Chap. 70.] ANIMALS WHICH HAVE TWO HEARTS. 65 



loped in a membrane equally supple and strong, and is pro- 

 tected by the bulwarks formed by the ribs and the bone of 

 the breast, as being the primary source and origin of life. It 

 contains within itself the primary receptacles for the spirit and 

 the blood, in its sinuous cavity, which in the larger animals is 

 threefold, 67 and in all twofold at least : here it is that the 

 mind 68 has its abode. From this source proceed two large 

 veins, which branch into the fore-part and the back of the body, 

 and which, spreading out in a series of branches, convey the 

 vital blood by other smaller veins over all parts of the body. 

 This is the only one 69 among the viscera that is not affected by 

 maladies, nor is it subject to the ordinary penalties of human 

 life; but when injured, it produces instant death. While all 

 the other viscera are injured, vitality may still remain in the 

 heart. 



CHAP. 70. — THOSE ANIMALS WHICH HAVE THE LAEGEST HEART, 

 AND THOSE WHICH HAVE THE SMALLEST. WHAT ANIMALS HAVE 

 TWO HEARTS. 



Those animals are looked upon as stupid and lumpish which 

 have a hard, rigid heart, while those in which it is small are 

 courageous, and those are timid which have it very large. 

 The heart is the largest, in proportion to the body, in the 

 mouse, the hare, the ass, the stag, the panther, the weasel, the 

 hyaena, and all the animals, in fact, which are timid, or dan- 

 gerous only from the effects of fear. In Paphlagonia the par- 

 tridge has a double heart. In the heart of the horse and the 

 ox there are bones sometimes found. It is said that the heart 

 increases every year in man, and that two drachmae in weight 

 are added 70 yearly up to the fiftieth year, after which period 

 it decreases yearly in a similar ratio ; and that it is for this 

 reason that men do not live beyond their hundredth year, the 

 heart then failing them : this is the notion entertained by the 

 Egyptians, whose custom it is to embalm the bodies of the 



s7 Among all the mamniiferae and the birds, the heart has four cavities, 

 two on each side. 6S Mens. 



69 This is a mistake. The heart is subject to disease, equally with other 

 parts of the body. 



70 In spite of what Schenkius says in confirmation of Pliny, this is 

 very doubtful. Of course it must increase from childhood, but the in- 

 crease surely does not continue till the fiftieth year. 



VOL. III. E 



