2i6 Notes, iii. 14. — 15. 



30. Cf. iv. 5, 60 ; where it is said that h^t requires nutriment and that consequently 

 animals of cold nature take but little food. 1 



31. By "lower stomach" is meant the coecum and first part of the colon, which 

 precedes the spiral coil (t'At|) of the Artiodactyla (see Note 29). This does-undoubtedly 

 serve as a second stomach in some animals, and "is sometimes {f.g. in the hare) many times 

 as large as the true or upper stomach. 



32. But if the residue be useless, why should nature be so economical ? A. has in his ■ 

 mind those cases in which he has described the residue as not without some use ; as for 

 instance in the aurochs. Cf. iii. 2, Notes 7 and 8, and iv. 5, Note 21. ■ 



33. That is to say the Camivora, who, as compared with herbivorous animals, only get 

 food at rare intervals. In the Camivora the ccecum and colon are not nearly so capacious 

 as in Herbivora. Their intestine also, though still convoluted, is much shorter. 



34. Partly because a short gut causes imperfect digestion, so that much food is wasted 

 (see Note 23), and partly because A. assumes that the satisfaction felt fron^ food is due t6 

 contact with the surface of the intestinal tube (iv. 11, Note 8), as in a small degree would 

 appear to be the case. For it is possible by swallowing clay or other indigestible Sub- 

 stances to allay temporarily the sensation of hunger. But such relief is only of very brief 

 duration. No adequate satisfaction is experienced, until the food is absorbed, aitd carried 

 .to the various organs that need it foi; their vital activities. 



35. A little way back the colon and coecum, or second stomach, was said to "be the 

 place in which the conversion of food occurs ; now that part is spoken of as merely a' 

 receptacle for the residue, and the metamorphosis is located in the jejunum. We may, 

 however, fairly suppose the different passages to relate to different animals ; the former to 

 those that have a largely developed coecum, as ruminants, rodents, etc. ; the latter to such as 

 have either no coecum or a small one, as most of the Camivora. In the latter digestion, 

 begun in the stomach, is over by the time the food reaches the coecum, having been com- 

 pleted in the small intestine j the middle section of which— ;or jejunum — may therefore be 

 fairly enough called the place of change. While, in the former, digestion i^ continued for 

 a length of time after the ccecum is reached. This therefore, with the next succeeding part 

 of the colon,, must be in the place of metamorphosis. 



36. The jejunum (I'ljo'Tts) is the name given to the middle section of the small intestine, 

 because it is usually found empty after death. The passage of the contained food through 

 it takes place with great rapidity (cf. M. Edwards, Lefons, iii. 130). There is, so far as I 

 know, no ground for the statement that the arrangement of the intestine differs in male 

 and female. 



(Ch. 15.) 1. By rennet is usually meant the wall of the fourth stomach of a sucking 

 ruminant, which contains a substance that has the property of coagulating milk ; but the 

 term is also occasionally used for the milk when thus coagulated, which, owing tO' the 

 substance mixed with it, has the power of coagulating other milk. It is .in this latter 

 sense that A. uses the word. "Rennet is milk endowed with vital heat" (Z>. G. ii. 



4, 29)- , . • ' • 



2. Moses reckoned the hare among "those that chew the cud." A. did not make' 

 this mistake ; and it is "said that on this account the Septuagint translators introduced 

 boldly the word "not" before "chews thfe cud" into their version {Stanley, Led. on 

 Jewish Church, iii. 261). But A. considered the hare as so far allied to animals that 

 ruminate, as that it is the only other anifnal besides them that forms rennet. Varro also 

 {De Re rusticA, ii. 11) speaks of the rennet of the hare as highly efficacious. Whether 

 there be any foundation for the asserted superiority of this animal's rennet I do. not know ; 

 but all mammals fucnish rennet, and not only mminant^ and the hare. 



