74 plint's natural history. [Book XT*. 



the loins. Among all animals, the kidney on the right side is 

 more elevated than the other, less fat, and drier. In both kid- 

 neys there is a certain streak of fat running from the middle, 

 with the sole exception of those of the sea-calf. It is above 

 the kidneys, also, that animals are fattest, and the accumula- 

 tion of fat about them is often the cause of death in sheep. 

 Small stones are sometimes found in the kidneys. All quad- 

 rupeds that are viviparous have kidneys, but of those which 

 are oviparous the tortoise is the only one that has them ; an 

 animal which has all the other viscera, but, like man, has the 

 kidneys composed, to all appearance, of several kidneys, similar 

 to those of the ox. 



chap. 82. — the breast: the ribs. 



Nature has placed the breast, or, in other words, certain 

 bones, around the diaphragm and the organs of life, but not 

 around the belly, for the expansion of which it was necessary 

 that room should be left. Indeed, there is no animal that 

 has any bones around the belly. Man is the only creature 

 that has a broad breast ; in all others it is of a carinated 

 shape, in birds more particularly, and most of all, the aquatic 

 birds. The ribs of man are only eight. in number; swine 

 have ten, the horned animals thirteen, and serpents thirty. 



CHAP. 83. THE BLADDER : ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO BLADBEB. 



Below the paunch, on the anterior side, lies the bladder, 

 which is never found in any oviparous animal, with the ex- 

 ception of the tortoise, nor yet in any animal that has not 

 lungs with blood, or in any one that is destitute of feet. 

 Between it and the paunch are certain arteries, which extend 

 to the pubes, and are known as the " ilia." In the bladder of 

 the wolf there is found a small stone, which is called " syrites ;" 

 and in the bladders of some persons calculi are sometimes 

 found, which produce most excruciating pains ; small hairs, 

 like bristles, are also occasionally found in the bladder. This 

 organ consists of a membrane, which, when once wounded, does 

 not 1 cicatrize, just like those in which the brain and the heart 

 are enveloped : there are many kinds of membranes, in fact. 

 1 This is a mistake. It does cicatrize. 



