Aristotle · a new plain-English translation from the original language
1| The most nourishing milk, then, is that which has the most cheese-substance, but the milk with less is healthier for infants. All animals that have blood emit seed. What it contributes to generation, and how, will be discussed elsewhere. Man emits the most seed in proportion to his body. In animals that have hair it is viscous, but in the other animals it has no viscosity. In all animals it is white; but Herodotus is mistaken in writing that the Ethiopians emit black seed. Semen comes out white and thick if it is healthy, but once outside it becomes thin and dark. In frosty weather it does not congeal, but becomes altogether thin and watery both in color and in thickness; heat makes it congeal and thicken. And when it comes out after remaining some time in the womb, it comes out thicker, and sometimes dry and shriveled. What is fertile sinks down in water, what is infertile disperses. What Ctesias has written about the seed of elephants is also false. D.
2| Concerning the blooded animals — both the parts common to them and those peculiar to each genus, both the non-uniform and the uniform parts, and both the internal and the external ones — we have spoken earlier. We must now speak of the bloodless animals. There are several genera. One is that of the so-called cephalopods: these are the animals that, being bloodless, have their fleshy part outside, while inside — if they have anything solid — it corresponds to what the blooded animals have, for example the genus of cuttlefish. Another is that of the crustaceans: these are the animals whose solid part is outside and whose soft, fleshy part is inside; and their hard part is not brittle but crushable — for example the genus of crayfish and the genus of crabs. Further, there are the testaceans: these are animals whose fleshy part is inside and whose solid part is outside, being brittle and breakable but not crushable — such is the genus of snails and the genus of oysters. Fourth is the genus of insects, which encompasses many dissimilar species of animals. Insects are those that, in accordance with their name, have notches either on their upper side or on their under side or on both, and have neither one separate bony part nor one fleshy part, but something between the two —
3| for their body is equally hard both inside and out. Some insects are wingless, such as the millipede and the centipede, and some are winged, such as the bee, the cockchafer, and the wasp; and the same genus can be both winged and wingless, as ants are both winged and wingless, and so are the creatures called glow-worms. Now the external parts of the so-called cephalopods are as follows: first, what are called the feet; second, next to these, the head; third, the sac, which encloses the internal parts — some call this the head, but incorrectly; and further, fins running all around the sac. In all cephalopods it happens that the head lies between the feet and the belly. All of them have eight feet, and all of these have a double row of suckers, except for one genus of the many-footed kind. Cuttlefish, calamary, and squid have, in addition, two long tentacles at the extremities, bearing a double row of rough suckers, with which they draw in and take food to their mouth, and when there is a storm, they throw these against some rock and ride at anchor, as it were, by them. They swim by means of the fin-like parts they have around the sac.
4| All of them have suckers on their feet. The octopus uses its arms both as feet and as hands. It draws things toward itself with the two arms above its mouth; and it uses the last of its arms — the sharpest one, the only one that is whitish, and forked at its tip (this one is on the back; the back is called the smooth part, in front of which the suckers lie) — in mating. In front of the sac, above the arms, they have a hollow tube, through which they expel the seawater they have taken in with the sac, whenever they take something into their mouth. This tube shifts sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left; and they also discharge their ink through it. The octopus swims sideways, stretching its feet out toward what is called its head; and swimming in this way, it happens to see ahead of it (for its eyes are on top), while its mouth is behind. As long as it is alive, its head remains hard, as though inflated. It grips and holds on with its arms turned upward, and the whole membrane between its feet is stretched taut; but if it falls onto sand, it can no longer hold on.
5| The octopuses and the mollusks just mentioned show a difference among themselves: in the octopuses the body-sac is small and the legs long, while in the others the body-sac is large and the legs short, so short that they cannot walk on them. Among the others, comparing them with each other, the squid is the longer, the cuttlefish the broader. Among the squids, the ones called "teuthoi," the calamary, grow far larger, reaching as much as five cubits in length. Some cuttlefish too grow to two cubits, and the tentacles of octopuses reach that size and even larger. But the calamary is a rare kind. The calamary differs from the squid in shape: its pointed end is broader, and the fin runs in a circle around the whole body-sac, whereas in the squid it is incomplete. It lives out at sea, as the squid also does. In all of them, after the legs comes the head, set in the middle of the legs, which are called tentacles. Part of the head is the mouth, in which are two teeth; above these are two large eyes, and between the eyes a small piece of cartilage holding a small brain. In the mouth there is a small fleshy part—
6| none of them has a tongue, but uses this fleshy part instead of a tongue. After this, on the outside, one can see the visible body-sac. Its flesh is split, not in a straight line but running in a circle; and all the mollusks have skin covering this. After the mouth they have a long, narrow gullet, and next to this a large, round, bird-like crop. Next to this comes the stomach, like a fourth stomach, and its shape is like the spiral in whelks. From this a thin intestine runs back up again toward the mouth; the intestine is thicker than the gullet. None of the mollusks has an internal organ of that kind, but they have what is called the "ink-bag," and on it the ink. The cuttlefish has the most of this and the largest ink-bag; all of them release it when frightened, but the cuttlefish does so most of all. The ink-bag lies below the mouth, and the gullet runs through it; where the intestine runs up, below is the ink, and it has its duct enclosed in the same membrane as the intestine, and it releases the ink and the residue through the same passage. They also have certain hair-like structures in the body.
7| In the cuttlefish, the squid, and the calamary there is, inside, on the back of the body, a solid structure, which in the one case is called the cuttle-bone and in the other the pen. They differ: the cuttle-bone is strong and broad, something between a spine and a bone, having in it a spongy friability, while that of the squids is thin and more cartilaginous. In shape they differ from one another just as the body-sacs do. The octopuses have no such solid part inside at all, but around the head something cartilaginous, which, if one of them grows old, becomes hard. The females differ from the males: the males have a duct below the gullet, running from the brain down toward the lower part of the body-sac; the point it runs to is like a nipple; in the females there are two such structures, and they are higher up. In both sexes, below these, certain small red bodies are attached. The octopus has a single egg, uneven on the outside and large; inside is the fluid part, uniform in color throughout and smooth, white in color; and the quantity of the egg is such that it fills a vessel larger than the octopus's own head.
8| The cuttlefish has two body-sacs, and many eggs within them, like white hailstones. How each of these parts is situated should be studied from the diagram in the Anatomies. All the males of these differ from the females, and especially the cuttlefish: the male has the back of the body-sac darker than the underside, and rougher, than the female, and it is variegated with stripes, and its tail-end is more pointed. There are several kinds of octopus: one is the kind found most on the surface and the largest of them (the ones near shore are much larger than those out at sea); then there are other small, mottled ones, which are not eaten. There are two others besides: the one called the "heledone," which differs in the length of its legs and in being the only mollusk with a single row of suckers (for all the others have a double row), and the one some call the "bolitaina" and others the "ozolis." There are yet two others found in shells, the one called by some the nautilus and the sea-pen, by others the "octopus's egg"; its shell is like a hollow comb-shell and is not fused to the body. This creature often grazes near the shore, and then gets washed by the waves onto dry land, and when the shell tips over it is caught and dies on land.
9| These are small, similar in kind to the bolitainai. And there is another in a shell, like a snail, which does not come out of the shell but stays inside it as the snail does, though sometimes it stretches its tentacles out. So much, then, for the mollusks. Among the crustaceans, one kind is that of the crayfish, and closely resembling it another, that of the so-called lobsters; these differ from the crayfish in having claws and in a few other differences. One kind is that of the shrimps, and another that of the crabs. There are several kinds of shrimp and of crab: among shrimps, the bent ones and the "krangones" and the small kind (for these do not grow larger); among crabs the kind is far more varied and not easily enumerated. The largest are those called "maiai"; second are the "pagouroi" and the Heraclean crabs, and further the river crabs; the rest are smaller and mostly nameless. Around Phoenicia, on the shore, occur the ones called "horsemen," because they run so fast that it is not easy to catch them; when opened up they are empty, because they have no food inside. There is also another kind, small like the crabs but similar in shape to the lobsters. All of these, as has been said before, have the solid, shell-like part outside, occupying the place of skin, and the fleshy part inside, and on the underside flatter plate-like parts, into which the females also lay their eggs.
10| The crayfish have five legs on each side, counting the terminal claws; likewise the crabs too have ten in all, counting the claws. Among the shrimps, the bent kind have five on each side, sharp ones near the head, and another five on each side along the belly, with flat tips; they have no plates on the underside, but the parts on the back are like those of the crayfish. The "krangon" is the opposite: it has the first four on each side, then another three slender ones next to these on each side, and the rest, the greater part of the body, is footless. In all of them the legs bend sideways, as in insects too, but the claws, in those that have claws, bend inward. The crayfish has a tail as well, and five fins; and the bent shrimp has a tail-fin and four fins. The "krangon" too has fins on each side of the tail; the part between them in both is spiny, except that in these it is broad, while in the bent shrimp it is pointed. The crab alone among these has no tail-end; and the body of the shrimps and crayfish is elongated, while that of the crabs is round.
11| The male crayfish differs from the female. In the female the first foot is forked, but in the male it ends in a single point. And the female has large fins on the underside that overlap near the neck, while the male's are smaller and do not overlap. Again, on the male's last feet there are large sharp projections like spurs, but on the female these are small and smooth. Both alike have two large rough feelers in front of the eyes, and other small smooth horns below these. In all of these creatures the eyes are hard-eyed, and they move both inward and outward and to the side; and it is the same, only still more so, with most crabs. The lobster has a body that is on the whole whitish, but sprinkled with black. It has eight feet below, up to the large ones, and after these the large claws, much bigger and broader at the tip than in the crayfish, and unequal to each other; for the right one has its broad tip elongated and thin, while the left one is thick and rounded.
12| Each claw is split at the tip like a jaw, with teeth both below and above, except that the right claw has all small teeth, jagged like a saw, while the left claw has jagged teeth at the tip, but the inner ones are like molars—four in a row on the lower side, and three not in a row on the upper side. Both claws move their upper part, and press it down against the lower. Both are bent outward in their position, as if naturally suited for grasping and squeezing. Above the large claws there are two other, hairy ones, a little below the mouth, and below these are the gill-like parts around the mouth, which are hairy and numerous. These it keeps moving continually; and it bends and draws the two hairy feet toward its mouth. The feet next to the mouth also have thin side-shoots. It has two teeth like the crayfish, and above these the long horns, though much shorter and thinner than the crayfish's, and another four similar to these in shape but shorter and thinner still. Above these are the eyes, small and short, not large as in the crayfish. The part above the eyes is sharp and rough, like a forehead, and larger than in the crayfish.
13| In general its face is more pointed, and its chest much broader than the crayfish's, and its whole body fleshier and softer. Of the eight feet, four are forked at the tip and four are not. The parts around what is called the neck are divided into five sections on the outside, and there is a sixth, the broad tail-piece, which has five plates. The inner parts, into which the females lay their eggs beforehand, are four hairy sections. On each of the sections mentioned there is a short, straight spine pointing outward. The whole body, including the parts around the chest, is smooth, unlike the rough crayfish; but on the large feet the outer parts have larger spines. Between female and male no difference is apparent; for both male and female, whichever of the two claws happens to be, have it larger, though neither ever has both equal. All such creatures take in sea water by the mouth; crabs release it by lifting a small part of this same opening, while crayfish release it through the gill-like parts—crayfish have many of these gill-like parts. Common to all of these is the following:
14| all have two teeth (for even the crayfish have two front ones), and a mouth that is fleshy in place of a tongue, then a stomach connected directly to the mouth—except that the crayfish have a small gullet before the stomach—and then from this stomach a straight intestine. This ends, in the crayfish-kind and the shrimp, in a straight line toward the tail, where they discharge waste and lay their eggs; but in the crabs it ends at the middle of what is called the flap, at the place where they have the flap. In these too, however, it is on the outside, where they lay their eggs. Further, the females among them have the place for the eggs alongside the intestine. All of these also have what is called the ink-sac or poppy, in greater or smaller amount. The differences peculiar to each must now be examined. The crayfish, then, as has been said, have two large hollow teeth, in which there is a fluid like the ink, and between the teeth a small fleshy piece like a tongue. From the mouth it has a short gullet, and a stomach connected to this, membranous, at whose mouth-end there are three teeth—two of them opposite each other, and one below. From the side of the stomach there runs a simple intestine of equal thickness throughout, all the way to the outlet for waste.
15| All these parts, then, are possessed alike by the crayfish, the shrimp, and the crabs; for the crabs too have two teeth. Further, the crayfish have a duct running from the chest to the outlet for waste; in the female this is the passage for the womb, in the male for the seed. This duct lies against the hollow side of the flesh, so that the flesh comes between the two: for the intestine lies against the convex side, and the duct against the hollow side, arranged just as in four-footed animals. There is no difference between the male's and the female's; both are thin and white and contain within themselves a pale moisture, and both are likewise suspended from the chest. The shrimp and the spiny lobsters have the egg-passage arranged in the same way. What the male has, peculiar to himself as against the female, is two whitish bodies by themselves in the flesh at the chest, like in color and consistency to the tentacles of the cuttlefish; these are coiled up like the whelk's spiral shell. Their starting-point is from the sucker-like disks that lie below the last feet.
16| In this part too there is red, blood-colored flesh, sticky to the touch and unlike the rest of the flesh. From the whelk-like part around the chest there runs another coil, about as thick as a cord; below these lie two crumbly bodies attached to the intestine, which carry the seed. These, then, the male has; the female has eggs, red in color, whose attachment is to the stomach and to the intestine on each side, reaching to the fleshy parts, enclosed in a thin membrane. Such, then, are the parts, both internal and external, that these creatures have.
17| It happens that among the blooded animals the internal parts have names—for all of them have what are called viscera inside—but among the bloodless animals none do; instead stomach, gullet, and intestine are common terms for both groups alike. As for the crabs, concerning their claws and feet, that they have them and how they are arranged, this has been said before; and for the most part all of them have the right claw larger and stronger. It has also been said before about their eyes, that most of them look to the side. The cavity of the body is a single undivided thing, and there is besides a head, and whatever other part there may be. Some have their eyes set well apart from each other, up on the side just under the slope, while others have them in the middle and close together, as do the Heracleotic crabs and the hermit-crabs. Below the eyes is the mouth, and in it two teeth as in the crayfish, except that these are not round but elongated. Over these there are two coverings, between which is the same sort of thing that the crayfish has by its teeth. It takes in water by the mouth, pushing back the coverings, and it lets the water out through the upper passages of the mouth, closing the coverings over the place by which the water entered.
18| These are situated right below the eyes; and whenever it takes in water, it closes the mouth with both coverings, and then in this way spits the seawater back out. Next to the teeth the gullet is altogether short, so that the stomach seems to come immediately after the mouth. And next to this the stomach is two-chambered, from the middle of which the intestine is simple and thin; the intestine ends beneath the outer covering, as has been said before. Between the coverings it has, just as the crayfish does, structures next to the teeth. Inside the body cavity there is a pale fluid, and some small oblong white things, and other reddish things scattered about. The male differs from the female in size and in breadth and in the covering; for the female has this larger, and more spread out and more thickly covering, just as also in the case of female crayfish. The parts of the crustaceans, then, are in this condition.
19| The testaceans among animals — such as the land-snails and the whelks and all the creatures called oysters, and further the class of sea urchins — as regards their flesh, those that have flesh have it in the same way as the crustaceans (for they have it inside), but their shell is outside, and inside there is nothing hard. But they have many differences among themselves, both in respect of their shells and in respect of the flesh within. For some of them have no flesh at all, such as the sea urchin, while others have flesh, but keep all of it hidden inside except for the head, such as the land-snails and the creatures some call "kokalia," and among sea creatures the purple-fish and the trumpet-shells (kēryx) and the sea-snail (kochlos) and the other spiral-shelled kinds. Of the rest, some are two-shelled and some one-shelled; by two-shelled I mean those enclosed by two shells, and by one-shelled those enclosed by one; and their flesh is on the surface, as in the limpet. Of the two-shelled kind, some open up, such as scallops and mussels; for all such creatures are joined together on one side and separated on the other, so that they can close and open. Others are two-shelled, but are closed alike on both sides, such as razor-shells.
20| There are also some that are wholly enclosed by the shell and have none of their flesh exposed to the outside, such as the creatures called tethya. Further, the shells themselves differ from one another. For some are smooth-shelled, like the razor-shell and mussels and certain cockles that some call "milk-shells," while others are rough-shelled, like pond-oysters and the pinna and some kinds of cockles and whelks. And of these, some are ribbed, such as the scallop and a certain kind of cockle, while others are unribbed, such as the pinna and a certain kind of cockle. They also differ in the thickness and thinness of their shells, both over the whole shell and in particular parts, such as around the edges; for some are thin-edged, like mussels, while others are thick-edged, like pond-oysters. Further, some of them are able to move themselves, such as the scallop (some even say scallops can fly, since they often leap right out of the instrument by which they are caught), while others are immobile because of their attachment, such as the pinna. All the spiral-shelled kinds move and crawl; and the limpet too, when it detaches itself, grazes about. Common to these and to the other hard-shelled kinds is that the shell is smooth on the inside.
21| In the one-shelled and two-shelled kinds the flesh has grown onto the shells, so that it can be torn off only by force, but in the spiral-shelled kinds it is more detached. A feature peculiar to all of these in respect of the shell is that the shell has a spiral coil at the point furthest from the head. Further, all of them have a lid from birth. Further, all the spiral-shelled testaceans coil to the right, and move not toward the spiral but toward the opposite side. The outer parts of these animals, then, have differences of this sort; but as for the internal parts, the nature of all of them is in a way similar, and especially of the spiral-shelled kinds (for they differ from one another in size and in attributes of degree), and the one-shelled and closable two-shelled kinds do not differ much either — they have small differences among themselves, but greater differences from the immobile kinds. This will become clearer from what follows. The nature of all the spiral-shelled kinds is alike, but they differ, as has been said, in degree (for some have larger and more conspicuous parts, while others have the opposite, smaller ones), and further in hardness and softness and other such attributes. For all of them have, at the outermost part, in the mouth of the shell, firm flesh — some more so, some less.
22| From the middle of this comes the head and two small horns; these are large in the bigger kinds, and altogether small in the smaller ones. The head comes out in the same way in all of them; and if something frightens the creature, it draws back in again. Some have a mouth and teeth, such as the land-snail, whose teeth are sharp and small and thin. They also have proboscises, just as flies do; this is tongue-like. Whelks and purple-fish also have this, and theirs is firm; and just as gadflies and horseflies pierce right through the skins of four-footed animals, so does this organ, because in strength it is the most forceful of all; for they bore right through the shells of the bait. Next to the mouth comes the stomach immediately. The stomach of the whelks is similar to a bird's crop. Below it they have two white firm organs, resembling breasts, of the kind that also occur in cuttlefish, except these are firmer. From the stomach a simple long gullet runs to the "poppy," which is at the base of the shell. These features are visible also in the purple-fish and the whelks, in the coil of the shell. Next to the gullet comes the intestine;
23| the gullet and the intestine are continuous, and the whole is simple all the way to the exit. The beginning of the intestine is around the coil of the "poppy," and there it is wider (for the poppy is, for most of its extent, a kind of residue in all the shelled creatures); then, bending, it runs back up toward the flesh, and the end of the intestine is next to the head, where they discharge the residue — alike in all the spiral-shelled kinds, both the land ones and the sea ones. Woven in alongside the stomach, attached to the gullet in the large whelks and held together by a thin membrane, is a long white passage, similar in color to the breast-like organs mentioned above. It has indentations like the roe in the crayfish, except in color: this one is white, that one red. This organ has no outlet or passage, but is enclosed in a thin membrane, having within itself a narrow cavity. From the intestine, downward, run continuous dark and rough parts, such as also occur in tortoises, except less dark. Sea whelks also have these, and the white organs too, except that the smaller ones have smaller ones. The one-shelled and two-shelled kinds are in some respects similar to these, and in other respects different.
24| For they have a head and little horns and a mouth and the tongue-like part; but in the smaller ones these are unclear because of their smallness, and even in the larger ones they are not clear when the animals are dead or not moving. All of them have what is called the poppy, but not in the same place, nor of equal size, nor equally visible in all: in the limpets it lies down in the depth, while in the two-shelled kinds it lies at the hinge. And the hair-like growths belong to all of these round about, as for instance in the scallops too. And what is called the egg, in those that have it, when they have it, is in the circuit on the one side of the circumference, just as the white part is in the snails, for that too is present in them in a similar way. But all such parts, as has been said, are clear in the large specimens, and in the small ones either not at all or scarcely. That is why they are most visible in large scallops; and these are the ones that have the one valve broad, like a lid. The exit for the residue is, in the others, from the side; for there is a passage by which it travels out, since the poppy, as has been said, is in all of them a residue enclosed in a membrane. But what is called the egg has a passage in none of them; rather it swells up out of the flesh itself.
25| It is not in the same position as the intestine: the egg is on the right, the intestine on the left. In the others, then, this is how the residue exits, but in the wild limpet, which some call the sea-ear, the residue comes out below the shell, for the shell is pierced through there. The stomach, too, is clear, lying just after the mouth, and in it also are the egg-like parts. In what manner all these lie in position must be studied from dissections. What is called the little crab is in a way common to both the soft-shelled crustaceans and the shell-skinned animals. In its own nature it is like the crayfish kind, and it comes into being on its own, but by creeping into a shell and living in it, it is like the shell-skinned animals, so that on both these counts it seems to be of both kinds. In shape, to put it simply, it is like the spiders, except that the part below the head and thorax is larger than in them. It has two thin, reddish little horns, and beneath these two long eyes, not able to withdraw or lie flat as those of crabs do, but standing upright; and below these the mouth, and around it a number of hair-like growths, and next to these two forked feet by which it draws itself along, and two more on each side, and a third small pair.
26| The part below the thorax is entirely soft, and when opened is pale within. From the mouth there is a single passage as far as the stomach, but the passage for the residue is not clear. The feet and the thorax are hard, though less so than in crabs. It has no attachment to its shell such as the purple-fish and the whelks have, but is easily detached. In the periwinkles the feet are longer than in the nerites. There is another kind, that of the nerites, similar to the others in most respects, but of the forked feet it has the right one small and the left one large, and it does its walking mostly on this one. Such a creature is also caught in cockles, whose attachment is similar, and in others as well. This they call the kyllaros. The nerite has a shell that is smooth, large, and round, and in shape similar to the whelks, except that unlike them its poppy is not black but red; and it is attached vigorously at the middle. In calm weather, then, these creatures detach themselves and graze, but when winds blow the little crabs keep still by the rocks, while the nerites cling fast just as the limpets do.
27| and likewise the haimorrhoids and the whole kind of that sort. They attach themselves to the rocks when they tilt their covering aside; for this seems to be like a lid — what for the two-shelled kinds is both valves, this is for the spiral-shelled kinds the single part. The inner part is fleshy, and in this is the mouth. It works the same way in the haimorrhoids and the purple-fish and all such creatures. Those that have the left foot the larger one do not occur among the periwinkles, but do occur among the nerites. There are certain snails that contain within themselves creatures similar to the small crayfish, which also occur in rivers; they differ from these in having the inside of their shell soft. What their shape is like must be studied from dissections.
28| Sea urchins do not have the fleshy part, but this is peculiar to them — for all of them are deprived of it, and have no flesh at all inside; and all of them are black. There are several kinds of sea urchins. One is the edible kind, and this is the one in which what are called the eggs, which are large and edible, occur, alike in the larger and the smaller specimens; for even while still small they already have these. There are two other kinds, that of the spatangoi and that of what are called bryssoi; these occur far out at sea and are rare. There are also the so-called echinometra, the largest of all in size. Besides these there is another kind, small in size but with large, hard spines, which occurs in the sea at many fathoms' depth, and which some people use for strangury. Around Torone there are white sea urchins, both the shells and the spines and the eggs, and they are larger than the others in length; the spine is not large or strong but rather softer, and the black parts near the mouth are more numerous, joined together toward the outer passage but not joined to one another; among these it is as it were divided up.
29| The edible ones among them move the most and the most often, and they have a certain mark on their spines. All of them, then, have eggs, but some have them altogether small and inedible. It happens that the sea urchin has what is called its head and mouth below, and the point where it discharges the residue above. This same thing occurs also in all the spiral-shelled kinds and in the limpets, for their feeding is from below, so that the mouth is toward the feeding surface while the residue is above, toward the upper side of the shell. The sea urchin has five hollow teeth on the inside, and in the middle of these a fleshy body in place of a tongue. Attached to this is the gullet, and then the stomach, divided into five parts, full of residue; all its pouches converge into one for the exit of the residue, at the point where the shell is pierced through. Below the stomach, in another membrane, are what are called the eggs, equal in number in all specimens; for they are five in number, an odd number. Higher up, the black parts hang from the base of the teeth, which are bitter and inedible. In many animals there is this same thing, or its analogue,
30| for it is found in tortoises and in toads and in frogs and in the spiral-shelled and soft-bodied kinds; but it differs in color, and in all of them such parts are inedible, either entirely or for the most part. Now with respect to its base and its top the body of the sea urchin is continuous, but over its surface it is not continuous, but is like a lantern that lacks the skin running round it. The sea urchin uses its spines as feet: by pushing off on these and moving, it changes its place.
31| The creatures called tethya (sea squirts) have the most peculiar nature of all these. For their body alone among them is entirely hidden in the shell, and the shell is intermediate between skin and shell, which is why it can be cut like tough hide. They are attached to the rocks by the shell, and they have two passages set apart from one another, altogether small and not easy to see, through which they let out and take in liquid; for they have no visible residue, as some of the other oysters do — some like a sea urchin, others what is called a poppy-head. When opened, inside first there is a sinewy membrane around the shell-like part; and within this is the fleshy part of the tethyon itself, unlike that of any other creature; the flesh itself, however, is uniform in all of them. This is attached at two points to the membrane and to the skin from the side; and where it is attached, it is narrower on each side, from which it stretches toward the passages leading outward through the shell, through which it lets out and takes in nourishment and liquid, as though the one were a mouth, the other an exit for the residue; and of these one is thicker, the other thinner.
32| Inside it is hollow on each side, and a small continuous part separates the two; in one of the hollows the liquid forms. It has no other part, either organ or sense-organ, nor — as was said earlier concerning the others — anything for the residue. The color of the tethyon is in some cases pale yellow, in others red. The genus of the sea nettles (anemones) is also peculiar; for it is attached to the rocks like some of the shell-creatures, but sometimes detaches itself. It has no shell, but its whole body is fleshy. It perceives, and seizes a hand brought near it and clings to it, just as the octopus does with its tentacles, so that the flesh swells up. It has its mouth in the middle, and lives off the rock as an oyster does. And if any of the small fish come against it, it holds fast to them as it would a hand; likewise, if anything edible comes against it, it devours it. And a certain kind of them also detaches itself, which, if anything comes against it, devours it, sea urchins and scallops included. It appears to have no residue at all, and in this respect resembles the plants. There are two kinds of sea nettles: the smaller ones, which are more edible, and the large, tough ones, such as occur also around Chalcis.
33| In winter their flesh is firm (which is why they are hunted and are edible), but in summer they perish; for they become flabby, and if one touches them, they quickly tear apart and cannot be taken up whole, and being distressed by the heat they burrow further into the rocks. Concerning the soft-bodied creatures, then, and the crustaceans and the shell-creatures — both the parts they have outside and those inside — this has been said.
34| Concerning the insects the same method must be followed. This genus has many species within itself, and some of them, though akin to one another, have no common name attached to them — for example the bee, the hornet, the wasp, and such creatures; and again all those that have their wing in a sheath, such as the cockchafer, the stag-beetle, the blister-beetle, and the like. Now three parts are common to all: the head, the cavity around the belly, and third, what lies between these, corresponding to what in the others is the chest and the back. In most of them this is a single part; but those that are long and many-footed have segments nearly equal in number to their incisions. All insects, when divided, retain life, except those that are either extremely chilled or, on account of their small size, are quickly chilled, since even wasps live on after being cut in two. Now together with the middle part both the head and the belly live, but without this the head does not live. Those that are long and many-footed live a long time when divided, and the severed part moves toward both extremities; for it travels both toward the cut and toward the tail, as does the creature called the centipede.
35| All of them have eyes, but no other sense-organ is evident, except in some cases something like a tongue; and all the shell-creatures too have this, by which they also taste and draw their food up into themselves. In some this is soft, in others it has great strength, as in the purple-fish. The horsefly and the gadfly also have this strong, and so do nearly all the rest; for in all that are not stingless-from-behind, each has this as a kind of weapon. Those that have this have no teeth, except a few, since flies too draw blood by touching with this, and gnats sting with it. Some insects also have stings. The sting some have within themselves, as bees and wasps do, others outside, as the scorpion does; and this alone among insects has a long sting. Further, both this creature and the scorpion-like creature that occurs in books have claws. The winged ones among them have, in addition to their other parts, wings as well. Some of them are two-winged, like flies, others four-winged, like bees; and nothing that stings from behind is two-winged only.
36| Further, some of the winged ones have a sheath for their wings, like the cockchafer, others are sheathless, like the bee; the flight of all of them is without a steering tail, and the wing has neither shaft nor cleft. Further, some have feelers in front of their eyes, such as the moths and the stag-beetles. Of those that are jumpers, some have their hind legs longer, others have oars that bend backward like the legs of four-footed animals. All have their upper side differentiated from their under side, as do the other animals too. The flesh of the body is neither shell-like nor, as with what is inside the shell-creatures, so fleshy, but intermediate. This is why they have neither spine nor bone nor anything like a cuttlebone nor a shell all around; for the body preserves itself by its own hardness, and needs no other support. They do have skin, but it is altogether thin. These, then, are their outer parts, and of this kind; inside, immediately after the mouth, in most of them the gut is straight and simple all the way to the exit, but in a few it has a coil.
37| None of these has any internal organ, nor fat, just as none of the other bloodless creatures does. Some have a stomach as well, and from this the rest of the gut is either straight or coiled, as in locusts. The cicada alone among such creatures, and among the other animals, has no mouth, but instead of what in the backward-stingers is the tongue-like organ, it has something long, fused, and uncleft, through which it feeds on dew alone; and in its belly it holds no residue. There are several species of them, differing in largeness and smallness, and in that the ones called harvest-cicadas are divided under the girdle-band and have a visible membrane, while the little cicadas do not have this. There are also some peculiar creatures in the sea which, because they are rare, cannot be assigned to a genus. For some experienced fishermen already say that some of them have seen in the sea things like beams, black, round, and of equal thickness throughout; and others like shields, red in color, having dense little fins; and others resembling a man's genitals both in shape and in size, except that instead of testicles they have two fins, and that once such a creature was caught by the point of a many-hooked line.
38| This, then, is how the parts of all animals stand, the internal and the external, both peculiar to each kind and common to them. We must now speak of the senses; for they do not belong to all animals alike, but to some all of them, to others fewer. The senses are, at most, and beyond which no other distinct one appears, five in number: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Man, then, and the animals that bear live young and walk on land, and besides these all that are blooded and bear live young, all appear to have all of these, except if some one kind is maimed, as is the case with the mole. For this animal has no sight; it has no eyes visible on the outside, but when the skin, which is thick, is stripped away from the head, in the region outside where the eyes would be, the eyes are found inside, ruined, having all the same parts as genuine eyes—for they have the black part and, within the black, what is called the pupil, and the surrounding ring—only all of these are smaller than in visible eyes. But none of this shows to the outside, because of the thickness of the skin, as though nature were maimed in the process of generation; for from the brain, where it joins the spinal marrow, there run two sinewy and strong passages, stretching to the very sockets of the eyes, and ending at the upper canine teeth.
39| The other animals have perception of colors and of sounds, and further of smell and of flavors. And touch, the fifth sense, all the other animals have as well. In some, the organs of sense are quite conspicuous—those of the eyes especially so. For the place of the eyes is clearly marked off, and so is that of hearing; some animals have ears, others have the passages visible. It is the same with smell: some have nostrils, others have the passages of smell only, as is the case with the class of birds. It is the same too with the organ of flavors, the tongue. Among the water animals called fishes, they have the organ of flavors, the tongue, but have it indistinctly; for it is bony and not free. But in some fishes the palate is fleshy, as in the river carp among the freshwater kinds, so that to those who do not look carefully it seems to be a tongue. That fishes perceive by tasting is plain; for many delight in particular flavors, and the amia takes the bait, and so do the fat fishes, most readily, as though delighting in the taste and eating of such baits.
40| Of hearing and of smell fishes have no organ that is plainly visible; for whatever might seem in some to be one, in the region of the nostrils, does not reach through to the brain at all, but in some cases the passages are blind, in others they lead only as far as the gills. That fishes both hear and smell, however, is plain; for they are seen fleeing from loud noises, such as the oar-strokes of triremes, so that they are easily caught in the hollows of the sea when this happens; for even if the noise outside is small, it appears harsh and great and heavy to all creatures whose hearing is exercised in water. This is what happens also in the hunting of dolphins: when hunters surround them in a body with their dugout boats, making noise from the boats in the sea, they drive the dolphins in a mass to run themselves aground on the land in flight, and catch them stupefied by the noise. And yet not even dolphins have any organ of hearing that is plainly visible. Further, in the hunting of fish, those engaged in this kind of hunting are especially careful to avoid making noise, whether with oar or with nets; but whenever they notice that many fish are gathered together in some spot, judging the extent of the place, they let down their nets in such a way that neither the noise of the oar nor of the fishing-boat's motion reaches that spot;
41| and they instruct all the sailors to sail in as much silence as possible, until they have completely encircled the fish. But sometimes, when they want the fish to run together, they do the very opposite, the same thing done in the hunting of dolphins: they make noise by striking stones together, so that the fish, frightened, run together into one place and so become entangled in the nets. And before closing the net, as has been said, they prevent noise, but once they have encircled the fish, they then order the men to shout and make noise; for hearing the noise and the din, the fish rush together out of fear. Further, when fishermen see, from quite a distance, large numbers of fish grazing together and floating near the surface in calm and fair weather, and want to see their size and what kind they are, if they sail up without making noise, they go unnoticed and catch the fish still at the surface, but if someone happens to make a noise first, the fish are plainly seen fleeing. Further, in rivers there are certain small fish that some people call kottoi; some hunt these by striking the rocks with stones, because the fish hide under the rocks; and the fish fall out and are swept along as though they had heard the noise and were stupefied by it. That fish hear, then, is plain from such facts; and there are some who say that fish are actually the sharpest of hearing among animals, on the ground that men who spend their time about the sea encounter many such cases.
42| The sharpest of hearing among fishes are the grey mullet, the chremps, the bass, the saupe, the chromis, and other fish of that sort; the rest are less so, and that is why they spend their time more toward the bottom of the sea. The same holds also for smell. Most fish are unwilling to touch bait that is not fresh, and they are not all caught with the same baits but with baits proper to each, distinguishing them by smell; for some are lured by foul-smelling baits, as the saupe is by dung. Further, many fish spend their time in caves, and when fishermen want to draw them out for hunting, they smear the mouth of the cave with the smells of salted fish, which brings them out quickly. The eel is caught in this same way: fishermen set out a jar of salted fish, putting into the mouth of the jar what is called a funnel-trap. And in general all fish are drawn more toward things with a strong smell. Fishermen also roast the flesh of cuttlefish for the sake of the smell and use it as bait, since the fish come to it more readily. They say fishermen also roast octopuses and put them into fish-traps for no other reason than the strong smell. Further, the fish called rhyades, when the water used to rinse fish is poured out, or when the bilge-water is emptied out, flee, as though smelling the odor of it.
43| They say that fish also quickly smell their own blood; they make this plain by fleeing and removing themselves far off whenever fish blood is spilled. And in general, if one baits a fish-trap with rotten bait, the fish are unwilling to go in or even come near, but if the bait is fresh and strong-smelling, they come from far off and go straight in. This is especially clear in the case already mentioned of dolphins; for these have no organ of hearing that is plainly visible, yet they are caught because they are stupefied by noise, as has been said before. Nor, again, do they have any organ of smell that is plainly visible, and yet they smell keenly. That these animals have all the senses, then, is plain. As for the remaining kinds of animals, there are four divided classes that comprehend the multitude of the remaining animals: the soft-bodied, the crustaceans, the shelled animals, and further the insects. Of these, the soft-bodied, the crustaceans, and the insects have all the senses; for they have sight and smell and taste. For insects, though at a distance, perceive together with the rest, both the winged and the wingless, as bees and gnats perceive honey.
44| For they perceive from a great distance, as though recognizing by smell. And many creatures are destroyed by the smell of sulfur. Again, ants abandon their anthills when marjoram and sulfur, ground fine, are sprinkled on them, and most such creatures flee when deer-horn is burned as incense; but they flee most of all when storax is burned. Cuttlefish, octopuses, and crayfish are caught by means of bait; and octopuses cling so fast that they do not tear away but endure being cut, yet if someone brings fleabane near them, they let go at once, as soon as they smell it. The same holds for taste: for they pursue different kinds of food, and not all creatures delight in the same flavors — for example the bee settles on nothing rotten but on sweet things, while the gnat goes to nothing sweet but to sour things. As for perceiving by touch, as has already been said, this belongs to all animals. The testaceans have both smell and taste, and this is evident from the way they are lured with bait — for instance in the case of the purple murex: for it is baited with rotten things, and comes toward such bait as though it had perception from a distance. And that they also have perception of flavors is clear from the same facts;
45| for the things they approach, discriminating by smell, are the very things each delights in also by taste. Further, all that have a mouth feel pleasure and pain from the contact of flavors. About sight and hearing nothing is certain or even very clear, but razor-shells seem, if a sound is made, to burrow down and flee lower when they perceive the iron tool approaching (for only a small part of them projects, the rest being as it were in a chamber); and scallops, if someone brings a finger near, gape and close up as though seeing. And those who hunt sea-worms do not approach them against the wind when driving them onto the bait, nor do they speak, but keep silent, as though the creatures smelled and heard them; and if they do speak, they say the creatures flee away. Of the testaceans, the least sense of smell appears to belong, among the mobile kinds, to the sea-urchin, and among the immobile kinds, to sea-squirts and barnacles. Concerning the organs of sense, then, this is how it stands for all animals; but concerning the voice of animals, it is as follows.
46| Voice and sound are different things, and a third besides these is speech. Nothing produces voice with any part other than the pharynx; hence whatever has no lung does not utter sound at all; speech is the articulation of the voice by the tongue. Vowel sounds are emitted by the voice and the larynx, but the voiceless sounds by the tongue and lips; speech is composed of these. Hence whatever has no tongue, or none that is free, neither has voice nor speaks; but it is possible to make sound with other parts as well. Insects, then, neither have voice nor speak, but make sound with the breath inside them, not breath sent outward; for none of them breathes, but some buzz, like the bee and the winged insects of that kind, while others are said to sing, like the cicadas. All these make their sound by means of the membrane beneath the midriff, in those in which it is divided into segments — for example a certain kind of cicada does so by the friction of the breath. And flies too, and bees, and all the rest, do so by raising and contracting their wings in flight; for the sound is a friction of the breath within. Locusts make their sound by rubbing with their hind legs. Nor again does any mollusk either utter voice or make any natural sound, nor do the crustaceans.
47| Fish are voiceless (for they have neither lung nor windpipe nor pharynx), but they emit certain sounds and grating noises which people call "voicing" — for example the lyre-fish and the chromis (for these emit something like a grunt), and the boar-fish in the Achelous, and further the chalcis and the cuckoo-fish; for the one makes a sound like a hiss, the other a sound resembling the cuckoo's call, from which it also has its name. All these emit what seems to be a voice, some by the friction of the gills (for those regions are spiny), others by the internal parts around the belly; for each of these has breath within, which, being rubbed and moved, produces the sounds. And some of the cartilaginous fish too seem to squeak. But it is not correct to say that these utter voice — rather that they make sound. For scallops too, when they move along by pressing against the water, which people call "flying," make a whizzing sound, and so do the sea-swallows likewise; for these too fly aloft, not touching the sea, since they have broad, long fins. Just as, then, in the case of birds in flight, the sound produced by their wings is not voice, so too it is not voice in the case of any of these. The dolphin also emits a squeak and moans when it comes out into the air, though not in the same way as the creatures mentioned;
48| for this creature does have voice: it has both lung and windpipe, but its tongue is not free, nor does it have lips, so as to produce any articulation of the voice. Of those that have both tongue and lung, all that are egg-laying and four-footed emit voice, but a weak one — some a hissing sound, like snakes, others a thin and weak voice, others a small hiss, like tortoises. The frog has a peculiar tongue: the front part is attached fish-like, which in other creatures is free, while the part toward the pharynx is free and folded back, and by this it emits its peculiar voice. And the croaking that occurs in the water is made by the male frogs, when they call the females to mating; for each kind of animal has its own peculiar calls for consorting and coming together, as also with pigs and goats and sheep. It makes the croaking sound by leveling its lower jaw at the surface of the water and stretching the upper jaw over it. And as the jaws light up from the tension, the eyes seem to appear like lamps; for mating occurs mostly at night. The class of birds emits voice;
49| and speech belongs especially to those in which the tongue is moderately broad, and also to those that have a thin tongue. Some emit the same voice, both female and male, others a different one. The smaller birds are more various in voice and more talkative than the larger ones; and each bird becomes especially so around the time of mating, and some cry out while fighting, like the quail, others call out before fighting, or when they have won, like cocks. Some sing alike, male and female, as the nightingale sings, both male and female, except that the female stops when she is brooding and has chicks; in others the males sing more, like cocks and quails, while the females do not sing. Viviparous four-footed animals each emit a different voice, but none has speech — this belongs to man alone; for whatever has speech also has voice, but not everything that has voice has speech. Those who are born deaf are all also mute; they do emit voice, but no speech at all. Children, just as they are not yet in control of their other parts, so too at first they are not in control of the tongue, and it is imperfect, and is loosed rather late, so that for the most part they lisp and stammer.
50| Voices and speech also differ by locality. Voice is most distinguished by pitch — high and low — but in kind it does not differ within the same genus; but the articulate element, which one might call speech, differs both between other animals and, within the same kind of animal, by locality — for example, among partridges, some cackle and others chirp. And some of the small birds do not emit the same call in singing as their parents did, if they are reared away from them and hear other birds singing. Indeed a nightingale has even been observed teaching its chick beforehand, as though speech were by nature not the same fixed thing that voice is, but capable of being shaped. Humans too emit the same voice, but not the same speech. The elephant makes sound without the use of its trunk, with the mouth itself, a breathy sound, as when a person exhales and groans, but with the trunk, a sound like a trumpet made harsh.
51| As for sleep and waking in animals: that all footed, blooded animals both sleep and wake is made evident by observation. For all that have eyelids sleep by closing them. Further, not only human beings but also horses and dogs and cattle, and also sheep and goats and the whole class of live-bearing quadrupeds, appear to dream; dogs make this plain by barking. About the egg-laying animals this is unclear, but that they sleep is evident. Likewise too the water animals, such as fish and the molluscs and the crustaceans — crayfish and the like. All these, then, sleep only briefly, but they are observed to sleep. In the case of the eyes no evidence can be taken (for none of them has eyelids), but it can be taken from their stillness. Fish are caught — if it were not for the lice and the so-called fleas on them — even to the point of being taken easily by hand; but as it is, if they linger, these creatures fall upon them in the night and eat them up, since they occur in great numbers. They arise in the depths of the sea, and in such numbers that even the bait, whatever fish it may be made of, if it lingers on the ground, they devour;
52| and fishermen often haul up around the bait what looks like a ball, so tightly are the lice packed together. But it is rather from evidence of the following kind that one can infer that fish sleep. For often it is possible to fall upon fish and take them unnoticed, even by hand, or to strike them unnoticed; at that particular time they are perfectly still, and move nothing except the tail, and that gently. It also becomes clear that a fish is asleep from its movements, if something is stirred while they are resting quietly; for it darts off as though roused out of sleep. Further, they are caught in torch-fishing because they are asleep. Often, too, the tunny-spotters throw their nets around them while they sleep; this is clear from the fact that they are caught lying quiet and showing their pale undersides. They sleep more by night than by day, so much so that when men cast their nets they do not stir. Most of them sleep clinging to the ground or the sand or some stone in the depths, or hiding themselves under a rock or a sandbank; the flat fish sleep in the sand, and are recognized by the shape the sand takes, and are caught by being struck with the three-pronged spear. The bass, the gilthead, the grey mullet, and similar fish are often caught by day with the trident because they are asleep; otherwise none of these is thought likely to be taken with the trident.
53| The cartilaginous fish sometimes sleep so soundly that they can even be taken by hand. The dolphin and the whale, and all that have a blowhole, sleep with the blowhole held above the surface of the sea, through which they also breathe, gently moving their fins; and some have already heard a dolphin actually snoring as it slept. The molluscs sleep in the same way as the fish do; and likewise the crustaceans do the same as these. That the insect class of animals also experience sleep is evident from signs of the following kind: they lie still and are conspicuously motionless. This is most evident in the case of bees; for they grow quiet and stop buzzing during the night. It is also clear in the case of those insects most familiar underfoot; for it is not only because they do not see sharply that they lie still at night (all the hard-eyed creatures see dimly), but even in the light of lamps they are seen lying just as still. Of animals, the human being dreams the most. In infancy and early childhood no dream occurs at all; it begins for most children around four or five years of age. There have already been men and women, however, who never once in their whole lives saw a dream.
54| It has happened to some such people that as their age advanced they did see a dream, and that afterward a change came over their body — for some ending in death, for others in sickness. Concerning perception, then, and sleep and waking, matters stand this way. Male and female belong to some animals, but not to others; rather, by a certain resemblance, these too are said to give birth and to be pregnant. There is no male and female at all among the stationary animals, nor at all among the shelled creatures. Among the molluscs and the crustaceans there is female and male, and among the footed animals, both two-footed and four-footed, and among all that produce, by mating, either a live animal or an egg or a grub. In the other genera it either simply is present or is not: for instance among all the quadrupeds there is female and male, while among the shelled creatures there is not, but just as among plants some are fruit-bearing and some barren, so it is among these as well. Among the insects and the fish there are some that have this differentiation on neither side at all — for instance the eel is neither male nor female, nor does it generate anything from itself; but those who say that certain eels have sometimes been seen with hair-like and worm-like growths attached speak carelessly, without having examined where these are found. For none of these creatures bears live young without also laying eggs, and no eel has ever been seen with an egg in it;
55| and all that do bear live young have the young attached in the womb, not in the belly, since otherwise it would be digested like food. As for the difference they speak of between a male and a female eel — that the one has a larger and longer head, while the female's is small and more snub — they are not in fact speaking of female as against male, but of one kind as against another. There are certain fish called epitragiai, and among the river fish the carp and the balagros are of this sort; such fish never have either roe or milt at all, but those that are solid and fat have a small gut, and these are thought to be the best. Further, in some cases, just as among the shelled creatures and among plants one sort bears and generates while another sort, though it mounts, does not, so too among fish it is this way with the flatfish family and the red mullet family and the sea perch; for all of these are seen to have eggs. Now among the footed, blooded animals that do not lay eggs, in most cases the males are larger and longer-lived than the females, except in the mule, where the females are longer-lived and larger; but among the egg-laying and the grub-bearing animals, such as the fish and the insects, the females are larger than the males — for instance in snakes, spiders, geckos, and frogs.
56| And it is the same way among the fish, for instance the small cartilaginous fish and most of the shoaling fish, and all the rock-dwelling ones. That the females of fish are longer-lived than the males is evident from the fact that older ones caught are female rather than male. In all animals the upper and forward parts are stronger and better-armed in the males, while the parts that could be called hind and lower belong to the females. This holds in the same way both in human beings and in the other footed, live-bearing animals generally. The female is also more sinewless and less jointed, and finer-haired in those that have hair; those without hair show the corresponding difference by analogy. The females also have softer flesh than the males and are more knock-kneed, and their shins are thinner; their feet are more shapely, in those animals that have these parts. And as for voice, all females have a thinner and higher voice than the males, except in cattle, among those animals that have voice; for cows low more deeply than bulls. As for the parts that nature provides for fighting, such as teeth, tusks, horns, spurs, and other such parts, in some genera the males have them entirely while the females do not — for instance the female deer has no horns, and among the birds that have spurs, in some the females have no spurs at all;