114 ARISTOTLE THE FIRST SCALE-READER 



striking the opposite bank. Two of us lying hidden in the 

 grass observed from different spots. 



The gun was fired eight feet, four feet, and three feet above 

 the surface of the stream, which varied in breadth from eight 

 to ten feet, and in depth from sixteen to nineteen inches. It 

 was fired into the air and into the opposite bank (struck from 

 four to two feet above the water) in a direct line above different 

 fishes, lying either singly or in shoals from five to nine inches 

 from the bottom in small pools or runs sixteen to nineteen 

 inches deep. Care was taken to fire up stream, to prevent the 

 trout being startled by the flash of the cartridge. 



In no case did the trout take the very least notice, or give 

 any sign of having heard the explosion or felt the concussion 

 of the shot on the opposite bank, composed on three occasions 

 of alluvial soil and on two of rock. Never once did a fish 

 move or go down : in fact, in one of the experiments over a 

 single well-grown trout, the fish was rising again to the natural 

 fly in less than thirty seconds after the discharge of the gun.i 



Aristotle almost certainly learnt dissection when young. 

 His father belonged to the Asclepiads, an order of priest- 

 physicians who are believed to have practised dissection and 

 taught it to their children. The son's extensive knowledge of 

 the internal parts of mammals, birds, and fishes probably 

 resulted from dissections. Mr. Lones names forty-nine animals 

 and fishes which from the trustworthiness of the definite 

 information imparted were (he holds) certainly dissected. Of 

 these some five are fish. 



To the question whether Aristotle ever dissected the human 

 body, the answer after examining the evidence available 

 must, I think, be in the negative, for three reasons. First : 

 after describing the external parts of the human body he 

 states that the internal parts are less known than those of 

 animals, and that we must, in order to describe them, examine 

 the corresponding parts of animals which are most nearly 

 related to man. 



Second : his many mistakes — such as in the position of the 



^ The experiments conducted by Alfred Ronalds and recorded in his 

 famous Fly-Fisher's Entomology, London, 1862, had similar results. 



