132 RAR0N WALKENAER ON THE 



the meaning of the word is very evident : but in another 

 passage of the same work, u Aristotle, speaking of the diseases 

 of the horse, mentions a case in which that animal drags his 

 leg, and says, " he is affected in the same way if he eats the 

 staph ylimis." The staphylinus is like, and as large as, the 

 sphondylus. 



M. Camus, in his translation, still writes sphondylus, and 

 so does Hesychius, who considers the staphylinus, and conse- 

 quently the spondylus, to be an animal. M. Schneider, on the 

 contrary, who this time also writes sphondylus, thinks that the 

 word is entirely different from spondylus, the name of an 

 animal in the first passage I have quoted. M. Schneider, 

 adopting Scaliger's opinion, makes the staphylinus a plant 

 (the parsnip), and consequently considers that the spondylus 

 mentioned in the latter passage was also a plant. x 



M. Schneider, in his note, does not attempt to show the 

 correctness of his translation, but is satisfied with citing 

 Scaliger's opinion in its support. I must confess I here 

 incline to agree in opinion with Le Camus. But what advan- 

 tage are we to expect to gain by the discussion? What 

 matter is it whether the name of the insect thus twice men- 

 tioned by Aristotle is spondylus or sphondylus, since he does 

 not in either passage give us any information about it? In 

 the second it is true he compares it to the staphylinus, but we 

 know as little of the staphylinus as we do of the spondylus ; 

 and in neither passage is there any mention made of the vine. 

 We should have had no occasion to allude to the s2)ondylus 

 if the word had only occurred in Aristotle ; but Pliny/ 

 speaking of the birthwort and the wild vine {vitis sylvestris), 

 which lives for a year in shady places, makes the remark, that 

 no animal touches the roots of these plants, or of any other 

 plant he has mentioned, except the spondylus, a kind of 

 serpent, which attacks all. " Et Aristolochia ac vitis sil- 

 vestris anno in umbra servantur : et animalium quidem 

 exterorum ^Mullum aliud radices a nobis diet as attingit 

 excepta spondyle quce omnes persequitur. Genus id ser- 

 pentis est" 



Schneider, after quoting this passage, adds, Inept e ut solet. 



u Arist. lib. viii. c. 24 ; Schn. torn. iii. p. 276. 

 x Sch. Arist. des Anim. Hist. torn. iv. p. 665. 

 v Pirn. Hist. Nat. lib. xxvii. sec. 1 18, c. 13 ; torn. viii. p. 106, tie l'edit. de Franz. 



