Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/820

800 for from bad sight they ascend it as if it were a moving leaf." "Persons who have parasites in the head are less subject to headache. Moths are produced in the greatest abundance if a spider is shut up with them in the wool, for this creature being thirsty dries up any moisture which may be present. Small birds during the day fly round the owl—which is called admiring it—and as they fly round it they pluck out its feathers." "The anthus" (some bright-colored bird) "is an enemy to the horse, for it drives the horse from its pasture and eats the grass; it imitates the voice of the horse and frightens it by flying at it, but when the horse catches it he kills it." "If any one takes hold of a she-goat by the long hairs of the beard, all the others stand still as if bewildered and gaze at her." "The hawk, though carnivorous, does not eat the hearts of the birds it has killed." "The jay has many varieties of voice; it utters a different one, so to speak, every day." "The goat-sucker flies against the she-goats and sucks them, whence its name. They say that, after the udder has been sucked, it becomes dry and goes blind." "Mares become less ardent and more gentle if their manes are cut. At certain times they never run to the east or west, always north or south." "The sow gives the first teat to the first little pig that is born." "When a serpent has taken its food, it draws itself up till it stands erect upon its tail."

Aristotle's reasons are frequently amusing. Man has no tail because the available formative material has been used up for the posterior parts. Apes have neither tail nor buttocks because they are intermediate between man and quadrupeds. Bees and wasps have stings inside their bodies because they have wings. All crabs and lobsters (generally) have the large claw on the right, because all animals are by nature strong on the right side. Bees and ants are more intelligent than other animals of the kind, because their blood is thin and cold. The seal has no external ears, only ear-pores, because its feet are incapacitated for walking. Serpents have a forked tongue because they are gluttonous, and a bifid tongue has a double tasting power. Man is the only animal that is tickled, because his skin is fine; and he is the only animal that laughs, and tickling is "laughter from a motion of this kind about the arm-pit," which, as Mr. Lewes says, is "a physiological explanation rather difficult to understand." Insects eat little because their bodies are cold. It is curious to notice that Aristotle had no idea that insects produced eggs; he said they bring forth worms, evidently taking the larva stage for the normal birth-form.

These instances are taken from the treatise on "Parts of Animals." It would be easy to supply many more of the same character, but surely these may incline us to deny that "in his accumulation of facts Aristotle has not written one useless word." It is certain from Aristotle's remarks, here and there, that he occasionally dissected animals, but he also mentions anatomical drawings as existing in his time, and