BOOK II 



I HAVE already described with considerable detail Purpose and 

 in my Researches upon Ayiimals what and how many the treatise, 

 are the parts of Λvhich the various animals are 

 composed. We must now leave on one side Λvhat 

 Avas said there, as our present task is to consider 

 Avhat are the causes through Λvhich each animal is as 

 I there described it. 



Three sorts of composition can be distinguished. 

 (1) First of all "■ we may put composition out of the 

 Elements (as some call them), viz. Earth, Air, Water, 

 Fire ; or perhaps it is better to say dynameis ^ instead 

 of Elements — some of the dynameis, that is, not all, 

 as I have stated previously elsewhere. '^ It is just 

 these four, the fluid substance, the solid,'' the hot, and 

 the cold, which are the matter of composite bodies ; 

 and the other differences and qualities — such as 

 heaviness lightness, firmness looseness, roughness 

 smoothness, etc. — which composite bodies present 

 are subsequent upon these. (2) The second sort of 

 contposition is the composition of the "uniform"* 

 substances found in animals (such as bone, flesh, 

 etc.). These also are composed out of the primary 



appropriate : in others, " moist " and " dry " (the traditional 

 renderings). Aristotle defines them at De gen. and corr. 

 329 b 30. See also below, 649 b 9. I have normally trans- 

 lated them " fluid " and " solid " throughout. 



* " Uniform," " non-uniform " ; see Introduction, p. 28. 



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