200 Notes, iii. 4. 



nature placed on opposite sides of the body, e.g. the kidneys. A. appears to have thought 

 that the great vessel nourished the right side of the body, the aorta the left. Cf. Note 28. 



26. A. does not explain in what way the middle cavity is common to the two sides ; 

 nor is the statement consistent with the description quoted in Note 23. A similarly 

 unintelligible and even more inconsistent statement is made in the De Somno (t,, 28). 

 It is there stated that when food is absorbed it is carried up as a vapour to 'the head, 

 where.it is condensed, and falls back, pure and thick materials alike, to the right and 

 left cavities of the heart, reaching the former by the great vessel, the latter by the aorta. 

 The separation of the pure material from the thick is then effected by the central cavity. 

 Thus A. either makes the aorta* arise from the left .auricle, or he interposes the auricle 

 between the two ventricles ; neither of which blunders occurs in his detailed description 

 of the heart and vessels. Either there has been some tampering with the text, or the 

 passage in the De Sonino was written before A. had made out the structure of the heart 

 as described in the Hist. Animalium. The latter hypothesis, however, would still leave 

 the passage, to which this is a note, unexplained. 



27. According to Bernard, though the correctness of his statement is not universally 

 accepted, the blood in the left cavities is really somewhat colder .than that in the right. 

 But, even if it be so, A. can only be right by accident ; for he had no possible means of 

 measuring the difference, which is but a fraction of a degree. Moreover^ he dlso says 

 that the blood of the left- auricle is hotter than that of the left ventricle, which is not 

 the. case. His statement then seems to be purely h priori, and noticeable as such, 

 seeing that almost invariably his statements are based upon observed facts, though often 

 very insufficient ones. . Cf. Introd. p. xviii. 



28. Because, as he supposed, the vense cavse nourished the right side of the body, and 

 the aorta, which in its general course lies somewhat to the left of the ven^e cavse, nourished 

 the left side. As to temperature of right and left sides, .cf. ii. 2, Note 6. 



29. It would thus appear that A. regarded the left ventricle as the supreme part. 



: 30. The allusion is to the transverse and longitudinal grooves which mark out on the 

 surface tlie limits of auricles and ventricles. A. is quite right in saying that the heart is 

 not formed by the union of distinct parts into a whole. It is at first a body vvith a 

 ■ single cavity ; which cavity is converted into several by the after-development of internal 

 septa. 



31.' Cf. ii. 4, Note 4. " ' . 



32. The heart is. very large in. \he hare, nearly twice as heavy in proportion to the 

 body weight as in man. As regards the other animals I can give no accurate figures. 



The Pardalis from the description given elsewhere {P/iysiog. 5, n) is supposed to be 

 the leopard, and I have so rendered it. 



Prof. RoUeston (Journal of Anat. 1868) identifies the 7a\^ of the ancients, whith 

 among the Greeks -filled the place of the domestic cat, with the Mustela Foina, or white- 

 breasted marten. The wild species, or Ikt/i, also mentioned by A., he identifies with 

 the yellow-breasted marten or pine-weasel. 



33. A. must mean when the cavities of one heart are compared with those of another 

 heart, not when different jcavities of one and the same heart are put in comparison. For 

 he has already said that the right cavities and vessels are larger and yet hotter than those 

 on the left. • 



34. Cf. ii, 16, Note 11, 



35. Cf. iii. 6, Note 2. 



36. Cf. u. 5, Note 8. * 



37. Cf. iv. 2. Note 18. Daremberg (Ca//V«, i. 401) represents A. as saying in this 



