154 ARISTOTLE S ANHOMCEOMEEIA 



on the blood, and the liver contains more blood than any 

 internal organ, except the heart.* 



He discusses the purpose served by the bile, and con 

 cludes that its formation results in a purification of the 

 blood, but that it is itself a residual substance having no 

 further use.! His views on the bile were very different, 

 therefore, from modern views, according to which the bile 

 facilitates the absorption of food, especially fats and carbo 

 hydrates, and stimulates the peristaltic movements of the 

 intestines. 



Aristotle makes a few interesting statements about 

 the position, form, size, and colour of the liver in various 

 animals. That of Man, he correctly says, is on the right 

 side of the body, and he adds that it is rounded like that of 

 an ox. I He gives an approximately correct estimate of the 

 relative sizes of the liver of an elephant and an ox, saying 

 that the former is four times larger than the latter. The 

 average weight of the liver of English oxen is about sixteen 

 pounds, and that of the liver of Asiatic elephants is about 

 fifty-three pounds. || He says very little about the liver in 

 birds. In snakes, he says, the liver is long and single, 11 

 and, in fishes, some have a liver without lobes and dogfishes 

 have a liver with two lobes which are quite free from each 

 other.** In snakes, the liver is single and elongated, e.g., in 

 a grass-snake of average size I found that the single liver 

 was five inches long. With respect to fishes, there are 

 some, e.g., the Lophobranchs, in which the liver is unilobed, 

 but most usually it is bilobed or, very occasionally, has more 

 than two lobes. The lobes of the liver of the dogfish are 

 connected anteriorly by a short septum, and it is only in a 

 few fishes that they are separate, e.g., they are said to be 

 quite separate in the hag-fish. 



The liver, he says, is red in viviparous quadrupeds and 

 birds, light yellow in most oviparous quadrupeds and in 

 fishes, and of a dirty tint in the frog, toad, and the like. ft 

 The colours are more varied than the above statements 

 suggest, e.g., the liver of the grass-snake is of a bright, 

 chocolate colour, that of the sea-lamprey is green, of the 

 dogfish, brownish-yellow, and of the frog, brown. 



* P. A. iii. c. 12, 6736. f Ibid. iv. c. 2, G77a. 



I H. A. i. c. 14, ss. 5 and 6. Ibid. ii. c. 12, s. 8. 



|i Vet.-Capt. Evans Treatise on Elephants, 1901, Kangoon, p. 67. 

 T H. A. ii. c. 12, s. 12. ** Ibid. ii. c. 12, s. 3. 



H P. A.iii.c. 12, 6786. 



