252 Notes, iv. 13. 



notice. Thus in these animals the feces and the generative products are voided by one and 

 the same orifice. There is also a cloaca in the Plagiostomous fishes, or Selachia of 

 Aristotle. But though the statement in the text so far is true, it is erroneous as regards 

 other fishes. For in these the anus is distinct from the generative opening ; and this 

 fact is, I think, elsewhere recognised by A. (cf. iv. lo. Note 32). 



37. The meaning must be : "If there were urinary organs and an external urinary 

 orifice, the genital secretions would be discharged by this. But as there is none, these 

 secretions are discharged by the anus." As to absence of bladder, cf. iii. 8, Note 3. 



38. The term " cete " was used prior to Aristotle for any sea-animals of large size, 

 whales, dolphins, sharks, tunnies, etc., and was merely equivalent to " sea-monsters." 

 But A. confines it to the spouting Cetacea. These are made by him to form a distinct 

 group, intermediate between the viviparous quadrupeds and the fishes. They are, he 

 says {^H. A. viii. 2, 4), the strangest of animals, and it is difficult to determine how they 

 should be classified (cf. iii. 6, Note 5). It is one of A.'s triumphs as a zoologist to have 

 separated the Cetacea from fishes. Here he tells us that they have lungs ; elsewhere 

 {H. A. i. 5, i) that they are viviparous, have mammae, the concealed position of which he 

 accurately describes {H. A, ii. 13, 2), and suckle their young. He states also (Z>. G. i. 

 12, 4) that they have testes, which no fish had in his sense of the word (cf Note 34); and 

 lastly he points out (ii. 9, 1 1) that they have true bones and not merely fish-spines — 

 a fact which possibly was known to Herodotus, but not so certainly as was assumed at 

 ii. 6, Note 6. A. mentions only four kinds, Delphisj Phocsena, Phalasna, Mysticetus. 

 Of these the first is supposed to be Delphinus Delphis, the common dolphin, which is 

 abundant in the Mediterranean. The Phocasna {^H. A. vi. 12, 3) is doubtless the Phocsena 

 communis or common porpoise. The Phalsena can hardly be anything else than the 

 sperm-whale or Physeter ; for in the sperm-whales the blow-hole is placed much more 

 forwards than in the dolphin, which accords with the only special character mentioned by 

 A. {H. A.\.^, 2), and Physeters moreover are found not uncommonly in the Mediterranean. 

 The Mysticetus, described {H. A. iii. 12, 5) as having bristles in the mouth in place of 

 teeth, is the only true whale mentioned. This is probably the Balasnopterus musculus 

 or wrinkle-throated whale of the Mediterranean {Cuvier, R. An. i. 297). 



The Greeks in Aristotle's time could not have been very familiar with spouting whales ; 

 for an amusing story is told, in Arrian's Res Indices, by Nearchus, Alexander's Admiral, 

 of the fright caused to his sailors by the spectacle of a shoal of them. Afterwards he 

 came across one thrown up on the shore and found it measured 50 cubits. 



39. The like statement is often enough made now-a-days, but is incorrect. The sea- 

 water taken into the mouth has no access to the respiratory passages and blow-hole, owing 

 to the peculiar arrangement by which the elongated trachea and larynx are continuous 

 with the tubular prolongation of the nasal passage formed by the soft palate. The 

 "spouting" is due to the sudden condensation of expired vapour, and to spray driven 

 up by the force of the expiration, when this commences before the animal has quite 

 reached the surface. 



40. A. knew nothing of the characters of Amphibia as distinct from Reptilia. "Of 

 animals that have feet the only one we have ever seen that has a gill is the animal 

 known as the tadpole. No animal has ever yet been seen possessing at once a lung 

 and gills. The reason is this. The purpose of the lung is to produce refrigeration by 

 means of air j and the purpose of the gills is to produce refrigeration by means of water. 

 But a single organ for a single purpose is the best arrangement, and a single mode of 

 refrigeration is in every case sufficient " {De Resp. lo, 6). As to the limitation of the 

 term " i-espiration, " cf. ii. 16, Note 8. 



