50 Greek Biology 



eyes ; they are long and thin, like hairs, and are round at the 

 tips ; they lie on either side, and are used as baits. . . . The 

 little creatures on which this fish feeds swim up to the filaments, 

 taking them for bits of seaweed such as they feed upon. 

 Accordingly, when the frog-fish stirs himself up a place where 

 there is plenty of sand and mud and conceals himself therein, 

 it raises the filaments, and when the little fish strike against 

 them the frog-fish draws them in underneath into its mouth. 

 . . . That the creatures get their living by this means is 

 obvious from the fact that, whereas they are peculiarly 

 inactive, they are often caught with mullets, the swiftest of 

 fishes, in their interior. Furthermore, the frog-fish is usually 

 thin when he is caught after losing the tips of his fila- 

 ments.' 1 



The modification of the musculature of the torpedo-fish for 

 electric purposes and the fishing habits of the fishing frog or 

 LopMus are now well known, but it was many centuries before 

 naturalists had confirmed the observations of the father of 

 biology. 



When we turn from Aristotle's observations in the depart- 

 ment of natural history to his discussion of the actual mechan- 

 ism of the living body, the subject now contained under the 

 heading Experimental Physiology , we are in the presence of much 

 less satisfactory material. Aristotle here exhibits his weakness 

 in physics and not being endowed with any experimental 

 knowledge of that subject his physiological development is 

 very greatly handicapped. He seems often to accept fancies 

 of his own in place of generalizations from collated observations. 

 This tendency of his was conveyed to his successors and delayed 

 physiological advance for many centuries. It forms a striking 

 contrast to the method of certain of the Hippocratic works such 



1 The paragraphs concerning the fishing-frog and torpedo are made up 

 of sentences rearranged from the De partibus animalium, iv, 13 ; 6^6^ 26, 

 and the Historia animalium^ ix. 37 j 62O b 15. 



