ERRORS ATTRIBUTED TO ARISTOTLE. 203 



just quoted, I think we may venture to say that no one 

 who has acquired even an elementary practical acquaint- 

 ance with anatomy, and knows of his own knowledge 

 that which Aristotle describes, will agree with the opin- 

 ion expressed by Mr. Lewes; and those who turn to 

 the accounts of the structure of the rock lobster and the 

 common lobster, or to that of the Cephalopods and other 

 Mollusks, in the fourth book of the " Historia Anima- 

 lium," will probably feel inclined to object to it still 

 more strongly. 



On the other hand, Cuvier's exaggerated panegyric 

 will as little bear the test of cool discussion. In Greece, 

 the century before Aristotle's birth was a period of great 

 intellectual activity, in the field of physical science no 

 less than elsewhere. The method of induction has never 

 been used to better effect than by Hippocrates; and 

 the labours of such men as Alkmeon, Demokritus, and 

 Polybus, among Aristotle's predecessors; Diokles, and 

 Praxagoras, among his contemporaries, laid a solid foun- 

 dation for the scientific study of anatomy and develop- 

 ment, independently of his labours. Aristotle himself 

 informs us that the dissection of animals was commonly 

 practised ; that the aorta had been distinguished from 

 the great vein ; and that the connection of both, with 

 the heart had been observed by his predecessors. What 

 they thought about the structure of the heart itself or 

 that of the lungs, he does not tell us, and we have no 

 means of knowing. So far from arrogantly suggesting 

 that he owed nothing to his predecessors, Aristotle is 



