

PREFACE. 



The biological treatises of Aristotle are more often quoted 

 than read ; and, it may be added, more often misquoted than 

 quoted correctly. None perhaps have fared worse than the " De 

 Partibus Animalium," which forms the central portion of that 

 great trilogy, in which are set forth successively, the phenomena 

 presented by animals in life, the causes that have determined 

 their structure, and the process of their generation and develop-! 

 ment. The crabbed and obscure style in which this treatise is 

 written, its corrupt text, and, generally, the difficulties of language 

 have kept off the biologist, while the simple Aristotelian has 

 been deterred by a subject-matter, as a rule alien to his tastes. 

 Yet to both the treatise offers much of interest. In it the 

 Aristotelian will find some of the best examples of his master's 

 method ; while the biologist can scarcely be void of curiosity 

 as to the first serious attempt to assign its function to eachl 

 separate part of the animal body. It has been hoped therefore* 

 that this volume may be welcome to both ; offering to the one 

 a faithful and intelligible rendering of the text, and to the other 

 a body of notes, which have been made much fuller than would 

 have been necessary, had they been meant for those only, who 

 had already some acquaintance with physiology. 



iv!C4^671 



