Chap. 75.] THE PBOPEETTES OE THE GALL. 69 



Some few men are without it, and such persons enjoy robust 

 health and a long life. There are some authors who say that 

 the gall exists in the horse, not in the liver, but in the paunch, 

 and that in the stag it is situate either in the tail or the 

 intestines ; and that hence it is, that those parts are so bitter 

 that dogs will not touch them. The gall, in fact, is nothing 

 else but the worst parts of the blood purged off, and for this 

 reason it is that it is so bitter : at all events, it is a well-known 

 fact, that no animal has a liver unless it has blood as well. 

 The liver receives the blood from the heart, to which it is 

 united, and then disperses it in the veins. 



CHAP. 75.— THE PBOPEKTIES OF THE GALL. 



When the gall is black, it is productive of madness in man, 

 and if it is wholly expelled death will ensue. Hence it is, too, 

 that the word " bile" has been employed by us to characterize 

 a harsh, embittered disposition ; so powerful are the effects 

 of this secretion, when it extends its influence to the mind. 

 In addition to this, when it is dispersed over the whole of 

 the body, it deprives the eyes, even, of their natural colour ; 

 and when ejected, will tarnish copper vessels even, rendering 

 everything black with which it comes in contact ; so that no 

 one ought to be surprised that it is the gall which constitutes 

 the venom of serpents. Those animals of Pontus which feed 

 on . wormwood have no gall : in the raven, the quail, and the 

 pheasant, the gall-bladder is united to the renal parts, and, on 

 one side only, to the intestines. In many animals, again, it 

 is united only to the intestines, the pigeon, the hawk, and the 

 murena, for example. In some few birds it is situate in the 

 liver ; but it is in serpents and fishes that it is the largest in 

 proportion. With the greater part of birds, it extends all along 

 throughout the intestines, as in the hawk and the kite. In 

 some other birds, also, it is situate in the breast as well : the 

 gall, too, of the sea-calf is celebrated for its application to many 

 purposes. From the gall of the bull a colour is extracted like 

 that of gold. The aruspices have consecrated the gall to Nep- 

 tune and the influence of water. The Emperor Augustus 

 found a double gall in a victim which he was sacrificing on 

 the day of his victory at Actium. 



