INTRODUCTION 



Title. The traditional title of this treatise is not a very 

 informative one. The subject of the work is, how- 

 ever, stated quite clearly by Aristotle at the begin- 

 ning of the second Book in these words : "I have 

 already described mth considerable detail in my 

 Researches upon Animals what and how many are the 

 parts of which animals are composed. We must now 

 leave on one side what was said there, as our present 

 task is to consider what are the causes through which 

 each animal is'as I there described it " (646 a 7 foil.). 

 The title ought therefore to be " Of the Causes of the 

 Parts of Animals," and this is the title actually applied 

 to it by Aristotle himself (at De gen. an. 782 a SI).** 

 Even so, the word " parts " is misleading : it in- 

 cludes not only what we call parts, such as limbs and 

 organs, but also constituents such as blood and 

 marrow.** Perhaps, therefore, no harm is done by 

 leaving the accepted (and convenient) Latin title 

 untranslated. 

 Zoological The De partibus, as well as the other treatises 

 '^°^^*' contained in this volume, forms a portion of Aris- 

 totle's zoological works. The foundation of these is 

 the Historia animalium, or Researches about Animals^ 

 in nine books (the tenth is generally held to be 



• For the meaning of Cause see note below, p. 24. 

 " See note on " part " below, p. 28. 



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