VIII.] ERRORS ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE. 181 



For convenience of reference these passages are 

 marked A, B, C, etc. 1 



Book i. 17. (A) "The heart has three cavities, it lies above 

 the lung on the division of the windpipe, and has a fatty and 

 thick membrane where it is united with the great vein and the 

 aorta. It lies upon the aorta, with its point down the chest, in 

 all animals that have a chest. In all, alike in those that have a 

 chest and in those that have none, the foremost part of it is the 

 apex. This is often overlooked through the turning upside down 

 of the dissection. The rounded end of the heart is uppermost, 

 the pointed end of it is largely fleshy and thick, and in its 

 cavities there are tendons. In other animals which have a chest 

 the heart lies in the middle of the chest ; in men, more to the 

 left side, between the nipples, a little inclined to the left nipple 

 in the upper part of the chest. The heart is not large, and its 

 general form is not elongated but rounded, except that the apex 

 is produced into a point. 



(B) " It has, as already stated, three cavities, the largest of 

 them is on the right, the smallest on the left, the middle-sized 

 one in the middle ; they have all, also the two small ones, pass- 

 ages (T6Tprjfjiva<s) towards the lung, very evidently as respects 

 one of the cavities. In the region of the union [with the great 

 vein and the aorta] the largest cavity is connected with the 

 largest vein (near which is the mesentery) ; the middle cavity 

 with the aorta. 



(G) " Canals (770/301) from the heart pass to the lung and 

 divide in the same fashion as the windpipe does, closely accom- 

 panying those from the windpipe through the whole lung. The 

 canals from the heart are uppermost. 



(D) " No canal is common [to the branches of the windpipe 

 and those of the vein] (ouSeis 8' ICTTI KOIVOS TTO/DOS) but through 



1 The text I have followed is that given by Aubert and Winimer, 

 " Aristoteles Thierkunde ; kritisch berichtigter Text mit deiitschen 

 Uebersetzung ;" but I have tried here and there to bring the English 

 version rather closer to the original than the German translation, ex- 

 cellent as it is, seems to me to be. 



