ARISTOTLE. 67 



he adds, have the place of lips and teeth supplied 

 by a bill ; and instead of external ears and nostrils 

 properly so called, they have passages for hearing and 

 smelling in different parts of the head. The eyes have 

 no lashes, but are furnished with a membrane like 

 lizards. The other remarkable peculiarities, such 

 as the feathers and the form of the tongue, are 

 then mentioned. No birds, he observes, that have 

 hooked claws are furnished with spurs. In his re- 

 marks on this family he is generally correct ; though 

 here, as elsewhere, he is not merely brief, but vague 

 and superficial. His division of birds would seem to 

 be the following : — Those with hooked claws ; those 

 with separated toes ; and such as are web-footed. 



Fishes are next discussed with nearly equal bre- 

 vity. Heremarks, that they have a peculiarelongated 

 form, are destitute of mammae, emit by their gills the 

 water received at the mouth, swim by means of fins, 

 are generally covered with scales, and are destitute 

 of the organs of hearing and smelling. 



His description of the internal parts of these 

 tribes of animals contains a mixture of truth and 

 error. This book terminates with remarks on the 

 structure of serpents. 



The third commences with observations on those 

 parts of animals which are homogeneous, such as 

 the blood, the fibres, the veins, the nerves, and the 

 hair. Under the general title of nerve, he confounds 

 the columnae carneae of the heart, the tendons and 

 fasciae ; and it does not appear that he had any idea 

 of what modern anatomists call nerves. In speak- 

 ing of hair, he remarks that it grows in sick per- 

 sons, especially those labouring under consumption, 

 in old people, and even in dead bodies. The same 



