BOOK XI. xLix. 134-L. 137 



because boiling makes it hard. In the middle of the 

 brain of all species there are tiny Uttle bones. With 

 man alone the brain throbs in infancy, and does not 

 become firm before the child first begins to talk. 

 The brain is the highest of the organs in position, 

 and it is protected by the vault of the head ; it has no 

 flesh or blood or refuse. It is the citadel of sense- 

 perception, and the focus to which all the flow of the 

 veins converges from the heart and at which it stops ; 

 it is the crowning pinnacle, the seat of government 

 of the mind. But the brain of all animals slopes 

 forward, because our senses also stretch in front of us. 

 It is the source of sleep and the cause of drowsy 

 nodding ; species without a brain do not sleep. 



Stags are stated to have maggots " to the number 

 of twenty in the head beneath the hollow of the 

 tongue and in the neighbourhood of the juncture of 

 the head with the neck. 



L. Only man is unable to move the ears. (The Theear. 

 family surname Flabby comes from them.) Also 

 women spend more money on their ears, in pearl 

 earrings, than on any other part of their person; 

 in the East indeed it is considered becoming even for 

 men to wear gold in that place. Some animals have 

 larger and others smaller ears ; only stags have cleft 

 and as it were divided ears ; the shrew-mouse has 

 shaggy ears ; but all species, at all events viviparous 

 ones, have some ears, except the seal and dolphin, 

 and those which we have designated * cartilaginous, 

 and vipers : these have only holes in place of ears, 

 except the cartilaginous species and the dolphin, 

 although the latter is obviously able to hear ; for 

 dolphins are charmed even by music, and are caught 

 while bewildered by "^ the sound. Their precise 



517 



