CHAP. 64.—HOW AN ESTIMATE IS FORMED OF THE AGE OF ANIMALS FROM THEIR

TEETH.

The age, in beasts of burden,[243] is indicated by the teeth. In

the horse they are forty in number. At thirty months it loses the

two fore-teeth in either jaw, and in the following year the same

number next to them, at the time that the eye-teeth[244] come. At

the beginning of the fifth year the animal loses two teeth, which

grow again in the sixth, and in the seventh it has all its teeth,

those which have replaced the others, and those which have never been

changed. If a horse is gelded[245] before it changes its teeth, it

never sheds them. In a similar manner, also, the ass loses four of

its teeth in the thirtieth month, and the others from six months to

six months. If a she-ass happens not to have foaled before the last

of these teeth are shed, it is sure to be barren.[246] Oxen change

their teeth at two years old: with swine they are never changed.[247]

When these several indications of age have been lost in horses and

other beasts of burden, the age is ascertained by the projecting of

the teeth, the greyness of the hair in the eyebrows, and the hollow

pits that form around them; at this period the animal is supposed

to be about sixteen[248] years old. In the human teeth there is a

certain venom; for if they are placed uncovered before a mirror, they

will tarnish its brightness, and they will kill young pigeons while

yet unfledged. The other particulars relative to the teeth have been

already[249] mentioned under the head of the generation of man. When

teething first commences, the bodies of infants are subject to certain

maladies. Those animals which have serrated teeth inflict the most

dangerous bites.[250]

CHAP. 65.—THE TONGUE; ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO TONGUE. THE NOISE MADE BY

FROGS. THE PALATE.

The tongue is not similarly formed in all animals. Serpents have a

very thin tongue, and three-forked,[251] which they vibrate to and

fro: it is of a black colour, and when drawn from out of the mouth,

of extraordinary length. The tongue of the lizard is two-forked, and

covered with hair.[252] That of the sea-calf also is twofold,[253] but

with the serpents it is of the thinness of a hair; the other animals

employ it to lick the parts around the mouth. Fishes have nearly the

whole of the tongue adhering to the palate, while in the crocodile

the whole of it does adhere thereto: but in the aquatic animals the

palate, which is fleshy, performs the duty of the tongue as the organ

of taste. In lions, pards, and all the animals of that class, and in

cats as well, the tongue is covered with asperities,[254] which overlap

each other, and bear a strong resemblance to a rasp. Such being its

formation, if the animal licks a man’s skin, it will wear it away by

making it thinner and thinner; for which reason it is that the saliva

of even a perfectly tame animal, being thus introduced to the close

vicinity of the blood, is apt to bring on madness. Of the tongue of the

purple we have made mention[255] already. With the frog the end of the

tongue adheres to the mouth, while the inner part is disjoined from

the sides of the gullet; and it is by this means that the males give

utterance to their croaking, at the season at which they are known as

ololygones.[256] This happens at stated periods of the year, at which

the males invite the females for the purposes of propagation: letting

down the lower lip to the surface of the water, they receive a small

portion of it in the mouth, and then, by quavering with the tongue,

make a gurgling noise, from which the croaking is produced which we

hear. In making this noise, the folds of the mouth, becoming distended,

are quite transparent, and the eyes start from the head and burn again

with the effort. Those insects which have a sting in the lower part

of the body, have teeth, and a tongue as well; with bees it is of

considerable length, and in the grasshopper it is very prominent. Those

insects which have a fistulous sting in the mouth, have neither tongue

nor teeth; while others, again, have a tongue in the interior of the

mouth, the ant, for instance. In the elephant the tongue is remarkably

broad; and while with all other animals, each according to its kind, it

is always perfectly at liberty, with man, and him alone, it is often

found so strongly tied down by certain veins, that it becomes necessary

to cut them. We find it stated that the pontiff Metellus had a tongue

so ill adapted for articulation, that he is generally supposed to have

voluntarily submitted to torture for many months, while preparing to

pronounce the speech which he was about to make on the dedication

of the temple of Opifera.[257] In most persons the tongue is able

to articulate with distinctness at about the seventh year; and many

know how to employ it with such remarkable skill, as to be able to

imitate the voices of various birds and other animals with the greatest

exactness. The other animals have the sense of taste centred in the

fore-part of the tongue; but in man it is situate in the palate as well.

CHAP. 66.—THE TONSILS; THE UVA; THE EPIGLOSSIS; THE ARTERY; THE GULLET.

In man there are tonsils at the root of the tongue; these in swine are

called the glandules. The uvula,[258] which is suspended between them

at the extremity of the palate, is found only in man. Beneath this

lies a smaller tongue, known by the name of “epiglossis,”[259] but it

is wanting in animals that are oviparous. Placed as it is between two

passages, the functions of the epiglottis are of a twofold nature. The

one of these passages that lies more inward is called the [tracheal]

artery, and leads to the lungs and the heart: the epiglottis covers

it during the action of eating, that the drink or food may not go the

wrong way, and so be productive of suffering, as it is by this passage

that the breath and the voice are conveyed. The other or exterior

passage is called the “gula,”[260] and it is by this passage that the

victuals and drink pass: this leads to the belly, while the former one

communicates with the chest.[261] The epiglottis covers the pharynx, in

its turn, when only the breath or the voice is passing, in order that

the victuals may not inopportunely pass upwards, and so disturb the

breathing or articulation. The tracheal artery is composed of cartilage

and flesh, while the gullet is formed of a sinewy substance united with

flesh.

CHAP. 67.—THE NECK; THE THROAT; THE DORSAL SPINE.

The neck is found to exist in no animal but those which have both these

passages. All the others which have the gullet only, have nothing but

a gorge or throat. In those which have a neck, it is formed of several

rounded vertebræ, and is flexible, and joined together by distinct

articulations, to allow of the animal turning round the head to look.

The lion, the wolf, and the hyæna are the only animals in which it

is formed of a single[262] rigid bone. The neck is annexed to the

spine, and the spine to the loins. The vertebral column is of a bony

substance, but rounded, and pierced within, to afford a passage for

the marrow to descend from the brain. It is generally concluded that

the marrow is of the same nature as the brain, from the fact that if

the membrane of exceeding thinness which covers it is pierced, death

immediately ensues.[263] Those animals which have long legs have a long

throat as well, which is the case also with aquatic birds, although

they have short legs, as well as with those which have hooked talons.

CHAP. 68.—THE THROAT; THE GULLET; THE STOMACH.

Man only, and the swine, are subject to swellings in the throat, which

are mostly caused by the noxious quality of the water[264] which they

drink. The upper part of the gullet is called the fauces, the lower

the stomach.[265] By this name is understood a fleshy concavity,

situate behind the tracheal artery, and joining the vertebral column;

it extends in length and breadth like a sort of chasm.[266] Those

animals which have no gullet have no stomach either, nor yet any neck

or throat, fishes, for example; and in all these the mouth communicates

immediately with the belly. The sea-tortoise[267] has neither tongue

nor teeth; it can break anything, however, with the sharp edge of

its muzzle. After the tracheal artery there is the œsophagus, which

is indented with hard asperities resembling bramble-thorns, for the

purpose of levigating the food, the incisions[268] gradually becoming

smaller as they approach the belly. The roughness at the very extremity

of this organ strongly resembles that of a blacksmith’s file.

CHAP. 69.—THE HEART; THE BLOOD; THE VITAL SPIRIT.

In all other animals but man the heart is situate in the middle of the

breast; in man alone it is placed just below the pap on the left-hand

side, the smaller end terminating in a point, and bearing outward. It

is among the fish only that this point is turned towards the mouth.

It is asserted that the heart is the first among the viscera that is

formed in the fœtus, then the brain, and last of all, the eyes: it is

said, too, that the eyes are the first organs that die, and the heart

the very last of all. The heart also is the principal seat of the heat

of the body; it is constantly palpitating, and moves as though it were

one animal enclosed within another. It is also enveloped in a membrane

equally supple and strong, and is protected by the bulwarks formed by

the ribs and the bone of the breast, as being the primary source and

origin of life. It contains within itself the primary receptacles for

the spirit and the blood, in its sinuous cavity, which in the larger

animals is threefold,[269] and in all twofold at least: here it is that

the mind[270] has its abode. From this source proceed two large veins,

which branch into the fore-part and the back of the body, and which,

spreading out in a series of branches, convey the vital blood by other

smaller veins over all parts of the body. This is the only one[271]

among the viscera that is not affected by maladies, nor is it subject

to the ordinary penalties of human life; but when injured, it produces

instant death. While all the other viscera are injured, vitality may

still remain in the heart.

CHAP. 70.—THOSE ANIMALS WHICH HAVE THE LARGEST HEART, AND THOSE WHICH

HAVE THE SMALLEST. WHAT ANIMALS HAVE TWO HEARTS.

Those animals are looked upon as stupid and lumpish which have a hard,

rigid heart, while those in which it is small are courageous, and

those are timid which have it very large. The heart is the largest, in

proportion to the body, in the mouse, the hare, the ass, the stag, the

panther, the weasel, the hyæna, and all the animals, in fact, which

are timid, or dangerous only from the effects of fear. In Paphlagonia

the partridge has a double heart. In the heart of the horse and the ox

there are bones sometimes found. It is said that the heart increases

every year in man, and that two drachmæ in weight are added[272] yearly

up to the fiftieth year, after which period it decreases yearly in a

similar ratio; and that it is for this reason that men do not live

beyond their hundredth year, the heart then failing them: this is the

notion entertained by the Egyptians, whose custom it is to embalm the

bodies of the dead, and so preserve them. It is said that men have

been born with the heart covered with hair, and that such persons

are excelled by none in valour and energy; such, for instance, as

Aristomenes,[273] the Messenian, who slew three hundred Lacedæmonians.

Being covered with wounds, and taken prisoner, he, on one occasion,

made his escape by a narrow hole which he discovered[274] in the stone

quarry where he was imprisoned, while in pursuit of a fox which had

found that mode of exit. Being again taken prisoner, while his guards

were fast asleep he rolled himself towards a fire close by, and, at

the expense of his body, burnt off the cords by which he was bound. On

being taken a third time, the Lacedæmonians opened his breast while he

was still alive, and his heart was found covered with hair.

CHAP. 71.—WHEN THE CUSTOM WAS FIRST ADOPTED OF EXAMINING THE HEART IN

THE INSPECTION OF THE ENTRAILS.

On an examination of the entrails, to find a certain fatty part on

the top of the heart, is looked upon as a fortunate presage. Still,

however the heart has not always been considered as forming a part of

the entrails for this purpose. It was under Lucius Postumius Albinus,

the King of the Sacrifices,[275] and after the 126th Olympiad, when

King Pyrrhus had quitted Italy, that the aruspices began to examine

the heart, as part of the consecrated entrails. The first day that

the Dictator Cæsar appeared in public, clothed in purple, and sitting

on a seat of gold, the heart was twice found wanting[276] when he

sacrificed. From this circumstance has risen a great question among

those who discuss matters connected with divination—whether it was

possible for the victim to have lived without that organ, or whether

it had lost it at the very moment[277] of its death. It is asserted

that the heart cannot be burnt of those persons who die of the

cardiac disease; and the same is said of those who die by poison.

At all events, there is still in existence an oration pronounced by

Vitellius,[278] in which he accuses Piso of this crime, and employs

this alleged fact as one of his proofs, openly asserting that the

heart of Germanicus Cæsar could not be burnt at the funeral pile,

in consequence of his having been poisoned. On the other hand, the

peculiar nature[279] of the disease under which Germanicus was

labouring, was alleged in Piso’s defence.

CHAP. 72.—THE LUNGS: IN WHAT ANIMALS THEY ARE THE LARGEST, AND IN WHAT

THE SMALLEST. ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NOTHING BUT LUNGS IN THE INTERIOR OF

THE BODY. CAUSES WHICH PRODUCE EXTRAORDINARY SWIFTNESS IN ANIMALS.

Beneath the heart are the lungs, the laboratory in which the

respiration is prepared. The use of these, is to draw in the air and

then expel it; for which purpose their substance is of a spongy nature,

and filled with cavernous holes. Some few among the aquatic animals

have lungs, as we have already stated;[280] and among the rest of

those which are oviparous, they are small, of a fungous nature, and

containing no blood; hence it is, that these animals do not experience

thirst. It is for the same reason also, that frogs and seals are able

to remain so long under water. The tortoise, too, although it has

lungs of remarkable size, and extending throughout the whole of the

shell, is also equally destitute of blood. The smaller the lungs are in

proportion to the body, the greater is the swiftness of the animal. It

is in the chameleon that the lungs are the largest in proportion to the

body; in which, in fact, it has no other viscera at all.[281]

CHAP. 73.—THE LIVER: IN WHAT ANIMALS, AND IN WHAT PART THERE ARE TWO

LIVERS FOUND.

The liver is on the right side: in this part is situate what has been

called the “head of the entrails,” and it is subject to considerable

variations. No liver[282] at all was found in a victim which was

sacrificed by M. Marcellus, about the period when he was killed in

battle against Hannibal; while in a victim which was slain on the

following day, a double liver was found. It was wanting, also, in a

victim sacrificed by C. Marius, at Utica, and in one which was offered

by the Emperor Caius[283] upon the calends of January,[284] on the

occasion of his entering the year of the consulship in which he was

slain: the same thing happened, also, to his successor, Claudius,

in the month in which he was cut off[285] by poison. When the late

Emperor Augustus was sacrificing at Spoletum, upon the first day of his

entering on the imperial dignity, in six different victims the liver

was found rolled over within itself, from the very lowest lobe; and the

answer that was given by the diviners was to the effect that, in the

course of the year, he would gain a twofold sway. It is of evil omen to

find an incision in the head of the entrails, except on occasions of

disquietude and alarm; for then it is significant of cutting all cares,

and so putting an end to them. The hares that are found in the vicinity

of Briletum[286] and Tharne, and in the Chersonnesus on the Propontis,

have a double liver; but, what is very singular, if they are removed to

another place, they will lose one of them.

CHAP. 74.—THE GALL; WHERE SITUATE, AND IN WHAT ANIMALS IT IS DOUBLE.

ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO GALL, AND OTHERS IN WHICH IT IS NOT SITUATE IN

THE LIVER.

In the liver is the gall, which, however, does not exist in every

animal. At Chalcis, in Eubœa, none of the cattle have it, while in the

cattle of the Isle of Naxos, it is of extraordinary size, and double,

so that to a stranger either of these facts would appear as good as a

prodigy. The horse, the mule, the ass, the stag, the roe-buck, the wild

boar, the camel, and the dolphin have no gall, but some kinds of rats

and mice have it. Some few men are without it, and such persons enjoy

robust health and a long life. There are some authors who say that the

gall exists in the horse, not in the liver, but in the paunch, and that

in the stag it is situate either in the tail or the intestines; and

that hence it is, that those parts are so bitter that dogs will not

touch them. The gall, in fact, is nothing else but the worst parts of

the blood purged off, and for this reason it is that it is so bitter:

at all events, it is a well-known fact, that no animal has a liver

unless it has blood as well. The liver receives the blood from the

heart, to which it is united, and then disperses it in the veins.

CHAP. 75.—THE PROPERTIES OF THE GALL.

When the gall is black, it is productive of madness in man, and if it

is wholly expelled death will ensue. Hence it is, too, that the word

“bile” has been employed by us to characterize a harsh, embittered

disposition; so powerful are the effects of this secretion, when it

extends its influence to the mind. In addition to this, when it is

dispersed over the whole of the body, it deprives the eyes, even, of

their natural colour; and when ejected, will tarnish copper vessels

even, rendering everything black with which it comes in contact;

so that no one ought to be surprised that it is the gall which

constitutes the venom of serpents. Those animals of Pontus which feed

on wormwood have no gall: in the raven, the quail, and the pheasant,

the gall-bladder is united to the renal parts, and, on one side only,

to the intestines. In many animals, again, it is united only to the

intestines, the pigeon, the hawk, and the murena, for example. In some

few birds it is situate in the liver; but it is in serpents and fishes

that it is the largest in proportion. With the greater part of birds,

it extends all along throughout the intestines, as in the hawk and the

kite. In some other birds, also, it is situate in the breast as well:

the gall, too, of the sea-calf is celebrated for its application to

many purposes. From the gall of the bull a colour is extracted like

that of gold. The aruspices have consecrated the gall to Neptune and

the influence of water. The Emperor Augustus found a double gall in a

victim which he was sacrificing on the day of his victory at Actium.

CHAP. 76.—IN WHAT ANIMALS THE LIVER INCREASES AND DECREASES WITH THE

MOON. OBSERVATIONS OF THE ARUSPICES RELATIVE THERETO, AND REMARKABLE

PRODIGIES.

It is said, that in the small liver of the mouse the number of lobes

corresponds to the day of the moon, and that they are found to be just

as many in number as she is days old; in addition to which, it is said

that it increases at the winter solstice. In the rabbits of Bætica, the

liver is always found to have a double lobe. Ants will not touch one

lobe of the liver of the bramble-frog, in consequence of its poisonous

nature, it is generally thought. The liver is remarkable for its powers

of preservation, and sieges have afforded us remarkable instances of

its being kept so long as a hundred years.[287]

CHAP. 77.—THE DIAPHRAGM. THE NATURE OF LAUGHTER.

The entrails of serpents and lizards are of remarkable length. It is

related that—a most fortunate omen—Cæcina of Volaterræ beheld two

dragons arising from the entrails of the victim; and this will not be

at all incredible, if we are ready to believe that while King Pyrrhus

was sacrificing, the day upon which he died, the heads of the victims,

on being cut off, crawled along the ground and licked up their own

blood. In man, the entrails are separated from the lower part of the

viscera by a certain membrane, which is called the “præcordia,”[288]

because it is extended in front of the heart; the Greeks have given it

the name of “phrenes.” All the principal viscera have been enclosed by

Nature, in her prudent foresight, in their own peculiar membranes, just

like so many sheaths, in fact. With reference to the diaphragm, there

was a peculiar reason for this wise provision of Nature, its proximity

to the guts, and the chances that the food might possibly intercept the

respiration. It is to this organ that is attributed quick and ready

wit, and hence it is that it has no fleshy parts, but is composed of

fine sinews and membranes. This part is also the chief seat of gaiety

of mind, a fact which is more particularly proved by the titillation

of the arm-holes, to which the midriff extends; indeed, in no part

of the body is the skin more fine; for this reason it is, also, that

we experience such peculiar pleasure in scratching the parts in its

vicinity. Hence it is, that in battles and gladiatorial combats, many

persons have been known to be pierced through the midriff, and to die

in the act of laughing.[289]

CHAP. 78.—THE BELLY: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO BELLY. WHICH ARE THE ONLY

ANIMALS THAT VOMIT.

In those animals which have a stomach, below the diaphragm the belly

is situate. In other animals it is single, but in those which ruminate

it is double; in those, again, which are destitute of blood, there is

no belly, for the intestinal canal commences in some of them at the

mouth, and returns to that part, as is the case with the sæpia and the

polypus. In man it is connected with the extremity of the stomach, and

the same with the dog. These are the only creatures that have the belly

more narrow at the lower part; hence it is, too, that they are the only

ones that vomit, for on the belly being filled, the narrowness at its

extremity precludes the food from passing; a thing that cannot possibly

be the case with the animals in which the belly is more capacious at

the extremity, and so leaves a free passage for the food to the lower

parts of the body.

CHAP. 79.—THE SMALL GUTS, THE FRONT INTESTINES, THE ANUS, THE COLON.

THE CAUSES OF THE INSATIATE VORACITY OF CERTAIN ANIMALS.

After the belly we find in man and the sheep the “lactes,”[290] the

place of which in other animals is occupied by the “hillæ:”[291] it

is through these organs that the food passes. We then find the larger

intestines, which communicate with the anus, and which in man consist

of extremely sinuous folds. Those animals which have the longest

intestinal canal, are the most voracious; and those which have the

belly the most loaded with fat, are the least intelligent. There are

some birds, also, which have two receptacles; the one of which is the

crop, in which they stow away the food which they have just swallowed,

while the other is the belly, into which they discharge the food when

it is duly prepared and digested; this is the case with the domestic

fowl, the ring-dove, the pigeon, and the partridge. The other birds

are in general destitute of crop, but then they have a more capacious

gorge, the jackdaw, the raven, and the crow, for instance: some, again,

are constituted in neither manner, but have the belly close to the

gorge, those, for instance, which have the neck very long and narrow,

such as the porphyrio.[292]

In the solid-hoofed animals the belly is rough and hard, while in some

land animals it is provided with rough asperities like teeth,[293]

and in others, again, it has a reticulated surface like that of a

file. Those animals which have not the teeth on both sides, and do

not ruminate, digest the food in the belly, from whence it descends

to the lower intestines. There is an organ in all animals attached

in the middle to the navel, and in man similar in its lower part to

that of the swine, the name given thereto by the Greeks being “colon,”

a part of the body which is subject to excruciating pains.[294] In

dogs this gut is extremely contracted, for which reason it is that

they are unable to ease it, except by great efforts, and not without

considerable suffering. Those animals with which the food passes at

once from the belly through the straight intestine, are of insatiate

appetite, as, for instance, the hind-wolf,[295] and among birds the

diver. The elephant has four[296] bellies; the rest of its intestines

are similar to those of the swine, and the lungs are four times as

large as those of the ox. The belly in birds is fleshy, and formed of

a callous substance. In that of young swallows there are found little

white or pink pebbles, known by the name of “chelidonii,” and said to

be employed in magical incantations. In the second belly of the heifer

there is a black tufa found, round like a ball,[297] and of no weight

to speak of: this, it is generally thought, is singularly efficacious

in laborious deliveries, if it happens not to have touched the ground.

CHAP. 80.—THE OMENTUM: THE SPLEEN; ANIMALS WHICH ARE WITHOUT IT.

The belly and the intestines are covered with a caul known as the

“omentum,” consisting of a fatty, thin membrane; except in the case of

those animals which are oviparous. To this membrane is attached the

spleen, which lies on the left side, and opposite the liver: sometimes,

indeed, it changes place with the liver, but such a case is looked upon

as nothing less than a prodigy. Some persons imagine that a spleen of

extremely diminutive size exists in the oviparous animals, as also in

serpents; at all events, it is to be detected in the tortoise, the

crocodile, the lizard, and the frog; though it is equally certain that

it does not exist in the bird known as the “ægocephalos,”[298] nor yet

in those animals which are destitute of blood. The spleen sometimes

offers a peculiar impediment in running, for which reason the region

of the spleen is cauterized[299] in runners who are troubled with

pains there. It is said also, that if the spleen is removed[300] by an

incision, animals may survive. There are some persons who think that

with the spleen man loses the power of laughing, and that excessive

laughter is caused by the overgrowth of it. There is a territory of

Asia, known as Scepsis,[301] in which it is said that the spleen of the

cattle is remarkably small, and that from thence it is that remedies

for diseases of the spleen have been introduced.

CHAP. 81.—THE KIDNEYS: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE FOUR KIDNEYS. ANIMALS WHICH

HAVE NONE.

About Briletum and Tharne[302] the stags have four kidneys: while, on

the other hand, those animals which have wings and scales have[303]

none. The kidneys adhere to the upper part of the loins. Among all

animals, the kidney on the right side is more elevated than the other,

less fat, and drier. In both kidneys there is a certain streak of

fat running from the middle, with the sole exception of those of the

sea-calf. It is above the kidneys, also, that animals are fattest,

and the accumulation of fat about them is often the cause of death in

sheep. Small stones are sometimes found in the kidneys. All quadrupeds

that are viviparous have kidneys, but of those which are oviparous

the tortoise is the only one that has them; an animal which has all

the other viscera, but, like man, has the kidneys composed, to all

appearance, of several kidneys, similar to those of the ox.

CHAP. 82.—THE BREAST: THE RIBS.

Nature has placed the breast, or, in other words, certain bones, around

the diaphragm and the organs of life, but not around the belly, for the

expansion of which it was necessary that room should be left. Indeed,

there is no animal that has any bones around the belly. Man is the only

creature that has a broad breast; in all others it is of a carinated

shape, in birds more particularly, and most of all, the aquatic birds.

The ribs of man are only eight in number; swine have ten, the horned

animals thirteen, and serpents thirty.

CHAP. 83.—THE BLADDER: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO BLADDER.

Below the paunch, on the anterior side, lies the bladder, which

is never found in any oviparous animal, with the exception of the

tortoise, nor yet in any animal that has not lungs with blood, or

in any one that is destitute of feet. Between it and the paunch are

certain arteries, which extend to the pubes, and are known as the

“ilia.” In the bladder of the wolf there is found a small stone, which

is called “syrites;” and in the bladders of some persons calculi are

sometimes found, which produce most excruciating pains; small hairs,

like bristles, are also occasionally found in the bladder. This organ

consists of a membrane, which, when once wounded, does not[304]

cicatrize, just like those in which the brain and the heart are

enveloped: there are many kinds of membranes, in fact.

CHAP. 84.—THE WOMB: THE WOMB OF THE SOW: THE TEATS.

Women have all the same organs, except that adjoining to the bladder

there is one like a small sac,[305] from which circumstance it is

called the “uterus.” Another name for this part is “loci;”[306] but in

other animals it is known by the name of “vulva.” With the viper and

other animals which generate their young within themselves, the womb

is double; while with those which are oviparous, it is attached to the

diaphragm. In woman it has two concavities, one on either side: when

the matrix becomes displaced, it is productive of fatal effects, by

causing suffocation.[307] It is asserted that the cow, when pregnant,

carries her young only in the right concavity of the womb, and that

this is the case even when she produces twins. The womb of the sow is

considered better eating if she has slipped her young, than if she

has duly brought forth: in the former case it is known by the name

of “ejectitia,” in the latter it is called “porcaria.” The womb of

a sow that has farrowed only once is the most esteemed, and that of

those which have ceased farrowing, the least. After farrowing, unless

the animal is killed the same day, the womb is of a livid colour, and

lean. This part, however, is not esteemed in a young sow, except just

after the first farrowing: indeed, it is much more highly valued in

an animal of a more mature age, so long as it is not past breeding,

or has been killed two days before farrowing, or two days after, or

upon the day on which it has miscarried. The next best after that of a

sow that has miscarried, is that of one that has been killed the day

after farrowing: indeed, the paps of this last, if the young have not

begun to suck, are excellent eating, while those of an animal that has

miscarried are very inferior. The ancients called this part by the name

of “abdomen,” before it grew hard, and were not in the habit of killing

swine while in a state of pregnancy.

CHAP. 85.—ANIMALS WHICH HAVE SUET: ANIMALS WHICH DO NOT GROW FAT.

Those among the horned animals which have teeth in one jaw only, and

pastern bones on the feet, produce tallow or suet. Those, on the other

hand, which are cloven-footed, or have the feet divided into toes, and

are without horns, have simple fat only. This fat becomes hard, and

when quite cold turns brittle, and is always found at the extremity of

the flesh; while, on the other hand, the fat which lies between the

skin and the flesh forms a kind of liquid juice. Some animals naturally

do not become fat, such as the hare and the partridge, for instance.

All fat animals, male as well as female, are mostly barren; and those

which are remarkably fat become old the soonest. All animals have a

certain degree of fatness in the eyes. The fat in all animals is devoid

of sensation, having neither arteries nor veins. With the greater part

of animals, fatness is productive of insensibility; so much so, indeed,

that it has been said, that living swine have been gnawed even by

mice.[308] It has been even asserted that the fat was drawn off from

the body of a son of L. Apronius, a man of consular rank, and that he

was thus relieved of a burden which precluded him from moving.

CHAP. 86.—THE MARROW: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO MARROW.

The marrow seems also to be formed of a similar material; in the young

it is of a reddish colour, but it is white in the aged. It is only

found in those bones which are hollow, and not in the tibiæ of horses

or dogs; for which reason it is, that when the tibia is broken, the

bone will not reunite, a process which is effected[309] by the flow of

the marrow. The marrow is of a greasy nature in those animals which

have fat, and suetty in those with horns. It is full of nerves, and is

found only in the vertebral column[310] in those animals which have no

bones, fishes, for instance. The bear has no marrow; and the lion has a

little only in some few bones of the thighs and the brachia, which are

of such extraordinary hardness that sparks may be emitted therefrom, as

though from a flint-stone.

CHAP. 87.—BONES AND FISH-BONES: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NEITHER. CARTILAGES.

The bones are hard, also, in those animals[311] which do not grow fat;

those of the ass are used by musicians for making flutes. Dolphins have

bones, and not ordinary fish-bones; for they are viviparous. Serpents,

on the other hand, have bones like those of fish. Among aquatic

animals, the mollusks have no bones, but the body is surrounded with

circles of flesh, as in the sæpia and the cuttle-fish, for instance;

insects, also, are said to be equally destitute of bones. Among aquatic

animals, those which are cartilaginous have marrow in the vertebral

column; the sea-calf has cartilages, and no bones. The ears also,

and the nostrils in all animals, when remarkably prominent, are made

flexible by a remarkable provision of Nature, in order that they may

not be broken. When cartilage is once broken, it will not unite; nor

will bone, when cut, grow again, except in beasts of burden, between

the hoof and the pastern.

Man increases in height till his twenty-first year, after which he

fills out; but it is more particularly when he first arrives at the

age of puberty that he seems to have untied a sort of knot in his

existence, and this especially when he has been overtaken by illness.

CHAP. 88.—THE NERVE: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NONE.

The nerves[312] take their rise at the heart, and even surround it

in the ox; they have the same nature and principle as the marrow. In

all animals they are fastened to the lubricous surface of the bones,

and so serve to fasten those knots in the body which are known as

articulations or joints, sometimes lying between them, sometimes

surrounding them, and sometimes running from one to another; in

one place they are long and round, and in another broad, according

as the necessity of each case may demand. When cut, they will not

reunite, and if wounded, it is wonderful what excruciating pain they

cause; though, if completely cut asunder, they are productive of none

whatever. Some animals are destitute of nerves, fish, for instance, the

bodies of which are united by arteries, though even these are not to be

found in the mollusks. Wherever there are nerves found, it is the inner

ones that contract the limb, and the outer ones that extend it.

Among the nerves lie concealed the arteries, which are so many passages

for the spirit; and upon these float the veins, as conduits for the

blood. The pulsation of the arteries is more especially perceptible

on the surface of the limbs, and afford indications of nearly every

disease, being either stationary, quickened, or retarded, conformably

to certain measures and metrical laws, which depend on the age of

the patient, and which have been described with remarkable skill by

Herophilus, who has been looked upon as a prophet in the wondrous art

of medicine. These indications, however, have been hitherto neglected,

in consequence of their remarkable subtilty and minuteness, though, at

the same time, it is by the observation of the pulse, as being fast or

slow, that the health of the body, as regulating life, is ascertained.

CHAP. 89.—THE ARTERIES; THE VEINS: ANIMALS WITHOUT ARTERIES OR VEINS.

THE BLOOD AND THE SWEAT.

The arteries are destitute of sensation, for they are devoid of blood.

They do not, all of them, however, contain the vital spirit, and when

one of them has been cut, it is only that part of the body that is

reduced to a torpid state. Birds have neither veins nor arteries, which

is the case also with serpents, tortoises, and lizards; and they have

but a very small proportion of blood. The veins, which are dispersed

beneath the whole skin in filaments of extreme thinness, terminate

with such remarkable fineness, that the blood is able to penetrate no

further, or, indeed, anything else, except an extremely subtle humour

which oozes forth from the skin in innumerable small drops, and is

known to us as “sweat.” The knot, and place of union of the veins, is

the navel.

CHAP. 90. (38.)—ANIMALS, THE BLOOD OF WHICH COAGULATES WITH THE

GREATEST RAPIDITY: OTHER ANIMALS, THE BLOOD OF WHICH DOES NOT

COAGULATE. ANIMALS WHICH HAVE THE THICKEST BLOOD: THOSE THE BLOOD OF

WHICH IS THE THINNEST: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO BLOOD.

Those animals in which the blood is more abundant and of an unctuous

nature, are irascible; it is darker in males than in females, and in

the young than in the aged: the blood of the lower extremities is the

thickest. There is great vitality, too, in the blood, and when it

is discharged from the body, it carries the life with it: it is not

sensible, however, of touch. Those animals in which the blood is the

thickest are the most courageous, and those in which it is the thinnest

the most intelligent; while those, again, which have little or no

blood are the most timorous of all. The blood of the bull coagulates

and hardens the most speedily of all, and hence it is so particularly

deadly[313] when drunk. On the other hand, the blood of the wild boar,

the stag, the roe-buck, and oxen of all kinds, does not coagulate.

Blood is of the richest quality in the ass, and the poorest in man.

Those animals which have more than four feet have no blood. In animals

which are very fat, the blood is less abundant than in others, being

soaked up by the fat. Man is the only creature from which the blood

flows at the nostrils; some persons bleed at one nostril only, some

at both, while others again void blood by the lower[314] parts. Many

persons discharge blood from the mouth at stated periods, such, for

instance, as Macrinus Viscus, lately, a man of prætorian dignity, and

Volusius Saturninus,[315] the Prefect of the City, who every year

did the same, and yet lived to beyond ninety. The blood is the only

substance in the body that is sensible of any temporary increase, for a

larger quantity will come from the victims if they happen to have drunk

just before they are sacrificed.

CHAP. 91.—ANIMALS WHICH ARE WITHOUT BLOOD AT CERTAIN PERIODS OF THE

YEAR.

Those animals which conceal themselves[316] at certain periods of

the year, as already mentioned, have no blood at those times, with

the exception, indeed, of some very small drops about the heart. A

marvellous dispensation of Nature! and very similar to that witnessed

in man, where the blood is sensible of various modifications from

the slightest causes; for not only, similarly to the bile, does it

rush upwards to the face, but it serves also to indicate the various

tendencies of the mind, by depicting shame, anger, and fear, in many

ways, either by the paleness of the features or their unusual redness;

as, in fact, the redness of anger and the blush of modesty are quite

different things. It is a well-known fact, that when a man is in

fear, the blood takes to flight and disappears, and that many persons

have been pierced through the body without losing one drop of blood;

a thing, however, which is only the case with man. But as to those

animals which we have already mentioned as changing[317] colour, they

derive that colour from the reflection[318] of other objects; while, on

the other hand, man is the only one that has the elements which cause

these changes centred in himself. All diseases, as well as death, tend

to absorb the blood.

CHAP. 92. (39.)—WHETHER THE BLOOD IS THE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE.

There are some persons who are of opinion that the fineness of the wit

does not depend upon the thinness of the blood, but that animals are

more or less stupid in proportion to the skin or other coverings of

the body, as the oyster and the tortoise, for instance: that the hide

of the ox and the bristles of the hog, in fact, offer a resistance to

the fine and penetrating powers of the air, and leave no passage for

its transmission in a pure and liquid state. The same, they say, is

the case, too, with men, when the skin is very thick or callous, and

so excludes the air. Just as if, indeed, the crocodile was not equally

remarkable for the hardness of its skin and its extreme cunning.

CHAP. 93.—THE HIDE OF ANIMALS.

The hide, too, of the hippopotamus is so thick, that lances,[319]

even, are turned from it, and yet this animal has the intelligence

to administer certain medicaments to itself. The hide, too, of the

elephant makes bucklers that are quite impenetrable, and yet to it is

ascribed a degree of intelligence superior to that of any quadruped.

The skin itself is entirely devoid of sensation, and more particularly

that of the head; wherever it is found alone, and unaccompanied with

flesh, if wounded, it will not unite, as in the cheek and on the

eyelid,[320] for instance.

CHAP. 94.—THE HAIR AND THE COVERING OF THE SKIN.

Those animals which are viviparous, have hair; those which are

oviparous, have feathers, scales, or a shell, like the tortoise; or

else a purple skin, like the serpent. The lower part of all feathers is

hollow; if cut, they will not grow again, but if pulled out, they will

shoot afresh. Insects fly by the aid of a frail membrane; the wings

of the fish[321] called the “swallow” are moistened in the sea, while

those of the bat which frequents our houses are dry; the wings of this

last animal have certain articulations as well. The hairs that issue

from a thick skin are rough, while those on females are of a finer

quality. Those found on the horse’s mane are more abundant, which is

the case also with the shoulders of the lion. The dasypus has hair in

the inside of the mouth even and under the feet, two features which

Trogus has also attributed to the hare; from which the same author

concludes that hairy men are the most prone to lust. The most hairy

of all animals is the hare. Man is the only creature that has hair as

the mark of puberty; and a person who is devoid of this, whether male

or female, is sure to be sterile. The hair of man is partly born with

him, and in part produced after his birth. The last kind of hair will

not grow upon eunuchs, though that which has been born with them does

not fall off; which is the case also with women, in a great degree.

Still however, there have been women known to be afflicted with falling

off of the hair, just as some are to be seen with a fine down on the

face, after the cessation of the menstrual discharge. In some men the

hair that mostly shoots forth after birth will not grow spontaneously.

The hair of quadrupeds comes off every year, and grows again. That

of the head in man grows the fastest, and next to it the hair of the

beard. When cut, the hairs shoot, not from the place where they have

been cut, as is the case with grass, but at the root. The hair grows

quickly in certain diseases, phthisis more particularly; it grows also

with rapidity in old age, and on the body after death. In persons of

a libidinous tendency the hair that is produced at birth falls off

more speedily, while that which is afterwards produced grows with the

greatest rapidity. In quadrupeds, the hair grows thicker in old age;

but on those with wool, it becomes thinner. Those quadrupeds which have

thick hair on the back, have the belly quite smooth. From the hides

of oxen, and that of the bull more especially, glue is extracted by

boiling.

CHAP. 95.—THE PAPS: BIRDS THAT HAVE PAPS. REMARKABLE FACTS CONNECTED

WITH THE DUGS OF ANIMALS.

Man is the only male among animals that has nipples, all the rest

having mere marks only in place of them. Among female animals even,

the only ones that have mammæ on the breast are those which can

nurture their young. No oviparous animal has mammæ, and those only

have milk that are viviparous; the bat being the only winged animal

that has it. As for the stories that they tell, about the screech-owl

ejecting milk from its teats upon the lips of infants, I look upon it

as utterly fabulous: from ancient times the name “strix,”[322] I am

aware, has been employed in maledictions, but I do not think it is well

ascertained what bird is really meant by that name.

(40.) The female ass is troubled with pains in the teats after it has

foaled, and it is for that reason that at the end of six months it

weans its young; while the mare suckles its young for nearly the whole

year. The solid-hoofed animals do not bear more than two young ones

at a time: they all of them have two paps, and nowhere but between

the hind legs. Animals with cloven feet and with horns, such as the

cow, for instance, have four paps, similarly situate, sheep and goats

two. Those which produce a more numerous progeny, and those which

have toes on the feet, have a greater number of paps distributed in

a double row all along the belly, such as the sow, for instance; the

better sorts have twelve, the more common ones two less: the same is

the case also with the female of the dog. Other animals, again, have

four paps situate in the middle of the belly, as the female panther;

others, again, two only, as the lioness. The female elephant has two

only, situate between the shoulders, and those not in the breast, but

without it, and hidden in the arm-pits: none of the animals which

have toes have the paps between the hind legs. The sow presents the

first teat to the first-born in each farrow, the first teat being the

one that is situate nearest to the throat. Each pig, too, knows its

own teat, according to the order in which it was born, and draws its

nourishment from that and no other: if its own suckling, too, should

happen to be withdrawn from any one of them, the pap will immediately

dry up, and shrink back within the belly: if there should be only one

pig left of all the farrow, that pap alone which has been assigned for

its nutriment when born, will continue to hang down for the purpose of

giving suck. The she-bear has four mammæ, the dolphin only two, at the

bottom of the belly; they are not easily visible, and have a somewhat

oblique direction: this is the only animal which gives suck while in

motion. The balæna and sea-calf also suckle their young by teats.

CHAP. 96. (41.)—THE MILK: THE BIESTINGS. CHEESE; OF WHAT MILK CHEESE

CANNOT BE MADE. RENNET; THE VARIOUS KINDS OF ALIMENT IN MILK.

The milk that is secreted in a woman before her seventh month is

useless; but after that month, so long as the fœtus is healthy, the

milk is wholesome: many women, indeed, are so full of milk, that

it will flow not only from the mammæ, but exudes at the arm-pits

even.[323] Camels continue in milk until they are pregnant again.

Their milk, mixed in the proportion of one part to three of water,

is considered a very pleasant beverage. The cow has no milk before

it has calved, and that which immediately follows upon its bringing

forth is known as the “colostra:”[324] if water is not mixed with it,

it will coagulate, and assume the hardness of pumice. She-asses,

as soon as they are pregnant, have milk in their udders; when the

pasturage is rich, it is fatal to their young to taste the mother’s

milk the first two days after birth; the kind of malady by which they

are attacked is known by the name of “colostration.” Cheese cannot be

made from the milk of animals which have teeth on either jaw, from the

circumstance that their milk does not coagulate. The thinnest milk

of all is that of the camel, and next to it that of the mare. The

milk of the she-ass is the richest of all, so much so, indeed, that

it is often used instead of rennet. Asses’ milk is also thought to

be very efficacious in whitening the skin of females: at all events,

Poppæa,[325] the wife of Domitius Nero, used always to have with her

five hundred asses with foal, and used to bathe the whole of her body

in their milk, thinking that it also conferred additional suppleness on

the skin. All milk thickens by the action of fire, and becomes serous

when exposed to cold. The milk of the cow produces more cheese than

that of the goat: when equal in quantity, it will produce nearly twice

the weight. The milk of animals which have more than four mammæ does

not produce cheese; and that is the best which is made of the milk of

those that have but two. The rennet of the fawn, the hare, and the kid

is the most esteemed, but the best of all is that of the dasypus: this

last acts as a specific for diarrhœa, that animal being the only one

with teeth in both jaws, the rennet of which has that property. It is

a remarkable circumstance, that the barbarous nations which subsist

on milk have been for so many ages either ignorant of the merits of

cheese, or else have totally disregarded it; and yet they understand

how to thicken milk and form therefrom an acrid kind of liquid with a

pleasant flavour, as well as a rich butter: this last is the foam[326]

of milk, and is of a thicker consistency than the part which is known

as the “serum.”[327] We ought not to omit that butter has certain of

the properties of oil, and that it is used for an ointment among all

barbarous nations, and among ourselves as well, for infants.

CHAP. 97. (42.)—VARIOUS KINDS OF CHEESE.

The kinds of cheese that are most esteemed at Rome, where the various

good things of all nations are to be judged of by comparison, are those

which come from the provinces of Nemausus,[328] and more especially the

villages there of Lesura and Gabalis;[329] but its excellence is only

very short-lived, and it must be eaten while it is fresh. The pastures

of the Alps recommend themselves by two sorts of cheese; the Dalmatic

Alps send us the Docleatian[330] cheese, and the Centronian[331] Alps

the Vatusican. The kinds produced in the Apennines are more numerous;

from Liguria we have the cheese of Ceba,[332] which is mostly made

from the milk of sheep; from Umbria we have that of Æsina, and from

the frontiers of Etruria and Liguria those of Luna, remarkable for

their vast size, a single cheese weighing as much as a thousand pounds.

Nearer the City, again, we have the cheese of Vestinum, the best of

this kind being that which comes from the territory of Ceditium.[333]

Goats also produce a cheese which has been of late held in the highest

esteem, its flavour being heightened by smoking it. The cheese of this

kind which is made at Rome is considered preferable to any other; for

that which is made in Gaul has a strong taste, like that of medicine.

Of the cheeses that are made beyond sea, that of Bithynia[334] is

usually considered the first in quality. That salt exists in pasture

lands is pretty evident, from the fact that all cheese as it grows

old contracts a saltish flavour, even where it does not appear to any

great extent;[335] while at the same time it is equally well known

that cheese soaked in a mixture of thyme and vinegar will regain its

original fresh flavour. It is said that Zoroaster lived thirty years in

the wilderness upon cheese, prepared in such a peculiar manner, that he

was insensible to the advances of old age.

CHAP. 98. (43.)—DIFFERENCES OF THE MEMBERS OF MAN FROM THOSE OF OTHER

ANIMALS.

Of all the terrestrial animals, man is the only biped: he is also the

only one that has a throat, and shoulders, or “humeri,” parts in other

animals known by the name of “armi.” Man, too, is the only animal that

has the “ulna,” or elbow. Those animals which are provided with hands,

have flesh only on the interior of them, the outer part consisting of

sinews and skin.

CHAP. 99.—THE FINGERS, THE ARMS.

Some persons have six fingers on the hands. We read that C. Horatius,

a man of patrician rank, had two daughters, who for this reason

had the name of “Sedigitæ;” and we find mention made of Volcatius

Sedigitus,[336] as a famous poet. The fingers of man have three

joints, the thumb only two, it bending in an opposite direction to

all the other fingers. Viewed by itself, the movement of the thumb

has a sidelong direction, and it is much thicker than the rest of the

fingers. The little finger is equal in length to the thumb, and two

others are also equal in length, the middle finger being the longest of

all. Those quadrupeds which live by rapine have five toes on the fore

feet, and four on the hinder ones. The lion, the wolf, and the dog,

with some few others, have five claws on the hind feet, one of which

hangs down near the joint of the leg. The other animals, also, which

are of smaller size, have five toes. The two arms are not always equal

in length: it is a well-known fact, that, in the school of gladiators

belonging to Caius Cæsar,[337] the Thracian Studiosus had the right arm

longer than the left. Some animals also use their fore-paws to perform

the duties of hands, and employ them in conveying food to the mouth as

they sit, the squirrel, for instance.

CHAP. 100. (44.)—RESEMBLANCE OF THE APE TO MAN.

As to the various kinds of apes, they offer a perfect resemblance to

man in the face, the nostrils, the ears, and the eyelids; being the

only quadrupeds, in fact, that have eyelashes on the lower eyelid. They

have mammæ also on the breast, arms and legs, which bend in opposite

directions, and nails upon the hands and fingers, the middle finger

being the longest. They differ somewhat from man in the feet; which,

like the hands, are of remarkable length, and have a print similar to

that of the palm of our hand. They have a thumb also, and articulations

similar to those in man. The males differ from man in the sexual parts

only, while all the internal viscera exactly resemble those of man.

CHAP. 101. (45.)—THE NAILS.

It is generally supposed that the nails are the terminations of the

sinews. All animals which have fingers have nails as well. In the ape

they are long and overlapping,[338] like a tile, while in man they are

broad: they will grow even after death. In the beasts of prey they

are hooked, while in others, such as the dog, for instance, they are

straight, with the exception, indeed, of the one which is attached

to the leg in most of them. All the animals which have feet [and not

hoofs], have toes as well, except the elephant; he, also, would appear

to have toes, five in number, but rudely developed, undivided, and

hardly distinct from one another, bearing a nearer resemblance, in

fact, to hoofs than to claws. In the elephant the fore-feet are the

largest, and in the hind-feet there are short joints. This animal is

able, also, to bend the hams inward like a man, while in all the others

the joints of the hinder legs bend in a contrary direction to those of

the fore ones. Those animals which are viviparous bend the fore-leg

forward, while the joint of the hind-leg is directed backward.

CHAP. 102.—THE KNEES AND THE HAMS.

In man the knee and the elbow bend contrary ways; the same is the case,

too, with the bear and the ape, and it is for this reason that they

are not so swift of foot as other animals. Those quadrupeds which are

oviparous, such as the crocodile and the lizard, bend the knee of the

fore-leg backwards, and that of the hind-leg forwards; their thighs

are placed on them obliquely, in a similar manner to a man’s thumb;

which is the case also with the multipede insects, the hind-legs only

excepted of such as leap. Birds, like quadrupeds, have the joints of

the wings bending forwards, but those of the legs backwards.

CHAP. 103.—PARTS OF THE HUMAN BODY TO WHICH CERTAIN RELIGIOUS IDEAS ARE

ATTACHED.

In accordance with the usages of various nations, certain religious

ideas have been attached to the knees. It is the knees that suppliants

clasp, and it is to these that they extend their hands; it is the knees

that they worship like so many altars, as it were; perhaps, because in

them is centred the vital strength. For in the joint of either knee,

the right as well as the left, there is on the fore-side of each a

certain empty space, which bears a strong resemblance to a mouth, and

through which, like the throat, if it is once pierced, the vital powers

escape.[339] There are also certain religious ideas attached to other

parts of the body, as is testified in raising the back of the right

hand to the lips, and extending it as a token of good faith. It was

the custom of the ancient Greeks, when in the act of supplication, to

touch the chin. The seat of the memory lies in the lower part of the

ear, which we touch when we summon a witness to depose upon memory to

an arrest.[340] The seat, too, of Nemesis[341] lies behind the right

ear, a goddess which has never yet found a Latin name, no, not in the

Capitol even. It is to this part that we apply the finger next the

little finger, after touching the mouth with it, when we silently ask

pardon of the gods for having let slip an indiscreet word.

CHAP. 104.—VARICOSE VEINS.

Men only, in general, have varicose veins in the legs, women but very

rarely. We are informed by Oppius, that C. Marius, who was seven times

consul, was the only man ever known to be able to have them extracted

in a standing position.

CHAP. 105.—THE GAIT, THE FEET, THE LEGS.

All animals take a right-hand direction when they first begin to walk,

and lie down on the left side. While the other animals walk just as it

may happen, the lion only and the camel walk foot by foot, or in such a

way that the left foot never passes the right, but always comes behind

it. Men have the largest feet; in every kind of animal the female has

the smallest. Man only[342] has calves, and flesh upon the legs: we

find it stated by authors, however, that there was once an Egyptian who

had no calves on his legs. All men, too, with some few exceptions, have

a sole to the foot. It is from these exceptional cases that persons

have obtained the names of Plancus,[343] Plautus, Pansa, and Scaurus;

just as, from the malformation of the legs, we find persons called

Varus,[344] Vacia, and Vatinius, all which blemishes are to be seen

in quadrupeds also. Animals which have no horns have a solid hoof,

from which circumstance it is used by them as a weapon of offence, in

place of horns; such animals as these are also destitute of pastern

bones, but those which have cloven hoofs have them; while those, again,

which have toes have none, nor are they ever found in the fore-feet of

animals. The camel has pastern bones like those of the ox, but somewhat

smaller, the feet being cloven, with a slight line of division, and

having a fleshy sole, like that of the bear: hence it is, that in a

long journey, the animal becomes fatigued, and the foot cracks, if it

is not shod.

CHAP. 106. (46.)—HOOFS.

The horn of the hoof grows again in no animals except beasts of burden.

The swine in some places in Illyricum have solid hoofs. Nearly all

the horned animals are cloven-footed, no animal having solid hoofs

and two horns. The Indian ass is only a one-horned animal, and the

oryx is both one-horned and cloven-footed. The Indian ass[345] is the

only solid-hoofed animal that has pastern-bones. As to swine, they are

looked upon as a sort of mongrel race, with a mixture of both kinds,

and hence it is that their ankle-bones are so misshapen. Those authors

who have imagined that man has similar pastern-bones, are easily to

be confuted. The lynx is the only one among the animals that have the

feet divided into toes, that has anything bearing a resemblance to a

pastern-bone; while with the lion it is more crooked still. The great

pastern-bone is straight, and situate in the joints of the foot; it

projects outwards in a convex protuberance, and is held fast in its

vertebration by certain ligaments.

CHAP. 107. (47.)—THE FEET OF BIRDS.

Among birds, some have the feet divided into toes, while others, again,

are broad and flatfooted—in others, which partake of the intermediate

nature of both, the toes are divided, with a wide space between them.

All birds, however, have four toes—three in front, and one on the

heel; this last, however, is wanting in some that have long legs. The

iynx[346] is the only bird that has two toes on each side of the leg.

This bird also protrudes a long tongue similar to that of the serpent,

and it can turn the neck quite round and look backwards; it has great

talons, too, like those of the jackdaw. Some of the heavier birds

have spurs also upon the legs; but none of those have them which have

crooked talons as well. The long-footed birds, as they fly, extend

the legs towards the tail, while those that have short legs hold them

contracted close to the middle of the body. Those authors who deny

that there is any bird without feet, assert that those even which are

called apodes,[347] are not without them, as also the oce, and the

drepanis,[348] which last is a bird but very rarely seen. Serpents,

too, have been seen with feet like those of the goose.

CHAP. 108. (48.)—THE FEET OF ANIMALS, FROM THOSE HAVING TWO FEET TO

THOSE WITH A HUNDRED.—DWARFS.

Among insects, those which have hard eyes have the fore-feet long, in

order that from time to time they may rub the eyes with their feet, as

we frequently see done by flies. The insects which have long hind-feet

are able to leap, the locust, for instance. All these insects have six

feet: and some of the spiders have two very long feet in addition.

They have, all of them, three joints. We have already[349] stated that

marine insects have eight feet, such as the polypus, the sæpia, the

cuttle-fish, and the crab, animals which move their arms in a contrary

direction to their feet, which last they move around as well as

obliquely: they are the only animals the feet of which have a rounded

form. Other insects have two feet to regulate their movements; in the

crab, and in that only, these duties are performed by four. The land

animals which exceed this number of feet, as most of the worms,[350]

never have fewer than twelve feet, and some, indeed, as many as a

hundred. The number of feet is never uneven in any animal. Among the

solid-hoofed animals, the legs are of their proper length from the

moment of their birth, after which they may with more propriety be said

to extend themselves than to increase in growth: hence it is, that in

infancy they are able to scratch their ears with the hind feet, a thing

which, when they grow older, they are not able to do, because their

increase of growth affects only the superficies of the body. It is for

the same reason also, that they are only able to graze at first by

bending the knees, until such time as the neck has attained its proper

length.

(49.) There are dwarfs to be found among all animals, and among birds

even.

CHAP. 109.—THE SEXUAL PARTS.—HERMAPHRODITES.

We have already spoken sufficiently[351] at length of those animals,

the males of which have the sexual parts behind. In the wolf, the

fox, the weasel, and the ferret, these parts are bony; and it is the

genitals of the last-mentioned animal that supply the principal

remedies for calculus in the human bladder. It is said also that the

genitals of the bear are turned into a horny substance the moment it

dies. Among the peoples of the East the very best bow-strings are those

which are made of the member of the camel. These parts also, among

different nations, are made the object of certain usages[352] and

religious observances; and the Galli,[353] the priests of the Mother

of the gods, are in the habit of castrating themselves, without any

dangerous results. On the other hand, there is in some few women a

monstrous resemblance to the male conformation, while hermaphrodites

appear to partake of the nature of both. Instances of this last

conformation were seen in quadrupeds in Nero’s reign, and for the first

time, I imagine; for he ostentatiously paraded hermaphrodite horses

yoked to his car, which had been found in the territory of the Treviri,

in Gaul; as if, indeed, it was so remarkably fine a sight to behold the

ruler of the earth seated in a chariot drawn by monstrosities!

CHAP. 110.—THE TESTES—THE THREE CLASSES OF EUNUCHS.

In sheep and cattle the testes hang down to the legs, while in the

boar they are knit up close to the body. In the dolphin they are

very long, and are concealed in the lower part of the belly. In the

elephant, also, they are quite concealed. In oviparous animals they

adhere to the interior of the loins: these animals are the most speedy

in the venereal congress. Fishes and serpents have no testes, but in

place of them they have two veins, which run from the renal region to

the genitals. The bird known as the “buteo,”[354] has three testes.

Man is the only creature in which the testes are ever broken, either

accidentally or by some natural malady; those who are thus afflicted

form a third class of half men, in addition to hermaphrodites and

eunuchs. In all species of animals the male is more courageous than the

female, with the exception of the panther and the bear.

CHAP. 111. (50.)—THE TAILS OF ANIMALS.

Nearly all the animals, both viviparous as well as oviparous, with

the exception of man and the ape, have tails in proportion to the

necessities of the body. In animals with bristles the tail is bare, as

in the boar, for instance. In those that are shaggy, it is small, such

as the bear; while in those animals that have long hair, the tail is

long also, the horse, for instance. The tail of a lizard or serpent, if

cut off, will grow again. The tail governs the movements of the fish

like a rudder, and turning from side to side, to the right or to the

left, impels it onwards, acting in some degree like an oar. A double

tail is sometimes found in lizards. In oxen, the stalk of the tail is

of remarkable length, and is covered with rough hair at the extremity.

In the ass, too, it is longer than in the horse, but in beasts of

burden it is covered with bristly hairs. The tail of the lion, at the

extremity, is like that of the ox and the field-mouse; but this is not

the case with the panther. In the fox and the wolf it is covered with

long hair, as in sheep, in which it is longer also. In swine, the tail

is curled; among dogs, those that are mongrels carry it close beneath

the belly.

CHAP. 112. (51.)—THE DIFFERENT VOICES OF ANIMALS.

Aristotle[355] is of opinion that no animal has a voice which does

not respire, and that hence it is that there is no voice in insects,

but only a noise, through the circulation of the air in the interior,

and its resounding, by reason of its compression. Some insects,

again, he says, emit a sort of humming noise, such as the bee, for

instance; others a shrill, long-drawn note, like the grasshopper, the

two cavities beneath the thorax receiving the air, which, meeting a

moveable membrane within, emits a sound by the attrition.—Also that

flies, bees, and other insects of that nature, are only heard while

they are flying, and cease to be heard the moment they settle, and

that the sound which they emit proceeds from the friction and the air

within them, and not from any act of respiration. At all events, it is

generally believed that the locust emits a sound by rubbing together

the wings and thighs, and that among the aquatic animals the scallop

makes a certain noise as it flies.[356] Mollusks, however, and the

testaceous animals have no voice and emit no sounds. As for the other

fishes, although they are destitute of lungs and the tracheal artery,

they are not entirely without the power of emitting certain sounds: it

is only a mere joke to say that the noise which they make is produced

by grating their teeth together. The fish, too, that is found in the

river Acheloüs, and is known as the boar-fish,[357] makes a grunting

noise, as do some others which we have previously[358] mentioned. The

oviparous animals hiss: in the serpent this hissing is prolonged, in

the tortoise it is short and abrupt. Frogs make a peculiar noise of

their own, as already stated;[359] unless, indeed, this, too, is to

be looked upon as a matter of doubt; but their noise originates in

the mouth, and not in the thorax. Still, however, in reference to

this subject, the nature of the various localities exercises a very

considerable influence, for in Macedonia, it is said, the frogs are

dumb, and the same in reference to the wild boars there. Among birds,

the smaller ones chirp and twitter the most, and more especially

about the time of pairing. Others, again, exercise their voice while

fighting, the quail, for instance; others before they begin to fight,

such as the partridge; and others when they have gained the victory,

the dunghill cock, for instance. The males in these species have a

peculiar note of their own, while in others, the nightingale for

example, the male has the same note as the female.

Some birds sing all the year round, others only at certain times of the

year, as we have already mentioned when speaking of them individually.

The elephant produces a noise similar to that of sneezing, by the aid

of the mouth, and independently of the nostrils; but by means of the

nostrils it emits a sound similar to the hoarse braying of a trumpet.

It is only in the bovine race that the voice of the female is the

deepest, it being in all other kinds of animals more shrill than that

of the male; it is the same also with the male of the human race when

castrated. The infant at its birth is never heard to utter a cry before

it has entirely left the uterus: it begins to speak at the end of the

first year. A son of Crœsus,[360] however, spoke when only six months

old, and, while yet wielding the child’s rattle, afforded portentous

omens, for it was at the same period that his father’s empire fell.

Those children which begin to speak the soonest, begin to walk the

latest. The human voice acquires additional strength at the fourteenth

year; but in old age it becomes more shrill again, and there is no

living creature in which it is subject to more frequent changes.

In addition to the preceding, there are still some singular

circumstances that deserve to be mentioned with reference to the voice.

If saw-dust or sand is thrown down in the orchestra of a theatre, or if

the walls around are left in a rough state, or empty casks are placed

there, the voice is absorbed; while, on the other hand, if the wall

is quite straight, or if built in a concave form, the voice will move

along it, and will convey words spoken in the slightest whisper from

one end[361] to the other, if there is no inequality in the surface to

impede its progress. The voice, in man, contributes in a great degree

to form his physiognomy, for we form a knowledge of a man before we

see him by hearing his voice, just as well[362] as if we had seen him

with our eyes. There are as many kinds of voices, too, as there are

individuals in existence, and each man has his own peculiar voice, just

as much as his own peculiar physiognomy. Hence it is, that arises that

vast diversity of nations and languages throughout the whole earth:

in this, too, originate the many tunes, measures, and inflexions that

exist. But, before all other things, it is the voice that serves to

express our sentiments,[363] a power that distinguishes us from the

beasts; just as, in the same way, the various shades and differences in

language that exist among men have created an equally marked difference

between us and the brutes.

CHAP. 113. (52.)—SUPERFLUOUS LIMBS.

Supernumerary limbs, when they grow on animals, are of no use, which

is the case also with the sixth finger, when it grows on man. It

was thought proper in Egypt to rear a human monster, that had two

additional eyes in the back part of the head; it could not see with

them, however.

CHAP. 114.—SIGNS OF VITALITY AND OF THE MORAL DISPOSITION OF MAN, FROM

THE LIMBS.

I am greatly surprised that Aristotle has not only believed, but has

even committed it to writing, that there are in the human body certain

prognostics of the duration of life. Although I am quite convinced of

the utter futility of these remarks, and am of opinion that they ought

not to be published without hesitation, for fear lest each person might

be anxiously looking out for these prognostics in his own person, I

shall still make some slight mention of the subject, seeing that so

learned a man as Aristotle did not treat it with contempt. He has set

down the following as indications of a short life—few teeth, very long

fingers, a leaden colour, and numerous broken lines in the palm of the

hand. On the other hand, he looks upon the following as prognostics of

a long life—stooping in the shoulders, one or two long unbroken lines

in the hand, a greater number than two-and-thirty teeth, and large

ears. He does not, I imagine, require that all these symptoms should

unite in one person, but looks upon them as individually significant:

in my opinion, however, they are utterly frivolous, all of them,

although they obtain currency among the vulgar. Our own writer, Trogus,

has in a similar manner set down the physiognomy as indicative of the

moral disposition; one of the very gravest of the Roman authors, whose

own[364] words I will here subjoin:—

“Where the forehead is broad, it is significant of a dull and sluggish

understanding beneath; and where it is small, it indicates an unsteady

disposition. A rounded forehead denotes an irascible temper, it seeming

as though the swelling anger had left its traces there. Where the

eye-brows are extended in one straight line, they denote effeminacy

in the owner, and when they are bent downwards towards the nose, an

austere disposition. On the other hand, when the eye-brows are bent

towards the temples, they are indicative of a sarcastic disposition;

but when they lie very low, they denote malice and envy. Long eyes

are significant of a spiteful, malicious nature; and where the

corners of the eyes next the nose are fleshy, it is a sign also of a

wicked disposition. If the white of the eye is large, it bears tokens

of impudence, while those who are incessantly closing the eyelids

are inconstant. Largeness of the ears is a sign of loquacity and

foolishness.” Thus much of what Trogus says.

CHAP. 115. (53.)—RESPIRATION AND NUTRIMENT.

The breath of the lion is fetid, and that of the bear quite

pestilential; indeed, no beast will touch anything with which its

breath has come in contact, and substances which it has breathed upon

will become putrid sooner than others. It is in man only that Nature

has willed that the breath should become tainted in several ways,

either through faultiness in the victuals or the teeth, or else, as is

more generally the case, through extreme old age. Our breath in itself

was insensible to all pain, utterly devoid as it was of all powers

of touch and feeling, without which there can be no sensation; ever

renewed, it was always forthcoming, destined to be the last adjunct

that shall leave the body, and the only one to remain when all is

gone beside; it drew, in fine, its origin from heaven. In spite of

all this, however, certain penalties were discovered to be indicted

upon it, so that the very substance by the aid of which we live might

become a torment to us in life. This inconvenience is more particularly

experienced among the Parthians, from their youth upwards, on account

of the indiscriminate use of food among them; and, indeed, their very

excess in wine causes their breath to be fetid. The grandees, however,

of that nation have a remedy for bad breath in the pips of the Assyrian

citron,[365] which they mix with their food, and the aroma of which

is particularly agreeable. The breath of the elephant will attract

serpents from their holes, while that of the stag scorches them. We

have already made mention[366] of certain races of men who could by

suction extract from the body the venom of serpents; and swine will

even eat serpents,[367] which to other animals are poisonous. All those

creatures which we have spoken of as insects, can be killed by merely

sprinkling them with oil.[368] Vultures, which are put to flight by

unguents, are attracted by other odours: the beetle, too, is attracted

by the rose. The scorpion puts to death certain serpents. The Scythians

dip their arrows in the poison of serpents and human blood: against

this frightful composition there is no remedy, for with the slightest

touch it is productive of instant death.

CHAP. 116.—ANIMALS WHICH WHEN FED UPON POISON DO NOT DIE, AND THE FLESH

OF WHICH IS POISONOUS.

The animals which feed upon poison have been already[369] mentioned.

Some of them, which are harmless of themselves, become noxious if

fed upon venomous substances. The wild boar of Pamphylia and the

mountainous parts of Cilicia, after having devoured a salamander,

will become poisonous to those who eat its flesh; and yet the danger

is quite imperceptible by reason of any peculiarity in the smell and

taste. The salamander, too, will poison either water or wine, in which

it happens to be drowned; and what is more, if it has only drunk

thereof, the liquid becomes poisonous. The same is the case, too, with

the frog known to us as the bramble-frog. So numerous are the snares

that are laid in wait for life! Wasps greedily devour the flesh of the

serpent, a nutriment which renders their stings fatal; so vast is the

difference to be found between one kind of food and another. In the

country, too, of the Ichthyophagi,[370] as we learn from Theophrastus,

the oxen are fed upon fish, but only when alive.

CHAP. 117.—REASONS FOR INDIGESTION. REMEDIES FOR CRUDITY.

The most wholesome nutriment for man is plain food. An accumulation of

flavours is injurious, and still more so, if heightened by sauces. All

acrid elements are difficult of digestion, and the same is the case if

food is devoured greedily, or in too large quantities. Food is also

less easily digested in summer than in winter, and in old age than in

youth. The vomits which man has invented, by way of remedy for this

evil, render the body more cold, and are more particularly injurious to

the eyes and teeth.

CHAP. 118.—FROM WHAT CAUSES CORPULENCE ARISES; HOW IT MAY BE REDUCED.

Digestion during sleep is more productive of corpulence than strength.

Hence it is, that it is preferable for athletes to quicken digestion

by walking. Watching, at night more especially, promotes digestion of

the food.

(54.) The size of the body is increased by eating sweet and fatty

substances, as well as by drinking, while, on the other hand, it is

diminished by eating dry, acrid, or cold substances, and by abstaining

from drink. Some animals of Africa, as well as sheep, drink but once

every four days. Abstinence from food for seven days, even, is not of

necessity fatal to man; and it is a well-known fact, that many persons

have not died till after an abstinence of eleven days. Man is the only

animal that is ever attacked with an insatiate[371] craving for food.

CHAP. 119.—WHAT THINGS, BY MERELY TASTING OF THEM, ALLAY HUNGER AND

THIRST.

On the other hand, there are some substances which, tasted in small

quantities only, appease hunger and thirst, and keep up the strength,

such as butter, for instance, cheese made of mares’ milk, and

liquorice. But the most pernicious thing of all, and in every station

of life, is excess, and more especially excess in food; in fact, it

is the most prudent plan to retrench everything that may be possibly

productive of injury. Let us, however, now pass on to the other

branches of Nature.

SUMMARY.—Remarkable facts, narratives, and observations, two

thousand, two hundred, and seventy.

ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—M. Varro,[372] Hyginus,[373] Scrofa,[374]

Saserna,[375] Celsus Cornelius,[376] Æmilius Macer,[377] Virgil,[378]

Columella,[379] Julius Aquila[380] who wrote on the Tuscan art of

Divination, Tarquitius[381] who wrote on the same subject, Umbricius

Melior[382] who wrote on the same subject, Cato the Censor,[383]

Domitius Calvinus,[384] Trogus,[385] Melissus,[386] Fabianus,[387]

Mucianus,[388] Nigidius,[389] Manilius,[390] Oppius.[391]

FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Aristotle,[392] Democritus,[393]

Neoptolemus[394] who wrote the Meliturgica, Aristomachus[395] who wrote

on the same subject, Philistus[396] who wrote on the same subject,

Nicander,[397] Menecrates,[398] Dionysius[399] who translated Mago,

Empedocles,[400] Callimachus,[401] King Attalus,[402] Apollodorus[403]

who wrote on venomous animals, Hippocrates,[404] Herophilus,[405]

Erasistratus,[406] Asclepiades,[407] Themison,[408] Posidonius[409]

the Stoic, Menander[410] of Priene and Menander[411] of Heraclea,

Euphronius[412] of

Athens, Theophrastus,[413] Hesiod,[414] King

Philometor.[415]