AEISTOTLE'S DISSECTIONS. 103 



than the intestine.* Most of these statements were pro- 

 bably made by others and adopted by Aristotle without 

 further examination, and, in any case, it would be unfair to 

 estimate the value of his dissections by giving too much 

 weight to such statements. His work on animals should 

 be taken as a whole. 



It is probable that Aristotle was taught dissection when 

 quite young, for his father was one of the Asclepiads, an 

 order of priest-physicians, who are said to have practised 

 dissection and to have taught it to their children.! He must 

 have made many examinations of the internal parts of 

 mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, to which he 

 often refers, and his extensive knowledge of many cephalo- 

 pods, molluscs, echinoderms, and fishes, must have been the 

 result of numerous dissections. A list of animals which 

 Aristotle appears to have dissected will be found at the end 

 of this chapter. It is probable, from the way in which 

 adverbs of position, such as eix-npoaQiv and vTroKaico, are used 

 in many passages, that Aristotle often dissected animals 

 arranged in a vertical or at least highly inclined position. 



With respect to human bodies, the chief question to be 

 decided is whether or no Aristotle ever dissected one of 

 these. In order to arrive at a conclusion, it is proposed to 

 examine the evidence obtainable from Aristotle's writings, 

 and then to examine the evidence furnished by the writings 

 of other authors or by other sources of information. 



After describing the external parts of the human body, 

 Aristotle says that the internal parts are less known than 

 those of other animals and that, in order to describe them, 

 it becomes necessary to examine the corresponding parts 

 of animals which are most nearly related to Man.+ He 

 also states that the human stomach is like that of a dog, and 

 is not much wider than the intestine, § that the occiput is 

 empty,!! and that the heart is above the lungs. II These 

 passages clearly indicate that Aristotle never dissected a 

 human body, and there are very few passages which suggest 

 that he did so. His description of the position of the heart, 

 inH.A. i. c. 14, ss. 1 and 2 ; ii. c. 12, s. 2, and P. A. iii. c. 4, 

 6666, has often been cited to show that he dissected the 

 human body, but it is not by any means sufficient. On 

 account of the importance of these passages in connection 



'•= H. A. ii. c. 12, s. 7. f Galen's De Anat. Administr, ii. c. 1. 



I H. A. i. c. 13, s. 1. § Ihid. i. c. 13, s. 9. 



I! Ihid. i. c. 7, i. c. 13, s. 2. 11 Ihid. i. c. 14, s. 1. 



