in the Cephalopoda. 09 



then* lateral arms, of a very disproportionate size, and that the 

 uppermost pair of these lateral arms also usually had the suckers 

 in the neighbourhood of this large sucker of nearly the same 

 size, whilst in only one of tiiese specimens there was a tendency 

 to develope two such sucking-disks on the lowest lateral pair, or 

 the so-called third pair of arms. At the same time the third 

 right arm was about a foot shorter than the left one, but also 

 distinctly thinner in its outer half, and it had the pointed ter- 

 minal surface at the extremity ; the fold of skin, which is very 

 white on the surface turned inwai'ds, gives the arm an appear- 

 ance as if the side of the arm were divided into two parts by a 

 longitudinal cleft*. In no female, although even here the 



* The characters which I have here indicated, namely the pointed form 

 of the arm, the strong cutaneous fold along the dorsal part of the arm, 

 the distinct white colour of the inside of this fold, its rolling towards the 

 side of the arm, fi'om which it only a])pears to be separated by a deep crack 

 or furrow, and indeed from the very apex, and lastly, the above-men- 

 tioned large sucking-disks on the two lateral jiairs of arms, and even on 

 the arm which assists in reproduction, enable us to understand three pas- 

 sages in Aristotle, which have not hitherto been perfectly intelligible to 

 philologists and zoologists. These passages show us, that in the common 

 Octopus of the Mediterranean, his Polypus, Aristotle not only knew of this 

 peculiar form in the one arm, but was also aware that it stood in connexion 

 with reproduction, although he distinctlj' asserted that the semen was not 

 conducted through the arm. 



In one place, Aristotle says very briefly, regarding his Polypus : Aia- 

 <f>epfi 8e 6 apprjv r^i $r)\fias rw re ttjv Ke(f)a\t)v ex^iv 7rpop.r]KfaTfpav, Kal to 

 KaKovp.€VOV VTTO TO)U dXiicov ai8o2ov ev rfj ■jfKiKTa.'.'ri Xfi'KOC (lib. V. C. 10. 1, 

 edit. Schneider, p. 196), v,'hich must be translated : "differt mas a foemina 

 eo, quod habet caput {i. e. abdomen) oblongius, et genitale, quod a pisca- 

 toribus vocatur, in brachio album." This expression refers, in the first 

 place, to that employed in another passage in the same book (lib. v. c. 6. 

 1. p. 188), wherein it is stated more in detail — ^aal Se rives Kal t6u 

 hppiva f'x^'-^ aldoiaides Ti ev p,ia rcov irXeKTavcov, iv j) diio al p.iyicrTai KOTvkrj- 

 boves flcriv' eivai 8e to tolovtov uxnvep vevpioSes p-^xoi ft? p-ecrrjv ttjv TrXe/c- 

 Tavrjv TTpoo'TrecpvKos, airav re {elcrat^Uvai) els top pvKTTJpa driXelas — that is 

 to say, " aiunt nonnuUi, marem in uno brachiorura, in quo sunt duo maxima 

 acetabula, quoddam genitali simile habere, idem esse quasi nervosum, usque 

 ad medium brachium aduatum, et totum in narem(fistulam)fceminae inseri." 

 It also refers, as we now certainly find, to the more exact description of the 

 arm in the fourth book : 'O pev ovv ttoXvttovs kcu w? Trocrt koX as x^P""' 

 XprfTai rals Trkf Kravais' TvpocrayeTai 8e Tois 8va\ Tois vnep tov crrSpaTos, rfj 

 8' ecrxo-Tj] Tcov TrKenravdv, fj eariv o^vrarrj re Koi ^.ovrj ■KapcikevKOs avrwv Kal 

 e^ iiKpov 8iKp6a (ecrrt 8e nvrrj eVi rfj pdxei' KoXelrai 8e pcix^s to Xelov, ov 

 Trpocrco ai KOTv\r]86ves elcrr) ravrr] 8e rfj TrkeKTavrj xp'i'i'ai- ff rals oxeiais 

 (lib. iv. 1. 6. p. 131) — that is, "polypus vero brachiis et ut pedibus et ut 

 manibus utitur, nam duobus, quae supra os habet, admovet ori cibum, ex- 

 tremo autem brachiorum, quod est acutissimum et solum eorum ex parte 

 candidum et cui ab apice fissura (est autem ha>c in spina : spina vero vocatur 

 pars laevis brachii, e cujus latere anteriore acetabula sunt) — hoc brachio in 

 coitu utitur." 



That in the above words Aristotle refeiTed to such a formation as I luive 



7* 



