BOOK XI. Lxvn. 178-Lxix. 181 



if its extremely slender membrane is merely cut into, 

 death follows immediately. Species with long legs 

 also have long necks ; as also have aquatic species 

 even though they have short legs, and similarly 

 if they have hooked claws. 



LXVIII. Man and swine alone sufFer from swollen i'!'e^diet 

 throat, usually due to bad drinking water. The top windpipe. 

 part of the gullet is called the phaiynx and the bottom 

 part the stomach. This name denotes the cavity 

 attached to the spine below the fleshy part of the 

 windpipe, bulging out lengthwise and breadthwise 

 Uke a flagon. Species without a pharynx, for 

 instance fishes, have no stomach either, and no neck 

 nor throat, and the mouth is joined to the abdomen. 

 The sea tortoise has not got a tongue " or teeth, but 

 breaks up all its food with the point of its snout. 

 Next comes the windpipe and the stomach, denti- 

 culated with ridges of thick skin like bramble-thorns 

 for the purpose of grinding up the food, the interstices 

 growing smaller in proportion as they are nearer to 

 the abdomen : at the bottom it is as rough as a 

 carpenter's rasp. 



LXIX. The heart with the other animals is in the Theheari, 

 middle of the chest, but in man alone it is below the uon^"'^ 

 left breast, with its conical end projecting forward. 

 In fishes only it points towards the mouth. It is 

 stated that at birth the heart is the first organ 

 formed in the womb, and next the brain, just as the 

 eyes develop latest, but that the eyes are the first 

 to die and the heart the last. The heart is the 

 warmest part. It has a definite beat and a motion 

 of its own as if it were a second animal inside the 

 animal ; it is wrapped with a very soft and firm 

 covering of membrane, and protected by the wall 



545 



