BOOK XI. Lxxiii. 190-LXXV. 193 



removes anxieties. Hares with two livers are found 

 in the district of Briletum and Tharnes and in 

 the Chersonese on the Sea of Marmara, and surprising 

 to say, when the animals are moved to another place 

 one of the two hvers disappears. 



LXXIV. The Hver also contains the ffall-bladder, l'''J'^ 

 but not ail animals possess one. At Chalcis m 

 Euboea the cattle have none, while at Naxos they 

 have a very large double one, so that both facts seem 

 portentous to a stranger^" Horses, mules, asses, 

 stags, wild goats, boars, camels and dolphins have 

 not got one ; some mice have. Among human beings 

 few lack one ; those who do are exceptionally strong 

 in health and long-Hved^ Some think that the horse 

 has a gall-bladder not indeed in the Uver but in the 

 belly, and that the stag has one in the tail or in the 

 bowels, and that consequently they have such a 

 bitter flavour that dogs will not touch them^ But 

 as a matter of fact it is only excrement, and because 

 of this the substance of this part also contains the 

 worst portion of the blood. Unquestionably only 

 sanguineous animals possess a hver. The Uver 

 receives the blood from the heart with which it is 

 connected, and passes it into the veins. 



LXXV. But with a human beinff black sraU contains /'*?'^^"_ 



0.1, e ■ -i. j 1 •.u • n 4. J logical effeci 



tiie cause 01 msanity, and when it is ali excreted 0/170;/. 

 death foUows. Hence the reproach made against a 

 man's character under the term ' bile ' : so powerful 

 a poison is contained in this part when it spreads to 

 the mind. Moreover when it is diffused aU over the 

 body it takes away the colour even of the eyes, and 

 indeed, when excreted, even from bronze vessels,* 

 which turn black when touched by it — so that no- 

 body need be surprised that snakes' gall is poison. 



553 



