ARISTOTLE 



which is referred to, is concerned only with the eye itself 

 and the skin on it). 



(4) The passage has nothing whatever to say about smell. 



(5) It concludes with a mere repetition of 781 a 18-20, to 

 the effect that accuracy depends upon the puritj' of the organ 

 and its membrane, ignoring the whole of the intervening 

 discussion about the internal mechanism. 



(6) The reference to a place where the connate pneunia 

 causes " in some " pulsation and " in others " respiration and 

 inspiration is, as Piatt points out, meaningless, for no animal 

 respires unless it has a heart. 



The inference would appear to be that the passage, though 

 probably of Aristotelian origin, has been corrupted, and that, 

 so far as Book V is concerned, it began as a marginal annota- 

 tion, intended to supply an account of the inner mechanism 

 of sensation, etc., which would supplement the account of the 

 mechanism of the superficial sense-organs of hearing and 

 smell which no doubt originally stood here in the text. No 

 such account, however, is there now ; and it seems reasonable 

 to suppose that it has been ousted and supplanted by the 

 passage which now stands there. 



To understand the background of the passage, the reader 

 may find it useful to refer to the account of Aristotle's theory 

 of hearing in App. B §§ 29 ff., which I have compiled from 

 various passages here and elsewhere in his works. I have 

 suggested in the critical note some corrections, based on 

 Scot's Latin version, which may help to bring the text into 

 agreement with Aristotle's doctrine as ascertained from these 

 other passages. 



For the sake of completeness, I give the remainder of 

 Scot's translation between the two passages already quoted 

 in the app. cr'it. : \et\ propter hoc addiscuntur res per (v.l. 

 propter) sensum auditus, quoniam sicut sermo intrat per 

 sensum auditus, ita exit per linguam [et] per motum vocis. 

 manifestuni est ergo quod homo dicit (v.l. discit) quod audit, 

 et cum homo gannit debilitatur auditus, quoniam principium 

 instrumenti sensus istius est positum super ^nembrum in quo 

 est spiritus, et movetur cum eo quando spiritus movebitur 

 instrumento in quo est. et hoc accidens accidit temporibus 

 humide complexionis. 



The passage is discussed at considerable length by F. 

 Susemihl, Rhein. Mus. XL (1885), 583 ff. 



564 



