GENERATION OF ANIMALS, III. xi. 



(palatable) and nutritious, is less substantial and is 

 cold. Hence, those animals which are bloodless and 

 not hot by nature are not produced in lakes nor in 

 the fresher of brackish waters, except to a somewhat 

 small extent — such as the Testacea, Cephalopods and 

 Crustacea, all of which are bloodless and cold by 

 nature — whereas in lagoons " and near the mouths of 

 rivers they art produced. ** The reason is that they 

 seek both warmth and food together ; and sea-water 

 is fluid and much more substantial than fresh water 

 and it is hot by nature,*^ and it contains a quota of 

 all the parts ** — of fluid, of pneuvia, and of earth — so 

 that it also contains a quota of all the creatures which 

 grow in each of them, because we may sav that plants 

 belong to the earth, aquatic creatures to the water, 

 and land-animals to the air, but the more and less and 

 nearer and further make a surprisingly great differ- 

 ence.^ As for the fourth tribe, we must not look for Fire- 



animals. 



a composition closely approximating to that of sea-water, 

 which suggests that all vertebrates originated in the sea : 

 and this receives support from comparative anatomical and 

 embryological studies. Anaximander had asserted that 

 human beings originated in fishes ; see Plut. Symp. viii. 8. 4, 

 p. 730 E ev IxQvaiv eyyeveadai to nparrov dvdpwnovs . . . wcrrrep 

 ol yaXeoi [naXaioL mss.] (see note, 754 b 32). 



■^ The rest of the paragraph from this point is obscure, 

 and other passages do not help much in its elucidation. For 

 Aristotle's theorv of the structure of the universe, see App. A 



■* As Piatt says, the sea " shares " in all three, earth, 

 water, and air : it is fluid ; it is aiofiaTiKov, and so contains 

 earthy matter ; and it has pneuma in it, being warm — for 

 TTveu/io is " hot air" (736 a 1 ), and also, as Aristotle says at 

 762 a 19 if., the things which are produced spontaneously 

 in water are produced mainly in virtue of the pneuma in it, 

 which contains Soul. 



' It is difficult to attach any meaning to this statement. 



351 



