in the Cephalopoda. 99 



their lateral arms, of a very disproportionate size, and that the 

 uppermost pair of these lateral arms also usually had the suckers 

 in the neighbourhood of this large sucker of nearly the same 

 size, whilst in only one of these specimens there was a tendency 

 to develope two such sucking-disks on the lowest lateral pair, or 

 the so-called third pair of arms. At the same time the third 

 right arm was about a foot shorter than the left one, but also 

 distinctly thinner in its outer half, and it had the pointed ter- 

 minal surface at the extremity ; the fold of skin, which is very 

 white on the surface turned inwards, gives the arm an appear- 

 ance as if the side of the arm were divided into two parts by a 

 longitudinal cleft*. In no female, although even here the 



* The characters which I have here indicated, namely the pointed form 

 of the arm, the strong cutaneous fold along the dorsal part of the arm, 

 the distinct white colour of the inside of this fold, its rolling towards the 

 side of the arm, from which it only appears to be separated by a deep crack 

 or furrow, and indeed from the very apex, and lastly, the above-men- 

 tioned large sucking-disks on the two lateral pairs of arms, and even on 

 the arm which assists in reproduction, enable us to understand three pas- 

 sages in Aristotle, which have not hitherto been perfectly intelligible to 

 philologists and zoologists. These passages show us, that in the common 

 Octopus of the Mediterranean, his Polypus, Aristotle not only knew of this 

 peculiar form in the one arm, but was also aware that it stood in connexion 

 with reproduction, although he distinctly asserted that the semen was not 

 conducted through the arm. 



In one place, Aristotle says very briefly, regarding his Polypus : Ata- 

 (Pepei 8e 6 apprjv tj}s OrfKeias r<a re rr]v KecpaXrjv ^xeiv TrpofxrjKfcrTepap, Koi to 

 Kakovp,€vou vno tmv akieoiu al8o2ov iv rrj nXeKTavrj \(vk6u (lib. V. C. 10. 1, 

 edit. Schneider, p. 196), which must be translated : "differt mas a foemina 

 CO, quod habet caput {i. e. abdomen) oblongius, et genitale, quod a pisca- 

 toribus vocatur, in brachio album.*' This expression refers, in the first 

 place, to that employed in another passage in the same book (lib. v. c. 6. 

 1. p. 188), wherein it is stated more in detail — ^aai Se rtves koX t6v 

 appeva e'xeiv aldoiSides ri iv p.ia Ta>v TrkeKravcbv, iv fj bvo al piiyicrTai kotvXt]- 

 doves claiv flvai be to toiovtov cidirep vevpcobes p-ix9^ ^'■^ p^ea-rjv ttjv ttKck- 

 Tavrjv 7rpoaTr€(f)vK6s, anav t€ {elcra^Uvai) els tov pvKTTJpa BrjXcias — that is 

 to say, *' aiunt nonnuUi, marem in uno brachiorum, in quo sunt duo maxima 

 acetabula, quoddam genitali simile habere, idem esse quasi nervosum, usque 

 ad medium brachium aduatum, et totum in narem(tistulam)foemin8e inseri." 

 It also refers, as we now certainly find, to the more exact description of the 

 arm in the fourth book : *0 pev ovv ttoKvttovs koX o)? Trocrt kol cos x^P^'- 

 ;(p^rai Tois 7r\fKTdvat.s' TrpocrdyeTai 8e tols dval tols virep tov aToparos, rfj 

 d' icTxaTTj Tu>v nXeicTavoiVy rj icTTiv o^vTarrj t€ Ka\ povrj rrapaXevKos avTotv Kal 

 i^ aKpov biKpoa {ecTTC fie uvtt] irrl r^ P^X^''' K('^^^'''(^'' ^e pdxt-s to Xctoi/, ov 

 npoo-co ai KOTvXrjdoves elcri) ravTr) fie Trj nXeKTavij XRW^*- ^^ ''"^^ ox^iais 

 (lib. iv. 1. 6. p. 131) — that is, "polypus vero brachiis et ut pedibus et ut 

 raanibus utitur, nam duobus, quae supra os habet, admovet ori cibum, ex- 

 treme autem brachiorum, quod est acutissimum et solum eorum ex parte 

 candidum et cui ab apice fissura (est autem hsec in spina : spina vero vocatur 

 pars Isevis brachii, e cujus latere anteriore acetabula sunt) — hoc brachio in 

 coitu utitur." 



That in the above words Aristotle referred to such a formation as I have 



7* 



