ARISTOTLE 



(d) un- 

 natural : 

 Colliques- 

 cence. 



(724 b 26) ; but there are useless as well as useful 

 residues, for residue may come either from the useful 

 or the useless nourishment (725 a 4). Useless nourish- 

 ment is " that which can contribute nothing further to 

 the natural organism, and if too much of it is consumed 

 it causes very great injury to it " (725 a 5 ff.). Among 

 the useless residues are the excrements ; these are 

 natural useless residues ; but there are also some un- 

 natural ones, as has already been hinted. Among them 

 perhaps should be included bile, which serves no useful 

 purpose whatever. It is a residue produced by the 

 liver (677 b 1), it is the residue of blood in those animals 

 which are made out of less pure blood ; it is merely a 

 "necessary" product, an " offscouring," a " colliques- 

 cence." Colliquescence {aviTrjyfia, avvnj^is) is defined 

 at 724 b 26 if. as that which is produced as an dnoKpLms 

 from the material that supplies growth, as the result of 

 decomposition proceeding contrary to Nature " (to 

 CLTTOKpidev €K Tov av^TjfjLaros VTTO T-^s vapa <f>vat.v dvaXvaeois). 

 Colliquescence, then, is an unnatural residue," and 

 therefore there is no proper place set apart for it by 

 Nature (725 a 1) ; it just runs about wherever it can 

 in the body. (See also 726 a 1 1 ff.) Colliquescence is 

 a very common term in the Hippocratic treatise irepi 

 Sialrrjs, where its effect is said to be the production of 

 an unhealthy dnoKpiais (abscession), and both there and 

 in Aristotle dTroKpiais is specially associated with re- 

 sidues, useful, or useless, or even harmful ones. A 

 great deal of it. hialrr^s is taken up with suggestions for 

 getting rid of harmful d-noKpians. 

 Generative (68) The most important residues so far as G.A. is concerned 

 residues. are of course semen and menstrual fluid ;' natural and 



useful residues, for which Nature has set apart special 

 places in the body. The difference between them is one 

 of degree of concoction : semen is a residue of the final 

 stage of useful nourishment (726 a "iQ) ; so is menstrual 

 fluid (738 a 36), but the female has not sufficient natural 

 heat to carry the concoction far enough to produce 

 Source of semen. Hence, the difference between male and female 



" It seems however that a " colliquescence " may sometimes be a 

 natural residue, for at P. A. 677 a 13 bile is said to be " a residue or a 

 colliquescence," and it is classed with the sediment in the stomach and 

 intestines. See also P. A. (Loeb ed.), pp. 38 f. 



Ixvi 



