A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye." — Wordswoktii. 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 191 1. 



ARISTOTLE AS BIOLOGIST. 



The Works of Aristotle, Translated into English. 

 De Generatione Animalium. By Prof. A. Piatt. 

 Price 7s. 6d. net. De Partibus Animalium. By 

 Dr. W. Ogle. Price 55. net. Vol. iv., Historia 

 Animalium. By Prof. D'Arcy W. Thompson. Price 

 JOS. 6d. net. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910-11.) 



THE biological treatises of Aristotle are one of the 

 chief marvels of antiquity. Remarkable in 

 themselves for the evidence they give of the extra- 

 ordinary powers of observation and reasoning possessed 

 by their industrious author, they become truly astonish- 

 ing when considered as only a comparatively small 

 part of the life-work of a philosopher who entered 

 profoundly into every department of human know- 

 ledge. The view has sometimes been entertained that 

 after all Aristotle in his physical treatises was a mere 

 copyist, that these works are rather of the nature of a 

 literary compilation from sources now mainly lost than 

 a record of original research and observation. A 

 moderately careful study of, say, the " History of 

 Animals " is suflficient to show that this is an error. 

 Aristotle had undoubtedly made himself acquainted 

 with what we should now call the "literature of the 

 subject," and when it seems necessary he quotes from 

 earlier writers. But it is not his way to borrow their 

 statements uncritically. If Herodotus or Ctesias 

 makes what he considers to be a mistake, he does not 

 hesitate to say so. Moreover, the " History " teems 

 with what are beyond all reasonable doubt good first- 

 hand observations derived from actual dissection. 



That errors should be numerous is only what might 

 be expected considering the necessary limitations to 

 research in the fourth century B.C. But it must be 

 allowed that in his zoological and physiological specu- 

 lations Aristotle displays reasoning powers of the 

 highest order, and indeed it is often difficult to see 

 that with the only data open to him he could have 

 come to any sounder conclusions. It is curious that 

 in the case of the strange phenomenon of hectocotylisa- 

 tion in the dibranchiate cephalopoda the Greek lisher- 

 NO. 2192, VOL. 88] 



men were right and Aristotle was wrong. But even 

 here, as Prof. Piatt remarks, he seems justified on 

 the evidence before him. He could see no connection 

 of the hectocotylised arm with the vasa deferentia, 

 and "it is no wonder that he thought this decisive 

 against the theory of the fishermen. He only deserves 

 credit for doing so." 



But in spite of this and many other errors perhaps 

 equally excusable, it is undeniable that the three 

 treatises before us contain an immense amount of 

 accurate observation and skilful reasoning. Speaking 

 of 4:he " De Generatione Animalium," Prof. Piatt says 

 with truth, "should any man of science come fresh to 

 the reading of this treatise, he will, I think, be amazed 

 and delighted to see what grasp and insight Aristotle 

 displays in handling questions which still absorb us 

 after all the time " that has since elapsed. 



The question of the dates of the composition^ of 

 these books is of considerable interest in its bearing 

 on Aristotle's more strictly philosophical work. Prof. 

 D'Arcy Thompson lays stress on the frequency of 

 reference in the " History of Animals " and other 

 Aristotelian writings to the island of Lesbos and places 

 near it. From this and other evidence he inclines to 

 the view that Aristotle's natural history studies were 

 carried on, or mainly carried on, between his two 

 periods of residence in Athens, for during this interval 

 he is known to have lived for two years in Mitylene, 

 before his summons to the Court of Philip to under- 

 take the tutorship of Alexander. Mr. Warde Fowler, 

 on the other hand, thinks it probable that the 

 " History " was at any rate begun in early life, the 

 foundations being no doubt laid during his boyhood at 

 Stageirus. 



"This little town," as Mr. Fowler points out, 

 "is placed in a most favourable position for a 

 naturalist. It lies on a sea abounding in fish ; above 

 it rise the wooded heights of the eastern coast of the 

 Chalcidic peninsula on which it stands; only a few 

 miles distant is the river Strymon, which was so 

 famous for water- and marsh-loving birds, as to give 

 its name as a perpetual epithet to at least one species 

 r Strvmoniai gruos ']. Straight across the sea from 

 Egypt and the Soudan came, and still come, every 

 spring, multitudinous armies of migrating birds ; they 

 rest awhile about these rivers of the Thracian coast, 



B 



