184 ARISTOTLE'S ANHOMCEOMERIA 



and Salpe* He refers to the otoliths in fishes, citing the 

 Labrax (bass), Phagros (common pagre), Chromis, and 

 Shiaina, and says that these fishes suffer most in winter, 

 the otoHths having a cooHng effect on their heads, t 



His records of otoliths are interesting. The bass has 

 ear-stones or otoliths which are elongated, hollowed, and 

 waved or notched at their edges ; one from a 4-lb. bass 

 I found to be five-eighths of an inch long. I do not know 

 anything about the ear-stones of the pagre, but those of 

 the ScicenidcB, to which Aristotle's Chromis and SJciaina 

 probably belong, are remarkable for their large size (Cuvier 

 and Valenciennes, Hist, des Poissons, vol. v. p. 8), and those 

 of Plagioscion surinamensis, a freshwater sciaenid from 

 British Guiana, are represented in The Zoologist, 1910, 

 p. 293, and are both long and broad. 



Sight was, according to Aristotle, a sense of a particularly 

 special or distinct nature. + His meaning is expressed in 

 De Anima, ii. c. 6, 418a, where he says that some qualities 

 of objects are perceived by certain senses only, and not by 

 others, e.g., colour is the peculiar exciting cause of sight, and 

 sound is that of hearing, but heat and cold, hardness and 

 softness can be readily perceived by means of the tongue as 

 well as the external skin. 



Sight, he says, is more important for the practical 

 purposes of life, while hearing is of most use for training 

 the mind.§ 



It seems strange, at first, that Aristotle should place 

 hearing before sight for educational purposes, but there is 

 much good reason for this, for, among the ancient Greeks, 

 recitation, the cultivation of the memory, and the practice 

 of music were of great educational value. To-day, the 

 imperative necessity for repeatedly using the eyes for read- 

 ing and writing and for making observations has caused 

 the possession of sight to be more important than that of 

 any other sense for educational purposes. 



Aristotle's views on light and colour have been discussed 

 already in Chapter iv. It is there explained that he believed 

 that air, water, and all other bodies, in a greater or less 

 degree, have a something or quality which he called the 

 Diaphanous. He had no knowledge of the functions of 

 the optic nerves, but considered that colour caused move- 



" H. A. iv. c. 8, s. 10. \ Ibid. viii. c. 20, s. 5. 



I De Anima, iii. c. 3, 429a. § De Sensu, rfc, c. 1, 437a. 



