BOOK XI. Lxxvii. 197-LXXV111. 199 



the day on which King Pyrrhus died" the heads of 

 his victims when cut ofF crawled about Ucking up 

 their own blood. In man the chief internal organs 

 are separated from the lower part of the viscera by 

 a membrane which is called the praecordia (dia- 

 phragm), because it is stretched prae (in front of) 

 the cor (lieart) : the Greek word for it is phrenes. 

 Indeed provident Nature has enclosed all the pi'in- 

 eipal internal organs with special membranes serving 

 as sheaths ; but in the case of this membrane a special 

 cause also was the proximity of the bowels, to pre- 

 vent the food from pressing down on the vital prin- 

 ciple. To this membrane unquestionably is due the 

 subtilty of the intellect ; it consequently has no 

 flesh, but is of a spai-e sinewy substance. In it also 

 is the chief seat of merriment, a fact that is gathered 

 chiefly from tickUng the arm-pits to which it rises, 

 as nowhere else is the human skin thinner, and conse- 

 quently the pleasure of scratching is closest there. 

 On this account there have been cases in battle and 

 in gladiatorial shows of death caused by piercing the 

 diaphragm that has been accompanied by laughter. 



LXXVIII. In creatures possessing a stomach the Thestomac, 

 abdomen is below it ; it is single in the other species ""doTnen. 

 but double in the ruminants. Species without blood 

 have no stomach, because in some, for instance the 

 cuttle-fish and the polyp,'' the intestine beginning at 

 the mouth bends back to the same point. In man 

 the abdomen is connected with the bottom of the 

 stomach, like the dog's. These are the only animals 

 in which it is narrower at the lower part, and con- 

 sequently they are the only ones that vomit, because 

 when the abdomen is full this narrowness prevents 

 the food from passing, which cannot happen to those 



557 



