1 84 Notes, ii. i6. 17. 



because it has physically the character of hot air, and therefore, as air, is capable of 

 receiving the motions, or as we should say the vibrations, of the medium, which are 

 communicated to it through the agency of the several sense-organs ; these sense-organs 

 either lying directly in contiguity with the heart, that is with the central seat of the 

 spirit, (as in the case of touch and taste), or communicating with it or its accessory blood- 

 vessels by means of ducts, themselves filled with innate spirit, as in the case of hearing 

 and of smell (Z>. G. ii. 6, 32). So also the innate spirit is a suitable agent for the 

 production of motion. For, as air, it has the faculty of expansion and of contraction 

 by means of changes in its heat ; and the motion of parts, which is either a being 

 thrust forward or a being pulled back, can only be brought about by an agent that 

 itself- expands and contracts {De Mot. An. 10). 



A. seems to have pictured to himself the motions of the body as produced in the 

 following way. The spirit in the heart by its changes of bulk acts on the numerous 

 tendinous cords inside that organ (iii. 4, Note 20), and these, being continuous with 

 the sinews which are attached to the various bones, in turn act upon them. 



12. Cf. Note 5. 



13. Most would say that man has the more delicate sense because he has the more 

 delicate organ. But A. usually inverts the statement ; for he insists that nature does 

 not take a man who chances to have a flute and teach him to play on it, but takes 

 a man who can play and gives him a flute (iv. 10, 20). There is however a passage 

 in a later treatise in which A. says that " In each case nature gives organ and 

 function simultaneously ; for such is the best plan. The parts in which secretions 

 occur are formed simultaneously with the function of secretion, and with its matter. 

 There is no such thing as vision without an eye, nor perfect eye without vision, etc." 

 {D. G. iv. I, 32). 



14. That man is superior to other animals in touch, but inferior to them in the 

 other senses, is often stated by A. {De Sensu. 4, 2 ; D. A. ii. % l; H. A. \. 15,14). 

 Compare Bichat {Anat. Gin. i. 117) and Cuvier {Anat. Cotnp. ii. 538). Elsewhere 

 (D. G. V. 2, 8) A. explains that man's inferiority consists merely in his not seeing, 

 hearing, or smelling, objects at so great a distance as other animals, while he surpasses 

 them all in his power of nice discrimination. This however apparently was not the 

 view held by him when he wrote the De Animd, at any rate so far as regards smell. 

 "Man," he says there (ii. 9), "can distinguish pleasant odours from unpleasant ones, 

 and this is all. Here his power of discrimination ends. Just in the same way it is 

 probable that animals with hard eyes (i.e. Crustacea, and insects) are unable to 

 discriminate between different colours, excepting so far as that some colours excite 

 terror in them while others do not. . . . The objects that are perceptible by 

 smell seem to be analogous to those that are perceptible by taste ; but our sense of 

 taste is more delicate than our sense of smejl, inasmuch as taste is a variety of touch, 

 which in man is most acute. For whereas man is far behind other animals in his 

 other senses, in touch he is far superior to them. And this it is that makes him the 

 most intelligent of animals." 



(Ch. 17.) 1. That is, in aerial atid in aquatic animals. 



2. Cf. ii. 10, Note 22. 



3. Meaning parrots. In these the tongue is "epaisse, charnue, et arrondie ; deux 

 circonstances qui leur donnent la plus grande facilite k imiter la voix humaine " ( Cuvier, 

 /?. An. i. 461). It will be noticed that A. includes parrots among the birds with talons, 

 i.e. Raptores. He did not know of the peculiarity of their toes; for he speaks of tlie 

 Avryneck (iv. 12, Note 2>})) ^s the only bird that has two of its toes turned backwards. 



