AND THEIR FUNCTIONS. 155 



There are few parts of the animal body to which 

 Aristotle paid more attention than the gall-bladder. When 

 he describes this part, he oftens uses the word chole, 

 which properly signifies " bile," to denote the gall-bladder 

 itself. 



He says that deer, horses, mules, asses, seals, and some 

 mice and men are without a gall-bladder, but that the 

 so-called Achainian deer seem to have gall in their tails, 

 but this, though like gall in colour, is not liquid like gall, 

 but resembles the inner parts of the spleen.* 



Horses, mules, asses, almost all kinds of deer, and some 

 mice, e.g., the long-tailed field mouse, and occasionally men, 

 have not a gall-bladder, but the common seal and all other 

 seals, apparently, have a conspicuous gall-bladder. 



Aristotle's statements about the presence of a gall-like 

 substance in the tails of certain deer are not satisfactory. 

 In his note on H. A. ii. c. 11, s. 5, Schneider says: — 

 " Even to-day, several huntsmen assert this. It is certain 

 that the inner part of the tail has a greenish colour and a 

 bitter taste. Hence, of course, the opinion seems to have 

 arisen about the presence of bile in the tail." I cannot 

 obtain any confirmation of this. On the contrary, Mr. 

 Woodward, a gamekeeper near Woodstock, who has dressed 

 many deer, says that he has never seen such greenish colour 

 in or about their tails. 



Relying on observations on animals slaughtered for 

 sacrifice, Aristotle says that some have not a gall-bladder, 

 e.g., the sheep about Chalcis, in Euba3a, but that all those in 

 Naxos have remarkably large gall-bladders, t He states cor- 

 rectly that the liver of the elephant is without a gall-bladder, 

 but, when cut near the part corresponding with that where 

 the gall-bladder is attached in some animals, a bile-like 

 liquid flows from the cut part, and that the dolphin also is 

 without a gall-bladder. I 



The elephant has a long bile-duct of large diameter 

 opening, according to Owen, into a bile pouch between 

 the coats of the duodenum. 



Aristotle attempted, inH.A. ii. c. 11, ss. 7 and 8, ii. c. 12, 

 s. 12, and P. A. iv. c. 2, 6766, to indicate the position of the 

 gall-bladder in many birds and fishes and in a snake. It is clear 

 from these passages that he was well acquainted with the 



* H. A. ii. c. 11, s. 5 ; P. A. iv. c. 2, 6766. 

 t H. A. i. c. 14, s. 6; P. A. iv c. 2, 677a. 

 I H. A. ii. c. 11, 8. 7. 



