194 ERRORS ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE. [LECT. 



Animalium " which have come down to us, three are 

 largely or entirely spurious, and that the others contain 

 many interpolations by later writers. 



It so happens, however, that, apart from other 

 reasons, there are satisfactory internal grounds for 

 ascribing the account of the heart to a writer of the 

 time at which Aristotle lived. For, within thirty 

 years of his death, the anatomists of the Alexandrian 

 school had thoroughly investigated the structure and 

 the functions of the valves of the heart. During this 

 time, the manuscripts of Aristotle were in the posses- 

 sion of Theophrastus ; and no interpolator of later 

 date would have shown that he was ignorant of the 

 nature and significance of these important structures, 

 by the brief and obscure allusion " in its cavities 

 there are tendons" (A). On the other hand, Polybus, 

 whose account of the vascular system is quoted in the 

 " Historia Animalium " was an elder contemporary of 

 Aristotle. Hence, if any part of the work faithfully 

 represents that which Aristotle taught, we may safely 

 conclude that the description of the heart does so. 

 Having granted this much, however, it is another 

 question, whether Aristotle is to be regarded as the 

 first discoverer of the facts which he has so well stated, 

 or whether he, like other men, was the intellectual 

 child of his time and simply carried on a step or two 

 the work which had been commenced by others. 



On the subject of Aristotle's significance as an 

 original worker in biology extraordinarily divergent 

 views have been put forward. If we are to adopt 

 Cuvier's estimate, Aristotle was simply a miracle : 



