PARTS OF ANIMALS, II. x. 



upper part of man is placed towards the upper part 

 of the universe.^ In other words, man is the only 

 animal that stands upright. 



In man, the head is lacking in flesh, and this follows of the 

 of necessity from what we have said about the brain. gra^'aJJi® 

 Some ^ say (erroneously) that if the head abounded Sense- 

 wlth flesh mankind's lifespan would be longer than °^s^^^- 

 it is, and they explain the absence of flesh as on pur- 

 pose to facilitate sensation, their view being that the 

 brain is the organ of sensation, and that sensation 

 cannot penetrate parts that are too fleshy. Neither 

 of these assertions is true. The truth is that if 

 the part surrounding the brain were fleshy, the 

 effect of the brain would be the very reverse 

 of that for which it is intended : it w^ould be 

 unable to cool the rest of the body because it would 

 be too hot itself. And, of course, the brain is not 

 responsible for any of the sensations at all ; it has no 

 more power of sensation than any of the residues. 

 People adopt these erroneous views because they are 

 unable to discover the reason why some of the senses 

 are placed in the head ; but they see that the head 

 is a somewhat unusual part, compared with the rest, 

 so they put two and two together and argue that 

 the brain is the seat of sensation. The correct view, 

 that the seat and source of sensation is the region 

 of the heart, has already been set forth in the treatise 

 Of Sensation/' where also I show why it is that two of 

 the senses, touch and taste, are evidently connected 

 to the heart ; of the remaining three, smell is placed 

 between the other two, hearing and sight, and these 

 are practically always located in the head : this is 

 owing to the nature of the organs through which 



• De sensu, 438 b 25 flf. 



175' 



