68 ARISTOTLE. 



remark applies to the nails. The blood is contained 

 in the veins and heart, is, like the brain, insensible, 

 flows from a wound in any part of the flesh, has a 

 sweet taste and a red colour, coagulates in the air, 

 palpitates in the veins, and when vitiated is pro- 

 ductive of disease. On the subject of milk, his ob- 

 servations deserve attention. Thus, he says that 

 all viviparous animals which have hair are furnish- 

 ed with mammse, as are also the whale and the 

 dolphin ; but those which are oviparous are not so 

 provided. All milk has a watery fluid, called se- 

 rum, and a thick part, called cheese; while that 

 produced by animals which are destitute of fore 

 teeth in the upper jaw coagulates. On this subject 

 he mentions some curious circumstances. Some 

 kinds of food occasion the appearance of a little 

 milk in women who are not pregnant. There have 

 even been instances of it flowing from the breasts of 

 elderly females. The shepherds about Mount QEta 

 rub the udders of unimpregnated goats with nettles, 

 and thus obtain abundance of milk from them. It 

 sometimes happens that male animals secrete the 

 same fluid ; thus, there was a he-goat in the island 

 of Lemnos, which yielded so much that small 

 cheeses were made of it. A little may be pressed 

 from the breasts of some men after the age of pu- 

 berty; and there have been individuals wiio on 

 being sucked have yielded a large quantity. In- 

 stances of this have been recorded by other observ- 

 ers ; and Humboldt met with a similar case in South 

 America.* 



In the fourth book, Aristotle treats of the animals 



* See Edinburg-h Cabinet Library, No. X. Travels and Re- 

 searches of Alexander Von Humboldt, p. 91. 



