64 pltny's NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XI. 



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 62 which they drink. The upper part of the gullet is called 

 the fauces, the lower the stomach. 63 By this name is understood 

 a fleshy concavity, situate behind the tracheal artery, and join- 

 ing the vertebral column ; it extends in length and breadth 

 like a sort of chasm. 64 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 immedi- 

 ately with the belly. The sea- tortoise 65 has neither tongue 

 nor teeth ; it can break anything, however, with the sharp 

 edge of its muzzle. After the tracheal artery there is the 

 oesophagus, which is indented with hard asperities resembling 

 bramble- thorns, for the purpose of levigatiug the food, the in- 

 cisions 66 gradually becoming smaller as they approach the belly. 

 The roughness at the very extremity of this organ strongly re- 

 sembles 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 

 foetus, 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 enve- 



02 Snow-water, we know, is apt to produce goitre. 



63 " Stomachus." More properly, the oesophagus, or ventricle. 



s4 Lacunae modo. 



65 Or turtle. It has a tongue, and though it has no teeth, the jaws are 

 edged with a horny substance like the bills of birds. 



d6 " Crenis" is read for " renis :" otherwise the passage is unintelligible : 

 it is still most probably in a corrupt state. 



