70 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XL 



CHAP. 76. IN WHAT ANIMALS THE LIVER INCREASES AND DE- 

 CREASES "WITH THE MOON. OBSERVATIONS OP THE ARHSP1CES 

 RELATIVE THERETO, AND REMARKABLE PRODIGIES. 



It is said, that in the small liver of the mouse the number 

 of lobes corresponds to the day of the moon, and that they are 

 found to be just as many in number as she is days old ; in 

 addition to which, it is said that it increases at the winter sol- 

 stice. In the rabbits of Bsetica, the liver is always found to 

 have a double lobe. Ants will not touch one lobe of the liver 

 of the bramble-frog, in consequence of its poisonous nature, it 

 is generally thought. The liver is remarkable for its powers 

 of preservation, and sieges have afforded us remarkable in- 

 stances of its being kept so long as a hundred years. 84 



CHAP. 77. — THE DIAPHRAGM. THE NATURE OP LAUGHTER. 



The entrails of serpents and lizards are of remarkable length. 

 It is related that — a most fortunate omen — Csecina of Yolaterrse 

 beheld two dragons arising from the entrails of the victim ; 

 and this will not be at all incredible, if we are ready to believe 

 that while King Pyrrhus was sacrificing, the day upon which 

 he died, the heads of the victims, on being cut off, crawled 

 along the ground and licked up their own blood. In man, the 

 entrails are separated from the lower part of the viscera by a 

 certain membrane, which is called the "prseeordia," 85 because 

 it is extended in front of the heart ; the Greeks have given it 

 the name of " phrenes." All the principal viscera have been 

 enclosed by Nature, in her prudent foresight, in their own pe- 

 culiar membranes, just like so many sheaths, in fact. With re- 

 ference to the diaphragm, there was a peculiar reason for this 

 wise provision of Nature, its proximity to the guts, and the 

 chances that the food might possibly intercept the respiration. 

 It is to this organ that is attributed quick and ready wit, and 

 hence it is that it has no fleshy parts, but is composed of tine 

 sinews and membranes. This part is also the chief seat of 

 gaiety of mind, a fact which is more particularly proved by 

 the ti filiation of the arm-holes, to which the midriff extends ; 



84 There must he some corrupt reading here ; for, as Sillig remarks, 

 who ever heard of a siege which lasted a hundred years ? 



55 Or diaphragm; from "pree," "before," and " cor," the " heart." 



